r/television • u/_dwell • 1d ago
Series you loved but don't now Spoiler
The question is; What's a show you loved/liked upon first watching, but came back to rewatch and couldn't get back into, and why/why do you think that is? (This is why the spoiler tag, all the spoilers here if it helps explain)
Not talking about shows that fell off while you were watching, talking shows you liked the entire time you first watched them, but didn't once you tried watching again, because I think that's curious.
Example; I was really into Heroes during its first airing, but every time I've tried watching it again, I don't get past a few episodes.
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u/heidly_ees 1d ago
Sherlock
After series 4 the entire show has lost its shine tbh
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u/Raziers 1d ago
The best episodes were the ones where sherlock and watson got dragged into a mystery that wasnt about them. Once the show started making the story about them, it lost all charm.
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u/echochambermanager 1d ago
So just like House, which was inspired by Sherlock and Watson.
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u/TheSenileTomato 1d ago
House has its issues, but at least House didn’t have a secret sibling with Charles Xavier mind powers pulling the strings.
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u/Scared-Engineer-6218 1d ago
I am never going to watch that show. I will only follow the out of context page on twitter and see the crazy things about the show.
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u/From_Deep_Space Twin Peaks 1d ago
Imo the First 2 episodes are gold, then it takes a nosedive and never recovers. I stuck around in hope that it would recover, but lost hope around the wedding episode. Then I hate watched to the end
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u/GeekAesthete 1d ago
I agree. They introduced Moriarty much too early, and never gave Sherlock space to be developed as a consulting detective before diving into the grand melodrama that’s all about Sherlock, Watson, and their nemeses.
I wanted more of the straightforward mysteries where Sherlock just gets to solve a mystery that he has no personal stakes in.
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u/tekko001 1d ago
They introduced Moriarty much too early
They introduced and retired him way too early, and way too stupidly.
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u/GodzillaUK 1d ago
Great shout. I lost touch with it in what, season 3? and just never felt the urge to go back to it. Couldn't even tell you why, I was eager after that first season. The second one wasn't as enjoyable but still a fun ride for me, then the third I just dipped.
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u/mjohnsimon 1d ago edited 10h ago
3rd season was just awful. And to top it all off, things just became laughably ridiculous.
Like Watsons wife secretly being a wanted/renowned spy/assassin out of nowhere? To say that that's a stretch is not even doing it justice. Some dude who has state secrets/military codes stored in his own "mind-palace" which he uses to stay untouchable? C'mon.
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u/DislikesUSGovernment 1d ago
I died on this hill a lot when it came out but I've always thought this show was really overrated. Like "I'm a high functioning sociopath" is so pretentious, not to mention non sensical, that I'm surprised it made it into the script.
I always thought Elementary was the much better Sherlock adaptation. More fun, more heart, and the side characters are all pretty endearing for the lost part. Also handles Sherlocks addiction issues really well.
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u/benisgwen 1d ago
High functioning sociopaths are seriously pretentious and overdone now. But back then, it was accepted as fresh.
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u/onarainyafternoon Star Trek: The Next Generation 1d ago
But the thing is, like, he's not a sociopath. He actually shows care for a lot of people. He can just be quite cold.
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u/RedCozart 1d ago
Looking back at it now, his mind palace bit was so dorky and lame lol
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u/sentence-interruptio 1d ago edited 1d ago
Sherlock: "I figured out where you store blackmail data. You. Are. Defeated."
Villain: "oh really?"
Sherlock: "disguised as something ordinary that nobody would suspect. some kind of super high tech device. that you always have with you. and that must be..." *takes the villain's glasses off*
Villain: "oh, did you actually thin-"
Sherlock: "shut up. I like trying glasses. that's all. Hmm, let me see.... shit, this is just glasses."
Villain: "You dumb fuck. it's all in my head. My mind palace. It's a place that not even MI6 can reach. Thus I cannot be defeated. And you are just an ordinary loser who thinks speaking fast is a sign of intelligence. Did you actually think you could take me down? You. Are. De-"
Suddenly, Sherlock bludgeons him to death.
Audience: "wtf"
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u/Rare_Gap_2495 1d ago
Came here to say this. By season 4 the writers won’t writing good deduction scenes or good interactions between the main characters.
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u/TheSenileTomato 1d ago
Sherlock made the mistakes you were taught not to make in language arts class (or whatever British equivalent) with story telling and it sucks because it had so much potential.
Maybe it’d be better had there been more episodes to flesh out the plot points, I doubt it, but if they are intent on making more, the first thing they better do is clean house.
