Bob’s Burgers, Season 3.
Seasons 1 and 2 the seeds were there, but on the other hand they were trying to be yet another Adult-Swim style “edgy” show in the wake of Family Guy. Once that phase passed, the show found a real heart while the humor and storytelling grew up a bit. Now, it’s been one of the most genuinely special things on television for a long time.
Madoka magica. Starts like the average random magical girl anime until episode 3 than suddenly deconstructs everything giving you an amazing whiplash. I had to beg a friend of mine to watch until ep3 because he absolutely could not stomach the first episode. He thanked me later
Madoka is like a blend of Sailor Moon, Made in Abyss and a drop of LSD for the artists
Parks & Recs season one was pretty different from the rest of the show - not necessarly bad, just different, e.g. several popular characters didn’t exist yet. TBH I don’t remember when exactly they introduced substantial changes, but I think it was the start of season two.
Season 2, Episode 21 is the “real” start of the show IMHO. It’s the episode where Chris and Ben arrive, Mark takes a job somewhere else, and the gang celebrates April’s 21st birthday at the Snakehole Lounge. Also, most of the show’s eventual couples are also paired up in that episode - Leslie/Ben, Ann/Chris, April/Andy, and even Tom/Lucy.
i saw some clips of that show, went to watch it, and realised the rest of the epilodes were just padding around the clip-worthy stuff. it was so hollow.
I found that it had a lot of substance. Great show.
This is how I feel about it. I remember loving it when it was first airing. I did a rewatch a couple years back and couldn’t stand it. Can’t say I like a single character outside of Andy.
I feel like season one was trying too hard to be The Office, and then in season two it sheds that to become its own entity. I’ve heard that the writers sincerely considered s1’s less-than-stellar critical response and made changes to s2 accordingly (e.g. making Leslie Knope more likable and less dumb). It’s definitely a “don’t judge it until you’ve gotten at least part way through season two” series.
Most people say the start of Season 3 as Mark is off the show at the end of season 2 and Chris and Ben become full time characters, but the first Tammy episode is in season 2 so that’s my vote. It’s just too damn funny to pass over.
Parks & Recs is a very typical show that evolves from edgy comedy into feel-good romcom. American The Office did the same, Schitt’s Creek did the same, Superstore did it. At this point I’m not even sure if it’s by accident (the shows responding to what the audience wants) or if it’s by design (“let’s make typical show that goes from edgy to romcom”).
That’s a crazy point. Huh. Yeah I can’t think of any examples of that kind of show that doesn’t besides the absolute unit that is Always Sunny.
New girl did it too
Its because writing jokes forever gets harder and harder with every new season
But any old chump can write the characters falling in love and having their goals come to fruition and blah blah
I think it’s also because quirky characters get boring fast. So you can either keep making everyone crazier and crazier (like Veep or Archer) or you pivot into a romcom.
Archer was great for the “let’s start of the rails and see how far we can get from them” factor
Both Parks&Rec and Office were kinda rough in S1 and got significantly better is S2 I think.
The Venezuela sister city episode season 2 episode 5 is where it showed its true potential.
The humor lands, the characters have some consistency, and the vibe is consistent with the rest of the show. Yes, it was firing on all cylinders with Ben and Chris, but this episode is where it showed its stuff.
If you disagree, right to jail. Right away. No trial, no nothing. I have the best opinion… because of jail.
Disagree? Straight to jail.
Agree, but so strongly it seems rehearsed? Surprisingly, also jail.
We have the best agreements in the world, because of jail.
Every one I have forced to sit through the first 3 episodes of Red Dwarf has gone on to watch every episode and now incorporates quotes from the show in normal conversation.
That’s because there are no bad episodes of Red Dwarf
Idk they had me from episode 1. Best episode though imo is tikka to ride
If a show is not good I’m not watching it. It has exactly 1 episode to catch my attention. There are too many shows to waste time watching things I don’t like.
That’s an absolutely crazy viewpoint to have lol.
It’s also uniquely positioned to set you up for mostly bad television, because many shows widely considered some of the best television ever made take a few episodes or even a full season before they really take off, but most shows I’ve seen that really nail episode one are more often than not downhill affairs that came about during the rise of streaming where they put all the effort into the beginning of the show to hook you and get you to binge it and then they don’t bother to put any effort into the back end.
