3 TV Shows That Disappointed Me This Fall

Even though it has only been two and a half months, I feel like I can look back on the Chris that started out the Fall TV Season with such idealistic hope and say, “Look at you, you’re so young and naive. Little do you know of the countless hours you will waste in front of the television screen watching your so-called favorite shows only to realize that those hours have been wasted watching shows that don’t love you back.” That is not to say that there haven’t been shows that I have thoroughly enjoyed, but the ones that I most looked forward to seem to have been the ones that have let me down.

Let me start with some new shows that I had high hopes for.

#3 The Walking Dead

I want so much to like this show. I even went so far as to tout the first episode as a pinnacle of hope for the lackluster season. However, it has steadily declined and like that oft mentioned train wreck, I cannot look away. I cannot ignore the stupidity of the main characters and the gaping plot holes. These people should all be dead and as much as I don’t like his character on the show, Darryl should be the only one left alive right now. Granted he is the loudmouth, stereotyped, white supremacist redneck that everyone hates, including me, but he is the smartest one right now. He uses a crossbow so as not to attract noise and he is all for shooting people as soon as they get bit to eliminate the risk.

Actually it looks like he just likes shooting everything in general.

Enough about how Darryl though, the show as a whole is as slow-moving as the zombies. I think this is a great idea for a show, but you have to do it right. I love zombie films and while in a movie setting you deal with stupid characters making stupid decisions, you only have to deal with it for an hour and a half or so and  is usually so jam packed with swarming zombies you can forgive the stupidity in the heat of the moment. I was willing to overlook it for the first episode because I didn’t know how much more that there would be in the rest of the show. Plus, these people aren’t making heat-of-the-moment stupid decisions, because they hardly ever get attacked by zombies. Instead, the characters prolong their stupidity and sometimes even plan for it.

Yeah....this is a good idea.

So, I’m sorry Walking Dead, I have given you several chances to fix yourself. While you still may have my viewership for the time being, I cannot back you or recommend you to anyone else.

#2 Boardwalk Empire

Boardwalk Empire, much like The Walking Dead, was a new show that I thoroughly enjoyed watching the first episode. There was great production value, great character development, great acting, and it looked like the sky was the limit. However, the show decided that getting two feet off the ground was good enough.

Granted, I stopped watching after Episode 6, but that’s how disappointed I was. There was so much potential and  quality squandered on what seemed like nothing. Kind of like Dave Chapelle‘s description of Lil’ Jon, who sounds like he is about to rap, but never gets around to it, Boardwalk Empire sets up great plots and subplots only to never go anywhere with them. It teases you mentioning them really briefly and then zooming in Steve Buscemi‘s teeth, or shooting someone for no reason.

Oh yeah, and that....

Maybe one day I will finish the season and I will find out I am wrong. But, that’s the problem with the first six episodes, even if I am wrong, they weren’t good enough to make me really care to find out.

#1 Dexter

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. After one of the most genius and suspenseful season finales in the history of television, the writers had Dexter’s world in the palm of their hand. Season Five was set up to be one of the most, if not the most, intense and gripping of the series. Instead, it is by far my least favorite, and that is saying something since Season Three was a major dud as well. They had a million directions to go with the show to keep people interested. Instead, it seems like the writers had came up with a great idea and just didn’t know what to do with it. They created a cliffhanger and decided that the best way to deal with that was to just plummet the show slowly and painfully to its death.

They are focusing on all the wrong things with this season. I don’t care about the romance between the unlikely romance between the anorexic Quinn and Deb or the even worse romance between LaGuerta and Batista. I don’t care about what Julia Stiles has to say. Yes, it was terrible how she was raped, one description was fine. It seems like every time she opens her mouth, 10 minutes of the episode is wasted as, with a quivering lip, she tells yet another horrible tale (and I don’t just mean how horrible things happened to her). Those were 10 minutes that Dexter could have been outsmarting Quinn and Robocop. Hell, he could have just been sitting there drinking coffee watching people and it would have been more interesting than Lumen’s incessant babble.

Wow, this is a rare moment...her mouth is closed.

The writers, in my opinion, should have had a story that involved Dexter dealing with the disturbing aftermath of the season 4 finale. He had been held back, pussyfooting around Rita to commit his crimes and it would have been a great opportunity for telling a story about a Dexter who is uninhibited by Rita. Oh well, it is a little late for all that now. I really hope this season ends well because if not, it is going to be a lot harder to feel like getting into the show next season.

What are some shows that have let you down? Are there any you recommend?