T.V. shows with great ideas that failed to deliver

[Argent]

So what T.V. shows had a decent premise but failed to execute.

I just finished watching Emerald City. It is a show based off Wizaed of OZ. It has a steampunk image and deals with an older Dorothy. The main plot is an older Dorothy get sucked into OZ a world that was saved by Wizard 20 years ago. There is a prophecy and great evil coming.

The backround is that the Wizard used tech to save the world when magic failed but now the monsters are coming back. The thing is that the Wizard's superweapon are defunct so he is rushing to find a solution. There is drama about magic being banned, the four witches nd there fall from power with the struggle for power. The problem comes that it glosses over things and rushes though plot points. It never really engages but tries to cram two seasons of plot into a ten epsoide season.

It aired with a big budget and promotion while seemly have been inspired by Sci-Fi's Tin Man which was a decent hit. But NBC rushed the plot. Overall I think a slower paced show added mystery would have made for a better show.



Other shows that have great ideas but fail on delivers that I remember are ones like

The River which was a short lived tv show that came out 7 years ago.

The basic plot is that television host and explorer Dr. Emmet Cole went looking for magic in the Amazon Basin and disappeared. Then half a year later his son and family head into the Amazon to find his father. It promised to be a more suspenseful supernatural thriller instead of the more common slasher horror that we see.

It stared off fairly strong but moved much to quickly with things like finding Dr. Cole by episode 7. The show ended having magic being proven real very quick instead of having the is magic real be a question to explore. They also lacked much suspense after the first couple of episodes having the plot become predictable.


Another is Dollhouse. Overall I liked the show. It is a Joss Whedon production and comes with all his baggage about themes and portrayal of the women with Echo being similar to Buffy and River. The world building and main plot hook was a great idea. Having the rich and famous hire a discreet service with programable humans. It was nice to see a group not out to rule the work but just make money and collect enough power to do what they want.

But it was another show that rushed things and by the end of the second season had jumped the shar and turned into a full-on post-apocalyptic mode with evil conspiracies. It also left behind the most interesting parts to me which was the moral question and how it effected even the normal staff and handlers.


There is also Revolution. The show is about life after the power goes out. It deals with Monroe a special forces solider that set up a country after the power went out. He hints down old friends to collect the keys to the super weapon that keeps anything electronic from working. The frist season was decent even if I think they rushed some things.

But the second season was just a mess. They brought in new bad guys and changed locations. It also just felt like a different show and they play up the Sci-Fi elements a lot more. What was once an interesting take on a post apocalyptic world with out power became a bland fight against an Enclave knockoff.

What shows did you look forward to but where disappointed with the execution.

 

[Husky_Khan]

Another is Dollhouse. Overall I liked the show. It is a Joss Whedon production and comes with all his baggage about themes and portrayal of the women with Echo being similar to Buffy and River. The world building and main plot hook was a great idea. Having the rich and famous hire a discreet service with programable humans. It was nice to see a group not out to rule the work but just make money and collect enough power to do what they want.

But it was another show that rushed things and by the end of the second season had jumped the shar and turned into a full-on post-apocalyptic mode with evil conspiracies. It also left behind the most interesting parts to me which was the moral question and how it effected even the normal staff and handlers.

Did this come right after Firefly and was it handled by Fox as well? If so... that's a rough one-two punch.

There is also Revolution. The show is about life after the power goes out. It deals with Monroe a special forces solider that set up a country after the power went out. He hints down old friends to collect the keys to the super weapon that keeps anything electronic from working. The frist season was decent even if I think they rushed some things.

But the second season was just a mess. They brought in new bad guys and changed locations. It also just felt like a different show and they play up the Sci-Fi elements a lot more. What was once an interesting take on a post apocalyptic world with out power became a bland fight against an Enclave knockoff.

What shows did you look forward to but where disappointed with the execution.

Revolution kind of reminded me of Jericho in that it bothered me with the cleanliness of everything. Now... I'm not big on the whole perpetual grit thing, hygiene was obviously a thing and wouldn't stop being a thing... but there's still a certain grime that would exist (ala like you see in Colonial or Old West settings) but you don't really get that in these TV series, despite their assets. And then you contrast that with like... The Walking Dead. There's been an apocalypse there and there's definition a change in the griminess and grittiness of it all that seems more realistic.

