What is the most disappointing TV series you've ever watched?

[Roland]

What is the one the TV show, be it live action, animated, or otherwise, that has left you absolutely disappointed?

My picks would go to Avatar: The Legend of Korra and RWBY. The Legend of Korra, while having solid animation and cool fight scenes, had an abysmal story, less than stellar characters, and quite possibly the worst female protagonist in any for of entertainment I've ever seen. As for RWBY, Monty's godlike action really carried the series for the first two volumes, and honestly it showed. There were a ton of writing issues in the series, and now after six total volumes, it feels like they haven't gotten any better, despite the fact that Rooster Teeth has had 7 or so years to get their shit together with the show.

Edited February 2, 2019 by Roland

[Ottservia]

12 minutes ago, Roland said:

What is the one the TV show, be it live action, animated, or otherwise, that has left you absolutely disappointed?

My picks would go to Avatar: The Legend of Korra and RWBY. The Legend of Korra, while having solid animation and cool fight scenes, had an abysmal story, less than stellar characters, and quite possibly the worst female protagonist in any for of entertainment I've ever seen. As for RWBY, Monty's godlike action really carried the series for the first two volumes, and honestly it showed. There were a ton of writing issues in the series, and now after six total volumes, it feels like they haven't gotten any better, despite the fact that Rooster Teeth has had 7 or so years to get their shit together with the show.

in full agreement with these. Legend of korra is honestly one of my least favorite animated series of the current decade just because of how much it tends to f*ck up in terms of its story telling. I watched the whole thing and the look on my face when the mech showed in the final season was just ugggghhhhhhh. Seriously as a fan of the original avatar LoK is just a massive disappointment to me. Rwby is an interesting case for me. I mean it's bad but I can't hate it for whatever reason. Really my main issue with rwby is that the writer's don't understand how to tell a basic story. I mean we're six volumes in and the main girl, Ruby Rose herself, has not seen a lick of character development that should speak well as to how much miles and kerry understand basic storytelling elements and structure. 

[Etrurian emperor]

The last season of Game of Thrones. Its not terrible or anything but they screwed up several things, retconned things like the ending of season 6 and the Tyrels just to force situations that end up being less interesting than if things had been allowed to play out naturally and you can really tell that the writers running out of books means that several plotlines needed to be radically altered because George RR Martin hadn't finished writing those plotlines. The character of Varys especially suffers from this. A genius plot was implied but because the books hadn't reached varys' end game yet the show writers just casually dropped it and awkwardly dance around the issue. 

And its not bad. It has some good stuff but me being invested makes me very aware of how much potential is being missed. 

Edited February 2, 2019 by Etrurian emperor

[Dark Holy Elf]

Probably Avatar: The Last Airbender. I only watched the first 8 episodes but I really couldn't get into it. It's technically fine but very, very much a kids' show and I was just too old for it, I think. Disappointing because a couple of my friends were big fans.

In general I haven't watched much TV since I was a teenager.

[Punished Dayni]

8 minutes ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

Probably Avatar: The Last Airbender. I only watched the first 8 episodes but I really couldn't get into it. It's technically fine but very, very much a kids' show and I was just too old for it, I think. Disappointing because a couple of my friends were big fans.

In general I haven't watched much TV since I was a teenager.

I will say that the show improves in the later series and the early episodes aren't as strong as seemed to be suggested when I'd learned of the show. (Also actually like LoK, but I know that's an unpopular one).

I'll be honest and say that I'm a picky git when it comes to what I watch and me getting into something tends to hit initial expectations. That being said, Ghost Stories (the dub) is interesting in concept (Being an abridged series before abridging) but if you don't get the references there isn't much there. I'd also have to say that Superman the Animated Series was a disappointing series considering what it's part of (I'd say the Zeta series that was a thing. If I remembered it).

[EricaofRenais]

I am going to say the anime Drifters.  My hero as a kid was Joan of Arc (she still is my hero) so I heard that Drifters had historical figures as the main characters and that she was in it, sadly they turned her in to a bad guy and I gave up on it because seeing her being a bad guy about broke my heart.