100% disagree. The best shows I’ve seen would include for example Sopranos, The Wire, Veep, Archer, Mr Inbetween, Battlestar Galactica or Succession. All are the best because they are good from the first to the last episode and often evolve in unexpected ways. What you’re thinking about are mediocre TV shows that start without good idea of what they are trying to do and pivot after couple of episodes. Those are not good shows in my opinion. They might become watchable with time but never become great. There’s enough great shows out there not to waste time on watchable ones. The idea that there are shows that put all effort into beginning and shows that get better with time is just silly. Shows like that definitely exists but there are many shows that are just great (or bad, or mediocre) throughout.
On the contrary, they’re considered the best of what TV has to offer. Breaking Bad, Star Trek TNG, DS9, The Office, Parks & Rec, The Expanse, The Wire, All have rough or slow starts that famously take at least several episodes to get going lol.
Except for The Wire (which doesn’t have bad episodes) I didn’t like any of those shows (TNG is decent). It’s a matter of taste. Most people like different shows than I do. I’ve seen most of those shows till the end and for me they turn mediocre pretty fast. I know what types of shows I like and I really don’t have to watch whole seasons to find out if I will enjoy the show or not. I’m not missing any great shows because for me great shows start strong.
From your list I’m judging you like shows that are popular. Many shows react to feedback from the audience and pivot after couple of episodes. For you those shows ‘start slow’. For the the first, original episodes are the best. Once they turn into shows and all the other I lost interest.
They’re not shows I like they’re just widely considered some of the best TV shows ever made. Including The Wire which very famously takes a few episodes to get going. You also mentioned you like Archer which as we all know fell apart in later seasons so clearly you aren’t that concerned about consistent quality.
It sounds like you just aren’t a fan of good TV and have very niche tastes which is OK too.
Fair point. I’m definitely not a fan of what is widely considered good TV. I mostly dislike the shows are are considered “the best” like Breaking Bad or The Bear. Maybe it is specific to the types of shows I like but really good shows start strong because they are original and then keep instead of pivoting to the more common tastes.
(the last 1-2 seasons of Archer were not great but hey, they made amazing show for like 10 years straight. that’s still great in my book).
Archer takes a huge nose-dive in quality, though. I found season 9 (Danger Island) practically unwatchable, as if they’d fired all their writers and hired a new team from temu, and haven’t been able to continue to the end. (I felt bad for the voice actors, because they still bring it like always)
I liked it almost till the very end. Last two seasons are not that good. But as I said in another comment. It had a very long run and there’s still a great show in there.
I had to watch the Wire’s first episode 3 separate times before I had any motivation to continue on with it
You should do a reverse one lol. For me that would be family guy: first few seasons are funny af then…a very steep drop
Same for Game of Thrones
I remembered Game of Thrones being fun to watch but my memory severely downplayed the quality due to how the end went. I picked up Season 1 dirt-cheap at a thrift store and rewatched it. Gods, it was good then…
Go watch the one with brett.Kavanaugh it’s great
For me, it was the Big Bang Theory. The first two seasons were great, third season was good, fourth season was kinda meh, and I stopped watching partway through the fifth season. From what I gathered, as the show gained popularity, they changed it from being a show for nerds, to being for “normal” people who know a nerd.
Characters strayed too far from who they were so that everyone would have their happily ever after.
This is called “Jumping the Shark” after a Happy Days episode where The Fonz literally jumps a shark while water-skiing, and the show was mostly downhill in quality there and after.
The opposite, and an answer to OP’s question is “Growing the Beard” due to Star Trek: The Next Generation’s apparent increase in quality after Will Riker grew a beard.
Encounter At Farpoint was a fine pilot episode, and I’m tired of pretending its not.
Nice love the beard
I wish I’d stopped watching The Walking Dead partway through season 5, whenever Rick and friends arrive at Alexandria, but before they go inside.
Sure, there’s plenty of good episodes/moments afterward, but without spoiling anything, that’s also when a lot of the show’s bullshit really ramps up.
The Walking Dead was also the first thing that came to my mind. I think I eventually stopped in season 7-8 or something and never went back.
Recently I was thinking about rewatching the first season. Have you watched it again?
Oh, I go back to the beginning every now and again, usually for fitting background noise when I’m on a Project Zomboid kick.
I forget exactly when I’d stopped watching the first time, probably when the show made Negan’s introduction into a cliffhanger. Or whenever Carl was killed off, but I forget exactly when.
Tried to push through to the Whisperers arc once though, but I made the mistake of getting invested in a new character after the time skip, someone I thought had a lot of interesting potential… and they were killed off to make the villains’ introduction more “serious”. I thought it was a huge waste. I don’t have interest in finishing the show anymore, nor any of the spinoffs aside from Rick’s miniseries.
