top 5 pieces of media that make you think "what a waste of a good plot/character/setting/etc"?
Oh man, time for some hot takes apparently! Which, I could fill this list entirely with shows that could not live up to their first seasons or even first episodes, but I'll try to branch out a little more.
Unfortunately this is my primary feeling about Merlin, after all these years. It was such a good concept! They just didn't know what was most interesting about it or how to grow the characters in ways that kept it consistent in tone and fun to watch.
STAR WARS SEQUEL TRILOGY. "The Force Awakens" filled me with so much joy and then. the rest of it sure did happen. What do you MEAN you have Finn and Rey and Poe and THAT is what you do with them. And then you add Rose, a shining beacon in a second movie I overall didn't love, and you WASTE her???
I just recently read "A Pale Light in the Black" by K.B. Wagers and it had some good moments but given I started reading it hoping for a. space rescues and b. focus on the Boarding Games that feature majorly in the summary, but there wasn't enough of either for my taste, and particularly the latter really only focused on hand to hand matches, the least interesting part of the concept.
Okay now I am going to allow myself to shout out Teen Wolf, which got wildly unfocused and weird and kept making interesting character dynamics and then abandoning them. (I'm going to be mad about Erica Reyes forever, perhaps.)
I read "The Stars Too Fondly" by Emily Hamilton earlier this year and am still thinking about how it's a good concept that needed either more space or a different medium to thrive, it just missed the mark for me in ways I wish it hadn't.