The Simpsons
Now in its 30th season, The Simpsons was once the best animated show in the world. What’s more surprising is that it managed to hold on to that title for many years, but the sad fact is that everyone’s favorite dysfunctional cartoon family are almost unrecognizable today.
While Fox churns out season after season, the actual content of those seasons has long since become tired and repetitive. It’s no surprise that the series in its current state has become known as “zombie Simpsons” in certain parts of the internet, a term coined by Dead Homer Society, a blog dedicated to the failings of the modern version of the series.
While The Simpsons in early seasons was known for its stellar writing, quick comedic chops and clever use of satire, the original writers responsible have since moved on and the show now has a completely different creative team than the one it started with.
This turnover has been decades in the making and what we’re eventually left with is a stale series that relies on outdated pop culture references, celebrity cameos, and gross out humor.
Some say the turning point was around Season 10, others say it didn’t start to get bad until Season 15. One thing’s certain about this new iteration of The Simpsons – while the animation quality gets better and better, what the TV series is really missing is a soul.
Family Guy
Unlike the Simpsons, Family Guy was never known for its sparkling wit or social commentary. Family Guy’s realm was that of zany, off-the-wall escapades and edgy, un-PC humor, accompanied by a healthy dose of fart jokes.
Despite numerous cancellations, the show managed to carve out a niche for itself as the kind of anti-Simpsons. While you couldn’t really argue that it was clever, the series proved to be a breath of fresh air for those bored with safe, predictable sitcoms.
The show’s growth in popularity gave rise to the cutaway style of humor that’s ubiquitous today and made creator Seth MacFarlane a household name. Family Guy is still on the air today, though the answer to why isn’t clear.
For a show that tried so hard to separate itself from The Simpsons, its fate ironically ended up being pretty much the same. Any originality behind the jokes has long since dried up as the series continues to crank out lifeless episodes to an increasingly cynical audience that isn’t fifteen anymore.
The Walking Dead
When it first aired back in 2010, The Walking Dead was the most gripping thing on TV. Based on the gritty comic book series by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore, it capitalized on the current zombie obsession in pop culture.
The series was a realistic(ish) depiction of a zombie apocalypse, and its huge ensemble cast meant that everyone had a favorite character. The show was ridiculously popular pretty much as soon as it aired, spawning a spinoff, webseries, and a bunch of games, including the successful Telltale game series.
But it’s been running for nine seasons now, with a tenth coming out in October. These past few seasons prove that the writers are trying their darnedest to keep audiences on their toes, be it through time jumps, plot twists, or killing off core cast members.
But the later seasons have begun to drag for some. Rick Grimes, the lead character of the series, also left during Season 9, which has turned out to be something of a bad omen.
Despite attempts to keep the audience invested, the amount of “When Will The Walking Dead Finally End?” articles online tell us that viewers are starting to feel the fatigue.
American Horror Story
Though each season in the anthology series is received a little differently, American Horror Story has become the backbone of modern horror TV.
The TV series was instantly a cult hit, with each season’s storyline combining chills with mounting tension, and has become known for its standout performances from the likes of Lady Gaga, Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, and James Cromwell.
While earlier seasons offered fresh, interesting takes on stock settings of the horror world, like the haunted house or the insane asylum, by Season 8 it’s clear they’re running out of ideas. The season, perhaps prophetically named Apocalypse, was a continuation of the first and third seasons’ plots, a hint that fresh material is getting thin on the ground.
We’ve got a ninth season on the way later this year and the series has been renewed for a tenth, set to air in 2020, so it’s obvious the series isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
One important thing to note about American Horror Story is that the series started long before the renaissance of horror movies we’ve seen over the past couple of years, with unique, powerful horror films like Get Out, Us, and Hereditary reinvigorating the genre.
Where AHS was once the bastion of horror watching, it now finds itself surpassed by film. This might be a good time for the series to bow out gracefully.
Arrested Development
Arrested Development belongs on this list not because it isn’t good, but because at this point it’s time to just let it go.
The show’s run plays out like an operatic tragedy. Plagued by low ratings and cancellations, if it had been allowed to run uninterrupted the series could have been as iconic as Seinfeld, Friends, or Always Sunny. But it was sadly not meant to be.
The series was canceled after its third season and only came back after a seven-year hiatus on Netflix in 2013, after which we heard nothing until its return again in 2018. With gaps of several years between seasons 3, 4, and 5, viewers get the immersion-breaking joy of seeing the characters age dramatically between seasons.
Over the years we also got to see the show‘s meaning and cultural references become diluted, with the wealthy, self-centered family archetype the series satirizes becoming less and less relevant.
Season 4’s wacky plot structure turned a lot of viewers off and when the cast finally came back together for Season 5, the second half of which was released this March on Netflix, it was too little too late.
So yes, Arrested Development is a good show, but we failed it. Now let it rest.
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