Inspired by a dig on an episode I happen to love in another thread…
These are episodes you love, not like or think are okay that general Fandom mostly agrees are terrible.
“Tuvix” from Voyager. I love this episode. It is one of my favorite episodes of Voyager. I am willing to overlook ludicrous science if the episode is interesting or fun.
For that same reason, I also happen to love “Genesis” from TNG. It is just plain fun and entertaining and has tons of atmosphere.
“Expose” from Lost. The Nikki and Paulo Episode. One of my top five Lost Episodes. I’m pretty sure even the people who played Nikki and Paulo hate it though.
“Puppet Show” from Buffy. The twist in this episode was when I realized this show was something special. people wrote it off as a bad example form a mostly bad season but I love it. Also the tag at the end is a riot.
Tuvix was exactly the episode I was coming in here to name. There’s a lot of terrible in Voyager, Tuvix isn’t it.
And people think The Puppet Show was bad? That was an awesome episode. (Also, checking, it’s generally listed as pretty mediocre, but totally at the top of the season.)
Speaking of Buffy, though, I loved Doublemeat Palace. It spoke to me at the time, and I’m certain it would bring back memories of the soul crushing, health-destroying job at the time.
Yeah, people don’t like Puppet Show? That was a pretty great episode. Especially because they make you think you’re watching a shitty evil puppets premise that’s been done 1000 times for the first 2/3ds of it.
Edit: In Doctor Who, while I can’t really say I adore it, I think I like the episode Love and Monsters a lot more than most people. I really liked the way it showed a silly conspiracy organization becoming more about companionship than conspiracy.
Expose was good, it finally got rid of two useless characters that just showed up out of nowhere in a fun, lighthearted ep.
Not a fan of Puppet Show, though I’ll take it over the Pack or that one with the giant praying mantis lady any day.
As for ones I love that get a lot of hate, I think Spock’s Brain is one of the quintessential Star Trek episodes. Yes, it’s a bit goofy in concept, but somehow it works. For me anyway.
This may get me stoned while being burned at the stake by Babylon 5 fans, but I was actually impressed by Infection, generally regarded as the worst episode of the series. The criticisms are legitimate, but (to avoid being more than mildly spoilery) a particular character is demonstrating, again, a form of courage that basically borders on suicidal, and rather than simply having praise heaped upon him, is actually called on it. It was at that moment that I realized the show was something special.
Yep, I never got the hate for Expose. I hated Nikki and Paulo just like everyone else, but we got a good episode that killed them off in the most horrific way possible. Plus, the return of Arzt!
I didn’t know that was hated episode because I watched BSG after it aired. I like that one.
I’m going to add in “Fly” from Breaking Bad. But I’m a sucker for bottle episodes and I liked Walt’s monologue at the end about meeting Jane’s dad and how it would’ve been the perfect night to die.
I always thought if Vince Gilligan wanted to really piss off his fans, he would’ve revealed in the finale that Walt really did die that night and everything else had been an “Owl Creek”-esqe dream.
“The Idiot’s Lantern” and “Midnight” are two of my favorite Doctor Who episodes. “Midnight” seems to be a real love-it-or-hate-it ep (I’ve seen it appear on lists of both the best and worst of NuWho) but nobody else seems to like “The Idiot’s Lantern.” Ah, well. More for me.
“Puppet Show” was one of those episodes with, I am almost certain, a revisionist history going on. I distinctly recall people largely hating it, and pointing to it as an indication that the series was stupid and failing under the weight of its own conceit. But somewhere in the last two decades, it’s become respectable.
I’ll go one worse. I actually like “Beer Bad.” Beat that. I don’t love it, so maybe it’s a bit of a cheat off the OP, but I like it, and quite a bit. I cannot explain myself, and I’m properly hush about it in mixed company.
I don’t believe I’ve ever discussed this topic IRL but I do recall a thread here where someone said they hated the episode of Everyone Loves Raymond ( so I’ve kind of lost the *everyone *part of the question) where Ray insults the father of one of the kids’ friends who is a janitor. I don’t remember who the poster was but I believe they said they found it awkward to the point of being unwatchable. It is definitely one of my favorites.
This. The problem wasn’t Exposé itself but Nikki and Paulo in general. If we had to be subjected to Nikki and Paulo, Exposé was the perfect way to get rid of them.
That episode has one of the best scenes/lines in the series, Tigh Telling Helo he better get the doc to look at that hand
that episode would be totally different if you clipped out about 20 seconds, remove the one brief scene where Lee finds out about the child slavery and the entire show becomes far less black and white. I actually clipped this and showed it to a friend and they were thought Lee was a bit crazy for killing the guy.
