Here Are Popular TV Shows That Started Really Good And Completely "Jumped The Shark" In Later Seasons

Buzz Feed

23-03-2025

A while back, I asked the BuzzFeed Community for shows they thought started off really good and became bad or started off really bad and became good, and the responses had me reconsidering my favorites.
Here are some of the responses:
1. Umbrella Academy (Good to Bad)
" The Umbrella Academy. Good to bad. WTF was Season 4."
— luciafeyder
"The first season was excellent and gradually went downhill from there. Season 4 was the final season, so you would think that they spent those six episodes they were given to tie up all of the loose ends from Season 3, but they didn't. It was like they brought in a bunch of writers who had never seen the show before and were just making stuff up as they went along. The showrunner, Steve Blackman, has been talking about doing a spin-off, but how can he? The main characters no longer exist in any timeline, so there will never be a Commission. I canceled my Netflix subscription because I'm just so fed up with Netflix doing this."
— witchycowboy63
"Seasons 1 and 2 were great, Season 3 was OK, and Season 4 was a train wreck."
— rachelc43
2. Derry Girls (Good to Bad)
"Good to god-awful. The first several episodes were outstanding — so funny I'd replay certain parts just to laugh all over again. Then it suddenly sank and became more about the other characters than the girls. Bleh."
— tiffanyakjos00
3. Weeds (Good to Bad)
"Fantastic until she left Agrestic. Completely awful once she married the Mexican politician."
— mellojess1981
4. Bones (Good to Bad)
"It really went downhill once she and Booth got together AND when Sweets died. In fact, the show died with him."
— kporritt82
5. You're the Worst (Good to Bad)
"The first three seasons were really good. Just the right amount of humor with a sprinkle of drama. Season 4 was barely passable. Season 5 was hot garbage. There really was no reason for it. If they had just ended the series after the third, it probably would be one of my favorite shows ever."
— rebeccac45a5306d8
6. M*A*S*H (Good to Bad)
20th Century Fox Television. All Rights reserved. /Courtesy Everett Collection
"It started out completely funny with a social conscience. Then, the social consciousness became so heavy-handed that it was just too much. Every episode had to be a lesson in morality. Screw that! Talk about a show that jumped the shark, yet the finale had the highest ratings in history for how many years? And when McLean Stevenson left, that was the beginning of the end. Not just for the show but for his career as well!"
— patricksewall
7. This Is Us (Good to Bad)
"It started out kind of overwrought but was somehow compelling. Then it just became a reiteration of every previous episode. Plus, the character development just kind of went haywire — as I said, overwrought. Then, it became even worse than that. I know a lot of people like that show, but please."
— patricksewall
8. That '70s Show (Good to Bad)
"It all went to crap when the kids graduated high school and Lisa Robin Kelly left for good."
— edgycat84
9. Grey's Anatomy (Good to Bad)
" Grey's Anatomy keeps slogging away even though storylines are pretty depressing."
— emilypost
"I came to the comments to see if someone came for Grey's. I was an OG fan from the beginning, but good grief, give it up already. It's been shit writing for years."
— carak4a8cd43e8
10. The Walking Dead (Good to Bad)
AMC
"How is The Walking Dead not on the list? The season they killed Glenn, I was done."
— brendacboylan
"Started off bad. Got pretty good. Then it got REAL bad, justice for Glenn."
— toml4ada66609
"Group finds a safe place. Unhinged leader of a different group ruins safe place and kills main characters. Group moves to new safe place. Unhinged leader of a different group ruins safe place and kills main characters. Group moves to a new safe place, unhinged leader..."
— catnelsonl
"Good to bad. Should've ended after Carl died."
— jessicajeffers
11. Dexter (Good to Bad)
"Awesome idea for a movie or miniseries. Not meant to be drug out forever… I mean, how many serial killers can one guy find?!?!"
— macarpenter79
" Dexter was great (and much better than the books it's based on), but they should have stopped with Season 4. It jumped the shark when they (spoiler alert) tried to turn the relationship between Deb and Dex into some icky romantic thing, and just about every fan loathes the final season. Dexter: New Blood was a bit uneven, unfortunately."
— mrsandman29
"I'm so frustrated by that. I loved Season 1 and 2 and enjoyed all the characters and the thoroughly bizarre tone of the series. Then it just started to get weirder and weirder until it went off the rails and became a train wreck."