[DarthR0xas]

I would say the two that immediately come to mind are RWBY, as you said, and Aldnoah Zero. I got into RWBY mid volume 3, and now at volume 6, I can look back and pinpoint the exact moment where the series started going downhill. And that moment is Pyrrah's death. Up until that point, some of the writing was shaky or cringy, but it was charming in an odd way, and the action was amazing. Then Pyrrah died, which made sense. Her arc was over, and she really didn't have other purpose. Plus her death would effect everyone significantly and really change the show. Well, it did one of those things. Sure, it triggers Ruby's Main Character powers, and then she and Jaune are sad, but that's it. Nora and Ren are too busy having a romantic subplot to really show any emotion about Pyrrah, and everyone else wasn't even pretending to care about Pyrrah herself and more her powers. But it did change up the series, for the worse. Volume 4 was a meandering mess, with like one meh action scene (That scorpion dude v Crow and the dumbass squad), and volume 5 was bad. It was just plain bad. The only redeemable part was the one fight with Sun and the Lizard lady, and that was basically the last good fight in RWBY. I haven't seen all of Volume 6 (got sick of it at episode 3 and haven't watched it since), but episode 1 had some decent action. It was nowhere near as good as the old stuff, but it's a marked improvement. And then I got to the episode 3 exposition dump, and hated basically every second of it. It was so boring, and for exposition, it was surprisingly vague on too much. "Why is blank here?" "Those two god brother dudes." "That's it?" "That's it." And then I saw it's pathetic excuse for an action scene. This is the moment where Ospin and Salem finally break off and start their overly convoluted chess match that makes Kingdom Hearts look like a "put the shape in the hole" toys, and they thought it would be appropriate to have a few grunts, some flashes of light, and then show the aftermath? Really soured my opinion. And then just to put a cherry on top, they make the most obvious foreshadowing I have ever seen with wording that is so designed to be applied in a specific situation and then later be said "ah, but that only applies to blank, NOT blank", but I won't get into that.

As for Aldnoah Zero, this is so disappointing because of the first episode. Now, I don't know if you've seen it, I doubt you do, but I recommend you watch the first episode, and just episode one. It is one of the greatest opener episodes in anime history. And then they proceed to squander it all. This show has two main protags, and they're on opposite sides of a war between Mars and Earth. This sounds great, and super interesting, and for exactly one episode it is, but then you realize that only one of those protags is remotely interesting. The dude on Earth, whose name I won't even bother to remember, is the most generic and bland military Gary stu you can think of. Think of a piece of cardboard that has the ability to be a god at piloting mechs, and you have this dude. He never breaks his monotone voice, and he makes everything sound so boring. This is not helped by the atrocious secondary cast, and also the rest of the primary cast. Princess chick, super dull and boring, love interest, cheerfully dull and bland, drunk dude, the one character on Earth who is remotely entertaining, and then they f-ed him up in the second season which, yeah this garbage fire got two seasons. They even managed to make an emo, racist, double agent chick boring. I don't even know how they did that, it's such an interesting concept. Meanwhile, the alien protag is interesting for season one, since he faces discrimination due to his social rank, and we can see him start to overcome it and move up the ladder. Then in season two, they try to do the same thing, and they f-ed it up. See, the reason why A-pro's rise in season one was so interesting is that he was mostly a quiet force, letting the other commanders take themselves out due to arrogance, or their ambition being their undoing. The in season 2 he literally just challenges them all to mech combat, and then he falls to the exact same strategy that he did himself in season one. What makes this worse is that the alien doing this to him, was literally introduced in the second the last episode. And he's also the one who ends up marrying the princess if memory serves. So the dude who ties up basically every loose end of the series was introduced in the second to last episode, I repeat, THE SECOND TO LAST EPISODE. You can't do that, that's stupid. I never even learned his name, granted that I barely remember anyone's name in this show, but I swear they never even said it. Now, the music and animation are good, but after episode 5 of season one, the emotion isn't there. The fights still look nice, but there's no substance behind them. The music is nice, but it's over meaningless drivel. It's wasted quality on a show that wasted its amazing potential.

