Westworld comes to mind for me
this post was submitted on 16 May 2025
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Agreed. I like the following seasons okay but the first season is nearly perfect on its own.
The ending of season 1 was perfect. Anything after that is an excuse for nudity and gore.
Season 2 was rough, but I think season 3 was a good soft reboot. After that it's all downhill again, but it almost righted itself.
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The obvious examples for me are Altered Carbon, The Terror (although its anthological and a third is in production) and Westworld.
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Heroes. The first season wrapped up its story beautifully. The second season was an aimless disaster.
I've read online that the original plan was for each season to tell a stand-alone story with a different set of heroes but the network was insistent on keeping the popular characters from season one on for season two. Peter Petrelli's power is universe-breaking after he learns to control it, so the show ended up tying itself into a pretzel to explain why the answer to every problem isn't "get Peter to snap his fingers and fix it". There was also a writer's strike in the middle of the season, which didn't help.
The writer's strike shielded the show from so much criticism, because people figured the shite pacing and jumble of characters were caused by the studio plowing ahead without proper scripts. Nope! Executives just demanded the dumbest shit imaginable, and the original creators did their level best, until they were told to stop work and join the picket line.
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Jessica Jones
Prison Break
The Rig
I actually think season 2 of Prison Break was a perfectly natural and well done (for the intended tone) continuation of the story. I know people snarkily point out the title doesn't strictly apply anymore, but I think convicts on the run from a manhunt fits. The show was from the beginning always a political conspiracy thriller baked inside of a prison story anyway.
The following seasons get increasingly absurd, but they are enjoyable in a silly way.
Strong agree. I think Prison Break slowly goes off the rails with more spies and conspiracy. It's not out of nowhere given Lincoln's original crime is murdering the Vice President (allegedly), but it does eventually just get ridiculous.
I still like the later seasons for the characters, but it is wildly different from where they started.
The Vice President's brother!
It gets comical how the characters say that phrase so much instead of using his name, for audience benefit.
I appreciate each season changing things up with a different central conceit. As absurd as the Central American super prison and spy craft seasons were at least the show kept changing instead of spinning its wheels.
Ah right the brother! It's been too long.
And yeah, it got worse but it didn't get boring.
I couldn’t get past the first episode of The Rig because it seemed cheaply made.
You're not wrong, it was watchable but barely.
Altered Carbon
Gonna go with Handmaid's Tale, gets progressively worse with each season
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I only watched a bit of True Detective season 2 but I could tell it was not going to be nearly as good as the phenomenal first season
TD Season 2 has to be one of the biggest falls from grace I've ever seen in a TV show.
As weird as it sounds, I liked season 2 TD a lot and on some level I think it's even better than season 1.
I initially watched season 1, then season 4 (skipped 2 because of the seemingly bad feedback) and then watched season 2.
I really liked that season 2 was more down to earth and had more of a realistic-gritty vibe. I really liked the ending as well. It felt real.
Season 1 was great, but in comparison to season 2 it was more about style. I liked the setup of season 4 (and it was cool to see Jodie Foster), but I didn't like the ending.
But yes, I do think season 2 of true detective was better than season 1.
Not hating, but I think that's truly worthy of a post in !unpopularopinion@lemmy.world lol
I should post it. I feel like there will be a lot of feedback. 😄
I enjoyed seasons 2 to 4 of True Detective, but they're not even close to the level of season 1.
To be fair, it was the highest possible bar to clear. True Detective season 1 is arguably the best TV has ever gotten, it was just perfect from story to pacing to acting and cinematography
Firefly. After the first season everything that made the show great is just missing.
This but unironically. I hated that movie.
Heroes was great at the start, but that didn't even last a whole season. The "Save the cheerleader, save the world" arc might be the best superhero TV ever made (10 or 11 episodes, I think?) then it rapidly went downhill to mediocre then terrible.
HEROES. It died an ugly death because of a writer's strike. It's unfortunate, but I support the writers.
Weeds
Weeds was okay up to season 3
If you are counting anime, Sword Art Online.
Squid Game. The Mandalorian maybe?
While season 2 of The Mandalorian had the distinct flavor of introducing executive producer mandated spin-off hooks, I still found it quite good overall. The finale was the perfect ending to the Mando and child storyline.
The perfect ending. We didn't need anymore after that ending.
Everything Mando related after that has gone totally off the rails by undoing that ending, and the show has become a parody of itself.
We won't know on Squid Game until Season 3 comes out. 1 was more iconic than 2, but still good.
Lost
You can hate on the end all you want but don't pretend like it stopped being good after the first season
It was a dogshit show with no plot.
And he spoke to the truth, so they voted him down
I'm going to get downvoted to oblivion, but Stranger Things. Season 1 was perfect, and in my opinion the rest have sort of been all over the place.
Cobra Kai
Every successive season forgets harder and harder that grown men having karate feuds is embarrassingly juvenile.
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Goliath...the show with Billy Bob Thornton. Season 1 had dynamics and interesting characters plus the ending resolved all the loose ends.
Next attempts at seasons were beyond lame.
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Friday Night Lights
Bleach.
Season one, an otherworldly intruder accidentally ropes some kid and his friends into fighting monsters, in a grounded modern setting with a distinct sense of comedic realism.
Season two, they went to Namek.
Hard disagree. Bleach was advertised as a dumb battle shonen when it's main achievement is the lore and art. There's still plenty of good stuff after the first season, and basically none of the worldbuilding is done by that point
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Before you all kill me, this is just like my unpopular opinion man, but Futurama.. The first season, well maybe the first two, were amazing, clever scifi parody but the premise wore thin and it became schmaltzy and unfunny. It became more about the characters and less about the world and it suffered for it.
I mean "should have been dropped" might be a bit strong.
Found the Fox executive /j
That is an unpopular opinion, but valid. I still haven't finished the Hulu run yet. It doesn't hit the same.
While I enjoy the later seasons, I can broadly agree with your point.
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