10 TV Shows That Just Made Huge Mistakes

Killing Star Trek: Picard's fan favourite character was hella dumb.

Yellowjackets Season 2
Paramount

Even the most modest TV show is comprised of a frankly insane number of moving parts, where hundreds of artists and craftsfolk collaborate to try and produce, say, a dozen hours of quality entertainment per year.

The rewards of producing a popular show speak for themselves, but the risks are massive also, and sometimes a TV series ends up making a creative or business misstep that might cost it dearly in the long run.

That certainly seems to be the case with these 10 TV shows, which just dropped huge clangers which have left the fanbase anxious and uneasy to say the least.

From majorly alarming behind-the-scenes issues to ignoring fan feedback, or simply failing to deliver on promises, these shows are all absolutely in the danger zone at the moment.

In the best cases it requires something to be creatively re-jigged in the future, but at worst these mistakes could result in these shows being cancelled outright.

Whatever the reason, it's baffling that these decisions passed through so many hands before being given the green-light, because they could ultimately signal the death knell for these much-hyped shows...

10. Spending $300 Million On The First Season - Citadel

Yellowjackets Season 2
Amazon

Amazon's new spy-thriller series Citadel is so slickly generic you couldn't be blamed for assuming the scripts were written by an AI, because even the sex appeal of Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas can scarcely keep this thing afloat.

But Citadel being another of the many identikit espionage streaming shows would be absolutely fine, if not for the fact that Amazon spent an eye-watering $300 million on the six-episode season, making it the second-most expensive season of TV ever, behind another Amazon show, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

The primary reason for the ballooning budget - ultimately costing more than your average Marvel Cinematic Universe movie - is due to the show undergoing extensive reshoots last year after a major change in creative direction, with the series' original showrunners being replaced.

The reshoots alone reportedly added $65 million to the overall production budget, but with Amazon believing that Citadel is their Next Big Thing, and even commissioning a second season and numerous international spin-offs already, they're clearly going all-in on it.

While the show's premiere enjoyed strong ratings despite poor reviews, and it's fair to say that season two should be considerably cheaper to produce, it's simply tough to believe that audiences will remain invested in such a formulaic spy serial long enough to ever justify the bewildering cost.

Even with the economics of streaming TV being so incredibly vague, this doesn't seem like smart spending - not even for a company as loaded as Amazon.

Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.