10 TV Shows Which Completely Changed Their Premise

7. Borgen

The Danish political drama Borgen begins as a chronicle of the newly elected female Prime Minister's attempts to balance her family life with her demanding new role, and throughout the first and second seasons that's a fair description of the show's premise. By season three, Birgitte Nyborg is retired from politics and the series details her return, while the second protagonist, Katrine, ceases to be her distant mirror and joins Birgitte in her creation of a new party.

Kaspar, once Birgitte's spin doctor, fades into the background (in part due to the actor's other commitments). Borgen's last series looks at the political system and asks whether you can achieve your goals without sacrificing your values, which is essentially what the show had always been about, but its protagonist is now an outsider. It's a great example of a show which changed its premise without compromising its thematic consistency.