Number of seasons: 5 Number of seasons it should have had: 2 Alias, J.J. Abrams classic espionage TV show starring Jennifer Garner and Victor Garber as a father-daughter double agent team, ran for the relatively limited time of five seasons and still managed to go rather spectacularly off the rails. Unlike most examples on this list, Alias had a definitive shark-jumping moment in the third season premiere, which revealed a two year time jump and the introduction of the much-hated third point of the love triangle, Lauren. Her later transformation into a cartoonish villain was in equal parts clunky and viscerally satisfying. Meanwhile, Alias attempted to replace its central conflict Sydneys attempts to bring down criminal organisation SD-6 with Abrams patented brand of confusing sci-fi mythology. By the end, the show which was once a flimsy excuse for exhilarating fight scenes had been forced to consign its immortal-via-chemical-vat big bad to a deep and dark tomb just to finish him off. At least an earlier cancellation would have spared us that.
