The weepy face syndrome

Some TV shows:
Huff
The L Word
Six Feet Under
The OC
... have many things in common: Excellent cinematography, good stories, great actors, a good sense of humor.
And those particular ones have one more thing in common, what I call the-late-season-one-weepy-face-syndrome.
I am not sure what happens, but it might be that the writers/editors feel that they have to Up The Interest so as to make it to a second season of the show. I don't know, but the fact is that those shows late in Season One just seemed to lose their sense of fun, and the comedy which lifted the shows so nicely. Things got weepy and serious, and the characters f***ed up their lives way beyond what was in character, or necessary, they just started making oodles of bad choices.
As a result the shows got boring. What a pity.

Especially since some shows demonstrate it this not necessary. Of course all the great comedy shows. And also The West Wing, Gilmore Girls, and The Sopranos.
The Sopranos, actually, I had a realization about (after watching five seasons!): that it is a comedy! A sometimes dark and certainly subtle comedy, sure, but a comedy none the less. Just one more thing that goes to show that we are not in Kansas anymore, as it were, and that this is the golden age of TV.