What wildly popular show did/do you dislike?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I regret having watched all of breaking bad. A beautiful time waster if there ever was one.

I don't totally regret it but feel it was overrated and wound up really disliking the last few seasons. My husband actually got nightmares while watching the last season because it was just so dark and violent.

It took us a long time to watch Better Call Saul because of that experience even though a lot of people like it better than BB. We did eventually, and agree it's a better show, and it's not as dark and miserable. The ending is practically uplifting by comparison. In the end the Jimmy character wound up being a lot more interesting and had a lot more redeeming qualities than Walt.

lol what

+1
What? I can think of many shows that are *truly* dark and violent, much more so than BB. And BB was much more of a very dark comedy, at least in most place. It was a masterpiece.

I think Ozark is much more dark and violent.

I've never seen Ozark but I couldn't get into Breaking Bad because I found it too dark. Not in a too violent sense, but it made me grieve for humanity sense.

Ozark was literally just a Breaking Bad copycat, they were both dark. BB was better IMO because Vince Gilligan is a better storyteller with a more interesting POV. But I've much preferred his other shows (Better Call Saul and Pluribus) to BB. There is ultimately no redemption in BB so it ends on a very bleak note. Some of the earlier seasons have more humor in them, and some of the characters and storylines are great, but ultimately the story of Walter White is an awful tragedy.

Better Call Saul is so much more nuanced and its central characters all drawn in more shades of gray. As BCS neared its finale and re-enters the Breaking Bad timeline, you could feel again the bleakness of that world and of Walter. But BCS ultimately finds a way for its characters to remain realistic while also rising above the awful depths of Breaking Bad.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:So, so many of these shows are not wildly popular. Most of them were critically acclaimed, but had relatively small audiences and others are just random shows people are picking.

What? Most of these shows were/are very popular as proven by many seasons:

The Bear
Outlander
Ted Lasso
Breaking Bad
Seinfeld
Friends

Shows are only renewed if the audiences watch them.

Friends and Seinfeld are in totally different categories. these shows aired in the 90s in primetime before streaming and then went into syndication- so tens of millions have probably seen an episode or a season or more.

Compare that to some of these trending shows where most Americans have not seen them. There are simply too many choices now. The bar is much lower for renewing now that we have streaming services. It’s much easier for shows that have a niche audience to find success.

And where Friends and Seinfeld had 22-24 episodes a season, a show being renewed for 3 seasons (Ted Lasso years later is getting a fourth) for 6-8 episodes is very different. So no, you can’t compare the popularity of Friends that had close to 250 episodes with some of these shows that has 18 episodes total.

We only have a few television moments that most people collectively watch - Super Bowl, Olympics, etc.

Nonsense:

The Bear: ranked as the 2nd most popular streaming series in 2024

Outlander: Ranked #30 in TV popularity and recognized by 25% of the population

Ted Lasso: the #1 most-watched streaming original series in the U.S. in 2023, generating 16.9 billion minutes viewed over the year. The Season 3 finale pushed the series to 1.2 billion minutes watched, landing it at No. 3 on the overall Nielsen Streaming Top 10 list

Breaking Bad: frequently ranking at or near #1 in critic and audience polls, boasting a 9.5/10 rating on IMDb and a 99/100 score on Metacritic. As of May 2026, it remains high in popularity, ranking within the top 40 shows over the past year.

Right, but in terms of the millions of people watching them. You can Google who watched the series finale of friends. It was something like 50 million people versus the finale of outlander, which was something like 3 million people.

Friends had something like 250 episodes, most of these streaming shows will have maybe 30 episodes if they get a good run.

It’s just a different landscape. I don’t really think we’re arguing different things. And you’re being really dismissive or not understanding what I’m saying if you’re dismissing, it is nonsense. I’m making a valid point. You’re saying shows are popular and you are not wrong. But shows today tend to have much more niche audiences. I guarantee there’s tons of people who have not heard of outlander, but will have heard of friends - it’s just a different way of viewing now that we have so many more options.

I will say the quality of programming today is just so much higher. I’m a fan of friends, but it’s light pablum. They didn’t go deep in any issue. Whereas some of these critically acclaimed series really have a lot to say about the state of the world and human condition. I think the quality of television today is much much more but but you tend to get less quantity. Most of the shows we love today will not have 250 episodes.

I mean yes, there are lots of streaming choices but if Netflix says The Bear is their second most popular streamed show, then it’s been seen by lots of people.