Top 25 TV Trends That Need to Die

So having been quite hesitant to do this list, I decided to have a long think about it since my last trends that need to die list. While it was very easy to find trends in films and video games, TV is slightly more difficult and you can probably guess that I spent quite a lot of time working on such a list. So like with my previous lists, this one will be TV trends that in my opinion, need to die. This includes shows that go on for too long, shows that should have never been made and many more. So tune in and let's count it down:

Oh and there may be some potential spoilers for certain shows on the list.

25 - Long ad breaks

No one and I mean no one likes ads. They are annoying as heck and they are just annoying. No words can describe how annoying they are, but they are especially annoying on TV. Yes we know it is a way to advertise products and services and yes it is the most common and best way to advertise. But when it comes to some TV shows, the breaks occur literally at an important part such as we find out the real person behind the crime or the identity of that one mystery character that keeps popping up. But while that may be an issue to some, it becomes an issue to a lot of people when the ad break is longer than a few minutes and we get it over and over again. Its important to advertise products and services and I get that. But some of us just like watching our TV programs and don't care much for ads. But not every channel is like this so its not as bad as you would think.

24 - Year long cliffhangers

It's important to note that some of us have limited patience than others, especially when it comes to year long cliffhangers. Now the idea of cliffhangers does make for good TV generally and allows all of the fans to debate what can happen. But when the cliffhanger is way too long, we start to lose our patience and just want to know what happened. Many shows such as The Walking Dead (as shown in the image above) tend to take a break from no more than a few months which is fine. Every show generally has an episode released on a weekly basis and that's fine too. Its when the cliffhanger is left unresolved for such a long time that we start to lose our patience and in some instances, our faith in both the showrunners and the broadcasters that we get what we want. Short breaks are fine, but long breaks are not is what I'm saying.

23 - Unresolved plot lines

Sometimes we have that favourite show of ours that has a lot of stories going for it that we love hearing. But sometimes there are those little stories that get left behind as the show carries on. A recent example of this is in the Netflix series DreamWorks Dragons: Race to the Edge where we see a beloved dragon get injured in battle and his owner takes a different dragon and the final shot we get of the former dragon is him whining. Many have theorised that the dragon is well and truly dead or that he is alive and well but no longer able to go into the battlefield. Either way, it is annoying when shows turn their backs on these little unresolved stories, but I guess that's what theories and fan fiction are for. To let the fans come to their own conclusions on the matter.

22 - What ever happened to the cartoons of our childhood?

Many of us who grew up towards the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century will remember all those cartoons we would watch growing up. Personally I fondly remember shows such as Dexter's Laboratory, Animaniacs, Scooby-Doo, DuckTales and many others from the likes of Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Fox and Disney. These days while there have been a few good cartoons as well as some remakes/reboots of the cartoons many of us grew up with, they just don't feel like how they were in our childhoods. Is it a bad thing? Probably not as it's just us getting older. But in some instances, the cartoons we get in this current time are generally really really bad. Less annoying this one and it could be more about we as people just growing up or that the animation side of things is just drowning. But there have been some greats like Rick & Morty, Gravity Falls and Adventure Time so its not all bad or just not as great as it used to be.

21 - TV does not dull the brain

Many overbearing parents often think that TV dulls the brain. It doesn't. Just like films and video games, TV educates us. It helps us prepare for situations. It excites us. TV does a lot of things to make us feel better, but it doesn't dull the brain at all. Sure it may give us headaches from time to time, but it doesn't dull the brain. A lot of people even think that we would do what the TV shows us in reality, but we don't. The thing we can learn here is to not hear what people say about TV. We make our own decisions on the matter. But it does not dull the brain and it never will.

20 - Flashbacks are too repetitive

The best thing about flashbacks is that it gives us some character development as well as some background on various characters and plot lines. The worst thing about them is repetition. Its all well and good telling us what happened in the past, but when you already know what happened, it becomes unnecessary and takes up a chunk of time in an episode that could have filled up that time with something else. So don't get rid of flashbacks, but please make them appear less often. The less we have, the more original content we get. Now of course in some instances, the appearance of several flashbacks make sense such as in the early seasons of Arrow where it shows us the five years of hell that Oliver Queen had prior to his return to Starling City where he would eventually become the Green Arrow. So yeah, less flashbacks please unless they are entirely necessary.