Neither of these things are the worst piece of media I've seen on TV (well Zero is pretty close, not rock bottom, maybe like third worst), but they are the most disappointment I've gotten from a piece of media.

[Dandy Druid]

I think I'll give the first live-action series. Although if you haven't heard of this show, it's probably because it didn't get much promotion.

The Shannara Chronicles. I was honestly excited for this series because it was the fantasy TV show aimed at teenagers (which I was at the time). The first couple of episodes were great, but as the show went on, the more it seemed to decline. The main issue I had was the pacing. Midway through the series the two protagonists fall in love, but it seemed to come out of nowhere. There was hardly any buildup, and the two actors didn't have much chemistry. Austin Butler in particular was disappointing, because I saw him in other works and thought he was decent enough. Here it was kind of meh. It seems like the director was more focused on trying use Butler's sex appeal as much as possible rather than have him put on his best performance (plus I didn't see Butler as THAT appealing too much. He had abs and that's about it. I was too distracted by how greasy/messy his hair looked. It's hard look sexy in a pointless fanservice scene when your hair looks like shit.)

TL;DR: Expected a teen fantasy action/adventure/drama, got a half-baked love story that tried to shamelessly show off Austin Butler's goods.

[Hawkwing]

Personally, I'd have to say the X-Files. While I don't actually find the show to be disappointing (I can easily see why it became popular), it didn't click with me as I expected it too, and I dropped it after a few episodes. I suppose I enjoy the X-COM method of dealing with alien invasions in a down-to-earth manner instead of the conspiracy theorist route.

On the bright side, it did get my sister addicted to the show, and she managed to make a friend of ours/babysitter for my younger brother a big fan as well.

[Ϲharlie]

I would say most cartoons from my childhood. Sometimes fond memories are best left as just that.

[SullyMcGully]

Attack on Titan.

I was told it was the greatest anime of our time, but in the end, I was disappointed by the main's character development and Armin is just plain annoying. There are a few good secondary characters, but Eren steals all of their screen time. Eren's monster mode is poorly handled and the whole thing is just depressing in the end. I'm find with lots of characters dying, but what I don't like is when the characters I like die and the characters I find annoying are the only ones that live thanks to plot armor.

[Jingle Jangle]

• RWBY: I was mixed on the show since the beginning. The animation didn't help things, but I went along with it. Around the 4th season I got tired of show's direction. All the exposition combined with Ospin and Salem overly elaborate plots took me out.
• Voltron Legendary Defender: I loved the first two seasons, but from the 3rd all the way to the final season the show didn't felt like it was planned well. 

 

[Ottservia]

47 minutes ago, Jingle Jangle said:

RWBY: I was mixed on the show since the beginning. The animation didn't help things, but I went along with it. Around the 4th season I got tired of show's direction. All the exposition combined with Ospin and Salem overly elaborate plots took me out.

you know speaking of rwby:

[Jingle Jangle]

20 hours ago, Ottservia said:

you know speaking of rwby:

Can you explain the image to me? I don't understand it.

[Ottservia]

2 minutes ago, Jingle Jangle said:

Can you explain the image to me? I don't understand it.

The more I try to analyze rwby's plot, themes, characters, etc. the more confused I get just like that image. The more I look at it the more confused I become

[DarthR0xas]

41 minutes ago, Ottservia said:

The more I try to analyze rwby's plot, themes, characters, etc. the more confused I get just like that image. The more I look at it the more confused I become

You could say that it doesn't go over easy.

[Karimlan]

On 2/2/2019 at 12:49 AM, Hawkwing said:

I suppose I enjoy the X-COM method of dealing with alien invasions in a down-to-earth manner instead of the conspiracy theorist route.

Thoughts on the CSM?

[Hawkwing]

1 hour ago, Karimlan said:

Thoughts on the CSM?

The cigarette smoking man? When I said I only watched a few episodes, I really do only mean a few. I'm not much of a television person anyway.

