7 TV Shows That Went From Must-See To Completely Forgettable
Remember when these were all supposed to be game-changing?
We live in an era of peak television, with every year seeing the debut of hundreds of new creations from the likes of HBO, the BBC, Netflix, Amazon and everyone in between. Given that audiences only have a finite amount of time and attention on their hands, only a small selection of series manage to stand out in this hugely crowded market and emerge as ‘must-see TV’.
Some of these had staying power and justified this label, building up huge amounts of buzz and momentum with each subsequent season until their finales become huge cultural (and almost always polarising) events. Game of Thrones is the most recent example of such a show, having become the most popular series in the world (surely cementing itself as a media and merchandising juggernaut for years to come in the vein of Star Wars and Harry Potter) during its now concluded eight-year run.
Others, such as Firefly, went largely unnoticed whilst on the air, but have developed cult followings on DVD or streaming services and established themselves as classics years after they would’ve otherwise been forgotten.
Some, however, eventually fell by the wayside, quickly becoming formulaic or repetitive and struggling to live up to the burden of expectation after beginnings that displayed incredible promise.
7. Heroes
The current state of television can be traced back to around 2004. Whilst HBO had already made great strides by this point, non-premium networks in America were still almost exclusively airing sitcoms and procedural police, legal and medical dramas that neatly resolved their stories in 30 or 60 minutes each week and carried forward little in the way of overall storyline development. There was the odd exception like the West Wing, but it was ABC’s Lost that changed the game, immersing audiences with its drawn-out arcs, character development and complex mythology.
Hot on Lost’s heels, Heroes was widely cited as the next big thing. Featuring an ensemble cast of ordinary individuals developing superpowers, its first season was a rollercoaster ride built around the mysterious ‘Company’ and the power absorbing character of Sylar, one of the best villains to appear in television in a long time.
In line with its comic book influences, Heroes was split into ‘volumes’ rather than seasons, with the first taking the title of ‘Genesis’. The second, ‘Fugitives’ debuted with great promise, but was prematurely ended by the 2007-08 writers strike, with plots quickly wrapped up or aborted. The show never recovered despite running for three more volumes, with stories going in circles and Sylar’s intrigue being eroded by the eventual decision to turn him good.
A miniseries revival crashed and burned in 2015, finally killing the series, which will always stand out as one that squandered its immense potential.