Wow, I haven’t watched a single episode of any of these shows. I haven’t even heard of most of them. I’m afraid there are way more non-sci fi viewers like me than ardent fanatics to suit advertisers’ tastes.
Firefly is excellent. Heartily recommend.
Jericho might have been saved if the plot went faster. Like bringing in the Texas secession sooner.
Terminator the Sarah Connor Chronicles was mediocre, but their last cliff hanger destroyed the whole premise of the shows.
Dark Angel died when they brought in all the non-human looking genetically enhanced people. A trench digger who looks like a mole, engineered from a project worth millions of dollars per person created - instead of an automated trench digging drone? It lost all feasibility.
Invasion, too, needed to move faster. The townspeople seeing the lights falling from the sky should have taken place sooner. It was glacial in pace, and too much mystery too slowly revealed loses the modern audience.
Caprica was dense, and the mob in ancient/future society intertwined with AI and monotheist terrorists hit subjects all dealt with heavy-handed.
The best episodes of Dollhouse, in my opinion, were the unaired episodes (available on Amazon instant video) where the mind-wipe has been turned into a weapon. And it is the original Dollhouse that gives sanctuary and hope and an eventual solution.
Terra Nova probably failed because the bad guys are evil industrialists. When the plot twist isn’t multiple routes in or that they ARE altering the future, but bad guys want to mess up the new Eden, you’re a classic trope with no interesting story to tell.
Farscape was running out of plot lines and ways to get the secret out of the astronaut. The follow up movies to say what happened to Areyn and the baby were farcical but sufficient. Another season would have been warped.