10 TV Shows That Should Have Ended After One Season

The first season of Heroes was something genuinely fresh and exciting. Before superhero TV shows were a dime a dozen, Tim Kring’s series felt like huge news for the small screen. It was packed with great characters like Hiro, Sylar, and cheerleader of destiny Claire Bennet. There was a central mystery that only deepened as the season ran on, and an apocalyptic cliffhanger that whet appetites for the next set of episodes.

The wheels came off very quickly indeed. The second season lost all of its momentum, adding some far less interesting new characters and attempting to over complicate things. Despite having half the episodes of the first run, it moved at a glacial pace in comparison. The season was stymied by the US writers’ strike, which explains, but doesn’t excuse, the slip in quality.

While things improved markedly for the last two seasons, especially four, Heroes could never replicate the form of its debut (and did it ever try - a recent reboot was met with wide disinterest). One solitary season, with a suitable dramatic ending, would have cemented its legacy as groundbreaking telly, instead of, ultimately, a disappointment.