6 Shows That Have Overstayed Their Welcome

SPOILER ALERT

1. The Office

The pinnacle example of trying to keep a dying whale alive by futilely spraying water on its back. ‘The Office’ should have died when Steve Carell left. As it stands now, they’re just redoing Jim and Pam with Erin and Pete and then messing up Jim and Pam. Andy’s been turned into a wholly unlikeable psycho and Oscar’s sleeping with Angela’s husband? It all just reeks of desperation. I LOVE Catherine Tate, and I understand the impulse to keep the hit alive, but just put it out of its misery already. Introducing the sound guy proves there’s nothing more to be done with these characters. Let them go out with some dignity. Carell knew it.

2. How I Met Your Mother

‘How I Met Your Mother’ is one of those great sitcoms that you can binge-watch from about the first season to the third season before you start hating it. Okay maybe not hating it, but the good episodes start to become fewer and farther between. The last one I loved was the counting episode which used Lily and Marshall having a baby as a red herring for (SPOILER ALERT) Marshall’s father dying. Sometimes they have GREAT episodes but everything else feels really phoned in. No one cares who the mother is anymore and this story has been going on way too long. Shut it down.

3. Grey’s Anatomy

I used to be obsessed with ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and I still super admire Shonda Rhimes’ commitment to colorblind casting and her portrayal of female friendships. But! Good god, when I turn on the show now it’s unrecognizable. The only redeeming part is Callie and Arizona. Everything else has ceased to make sense because the show has gone — and continues to go on — way past its prime. It’s too soap opera-esque now and there’s too many new characters. Just make a new show Shonda Rhimes! You’re good enough to stop holding on to this revolving door of characters that don’t have anything cool left to do. Make new awesome stuff! Call a code blue on ‘Grey’s.’

4. Supernatural

Another show I desperately love. I think the concept, the actors, the soundtrack — it’s all awesome and wonderful. But I can’t help but wonder if the show’s totally jumped the shark. Maybe it should have ended when they lost Bobby? Not that I don’t love DJ Qualls. I don’t know. I like the show but at some point the fandom got too crazy and started to overshadow the plot of the series and now it just seems like they’re stretching it out because people on the internet are obsessed with Jensen and Jared, which is unfortunate. ‘Supernatural’ is a great show, but I think it’s time for it to move on to a better place. Castiel spin-off anyone?

5. Dexter

‘Dexter’ keeps promising to end and then getting renewed for another two seasons. It’s madness. I actually thought this season with Hannah McKay was the last one until someone else pointed out it wasn’t. It just seems so ready to end. And like all the shows above, I love ‘Dexter.’ I think it’s great, campy fun. But the storyline seems really wrapped up. (SPOILERS) Debra knows Dexter is a killer, La Guerta is finally dead, Angel has left the force…it just seemed really ready to be over. I’m happy there’s another season coming, but I wonder how good it is for the show to keep going? If they announced it was done, I’d be okay with murdering ‘Dexter.’

6. Glee

Oh, ‘Glee.’ Where do I begin? If you watch the pilot, the show is fantastic. It has a great voice in Rachel Berry and a great premise. It’s silly and fun and really well-written. It’s pretty much all downhill from there. I’m thankful for the portrayals of LGBTQ teens, but I think this show should be officially done. Everyone’s dated each other, everyone’s had all the storylines they’re going to have — now you’re just putting couples together for the heck of it, and breaking people up for no reason.

Trying to pull a Degrassi and keep new generations coming is a mistake. These new kids are certainly not as good as the first batch, and the characters are getting more and more outlandish and cartoonish compared to their original incarnations. Granted, there’s almost never any consistency between episodes and everything is pretty much shoehorned in to fit the plot rather than letting the kids develop naturally, but it’s getting so much worse this season. ‘Glee,’ you had great potential and then you sucked. Time to sing your swan song.