19 - Our favourite TV shows delayed to accommodate sports

So I live in a country where most citizens like their football (or soccer depending on where you live) and if you like sports, that's fine. Its just annoying when you want to watch your favourite show only to realise that sports are in its place and the sports in question are going to take up a lot of the channel's time. Time that can easily be filled with programs everyone can watch and not just sport fans. Sports isn't everyone's cup of tea and in my opinion, it shouldn't really take up several hours of programming. But I guess this is why sport channels exist so that sport fans can watch sports all they like and the rest of us can watch what we want without any conflicts or arguments. And yet sports seem to still appear on other channels. Well I guess some people aren't able to afford sport channels which brings me onto another trend later on in the list.

18 - CGI in TV shows aren't as good as they are in films

Look I get it. TV shows tend to have a much lower budget when compared to films and video games. But if anything, the CGI in some shows could be done better. a CGI deer and a background that is clearly a green screen in The Walking Dead, some of the monsters in Doctor Who since its revival in 2005 and some of the Arrowverse stuff too. I know that in most live action shows, CGI is minimal. But often it gets done really bad that many of us wonder if the showrunners actually care about said things. I guess not, but no harm in putting in a little more work in their CGI. But hey at least they can have actual babies and not CGI babies like in the Twilight films (I mean seriously!?).

17 - Long running TV shows that should've ended a long time ago

There are a few TV shows out there that for whatever reason, seem to keep going and going which makes me wonder if there is an endgame to it. It's all well and good making lots and lots of stories to tell, but soon enough the quality and everything else that makes the show great will be wearing thin over time. Take The Simpsons for example, they have been going for many years and are soon approaching their 30th season. But the only good things about them nowadays is the couch gags, the Treehouse of Horror specials and the transition to HD. Apart from that, the rest of it is nothing but the same old thing and it's just lost the charm it had in the first ten seasons of the show. It is still being shown with no stopping any time soon which makes me wonder why so many other shows like it have been criticised, cancelled and just don't last as long. So yeah when a show keeps going with the quality wearing thin, just stop it.

16 - Charity telethons can be too long, repetitive and boring (no offence intended to the respective charity's work)

There is nothing wrong with donating money to good causes. Personally, I find that to be a good thing to do. But the problem is that these telethons we get, the purpose is to donate money to a good cause yet half the time we're having to put up with some good and not so good entertainment in the form of music and comedy. Some of this is good and others are not so good. Promoting other people's work during the telethon is in my opinion a bad move in that it gives them credit while the money that their work could be getting is instead being donated to the charity at hand so it's basically pointless promoting others works. And then you know when a telethon is getting annoying when they start showing things they already showed early on as well as presenters telling us that the total they have received so far isn't good enough. Its a charity event so just be grateful that we are donating money as it is. Telethons are good ways to donate money to charity, but in order for it to work, we would like something good in return and not just people being messed about and so forth. So yeah keep doing telethons for charity but maybe spend more time on working the material as well as the charity work videos too.

15 - Talent Show Results that are clearly fixed

The most annoying thing to hear in the news is talent show stuff. Some people like it, but lots of people hate it and there is nothing that has received more hate than a results show. First of all, people must vote to keep their favourites in the running but sometimes when people do that, they forget some of the better known acts and they end up being in the bottom two. But then again there is also those acts that everyone really hates and they end up going through and it makes me wonder if the results are genuinely looked at or does the producers of the show decide who goes in and thus don't care about what the general public wants. Well as someone who has lost interest in talent shows as it is, this doesn't bother me as much. But it annoys me when all I get in my news feed is nothing but news about talent shows and that people think the results are rigged. I'm pretty sure there are more important things happening in the world right now, but talent shows is not one of them.

14 - TV Synchronisation isn't the best idea in the world

Its often seen as a pretty big deal when you hear about certain episodes of a show being shown all over the world at the same time. But then there is that problem. The problem of synchronisation. Let's say in the UK it is 12pm. Meanwhile in the USA it's 7am and in Australia its 11pm. And there is your problem. Not all of us will be awake at the same time to see the show and this is a problem that often occurs in big sporting events like the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics as well as TV events like the 50th anniversary special of Doctor Who. So yeah its not the best idea in the world, but with a bit of patience, people can and will wait for these things for a longer time than others.