Also the scifi elements in Revolution did seem weird to me. And the not-Katniss crossbow lass from the few episodes I've seen.

 

[Captain X]

Star Trek: Enterprise had some interesting potential as a prequel, even if it was obviously an attempt to copy what Star Wars did. The problem is, it was evident even in the first episode that the showrunners had failed to learn anything from Star Trek: Voyager, and basically slipped into making a crappy knock-off of their crappy knock-off of TNG.

 

[Argent]

Did this come right after Firefly and was it handled by Fox as well? If so... that's a rough one-two punch.

Not right after. Firefly is 2002 and this was 2009., so half a decade later. Basically Dollhouse and Firefly was what he did between Buffy verse and working with Marvel. Both great ideas that failed for different reasons.

Revolution kind of reminded me of Jericho in that it bothered me with the cleanliness of everything. Now... I'm not big on the whole perpetual grit thing, hygiene was obviously a thing and wouldn't stop being a thing... but there's still a certain grime that would exist (ala like you see in Colonial or Old West settings) but you don't really get that in these TV series, despite their assets. And then you contrast that with like... The Walking Dead. There's been an apocalypse there and there's definition a change in the griminess and grittiness of it all that seems more realistic.

Also the scifi elements in Revolution did seem weird to me. And the not-Katniss crossbow lass from the few episodes I've seen.

Revolution did try to some some grittiness. A5 the start it showed a decent look at how Suburbia could transforms in a post apocalyptic wrold. It also showed some of the Loop in Chicago in a degraded state. At the same it showed the captain in Philadelphia as nice. So there was some contrast to the different locations. Granted the actors where only ever Hollywood dirty and a it glossed over some stuff. But overall it at least tried to some of the effects even if it didn't always succeed.

Star Trek: Enterprise had some interesting potential as a prequel, even if it was obviously an attempt to copy what Star Wars did. The problem is, it was evident even in the first episode that the showrunners had failed to learn anything from Star Trek: Voyager, and basically slipped into making a crappy knock-off of their crappy knock-off of TNG.

The frist season is all I have seen beside a few odd episodes. But I did like what I saw but hear the time war was overall a bad plotline with even worse villains.

 

[Captain X]

The third season was mainly an improvement because there were some actual stakes and drama, along with a continuing story arc that built up to a definite end game. Basically it was what Braga wanted to do with "Year of Hell" over on Voyager, but the network nixed it. The story didn't make much sense, and seemed like a really odd choice since they knew they had the Earth-Romulan War coming up anyway, but they probably had to tie in that Temporal Cold War bullshit that was forced on them by the network. If you ignored how it didn't really fit with what had been established for the franchise, it was actually kind of good, and a vast improvement over the aimless wandering of the first two seasons that managed to almost all come off as filler episodes. Season 4 ended the TCW and started doing the kind of prequel stuff the show really should have been doing to begin with, though in the end a lot of it ended up amounting to fan service. But they still got some decent episodes out of it.

I liked a lot of the concepts, but not the execution, so I actually did try to make my own version of it. You can read it here if you think you'd be interested in a different take on the show.

 

[Argent]

The third season was mainly an improvement because there were some actual stakes and drama, along with a continuing story arc that built up to a definite end game. Basically it was what Braga wanted to do with "Year of Hell" over on Voyager, but the network nixed it. The story didn't make much sense, and seemed like a really odd choice since they knew they had the Earth-Romulan War coming up anyway, but they probably had to tie in that Temporal Cold War bullshit that was forced on them by the network. If you ignored how it didn't really fit with what had been established for the franchise, it was actually kind of good, and a vast improvement over the aimless wandering of the first two seasons that managed to almost all come off as filler episodes. Season 4 ended the TCW and started doing the kind of prequel stuff the show really should have been doing to begin with, though in the end a lot of it ended up amounting to fan service. But they still got some decent episodes out of it.