Black mirror Episode 2 lol
They never managed to recapture the horror of the first episode although a couple of times they got close. Netflix is not even trying though, black mirror used to be the only unbingeable show where you had to let each episode sit with you and think about how you feel about it. Now it’s twee sci-fi with happy endings. I could just watch old star trek for that.
When I switched from the One Piece Anime to the One Piece Manga. I am sorry, but the Toei adaptation is a fancy power point presentation. So. Many. Static. Shots.
I’ve heard One Pace is good, but I’ve never compared it to one piece
The newer arcs are good in that aspect. But the problem of outdated sound design persists.
I didn’t watch a lot of the newer arcs, but I found Wano to suffer this exact problem, which was dissapointing. I had high hopes after they slightly modified the artstyle to look more traditional.
I meant after wano. I’m watching egghead and the animation is a lot more fluid. It looks plain at times, but the static shots have lessened
i see, might give egghead a shot myslef :3
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. had to vamp for too long before “Turn, Turn, Turn” but it got better and better the loopier it got, and the farther from the canon universe. And yet it’s worth watching the early eps because things are set in place that the show runners fulfill later. In some cases much much later, and in some very satisfying ways.
I loved the second half of season 1 of that show, but then I hated season 2 so much that I refused to watch any more of it.
You should try Season 3, see if you still hate it
Perhaps someday, I will introspect to find that the name Daisy Johnson no longer makes me break out in hives.
Invincible. Halfway through S1 it’s like they fired all the original writers
I remember putting on Kevin can fuck himself, and being super bored and not sure wth was going on. What was I supposed to be watching here. I turned it off. Wasn’t until I heard someone describing it’s message, and I dived back in. Man that was a ride! Pure brilliance. I love that it ties up, too. It was never made to be a long run, they don’t do that tired thing of teasing new concepts, to never answer them, because they were beating a dead horse. It’s just bam, all in, all tied up. But so delicious.
Not that it was bad before, but the dark comedy of Succession didn’t really click for me until the “Boar on the Floor” scene, Season 2 episode 3.
Huh. I never made it through season one because I just couldn’t stand every character, and didn’t want to keep spending time with them.
Succession really hit home for me when I realized that every single main character in the show is just awful. I kept trying and failing to find the one I should have sympathy for.
I think that was part of my initial reaction. I have a hard time getting into shows where everyone is horrible. But this scene gave me a new angle to appreciate the show, and it set the right mindset for enjoying the rest.
I loved it from Episode 1.
The Good Place really takes off at the end of the first season.
No way. Episode one was a banger.
Personally I consider The Good Place one of the rare shows that is solid all the way through without a single bad or weak episode, however the end of season one is certainly where it goes from great to fantastic.
For me, the twist at the end of season one retroactively makes the rest of season one better
alsimoneau figured it out? That’s a new low…
Ted Danson’s reaction to that scene is too perfect… That one hurts
First season on Parks and Rec is not good. Redid the concept and one character season 2 and was awesome season 3 onwards
Parks and rec has the same issue trailer park boys has.
Season 1 is absolutely pure to the format and is therefore technically superior, but the characters and situations you love dont materialise until later.
Gradual character development is totally normal, just like acquaintances take a while to turn into friends and later turn into really good friends. But that doesn’t devalue the good times you have with acquaintanaces. I enjoyed Parks & Rec and Trailer Park Boys right from the start, and then they both got better.
Parks and Rec does not follow the pattern you describe. Season 2 was a big format and tone switch.
Its been a while since I seen it, but they both try to be mockumentaries with talking to the cameraman for plot exposition, and then they both give up on any attempt at realism with it quite quickly right?
Unless im forgetting something crucial
P&R dropped one primary cast member in season 2 and rewrote the rest of the characters significantly. Changed personalities and shifted relationships, it was a big shift in tone and cast.
They scaled back a lot of inter-character drama, made all the characters more relatable, and made the depicted workplace more cohesive and less adversarial.
Braking Bad, after 5th or 6th episode.
Season 2 was such a drag though. I love the Vince universe but I almost dropped it after spending months to get through S2. Then it actually got good and Better Call Saul is one of my favourite shows of all time now.
Took me a few times to get into BCS, even after loving Breaking Bad. Eventually, it did take the top spot between the two, but it’s such a slow burn. Plus all the stuff with his brother just annoyed the hell out of me.
Michael McKean kept me on board. He played it so perfectly.
