Eh, I wouldn’t say that. There has already been one episode of season two (“Sweet Vitriol”) that was IMO pretty poor.
I disagree. I lurked on a couple Severance subreddits where they discussed the episode a lot, and a bunch of people said the same thing: “It’s slow!” and “Nothing happened!” and “Where are the main four?” and “Too much of it was just driving through bleak landscapes!”
No offense to these folks (everybody likes different things) but I feel like the haters are mostly the no-attention-span crowd who are missing the point of the episode. Yeah, it didn’t have Helly and Mark S boinking under the desks, or more weirdness from the main four on the severed floor. But it did have a lot of important backstory, and revealed some very interesting things about Cobel and why she was the way she was. It’s, IMO, an integral part of the tapestry they’re weaving with each of the episodes, and I think when the series is complete, it will hold up a lot better even for some of the haters.
Plus, it’s the shortest episode! It’s only 37 minutes long!
(I’m also amused at some of the choices here, like The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Andy Griffith Show and MASH (sorry, the asterisks were messing with the formatting). All of those shows had their share of clunkers. And I say this as someone who considers MASH to be one of my favorite shows–I’ve seen every episode multiple times, but even now there are some I skip because they’re just bad.)
Another one I’ll suggest, though I have to admit it’s been many years since I’ve seen it so I could be remembering it through rose-colored glasses: Hill Street Blues.
Many folks who weren’t around when it was new don’t realize what a ground-breaking show it was. It was the first major series with ongoing story arcs–until then, TV shows were single-episode, self-contained stories to make it easier to slot them into syndication in any order.
You know, I have to agree. In that it pretty much served what you expected each week, and with gusto, yeah, it delivered. It laid out its rules, and then played by them. You don’t win Emmys for high camp, but keeping it coming at that pace couldn’t have been easy.
I thought of another show to nominate, realizing that it only appeals to people who like the kind of show it is: Carnivàle. The big knock against it being included is that it was cancelled after two seasons (of a planned six), so it didn’t have a chance for the kind of resolution the story needed.
Thanks for bringing up Wonderfalls. I loved that show, and I’m surprised it’s not available for streaming. It’s on my Christmas/birthday list if someone wants to buy it for me.
Along the same lines is Moone Boy. Both shows have talking imaginary characters, giving both good and crazy advice to the main character. It had a nice run; by the end of the series you had a good understanding of the workings of an ordinary yet stressed family and a small Irish town.
I was in fifth grade when Batman debuted right after my birthday, in January 1966.
The only thing I can think of that compares to the impact it had nationwide that spring and early summer is the premier of Star Wars in May 1977. It was something new, fresh, innovative, and (yes) campy. It really shook up a television schedule that had become quite dull and predictable.
But like a supernova burning intensely for a brief period of time, it faded quickly after September of '66 and wasn’t worth watching when it finally disappeared in its truncated third season.
As others have mentioned - “Rome” on HBO…sure it was only two seasons but it started strong and just kept going. I had forgotten how breakneck that show was even before they found out they had to truncate seasons 2 and 3 into one season.So much happens in every episode and every performance is great.
Nott too long ago, I caught some episodes of Moone Boy on PBS around four in the morning. I quite liked it—it’s quirky and amusing.
Talking about series set in small Irish towns, I also liked Ballykissangel, which was shown for a short time on Vision TV (the kind of channel that bleeps vulgarities like “Oh, God!” and “Damn!”). Like some of the series listed above, the producers painted themselves into a corner by setting up a love story between a Catholic priest and an atheist pub owner. It never really went anywhere before culminating in the third season with two of the three leads leaving the series (and one of them being bumped off). Vision dropped it after showing a few episodes of the fourth season, but the whole tone of the show changed dramatically along witth its focus.
In this vein, I’ll nominate Pee-Wee’s Playhouse. I got my daughter the DVD box set for Christmas a few years ago, and it’s brilliant from start to finish. I watched it as a kid on Saturday mornings, but it’s totally held up over the years.
The second and third seasons aren’t really that bad. They mostly suffer in comparison to the novelty enjoyed by the earlier episodes. After viewers heard the theme song 20 times and all the rest of the other shows on TV adopted a saturated color palette, it was impossible to maintain the enthusiasm. The kids could still enjoy it but Camp has a short shelf life.
I think longevity is a problem WRT the “no clunkers” requirement. The short runs favor the likes of Firefly and Freaks and Geeks.
2 others - which I do not believe I’ve seen mentioned yet - are Buffy/Angel. I’m sure if I looked through the list I’d see eps I did not care for, but they are the only series I’ve viewed 3-4x - and enjoyed each time.
I remain surprised at the fervent support for The Good Life. My wife and I tried to watch it no fewer than 3x, and just couldn’t get into it. Different taste and all.
Many of the older shows do not benefit from the passage of time. We’ve tried to watch Dick Van Dyke, Newhart I, KRP, Barney Miller. The standard reaction is, “Hmm - musta hit a clunker.” Followed by, “Whaddya kow - 2 clunkers in a row…” I love Andy Griffith, but it was unwatchable after Don Knotts left. Even tried Hill Street Blues recently - hard to get over how dated it was. Not limited to the attitude towards women. But didn’t make it past the pilot.
The Wire is probably a good suggestion - tho IIRC one season was - uh - not great. How about White Collar? But I’m sure there were a few clunkers.
I prefer short runs (foreign shows, or the limited series/miniseries format) to the standard American network format of years of garbage to wring every bit of money possible from the corpse of whatever marginal storyline appealed to the masses for a short time…
Good pick. We’ve binged the entire series at least twice.
I’ll add Lewis, the spinoff of Morse. Mrs. Cretin and I love this series above all others, have watched the entire run three times. We’ll be due for another go round before too long.
Morse, Lewis, and Endeavour. It’s hard to decide which one I’ve liked the best.
One TV (a sibling of Vision TV) is now showing early episodes of Midsomer Murders with John Nettles as DCI Barnaby. They’re as good today as they were more than 30 years ago.
You’re referring to the series with Richard Briers and Felicity Kendall? I watched it in both the UK and the US, and I found it (for lack of a better word) charming.
On the other hand, I had a girlfriend in the '80s who loathed the series—one reason why we weren’t together long.
Well, I’ve not seen it, so I haven’t any comments to make on that topic.
I was uncertain as to which series you were referencing because the one with Briers and Kendall was retitled Good Neighbors in the US to avoid confusion with another The Good Life starring Larry Hagman, Donna Mills, and David Wayne in their pre-Dallas days.
Glad to see “Wonderfalls” and “Pushing Daisies” get some shout-outs as they’re my favorite Bryan Fuller shows. I rewatch both fairly regularly, while I could never really get in to “Dead Like Me.”
Since people have mentioned “West Wing” I’ll go with an unsung Aaron Sorkin show: “Sports Night.” I like it even more than “The Newsroom,” which deserves a mention if only for the “Why is America the greatest country in the world” scene. It amazes me that some people still hotly debate that, and I mean I literally saw posts today telling someone to move to Russia if they think America is so awful.
