Shows that Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot

[sextus the crazy]

Strike Witches. Y'all might say that it's just a fanservice show and I shouldn't be angry at it for being one. I disagree. The show clearly is trying to have plot and drama and characters, but it is so fucking undermined by it's stupid fanservice bullshit that it fails as both a drama and a fanservice show. And the second season is the lazest copy-paste job I've seen in years.

Never watched it, but I think this is a problem with the asthetic instead of the plot, the plot would be the same even if they actually dressed properly. Still, how bad is the second season?

It's pretty much the first season all over again no joke. Same basic plot, same long-ass 2 episode intro, same mid season fucking around, episode 7s crazy again, and the last to eps suddenly remember that they wanted to do a plot and botch that.

If you've ever watched code geass season 2, just imagine the first two episodes of that, but give that treatment to the entire season. The producers realized that they could just sell the series again to fans, so they did.

The plots problem isn't necessarily that it's bad. With some work it could have been decent, but every scene is underminded by panty shots that completely ruin the mood. If the characters just bothered to wear tights or normal military clothes the show could have been salvageable.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Star Trek Voyager wasted great plot ideas on a weekly basis, minus a few truly awesome episodes here or there.

And it's almost entirely due to the writing. Competence and continuity are extreme rarities, and that's especially jarring when compared to its co-running predecessor Deep Space Nine (which wasn't perfect, but you could tell the cast and writers actually gave a shit most of the time).

I could add more, but that would just degenerate into a rant against Rick Berman and not actual discussion, so I'll just leave it at that.

 

[the December King]

Firefly.

Thats right I said it, the TV show wasted a perfectly good setting and characters with most of the episodes being boring nothings.

Hmmm, while I agree that Firefly was my own choice for a letdown, I personally found it wasn't the series that lost me, but the movie.

In the series, I was really enjoying the mystery behind River and her powers, and the Preacher, and the fact that we never saw an actual Reaver (we watched a boy lose his mind, supposedly as Reavers did originally, but still). Then the movie Serenity came along, and threw up all over my enjoyment, basically flinging the curtain back to reveal the wizard (or in this case, a dancer 'waif-fu-ing' a bunch of cenobyte wannabes). But that's just how I felt, and if others really liked Serenity, then so be it. I've been told that as a Joss Whedon vehicle, I should have known it would devolve into this kind of spectacle, but I never watched any of his series work except for Roseanne.

Which I loved, by the way.

 

[VoidWanderer]

I'll second Sword Art Online (Season 1, didn't watch Season 2). Along with the tension created by the premise, the story showed a lot of potential to deal with the people who play online games and the relationships that form between them due to playing those games. And honestly, with all the lamenting we see about friendships formed online, that was a story that I would love to see. However, almost every character that was introduced was mostly dropped after the first or second episode they were in, and every interesting plot element was thrown away just as quickly. The end result is that none of the characters or their relationships felt meaningful in the slightest, and so much of it came across as really bad filler. Sure, some episodes were interesting, but the overall story was seriously lacking.

Wasn't there another Anime like that? Dot Hack or something like that, it had some cross-over with games of the same name?

 

[octafish]

Twin Peaks. I love the show to death but it's riddled with inconsistency problems throughout its (rather lengthy) second season. Solving Laura Palmer's death mid-season was wrong and left a plot void that gave way to lots of stupid filler and circular subplots. By the end of the show it was getting interesting again and it got cancelled. So much for that.

Executive meddling. Lynch never wanted the mystery solved at all, and he was right. Still it had its moments like silent runners, new shoes, and the owls not being what they seemed.

Why Dinosaurs though? Won't they just get wiped out the same way they Dino's do eventually?

One hundred and thirty five million years or so is plenty of time to come up with a solution given we've only been on the planet for about 200,000 years and only really been exhibiting modern behavior for 50,000.

 

[Nouw]

Fate/Zero. I enjoyed Madoka Magica and Saya no Uta but Gen Urobuchi dropped the ball here. I honestly don't understand why he had to put so much emphasis on Kiritsugu and walk the tired route of badass cliches with his character. The highlight of the show will forever be the first outro because in that minute or so I feel more for the characters than I do in 40 minutes of tragic backstory. I would have loved to see the show go in-depth into the servant's past life because that shit is compelling.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Someone already mentioned it, but Sons of Anarchy.

