The Good Place gets good in the season 1 finale
It starts out pretty good. It’s not like TNG or something where you’d say “No, start at season 3, and just don’t watch Code Of Honor.” The Good Place starts out watchable and fun, and then the season 1 finale has an “Oh SHIT!” moment and then you’ve gotta finish it.
Yeah, the thing about The Good Place is you can’t just start at the episode where things get really good, you gotta see the buildup to it
And you’ll watch season 1 again on your second watch, even though it has minimum Derek.
Season 1 of the wire is definitely this. I tried to get a friend to watch it and we started with the pilot and I could tell he was like “this is so boring”. It’s definitely a slower show but when shit pops off it pops hard.
My go-to example for this is Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Season one is overall quite rough, however s01e19 (second-to-last episode of the season) is IMO the first episode that shows true glimmers of promise. In season two the series starts to find its footing, by season three it’s proven itself to be Star Trek gold, and then the series manages to maintain its quality through to its seventh and final season.
Season 1 of DS9 was rough? Cries in TNG… 🤣
It is rough compared to the later stuff but, man, it got off to a WAY better start than TNG did… I mean, Riker had to grow a beard for the show to get good!
IMO DS9’s s1 is way worse than TNG’s, but that might be because TNG has a nostalgia factor for me from watching random episodes as a kid, and so by the time I did a full start-to-finish watch-thru I already knew the characters well and understood that the series would get better, whereas I was an adult when I first watched DS9 and went into it completely blind (after watching the first two-parter episode I nearly cried, because I was on a mission to watch all of the 20th century Star Treks, and there were seven seasons of this to slog through!? And now it’s my favorite Star Trek series of all time.)
Sisko’s beard also improved DS9
Very true!
He also had reverse Samson syndrome, had to lose his hair to gain power.
I think you mean episode 18, that one is the second-to-last of the season.
And that is exactly the episode I was thinking of, too. I didn’t know which episode number it was, I just remember when I was watching DS9, there was an episode with the filing clerk, and I thought, “Oh, this show is actually going to be great if it stays like this.” I just looked it up on IMDB, and it’s S1 E18.
Apparently it depends on whether you consider the series premiere as one episode or two; Wikipedia (which I used for reference) lists it as two separate episodes, providing a total s1 episode count of 20, vs imdb which lists it as one single episode, providing a total s1 episode count of 19. Memory Alpha lists the episode as s1e19, and I’m inclined to trust those nerds. At any rate I edited my comment to include the episode title for clarity.
Regardless, yeah, I think it’s probably a turning point episode for a lot of folks, and it’s the first of many war introspection episodes that help make the series timeless.
Oh, interesting. I’d go with Memory Alpha too, then. But yeah, definitely a pivot point in the series, and the first one that really took the post-war setting seriously.
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.
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.
Both Parks&Rec and Office were kinda rough in S1 and got significantly better is S2 I think.
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
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.
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
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.
Nice love the beard
Encounter At Farpoint was a fine pilot episode, and I’m tired of pretending its not.
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.
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.
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…
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.
Trailer Park Boys, EP2 or so.
Benidorm, EP3.Of course it’s The Office season 2. So, episode 7. Although Basketball (episode 6) is also pretty good, it’s definitely more part of the more dreary realistic season 1 feeling.
Prophecy Girl
Not sure why you’re being downvoted, season 1 of Buffy is pretty meh, but Prophecy Girl gives us the first example of what the series becomes, with the balance of humor and drama and horror.
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
Invincible. Halfway through S1 it’s like they fired all the original writers
Not TV, but I’ve told people to skip the first two books in the Discworld series, Sir Terry doesn’t really get into his stride till a little later, but book three is where his talent starts to shine.
Yeah, though even then there’s a lot of growth. Comparing The Theif of Time, Thud, or I Shall Wear Midnight to Sourcery just feels unfair to the latter.
Or start with Small Gods, everyone who likes discworld likes Small Gods. It stands alone, it’s clever, but has some of the early book style, and it’s regularly referenced by the fans.
The Good Place really takes off at the end of the first season.
No way. Episode one was a banger.
alsimoneau figured it out? That’s a new low…
Ted Danson’s reaction to that scene is too perfect… That one hurts
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
