Series that start off good and fail over time?

[Guyver Spawn]

What where some series that you think where great at first but got worst over time. For me it would be:

Bleach
Inuyasha
Pokemon
The Simpsons
Power Rangers
Naruto

What about you?

[oOoOoOo]

I find this is essentially the problem of any series that wasn't written with an end in mind.

[Merridian]

X-Files, because the last few seasons were just so bad.
Star Trek Voyager took an interesting idea and soap-operaed it to death.
Highlander. The TV series was pretty good, but it started to fail around the later seasons. And as far as the movies went, they got worse the farther away from No. 1 they got. Except for the third one; it wasn't so bad.

If we're not just talking about TV, then I'll also mention the comic book series Cerebus. It didn't start off that strong, but by Vol. 2 it had begun to get REALLY in-depth. It stayed at a high bar of integrity up until its last two volumes, where it utterly and dismally fell flat on its face.

I'd also include Deathnote. I didn't really like it all that much to begin with, but I kept buying the manga because it entertained me. Then one of the main characters died, and instead of ending the series gracefully, the writer decided to pull a bunch of other characters (that hadn't even been so much as mentioned before) out of his ass and incorporate them into the plot BIG TIME. That's where I stopped reading; if it were a sit-com, that would have been the moment somebody got married, or had a kid, or got engaged to their multi-season long love interest. The series went from being okay mindless entertainment to being just plain dumb.

[roblucci01]

Bleach in my opinion improved quite a lot from a plot that just mimicked Yu Yu Hakusho to actually developing an original plot of its own. Actually, to be honest I think the series has gotten better as its progressed, the filler just makes it hard to enjoy, hence why I read the manga.

As for series that have started out good but went downhill, obviously Death Note would be included, but I would like to add the One Piece anime, mainly for the fact that, contrary to its manga counterpart, it has been infested with SO MUCH filler that the plot literally seems to be going NOWHERE.

The Godfather movie franchise went drastically downhill in the 3rd movie. The first two were badass, where the Third one just had a crumbling plot revolving around a weak, old, and once sinister mob boss. Horrible movie, boring as all hell, oh and BTW- Sofia Coppola's acting was beyond pitiful.

Another franchise that has gone downhill would probably be for me the Final Fantasy franchise, as the games nowadays strive to be stereotypical anime crap instead of what they were in the original Nintendo games- thrilling, plot driven RPG's set in the Medieval Ages. Ever since 7, I don't think I've truly really loved a Final Fantasy game.

Also this thread did not specify that it needs to be about shows and excludes games/ movies, so my reply should be a- okay amirite?

[Squirrel Ninja]

Fruits Basket: Still like it, but I'd like an ending more.

Fullmetal Alchemist:

SPOILER: Show

We get it. They're Nazis

Kare Kano: Best high school romance out there, but I hear endings are good.

Gankutsuou: You'll know it when you see it.

Akagi: We'll spare you any more redundant Mahjong.

Kaiji: You lost me at paper towels.

Clannad After Story:

SPOILER: Show

Just kidding, everyone's fine and sleeping in a park.

The first four (and parts of five) were good despite their flaws. The last three just inspire rage.

[Dartz]

Hellsing, the original TV series.

About the time it overtook the manga.

[Mr. Tines]

any series that wasn't written with an end in mind.

This.

But more finite projects like

Bokurano anime, which was a decent adaptation for about 4 episodes
Tytania which had a really Wow! first episode then spent increasing amount of times with the most boring of the characters (Fan Hulik and Shinji should compare notes some time)
Moyashimon which was fine while it was fun with fermentation, rather than fratboy larrikins

SPOILER: Show

Evangelion Rebuild -- it just has to be said

can also suffer the same sort of thing.

[backseatjesus]

Family Guy
Aqua Teen Hunger Force
American Dad(Hell, this show sucks period)

[Axell]

(someone will say evangelion in 3...2...1...)

[THE Hal E. Burton 9000]

IMO, the following:

Power Rangers, best example, up until the movie came out and threw it off-kilter (i.e. some of the original cast left, everything "looked" totally different with no explanation, etc.) and it became clear that it was all about the and moichindizing with Saban/Levy

The Simpsons, ran out of gas about 10 or 12 years ago and only recently more people have realized this

Bleach, DeathNote, Fullmetal Alchemist, no need to elaborate why for either here

X-Files, like I said before, best pilot for a show EVAR, but then with rare exception it sucked for the rest of its existence

Star Trek, as a whole franchise, lost steam at some point in the '90's when the Borg got rather "humanized", tag-teamed by Seven or the Borg Queen

admittedly this all in hindsight, much as it pains me to say this, showed how out of ideas Berman and crew were, I didn't realize how far gone it was until that sad little show Enterprise came on, worst Trek show EVAR IMO

hopefully Abrams has (pardon the pun) re-energized Trek as a whole and the 11th film wasn't a flash in the pan

SPOILER: Show

Evangelion Rebuild -- it just has to be said

oh, come on now!

