MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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We've all been dissapointed by sequels or series that have gone on too long...
I'll start..
28 days later, the sequel started strong, but totally fell apart before my eyes. The gay tracksuit Ninja crew were kinda fun though.
Having just rewatched the Nolan Batman trilogy, it should have stopped after The Dark Knight (even though a sequel was kinda required). TDK Rises just wasn't a patch on the first two.
The Wire
Season one - Started watching one Sunday afternoon, thought it was an ok crime drama series, before I know it, its 2am on Monday morning and I am still watching, I have to get up for work in a few hours and I am still thinking I can squeeze in another episode to see how the story progresses, it was the TV equivalent of going from "meah I don't think the drugs are having any effect" to hanging around the back of the train station offering blow jobs to finance the next fix.
Season two, not as good but still well worth watching.
Season three, solid return up to season one standards.
Season four was a masterpiece.
Season five doesn't exist and I wall kill anyone who claims otherwise.
Stranger Things should have stopped after season two
Star Wars should have stopped after RotJ
The last couple of seasons of Line of Duty have been a bit crap, time will tell what the new one will be like (but my money is on a bit crap)
The last two seasons of Game of Thrones were crap, but not because it had gone on too long, not because the wrapped it up too quickly.
James Bond after Sean Connery.
I've a horrible feeling 'The Night Manager' might end up in this thread.
Too many series to choose from.. decent for a season or two but then run out of ideas or try and stretch the source material thin..
Westworld
Mr Robot
American Gods
The Boys
Anything with Celebrity or Strictly in the title.
All reality TV shows after the first series
James Bond after Sean Connery.
The early Bond films are virtually unwatchable now. Shite special effects, crassly sexist / slightly racist and with more plothole than plot. I think they'd be best described as a product of their time.
For me, the Final Destination film franchise. First two were good. After that it went down a rabbit hole of increasingly derivative straight-to-video horror gore / shock films.
Any American show that goes on for more than about 4/5 seasons. Parks and Rec springs readily to mind.
The Simpsons is currently on season 37, with viewing figures down about 92% from its heyday. Is anyone still watching? Does anyone care?
This might upset a few folks but the last 2 or 3 series of Dr. Who have been quite dire in my view. Not because of all the 'wokeness' that has been talked about but because of the general lack of storylines and poor/no continuity between the different doctors. Why do they have to completely reinvent the universe just because the Dr looks different?
Starship Troopers.
First was excellent in that tongue in cheek sort of way,but should have stopped there, and even the increased budget didnt help.
Homeland after S2
Handmaids Tale again after S2
Fast n Furious, before release of the first movie
The Walking Dead. Just looked and its now on season 11...think we made it to about season 5 before giving up given the repetitive of the storyline
28 Days later? Am I missing something here? There were two more sequels (if you count 28 Months Later) before 28 Years Later (or were there people in tracksuits in 28 Weeks Later)?
FWIW, I also quite liked 28 Years Later.
I thnk Breaking Bad might have been better if it had somehow finished with the demise of Gustavo Fring. The white supremacist arsewipes were not a patch on him as villains.
BBCs Sherlock adaptation (the Bendict Cumberbumble one) should have stopped after series two. Just knowing how bad the later stuff got makes the excellent early episodes unwatchable.
The last two seasons of Game of Thrones were crap, but not because it had gone on too long, not because the wrapped it up too quickly.
Somewhat ironic that it was still greed that killed it. Just greedy to keep the massive viewing numbers rather than the greed to keep it going longer
Sadly, Red Dwarf after S6 (iirc, whenever Rimmer left)
No the night manager will not get a vote, each one is just as good as the last, just 'easy watching' you know exactly what you get and it's good all family fun.
Stranger things, I've not watched the latest set and nor will I because it should have ended already.
Walking dead, everybody would have died or they'd have found a cure you can't keep churning out that rubbish when basically all they do is run away all the flipping time.
The vampire diaries, started strong but I had to give up on it.
Dr who, it was sinking by Peter Capaldi and I gave up about two episodes into Jodie and haven't watched it since.
28 Days later? Am I missing something here? There were two more sequels (if you count 28 Months Later) before 28 Years Later (or were there people in tracksuits in 28 Weeks Later)?
FWIW, I also quite liked 28 Years Later.
Yeah agreed. 28 years later is my favourite of the whole lot so far.
Much more than just zombies which has been done to ahem death.
I expect the tracksuit Jimmys will feature in the up and coming film.
