10 Fantasy Shows Ruined After Their First Season

The fantasy genre might be the most beloved globally, with fans from all over the world enjoying stories about magical heroes, mythical tales, and mysterious twists. The fantasy genre encapsulates a lot of what people love: it shows a world where all things are possible, and nothing and no one is unusual or expendable. There, every underdog can become a hero, and every hero understands his companions.

This appeal and adoration is attractive to showrunners, but they can’t just put any sort of storyline in motion. So many shows in the fantasy genre have the tendency to lose their quality at some point, whether it’s because the showrunners decided to take a bite bigger than they can chew or because they keep digesting the same things over and over. As much as people wanted to love them, these fantasy shows were ruined after their first season (with some having their fate obvious even in the first).

10

‘Fate: The Winx Saga’ (2021–2022)

Created by Brian Young

With the animated Winx Club story being the cornerstone of many pre-teens’ lives, the stakes were high when the live-action adaptation Fate: The Winx Saga was announced. Initial impressions were unfavorable due to casting choices, which was enough for the Netflix original series to be deemed lackluster. Still, season one was praised for world-building and atmosphere, leading people to find their favorite show from when they were a teen and feel like it was adapted for more adult audiences.

Fate: The Winx Saga follows fairies who can control different elements: the protagonist Bloom (Abigail Cowen), a fire fairy; Stella (Hannah van der Westhuysen), a light fairy; Aisha (Precious Mustapha), a water fairy; Terra (Eliot Salt), an earth fairy; Musa (Elisha Applebaum), a mind fairy; and Beatrix (Sadie Soverall), an air fairy. Their adventures and the beginnings of their friendship are documented throughout the series, providing a darker spin on the Winx Club. With season one being received fairly well, things went significantly downward in the ratings for season two, with the initial doubts of the show being flat and lacking magic coming out as more obvious with time. The show was canceled, and no one really complained.

9

‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ (2022–)

Created by J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay

While it might be safer to say that The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power never really had a dedicated audience, its second season was definitely less appreciated. Since the initial Lord of the Rings trilogy from the 2000s, filmmakers have struggled to replicate the movies’ otherworldly success. Even Peter Jackson, the trilogy director, tried to get back into it with The Hobbit trilogy, but the magic of his first trilogy could never be imitated. That’s why people’s initial reactions to The Rings of Power were one of overwhelm and skepticism.

The Rings of Power is a prequel to the well-known stories about Frodo and Bilbo Baggins; it follows events that take place thousands of years before them, showing the creation of the Rings of Power, as well as the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron. Some of its issues include condensing thousands of years of storyline in the books into several episodes, and taking on too many plots to make sense. While the critics gave the series some generosity and observed the show objectively, the audience’s consensus was that they were unhappy, with interest in the show declining after the first season.

8

‘Riverdale’ (2017–2023)

Created by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa

Riverdale ended recently, but if there were any fans that stuck with the entire show from 2017, those were hardcore believers in the story and its characters; or perhaps they just didn’t want to start something and not follow through. Though Riverdale‘s had ups and downs, when Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa adapted the story from an Archie Comics original, he managed to attract a wide audience with his mystery teen drama with fantasy elements.

Riverdale is a story about a group of high school students in the small titular town of Riverdale. When gruesome murders start happening in town, Archie (KJ Apa), Betty (Lili Reinhart), Jughead (Cole Sprouse), and Veronica (Camila Mendes) start investigating cases that carry more than just a murder mystery. The show’s first season was praised for great writing and characters, making it one of the more successful comic book adaptations. However, after the first season, Riverdale became an outlandish and campy representation of a teen drama; the writing was no longer as good, and people made compilations of awkward Riverdale moments on social media.

7

‘Once Upon a Time’ (2011–2018)

Created by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz

Though Once Upon a Time has an interesting premise – it’s a live-action adaptation of the world’s most famous fairy tales and fantasy stories – it’s easy for such a show to get lost in its own brilliance. With critics praising season one for a brilliantly innovative premise of reviving classic fairy tales, it was often put on lists of the most promising new shows and among the best of the year.

Once Upon a Time follows two parallel timelines – one set in the real world, where Emma (Jennifer Morrison) and her son Henry (Jared Gilmore) move to a small town in Maine called Storybrook; and the other set where all the fairy-tale characters live. Henry realizes that most Storybrook residents are actually specific story characters. For example, Mary Margaret (Ginnifer Goodwin) is Snow White, while David (Josh Dallas) is Prince Charming. With further seasons introducing more new characters, the show gradually lost viewership. By the end of the show, the viewership numbers were reduced by around five or six times. The show took on too many new characters, piling onto a simple plot; it became too much of an effort for people to watch Once Upon a Time.

6

‘Witches of East End’ (2013–2014)

Created by Maggie Friedman

Witches of East End was based on the novel of the same name by Melissa de la Cruz, which was one in a series of books that followed the Beauchamp family. The show was received well in its first season, often being called campy but fun; fans of the source material were not that happy with the adaptation, as it made the dark atmosphere of the book lighter, but there was still commotion when Witches of East End got cancelled after two seasons due to low viewership.

The show follows Joanna Beauchamp (Julia Ormond), a powerful witch and mother to new-generation witches, Freya (Jenna Dewan) and Ingrid (Rachel Boston). Unlike in the book, Freya and Ingrid don’t know about their and Joanna’s abilities; only after an incident happens that is blamed on Joanna, do they realize they’re powerful witches. While Witches of East End was one of the most viewed shows on networks during its first season, there was a lot of promise for the story going forward. After that, season two was welcomed with a lot less enthusiasm, and people abandoned the show during the season’s runtime for overcomplicated storylines and pacing issues.