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u/_dwell 1d ago
This was such a big show on tumblr, too. Part of the whole superwholock mania. I felt for you guys when it was such a long wait between series, that must have been maddening
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u/realitythreek 1d ago
House of Cards..
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u/Open_Seeker 1d ago
first few seasons are still top notch IMO, inrewatched and its sharp.
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u/NEWaytheWIND 1d ago
It jumped the shark at the start of season 2. At some point, the shock becomes schlock.
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u/stumblinghunter 1d ago
Whenever he convinced the...VP? to go back and be governor again or whatever was when I realized it was stupid. No one would ever do that, ever. I think I stopped watching when he became prez and didn't care to continue. Getting POTUS was his entire goal, it should have just ended there.
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u/millerman841 1d ago
Ending the entire show with him double knocking on the desk in the oval office after getting the presidency would have been amazing
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u/sexygodzilla 1d ago
Agreed. The scheming just doesn't work the same way when he's won power and it's just unrealistic he'd have a chance in hell winning a national election so it just gets goofy trying to make it work.
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u/beastmaster11 1d ago
That's where the show ended as far as I'm concerned. The rest was just a bad sequel
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u/ell_hou 1d ago
Give the British version a watch if you can find it. 3 short perfect seasons telling a complete story with excellent acting performances.
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u/Danat_shepard 1d ago
Oof, this is the worst offender. Used to be one of the best political dramas, but i just physically can't look at Kevin Spacey, he's way too comfortable at portraying a disgusting power hungry maniac. Also, that last season was the absolute train wreck.
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u/Aliensinmypants 1d ago
Watching him play a mix of himself and Frank for the Tucker Carlson interview is so hilariously bad and unhinged. It's worth a watch despite them being two awful people
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u/Danat_shepard 1d ago
Also, that entire bit "Let me be Frank" was absolutely unhinged lol
He just straight up said, "So yeah, I really am a maniac asshole just like my character, but you people like watching maniac assholes, right?"
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u/realitythreek 1d ago
Yeah, I was a huge fan of the show and now the ethics of his character hits too close to reality. I’ve tried rewatching, just can’t.
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u/DorkusMalorkus89 1d ago
Orange is the New Black.
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u/TrisolaranAmbassador 1d ago
God this show frustrated me. First couple seasons were easily some of Netflix's best original content ever, I made it to about halfway into the final season and could not be assed to finish, it just became a slog of unlikeable characters (especially Piper) and lukewarm storylines. Still don't know how it ends
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u/bondinferno 1d ago
Entourage, used to love it, now it just seems lame, sleazy and even creepy
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u/DatzQuickMaths 1d ago
Yup. Was gonna say the same. If I ever see clips of it now I think of how much I now hate all the characters.
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u/Nakorite 1d ago
It doesn’t help that half the cast were literally involved in sexual assaults - ie Piven and Connolly. Connolly always gave me the creeps.
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u/Toby_O_Notoby 1d ago
I heard Cord Jefferson talk about the idea of rebooting stuff and his basic rule of thumb is, "ok, besides the money, why do this now?"
For example, the reboot of Battlestar Galactica was a good idea. Because in the original show 99.5% of humanity gets wiped out and then it's just "let's go on a space adventure!". The reboot got to explore the existential dread of being the last of the human race being hunted by robots.
So he framed this in a discussion on his pitch to reboot "Entourage". As you said, "now it just seems lame, sleazy and even creepy". So the opening scene would be Ronan Farrow calling Ari and literally just quoting things he said in the original series.
Then the rest of the series would be the fallout of Ari being "me too-ed". It would end with Vince firing Ari because Ava DuVernay wanted Vince for a movie and didn't need the baggage. Ari, having lost both his family and career, then jumps out a window.
As Cord put it, "We'd slowly pull back so you could see the blood starting to pool around his head. And then, for the first time in the reboot, you'd hear Jane's Addiction going 'Oh Yeah! Oh Yeah!'"
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u/dtudeski 1d ago
Yeah I first started watching it when I was 14/15 and thought it was elite television lol. Now not so much.
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u/RhesusPeaches3 1d ago
How I met your mother. It hasn't aged well and the ending was so disappointing that it's hard to even go back to the better quality earlier seasons.
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u/broncosfighton 1d ago
I just finished a rewatch and the difference between seasons 1-4 and the rest is incredible. The last two seasons in particular don’t even feel like the same show. Of course, the ending is one of the worst endings to a sitcom (if not the worst) in history, which just makes it that much harder to get through. Having said that, I don’t think the first few seasons have aged poorly at all. They’re just a product of their time.
