CSI: Cyber

I completely agree that the quality of the storytelling has declined season by season. I went into season four with no expectations of the plot. I was watching purely for the pleasure of watching so many amazing actors go at it. Especially Frances Conroy: each season she's been on her character has been unique and fascinating. (Tangent: love me some Patti LuPone, but why, exactly was she on the show beyond them being able to say "Patti LuPone is on the show"?)

Starting in season two and especially in season four, it seems like the plotting was a combination of Mad-Lib books and the occasional "OMG! Amazing Celebrity Ryan Murphy Loves wants to be on the show!"

I watched CSI pretty faithfully years ago. In recent years, I've mostly watched CSI Miami as WEtv marathons the show every week and because I am shallow and like pretty things. I like shows that are very structured episode to episode -- that is, the same things happen in the same order, whether it's a chef saying they're going to make x, making x, tasting x and telling me how delicious x is or a crime being committed, CSIs investigating, CSIs making third act significant discovery, crime solved -- and will happily sit for hours on end watching CSI Miami.

Lord Gonchar said:

With all of that said, the one thing that has irked me about the show from the start is the "make it up as you go along" approach. I'm all for flying by the seat of your pants for creativity and spontaneity, but the viewer shouldn't feel the randomness on their end...and I do. And I find it distracting. With AHS the whole "we make it up as we go" thing feels more like an excuse than an explanation.

This is really well put. That's pretty much spot on with how I feel about it.

For me, the show has never been 'scary'

This pretty much sums up why I've been on the fence with AHS from the start (and likely why I prefer Asylum to Murder House--the latter was much more soap opera than the former). A "horror" show should at least attempt to be scary. The only thing they seem to achieve (or try to, anyway) is to shock and/or creep out the audience.

Did anybody like Empire? I caught an episode and am hooked. Gotta watch it all after I get home from vacation but I think it's really good.

I mentioned Empire earlier and I'm in the middle of watching the 2hour OMG finale right now. I've never missed a minute.
Viola Davis will probably pick up the Emmy, but in my book Taraji P. Henson is deserving. She's amazing.

Tekwardo said:

Not only do they edit shows in syndication, they also speed them up. I just read an article recently that they speed up the show by a fraction to get an extra 2 min. for commercials.

Comparison of Seinfeld original broadcast vs syndicated rerun on TBS.