2. Heroes
Heroes was a show about a bunch of ordinary people who developed superpowers, sending their lives spiralling out of control as they tried to keep their abilities secret and battle against the government and each other. It was well written, brave, and realistic, killing numerous main characters off in the first series alone and gradually upping the stakes as the show went on. For a long time it was firmly grounded in reality, showing how different sorts of people would react to gaining superpowers, how the government would react, and what the overall effect would be on the world, leading to some pretty intelligent storylines that came to a head at the end of the fourth season when the immortal villain was finally defeated and the protagonists could finally get back to leading normal lives. And then what did they do? Why they made another series of course! Admittedly the final series was good right up until the finale (which well get to momentarily), introducing a new bad guy who wanted to destroy half of the US (but he was relatable so the realism still wasnt ruined quite yet), and giving one of the characters whod been in the show since series one get a brain tumour, so he was thus inevitably going to die. The tension slowly rose, with the new bad-guy portrayed as having a master plan the heroes would have little chance of stopping and the penultimate episode leaving many major players in inescapable death traps; including the immortal teenager, who was set to be buried alive. However, by the final episode the character with cancer had recovered from his disease via a magic loophole, which was very annoying as not only did it portray the writers as complete cowards but also forced us to endure a protagonist whod been fully explored and had got rather dull. Along with that, ALL the characters made it into the final episode alive, casually sauntering out of their dire situations with infuriating ease (involving such brilliant solutions as being teleported out of harms way). They then went on to stop the villain within about a minute of turning up at his hideout in a spectacular anti-climax where not a single person died, including the bad-guy, who was simply arrested. They built up the stakes only to reveal the entire threat was an illusion that could have been sorted ten episodes ago, ending the show on a finale far weaker than any of the programmes previous series. The worst part was, despite brilliantly getting around the fact the original villain (named Sylar) was invincible and could do anything at the end of the last series, they decided to bring him back for no reason whatsoever! Not only that, but they suggested seven years of mental isolation (he was put into a coma part way through the series and apparently time worked slower there) cured him of his homicidal urges and made him a good-guy. Wait, what?! How the Hell would spending such a prolonged amount of time completely alone result in the shows most vicious character becoming sympathetic and more moral than all the main heroes combined? It was ridiculous. They could have quit after series four and finished on a high note, but instead they tried to squeeze as much money out of the show as possible and ended up deservingly cancelled. The only reason it didnt make the top spot is that we can recall the episode without wanting to tear out our hair in frustration, something we sadly cannot say about our 1#.