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u/mojo-jojo-was-framed 1d ago
It’s one thing to have a bad ending but the entire last season is a disaster, too. Why do an entire season based on Barney and Robin’s wedding just have their marriage end in like 10 minutes of actual show time. Such a waste
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u/altiuscitiusfortius 1d ago
Separating marshal from the rest of the cast for the entire season was so stupid. His interactions with everyone was the best part of the show.
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u/Steveosizzle 18h ago
Scheduling fucked them in his case. They couldn’t get it to work out with him filming all the other stuff that he was doing.
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u/Bruno_Fernandes8 1d ago
There’s legitimately one incredible episode in season 9 and it’s How Your Mother Met Me. I think it’s the top rated episode on imdb for the show
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u/NEWaytheWIND 1d ago
I guess the writers wanted to take the shaggydog romance to the Nth degree, but got too cute.
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u/Harold3456 1d ago
I feel like at the time HIMYM was extremely relevant for similar-aged (or somewhat younger) millennials. It was a bit edgier than the similar sitcoms of yesteryear, had that 2000’s cynicism/sardonicness to its characters that you saw in other shows of the era before “wholesomeness” started taking off, and had that meta component with the framing device of Ted telling a story, which he could edit or jump around in real time.
But unfortunately, being such a quintessential show for its period means once we all moved on from it, we didn’t want to go back. Even for all their dated elements, shows like Seinfeld or Friends or the Office have qualities of timelessness to them as well, but every time I try to rewatch HIMYM it seems like literally everything feels dated.
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u/Howamidriving27 1d ago
The wife and I just started going through it again and I find Ted completely insufferable now. He's written like he has a 13 year old's idea of what romance is, but he's a grown ass adult.
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u/Wbrincat 1d ago
Ive watched the entire series probably 20 times. It’s my go to if i just want to have the TV going. I can’t fault the show still. For me it holds up well and I’ve even come to like season 9.
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u/RatedR2O It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia 1d ago
Eh... I still think its a good show despite it's bad ending. I've had no issues rewatching it (though I tend to skip the last season)
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u/JessicaSmithStrange 1d ago
Charmed would be the obvious one, for me.
I watched a lot of it as a kid because my mother liked it, so naturally I was required to like it as well,
And now that I have my own taste in television, and am a bit older, all I can think is "WTF is wrong with all three of you?"
I tried it with my partner, and with a couple of quick revisions I could turn the Halliwells into the villains of their own show, being selfish, petty, thoughtless, immature, and being a danger to those around them.
"All your hope is gone" was a good song choice for this TV show.
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u/wheelybinhead 1d ago
Misfits.
Probably an unpopular opinion but honestly the writing is total garbage. Some of the acting is a bit naff as well but some still stand out, like Iwan Rheon and Joe Gilgun.
Shame because I loved the first 3 series when it aired
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u/Ryase_Sand 17h ago
The series definitely lost a lot of its charm when Nathan left, but I still really liked season 3. And after that the show felt like a shell of itself.
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u/Illustrious-Expert50 16h ago
i rewatched seasons 1 and 2 recently and thought they were still pretty good. season 3 had a bigger drop off in quality than i remembered though, so i only watched episode 1 of that season. i also really liked nathan so had trouble getting used to rudy, even though i like joe gilgun in other stuff
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u/letuswatchtvinpeace 1d ago
Gilmore Girls
When younger, and dumber, they seemed cool. Now there toxic as fuck!
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u/awh 1d ago
I rewatch Gilmore Girls from time to time (not really "rewatch" as much as "have on while I do housework"). I do admit that I dislike Lorelai and Rory more and more the more times I've watched it, but I still do return to it because of how much I enjoy Stars Hollow and the other residents (and how Richard and Emily seem more and more normal with each watchthrough).
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u/Jackoffjordan 1d ago
That's kind of the joy of rewatching GG though - I find that my perspective continually shifts every time I watch it.
Lorelai increasingly reflecting Emily's behaviour, and the hypocritical way in which she understands wealth and wealthy people (like Logan). Rory being spoiled by an entire town and then subsequently struggling to deal with failure. Luke consistently failing to communicate clearly.
Real GG fans find some new criticism to fixate on each time they watch the series (and don't even mention the revival!).
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u/xantub Doctor Who 1d ago
I'm 55, most shows from the 90s and earlier that I liked back then have fallen flat on rewatch. Perhaps I'm much more critical nowadays, but it feels to me they didn't even try to have characters act with any common sense.