SPOILER: Show

aren't we being a little premature in declaring Rebuild a dud?

srsly, this would be like saying after EoTV that "UGH! What a pile of crap! What a waste of airtime!" when there's a clip show of a movie and a somewhat more "complete" ending with EoE coming along after

you maybe right in the end though, but I'd keep your powder dry before it's clear this is some sick joke by Anno-sensei

[schismatics]

Outlaw Star had a pretty decent beginning...but the rest seemed to drag on and on...I mean those awesome bullets were hardly ever used in the show...and plus I thought the ending was kinda awkward.

[BattleMonkey]

Sadly it seems like I can name more anime that fall into this category than the other way around.

[Mr. Tines]

I whittled down the list by applying the "great at first" strictly. There's a lot that start merely average before plumbing the depths.

[scarmullet]

Stargate SG-1 and to an extension, Atlantis.

Any horror series with a killer that doesnt talk, and keeps comming back, a la Jason and Michael. At least comedic elements can be added to Freddy and Chuckie.

[Guyver Spawn]

Unicron Trilogy to me had a lot of good and bad moments, it was like one big mixed bag. The Starscream vs Galvatron battle, Uicron getting destroyed by a Mutiverse black hole, and Jungle City where rather awesome. The whole series had a lame ending and one-dimensional characters made me hate most of it.

Robots in Disguise to me was the last great Transformers cartoon which is not saying much since it was so short.

[Sammaeloo]

The Simpsons is well past its prime. It is trying to be too much like other shows nowadays.

[Joseph the PRPD]

Naruto
Power Rangers
Saw Movie Series

[TheAyanamiOtaku]

Soul Eater (anime). Good god. With Maka's short skirt, I could not believe that I did not see any pantsu shots. Actually, I don't think I saw any pantsu in general. Death the Kid's OCD (should I call his obsessive behavior that?) didn't make me laff, and Blair came off more oblivious than flirty. The action scenes felt dull if none of the parties used any sort of hax. and the ending pissed me off. the villain always has to lose...

Also, IMO, Desu Noto's ending felt very...rushed. I mean, at least Near should've explained his thoughts to the audience. Also, Near read Light wayy too easily for me to enjoy watching Light and Near/Mello dance. In most of the episodes, I just thought "okay I'll probably see Light in jail soon." Maybe Light made too many mistakes or something...

I whittled down the list be applying the "great at first" strictly. There's a lot that start merely average before plumbing the depths.

In that case...

Code. Geass. Seriously folks. The first few minutes were great (I did have my doubts with the frail-looking wheel-things on the Knightmare Frames, but that was soon waived when I saw the Lancelot. Pretty cool), but after that glasses girl fucks the corner of the table and LeDouche acquires his gayass, everything goes downhill from there. I'm trying to find the impetus to see the anime through, just because I don't really like quitting, in anything, really...

Although I did finish this anime,

ELFEN. LIED. jeez. I got all worked up in the opening music (that was powerful stuff), and the first episode's first few minutes, all for nothing. I think that series needed a much better director, writer, and better art direction. I really hated everyone's big eyes and happy voices. That's all I want to say before I start to asplode.

Hellsing, the original TV series.

About the time it overtook the manga.

The Hellsing manga isn't finished yet?

If we're talking about gamez, I was terribly disappointed with Warcraft III and the expansion pack. Most if not all of the character's personalities felt rather flat and uninteresting. I. HATED. ELVES. AND. THE DEMON THINGIES.

Starcraft was moderately better. The C&C Tiberian Conflict Series kept me much more interested, especially because of James Earl Jones. GET ME MCNEIL! Anyhoo, enough of win stuff.

Enterprise, the Star Trek series felt really cool until the episode: In A Mirror, Darkly. After that I started to get a little annoyed, and then schoolwork took over my time to watch Enterprise

Spawn. And before you strangle me to death, let me say the movie. The animated series kicked everyone's ass, including the movie version. I hated the movie's take on The Violator and Caglistro (sp?).

[THE Hal E. Burton 9000]

Code. Geass. Seriously folks. The first few minutes were great (I did have my doubts with the frail-looking wheel-things on the Knightmare Frames, but that was soon waived when I saw the Lancelot. Pretty cool), but after that glasses girl fucks the corner of the table and LeDouche acquires his gayass, everything goes downhill from there.

man oh man, I couldn't agree with you more I should have mentioned that earlier

that could've been pretty good if it was originally condensed into a movie, but they had to stretch it out and incorporate a bunch of unecessary stuff and they paid for big time

and since we're including video games ITT, there's probably a laundry list of games that were great on 2D, pre 32-bit systems but totally sucked when they tried to go 3D (Sonic, Duke Nukem anyone?) which I'll let you guys list the rest out

how about the Madden NFL game franchise, jeez what a waste, coming out ever year with a new game is just plain dumb

[GVman]

Death Note. Going for 108 chapters just 'cause you find the number symbolic doesn't mean it's a good idea.