Breaking up is easy to do

[rivkat]

I've been thinking a bit about breaking up with shows, in part because I'm still mentally storyboarding a Future Ex-Girlfriend vid ("I don't care that you're a model" = that one lens-flare shot with Dean leaning on the car; "no one cares that you love Keanu" = Peter and Sylar throwing down Matrix-style; etc.), and in part because, though I haven't been fannish about Heroes since S1, I deleted the series from my DVR mid-episode this week after two successive scenes with stalker/rapist plots where it was clear that the show didn't even understand that one of those was a stalker-rapist plot, and I'm not so sure about the other. I should've known better, but residual affection for Hiro and Claire kept me going.

So what shows did you break up with, and when?  Defined any way you like, though my default would be "stopped watching."  Meaning that I never did break up with the X-Files; I just buried it.  Or, suggest shots for the vid, if you like.  Lyrics here.

Comments

[cofax7]

I broke up with XF in season 8, I believe--I think the butt!genie episode did it.

I broke up with Heroes about four episodes into season 2, since it was clear it wasn't going anywhere I liked. That was evident from the very beginning of the season when we learned that Sylar, Peter, and Nathan had all survived. Oh, and West-the-stalker was another reason.

I want to say I broke up with SPN after 5x10, but I may end up watching some of the rest of the season just to see how they end it. I won't be watching season 6, if it happens--or not unless they bring back Deputy Kathleen Hudak and make her a regular. *g*

I broke up with LOST in season 2, after one too many episodes in which men stood around YELLING at one another and nobody actually shared any information. Too stupid to live.

[rheanna]

I broke up with XF with the end of season 5 and the movie -- I only watched irregularly after that, and season 5 is where my major emotional investment ended. So it was mostly amicable, because by the time things that would have annoyed me a lot happened, I didn't care as much.

I broke up with Angel at the end of season 4, with the departure of Charisma Carpenter (oh, Cordy) and the retooling of the show's premise. Although I did watch Smile Time from season 5, aka The One Where David Boreanaz Is a Muppet.

I broke up with BSG much more quickly than I usually do with shows -- I was devoted to it in season 1, and then just lost interest badly in season 2. I think maybe what happened was that it became clear that the show was simply going to develop in a direction I wasn't terribly interested in.

I have lately realised that I will never break up with Doctor Who. No matter what the show does to annoy me, DW always holds the promise of an entirely new cast and characterisation of the central character, just around the corner. So even though I've been disenchanted with it recently, I'll still watch the new season this spring. Fannish hope springs eternal.

[rivkat]

Oh, West--how very nonstalkery he seems in comparison to this season. Which is not in any way a defense.

I'd watch Deputy Hudak, no doubt.

Lost: yeah, that was why I quit. Actually it was specifically that the Others never answered questions, even with lies, when that is not a recognizably human way to behave. Just lie! It's okay! It'll shut them up!

[cathexys]

I think I end shows like I used to end relationships...petering out and never a clear actual break until everyone's had enough already...

I do break up emotionally though, i.e., I may continue watching but I protect my fragile heart. S8 of XF definitely. S5 of SGA. Angel it was S4 but then I kinda came back and even got emotionally invested again.

Oh, no...there is one clear breakup. SV!!! S4 and onward...

And Heroes...I'm not sure I even watched all of Season 2 even though I had it d'loaded. I do that a lot...keep a show and then watch an entire season...or never do.

BSG i emotionally broke up early in S3. Even though I think i more or less watched all the eps til the bitter end...it's that OCD thing. Or maybe really my inability to make clear decisions :)

[batdina]

I broke up with XF in the middle of a scene with Scully screaming and someone trying to put a slug up her butt. I may be mixing that up with something else, but I remember turning off the television mid-episode and never turning it back on again.

I think I only made it to the very beginning of Smallville's 4th season, and I have yet to watch SGA's fifth season at all.

I suppose this means my breakups are more like burnouts. Kind of like most of my life changes. Weird.

[(Anonymous)]

Used to love this show (don't even remember the name) when I was a kid, broke up with it when special effects ate up the story lines. It was my first break up and I can still feel the heartache.

I stopped loving Heroes somewhere mid S2, but I finished watching season 4 because I am just bad at breaking up when it's time. I put my foot down after they killed Nathan. I still miss Hiro and Peter, but from what I heard about the show I don't think I missed out this season.

My love with SPN is still going strong. Not as strong as the first three seasons, sure, but one can't always look back to the honeymoon period of a relationship, right? I will still watch if there's a season 6 unless the season finale obsolutely sucks.

Good shows are like good men, there are not too many of them out there. I rather not break up with one easily since it's hard to find one/fall in love with one to begin with.

[via_ostiense]

I stopped watching Heroes after Season 1 because I was tired of its depictions of women and people of color (e.g. "the Haitian" - he doesn't even have a name for the whole first season!), and the writing felt incoherent. I'm on the verge of breaking up with House because I'm fed up with how the show treats women (Cuddy sekritly feel validated about herself when men sexually harass her! w00t!) but I might give it one last try, since the current season is supposed to be better than S5.

[whichy]

I have mostly broke up with Bones which is sad, because it used to be at the top of my list of favorite shows - I mostly broke up with them mid-season last year when the started to make Temperance dumber than Booth so they could play up a romance.

Stopped watching Heroes mid-season last year, I just couldn't take any of it any more. I found that i was mostly chanting "You are so dumb" at all the characters during every episode - I figured why torture myself.

Grey's Anatomy - A while ago - There were a lot of things - but the final straw was I couldn't stand the way they hijacked Christine for the wedding storyline.

and considering I stayed for every season of buffy and angel i think this says a lot about my patience when a show goes off the rails

[amalthia]

I broke up with Heroes this season when I realized Hiro was yet again going back in time and I just didn't give a shit.

X-Files lost me after the movie..hmmm Lost got boring around season 2.

[celli]

I break up shows by just sort of neglecting them. I fall an ep behind, then a couple more, then...I just stop mentioning them in conversation, and talk a lot about the New Shiny.

I think I'm afraid of hurting their feelings. :) (Or, more accurately, the feelings of my friends who are still fans.)

I broke up with Heroes pretty vocally, though, when I tuned into S3 and they'd shipped Molly off somewhere (after an entire season of She's Only Safe With Us). I was so invested in M3, I couldn't survive THAT breakup.

[brownbetty]

I broke up with SPN when the angels showed up, although I'm kinda the only who one who did. I just went “Wut.” It became apparent to me that the show was kinda epically shifting its focus in a way I couldn't feel.

I broke up with DC comics when they were like 'And now, Crisis on Infinite Crisises: THE RE-CRISISENING' but that is a) a description that could apply to any point in the last forty years, and b) a fandom which is hard to vid.

I had, like, a one night stand with BSG, where I woke up in the morning and saw him in the morning and went “Oh my god, what have I done?” and we never spoke of it again.

[thirdblindmouse]

My usual procedure for watching a television show is to watch several dozen episodes over a single weekend, forget about it for the next several months, then remember it and watch several dozen more, so it's hard to tell when or even whether I've "stopped watching" a show.

For the purposes of a vid, though? I broke up with House MD early in the third season, when I realized all the characters were miserable bastards whose misery and bastardy I had no interest in continuing to watch. I intend to go back and finish BSG someday, but our great love ended somewhere in the middle of the third season, when the focus turned from the epic and political to the personal and melodramatic and mystical.