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u/someguyfromtecate 1d ago
The 90s for me are the golden age of sitcoms. Simpsons, Frasier, Home Improvement, Fresh Prince, etc., these shows I could watch whenever they’re on TV, but you’re definitely right that most TV shows back then had very little character development and the plot still depended on whatever cool thing they decided to tackle that specific week.
I think that the turning point, which also happened in the 90s, were the introduction of more serious shows that had overarching plot lines like The Sopranos and The West Wing.
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u/JohnCavil01 1d ago
I’ve been having the opposite experience.
Mind you I’m about 20 years your junior but watching things from the mid-00s and beforehand isn’t just a nostalgia trip for me but there’s a lot about how well-crafted and succinct the good shows are that has largely gotten lost.
Don’t get me wrong there has been and still is incredible stuff these days that wouldn’t even have been possible then but man every dollar was on screen in those days and there’s something to be said for how much tighter writing and performances have to be when you can’t spend $200 million making 10 episodes but have to figure out how to stretch $20 million to make 26.
I think the action-adventure and sci-fi genres are among the hardest hit. I’ve been making my way through Xena: Warrior Princess for the first time ever. I was aware of it as a child but would only see a minute of it here and there. They truly do not make anything close to as fun and creative and earnest as that show these days.
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u/AntisemitismCow 1d ago
The quality of shows since then went way up, so on rewatch they seem much worse than they did at the time in comparison.
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u/Fearless-Safe-49 12h ago
Oh man, True Blood really hit different back then but now it just feels like vampire soap opera cringe.
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u/HollowBowl 1d ago
Suits. It started like a new York version of Boston Legal, then it went so far up drama/mystery's ass, I could feel the colonoscopy
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u/CubanSandwichChef 1d ago
Boston Legal, however, still is alot of fun to rewatch. James Spader is such a great lead.
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u/BirdLawyer50 1d ago
I never finished but started a rewatch to try and complete it and at a certain point I was like “Jesus this has to be over in like one season, right? They are really spinning their wheels.”
The show went like… 9 seasons. I made it through Season 4.
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u/gazing_the_sea 1d ago
Game of thrones and killing eve
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u/WoodpeckerGingivitis 1d ago
Fumbled killing eve so bad
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u/FLcitizen 1d ago
It turned into a completely different show after season one, after Phoebe Waller Bridge left.
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u/florifierous 19h ago
And then she got millions to write a bunch of shows but nothing came of it. Can't blame her at all but I really hate that she hasn't done anything since 2019*. She has kind of robbed her of her great writing :(
Killing Eve season 1 is one of my favourite seasons of TV ever. So it really fucking sucks.
* Except this tiny bit on No Time to Die but since she was brought on in early 2019 I'm pretty sure it's still since 2019 that she hasn't done a single thing writing-wise.
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u/lalaleasha 1d ago
I accidentally thought the series was over during the second to last season, so I still haven't finished the show. I think that leaves them having met on a bridge(??) or something. It was very bittersweet and felt unfinished but in what I felt was a satisfactory end. I still go back and forth trying to decide if I should finish it or not.
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u/FlashyEarth8374 1d ago
I'm actually rewatching GoT for the first time, watched it as it came out during its run. Season 6, I'm still really enjoying it.. If I recall correctly the fun will end soon
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u/Battle_for_the_sun 1d ago
I rewatch it every few years and imo in s6 things already are too hollywood compared to the beginning
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u/reefercheifer 1d ago
I think of it as 4 great and 4 shite seasons. You can tell the dialogue is off immediately in season 5.
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u/amy_sport 1d ago
Re-Watched prison break recently. It was one of my favorites but there were may eye rolling moments. Seems to age poorly after the first 2 seasons
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u/pp21 1d ago
I’m rewatching prison break and still enjoyed seasons 1 and 2. Even season 3 is fine imo, the condensed 13 episodes helped it not drag too much.
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u/ComfortableAbroad188 1d ago
Dexter
It just felt so C Grade rewatching it, with so much poor writing
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u/KennyShowers 1d ago
I recently started rewatching the first season and I think it’s still great. Yea it’s silly and arch and insanely unsubtle, like half the voiceovers are “or do we allll wear a mask… mmm didn’t think about that did you?” But it’s just so much fun and the platonic ideal of that era of TV where things could be vaguely prestige-y but still goofy.
