Where did this show start to go wrong?

Lets face it, season one and two were great campy fun. Even 3 and 4 had a lot to enjoy. But then the show really started becoming a turgid mess, beginning with the whole vampire religion plotline.

But for me, the first moment the show really faltered was when they did the subplot of Jason being captured by the werepanthers, being bitten repeatedly and used as a potential breeder.

He suffered a sort of similar fate in the books, but readers know he became a werepanther from the bites (those bitten become half breeds- who actually turn into a half man/half animal creature, unlike the full breeds to change fully into the actual animal when they turn.

However in the show, after several episodes of his capture, and eventual escape which was anti-climatic, Jason awaits his transformation- and nothing happens....Because it was so awesome having this arc culminating in no payoff whatsoever.

For me, this was the first instance of poor writing where randomness ensued for no reason (other than the whims of the writers)

After this, we had characters make entire personality changes from season to season (and sometimes episode to episode) for no viable reason.

Bill goes from good guy to good guy with shady past, to jerk, to outright supervillian and eventually an overpowered vampire beast god, just for that to be dropped into him being an enigmatic self serving jerk, and then complete 180 reversal into being a nice guy again.

And this is just ONE example.

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