10 TV Shows Too Big To Fail (That Did It Anyway)

10. Vinyl

Why It Was 'Too Big'

Two words: Martin Scorsese. Three letters: HBO. The pairing of the cinema legend and the cable outfit seemed like a match made in heaven. They'd already teamed up for one hit series, with Boardwalk Empire running for five seasons, so this seemed like another surefire thing. Scorsese was coming off the back of The Wolf of Wall Street, one of his best and most creative works in years. HBO were having a year that'd see them release the critically adored Insecure and the Reddit-breaking Westworld.

Add in the always great Bobby Cannavale as star, and Mick Jagger helping to oversee the story and music of a show about the music industry in the 70s, and we should've been in for a bombastic, hedonistic series that had the potential to run for years.

Why It Failed Anyway

Despite the amount of talent involved, the biggest problem with Vinyl is that there wasn't all that much story to go with it. Unevenly paced, bogged down in generic plotlines, and occasionally even boring despite Cannavale's game performance and the incredible soundtrack, it couldn't win over viewers.

It did seem like it might have a reprieve, with HBO renewing it for Season 2, before changing their minds a few months later and scrapping it entirely. It doesn't help that, for all his name was plastered all over it, Scorsese didn't have much of a hands-on role apart from the pilot, something the director himself has since lamented.