Why do so many TV dramas start off well then degenerate into a wet fart?

[BuckyBarnesArm]

Latest is Close To Me. Ridiculous. The Tower also ended ridiculously.

DUPED into watching stuff with good first episodes and then FORCED to watch them through because I have no life til the soggy arsed end. Or am I just fussy?

Both of them were amazingly good, and didn't fizzle out or have characters playing against type to fit into a plot towards the end.

Mare was so good. We binged it in a couple of days (and late nights).

I think stories that are quite simple and relatable are what works for me. I could so relate to Mare and her personal trauma. Throw in a good script and good acting and you have a classic.

@ronfa

I really enjoyed the Queens Gambit.

The undoing with Hugh grant was very good

I thought the ending of the undoing was dreadful .

Well I have just watched the final episode of Angela Black and what an absolute pile of dog dirt.
I believe the 2 male leads were perhaps trying to win the title of Most Wooden Actor.
What crap it was.
I am never going to stick with anything again in the hope that it must get better.

@Onlinedilema

Well I have just watched the final episode of Angela Black and what an absolute pile of dog dirt. I believe the 2 male leads were perhaps trying to win the title of Most Wooden Actor. What crap it was. I am never going to stick with anything again in the hope that it must get better.

Just finished it here too. Pile of crap. Me and DH looked at each other said... 'what the fuck, is that it?'

I liked the ending to the BBC's Showtrial. Satisfying and maddening in equal measure.

I also just finished Showtrial and quite liked the ending

I've just finished close to me AND Angela black in the same evening. Pile of shit

@MaryAndGerryLivingInDerry

The quality of TV writing has absolutely plummeted in recent years. I found myself unable to watch anything on ITV several years ago other than the soaps. Now I can’t even watch them.

It's all sex sex sex now. Always a good barometer of a badly written show is endless sex scenes.

@BuckyBarnesArm

I really think they've just run out of ideas And YES, very much like school story writing, when you just couldn't be arsed finishing it.

Foreign dramas do seem better quality on the whole: agree Chestnut Man was good.

The high mark of TV was the 5-10 year period from the late 90s.

[quote DevilWaresPrada]@CrazyTimesAreOccurring
"That is why Line of Duty is so good, great writing all the way through"

Good god, the last series finale was the biggest damp squid in the history of damp squid.[/quote]
The last 2 series of Line of Duty were an absolute mess.

Totally agree OP. Angela Black was dire. Hollington Drive the same. The best dramas are on Walter Presents and are French, Scandi etc. They really know how to do a drama.

I have an actor friend who told me that people put loads of effort into the pilot/first episode but because so many get rejected the don't write beyond that. If it gets picked up they then have to write the rest of the episodes really quickly which is why they often decline.

I thought the ending of the undoing was dreadful .

The car chase bit?

Yes I really liked Mare, it's enjoyable just watching good acting/drama.

The worst ever for this was London Spy. Slow moving and intriguing and well acted at the start. Complete nonsense at the end. Also The Capture - very silly indeed.

Happy Valley and Unforgotten have not let me down yet - hope these continue.

Broadchurch had a somewhat dodgy second series but even then it had good moments so overall I thought it was excellent.

The last series of Line of Duty was crap compared to the first few

I watched three episodes of Close to Me on Saturday and the rest yesterday evening.

I only stuck with it because I wanted to see how it ended but I should have quit after episode 2. What a waste of hours that was! Awful!

Tonight I am going back to Outlaws, I've enjoyed that so far and I think I'm up to episode 5.

I've just finished Close To Me and while it was an okay premise, it was twice as long as it should've been and was just so poorly handled.

Chris Lang is the master imo, Unforgotten is his baby and is one of the only series that has never lost it and every episode is valuable and well written.

Was just coming on to say The Queen's Gambit and see that some pp agree. I watched about 4 episodes that were pretty much the same and full of very staged vignettes designed to show off the character's Beth's prettiness or kookiness. Lost patience and gave up.

Gave up on Vigil - silly, very silly, full of cliches.

I'm about to give up on the second series of Guilt. Really not sure I can be bothered to watch the final episode as infact this show is over-written and has too many storylines padding it out.

But am grateful to this thread for great ideas for what to actually watch! So cheers for that.

If it hadn't been Anya Taylor Joy in the queen's gambit I would have said her acting was really odd, I know she's a good actor so I gave it the benefit of the doubt.

The last series of Line of Duty was crap compared to the first few

The last two were a mess. Even Stephen Graham couldn't save the series before last.

I have never watched a single line of duty. It looked awful.

I keep looking for a series to binge watch and giving up after 2 episodes. Ridiculous drivel, bad acting and wooden characters....They're all Botox and bad wigs.