I liked a lot of the concepts, but not the execution, so I actually did try to make my own version of it. You can read it here if you think you'd be interested in a different take on the show.

So would you recommend it to a casual Trek fan. Because I did like what I saw but it wasn't very much since I did not have DVR in those days. It sounds a lot like Voyager which has a lot of high points along with some low ones.

Because of my list I would only really recommend Dollhouse. The others are of interest if you like alternet alternate universes or old school thrillers. But most people will not like them and the fact that they are short series mean little investment into the charaters.

That is the true test of a show or any piece of entertainment. If you would rewatch it or recommend it to a friend. For all the writing about artistic merit or giving stars those two points win out for finding decent entertainment more times then not.

Also that website brings back some flashback to the early 2000's web design.

 

[Deleted member]

2001 era "Witchblade", for all kinds of reasons.

90s "ROAR" -- Because the Roman soldier who drove his blade through Christ's side as an immortal with a mysterious agenda in an alternate Ireland subject to a Roman invasion was a genius idea... With only the worst execution ever.

Seaquest DSV -- it could have been a science-fiction technothriller series, but instead they tried to make it a science-fiction space exploration series underwater. The pilot was amazing as a science-fiction technothriller, the first season was good... And... Yeah.

Space: Above and Beyond. It was... Live action Wing Commander, except with something of the characterisation of Stargate. It had potential, but it all got wasted in the television show equivalent of scope-creep.

 

[Argent]

Seaquest DSV -- it could have been a science-fiction technothriller series, but instead they tried to make it a science-fiction space exploration series underwater. The pilot was amazing as a science-fiction technothriller, the first season was good... And... Yeah.

That is a show that the second season was just plan bad. The time jump to evil South Pacific Empire fighting a shadow war was just a gaint mess.

I remember as a kid I liked the frist season but I couldn't tell you much about the plot lines out side a talking dolphin and the Adma and Eve time travel bit.

 

[bullethead]

Star Trek: Enterprise had some interesting potential as a prequel, even if it was obviously an attempt to copy what Star Wars did. The problem is, it was evident even in the first episode that the showrunners had failed to learn anything from Star Trek: Voyager, and basically slipped into making a crappy knock-off of their crappy knock-off of TNG.

Honestly, reading the excerpts of Berman and Braga's commentaries for the Blu-Rays about how UPN didn't get Trek at all and wanted all sorts of stupid shit makes it astounding that we only got TNG 3.0, instead of something way worse.

Don't get me wrong - Berman and Braga definitely sucked at selling the UPN execs on a vision of a Star Trek prequel that was more in line with what people would've wanted. But sometimes you have to realize things could've been way worse, because the people above them were so off the mark.

That is a show that the second season was just plan bad. The time jump to evil South Pacific Empire fighting a shadow war was just a gaint mess.

seaQuest's season 2 finale basically pulled a Last Jedi, so S3 being weird at the start was an unavoidable result. That said, they really should've tried to do what S3 was doing in S2, but then again, this was the early 90s, so before things like loose/tight serialization became a thing in the industry. (S3 only had it because they were drastically revamping the show in an attempt to save it.)

I remember as a kid I liked the frist season but I couldn't tell you much about the plot lines out side a talking dolphin and the Adma and Eve time travel bit.

The Adam & Eve thing is an S2 episode (IIRC), ironically enough.

 

[Captain X]

So would you recommend it to a casual Trek fan. Because I did like what I saw but it wasn't very much since I did not have DVR in those days. It sounds a lot like Voyager which has a lot of high points along with some low ones.

For a casual fan, probably, since they wouldn't have the hang-ups for continuity and would be able to enjoy some of the better episodes that there are. The only downside is that those episodes are a lot harder to come by in the first couple of seasons.

Also that website brings back some flashback to the early 2000's web design.

Well, I mean, I did make it in the early 2000's, based on the display from a show that was made in the early 2000s. Still, part of me wants to roll my eyes at that particular criticism and ask sarcastically what trends in current year web design I should be incorporating into my fan-fic site.

