davidh777

That's the thing. Sure, it was 30+ episodes, but the stakes weren't high if you missed one. You just missed it, and maybe when you watched next week you'd find you had missed out on some secondary tidbit of relationship subplot. 24 and Alias were two of the first shows I remember that you couldn't miss a single episode or you were screwed. X-Files was like that sometimes, but it still had plenty of Creature of the Week episodes.

fujishig

Yeah, that's the hard thing about serialized stories: you can really engage an audience and have them come back week after week, but most episodes are at least somewhat essential to the narrative and if you miss one, you miss part of the story, and you risk alienating the non hardcore audience and having difficulty picking up new viewers.

Even sitcoms regularly harken back to previous storylines/episodes so that you can completely miss the joke.

In a strange way, this is like the current state of comic books. For a long time there were a lot of standalone issues, which gave way to more sophisticated, longform storytelling (which is not to say that episodic or one shot storytelling can't be sophisticated), then somewhat convoluted continuity and writing for the trade, with an almost impenetrable amount of backstory for someone wanting to get into it. These days, for comics it's often easier to wait for the trade. For TV, sometimes it's easier to wait for the DVD or stream or whatever, then binge. A lot of these serialized shows seem written to be watched back to back to back, with no long network hiatuses to interrupt the storytelling.

Relevant to this thread, I had missed three or so seasons of HIMYM but came back for the last season, and most of the time I was hopelessly lost, since I either didn't see the referenced episode or I had completely forgotten who some of these characters were (and then... that ending...)

Original Desmond

Back then though, BH 90210 and Melrose were half Daytime soaps and how many eps of Bold/Beautiful and Days of our lives are there per year

Melrose place was insanely popular amongst 18 to 25s in its prime

DJariya

90210 and Melrose were always considered Primetime soaps. 90210 and Melrose got more serialized towards the ends of their runs.

You can't compare those with Daytime soaps. Daytime soaps air 5 days per week throughout the year with short breaks and they have an insane schedule for the actors.

lisadoris

Stuck with House until he drove a car through Cuddy's living room. I think that was the last season but that was a bridge too far for me to continue.

I stopped watching Law & Order SVU partway through this past season. There wasn't anything wrong with the show I just decided I wanted less violence in my viewing life.

Also stopped watching Rizzoli & Isles last season. The stories got less interesting and the death of Lee Thompson Young just made the show less appealing.

Doc Moonlight

I really liked "American Restoration" when it focused on the restoration projects. I stopped watching when they started focusing on Rick's girlfriend/fiance and their sons.

LorenzoL

I'm not liking the comments about Bones getting worse since I still got 4 seasons to go to catch up.

Original Desmond

a few more

One Tree Hill
Supernatural
Nikita
Fringe

Mike86

I actually did the same with Dexter. I tried defending the series for the longest time but when it came to that final season and how badly written it was it was just painful to watch. I wasn't home the night that the series finale aired and it sat on my DVR for a long time but I just realized after reading the synopsis of what happened that I just didn't care anymore about seeing it and wound up deleting it. To this day I have absolutely no desire to see that final episode. Worst final season of a series ever in my honest opinion.

hanshotfirst1138

I watched House fairly religiously, but finally bailed on the last season.

My Other Self

The last season of House was so frustrating. You can tell they didn't intend for it to be the last season during the first few episodes, then when it was announced it would be and they shoe-horned that stupid Wilson story-arc in I was really disappointed.

I still love that show, and its one of my favorite dramas, but I think it ended on a particularly lousy note.

DJariya

http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/hous...ter-8-seasons/

Yeah you're right. The official announcement that it was ending didn't come until after the new year during that season.

Some contracts were expiring including Hugh Laurie and showrunner David Shore. It sounded like Shore wanted an answer whether or not to end the show before they finished filming. They postponed the inevitable since it was unlikely that FOX would renew the show since it was getting too expensive for them.

writer106

Glee
Revenge
One Tree Hill-This was a guilty pleasure, but it lasted too long and should have ended in season 6. Many of the supporting characters were awful and the child actor who played Jamie was never cute.

Trevor

I think it'd be easier to list the shows I watched from beginning to end without giving up on.

Police Squad
M.A.S.H.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Many I love and just decided to wait and watch all the way through on DVD someday.

DRG

Smallville - I think once they graduated and were in the 'real world' much of the silliness just became magnified. Plus I hated their pattern of introducing some game changer in the finales only to reset things back to normal in the next season premiere.

Family Guy - I was obsessed with the show in its initial run and hated when it was cancelled. The renewal was great, but it settled down into "still fun" but not essential. Once we got premium channels and AMC became a player on Sunday nights, I just ran into too many conflicts to keep up. Football delays didn't help.

Fringe - I sort of fell behind on this show when our Fox station went through a 2 month spat with our cable company and we couldn't get the station. I had already been struggling with keeping up and it was the final straw.

starseed1981

One Tree Hill - I left after season six when their main story resolved itself.
Ice Road Truckers - I left after season one when they ditched the "dash for the cash" gimmick
Fringe - I left after season one cause I couldn't take the slow reveal any longer.
The Office - Left in season five due to boredom.
Two And A Half Men - No Charlie No Sale.
Heroes - Dropped in season 3. Should've dropped after the S1 finale.
Royal Pains - Incredibly fun in S1 & S2. Then the quality dip became unbearable.

Lifepawn

Fringe - I gave up after S1, but then went back to it a couple years later after hearing good things and glad I did. One of my all-time favorites now and have watched the whole series twice.

Adboy151

The Simpsons -- gave up somewhere around Season 19
Futurama -- the last two rounds of episodes just didn't hold my interest
White Collar -- gave up a couple of episodes into this most recent season; just ran its course
The Walking Dead -- deleted my Season Pass this summer; just not interested in it
The League -- last season was so, so, bad
The Office -- done after Michael left
Top Chef -- ran its course sometime around the Texas season

I wouldn't call them "religiously watched" as I watched them on DVD, but Dexter (I FF'd through many episodes of the last season) and Weeds; skipped the last season altogether.

The Valeyard

The Simpsons after Season 12. The show got painfully bad. I occasionally catch newer episodes because I hear they've gotten better but I haven't been impressed yet. The movie was probably the best the Simpsons has been in a decade (for me).

The Walking Dead mid last season. I just couldn't give a shit anymore if anyone found Terminus. I saw the SDCC teaser for next season and it looked like more of the same.

mcnabb

Totally forgot this one, as I stopped for the same reason.

hdnmickey

Personally, despite the title not chaning, I consider them different shows. The Van Hagar of TV.

hanshotfirst1138

There's a certain novelty value in seeing Amber Tamblyn, whom I'd typecast as the goody-goody virgin from House and Joan of Arcadia, playing a foul-mouthed and oversexed character. Or there was for like three episodes.

bluetoast

I forgot to mention Rescue Me. Stopped watching somewhere during the third season when it turned into "Tommy gets with every woman on the show" and lost focus.

RoyalTea

I think there's a common theme where people give up on shows when they see a perceived drop in quality. But are there any shows that get dropped for other reasons? DVRs, on-demand and online viewing options have pretty much removed "I can't watch TV on a certain day of the week" as an excuse to drop a show for non-quality reasons.

I watched every episode of Elementary in season 1. I liked that show a lot. But for some reason, when Season 2 started, I just didn't get back into it.

DJariya

I recall numerous people saying they dropped shows not because they disliked it, but simply didn't have the time to dedicate to it. Let's face it, the DVR has made many TV viewers lazier and not as concerned with watching something ASAP.