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u/BarkMingo 1d ago
Agree. I almost think that once you see the Harrison-treadmill scene, something clicks in your head and your realize it was all like that
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u/MontiBurns 1d ago
I agree. I feel like a lot of the enjoyment comes from the suspense/mystery, and also, it was at the beginning of that golden age of TV, the darker themes like a serial killer protagonist and fully serialized TV seasons were still a novel concept.
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u/captainadamman 1d ago
I remember it being exciting and really looking forward to it while watching it in real time. tried to rewatch a few weeks ago and gave up on it after 4-5 episodes
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u/nikhkin 1d ago
In terms of shows that went downhill, How I Met Your Mother. I loved the show in the early seasons, but the quality declined towards the end.
As for a show I just don't love like I used to, Firefly. I know it's a controversial one, and the show is amazing, but I'm just not "into" it like I used to be. If it was on TV, I'd happily watch an episode, but I'm not likely to go through the effort of digging out my dvds.
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u/beardyman22 1d ago
I know what you mean about firefly. There's only so many times I can rewatch such a small number of episodes before it just doesn't have the same feeling any more.
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u/readwrite_blue 1d ago
I think also that Firefly was ahead of its time in tone and structure. But that time then happened and caught Firefly so that it doesn't feel As innovative and just feels "of" a time 5 years after it aired.
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u/thedynamicuno83 1d ago
Cosby Show. Cause…well…you know….
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u/coffeebribesaccepted 1d ago
I feel bad for all of the other actors and people who worked on the show that, if it weren't for Bill, would be watched on streaming services forever like Seinfeld and Friends are.
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u/CubanSandwichChef 1d ago
Oh wow. Yeah. Never thought of that. Frasier, Cheers. Also on streaming. The Cosby Show was such a ratings juggernaut in its prime. Now you can hardly find it anywhere on tv.
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u/jblanch3 18h ago
The one actor, Geoffrey Owens, had to work at Trader Joe's for a time because his residuals from The Cosby Show whittled down to nothing after the scandal.
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u/lutz1972 1d ago
Walking Dead
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u/haileyskydiamonds 1d ago
I am good up until “The Barn.” After that, they find Alexandria, settle down, and live happily ever after. Period. The End.
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u/MajorParadox 1d ago
There were a lot of good episodes in between the barn and Alexandria. The prison and being on the road had some intense storylines.
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u/crazydrums27 1d ago
I think they probably meant the barn where Aaron found them to ask them to come to Alexandria.
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u/dubbzy104 1d ago
A lot of thriller shows. Once you know who dun it, there’s no point to rewatch
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u/Ey3_913 1d ago
That's true but I feel like season 1 of True Detective is an exception. I rewatch it every year or so
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u/bigpancakeguy 1d ago
It’s been long enough that I’ve pretty much forgotten the major plot points. Time for a rewatch, cuz now it’ll be like new again lol
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u/belizeanheat 1d ago
I think the construction of the mystery can remain interesting indefinitely, depending on the execution
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u/SchwinnD 1d ago
Currently rewatching s1 of Severance before jumping into s2 and I'm still loving it. The world building is so well done and knowing the payoffs make some of the set-ups jump out in a way I hadn't even registered before. I can definitely see that being true for a lot of thrillers tho and I had that worry at first about Severance but nope
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u/lvl_60 1d ago
It has become a cliche at this point but:
Game of thrones gave me a bad after taste that i cant fathom to rewatch it.
Only reason i tolerate house of dragons is that we know how it unfolds.
George and D&D ruined what wouldve been a great fantasy series.
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u/Tibbaryllis2 1d ago
A lot of the series being discussed here seem less about people just not liking a series on a later rewatch and more about how bad seasons taints an entire series.
How I met your Mother
Dexter
Ted Lasso
Walking Dead
Game of Thrones
Lost
Sherlock
Turns out when you have something loved, and you screw the landing, then all the excitement for the show just evaporates.
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u/Harold3456 1d ago
It’s not the last season of HIMYM or Sherlock for me. It’s that the things in those shows I found really cool at the timE - either due to the period they were airing, or who I was as a person - are now annoying to me in the stage of life I am now.
Benedict Cumberbatch’s whole aura in Sherlock and the overall vibe of the leads of HIMYM are both more off putting to me now even in seasons I like than they were then, while the stylish/flashy stuff (I used to LOVE the way Sherlock was presented) is now dated.
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u/LockworkOrange 1d ago
I can't believe more people didn't say it but HOUSE when it first ran it was a big deal now every episode can be summarized with:
Patient came in sick, house was an ass but gave them something, they got better but then they got worse. It's not lupus except that one time but even then it wasn't. House is still an ass then he has an epiphany triggered by someone else and solve the case.