 

[Argent]

Don't get me wrong - Berman and Braga definitely sucked at selling the UPN execs on a vision of a Star Trek prequel that was more in line with what people would've wanted. But sometimes you have to realize things could've been way worse, because the people above them were so off the mark

There is a reason that UPN dissapeared. They just made bad choices on every thing and wanted to be discount BET.

For a casual fan, probably, since they wouldn't have the hang-ups for continuity and would be able to enjoy some of the better episodes that there are. The only downside is that those episodes are a lot harder to come by in the first couple of seasons.

I may have to check it out. I have seen all the other Trek shows expect Discovery because I see no reason to buy all access.

What do you think of Discovery?

Because prequels do have a lot of room or some new stuff but it seems like they mainly failed with Enterprise and Discovery. Granted I have not seen past the frist two episodes of the Discovery but what I have heard is that it does not improve much.

Well, I mean, I did make it in the early 2000's, based on the display from a show that was made in the early 2000s. Still, part of me wants to roll my eyes at that particular criticism and ask sarcastically what trends in current year web design I should be incorporating into my fan-fic site.

It was mainly a joke. I still have some older fanfiction sites booked that look like that. They are perfectly fine and I learned to code making sites like that too. I5 was just a surprise to see one.

 

[Captain X]

What do you think of Discovery?

I've not actually watched it for myself, and what I have seen of it from reviews and other sources makes me unlikely to ever do so. They seem far more interested in virtue signaling a "progressive" message than in making a good show, and much like ENT before it, there seems to be more of an attempt to make a reboot than to make a prequel. At least ENT has the excuse of having so many of the prequel aspects of the show nixed in favor of being yet another attempt to be TNG by UPN forcing the issue. STD seems mostly interested in riding the coattails of Abrams Trek while preaching the "progressive" gospel.

 

[Laskar]

Well, I'm almost done watching Limitless. I'm down to the last episode of the season finale.

For those of you who never heard of it, Limitless is a followup to the movie of the same name, about a drug NZT that turns people into Hollywood geniuses. When people take NZT, they remember everything they've ever heard, everything they've ever seen, and they get an order-of-magnitude bump to their IQ as well. The downside is that the drug wears off after twelve hours, and it has some horrible long-term side effects. Think of it as super-amphetamine, and you're not far off.

The movie was pretty grounded. It made no bones that this was a high-performance drug being sold on the streets. It was being used by people who had no idea what it could do, and it wrecked them when they abused it.

The TV show is... Eh. It does a good job of following on from the movie, and it actually corrects one or two things the movie got wrong with its happy ending. The premise is that the FBI finds Brian Finch, who appears to be immune to the side effects of NZT, so they pump him full of the stuff and make him an analyst. But he's not immune. He's being given booster shots by the protagonist of the movie, and those booster shots will continue so long as he does Senator Morra's bidding.

The problem is that Brian Finch is a screwball, and the world lets him get away with it. Let's just put it this way: Twice, he's gotten some deeply unpleasant criminals to do his work for him by finding out about their geeky hobbies and appealing to them. Hey, look, Naz's niece has been kidnapped by pirates in the South China Sea! Well, those pirates answer to a boss in New York, and that pirate is a pinball aficionado, so we can bribe him with a rare pinball machine to get him to let the niece go. Oh, and Brian's girlfriend is rotting in a Russian prison for breaking into an oligarch's mansion. Well, the Russian Minister of Justice is a massive Game of Thrones fanboy, so we'll get JRR Martin to call him up directly and tell him how it all ends, in exchange for letting her go.

Sometimes the lighter and softer humor worked, but mostly it undermined the show. It would have worked much better if Brian Finch was a serious character when he was on NZT, same as Edward Morra.

 

[Husky_Khan]

The third season was mainly an improvement because there were some actual stakes and drama, along with a continuing story arc that built up to a definite end game. Basically it was what Braga wanted to do with "Year of Hell" over on Voyager, but the network nixed it.

Wasn't Star Trek: Voyager supposed to be a bit more 'Year of Hell' writ large as opposed to what we did get with all of the replaceable shuttles and infinite ensigns and reset button jokes the series inspired? Or at least something JMS kind of suggested.