— laloquita
12. The 100 (Good to Bad)
"Nobody is bringing up The 100? The last few seasons were horrible."
— stevebitt90
"For me, I loved Season 6, and even a lot of Season 7. It was the Bellamy mess that really got me — and not just what happened, but how everyone reacted. It was just so…fully unbelievable."
— shannonmiz
"The end of Season 5 would have been a good ending for the show, though I do think that Season 6 had its moments. The last season was an insult."
— bennym81
13. The Vampire Diaries (Good to Bad)
"The premise was amazing — two centuries-old vampires fight over the semi-reincarnation of their first love. However, then they killed everyone, and suddenly, the 'most powerful' bad guy just got axed by the next super hybrid wolf vampire witch, whatever. After everyone kept dying and coming back, no deaths meant anything anymore because two episodes and someone would magically come back to life. The first three seasons were fabulous. Everything after that was trash."
— unhappyappy
14. SpongeBob SquarePants (Good to Bad)
15. Northern Exposure (Good to Bad)
"I'm still ticked off about Northern Exposure. I loved it immediately when it started, but then Rob Morrow got too big for his head and thought bigger and better things were waiting for him, so the last season with him in it had horrible plot lines, and after he left, the storylines were horrid. I blame Rob for ruining a great, quirky, and fun show.
FYI: Never ditch a popular show because lightning rarely strikes twice for an actor to have more than one winning show. You stick with that hit show for as long as possible and be grateful for it."
— charmingsun40
16. Roseanne (Good to Bad)
Carsey-Werner / Paramount Television / ABC / courtesy Everett Collection
" Roseanne was a great show, and then the final season. Then the reboot was honestly unnecessary. Same with Fuller House."
— toomanykidsnotenoughtime
" Roseanne was such a good show until Season 4 when it started to go downhill. I pretend the seasons after 4 don't exist."
— amajyn
"Once they fucked up Becky, I stopped being interested."
— joaqamole
17. True Blood (Good to Bad)
HBO
"I'm surprised True Blood isn't on here. I started out really liking the show, but by the end, I was just watching it since I already invested so much time in it and needed to know how it ended. And then the ending. Are you serious?!?!?! That still makes me angry."
— flyerboy6
"Honestly, the fairy reveal ruined the book series, too; it just had a lot more great stuff happen before Sookiebell went sparkly. Give us back our weretiger!"
— monkeybuttmom
"YES!! The nest episode (was it on the bed? I don't remember) did it for me. It tried to cover so many species, from vampires to werewolves to fairies to whatever they threw at the wall next. I was not sorry it ended."
— charmingsun40
"I stopped watching around the end of Season 5. It was just getting too ridiculous. When Sam, as a fly, flew down that vampire lady's throat and subsequently blew her up, it was over for me."
— crystala8
18. The Big Bang Theory (Good to Bad)
" The Big Bang Theory — good to really bad. Seinfeld — good to really boring."
— marvelouseagle25
"I'm one of the few who enjoyed The Big Bang Theory, but I was surprised it wasn't on the list because most folks are so mad at it."
— travelcat147
"They almost always drag out famous shows way too long, and it ends up messing up the characters. The Big Bang Theory, there's so much to hate in the later season. I hate how they took two strong women who declared they didn't want kids in earlier seasons, but in the end, even Penny ended up pregnant. I didn't watch the show for years after that, turned me completely off. You know the show is dying when they bring on the random pregnancies."
— elisaday
19. The Simpsons (Good to Bad)
Fox / Courtesy Everett Collection
"Admittedly, the first few seasons, it was finding its feet, but I'd say 3–10 was comedy gold, iconic, and groundbreaking for the '90s. But then they just kept going and going and going."
— helenc8
"Agree. I'm impressed it's still going. I let my oldest watch Seasons 1–12 with no supervision because I feel those are the best seasons."
— toomanykidsnotenoughtime
"Yeah. That show needs to stop."
— ieat2muchcandy
20. Happy Days (Good to Bad)
ABC / courtesy Everett Collection
" Happy Days went from good to bad. After it turned Fonzie into some kind of weird folk hero, it was the trope namer for 'jumping the shark.' By the end, it was such a confused and confusing mess that even the actors seemed uncomfortable."
— i_before_a_except_after_j
"Even kids who loved the Fonz couldn't get past him water skiing with his leather jacket. No shade to Henry Winkler. He is a lovely human being."
