10 TV Shows Too Big To Fail (That Did It Anyway)

Sometimes a TV show comes along and you know it's going to be a hit. The talent involved, both behind and in front of the camera, is just too good; with the budget and studio all working in its favour, it seems like a guaranteed success.

Sometimes, that works out exactly as it should. Take, say, Big Little Lies: with its insane cast, former Buffy writer, director of a Best Picture nominee, well-received source material, and the general production quality typically guaranteed by HBO, everything screamed it was going to be a huge success. And so it proved, becoming a buzzy sensation online, winning awards at every turn, and even being renewed for Season 2 despite a seemingly closed story.

Of course, it's not always so simple. Sometimes the best shows can come out of nowhere. Breaking Bad had some talented people involved but nothing to suggest it'd become one of the greatest TV series of all time. And sometimes the opposite is true: where a TV show appears to have just about everything going for it, from the starry cast to the 'I-can't-believe-he's-doing-TV director' and a big studio push, and yet, despite all of that suggesting it's a guaranteed hit, it somehow manages to flop.