Elsewhere in this forum there’s discussion of Star Trek: Voyager going on, which I’m not chiming in on because I don’t care. But as I glanced through the thread, it occurred to me that the most annoying thing about Voyager was its awesome inconsistency.
I don’t mean continuity, by the way; in that wise, Voyager is a pale shadow of the glorious madness that is Family Guy. Nor am I looking for series that started out rocky, improved over time, and perhaps, in latter seasons, lost ground.
What I mean is that you couldn’t TRUST Voyager to be good or bad on a consistent basis. In every season there were wonderfully compelling stories told, followed, as likely as not, by episodes that made Gene Roddenberry’s ghost scream in agony. Yes, there were plenty of stinkers like “Threshold,” or the inane Irish-township holodeck episodes; but there were also any number of compelling episodes, such as the one introducing Icheb. Paris and Chakotay episodes were generally cringe-worthy, but if the focus was on Seven or Torres, you’d want to watch; and if the focus was on Janeway or the Doctor, you could never tell…
Which brings us to the question of the thread: what TV series strike you as most inconsistent in quality, and why?
Well, speaking of Star Trek, I think that most of the series suffered from that issue.
Going back and watching TNG, for example, can be either very rewarding or very painful, depending on the episode. The original series also had consistancy issues, but not nearly as bad as TNG, in my opinion.
That’s the first thing that jumped to my mind. Some episodes of Star Trek - either series - are genuinely first rate television, and some are mind-bogglingly awful, often from the same season. Sometimes the show will veer from good to bad and back again in the same episode.
CSI has become very hit or miss. One week it’s great, the next it’s poor.
Disclaimer: I stopped watching Desperate Housewives midway through its second season. I read the threads here though, and one week I’ll be “Damn, maybe I should start watching again” and the next week it’s “Damn, I’m glad I freed up that hour.”
OK fine, most episodes are at least bearable, but I’ve literally had long laughing-turning-to-cough fits during certain episodes and been bored to sleep in others (I couldn’t stay awake throught that strange episode where Homer ends up on the steampunk-ish Avengers-style island).
X-Files jumps immediately to my mind. Some episodes are wonderfully atmospheric and creepy and then others just make you say “Why am I watching a show about the most needlessly complicated conspiracy ever theorized?”
Wasn’t that due to the schizophrenic nature of the show itself? Some of the “freak of the week” episodes were hilarious (trailer-park vampires is a personal favourite of mine) but trying to create an ongoing conspiracy subplot fails because the writer has no incentive to gradually work toward a clear resolution, as it would put him out of a job.
That’s my suspicion. I dropped out in season four when I realized that not only would they spin their wheels forever, they’d annoy me every time one of those wheel spinning episodes came on. But that’s what made the quality incredibly inconsistent.
I have to say it. Keeping Up Appearances. Episodes of utter hilarity followed up by episodes where the characters snigger and wink pensioner-style about some-one having a snifter.
The Twilight Zone was awesome, but it had some real heavy handed clunkers as well. We just overlook those, I think, because the great ones were SO great.
X-Files was inconsistent by design. I don’t think the quality ever varied though, it was always a well crafted show. The variety of it’s plots and it’s criss-crossing of genres could be understandably frustrating for some viewers, but I think it was always consistently acted and produced.
Babylon 5. And it was almost entirely written by JMS, so there is no-one to blame but him. You have highs like Passing Through Gethsemane and Severed Dreams, and lows like Grey 17 Is Missing and TKO.
I don’t know about incredibly inconsistent, but “My Name is Earl” feels inconsistent to me. I suppose it could be me, but some of the episodes just leave me cold while others make me hurt laughing.
I would again vote for Star Trek: TNG. As much as it pains me to admit, some episodes of that show were really embarrassing.
Not to hijack, but as an aside to the OP, if you’ve been watching a show long enough to notice how horribly inconsistent it is, do you keep watching it? Are the highs worth the lows for you?
I don’t remember ever turning off Star Trek, even knowing I was going to sit through another clunky, themed holodeck episode.
Twin Peaks, more towards the end of the series, had the tendency to veer off into soap opera land and the trials and tribulations of puppy love. Thankfully, I have a fast fast-forward thumb.
24 for the first two/three seasons had the “Adventures in Kim” thing as filler whenever Jack was in transit to somewhere else, which got old pretty quick. They did well in season five of dealing with transit time by cutting to Washington and the various political machinations there, but in season six they didn’t have anything to serve as filler and the whole season sucked.
I wouldn’t quite count TNG, because there was a definite method to its madness. That is, it started out low quality, but it went up slowly but surely, so by the 3rd season it was a consistenly good watch; and by the 7th season it was getting tired, but no so much that it had eroded all good will.
As to your question, the shows that I watch despite inconsistent shows are either (a) shows that start off very well (like Voyager; I thought its premiere episode rocked) or shows that I have some reason to think will improve over time (like TNG).
How many times have I yelled at the TV while watching the Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood?
The first season was apparently rushed. Character development arcs were sketchy. Most of the characters are deeply flawed. Captain Jack was not nearly as charming as he’d been while traveling with The Doctor.
But a few episodes were excellent. So I’ll be tuning in when Season 2 starts this month on BBCamerica.