A lot of television shows impress us from the very beginning with an incredible first season. Unforunately, there’s also a lot of television shows unable to sustain that momentum after the first season.
There’s a lot of factors at play here. Sometimes its due to a show being better suited to one season, but television executives are trying to capture lightning in a bottle twice. Other times, and this normally happens when a show is adaptating a book, the source material isn’t promiment enough to sustain multiple seasons of television.
Whatever the reason, there’s an unfgortuiante amount of television shows that, despite a strong first season, quickly went downhill as time went on. Here are the ones that are most notable to us.
Squid Game
I do not understand why they had to stretch Squid Game into multiple seasons. I also do not understand why an American spin-off series was planned, either.
Squid Game works as a one-off limited series, especially since it was written as such. The attempts to extend it due to its popularity resulted in a drop in quality.
Big Little Lies
Another television show that was supposed to be a miniseries. The first season is a perfect adaptation of the book; there was nothing else needed.
While both seasons received critical acclaim, season two cannot match the highs of season one, even if the show added Meryl Streep to the cast.
Under the Dome
Look, the CBS series is based on a Stephen King novel, which means there’s plenty of room for a multi-season adaptation.
That said, it’s a Stephen King novel, and sometimes you don’t need to adapt the entire novel. There’s a reason why the best adaptations of It only focus on the first half. Under the Dome‘s first season is one of many examples of a Stephen King adaptation starting strong but failing to cross the finish line.
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Wayward Pines
This is what happens when you have an unexpected hit you want to make the most of.
Wayward Pineswas conceived as a one-off series, with its tenth episode meant to be as the “series finale.” However, Fox would renew the series in late 2015 with the intent of premiering some six-ish months later. Unsurprisingly, the rushed production led to a lackluster second season.
Heroes
Inversely, this is what happens when you’re unable to build on the momentum of a great first season of television.
Heroes will always be rembered as one of the biggest casualties of the 2007-2008 Writer’s Strike. By the time production resumed, Heroes was unable to meet the expectations.
13 Reasons Why
Say what you want about its content matter, but the first season of 13 Reasons Why was a huge hit for Netflix.
So what did Netflix do? What any other television studio would do, to be fair: see how long they could make this work. It turns out that answer was a total of four seasons! Four! Only the first one saw positive reviews; the final three were widely panned by critics.
Westworld
The first season of Westworld is some of the best television you’ll ever see. The second season is the showrunners trying to be the smartest people in the room.
As time went on, the show went further and further aaway from what worked. Ironically, by the time it looked like things weres starting to improve, the show was cancelled.
True Detective
As much as I personally love Westworld, there are those who think the first season of True Detective is the best thing HBO has ever done.
With the series being an anthology series, the second season introduces us to brand new characters. It also introduces us to a plot th at is nowhere near as good as season one. At least season three is watchable, though.
Russian Doll
Here’s a perfect example of what happens when a second season is good, albeit unnecessary.
What makes Russian Doll an intersting inclusion on our list is the fact that the show was written as a three-season arc from the very beginning. However, it feels like season two is just an excuse to give people more Natasha Lyone. Which isn’t a bad thing, but again, its clear the second season didn’t feel necessary.
Flight Attendant
I’m not sure how many people had 2020’s Flight Attendant on their radar, but it was a surprise hit for the new HBO Max streaming service. Of course, it helped that everyhone was stuck at home thanks ot the COVID-19 pandemic, but it helped that the show was surprisingly good!
The second season is also enjoyable, but its nowhere near as great as the first. That’s probably because the show was originally planned to be a one off.
The Handmaid’s Tale
The first season of The Handmaid’s Tale covers the entire 300 page book. Then it keeps going.
You can make the argument that the first season doesn’t feel like a complete story, but here’s the thing: that’s how the book was written. It was meant to feel ambiguous at the end.
Prison Break
I can’t help but feel like Prison Break eventually jumped the shark by the fact that the show brought everyone back to prison at one point.
The origianl premise was supposed to be two seasons: one imn prison and one on the run. However, it was such a rating hit, the show kept growing razor thin.
Jessica Jones
Long before the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we had the Netflix original Marvel shows, starting with the incredible Daredevil.
Jessica Jones would soon follow with an incredible debut season, leading to Netflix to try to keep the ball rolling. Unfortunately, the second season couldn’t capture the magic. Then again, subsequent seasons featured less Kilgrave, so take that as you will. It also felt like Jessica’s story was wrapped up after the first season, yet the show kept going for two more seasons.
24
As much as I love 24, it’s a pretty wild premise for a show. It’a also a perfect example of a premise that can only go so far.
That first season is incredible television, but as time goes on, just how far can you go raising the stakes? How many bad days can Jack Baeuer have? A lot, apparently!
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