Random TV Seasons That Ruined Your Favorite Shows (37 items)

(#33) Seinfeld - Season 8
- Seinfeld
Season 8 of Seinfeld was the first without showrunner Larry David. With David’s departure, the show became a little wackier than usual, and ventured away from its premise of being “a show about nothing.” Season 8 was also the first season that didn’t include Jerry’s stand-up intros, a much-loved staple of the show.
(#15) Friends Season 9
- Friends
If Season 9 of Friends feels uneven, it’s because the series was intended to end with the ninth season. However, the cast renegotiated their contracts, and the writers had to rewrite the end of the season. The biggest complaint fans have with the ninth season was Rachel’s burgeoning love for Joey. It was completely left field and didn’t feel true to the character.
(#5) Scrubs - Season 9
- Scrubs
According to Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence, the ninth season of the show was meant to be a spinoff, but the network wanted to use Scrubs’s brand recognition to earn more viewers than would a spinoff. Lawrence credits his inability to market the show as a spinoff as one of the reasons this season wasn’t as successful as previous ones, but there were some other notable issues. The new main character was bland, and the show began recycling plot lines from previous seasons.
(#6) Heroes - Season 2
- Heroes
Season 2 of Heroes is widely regarded as a filler season with little to no character or plot development. The season rehashes storylines from the first season – Claire has to hide her powers, Peter needs to relearn his powers, and that’s about it. The 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike occurred half way through the production of the second season, which resulted in only 11 of 24 ordered episodes being produced. The shortened season is cited as one of the many problems with this particular season, as the writers unable to take the season’s arc to its intended climax.
(#35) Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season 6
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Despite giving us fan-favorite musical episode “Once More, with Feeling,” season six of Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer is its darkest. Each of the characters are at their lowest: Buffy is almost raped by Spike, Anya cheats on Xander and the two call off their wedding, Willow abuses and overdoses on magic, and Tara is murdered by a bullet meant for Buffy. Whedon’s absence was felt this season, as most of his time was spent working on the sci fi cult hit Firefly.
(#14) The Office - Season 8
- The Office
Some fans would argue that The Office became boring after Pam and Jim got together, but many cite the first season without Michael Scott as its weakest. While James Spader was great as Robert California, the character lacked the charm Steve Carell brought to Scott. The show became as directionless as Dunder Mifflin, and floundered through its final seasons.