TV Shows I Was Really Into...Until I Wasn't.

Show: Game of Thrones

How Long I Lasted: One season and about three episodes into Season two.

Why I Stopped Watching: Two things: 1. The only character I cared about was dead, and 2. those damn baby dragons.

Show: The Walking Dead

How Long I Lasted: Four & a half seasons (Two Seasons too long)

Why I Stopped Watching: By season four, all of Frank Darabont's brilliance had faded and it became clear the show was written by sub-par intellects who only knownhow to repeat themselves every single year.

Show: Parks and Recreation

How Long I Lasted: 2.25 seasons.

Why I Stopped Watching: Started out funny but by season three, I felt a desperate hysteria creeping in. 

Show: 24

How Long I Lasted: Three seasons (4-6)

Why I Stopped Watching: It went from mildly clever to painfully ludicrous and beyond contrived.

Show: Supernatural

How Long I Lasted: Six seasons

Why I Stopped Watching: My TV broke and by the time I got a new one, I no longer cared.

Show: Justified

How Long I Lasted: Four Seasons.

Why I Stopped Watching: Took too long of a break between binge-watching seasons and lost the flow. 

Show: Better Call Saul

How Long I Lasted: Two seasons.

Why I Stopped Watching: It was no "Breaking Bad" and that became more and more obvious as it kept shying away from the more interesting elements of its predecessor. I'm sure it all pays off eventually but as of now, I don't really care.

Show: Agents of SHIELD.

How Long I Lasted: 3.5 Seasons.

Why I Stopped Watching: After a rocky, dull start, seasons two and three kicked into high gear with some amazing storytelling. Then season four turned into a listless, meandering mess.

Show: American Dad

How Long I Lasted: Unsure. At least four or five seasons.

Why I Stopped Watching: Once the show seemed to have lost interest in comedy and just started doing hamfisted surrealism, ya boy was out!

Show: Millenium

How Long I Lasted: Two seasons.

Why I Stopped Watching: After one hell of a setup at the conclusion of a second season the producers wrongly assumed would be their last, the show was renewed for a third season that was the clear result of network interference.

Show: Growing Pains

How Long I Lasted: 3/5 seasons.

Why I Stopped Watching: The whole purpose of the Mike Seaver character (Kirk Cameron before he became an insane religious fanatic) was to provide a counter-point to the button-down, conservative Eighties expectation of boys in the middle class. By having Mike suddenly become a college student, the entire premise of the show was betrayed and, believe me, it only got  worse from there. So many old man sweaters!

Show: Dallas

How Long I Lasted: Nine seasons

Why I Stopped Watching: The infamous "It was all a dream" dismissal of an entire season wasn't, in and of itself, so terrible, but it happened right after the strongest, most dynamic season since the early years. Unforgivable.

Show: Santa Barbara

How Long I Lasted: Three seasons.

Why I Stopped Watching: Yes, I watched a soap opera! I was really young, damn you! But even I couldn't handle so many different faces playing the same characters.

Show: Gotham

How Long I Lasted: Half a season.

Why I Stopped Watching: An intriguing premise simply cannot make up for so much uneven acting.

Show: Mad Men

How Long I Lasted: Two seasons.

Why I Stopped Watching: Once I realized the mystery surrounding Don Draper was the only thing holding my interest, season two became a laborious slog.

Memo to Game of Thrones Fans...

Sad fanboy is Sad.

Is it over? Can I come back out now?

Good.

The “Game of Thrones” series finale has finally aired. To be honest, I thought the show had gone off the air a year or two ago. Obviously I was not among its devoted followers. I did watch the entire first season which kept me reasonably entertained, but by the second season, the show had succumbed to what I like to call “Mad Men Disease.” I define that as a show that was perfectly entertaining for a year’s worth of episodes but could have easily ended after that and it would have been just fine. “The Walking Dead” falls under this category as well. In fact, several cable series do.

So, I’m not here to discuss what happened in the show’s final, controversial season. I am here, however, to discuss the response that supposed controversy engendered and the disturbing trend I’ve been witnessing for the past decade. I’m also here to commiserate in a manner of speaking, er, writing.

Many of the series fans were outraged at whatever dramatic directions their favorite show took in its final season. I don’t pretend to know what those were but the outpouring of disgust all over social media was palpable. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen something like this, but I usually saw it in response to movies. But GOT is a blockbuster-level TV series and its viewers connect with it in similar ways.

We’ve all been disappointed by the way a favorite TV show ended. Many viewers of “Dexter” and “Lost” expressed their disdain for the finales of those shows. However, nobody decided to organize a slacktivist revolt and make the sort of demands GOT fans who hated the finale have mounted. Now, rather than simply wallow in perceived self-righteousness like “The Simpsons’” Comic Book Guy, these people feel they are owed a refund! Not on the money they paid to HBO for a subscription, but on their very hopes and desires when it comes to the show’s storyline.

These people created and signed a petition  to demand that HBO scrap the entire final season and redo it. Yes, grown people demanded a do-over because they were drowning in butthurt tears.

Over one million people signed this thing. Petition creator “Dylan” said he came up with the idea as a way to vent about his dissatisfaction, adding, “There is so much awful crap going on in the world, people like me need to escape into things like Star Wars and Game of Thrones. We fans invested a wealth of passion and time into this series... I love this story, and I, like most of you, was crushed to see how the last season (and season 7, let’s be real) has been handled."

Crushed. He was crushed.

Again...grown man.

To paraphrase that fun-loving cut-up Richard Nixon, let me be perfectly clear. I understand the sting of disappointment all-too well when it comes to having elevated hopes about the way a work of fiction turns out. Even I as a writer have taken issue with an ending from time to time. And I’ll just say it, I can relate to feeling seriously let down after having invested so many years and, in my case, so much money into a franchise only to see its final concluding installment turn out to be a disappointment.

That’s how I felt recently when I saw “Avengers Endgame.” My initial reaction was a stunned sadness. I didn’t hate the movie but it was not at all a satisfying or particularly thrilling conclusion in my opinion. But somehow, maybe because I have actually written fiction, it never occured to me to create a petition demanding that the Russo Brothers reshoot the parts of the movie I felt didn’t work and make it more like I would have.  

I’ll give “Dylan” credit for one thing, however. He does admit he has no idea what he would have done differently. Much like a Flat-Earther who can’t tell you why they believe in a conspiracy to make up think our globe is round, (see what I did there?) the petition-creator just knows he needs to speak up.

Against what exactly?

I’m sorry but creatives do not owe you what you think you want any more than your parents do. Just because someone has disturbed your comfort zone does not mean they are responsibility for comforting you. That’s your problem, not theirs.

The Russos chose a certain path for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I think it mostly sucks and is the result of terrible writing. I was bummed for about a week and then I moved on. I do know what I would have done differently and I’m arrogant enough to think of it as an improvement. But you know what? It ain’t gonna happen. The movie made two billion dollars. As far as millions of folks are concerned, they got it right. Likewise, GOT followed its creative path, got your money and your time, and now it’s over.

As with all other aspects of grown-up existence, we take our chances every time we indulge ourselves in some form of fiction. And like adults, we should be able to express our disappointment, feel our sadness until it runs its course, and move on to the next thing. But to expect a cable network to re-shoot something that cost them millions just because of all the mopey fans is ludicrous.

Much like those whiny man-children who spent a year complaining about “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” because it subverted expectations, the GOT fans need to learn a little thing called acceptance of the things they cannot change.

It’s just a TV show, people.

Now, if you’ll excuse me. I have Endgame fan fiction to finish!