(SPOILER below)

Agreed. And once the professor was gone, the show became unbearable. Quite sad, since this show was so great at the beginning.

absolutely agree with this. It went from being pretty history based and throught provoking to being movie parodies and rip offs didn't it.

It truly was. I loved the first season.

The reason that the first season was the best that it stuck to the original idea: What the world be like if one key thing was changed? What if women ran the Earth? What if Mexico was the wealthy neighbor and Canada the poor one? What if Enlightenment reforms never happened, or the discovery of antibiotics? What if another human species evolved?

Unfortunately, inspiration started slacking, and "other worlds" just ended up as an excuse for any stupid idea the writers had. A world with vampires. A world with zombies. A world with bike gangs. Etc.

What's worse, the producers apparently picked fights with most of the cast, with the result that characters kept leaving and other characters had to be introduced (with increasingly lame justifications) to replace them.

The first season was very good. Slowly they just kept slipping with each season. The concept was great. I just think they dropped the ball and it should've been a great series instead of just a solid one.

@manfromatlantis said:

the 1rst season is the best.

How many times does that happen to TV shows! Sometimes the second season is OK, but very few even make it that far. Why don't people understand that more, is not necessarily better?? And to stop while you're ahead!

@NZer said:

@manfromatlantis said:

the 1rst season is the best.

How many times does that happen to TV shows! Sometimes the second season is OK, but very few even make it that far. Why don't people understand that more, is not necessarily better?? And to stop while you're ahead!

Are you saying they should've just cancelled it after a season?

Not really...It's easy to be clever in hindsight. But surely, when they became aware of the feed back they were getting, they could have drawn it to a sensible conclusion. If every show finished after season 1 or 2 we would have missed out on some fine stuff. ---It's just the mindless churning out of crap for the sake of (what?) that is so frustrating.

Yeah but nobody sets out to make a bad show. They try to make it work. Sometimes you can have a bad season and come back strong on the next one. Or some shows are pretty mediocre in the first season and it takes them a season or two to really hit their stride.

So, I guess, you pays your money, and you takes your chance with everything that you watch , really. There's always the OFF switch. Having said that, - I am still watching The Walking Dead, -which has certainly had its highs and lows!!!

I think that most shows really don't get enough of a chance these days. Seems like if the ratings aren't through the roof from day 1 it gets canned. I've seen some really good shows get the plug pulled after a season. But then there's some shows that I don't think are very good get a full run. I felt this show had the potential though but never really lived up to it

I think it frequently happens that somebody gets a great idea for a show. They put it on, it turns out to be a hit, it gets renewed for a second season --- and then they don't know what to do. The concept may not be extensible to a new season, or they may have used up all their good ideas on the first season. But producers rarely want to admit that a limited run with a definite conclusion might be best for a story. On the contrary, they may leave a story deliberately unfinished and put out a "cliffhanger" (and then sometimes a show isn't renewed after a cliffhanger and fans are left with a bizarrely unfinished story.)

This seems to happen more in American television than British. A show like Upstairs and Downstairs will have a conclusive ending to a season -- the marriage of a main character, the death of the monarch, the end of the war. If viewers clamor for more, great. If not, the producers at least have at least produced a well-done story.

@CharlesTheBold said:

I think it frequently happens that somebody gets a great idea for a show. They put it on, it turns out to be a hit, it gets renewed for a second season --- and then they don't know what to do. The concept may not be extensible to a new season, or they may have used up all their good ideas on the first season. But producers rarely want to admit that a limited run with a definite conclusion might be best for a story. On the contrary, they may leave a story deliberately unfinished and put out a "cliffhanger" (and then sometimes a show isn't renewed after a cliffhanger and fans are left with a bizarrely unfinished story.)

This seems to happen more in American television than British. A show like Upstairs and Downstairs will have a conclusive ending to a season -- the marriage of a main character, the death of the monarch, the end of the war. If viewers clamor for more, great. If not, the producers at least have at least produced a well-done story.

I'm saying what you're saying. Thanks!

That happens frequently in music as well. A band spends years playing the same songs and perfecting their first album. Then there's nothing left in the tank for the 2nd album and they come up short

IMO season 2 is the best season. It also has the best theme. I put season one in second place. They did have a lot of changes what with what happened to the Professor, Wade and Quinn.