After hearing that the Hulu boss is wanting TEN SEASONS of The Handmaid’s Tale, it made me question do I quit while I’m ahead or go the whole hog? Beyond the misery, it is a really great series but I do question the logistics of another 8 seasons!

 

I rarely like to stop watching TV series, I feel as though I need to watch the story play out in full if I have decided to commit to a show. It can often mean I’m stuck watching a series like Rellik where I’m counting down the minutes/episodes because it didn’t live up to the hype I initially had for it. I did learn a tiny lesson as I remember not watching past the first episode of Hard Sun after hearing bad reviews and not being totally enthused by the first episode. However, that’s the only recent show I can think of quitting of the top of my head! I’m even still sticking to The Walking Dead after a love/hate relationship with it (just finished Season 7!)

 

Sooo how often do you quit watching a series you’ve started?

 

Do you like to test shows out and continue with ones you’ve enjoyed or do you like to commit to the whole thing every time?

I quit shows pretty often tbh, but not usually when I’m midway through/a few seasons in, moreso I’m very quick to drop shows that I’m not feeling after the first few episodes, a bit too quick tbh, there’s a few shows that I’ve come back to after giving up after an episode or 2 that I’ve come round to really love, like sense8, so I do really need to try and give shows a better chance tbh. However, if I’m already a few seasons in, a lot of the time I’ll just slug it out and finish it for the sake of completeness, like with Teen Wolf, I began getting very tired of it after about season 3, but I just couldn’t bring myself to give it up so I just slugged through it :/

I don't think I've ever finished a series yet.

Do NOT give up on The Handmaid's Tale!! It's waaaay too good.

 

I'm so stubborn, if it starts to get boring or the writing / general idea gets lazy then I'll jump ship. I was obsessed with the first series of 13 Reasons Why but haven't got past the third episode of the second series! :lol:

Either real life gets in the way or I’m just too lazy. I think for Jeff’s reasons combined with those two that I already listed that I end up not finishing most shows. Quantico/Lucifer/The Gifted have suffered this fate as well as to a lesser extent MacGyver and Riverdale. The only two shows I’ve actually managed to watch religiously since Teen wolf ended (that aren’t reality TV) are Chicago Med and 13 Reasons Why. Then there’s stuff like Naruto which then it’s like why bother.

 

Thankfully uni is over for me so here’s to a new life for TV!

I quit The a walking Dead after six seasons as it got far too gory and I couldn’t bare looking at the screen for a large proportion of the season seven episodes so I gave up

 

Also I stopped watching Eastenders, Hollyoaks, Corrie and Emmerdale as I got sick of soaps basically.

 

Also I haven’t seen big brother for a while if that counts

I hate giving up on series as I don't like leaving things unfinished so I do try and persist no matter how bad it gets just to say I finished it and I don't miss it actually getting good, this was almost the case with Breaking Bad so there is case to stick with it :kink: That said, beyond five or six seasons and it often gets a drag. I haven't seen The Walking Dead since the start of series 7 when I've been drifting from it for ages and it's really not giving me much cause to go back so that may be one I leave, shame as I generally loved the first five seasons :(

 

It sometimes depends on whether I can dip in and out of it a lot, like I really wanna finish the X Files despite how long it is but I have discovered a lot of filler so I think I may be selective when I get back to it. Friends also wasn't really a problem but when they were repeated ad nauseum on E4 and were so easy to watch, it wasn't really a problem.

 

How can they have ten seasons of The Handmaid's Tale :mellow: Now that is overkill (don't give up on it yet though, it's worth it!).

 

 

It's not often that I'll totally give up with something and make a conscious choice not to watch again. I did however do this with Hollyoaks around 2 years ago - I just wasn't enjoying it and I figured I could do something better at that time every night. Not looked back since.

 

I've drifted away from shows before though. It wasn't an active decision but for whatever reason, I ended up falling behind and never catching back up, like Waterloo Road near the end, or more recently, Riverdale. I've not ruled out more Riverdale at some point but I'm not motivated to watch the last few episodes really.

 

And there's the inbetween - 13 Reasons Why falls slap bang in the middle. I never intended to stop watching, I got about 4 episodes in and drifted away, but I've got absolutely no intention of returning now. I struggled with the concept ultimately and I don't really want to spend my time watching it.

 

Otherwise I'll generally stick with a show though, I rarely commit to shows that I'm not totally invested in anyway but even if a show ends up past its peak a few series in, there's generally SOMETHING to keep me watching!

I stop watching all the time, but have veeery few shows I like anyway.

 

I stopped Glee as it was pathetically bad, Heroes for the same reason, Hollyoaks for the same reason, and for being sexist, but stuck with Desperate Housewives, even through the ... awkward seasons. As soon as a series looks like it is losing its way, or just generally crap, I will stop. I stopped Doctor Who and only restarted properly with the last, excellent season.

I do lose motivation to watch things quite a lot, if it just gets a bit boring or jumps the shark or is generally awful, I don't tend to think that I want to tie up the story because I feel like it's a lot of time to waste in finishing it, which I could be using to watch better things. I guess as said that's not always a conscious decision, for me often it's just a case of having not much motivation and other things (being it getting busier or other shows cropping up) so I drift away and just don't bother finishing it.

it all really depends.. i find it's some shows that have big followings, trying to be 'artsy' and have really long, drawn-out episodes that i lose interest - westworld is a big example. i haven't even finished season 1.

that being said, my favourite show is law & order:svu & i've stuck with that for 20 seasons sooo..

