It’s an all-too-common story. You love a TV show, and you watch it for a few years, and then you feel like the quality of the show declines. This can happen for many reasons, and it is a really typical occurrence for shows that get more than a couple of seasons on the air.
The most common reason for a show to start to decline quality-wise is that the writing team has run out of ideas. There are also only so many different situations that the protagonists in a TV show can be placed in before their lives start to seem really unrealistic. This is the trouble with all serialized shows, and when continuity comes into play, things can get even more boring.
Reasons that TV Shows Tend to Get Worse Over Time
Besides the writing room running out of ideas, TV shows are often really closely connected to specific characters for people who enjoy them. This is normal since we tend to identify with specific people and enjoy watching certain kinds of characters on these shows.
Over time, these characters are written out of the story, or actors whom you enjoy a lot, leave the show. This can lead to the show feeling “off” or just much less enjoyable than before. Many fans will abandon a show as soon as their favorite character leaves. And sometimes, the chemistry of the cast is just not the same when a specific person is no longer in the action.
Budget can have a say in how much can be done with the scenes, the writing, and the plots as well. Budget can impact everything about a show and lead to low-quality work that does not seem as good as what was offered in the past. When a story writer leaves the show, the quality of the production can also really decline right away.
New characters can also wind up being added to the story without making the story better. Many people find that new characters are just not that ideal for how they imagine the world of the story. This can lead to dissatisfaction with the content, and it can also torpedo certain more interesting story ideas or plot points.
Shows Grow Worse Over Time Due to Various Factors
While some TV shows are produced carefully and end well before they start to get boring or suffer a loss of quality, there are many shows that are run for too many years. This can lead to a much less interesting and effective story that is being told and a loss of fan support over the years. Sometimes the chemistry of the original writing team and the original cast can be so important to the way that the show looks and feels that things are never the same. You should always expect that things will change over time and that most shows will only be good for a few seasons.
This article was last updated on March 2, 2023 .
