10 TV Shows That Peaked In Their First Season
6. 24
Few shows have ever been as timely as 24.
With Season 1 dropping just two months after the September 11th terrorist attacks on the USA, the show centred around all American hero Jack Bauer (ironically played by Canadian Kiefer Sutherland) taking on the terrorists single handedly. It was precisely the show a wounded America needed, and the first season was met with almost universal praise.
The pilot episode won the Emmy for Outstanding Writing In A Drama Series, and the show looked set to grow into one of the 21st Century’s earliest masterpieces. Unfortunately, wheels started to fall off once the show began to compete with itself.
The countdown style of the episodes meant there was baked-in drama and tension, but that wasn’t quite enough as far as the showrunners were concerned. The stakes had to grow ever higher, the twists had to be bigger and more shocking.
If viewers hadn’t switched off by Season 6, the revelation that both Jack’s brother and father were terrorists was enough to push most over the edge.
24 laid the groundwork fantastically, but rather than build on Season 1, it seemed to treat it as direct competition, and so the whole thing fell apart.