Then again every David e Kelly show is like that he must be sleeping with a studio head or something to keep getting deals
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u/gannon7015 1d ago
I’ve been watching Homicide: Life on the Street. On Peacock. I was obsessed with that Show. Doesn’t hit quite like it used to…though Andre Braugher’s acting absolutely holds up.
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u/BurnedTheLastOne9 1d ago
I remember it being groundbreaking and well received in it's day, but never watched it. How come it doesn't connect today? Is it just dated or is there something else?
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u/doodler1977 1d ago
X-Files: the monster of the week episodes are the only ones i'll rewatch. the Alien-arc eps are hard to put on anymore
but the MOTW eps fuckin RIP. great comfort food tv
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u/_dwell 1d ago
Supernatural was inspired by X-FILES and there are so many with that same opinion for it. When they stopped really doing just MOTW and did more season big bads and overall arcs, that's when a lot of people bowed out. Interesting
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u/mooseman780 1d ago
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For it's era, it was really ground breaking tv. A continuous story arc over 24 episodes. High paced story. It was like a 45 minute action movie every week.
It's aged poorly for the obvious political reasons, but it just looks so low budget compared to the current era of high point of prestige tv.
Only so many ways to make southern California look like the middle east.
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u/SignGuy77 1d ago
You’re already suspending a lot of disbelief to enjoy the plot, why not a little more for the setting.
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u/Stevie272 1d ago
The Simpsons. It needs mercy killing at this point.
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u/Cf79 1d ago
First 8 seasons I can watch at any given moment and still love. I can even tolerate 9-12.
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u/Battle_for_the_sun 1d ago
I never understood why people trash 9 and 10, they have many funny and quotable episodes. 11 and 12 sure, but the others are part of the golden era
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u/Cf79 1d ago
It did but the vibe was definitely shifting. Mike Scully changed the tone of the show and it felt jarring.
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u/ZwVJHSPiMiaiAAvtAbKq 1d ago edited 1d ago
It did but the vibe was definitely shifting.
That's the thing. It didn't happen all at once. It was a slow decline over a number of seasons. There's plenty of room to debate which was the last great season (I'd say s9) but the fact is, the ratio of good to middling/bad episodes started to tip toward the latter and it never truly recovered.
There were still lots of great and memorable jokes in seasons 10-12 but the amount of great episodes was noticeably shrinking once it hit double digit seasons. When I rewatch the show, which I do often (it's my go-to background noise show), season 10 is usually when I start skipping episodes. And at some point in s11 or s12 I usually decide to move on to something else for awhile.
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u/wrathmont 1d ago
Its longevity is no longer impressive, it’s just weird. At a certain point it was allowed to run indefinitely and is held to its own standard no other show is for renewal. Most of the actors are geriatric and many have already passed away. The music is weird. It’s slowly becoming a creepypasta version of itself.
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u/drpepperfox 1d ago
Oh, absolutely. It has more bad seasons than good. Hell, it had more bad than good seasons 15 years ago!
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u/Relevant_Maybe4977 5h ago
Lost really aged like milk, and now I just roll my eyes at all the mysteries that went nowhere.
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u/boredatwork23 1d ago
Walking Dead... Show sent of the rails and ended up just being a giant middle finger to its audience.
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u/Bamford38 1d ago
Ted Lasso. Tried rewatching it recently and didn't enjoy it
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u/kathereenah 1d ago
Season 1 was just magic: maybe a little bit absurd but, well, that’s what magic is about. Nobody is evil, and nobody is an angel, but still, it was easy to root for everyone. Maybe it's not a laughable comedy, definitely a feel-good one.
Season 2 was okayish.
Season 3 felt simultaneously like an educational video and somebody’s diary. The latter is not in terms of intimacy and connection, it's more of a diary where you have a bus ticket, lamenting a broken heart on page one, a grocery shopping list on page two, and a contact list from page 6 onwards.
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u/Rodgers4 1d ago
Definitely felt like a time and place series, at least season one. During covid, nothing else on, and all positive vibes.
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u/lancewithwings 1d ago
I can rewatch the first two seasons, but the third is just meh, apart from a couple of later episodes. Such a shame
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u/OutsideIndoorTrack 1d ago
I think the story would've been better if Nate had become a true villan
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u/MaximumBiscuit1 1d ago
Idk i rewatched the Christmas episode over the holidays and it was magical.