28 Days later? Am I missing something here? There were two more sequels (if you count 28 Months Later) before 28 Years Later (or were there people in tracksuits in 28 Weeks Later)?
FWIW, I also quite liked 28 Years Later.
Yeah agreed. 28 years later is my favourite of the whole lot so far.
Much more than just zombies which has been done to ahem death.
I expect the tracksuit Jimmys will feature in the up and coming film.
Great reminder - just booked my Bone Temple tickets.
I think what I really liked about 28 Years is 1. they tried something different 2. it ended on an upper not a downer.
We saw with friends and were buzzing when we left the cinema. I can't remember the last time that happened!
Sorry for the thread hijack OP
No the night manager will not get a vote, each one is just as good as the last, just 'easy watching' you know exactly what you get and it's good all family fun.
I think we might be talking about different programmes here.
There is only one matrix movie and two terminator movies.
Dr Who lameness I'm convinced was down to the writer. Now Russell T Davies is back, it's improved loads. Unfair to blame the lead actors IMHO, although I suspect Capaldi was given too much leeway to make his own shit up as he went along.
Gave up with Handmaid's Tale halfway through the penultimate series, genuinely wanted Giliad to extradite June and subject her to a gruesome end.
^ similarly, there can only be one Highlander movie.
”Heroes” should have been one and done.
The third in the trilogy wasn't quite as good as the second.
It's Holiday on the Buses I'm talking about, which was pipped by Mutiny on the Buses.
I'm amazed Lost hasn't made an appearance on this thread yet.
”Heroes” should have been one and done.
Came here to say this.
I think both Lost and Heroes suffered from "oh shit we've got to make another series!" Heroes was clearly a (great) one-and-done story, I suspect Lost never had an endgame in mind.
never had an endgame in mind
Oh so many things that applies to leading to nomination of:
- Umbrella Academy
- Man in the high castle (series 3), great cast but lost its way
The matrix should have stopped at the first bullet time scene.
Someone said Homeland and whilst it definitely dragged out the Damian Lewis character arc , once he'd left it got pretty good again and managed a fairly satisfying ending .
Sons of Anarchy was good fun until it wasn't and Dexter got so bad it put me off watching any of the newer stuff .
Killing Eve should have stopped after S2.
Am I being unreasonable- the first season was brilliant and had an ending, the second was really just cashing in on it and setting up for further cashing in in season three
Umbrella Academy was a dramatisation of the comic, with the first two seasons being a version of all the published issues. The third season seems to be based on unpublished/incomplete plots, and suffered accordingly, so I’d go with the wish that Netflix had waited. S4 was v. disappointing.
Alien. Aliens. Then stop.
Absolutely no AVP films either. They've all been toss.
There's loads but the most recent for us was 'Only Murders in the Building'.
Seasons 1-3 were excellent, superb cast, script and (rarely for a US megaseries) some pace to the proceedings.
Season 4 left me slackjawed at how quick and hard something can bomb.
The internet would have me believe I'm not alone with these misgivings.
24 should have stopped after the 2nd season, every season after that seemed to be too much of a rehash those.
Might be controversial on here, but IMO Fargo TV series should have been season 1, season 2 and had season 5 as the third and stopped there. That would have been a perfect film and TV series spin off.
Might be controversial on here, but IMO Fargo TV series should have been season 1, season 2 and had season 5 as the third and stopped there. That would have been a perfect film and TV series spin off.
Agreed.
It's so long since I last watched any I cannot pinpoint where it went wrong and should have stopped, but...
X Files.
First few seasons at least were often a great sci-fi watch for me.
I didn't manage to get past the 1st episode but I believe The Walking Dead is right up there. 11 seasons in the modern TV era for something that isn't Grey's Anatomy-esque is absolutely ripping the arse right out it. Plus the insane amount of spin offs they appear to be milking to death
Right, well, that's the first episode of the new Night Manager watched.
I fear it may be going on this list.
Right, well, that's the first episode of the new Night Manager watched. I fear it may be going on this list.
Yeah, I rewatched the first season prior to this new one to see if it was as good as I remembered - it was. Two episodes in to this second season....oh dear.
The News...
been a pile of crap for years...
Alien. Aliens. Then stop.
Absolutely no AVP films either. They've all been toss.
Whilst I am not disagreeing with you, Alien3 has a specific cut/edit that is apparently a lot better than the cinema release and apprantly makes it a lot more sensible as a film. Resurrection is total shite though and Romulus made me sad. I saw it at the cinema as well. Just so sad.
