Please die already! ... TV shows that are long past their best-before dates.

[PokerFace]

Just watched the Season 5 opener of Rizzoli & Isles (TNT, Super Channel). Yet another stinker.

The series has now become far too bland (I enjoyed the first season the most), but it still somehow does well in the ratings. I was already tiring of the series (still haven't finished watching Season 4 and some of Season 3 - since I expect to be bored), but I assume Season 5 will be the worst of the bunch.

It's sad to see Sasha Alexander stuck in this tired mess, but I do FF-scan to her scenes, just in case I see a two-second spark of intelligence in her now mostly dead eyes. I also only started watching NCIS because of Sasha, and although I continued watching after she left the show, NCIS is yet another series that could use a bullet to the heart, followed by a quick funeral.

The longer a series continues, the easier it is to tire of it. I can't tolerate Major Crimes (although some first-season episodes were okay), but how many more seasons of The Closer does one person need, anyway? And then there's Warehouse 13, sinking deeper and deeper into a comatose state, until it's life-support plug was mercifully pulled for its final season farewell.

Perception is back for Season 3. Yikes. The opener for the new season seems to be yet another attempt to stick with the same tired formula. It would have been a great first season episode, or a passable second season one, but the lame acting and now-tired premise, instead made it a borderline passable third season episode.

While rarely being bad enough to kill brain cells, these tired retreads still manage to demonstrate that absence makes the heart grow fonder, until the heart gets what it wants ... leading to the realization that cancellation would have been a far more desirable outcome.

http://www.deadline.com/2013/09/rizz...ro-steps-down/
[‘Rizzoli & Isles’ Showrunner Janet Tamaro Steps Down]

Sept 13, 2013

It’s never good news when the creator/showrunner of a successful series exits. That has happened on TNT’s flagship drama Rizzoli & Isles, with Janet Tamaro, who developed the series based on the novels by Tess Gerritsen and served as executive producer/showrunner on the first four seasons. The departure of Tamaro, who will remain as a consultant while developing new projects, comes less than a month after production on Rizzoli & Isles was shut down and the show’s writers had to regroup following the sudden passing of co-star Lee Thompson Young. It also comes just as production wrapped on Season 4. (The death of Young, who committed suicide during the filming of the second to last episode, will be addressed at the beginning of Season 5.)

It follows persistent talk about discord on the Rizzoli & Isles set and speculation that Tamaro may depart. “This is what we all dream of getting to do,” Tamaro said in a statement. “And I got to do it for four phenomenal seasons. I’m at the top of my game, thanks in large part, to this unbelievable experience and show. It’s time to challenge myself and develop new projects. TNT and Warner Horizon have been a dream to work with, and I look forward to doing it again. The heartache for me will be leaving the day-to-day working relationship with an incredible cast and crew.”

Under Tamaro’s helm, Rizzoli & Isles became TNT’s #1 show of all time, eclipsing The Closer. It ranks as the #2 scripted series in the history of ad-supported cable television, behind only The Walking Dead. Search for a new showrunner is underway.

[InMontreal]

The creator/showrunner leaving its show is common these days. They usually have an idea on where the show is going, but then, the studio or network will want a procedural or stories that wraps in 42 minutes so it's easier to sell them internationally, there are disagreements, the showrunner signed options with the studio to develop other shows, so they take that opportunity.

Your thread may be a coincidence, as a french-language journalist had a similar topic on his yesterday's column.
Si vous comprenez le français : http://plus.lapresse.ca/screens/4c5f...6068%7C_0.html

Journalist is reffering to the expression Jump the shark: "Jumping the shark is an idiom created by Jon Hein that was used to describe the moment in the evolution of a television show when it begins a decline in quality, signaled by a particular scene, episode, or aspect of a show in which the writers use some type of "gimmick" in an attempt to keep viewers' interest. The phrase is based on a scene from a fifth-season episode of the sitcom Happy Days when the character Fonzie jumps over a shark while on water-skis."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jump_the_shark

Then he takes examples such as Dallas (the Bobby Ewing resurrection), True Blood, wondering when exactly the show jumped the shark, Roseanne, when they won the lottery, Felicity when she cut her hait in season 2, Lost, when Eko met the smoke monster (3rd season), Weeds after the 3rd season finale fire, or The O.C. when Marissa shot Trey in slow-motion only to get shot a few episodes later.

Some of these shows experienced a big drop of audiences after their stunts or bad decisions, some others just retains big audiences but multiplied their sillyness, but why are we still watching, torturing ourselves, are we masochists or just optimists for a super finale ?

[PokerFace]

I'm just an addict ... I can't help myself, so I come here for my therapy.

I generally lose interest well before any shark jumping occurs, and I'm always curious to see if I can once again become interested in a show that has somehow alienated me for whatever reason(s).

It's not unreasonable to think that a show can regain its former glory, but it can get really annoying when it doesn't.

Some shows never had any glory, but that doesn't always stop them from becoming a ratings hit. As long as I was disinterested from the very beginning, it's much easier to accept a never-ending series.

[Avonregal]

What about Grey's Anatomy? I stop watching it from around season three, yet it is still going on and finding new audiences. A co-worker of mine was going on and on about the show and she is a new viewer to the show. Long live Grey's Anatomy when Private Practice and others like it are cancelled.

[PokerFace]

I still watch portions of Grey's Anatomy (I pass them on to my Mother), even though they are very repetitive, and I also generally can't stomach watching medical procedures (even the fake ones). The show still manages to have its moments of dramatic punch, but if it was cancelled, I certainly wouldn't shed a tear.

NBC added The Night Shift, Global added Remedy, and ABC has Black Box (plus I'm sure there are other similar shows that have escaped my mind at the moment), so there are plenty of replacements out there for the medical procedural fans. Oh, there's also that "ghost" show called Saving Hope that CTV continually haunts me with.

[TOM_T]

Saturday Night Live. Sorry but this show has gone way past its life cycle. Its time to pull the plug and give us something else. 30+ years!! It was good in its hay day 1970's & 1980's but now it just plain LAME!!

[lunarworks]

Hey, I still like SNL.

You're viewing the show through nostalgia goggles. It's always been 80% lame / 20% awesome. We just tend to forget the lame segments after a certain number of years.

Anyway, it's still a good proving ground for new talent, and what else is NBC gonna put in that space?