Started off great: was made by the same people who did "The Shield" (my favorite show ever), established that you weren't really supposed to 'like' the main characters, and showed them having real issues that they had to deal with and constantly having their backs to the wall.

But as the show went on it just got more and more eye-rollingly stupid.
-Jax has basically been turned into a biker version of James Bond. He can seduce any woman just by looking at them, wins every fight he's in, and seems smarter than the entire town put together.

-The Sons, despite supposedly being high school drop-outs and small-time criminals, are continuously able to out-wit not only every other gang out there, but the entire Federal Government over and over again.

-One can argue this one, but the whole idea that Tara is a freakin' Doctor and is married to a guy with a criminal record who she knows murders people and sells weapons to street gangs for a living is just a little too far-fetched.

 

[Grottnikk]

Heroes was a great big let-down in the second season. The first season was awesome. I was hyped for season 2. Then...blech

 

[TravelerSF]

Imma have to keep bashing Naruto with others. It's ironic how far the show has fallen from it's premise. It's appeal was to see an absolute zero rising in power and earning other's trust with hard work, but instead it that whole arc has now been turned into "because you were destined to" -story. Also, powercreeping has ruined the show's appeal as well. I truly enjoyed the fights in the first series because of the different and interesting techniques used as well as the tactics that played a part in them. And now it's been turned into Dragonball Z...

 

[MysticSlayer]

I'll second Sword Art Online (Season 1, didn't watch Season 2). Along with the tension created by the premise, the story showed a lot of potential to deal with the people who play online games and the relationships that form between them due to playing those games. And honestly, with all the lamenting we see about friendships formed online, that was a story that I would love to see. However, almost every character that was introduced was mostly dropped after the first or second episode they were in, and every interesting plot element was thrown away just as quickly. The end result is that none of the characters or their relationships felt meaningful in the slightest, and so much of it came across as really bad filler. Sure, some episodes were interesting, but the overall story was seriously lacking.

Wasn't there another Anime like that? Dot Hack or something like that, it had some cross-over with games of the same name?

I don't think SAO has anything to do with actual games, just a light novel. It just uses the MMORPG setting for the premise. But there are other animes like it, and I believe Dot Hack is one of them. Log Horizon also has a similar premise, and it actually is very good after the first couple of episodes.

 

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

Heroes. That's a rare case of near-universal agreement that season one was great, and everything after that sucked.

I kind of agree with people mentioning Voyager, but I still liked that show. Some of the characters were great (The Doctor, Seven, Tuvok), some of the episodes were great (seriously, Voyager is weird in that it is generally mediocre to decent, with the occasional spike of true brilliance), and I'm a Star Trek fanboy, so I'm a bit blind to its minor flaws.

What REALLY wasted its potential was Enterprise. I understand that by the end of Voyager Star Trek's popularity had waned a lot from the heyday of TNG/DS9. So they decided to make it sleeker and sexier for the young and brain-damaged audiences. But instead of a fledgling Starfleet taking its first big steps into deep space, discovering new worlds and meeting familiar races for the first time, instead of getting a sense of exhilarating and terrifying exploration and learning that the galaxy is much bigger and more dangerous than you ever dreamed...we got Captain Archer and his two sidekicks acting smug in everyone's face, shooting or proselytizing their way out of every situation, and just plain stupid characterization and plot threads. It was bad. Like, as stated before I am a total fanboy willing to enjoy Star Trek even in many of its dumbest moments, but I just couldn't keep up with Enterprise.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Heroes. That's a rare case of near-universal agreement that season one was great, and everything after that sucked.

I don't remember where I read this, but apparently each Season of "Heroes" was supposed to have completely different characters with completely different powers and a totally new storyline. Even though there were definitely some great characters in the first season, I think that would have made the show way better if they had tried that format.

 

[Schadrach]

3. Highschool of the Dead.

The initial premise; Dawn of the Dead meets Lord of the Flies when a group of highschoolers find themselves stuck in the middle of the zombie apocalypse, and need to struggle to survive while society breaks down around them.

What the series became:


So, what shows do you think wasted a perfectly good plot for the sake of fanservice/pandering to the lowest common denominator.