AvP... If they had stuck with the plot of the graphic novels I think they would have been better, but instead they did what they did and, much like in Romulus, they made an abomanation.
I'm also going to add all 'Predator' films after 2. Predator was/is a classic and how can you not like the 90's cheese of 2? I mean, Danny Glover, Bill Paxton, Maria Alonso, Gary Busey FFS!
I fear so.... it's badly missing Dickie, Corky and Jed (among others).Right, well, that's the first episode of the new Night Manager watched. I fear it may be going on this list.
Yeah, I rewatched the first season prior to this new one to see if it was as good as I remembered - it was. Two episodes in to this second season....oh dear.
Might be controversial on here, but IMO Fargo TV series should have been season 1, season 2 and had season 5 as the third and stopped there. That would have been a perfect film and TV series spin off.
4 was weak but 3 with Ewan McGregor was brilliant. 1, 2 and 5 are of course brilliant too
Another vote for The Night Manager.
Two episodes in and I couldn't care less. Huge Laurie's character and "Corky" were the best things in season 1. This just has nasty generic bad guys.
No the night manager will not get a vote, each one is just as good as the last, just 'easy watching' you know exactly what you get and it's good all family fun.
Night Garden?
Alien3 has a specific cut/edit that is apparently a lot better than the cinema release and apprantly makes it a lot more sensible as a film. Resurrection is total shite though
There is indeed a director's cut. It's slightly less awful.
I rewatched 1-4 a few years back. Resurrection, whilst still not great, was better than I remembered. I appreciate this is an unpopular opinion but I think 4 is better than 3, Alien Cubed annoys me on a number of levels.
Marvel in general. Captain Marvellous flies from five galaxies away and blows up the big bad guy. Done. No more deux ex machina required. Just do that in the first two minutes of every film, job done.
Handmaid's Tale. One book one season. One and done.
Night Manager, see above.
Harlen Coben in general.
Ghostbusters. Why is this even still a thing?
Witcher. First season, messy, pretty good, sliding downhill all the way since then.
Westworld. First season, top drawer. Second season, silly ending. Third, fourth, whatever.
Stranger Things. Season one was average at best. I give the soundtrack far more points than the rest of this thing put together, but there's only so many times you can repeat kate bush before it gets boring and that limit was reached a very long time ago.
Dare I say, Game of Thrones. Crikey it's slow, and we've binged quite a lot over the last month. It just doesn't go anywhere and just as you get into a character, they are dead ! Got one and a half seasons to go, and pretty tired of it. It also makes me grumpy watching it. Chop, chop, dead, dead, repeat.
The early Bond films are virtually unwatchable now. Shite special effects, crassly sexist / slightly racist and with more plothole than plot. I think they'd be best described as a product of their time.
I can't deny it but I was watching them at the time, not now. As for special effects I'm not keen on modern overblown CGI stuff.
Westworld. First season, top drawer. Second season, silly ending. Third, fourth, whatever.
Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about that one. No way I'd watch another season of that. Not sure I actually finished 4.
The early Bond films are virtually unwatchable now. Shite special effects, crassly sexist / slightly racist and with more plothole than plot. I think they'd be best described as a product of their time.
mmm... I'd say maybe the mid Bond films are worse. Later Roger Moore ones are camp as all get out, and not great, but fine. The Dalton ones were OK, a bit bland; but the Brosnan ones have aged really quite badly - maybe because they're recent enough not to be 'classic', but old enough to be pretty dated.
The first three Connery ones are good; Thunderball isn't; and You Only Live Twice is pretty tasteless
Can I just say Sopranos is a rare example of this not being the case.
I absolutely adore the neo-western melodramatics of Yellowstone - couldn't get enough; but the fall-out between Costner and creator/writer Sheridan really damaged the last few episodes - it wasn't a total disaster, and arguabley they did quit whilst ahead but you could see the writing suffered having to deal with a missing Costner.
It did tie itself up well though considering - Sheridan's ego a bit too on display through all of this. But he writes punchy dialogue.
Still one of my favourites though.
Dare I say, Game of Thrones. Crikey it's slow, and we've binged quite a lot over the last month. It just doesn't go anywhere and just as you get into a character, they are dead !
This is what made it good. Intrigue, character development, plot development, things took a while cos it's the (fantasy) middle ages so it takes ages to get from place to place (which they conveniently seemed to forget towards the end) so there's time for other things to happen along the way.
Kind of think the first season of Night Manager should be on here. Got to episode 4 before sacking it off as dreary, poorly scripted rubbish. If people who actually liked S1 are saying S2 is bad, it must be utter drivel.
