10 TV Shows That Should Have Quit When They Were Ahead

4. Heroes

Heroes has one of the best first seasons in television history. Unfortunately, pretty much everything that followed was unwatchable dreck.

That’s perhaps being slightly harsh; the episodes in isolation can provide some decent entertainment. The problem is that after Season 1 there’s no compelling lore, no overarching plot, no thematic links... at least none worth bothering about.

Heroes quickly became a convoluted mess and is one of the biggest casualties of the famous writer’s strike. It had previously been ahead of its time with its gritty, magic realism take on superpowers, sprawling cast and seemingly disparate story linking together in intelligent ways.

Unfortunately, this trend didn’t continue beyond Zachary Quinto’s villainous turn as Sylar in Season 1.

They then decided to bring the show back for Heroes: Reborn five years after cancellation. However, with no Milo Ventimiglia, Hayden Panetiere or Masi Oka, the show’s potential was over before it began.

Much like its parent show, Heroes: Reborn is much less than the sum of its parts. The series has a fairly poor 6.8 on IMDb, while the episodes themselves never dip below 7.4.