10 TV Shows That Should Have Had Only One Season
Any television buff will tell you, sometimes less really is more. We all know TV shows that ran too long, whether they “jumped the shark” or just drifted out of the cultural conversation. We’d go so far as to say that the TV shows below, however, could have ended after Season 1.
We’re not saying we didn’t enjoy any of these shows from Season 2 onward, but we’d argue they would have better off as one-season wonders. Here they are, ranked by how underwhelming, unnecessary, and unworthy their subsequent seasons were.
Big Little Lies
The second season of this series about five Monterey women pushed to extremes was as binge-worthy as the first. But Season 2 went beyond Liane Moriarty’s Big Little Lies novel and showed us TV executives consider the term “limited series” to mean “limited series unless it’s a hit.”
How to Get Away With Murder
Viola Davis’ Emmy-winning acting aside, none of the increasingly convoluted storylines in HTGAWM’s subsequent seasons could compare to Season 1’s plot, in which law professor Annalise Keating’s husband and his college-student mistress are both offed — and Annalise’s star pupils are implicated in one of those deaths.
Bloodline
Stars aligned on screen as Kyle Chandler, Ben Mendelsohn, Linda Cardellini, and Sissy Spacek played members of a Florida Keys family haunted by decades-old trauma and sibling discord. A thrilling first season was followed by two more to diminishing returns, and Netflix gave it the heave-ho before Season 3 premiered.
Heroes
You know that saying about heroes becoming villains if they live love enough? Same could be said for Heroes, which captivated us with its first-season story of ordinary individuals coping with extraordinary abilities. But Season 2 introduced seemingly-unrelated characters and slower-paced storylines, and it got worse from there.
Once Upon a Time
Once upon a time, this adventure drama about fairytale figures stuck in the real world seemed as fantastic as it was fantastical. Then came a seven-season run, though, in which the writers seemed all too eager to introduce characters from every classic story — and even not-so-classic stories like Frozen.
Wayward Pines
This sci-fi mystery really did go wayward in Season 2 after getting un-canceled by Fox. Its showrunner and many of its stars — including lead Matt Dillon, who played a federal agent investigating a black hole of a town — didn’t return, and the viewing experience seemed all the worse with those absences.
Scream Queens
Ryan Murphy is the king of TV anthologies like American Horror Story, American Crime Story, Feud, Monster, and American Sports Story. So why couldn’t this show, which he co-created, reboot with an entirely different story in Season 2, instead of going to improbable lengths to keep the gang together?
Revenge
Revenge is a dish best served with a limited series, if you ask us. Instead, this psychological thriller kept finding new ways to keep Emily Thorne (Emily VanCamp) on the warpath in the Hamptons for four full seasons, even as those around her died and returned from the dead in a slew of soapy twists.
13 Reasons Why
One could say that even one season was one too many of this YA drama, which incited controversy over its graphic depiction of suicide. The show continued on, however, with three more trigger seasons marked by plot points about murder, sexual assault, and school violence.
Prison Break
We’re not saying it’s a felony to continue a show titled Prison Break past the Season 1-ending prison break, but it might be a misdemeanor. As this crime drama aired four seasons — and even an event-series revival — brothers-turned-inmates Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell) and Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller) got caught up in a government conspiracy and had to devise another prison break.