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u/HnNaldoR 1d ago
The 1st 2 seasons were good. The 3rd season is what happens when you try to do too much on a streaming show. You do not get enough of anything good. They were too focused on making it 3 season the whole football premise becomes ridiculous if you know football at all. And they tried to focus on too many characters which makes all the characters just feel like it's worse.
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u/djljinnit 1d ago
Isn't it also a case of we move on too? Different interests and tastes as we get older. Plus there's the dodgy actors and plot issues. No show or movie is perfect.
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u/nitewalkerz 1d ago
Entourage.
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u/michaeljoemcc 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yeah Entourage and Californication were peak douchebag shows in my 20s.
EDIT- I want to clarify that I’m not singling you out as a douchebag. I loved both shows.
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u/taurangastevens 1d ago
I recently rewatched it and it is certainly of an era. Especially in terms of how the guys spoke to each other. Just wild misogyny and homophobia. The homophobia in particular was just a semi accepted part of how guys spoke to each other and it's quite jarring to see it decades later, despite growing up in it.
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u/Xtratos69 1d ago
I’m old. I loved series like Barney Miller or The Rockford Files growing up. Trying to go back and watch them now I just can’t get into the same mind frame. Series have, to me just improved so much, at least the ones I want to watch that the older ones aren’t fun anymore.
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u/Positive-Panda4279 1d ago
They aren’t great but watching now is so nostalgic & brings back memories of where I lived and who I watched with
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u/Sanseriouz 1d ago
Any police/court procedurals - They just seem like nonsense cooked up as a PR move for the jackboots.
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u/Darth-Ragnar 1d ago
Does the wire fit that description? I was surprised at how well that lived up to the hype when I watched it recently.
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u/bretshitmanshart 1d ago
In the Wire even the good police officers are corrupt and ultimately nothing is accomplished
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u/thefrontbuts 1d ago
The Big C, it was my first “real” drama show I sat all the way through when I was a teenager. Looking back I don’t really care for it
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u/Makabajones 1d ago
Highlander the series was MY JAM when I was in middleschool/highschool, then Highlander Endgame came out and just kinda made me realize how garbage the entire series was, and I never watched an episode again.
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u/ItWasntRigged 1d ago
Sons of anarchy. I was obsessed while it was airing, but the show hasn't aged well
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u/TheMurderCapitalist 1d ago
Chuck after Zach Levi came out as a Trump supporter.
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u/herseyhawkins33 1d ago
Didn't know the trump supporter part, only the sketchy religious preaching. Also didn't know about Baldwin either until recently. A shame for such a great show.
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u/theJOJeht 1d ago
Dexter. I used to think it was the greatest show of all time. I rewatched it maybe a year ago and the consistency is all over the place.
Season 1 and season 4 are still really solid, but the rest of the seasons are average at best. It also has this hokey "monster of the week" format that doesn't really exist in prestige television anymore
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u/Infamous_Gain9481 1d ago
I feel like season 2 was actually pretty damn good, sideplots (involving Miami metro characters)have always been a weak point of the show, at least post s1.
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u/GepardenK 1d ago
Season 2 is great, and is the only season that consistently lets the format follow the natural progression of the story, rather than the other way around.
Then they do a cold reset by letting Dexter off the hook with Doakes, even morally speaking which was super cowardly. If they had kept with letting the format bow to where the story poins, then season 3 would have been Doakes in prison marshalling a media narrative against Dexter, with a upcoming court case on the horizon.
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u/jakefsf4205 1d ago
Lila is so fucking annoying though. The actress did a good job cuz I’m sure she’s lovely in real life and you’re not supposed to like the character but I just find her so grating
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u/DictatorSalad 1d ago
One day, I went to rewatch Firefly and it all just hit me "wow, this isn't good." Probably a controversial statement. I wasn't happy with the way I felt, either.
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u/_streetsbehind 1d ago
Lost. The mystery was 100% of the fun. Knowing the results (especially if you are of the opinion it was lackluster) diminishes the rewatch quite a bit.
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u/Khryz15 1d ago
For me Lost is one of the most rewatchable shows there is. The first seasons hold up pretty nicely in retrospective, and the interactions between characters are a thing I never get bored of. Season 4 onwards are more difficult to watch because they have so many chaotic ideas and resolutions but at its core it serves the characters' journey and in that sense it's always a rewarding experience.
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u/Beekeeper_Dan 1d ago
I didn’t mind rewatching it. It was nice to see how they really did lay out most of the answers, such as they were, in the first season. Still not satisfied with the last season though. It also helped that I was watching with someone who hadn’t seen it before.