Didn't he die by via lung cancer helicopter missile?

[Anacybele]

Definitely Be Cool, Scooby Doo!

My childhood favorite cartoon and still favorite cartoon to this day managed to go SO long without being butchered (though I'm admittedly not as big a fan of What's New, Scooby Doo? as other series, that's more because I got tired of seeing the same episodes so often. For some reason, this one had a LOT of reruns). Until this pile of dog crap. The art style is AWFUL. The characters, especially Scooby himself, all look like they're on drugs. Why does Daphne suddenly have this weird puppet habit going on. Etc. I only saw a few clips of this show, but that was enough for me to deem it awful.

I've loved every other form of Scooby Doo to some degree (even the spinoffs like A Pup Named Scooby Doo and Shaggy and Scooby Doo Get a Clue). I've seen every episode. Even the series that predated this new trash one, Mystery Incorporated, was pretty good. The art style was a bit off to me and I didn't care for Shaggy and Velma having had a relationship out of nowhere. But the story was brilliant and it became fucking DARK for a Scooby Doo story. Like, so dark that I was actually a bit scared! But in the good way. Exactly how dark? Literally end of the world dark. Yes, there was an end of the world situation. So how did we go from this brilliant writing and storytelling with the potential end of the world and Fred's deep tragic history to...this rubbish?

EDIT:

Spoiler

Actually, if you want to be technical, the world DID end at the conclusion of Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated. The gang defeated the final villain and stopped him from destroying everything. But afterward, they found themselves in a new timeline. The defeat of the villain warped time and completely changed everything. The previous events were basically erased and replaced with new ones. The world the gang knew before was effectively gone and forever.

So I say again, how did we go from this epic tale to the horse dung that's Be Cool Scooby Doo!?

 

Edited February 5, 2019 by Anacybele

[Slumber]

The a revival of a TV show count? If so, then a number of those. Family Guy, Futurama, Arrested Development(To a lesser degree).

And then there's True Blood. I didn't have any interest in it until I learned that my parents watched it, so I watched it out of curiosity, hoping that they weren't watching Twilight for young adults.

It's Twilight for young adults. I'm more disappointed in my parents for watching it than anything.

The most disappointed I've ever been while actively keeping up with a series is Dexter. I loved seasons 1, 2 and 4. I hated 3 for basically being a filler season with a bad villain, but figured that would be the oddball, and that the show could only go up from how season 4 resolved. Everything afterwards, except for season 7, was just as bad, or worse than season 3. I stopped watching after about 2 episodes into season 8. I didn't even care to finish this show I'd been following for 5 years.

Edited February 5, 2019 by Slumber

[Florete]

I still like RWBY and Legend of Korra. Except season 2 of LoK, that shit sucked.

Sword Art Online is my #1 answer here. It's my most-hated series ever primarily because of how betrayed I felt when the first two episodes were so good only for the series to devolve into hot garbage.

I guess I can also mention JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. I really enjoyed Battle Tendency, but everything after that just didn't keep my interest. The whole stand thing always felt so weak to me.

On 2/1/2019 at 5:13 PM, Dark Holy Elf said:

Probably Avatar: The Last Airbender. I only watched the first 8 episodes but I really couldn't get into it. It's technically fine but very, very much a kids' show and I was just too old for it, I think. Disappointing because a couple of my friends were big fans.

In general I haven't watched much TV since I was a teenager.

Avatar: The Last Airbender doesn't have the strongest beginning, but it only gets better, and I certainly wouldn't call seasons 2 and 3 "very, very much a kids' show." And I watched this show for the first time as an adult, so it's not nostalgia on my part.

[Reality]

Gungrave - I say most disappointing, because parts of it are really good and get my hopes up and other parts of it are bad.