5

‘Stranger Things’ (2016–2025)

Created by The Duffer Brothers

Stranger Things has seen ups and downs in terms of production, mainly the final, fifth season being affected by the writers’ strike in 2023. That could be why people kind of stopped caring what happens in Stranger Things, though that’s not the only reason. It started as a strong sci-fi/horror/fantasy story that many tried to replicate after its release. The show’s creators, the Duffer Brothers, resolved to make the show feel nostalgic and encapsulate the geek culture of the 1980s. Stranger Things is still one of Netflix’s most successful original projects.

The show follows a group of friends in their early teens: Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), and Will (Noah Schnapp). Will starts seeing unusual things and gets kidnapped one day; as the search for him goes, the rest of the boys encounter a girl with superpowers, Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown). Fans were happy to hear news of season two, because Stranger Things successfully evoked a retro nostalgia that was hard to shake. Still, when they began leaning too much into it in the later seasons, the show’s quality started to dwindle. It seemed like it became nostalgia bait a lot more, using the same premise again and again. They did manage to make a villain into one of the biggest heroes of the story, which is probably the best part of the latter seasons.

4

‘The Witcher’ (2019–)

Created by Lauren Schmidt Hissrich

The Witcher is a story by Andrzej Sapkowski, a Polish author who wrote eight novels about the eponymous witcher named Geralt of Rivia during the 1990s. The books were adapted into comic books first and then a highly-popular video game in the 2000s, until 2019, when Henry Cavill, a fan of the source material, stepped into Geralt’s shoes and starred in one of the most anticipated fantasy TV shows of the time. The first season was received well, and was true to the original story, often finding itself on a list of the best book adaptations.

The Witcher series centers on Geralt of Rivia (Cavill), but also on Princess Cirilla of Cintra (Freya Allan), who is Geralt’s “gift of destiny,” and Yennefer (Anya Chalotra), a sorceress; the story follows their adventures individually, until their timelines become intertwined. With all the praise of season one, expectations were high for The Witcher‘s later installments, but something didn’t feel right. Though season two wasn’t terrible, in the bigger scheme of things, The Witcher grew tired of the clichés it tried to adopt, and the viewership for season 3, according to stats, declined 30%.

3

‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’ (2018–2020)

Created by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa first developed Riverdale, and then connected Chilling Adventures of Sabrina to that universe. It wasn’t his idea, though, as the two shows were initially Archie Comics originals, adapted for the screen by Aguirre-Sacasa. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is also a darker reboot of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, a story about Sabrina Spellman (Melissa Joan Hart) and her two aunts, Zelda (Beth Broderick) and Hilda (Caroline Rhea), as well as her magical black cat, Salem (Nick Bakay). The show promised a darker twist on Sabrina’s life, with all the additions of witches worshipping various dark entities.

Sabrina (Kiernan Shipka) is a high-school student in Greendale; she is just beginning her education as a witch, and is learning from her aunts, Zelda (Miranda Otto) and Hilda (Lucy Davis), whom she also lives with. The first season, in which Sabrina comes into her identity as a half-human, half-witch, is interesting and a great twist on the well-known story. However, after the first season’s second half, the show becomes darker and crazier in certain ways. Though it was never meant to be a mild depiction of a witch’s life, it still became too loopy and out there for fans to take it seriously. Fun fact: Netflix had legal problems with the Satanic Temple over the show, which may point to its later episodes’ path.

2

‘American Gods’ (2017–2021)

Developed by Bryan Fuller and Michael Green

Neil Gaiman‘s American Gods was a big literary hit in the 2000s; blending dark fantasy with Americana and mythology, American Gods was, for a moment, the ultimate novel about ancient myths and legends set in modern times, told through modern characters. When the series was announced, expectations were high, and the first season met those expectations with great praise. People’s favorites were cast well, and the story followed the book closely; there was not a lot of room to make a mistake.

American Gods‘ protagonist is Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle), who is first seen being released from prison; sometime before, Shadow learns his wife Laura (Emily Browning) has died, so he hurries home for her funeral. Shadow encounters Mr. Wednesday (Ian McShane) during his trip home and becomes a part of a conflict between the Old and New Gods. Season one received widespread acclaim and awards, but it’s an obvious example of a show riding a high of its first season’s success. With season 2, the reviews were more mixed, while the third got some favorable comments before the show was canceled. American Gods suffered a change in showrunners, which was also a change in the overall result – feeling uninspired, dragging, and using beloved characters to buy time.

1

‘Heroes’ (2006–2010)

Created by Tim Kring

Heroes is one of the most promising shows of the 2000s. When it first aired, there was optimism in the air that a good sci-fi/fantasy show with superheroes would be the next great network series. Evoking the appearance of a classic comic book, the show’s visual design and storytelling felt unique, and the first season not only garnered critical and audience praise, but it was NBC’s biggest TV show during the airing of its first season.

Heroes follows regular people who realize they have superpowers, adding how their abilities impact their livelihood. Some of the main characters include Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia), who can imitate others’ abilities, Claire Bennett (Hayden Panettiere), who can regenerate, and Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka), who can manipulate space-time. The first season showed viewers likable characters to cheer for, but the later installments declined in popularity the further they went. The decline felt painfully obvious, but people really wished to cheer for Heroes; the later seasons have too many character filler episodes and too much of a convoluted plot that begins to feel irrelevant with each installment. As time went on, viewers gave up on the show that promised to be one of the greats.

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