What is a TV show that was one of your favourites, but just went on for far too long?

The pathetic manga section at my local library in my hometown of the rural United States had volumes of Dragon Ball going up only until the end of the Frieza saga.
Since in the late '90s and early 2000s I had no reasonable way to get the rest of them (since internet had not yet come to that little village), I considered that to be the end of the series.
Now that I know everything that comes after, I maintain that the end of the Namek story arc is a sensible and satisfying endpoint for the series, and everything after that seems like it's being drawn on for far too long and is unnecessary.
Same goes for Naruto up until the end of the Chuunin tournament arc.

Probably won’t be a popular opinion but It’s Always Sunny was one of my all-time favorite shows and, I don’t know, after about season 10 or 11, it started to feel less funny. It still has some amazing recent episodes but the earlier seasons were perfect.

Virtually all of them that went beyond four seasons.

Murdoch Mysteries. The last few seasons have been pretty rough.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The first 10 or so seasons were perfection. The last few have been their worst.

The Simpsons
Thought of another one: Suits

Stranger Things :( The first season was absolutely perfect. The plot is all over the place and those kids are grown adults now lol let it die
- Sadly I agree. If the seasons were shot closer together it would have been a better situation.
  The first season is amazing. I still enjoy the rest of the series although the multi year gaps in filming isn’t helping things. Nine years to get to season five in a show that mainly stars school age actors is unfortunate.
  Final season is scheduled for this year so the end is close.
- This show still goes on? LOL
- I've been rewatching it because I finally caught up over the last couple weeks.
  It's so weird to go from the kids being tiny actual children, to damn near 6' tall grown-ass men with deep voices and they're still trying to be like 15 years old.
  That said it's still pretty good, but I'm mostly interested in the paranormal/sci-fi stuff at this point. Also Argyle in season 4 is absolutely hilarious.
- The last season (4?) was pretty good.

X-files, the John Doggett era just didn’t land for me, and even some of the later Mulder/Scully era got tired of
- Definitely X-Files. Then they tried to bring it back and it was somehow even worse.

LOST. Definitely lost its way after a few seasons. Fuck the going back and forth, stay on the pissing Island.
- I think I read somewhere that the folks pitching the show originally had fewer seasons in mind, but once it became a success, the network demanded more seasons.
  
  You can just copy and paste this comment to every reply. You'll be hitting at least 90% accuracy I think.

I’ll pick the low hanging fruit and say Game of Thrones, because it was great right up until it wasn’t.
- It was bad towards the end, but I don’t think it was because it went on too long. I think it was because they ran out of original material and had to start making it up on the fly. And then the show runners wanted to leave to go do a Star Wars show that ended up not happening anyway, so they rushed the ending.
  When the White Walkers finally arrived, the big battle was over in a blip. That doesn’t sound like it went on too long, that sounds like we were a cheated out of an entire season of something potentially interesting.
  
  Of course you’re right. I just wish we lived on a world where it stopped sooner and we could enjoy rewatching it, even if it was incomplete - like Firefly. The way it ended, I’ll never watch the show again and that sucks.

It's a darn shame that Scrubs ended on season 8, but on the other hand imagine what a disaster a 9th season could have been...

The Simpsons

Californication, Weeds, orange is the new black, the walking dead is the ultimate answer for me.
- The worst part of The Walking Dead was when they split the Negan stuff into 2 seasons. Every other episode was filler and the whole thing crept along for two years. And it was after the show was already on for awhile and already kinda slow. It just killed any remaining interest.
  I'm glad I stuck it out cause the rest was pretty good. But also if you include Fear, I think that was around the Negan seasons, that shit sucked. Too much bad content all at once.
  
  Walking dead is just so damn repetitive. Hey we found a safe place. Oh no rick fucked it all up. Repeat like 5 times and that's the show. I did read some of the comics and I really appreciated how they kept negan's character intact - and what a fucking character he is - but the show as a whole just drags on.
  
