Shows and TV

Having the Baby.

The budding love story is a go to for writers. Everyone loves it, and makes you feel emotions when they finally get together. Problem is, it has a natural path.

2 to 3 seasons to get together. 1 season of new bliss, 1 season of ups and downs, ending with a marriage proposal. 1 season of engagement ending in wedding. 1 season of new marriage stuff. Now what?

Married couples are boring. So what do we do now? Now it's time for the baby.

And babies are horrible on TV. People watch TV to escape reality, not hear a screaming child. So the dream couple has a baby and it's so tiring and so much work, but suddenly the show starts focusing on other characters, and then suddenly you know it's over.

The office was famous for this one. Everyone loves Jim and Pam, until the wedding, then who cares. They tried to force those feelings again with Andy and Erin, but you just can't.

Parks and rec luckily took a different route with Andy and April, but you can tell they were teetering on the edge, and in the final season everyone had kids anyway.

HIMYM had a worse approach because it wasn't that Ted was on the path, but rather Lily and Marshall already were and so kids came in earlier, and again change the entire show.

The list goes on, it is an official trope now

When a character that has fully and officially died or been wrote off, returns in some deus ex machina style lazy way

Celebrity appearances.

Not to say the show goes downhill because of it. But I feel as if it's often used as a crutch to attract more viewers.

the show catches up with the books

"We want to appeal to a wider audience that's not the typical X fan".

It's usually code for "stakeholders/execs want infinite growth, and we are too burnt out/creatively bankrupt to fight back. So, enjoy the change to another cookie cutter slop content".

Some shows even start out there already. Massive red flag.

When netflix picks it up and adds new seasons (using untalented writers instead of the ones that made the show good)

When one or more of the original main character actors leave the show. They'll either introduce new characters to replace the originals or refocus the show on some of the existing, less-important ones. Sometimes a show can make it work, and occasionally you end up with something better, but it usually indicates the show has one, maybe two seasons of life left.

Fonzarelli jumping over a shark while water skiing in a leather jacket.

Alternative timelines

Starting to answer backstory questions no one really wanted to know. For example, I knew Seinfeld was running out the clock as soon as they gave Kramer a first name.

Season 3 of a show that wasn’t originally planned to be 3+ seasons is usually around where it starts to drop off. There are exceptions, but I’ve seen several shows where S1 is fantastic, S2 is good, S3 is okay at best, and S4+ is utter trash.

when oliver shows up

seriously, one that really bothers me was Psych. my all-time fav buddy comedy. when the primary premise of the show is no longer on display, its time to wrap it up.

as the series wore on they relied less and less on 'shawns gift', and the magic was gone. they moved away from made the show great.. a guy succeeding with a unique talent despite himself. a comedic-ally driven contemporary sherlock holmes trope.

the subsequent movies doubled down on not using his talents and so they are even worse than the final years of the show.

Original writer/creator/actor leaves the show. There can be a lot of reasons why they leave, and sometimes it's a really good reason, but the show almost always suffers.

Clip Show! Nothing says "We're out of ideas" like a rehash of the currently available greatest hits.

When they do the black and white episode that is from like the 1940s

A new kid is added the show.

Flashbacks.

More than 4 seasons.

Romance between two characters that seems to come out of nowhere because the main characters have already gotten together.

A character explaining that justice is following your gut rather than the law while being some sort part of justice system.
I stopped many show because of that.
That is also why I loved what B99 did so much.

The narrator asks you to tell your friends to watch the show

they didnt

I don't usually watch bad TV but one thing I do notice is that if a show doesn't have a showrunner, or has almost as many writers as it does episodes, it won't end well.

When there’s a big shakeup in writers.

When the writers start to lean too hard on character shticks.