 

[bullethead]

Wasn't Star Trek: Voyager supposed to be a bit more 'Year of Hell' writ large as opposed to what we did get with all of the replaceable shuttles and infinite ensigns and reset button jokes the series inspired?

I've heard that Brannon Braga at least wanted to do a whole season of Year of Hell, but I don't know if they wanted that from the start. Especially after reading Michael Piller's book on Star Trek: Insurrection, which explicitly pointed out that some of Voyager's blandness was a reaction to DS9's focus test audience reactions.

 

[Scottty]

Wasn't Star Trek: Voyager supposed to be a bit more 'Year of Hell' writ large as opposed to what we did get with all of the replaceable shuttles and infinite ensigns and reset button jokes the series inspired? Or at least something JMS kind of suggested.

After reading JMS's ideas... I'd watch that series.

 

[Captain X]

Wasn't Star Trek: Voyager supposed to be a bit more 'Year of Hell' writ large as opposed to what we did get with all of the replaceable shuttles and infinite ensigns and reset button jokes the series inspired? Or at least something JMS kind of suggested.

To an extent, yes. I forget who it was, but I remember reading an interview in Star Trek: Communicator back when the show was still in development and was being talked up for the fans. The upshot of it that whoever was talking about it was getting all excited bout was how the main ship would be far away from the kind or resources they would normally have access to on TNG, thus making it fundamentally a different kind of show. And with the Maquis, we were supposed to have this opposing viewpoint and character drama caused by these opposing viewpoints. But UPN wanted another TNG, and with the creative staff they had, that joke of a series was what we ended up with. "Year of Hell" was an idea Braga had to help jump-start the series, as its ratings were significantly down from when the show started, and the idea he came up with was ironically to make the series live up to its own premise, though I wouldn't be surprised if there was always supposed to be a reset button of some kind.

 

[Argent]

LA Brea is a recent show that came out in 2021. The general plotline is a massive sink hole opens up in L.A. and a random group of people fall though into prehistoric world.


I wached the frist 6 epsodies and it had an interesting idea.

I was a bit disappointed that the show went time travel portal instead of Journey to the Center of Earth. But it still could have been an interesting show.

The problems just build up to quickly to the stereotypical cop and druggie kid to the evil reglion ruins kids subplot. They even have the ex-husband trying to save his ex-wife and kid.

Overall the actors feel like they are phoning it in and the lines just feel slited. Add on top a rush to try and keep audiences interested and the show just fall apart quickly in overused tropes.

 

[Agent23]

ST:ENT got better when Manny Coto got his hands on it, but from what I have heard B&B just wouldn't have it and kept pushing their shit in.
Maybe if he had had one more season and a bit more freedom ENT wouldn't have failed as badly as it did.

Dollhouse was Joss Wheadon trying to make an overly-pretentious Eliza Dushku vehicle and failing.

Terminator: TSCC had a lot of promise, but sadly failed, frankly, the execution could have been better, IMO.

StarGate: Universe - interesting premise, but the old SG fandom did not like the break away from the formula, and when you add how slowly it was progressing and how it was trying to be NuBSG, well, nothing good came out of it.
The worst part is that it was starting to get good just before it got axed with the whole drones and time travel humans from an alternate timeline plot. I miss that show.

Next up, NuBSG and Caprica.

NuBSG started with a lot of promise, but failed miserably after season 3 IMO, mainly because RDM wanted to be pretentious and wrote himself into a corner.

Caprica was an interesting premise, with awful execution.

Babylon 5 sequels and tie ins: LotR, TLT, Crusade, need I say more?

Some had a decent premise, but most were massively underwhelming even where that was concerned.JMS should just retire and make sure his IP is protected from would-be rebooters.

 

[Argent]

NuBSG started with a lot of promise, but failed miserably after season 3 IMO, mainly because RDM wanted to be pretentious and wrote himself into a corner.

I do agree with this one. Once they landed on the planet the show just jumped the shark hard core.

It like they forgot everything that made the frist seasons so good.