  Fear got better once Morgan showed up there but even in just that time span it went on a season or two longer than it should've
- Orange is the new black just became awful

Peaky Blinders. And if that wasn't enough, they're making a movie too. Don't get me wrong, it's a great show. But you can only up the stakes so much until it becomes too grand for its own good.
Severance, if they go over 3 seasons. The show is already a slow burn and holding on to a single mystery to move the plot forward. It doesn't make sense to make it go over 3 seasons with its current pace.
Shogun and Squid Game has/had no business getting a second season.

Thinking this post and its comments over, I'm glad Mr. Robot had four seasons.
Bonsoir, Elliot.
- 4 seasons is usually the sweet spot for me.

House went on too long

Supernatural. I know it supposedly gets better with the latter seasons, but I binged straight through and I burned out around season 11 or 12. The angel espionage shenanigans were weird. The whole good brother evil brother flip flop is a bit overplayed. Meant to pick it back up but never did.
- Didn't Kripke intend for that to end after season 5?
  I've tried, think I made as 10.5, first 5 are legitimately excellent though.
  
  Yes. He only wrote the first 5. He's in the credits of the rest as an executive producer but I don't know the extent of his involvement.
- I stopped watching during the episode where they travel back to the old west

Rick and Morty. I enjoyed the first 3/4 seasons and then in season 4, it just stopped being what it was for me. I can’t really describe why but I lost interest and haven’t gotten back. Losing Justin Roiland cemented that too. Not saying he should’ve stayed, just not having him on anymore made me further lose interest even if he wasn’t providing much to the content of the stories. I know that I would be constantly focused on how that’s not him anymore behind the voices and it would be distracting for me.
I really liked the show and enjoyed the humor. Being a fan of sci-fi, adult cartoons, and comedy all coming together like that was something I appreciated like Futurama or Venture Bros. I did cringe at a lot of the fan base, but I liked the show for what it was.

The Office (US) could have ended when Jim proposed in the rain. It maybe should have ended at the wedding in Niagara. Dear god it definitely should have ended when Michael left. The rest was just a shambling husk with nothing to say and tired gags.
Parks and Recreation also flanderized everybody (on a show that didn’t have much room to spare with how delightfully silly everyone already was as of season 3) and brought on new blood that didn’t work. I still haven’t seen most of the final season.
- and brought on new blood that didn’t work
  I thought Craig was one of the best characters, they should have done more with him
- I strongly believe The Office should have ended when Michael left. His departure was perfect and if they had ended the rest of the show there, they would have finished the show on a high. Instead it dragged on and it became a shell of itself.
  If I can advocate for Parks and Rec's end. I will say that they found a way to wrap it up very well giving each character a satisfying ending to their arcs. The new characters are defintely forgettable and sour the later episodes a bit, but it is worth it for the conclusion.
- Agreem. Parks and rec characters just turned into cartoon characters and it was such a weird thing to witness.

Weeds. It's been so long since I watched it but I remember it reached a point where it should have ended but instead it became unwatchable.
- Imagine if they’d let it end when Agrestic burned? It would be remembered as an unblemished gem.

Almost every successful US TV show runs at least one season too long. Any time they lose key cast members, or decide to go on just because of success, the quality has dropped in my opinion.
Non-US that succumbed to the same was Coupling. Last season was horrible.

Letterkenny. It started having way more drama and lost its charm for me.
The new Doctor Who. I'll get hate for this, but it jumped the shark when living, breathing, deus ex machina River Song showed up with the eleventh Doctor, I was done.
Two and a Half Men should have ended with Sheen's exit.
- Letterkenny. It started having way more drama and lost its charm for me.
  Now that you mention it, the disconnected episodes that seemed a little formulaic - farm, town, skids, farm, modeens, fight, farm - and completely interchangeable were kinda good. I think Mr Keeso writes better when it's not a big drama arc. Shoresy is /good/, and better than Letterkenny for arc writing, but it's not without warts.
  I'm biased toward Mr Keeso for his luck in getting a part in the best episode of TV since "Henry Blake was shot down", fair disclosure.

