10 TV Shows That Went One Season Too Long

With HBO president Casey Bloys recently indicating that a third season of the smash hit mini-series Big Little Lies is "unrealistic," we can categorically say that the show nevertheless ran a season longer than it needed to.

The superbly-acted first season wrapped up in satisfying enough fashion that it didn't really feel like there was much story left to be told, but of course, the show's enormous critical and commercial success led to HBO eventually greenlighting a second go-around.

And though season two was certainly well-acted and benefited from the added value of Meryl freaking Streep, it's a prototypical example of a show that was better when it didn't indulge the fans and simply left season one's tantalisingly ambiguous ending to sit.

Season two ended up bloating itself out with excessive soap opera storytelling, and it's little surprise that director Andrea Arnold's work with meddled with extensively during post-production.

While Big Little Lies didn't run itself into the ground entirely - largely due to the top-drawer cast - it's still a perfect example of too much of a good thing.