5 TV Shows Hyped As Masterpieces That Disappointed Massively

5 TV Shows Everyone Thought Were Going To Be Masterpieces But Failed Emily Watson looking serious in Dune Prophecy By  Ben Sherlock Published 32 minutes ago Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock. Sign in to your ScreenRant account Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap

From Dune: Prophecy to The Book of Boba Fett, some TV shows were hyped up as the next big thing, but ended up failing miserably. When a network or streaming service has a new show coming out, it’s up to the marketing team to build hype around it and get people excited to watch it. But it’s possible to overhype a show.

Westworld was supposed to be HBO’s next big blockbuster show, but it was much too confusing to attract a mainstream audience. The Witcher was supposed to be the next Game of Thrones, but it was too unfaithful to its source material — and, even more bafflingly, it replaced Henry Cavill with Liam Hemsworth.

The Witcher

Henry Cavill in looking serious as Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher

When Netflix turned The Witcher series of books and video games into a TV show, it was billed as the next Game of Thrones. Henry Cavill was the perfect casting choice for Geralt of Rivia, and his Last of Us/Mandalorian-style lone-wolf-and-cub relationship with Ciri was a great dramatic backbone for the series. But the show ultimately fell far short of its ambitions.

Although it started off relatively faithful to the source material in season 1, The Witcher deviated from the books drastically after that. Cavill was always 100% committed, but the series itself didn’t live up to his performance as Geralt — and despite being the one thing about the show that worked, Cavill was eventually replaced with the much less charismatic Liam Hemsworth.

Vinyl

Three characters behind a mixing table in Vinyl.

In 2016, Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger teamed up to co-create an HBO drama about the 1970s rock ‘n’ roll scene in New York. Jagger had the first-hand experiences and Scorsese had the cinematic talent to make this one of the greatest TV shows ever made. But it ultimately didn’t land and ended up being canned after just one season.

Vinyl got off to a terrific start in its big-budget pilot episode, directed by Scorsese, but as its 10-episode run went on, it settled into a pretty familiar formula. It was basically just Mad Men, set a few years later with the advertising business swapped out for the music business. It was nowhere near as unique and exciting as a Scorsese/Jagger collab sounded.

The Book Of Boba Fett

Temuera Morrison and Ming-Na Wen in The Book of Boba Fett

After Boba Fett made his triumphant return in The Mandalorian, Star Wars fans couldn’t wait to see more from this badass bounty hunter. When Lucasfilm announced that Boba would be getting his own series, spun off from The Mandalorian, it sounded like a no-brainer: a bounty hunter show like The Mandalorian, but without Mando’s moral compass.

But The Book of Boba Fett turned out to be a bitter disappointment. Boba was nowhere near the Stormtrooper-slaying badass he was in The Mandalorian; he took Jabba the Hutt’s throne and became a weirdly benevolent leader who wanted to do some good for the community. He kept taking off his helmet every chance he got.

It didn’t even seem like Boba Fett; it was like a new character in Boba Fett’s clothes. The action fell far short of the standard set by Robert Rodriguez in The Mandalorian. The biker gang chase was the worst offender: it was hilariously slow and unexciting. The Book of Boba Fett should’ve been a gritty revenge thriller, but it was basically a live-action cartoon.

Westworld

Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Robert Ford in Westworld

After cornering the fantasy market with Game of Thrones, HBO hoped to launch a sci-fi alternative with Westworld. Westworld was supposed to be HBO’s next Thrones-sized blockbuster show, but it ended up being much too complicated to capture a mainstream audience. The first season was certainly intriguing, but it only got more and more befuddling from there.

The original Michael Crichton movie is a silly little sci-fi western about a futuristic Wild West-inspired theme park full of robot cowboys who go haywire and attack the guests. But in the TV show, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy expanded that goofy high-concept premise into a deep philosophical exploration of identity and artificial intelligence and violent media.

The first season was a big ratings hit, but the subsequent seasons alienated viewers with their increasingly confounding storytelling. In the end, HBO canceled the show before the creators could wrap up the narrative in a fifth and final season, and the whole series was removed from HBO Max. Hardly the smash hit HBO was hoping for.

Dune: Prophecy

Valya, along with Princess Ynez and Keiran Atreides, escape to Arrakis in Dune: Prophecy Season 1 Ep 6

Denis Villeneuve adapted the unadaptable with his two-part movie version of Dune, and that original book is just the tip of the iceberg in Frank Herbert’s Dune-iverse. Warner Bros. spied a new blockbuster franchise and didn’t waste any time looking for new ways to cash in on it. On paper, an HBO drama set in the world of Dune sounded amazing.

Set 10,000 years before the birth of Paul Atreides, Dune: Prophecy was an opportunity to explore new corners of Herbert’s world, with new characters and storylines, unrestrained by a PG-13 rating. But it ended up being a massive let-down. It lacked Villeneuve’s visual verve, all the characters spelled out their emotions in dialogue, and it was basically just Game of Thrones in space.

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