Well it's probably due more to the writers strike than length, I'd say Dexter.
- Dexter was already bad in the 4th season
  
  Was that the Lithgow season? That was both creepy and transcendant.
  
  You are the only person ever to dislike season 4 of Dexter.
  To each their own. There are definitely more bad takes like this in this thread.
  
  They never said how long it had to be bad for.

Shameless, American
Weeds
Sopranos
Killing Eve
- I never watched sopranos. I was living kinda wild back then. I just started the pilot today.
  
  It started the whole movie level drama TV series. The wire, the shield, breaking bad, they all owe Sopranos.
  
  It's in my top 5. It's epic. But a redo would be 5 seasons....

Boardwalk Empire and Sons of Anarchy.

12 Monkeys for sure. I loved it at first, but after a while it just seemed to be basically the same thing over and over. I also got sick of all the fighting and shootouts. It became a real slog towards the end.

Off topic, but this is exactly how I feel about Welcome to Night Vale
- I've been in and out of night vale for what seems like 15 years and still haven't finished it but do enjoy when I go on listening jags. I can see how it would run thin

One piece

Newsradio was great for 3 seasons. 4th was ok then Phil Hartman was killed and that sealed it.

Rick and Morty and Stranger Things for sure, especially as these had their absolute hype eras

In a lot of ways, Bleach. I loved it when it came out, but I've had no interest in re-watching it. The problem for me is that the fighting doesn't really show enough growth throughout the series, especially Ichigo. Everything is just to get a stronger Getsuga Tensho once he gets his bankai.
And I say this as someone who has re-watched Naruto more than once.
I'm sure there's more but I'm finding it hard to remember things I used to like but no longer do.
- Bleach has a crazy amount of filler, too. I love the show, but some parts are a slog.
  
  Omg yes! Even small fights take multiple episodes to get through with everyone always monologuing to everyone else.

Stranger things. Community. The office. Letterkenny. Rick and Morty.... Actually i think most of them that reached the 4 season mark
- As far as I'm concerned Rick and Morty can go on forever. Community though... Yeah you know it's been too long when you basically repeat episodes. After paintball 2 I was out.
- Letterkenny
  You take that back right now! If it wasn't for Shoresy I'd be inconsolable
  Edit: The more I think about it, the more I think you are probably right. I just have a really hard time letting go

Many anime, but Naruto (Shippuden) is my personal icing on the cake. The manga itself was already stretched out and the awful amount of fillers in the anime, especially towards the end, gave me a lot of headache.

Pretty Little Liars. It was always a "guilty pleasure" show, but by the end, my friends and I were just "hate watching" it, begging for it to end.
Archer. Has that finally ended?

[off topic?]
Star Trek. No more iterations, ever. No more Klingons, Vulcans, Borg, Ferengi, Trills, or Romulans.
Go back to the original concept and do completely new shows with none of the current canon/mythology.
No more six foot tall, five fingered aliens with funny chins.
- That's basically what The Orville is
  
  No more six foot tall, five fingered aliens with funny chins.
  I want alien looking aliens. Things that scare xenomorphs.
- Wait, what if the chins were Rick and Morty testicle chins?
  (Fuck me Gboard, what is so goddamn hard about spelling ~~China~~ chins. Fuck!)

Sesame Street.
We get it. Burt and Ernie are just "friends". Oscar is a "grouch" because people treat his home like trash. Big Bird in an unhomed youth forced to sleep in an alley on some twigs that he uses for a bed. It's a damn soap opera.
I mean, come on.
- "This show is so predictable! How about you try some fucking prime numbers Count?!" -That's you, hate watching sesame street in an adult diaper in front of your mom's tv
  
  ha! Jokes on you. I paid for the TV.