— pookanator
21. Arrested Development (Good to Bad)
"Season 1…excellent
Season 2...good
Season 3...Meh
Season 4...bad
Season 5...downright terrible."
— crispybutterfly80
"No lies detected."
— jeybizness
22. The X-Files (Good to Bad)
" The X-Files is my favorite show, and there are good episodes throughout the entire run, but my god, the mytharc really takes a dive the longer the show goes on. It's a prime example of what can happen when the writers of a show with a complicated plot don't have a clear ending in mind and just start flailing. It was a huge slap in the face to such a dedicated fandom."
— hollyskittlesb
"I loved that show for a few seasons because the stories were odd and/or quirky. I can't pinpoint when I lost interest in it, but boy, was it a stinker when it ended."
— charmingsun40
"100% agree. When I rewatch now, I skip most of the core mythos episodes and just watch the monster of the week ones. I feel like they had fun with a lot of those and the show was better when it didn't take itself so seriously."
— alittlebitalexis
23. Modern Family (Good to Bad)
"This might get hate, but Modern Family went from good to bad. Once the kids grew up, it changed the dynamic too much, the storylines got aimless and stale, and they 'flanderized' everyone. Don't even get me started on Haley's character development regression. I'm not saying all the episodes in the last few seasons were bad, but the majority were mediocre at best compared to early seasons when every episode was gold. Ratings were dropping from Season 7, and they probably should have ended it around then instead of milking every drop from the cash cow."
— sunflowersugar
"That show definitely jumped the shark. I actually rewatched the first season, and I completely forgot how absolutely funny it was. But then as the family grew older, the kids got older and grew out of their 'cuteness,' the storylines just kind of got stale and stupid."
— patricksewall
"I hate how they gave up on the characters and their development at the end."
— allthatglittersisdiamonds
24. Gotham (Good to Bad)
"I think Gotham 's biggest problem was that it marketed itself as a 'Gotham City Police Department' show, and it mostly started off as that, and I was fine with introducing early versions of Penguin, Riddler, Poison Ivy, and Catwoman, but it kinda turned into Smallville during Season 2. What I mean is Smallville did this weird thing where they built the world of Superman with all his allies, enemies, and iconic storylines, but they made Superman pointless because they did all that before Superman existed. Gotham did the same thing with Batman. They introduced everything iconic about Batman's world before he even existed, and it made Batman's existence pointless."
— theskinnydude
25. Heroes (Good to Bad)
"Heroes started out good, then became bad. It never lived up to the promise of the first season."
— triffid77
26. Cougar Town (Bad to Good)
©TBS/Courtesy Everett Collection
" Cougar Town was terrible with the original premise of Courteney Cox dating younger men post-divorce. Thankfully they dropped that about six episodes in and became a buddy hangout show, and it shined."
— shelleye
27. Star Trek: The Next Generation (Bad to Good)
Paramount Television/ Courtesy Everett Collection
"The first season tried too hard to copy Star Trek: The Original Series formula and was just the most awful kind of campy. The Ferengi were less of an enemy and more of a pathetic comedy, and bless Denise Crosby, but she was god-awful. The second season was better, although Gates McFadden took a season off and was temporarily replaced by Diana Muldaur. Personally, I liked Dr. Pulaski, but the chemistry wasn't the same. But they REALLY hit their stride in the third season and beyond and made some of the best television to date with social commentary that was decades ahead of its time. The fact that they made a sequel show recently (Star Trek: Picard) is proof of how enduring Star Trek: The Next Generation is."
— luxahoy
28. Halt and Catch Fire (Bad to Good)
Gene Page/AMC / ©AMC/courtesy Everett Collection / Everett Collection
"Season 1 is a weird, poorly developed riff on Mad Men, but Seasons 2–4 are basically perfect."
— keeneboy7700
29. The Office (Bad to Good)
©NBC/Courtesy Everett Collection
"The first season was just so cringey, but then they figured it out, and it was a great classic show 'til the end."
— toomanykidsnotenoughtime
"I finally got a friend of mine to watch The Office by having her start on Season 2, watch the whole series, then go back and watch Season 1. She had tried to start Season 1 so many times and couldn't get through it, so she thought she hated the show. Now it's one of her favorites!"
— eok21
Are there any TV shows that you think should've been included? Let me know in the comments.
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and clarity.