Night Manager S2 was interesting enough for half the first episode......and then freefall into utter tosh. Ep2 was just pants.
To be fair I was hoping for Jackson Lamb to turn up but alas...
Jaws, should have stopped after one
Indiana Jones, should have stopped after three
Jurassic Park, should have stopped after one
Terminator should have stopped after two
Alien should have stopped after two
and Matrix and X-Men and Marvel and on an on.
Thing is Hollywood exists to make money, you would like to think that there is a bit of artistic integrity involved, and to be fair a lot of the time there is, but that's never the main goal, which is making money.
The Jurassic Park franchise being a perfect example. You'll not find a single person on Earth who doesn't think the first film is by far the best in the series and none of the others have come close, but every single one of the sequels has reliably made money, that's why they get made.
Alien3 has a specific cut/edit that is apparently a lot better than the cinema release and apprantly makes it a lot more sensible as a film. Resurrection is total shite though
There is indeed a director's cut. It's slightly less awful.
I rewatched 1-4 a few years back. Resurrection, whilst still not great, was better than I remembered. I appreciate this is an unpopular opinion but I think 4 is better than 3, Alien Cubed annoys me on a number of levels.
Both the Assembly Cut and the well known fan edit (called the Legacy Cut) are much better than the theatrical cut of 3.
True Detective
Series 1 - obviously absolutely fantastic
Series 2 - I didn't mind it and had it been not called True Detective it probably wouldn't have got as much criticism
Series 3 - tonally back in line with series 1 and pretty decent
Series 4 - utter horse manure
Has anyone said The Bridge? First series was great, and then...
Paddington - Great film.
Paddington 2 - One of those rare occasions where the sequel is better than the original.
Paddington 3 - what a load of utter tosh. So disappointing.
True Detective:
Series 4 - utter horse manure
erm, no. Rips off a bunch of stuff from The Terror, and seems very similar to Fortitude, but a decent 7/10 show. And S2 had so thoroughly torn itself away from S2 that there was no real rigid structure of what makes a True Detective series.
Has anyone said The Bridge? First series was great, and then...
eh, later series weren't bad; even post-Martin it was one of the better Scandi shows. Obviously later series couldn't be as shocking or unique as its first series, but not terrible. Unless you mean the (US?) The Bridge from 2013.
I think we're straying into "shows that didn't make quite the impact of the first series"; whereas the first person who mentioned The Wire S5 really nailed the "series of shows that absolutely should not have existed" thread title
Having just watched the latest Jurassic Park film on a flight, you can add that franchise to your list.
Alien should have stopped after two
while I'll admit it's not a popular opinion, I think it should've stopped after one.
Paddington - Great film.
Paddington 2 - One of those rare occasions where the sequel is better than the original.
Paddington 3 - what a load of utter tosh. So disappointing.
Agreed. Paddington and Paddington 2 are genuinely brilliant. Gave up on 3 after about half an hour
Jurassic Park, should have stopped after one
Or two, at a push, I don't mind the second one. The "raptors in the long grass" and "cracking windscreen" scenes are pure Spielberg goodness.
Bad Sisters. The first one was so perfect that there was no excuse whatsoever for trying to milk it further.
Can I just say Sopranos is a rare example of this not being the case.
I'm toying with watching it all through again for the third (maybe fourth) time. For my money, the best TV show ever made
Has anyone said The Bridge? First series was great, and then...
and then subsequent series were also great, though maybe not quite as great. Likewise The Killing.
Let me suggest something that will probably get me death threats, and I admit I haven't thought about it very deeply ...
Twin Peaks
Jurassic Park, should have stopped after one
The later ones could have been very good but mostly they just created a whole load of extra plot holes.
Jurassic World had a lot of potential but then gave us those two annoying teenage boys and a supposedly smart dinosaur that did two clever things then just turned into a relentless eating machine.
Right, well, that's the first episode of the new Night Manager watched. I fear it may be going on this list.
Yeah, I rewatched the first season prior to this new one to see if it was as good as I remembered - it was. Two episodes in to this second season....oh dear.
Oh FFS!
I thought S1 was brilliant - classic Le Carre vibes, great cast and performances, particularly from Tom Hollander, and just a generally stylish atmosphere.
I've been holding off S2 because I suspected they'd **** it up, when I saw it was set in South America I had even less hope for it and now it sounds like I was right.
I'll still watch it though.
Edit - also, True Detective
1 - great
2 - ok, good in places just not even remotely TD
3 - good, TD vibes
4- not good, not TD.