Edited June 27, 20187 yr by ǝʎʞ

Anything with multiple seasons I'm going to need to care a lot about to make it all the way through. There's no set number, just some point I will feel it has jumped the shark and I will stop watching. Even for my more revered shows, they tend to have a quality drop in their final seasons. I don't like leaving things unfinished though so at the least I'll try to get to a season's end before giving up on something, which leaves me at a nice place in case I ever want to go back to it. And yes, if it's episodic I don't mind going in and out of it, arc shows, not so much.

 

This is actually another reason I like anime (and any show that sticks to the same sort of fast-paced philosophy), the shows are shorter and have less seasons, so I don't end up giving up things as much. Still given up a few 12-episode shows lately despite all that, sometimes it's just unavoidable.

 

That dopamine hit from starting something new is something I restrain myself from doing a bit so that it feels more special when I do it, and I don't give up as many shows. But if I do do it, there's a three-episode rule that I like to try to abide by before I consider myself committed. It's more of a habit I should get into more than something I actually do, but the premise is that if you're not enjoying it by the third episode, it's probably going to be a push to continue.

I have done this with so many shows, I don't mean to but if it becomes a chore to watch why should I bother?

 

Once Upon a Time - quit during season 4

The Vampire Diaries - season 4

Supernatural - season 11

Scandal - season 4

Jane the Virgin - season 2

Heroes - season 3

 

I always say I'll go back to them and I never do. I'm beginning to prefer shows with shorter seasons like Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Edited June 28, 20187 yr by No Sleeep

I've done so quite a few times! Mostly it's due to not making the time to continue them, because other newer shows took my attention away - not necessarily because I grew to dislike them. Off the top of my head: Desperate Housewives (I didn't see the final two seasons), and I didn't watch the final seasons of Ugly Betty, 30 Rock & Brothers and Sisters. I enjoyed them all, so it's a shame I didn't finish them off - and it's been years since I watched, so I feel like I'd find it difficult to get back into them... and I don't think I have the inclination to watch these from the beginning. (I guess 30 Rock would be the easiest one to dip back into).

 

When it comes to shows I chose to quit after getting quite far into it: Glee! I quit midway through Season 3. It was partly to do with E4 losing the rights to it (and I didn't have Sky), but also because my enjoyment of the series had decreased (after loving Season 1 and liking Season 2). Initially I tried to watch it online, but finding working links was a challenge, and that ended up feeling like a chore for a programme I wasn't loving anymore.

 

I've come so close to throwing in the towel with The Walking Dead, but I persisted to the end of Season 8. That definitely feels like an "I've come so far with it, I need to keep going", even though it's been ages since I genuinely enjoyed it. :drama:

Lost is the first to spring to mind for me. Adored season 1, was so bored after that I didn’t manage to finish season 2. The fact the script writers and producers were being quoted at the time as having no idea where it was going didn’t help either.

 

Yet I’m not consistent in my habits as Les Revenants was amazing in Season 1, incredibly boring in Season 2 but I somehow stuck with it.

Jay! Ugly Betty! Finish it!

 

That’s the only show I’ve ever watched twice all the way through.

:lol: I'll try my best then! I did love the first three seasons, and Wilhelmina was an icon *.* Oh my at it being almost 12 years since Season 1 premiered, it doesn't feel quite that long ago! :drama:

 

I was exactly the same re: Lost! I have a couple of friends who watched it all and absolutely loved it / say it's an all-time favourite, so I wonder whether I gave up too soon. I don't think I'll ever make time to try it again though.

I only watched the first season of Mr Robot because it got so dreary after a while I just lost interest. Most of the time I’d fall asleep mid episode and have to rewatch half of it so I just gave up. Riverdale & The Flash are others which lost my interest - they both just became so stupid and ridiculous I got sick of them way too easily. Riverdale was cheesy from the beginning but season 2 accelerated that, and then The Flash did what most DC tv shows did and got too complicated (and also pathetic) after a while

 

That said though I’ve never finished an episode of a show and thought “well f*** this I’m not watching anymore” :lol: I almost did that after Rita died in Dexter but I carried on watching despite it going downhill anyway.

 

Edit: oh also The Walking Dead I abandoned too, and Fear The Walking Dead. I gave up on TWD the season after Negan joined. It just became so stagnant and nothing ever happened

Edited June 28, 20187 yr by Dexton

I went very far with The Walking Dead, up to Season 7, but after that I came to realise the show wasn't going anywhere in particular, nearly everyone I cared about had been brutally killed off, often without any real impact on the story. Lost I persisted with a while but somewhere in Season 4 I felt like it was just a bit dull. Again, one of my favourite characters died shortly before that and I stopped caring about the show beyond that (despite them getting a fairly good death episode, it left the show feeling emptier with their absence).

 

It's a real lottery with character deaths, if they advance the story I'm great with them even if it's a character I love, if a show is 'safe' from characters dying it loses some of the tension, but do it wrong and the show will be missing something for no real benefit, often being a big factor in me quitting it. For TWD comparisons for the sake of argument, all with characters I liked

good deaths that added to the show: Merle, Herschel, bad deaths that took something away from the show: Tyreese, Abraham

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