I've got to ask, is that video representative of the series overall? I ask because it's the only example from the show that anyone ever uses, and usually when there's a big hate-off on something because of fanservice or female characters not wearing the right amount/type of clothing for someone's feminist sensibilities and only one example ever gets used, it's because that one example isn't representative, but makes for good rage bait.

Death Note is fantastic up until part way into Season 2. It takes a significant turn and goes downhill from there.

There's actually a simple explanation for that -- they utterly broke the pacing. Prior to a certain event that necessitates the introduction of Near and Mello, every episode covers about the same amount of the manga (about 2 1/4 chapters/ep), meaning the two generally share the same pacing (the anime cuts some detail and speeds it up a bit, but not too badly). After that certain major event happens, they pacing changes up to an average of 4 1/2 chapters/ep, and they start cutting things and rewriting things to try to cram most of it in.

I'm also of the "Near cheated and used the Death Note to kill Light/Mikami in order to 'prove' Light was Kira" school of thought, especially given that Near outright starts saying what people will do and how they will react, and Mikami doesn't live all that long after Kira is revealed (in the anime he dies in the same scene from suicide, in the manga 10 days later in jail under mysterious circumstances) and Near burns the Death Notes immediately afterward.

Dexter hands down. It was such an awesome show and then it fell apart around season 5 or so. I didn't even bother watching the final season because it just became a joke of a show near the end.

Hated the ending. It would have actually been an OK ending (if a little off theme compared to the books or the earlier seasons of the show), if not for that last scene.

Spoiler warning ahead of time, as this is a long post and spoilers are scattered throughout.

---
SPOILER TALK FOR LEGEND OF KORRA
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SPOILER TALK FOR LEGEND OF KORRA
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...

Tenzin turns from a sometimes overbearing wise airbending teacher to an inept and all too easily flustered teacher.

Trying to indoctrinate a bunch of mostly adults into an entirely new culture is an entirely different beast than raising a handful of kids within that culture or teaching one teenager how to air bend. He's out of his depth and isn't coping well. He didn't cope well with Jinora being better than him at the spiritual stuff at first, either.

3.) Dark Avatar, boo.

It could have been done well, instead it became a kaiju fight resolved by space Jesus.

 

[rgrekejin]

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam.

Before this show saw American release, I'd read summaries online of the Japanese episodes, and man, it all sounded awesome. But then when I watched it, even though the overarching plot *sounds* really cool, each individual scene was crap. On a macro level the show looks good, but on a micro level poor dialogue and a lack of attention to detail kills it. It's sort of Battlestar Galactica's problem in reverse - on that show, each individual scene is wonderfully written and acted, and it's enough to draw you in, but if you ever take a step back you realize instantly that the overall plot is utter nonsense.

 

[Nimcha]

Glee. Basically everything. Every single interesting idea the show ever had was ruined by the writers. Everything that had just the tiniest bit of potential was either used in completely the wrong wayor forgotten by the next episode. It's uncanny, really.

 

[EternallyBored]

3. Highschool of the Dead.

The initial premise; Dawn of the Dead meets Lord of the Flies when a group of highschoolers find themselves stuck in the middle of the zombie apocalypse, and need to struggle to survive while society breaks down around them.

What the series became:


So, what shows do you think wasted a perfectly good plot for the sake of fanservice/pandering to the lowest common denominator.

I've got to ask, is that video representative of the series overall? I ask because it's the only example from the show that anyone ever uses, and usually when there's a big hate-off on something because of fanservice or female characters not wearing the right amount/type of clothing for someone's feminist sensibilities and only one example ever gets used, it's because that one example isn't representative, but makes for good rage bait.

That clip is used so much because of the sheer ridiculousness of the matrix boobs that move at supersonic speeds, but yes, it is indicative of the rest of the anime, if anything it undersells the sheer amount of fanservice in the anime. Here's a review that talks about it with a decent compilation of some of the fanservice scenes in the series.


Skip to the 5 minute mark or so if you just want to see the extent the series goes to with its fanservice, the rest of the review is pretty decent though, and sums up the series pretty well by calling it the Michael Bay version of an anime. It does also go into the weird breast physics that the anime displays.