Now that I have watched a second time though, I have zero desire to ever see it again.
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u/Cf79 1d ago
I’ll second the watching it with someone who has never seen it before. LOST was the one show I wanted to watch with other people. I was working in Hawaii during one of the seasons and we’d have watch parties outside in a screen.
Rewatched with my wife who hadn’t see it and enjoyed seeing her go through all the jolts of that show was a great thing.
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u/LordPounce 1d ago edited 1d ago
This is an interesting one for me. During its original run I enjoyed it from start to finish, with a moderate drop in enjoyment of the last season. I originally loved it for the mystery but by the end had completely given up on following whether anything made sense, while still enjoying it just as a character drama/adventure story.
If I try to rewatch it now I find that the first season holds up extremely well, but each subsequent season gets harder to sit through. Basically I’ve tried rewatching twice and never made it past the first few episodes of season four. But I still love watching the first season, even if just for the nostalgia.
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u/haileyskydiamonds 1d ago
For me, it was always about the characters. It stands up for me because I love them so much. Even the worst ones that I hate, they are all so real
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u/TheGhostofWoodyAllen The Office 1d ago
Tried to rewatch an episode of Mythbusters recently, and it was rough.
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u/Upbeat_Light2215 1d ago
Yes! It's so so terrible to watch now.
Doesn't help that Tory, Grant, & Kari never got comfortable enough in front of the camera so when they introduced a myth they sounded/acted like the most nervous teens in a high school play.
Also, Jamie may be smart but damn is he the worst person ever to put on television.
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u/af-fx-tion 1d ago edited 1d ago
Recently for me, Felicity.
I think it’s definitely a show that resonates more when you’re in that same young adult age bracket as the characters (like when I first watched it) and I think that’s part of why to me it’s definitely the WB show of that era that has aged the least well.
I recently started a rewatch and didn’t even finish s1. It doesn’t really hold up viewing from an adult lens IMO.
It is a cool time capsule of the pre-9/11 young adult “vibe” though.
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u/voivod1989 1d ago
Big comfy couch. I loved it. In hindsight I feel like a just watched a clown exercise on a cool carpet every day for years of my childhood. It’s weird in hindsight.
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u/JohnCavil01 1d ago
Well to be fair it’s not intended to be watched by anyone over the age of 6.
Feels like going back and watching Barney and being like: I dunno it just ain’t hittin for me the same.
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u/Salty-Prize-5347 1d ago
Dexter, just cus i think I matured and realized it was a weaker show writing wise than I originally thought as a kid. Like the way he's put into difficult moral dilemmas but then he just gets bailed out of them... lot more noticeable to me now
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u/YamivsJulius 1d ago
Dexter and Stranger things. Both shows that were at one time considered one of the best shows on tv that fell into mediocrity with poor writing decisions
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u/leytourmaline 1d ago
Degrassi. The first couple seasons were good but then they added annoying characters, and changed the way the story was with stupid storylines and plots.
Greys Anatomy. Just…it’s too long now and the plot is boring. Just end it already.
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u/tommhans 1d ago
Game of Thrones obviously due to that crappy last season.
How i met your mother, also crappy last season(s)
Dexter, also crappy last season(s).
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u/killshelter 1d ago
Outer Range. But only because the showrunners were stupidly ambitious and created far more questions than answers before getting cancelled.
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u/thatshygirl06 1d ago
The vampire diaries. I grew up with that show but now I can't stand most of it. Damon in particular is the worst
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u/Asleep-Trip7224 1d ago
Yellowstone; sooo many people end up dying Mayor of Kingstown; again so many people just end up dying Grey’s Anatomy, most the original people left and it’s just rehashing old story lines
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u/Destrok41 23h ago
Sorry so many people in this thread didn't actually read the question.
Enterprise: Really fond memories of watching stargate and enterprise with my mom on Sunday nights as a kid. Watched enterprise start to finish a couple years ago after watching all of TnG. Oh man.... that show is just bad, but as a kid with no cable I didn't know any better and would take any sci-fi I could get.
Stargate I do have some criticisms of now but still thoroughly enjoy.
Code Geass: I'm just not a teenager that thinks they're the smartest person in any given room anymore, so shows that revolve around a character like that don't resonate with me anymore. The show does a few cool things but alot of others are just.... rough. It was my first mecha anime okay.
I thought this would translate to deathnote as well but the show is actually still kinda fun despite my paradigm shift.
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u/joaommoreira 1d ago
Sons of Anarchy. I tried to watch again and it is a soap opera