13 - Can't please all of the fans

Anyone who has seen TV shows based on something they know and love are probably the toughest crowd of all to please. Not everything is going to go exactly as the books or wherever the stories came from have told it and you just can't please everyone. Sure it may be a annoying trend that not everyone will love the show, but at least there are those fans who like to keep an open mind about it. Many of us had an open mind with the likes of The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones and the Arrowverse shows and look how those played out. One of them is the most watched show on the planet, one has shown that even fantasy can be taken seriously and the last showed that shared universes if done right don't need to be cinematic. But yeah everyone has an opinion and whether we like them or not, they are here to run for as long as they can.

12 - Copying everyone else's TV shows

All over the world, we get a lot of shows that are very similar if not exactly the same as one another and to many of us, its not good. Seeing different versions of shows can be seen as a hit or miss especially when generally the place of origin for the show, tends to do it better than everyone else. There was a US version of The Office as well as a US version of The Apprentice. But even if there are shows that do better in their place of origin, you may find that other countries do it better. Of course its all opinions at the end of the day, but why copy someone else when you can do something different? That would allow for some originality right there. But I guess people want what other countries have.

11 - Controversy can ruin great TV shows

Not quite the case in most places, but you often find that controversy can ruin great TV shows. One good example is Kevin Spacey who as we all know recently came out as gay after some sexual scandals were revealed. As a result of that, Netflix axed House of Cards and stopped production of a film starring the now disgraced celebrity. Another example is the amount of times that Fox's adult humored shows as well as South Park get either cancelled, altered or banned which is a bummer. If you don't like a show, then don't watch it. Just because someone makes a big deal about the problems, doesn't mean that the creators won't meet their demands. Sure controversy can ruin shows in the long run, but then again it can be a good way to make people want more. Its just annoying when your favourite TV show is facing trouble which can affect its future.

10 - Daytime TV can be really boring

It is really, really boring to the point where one man has to shout to get viewers. Yeah that's how low daytime TV has got in the past few years. Its true that for many of us, watching TV during the day is impossible due to work and education commitments (among other things). But that doesn't mean that it has to be really bad. In fact some people have to work a night shift so the best thing daytime TV can do in return, is let them watch prime time shows. But of course, we have the inventions of home media and video streaming which are 100 times better that watching Jeremy Kyle shout at people or people selling their stuff for profit. It could be better, but to be honest, not everybody around the world watches daytime TV anyway.

9 - Fake News

If there is anything I can agree with President Trump as big of an idiot as he is, its that fake news is bad news. Lots of news broadcasters have been accused over a billion times for doing fake news and for the most part, its important to get our news delivered to us. But saying that someone beloved or a huge event that has happened but neither is true, is really bad to the point where angry mobs will assemble and will try and take the news broadcasters down. But not all news broadcasters do fake news as Trump thinks they do. Most of them may just misunderstand some news. But it's a big competitive industry and one where the truth should matter more than lies. Because no one wants that.

8 - Many Reality shows suck

Reality shows are just not great. Some of them are pointless and others you just want to not be involved with in any way. Much like with talent shows, these too get talked a lot in magazines and daytime TV and most of us are just asking "What's the point of them?". From what I understand, the USA is already sick to death with the Kardashians who are just famous for doing really dumb things (showing your butt by the way is not being brave. Everyone has done it at least once so don't act like its a new thing because its not). Meanwhile here in the UK, we're sick to death of hearing about Katie Price's so called "wonderful life". All these shows exist and yet all we want is something better to watch than dumb s**t like this. What's worse is that there is even a video streaming service that is dedicated to reality TV like we haven't had enough of it already.

7 - Misleading Advertising

Misleading advertising is generally seen as a pretty dumb move by the people behind the advertising. When it comes to TV shows, it is less of an issue, but it still is an issue. Many of us want to know what this murder mystery show is about and we find out that its not a murder mystery at all. We finally get find out who Cartman's father is, but instead we get Terrance and Philip doing an April Fools joke across the world. Sometimes it can be funny, but other times it is annoying. But you can't deny. Sometimes the advertising can be really clever. But generally misleading advertising is just not good.