EDIT: For anyone that does watch the video, they censor the one scene of actual nudity, but, in case you can't tell from the intro pic the video probably isn't something you want to get caught watching at work, so use some common sense before you click play.

 

[soren7550]

Castle - After a string of murders that copy the ones in his books, bestselling mystery author Richard Castle is signed on as a consultant to the NYPD to help them solve their murder cases while doing research for his new series. Hilarity ensues.

Great! I absolutely loved the first two or three seasons, and would frequently marathon them. Something happened after that though. Show was going on too long, head writer too full of himself, whatever it was, Castle started sucking a lot. Story threads went on too long and got too insane (Johanna Becket's murder, I'm look right at you), episodes were getting too kitschy and outlandish, and in Castleland, everything is real! Laser pistols, ghosts, psychics, bigfoot, telekinetics, time travel, parking right in front of the place you want to go to all the time in Manhattan, anything can and will be real in Castleland!

Several characters stopped acting like themselves as well, or just focused on one trait of theirs and multiplied it by eleven.

Once Upon A Time - Fairy tale characters are trapped in our world with no memories of their old lives, and the child of Snow White and Prince Charming (who was sent away before they were cursed) needs to free them from the curse. Only thing is, she doesn't believe the whole 'the fairy tales are real' thing, so she needs to believe before she can save them.

Alright, color me interested. Only, most of the characters are plum dumb, the show's extremely black and white views on morality get grating fast, true love is not only overly abundant, but it's also the cure all for damn near everything, storylines drag on far too long when they can be resolved in half or less of the time, and most everything ties back to one or two sets of characters.

 

[Neonsilver]

3. Highschool of the Dead.

The initial premise; Dawn of the Dead meets Lord of the Flies when a group of highschoolers find themselves stuck in the middle of the zombie apocalypse, and need to struggle to survive while society breaks down around them.

What the series became:


So, what shows do you think wasted a perfectly good plot for the sake of fanservice/pandering to the lowest common denominator.

I've got to ask, is that video representative of the series overall? I ask because it's the only example from the show that anyone ever uses, and usually when there's a big hate-off on something because of fanservice or female characters not wearing the right amount/type of clothing for someone's feminist sensibilities and only one example ever gets used, it's because that one example isn't representative, but makes for good rage bait.

It is probably the most ridiculous example that you can find of the anime, but the fanservice is rather extreme.

Here a different example, the intro already has fanservice:

 

[gandhi the peacemake]

Trying to indoctrinate a bunch of mostly adults into an entirely new culture is an entirely different beast than raising a handful of kids within that culture or teaching one teenager how to air bend. He's out of his depth and isn't coping well. He didn't cope well with Jinora being better than him at the spiritual stuff at first, either.

I admit there's more reason for him to be overbearing than not, but it's more a criticism of his character from the very beginning. That is to say, for a supposed master of airbending and what are essentially Buddhist teachings, he doesn't conduct himself in a manner befitting his monkhood. Instead of trying to force people of Fire/Earth/Water cultures to Air Nomad ways, a monk would simply make regular pilgrimages to the individuals and offer his assistance (with airbending training/gardenwork/etc.), maybe suggest coming back to the temples to get more effective training. But you'd expect someone as wise as Tenzin to understand what they're asking.

From a storytelling and/or worldbuilding perspective, it would be more interesting, too, to see what airbending becomes now that it isn't chained to one specific worldview. Zaheer sort of starts to explore this territory, but he's still a bit of a non-character.

 

[FPLOON]

Glee. Basically everything. Every single interesting idea the show ever had was ruined by the writers. Everything that had just the tiniest bit of potential was either used in completely the wrong wayor forgotten by the next episode. It's uncanny, really.

Oh my glob! You're absolutely right! And it has been happening even before the FIRST graduation episode!!

Huh... and to think some of the writers worked better on Nip/Tuck (I guess, since I've never actually sat down to watch it fully) and American Horror Story (well, slightly better overall, but still), but yeah... Great ideas with execution that so poor that you're better off having the narrator narrating everything that even significantly relevant to the overall plot of the series...

Although, I will give the writers some credit on how they handled the "Finn Tribute" episode... but, even then, the episodes that came before and, especially, after the fact almost ruins something that could have just be viewed as a pretty decent standalone episode in and of itself...