The main problem with the show is that parts of It derivative of hellsing, without having hellsing's action scenes (mostly because of horrible monster design's such as helicopter leg man)

Episode 2-15 is really one of my favorite stories in anime and the series . Episode 1, and everything after 15 are "flash forward" future (although it seems bioweapon only) which don't have the awesome tone of the more grounded mafia/crime story of the series. The final episodes do have good points.. namely, Harry McDougal, the main antagonist, is worth watching to the end, but a lot of important secondary cast are used as his litenutants and turned into psychoic monsters for episode of the week fights.. which are boring too watch... I don't really like the spymaster and the information guy becoming "fighters" in particular, and the main charather's relationship with them just isn't interesting compared to Harry. 

Gungrave's mafia episodes easily would be top 20 anime quality for me but it's hellsing-lite episodes just annoy me to death except for the one hook of getting closure with Harry, the only charather to really show development intact from the mafia episodes.

Spirit: Riding Free … got box set of this for my niece.... Could not watch it with her. Uh not true to the spirit of the original movie, I can kind of wrap my head around it as a for young girl's thing in the tradition of My Little Pony (Generation 2-3) or Strawberry Shortcake, but the target demographic is just too young for me at this point. 

[MagicCanonBalls]

On 2/2/2019 at 11:26 AM, Dandy Druid said:

I think I'll give the first live-action series. Although if you haven't heard of this show, it's probably because it didn't get much promotion.

The Shannara Chronicles. I was honestly excited for this series because it was the fantasy TV show aimed at teenagers (which I was at the time). The first couple of episodes were great, but as the show went on, the more it seemed to decline. The main issue I had was the pacing. Midway through the series the two protagonists fall in love, but it seemed to come out of nowhere. There was hardly any buildup, and the two actors didn't have much chemistry. Austin Butler in particular was disappointing, because I saw him in other works and thought he was decent enough. Here it was kind of meh. It seems like the director was more focused on trying use Butler's sex appeal as much as possible rather than have him put on his best performance (plus I didn't see Butler as THAT appealing too much. He had abs and that's about it. I was too distracted by how greasy/messy his hair looked. It's hard look sexy in a pointless fanservice scene when your hair looks like shit.)

TL;DR: Expected a teen fantasy action/adventure/drama, got a half-baked love story that tried to shamelessly show off Austin Butler's goods.

Same here. Not the MOST disappointing but fairly. I like the first few episodes then it just sorta slow down because the producer doesn't know where it's supposed to go. I don't find Austin Butler attractive, but I found most of the other casts appealing (Eretria, Allanon, and that two hot uncles of Amberle.) Then I tried to watch Season 2 and it brought me back on the first two episodes, then it lost me again.

My most disappointing tv series is probably later seasons of US Shameless, probably starting 6 or 7. It was amazing to see the bad things keep being thrown at Fiona and her siblings, it gets less amazing when Fiona actively and constantly sabotage her own happiness.

[Dandy Druid]

5 hours ago, MagicCanonBalls said:

Same here. Not the MOST disappointing but fairly. I like the first few episodes then it just sorta slow down because the producer doesn't know where it's supposed to go. I don't find Austin Butler attractive, but I found most of the other casts appealing (Eretria, Allanon, and that two hot uncles of Amberle.) Then I tried to watch Season 2 and it brought me back on the first two episodes, then it lost me again.

My most disappointing tv series is probably later seasons of US Shameless, probably starting 6 or 7. It was amazing to see the bad things keep being thrown at Fiona and her siblings, it gets less amazing when Fiona actively and constantly sabotage her own happiness.

I never finished the first season, but judging by what you said about season 2, I won't plan on finishing it. It sounds like Season 2 has the same problem of a great start, but a sharp decline after the first 2 episodes. It's not a bad show, it's ok. The biggest problem was the lack of direction, like you said.

Shameless is probably a great show that has gone on for too long from what it sounds like. I never watched it, but if it begins to be self-sabotage, it sounds like the writers are out of ideas.

[Silver-Haired Maiden]

RWBY's been mentioned a few times and I have to agree. I watched through partway of Volume 4 before I dropped it and that's because I didn't think Volume 3 was all that great so 4 was just the nail in the coffin.

The recent Shadowhunters and Siren also stand out in my mind as being especially BAD. Shadowhunters is even worse to me because I was a fan of the books. Stop giving us crappy book adaptations people.