fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2392 ]

[ SECRET POST #2392 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2392 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 064 secrets from Secret Submission Post #342.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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I'm still busy kind of marveling at how bad season 1 of Buffy is. Not so much because the plots were bad (although they were, IMO), but because the whole atmosphere and tone and style and attitude of the show in season 1 is so creepily off compared to the rest of the show. Then I wonder if my complaints about the style are interfering with my ability to appreciate the face-value merit of the season 1 episodes because I'm too busy comparing.

Anyway, anyone else wanna vent or joke about how a show you think is really good had a godawful (or just really weird/jarring) first season, with examples and stuff?

Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Because http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8mSO7G_q3o

OMG, STTNG took more than just one year to get good. But wow, that first season bites. I have a hard time picking a worst episode, but 'The Last Outpost' is definitely a worthy candidate.

LOL yes. But I think that season 2 had a few really great episodes (like Measure of a Man, which is one of the best episodes in the whole franchise IMO) and the isolated good scenes, ideas, and plotlines tended to be better and more numerous than the isolated good bits of season 1.

Hah! The Naked Now is totally worse than The Last Outpost. The Last Outpost would be a middling-good if weirdly TOS-y story if the Ferengi weren't so ridiculous and unconvincing, whereas the only redeeming element of The Naked Now is probably Tasha and Data's fling...and even that was better for the impact of its existence than its execution. :P

But I could totally argue about what the worst episode of TNG season 1 was all day...

Edited 2013-07-22 02:26 (UTC)

Re: Shows with terrible first seasons

(Anonymous) - 2013-07-22 05:55 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Shows with terrible first seasons

intrigueing - 2013-07-22 18:07 (UTC) - Expand

(reply from suspended user)

Parks and Rec.

I love the show, and it's my favorite one on right now. I think it's really well-written, acted, and is amazing.

But it took me a few tries to get into it because I couldn't get through the first season. The first season that's only 6 episodes, I might add.

Yeah, it really took them a while to get into gear - even the second season (although it's definitely really good and not borderline difficult to watch like the first season) isn't really firing on all cylinders.

But once they got going, they really got going. Such a great show.

Seconding Parks and Rec and Star Trek TNG. I have a soft spot for Star Trek TNG's first season, but only because I think some of it is entertaining or interesting to compare to later episodes -- seeing how drastically something changed, or how the seeds of something good were sown back in season 1, etc. Parks and Rec...I kinda just pretend that season doesn't exist because it's one of those deals where the incongruity is very difficult to make sense of.

And Buffy, YES. It's the weird un-Buffy-ish style of Buffy S1 that weirded me way more than its general badness.

Also, I submit to you MASH. Not "terrible" exactly, but very...um...wrong-feeling. Like a sense of "WTF are they doing behaving this way? Do they think this is a normal sitcom??? There's a war on!!!" and the sitcominess felt so forced and fake too. But this only applied to the first half of the first season, not the whole first season.

Also, Torchwood. I don't really like Torchwood apart from Children of Earth and I've only seen about half the episodes, but season 2 definitely >>> season 1.

Right from the beginning, TPTB on the show were fighting with TPTB at the network to get rid of the laugh track. It was sort of a big deal that they finally got permission to get rid of it during OR scenes in the second season. Personally I enjoy the first season, but it really does seem like a different (better) show after that.

Oh, I love several episodes from MASH's first season, there's some real awesome classics there, even the light-hearted comedic ones -- The Army-Navy Game, Tuttle, and The Longjohn Flap come to mind, never mind Sometimes You Hear The Bullet. My main problem with season 1 of MASH was that those episodes would suddenly be weirdly interspersed with sudden goofy cheery storylines that wouldn't have felt out of place in Mary Tyler Moore or something.

I never realized that they didn't cut the OR laugh track until season 2! I thought OR scenes were always laugh-free. Huh, it must be one of those things that my mind just kinda tunes out.

(also sjfhgdsjhfgsdkfgd I love being able to fangirl over MASH in-depth like this :D)

I actually liked the first season of Buffy. Sure it was campy but I thought it was fun.

I came here to say this. I'm watching Buffy for the first time and while I thought season two was stronger, season one was still enjoyable. It's season four that I'm having trouble getting through, which worries me because I've heard season six was the absolute worst. I'm not sure I can finish the series if things actually go downhill from where I am right now.

If it helps, season 5 is totally fucking awesome (the second best season after season 3 IMO) and with a WAY better arc than season 4. It doesn't go downhill until after the season 6 premiere IMO, and even that is a point of contention. Basically, no, it's not all downhill from where you are :)

It wasn't [i]terrible[/i], but Supernatural's first season is the weakest of the bunch.

Gonna really disagree with you there. All things considered, the first three seasons were the strongest.

Re: Shows with terrible first seasons

(Anonymous) - 2013-07-22 00:20 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Shows with terrible first seasons

(Anonymous) - 2013-07-22 22:42 (UTC) - Expand

Both agree and disagree. Every show takes some time to really hit its stride, and SPN is no exception. Also--and this is probably going to be a topic that eternally divides the fandom--I'm one of those heretics who think the show didn't fully come into its own until Season 4.

However, having said all that, IMO Seasons 6 and 7 are about tied for the weakest, with 1 coming next.

All Joss Whedon's first seasons suck. Especially Firefly's. The second season was better.

...I see what you did there.

IAWTC in its entirety.

;-)

Pretty much every show had a rocky first season. Show's that hit the ground running are the rarity. Trouble is that Network Execs aren't willing to let most shows find their feet (the exemption is for show's with a "name" attached and an exec that stands to lose face if it gets cancelled quickly, of the Whedon shows that would be Angel and the upcoming Agents of Shield which will both easily survive for two seasons on name-power) these days and are trigger happy on cancellation in favor of middle of the road reality game shows which are hard to screw up. Or do well.

This so much, which is why several shows get a trial run in the spring with a smaller season run, such as The Office, Parks and Rec, Parenthood, and I'm sure I could find more if I looked.

Friends was the show that changed the game of being a hit almost immediately off the bat. Seinfeld is a classic example of taking a few years to become the hit it did.

Law & Order. It's not that it was bad, per se, I just have a hard time getting past the fact that there wasn't a single woman in the main cast. Not one. I find it really jarring to watch.

Also, SVU's first season had some decent episodes, but overall... eh. It's weird how much they focused on Stabler's home life--and only Stabler's home life, none of the other detectives. And I mean, I love the little tidbits of personal information we get about L&O characters, but it was weird to just single out one of them.

The first couple of episodes of Person of Interest felt... off. Kind of wooden.

But then it inexplicably became amazing. I don't know.

Seconding this, except it was about 6 or 7 eps for me. Like, it suddenly looked at itself and went, "OH HEY I am not just some case of the week show. I got me some recurring characters that's right I forget no one."

Re: Shows with terrible first seasons

(Anonymous) - 2013-07-22 00:55 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Shows with terrible first seasons

cloud_riven - 2013-07-22 01:16 (UTC) - Expand

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