6 - Is sexual content really necessary for some shows?

While I personally have nothing against sexual content being used in media, I often find that in some instances, they show no real purpose in the story. Sometimes it's only there for fanservice and other times its there for important story purposes. But often I find that its just not necessary in some shows. For shows like Skins and Game of Thrones, it makes sense because for the former everyone is adjusting to overcome puberty (for the most part at least) and for the latter, it's often described as the mature fantasy of all fantasy franchises and sexual content is necessary for story development. But then you have those shows where the sexual content has no real purpose such as when Skyler and Walter White make love in Breaking Bad (and let's be honest, no one wants to see that) and Gwen entering the hub while Jack and Ianto are at it in Torchwood. Again not as annoying as some things, but having sexual content in my honest opinion, needs a purpose and not just there for the heck of it.

5 - When the show has that perfect ending, end it

What we see often in shows that have an uncertain future is them presenting episodes in the hopes to finish the show in a way to satisfy the fans. For most shows that get that perfect ending, they then end straight after like with Gravity Falls, Codename: Kids Next Door, Breaking Bad and others and fans are left happy and satisfied. But then for whatever reason, you then get shows that continue after they get that perfect ending and this can lead to the show dragging on for to long and losing a lot of steam in the process. Of course it's important that the creators of said shows find the endgame they need to end the show on, but it would be nice if the broadcasters told them if the show gets cancelled or not. Sometimes people are happy with the fact that we get to see more of our favourite characters in action, but getting that perfect ending is key.

4 - Shows being cancelled for stupid reasons

Cancelling a show can lead to controversy and other bad things, but sometimes cancelling a show can be done for really stupid reasons. For example, let's say the show got bad viewer ratings. The show would then get cancelled without first giving the show that perfect ending it needs. Cancelling a show out of fear of being terrorised or something along those lines, that's understandable but again the show needs that ending. Now of course if the show isn't that great anyway, no one is really going to care if it has that perfect ending or not. But when you have huge fanbases of various TV shows and they then get cancelled, it will not bold well. It was the reason why Firefly got a film to bring everything to a satisfactory close among other things. So the thing to learn here is to only cancel the show if there is good reason behind it and not for stupid reasons. But if the show isn't very good, then the broadcasters can do whatever they want with it without the fear of outraged fans.

3 - Films about self-absorbed TV celebrities that star said celebrity are not good

This is a callback to what I said about reality shows and one of the most annoying things that I don't like about certain shows, is that some shows are about celebrities who want us to see their so called great life. Now the world can't get away from hearing about Katie Price, Honey Bo Bo and The Kardashians and it really just annoys me. They are very boring shows, like talent shows they too are talked about a lot and to be honest, we have bigger problems in the world right now that are better than hearing about the troubles of these so called stars and special people. Most of them make me wonder why they exist and I just want them to get on with their lives without us having to spend our time watching them.

2 - Not everyone can watch TV

A big problem that many countries face when it comes to TV is the cost. Not every form of TV is free which I totally get as far as business is concerned, but it does mean that lots of people who don't have much in the way of money, miss out on some great TV. Sure some companies are finding ways to make watching things like Stranger Things, The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones easier and more accessible for people and I'm glad that they are doing something about it. But it does still pose a problem, especially if say you want to talk to friends about that latest episode of Arrow but can't because they are not able to watch it themselves in a legal manner. So I'm glad that companies are trying to make it better for people, but I wish we had more solutions to the matter than problems.

1 - Lack of Originality

Of course the biggest problem that faces all forms of media, is originality. Its not always easy to do, but it is a very welcome idea when its being used. There isn't a day go by when you hear something about say Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead more than something original like Stranger Things and it bugs me that originality is lacking. Its a hard thing to achieve in anyone's lifetime, but it is something that many TV viewers will welcome. And that is the one trend that of all the ones listed, I feel needs to just go away. More original things and maybe less things based on something.

This was a very tricky list to do and I hope you all enjoyed reading it. But do let me know in the comments below what trends you think should die. And I will see you next time.