As we cast about for series that we can stand to watch, the pickings are often slim. We also tend to give up on the ones that don’t grab us right away. One such was Parks and Recreation, which we didn’t stay with after a few eps. It’s been nominated for a ton of awards over the years, and didn’t win a whole lot, but I know that a lot of people really liked it. But is it worth revisiting? A lot of people really hated Seinfeld at first, but it had a long run and was worth staying with, IMO. Your opinions welcome on that and any others that took some persistence, and why.
Schitt’s Creek.
The first season is terrible.
Then, starting with the second season, it gets better in a big fat hurry, and is consistently wonderful through to the end.
But that first season. Jesus.
It took me 3 tries to get going on 30 Rock. I ended up really enjoying the series.
Big Bang Theory probably didn’t hit its stride until the Christmas exchange episode involving the napkin that Leonard Nimoy used and a lot of Gift baskets.
Even way back to Night Court, it was a so so sitcom at first and then made enough cast changes to settle down into a really good sitcom once the cast got to its best known form.
Funny, Parks & Rec is unwatchable to me, maybe I should give it one more try starting with the 2nd season.
Ditto Schitt’s Creek.
Parks and Recreation started out as a cringe-y workplace comedy like “The Office”. They retooled it after the first season. It gets much better once Rob Lowe and Adam Scott are on board. And of course Nick Offerman’s Ron Swanson is all kinds of awesome. Definitely do not judge it on the first couple episodes of season 1.
Yeah, we gave up on Schitt’s Creek almost immediately: amateurish and antiquated humor, too much mugging, etc. Never went back, even though friends have said it gets much better.
Likewise made it through about half of the first season of 30 Rock before giving up on it. I like Tina Fey in small doses, like SNL skits (smaller as years go by).
The nice thing about comedy series is that you can parachute in at any time and not feel like you’ve missed much, as opposed to drama series that have a season(s)-long plot line. I prefer drama series, which narrows the field quite a bit for us.
I just stumbled across New Amsterdam, a medical series available on Netflix. I watched the first four episodes and if it remains as good as it started, I’ll watch all 5 seasons.
I think I may be in the minority, but I didn’t really like most of the first season of Community. In fact, in its first run on TV I gave up on it after the first couple episodes, and didn’t become a fan of the show until years later when it showed up on Netflix.
I felt like it didn’t hit its stride until the ‘Modern Warfare’ paintball episode at the end of season 1. After that I thoroughly enjoyed all of the other seasons, even the Harmon-free season 4 widely considered the worst, and the weird Yahoo season.
The 1st season was uneven for Community but still have some really good shows. s1e19 Beginner Pottery was great, especially the B-plot with the sailing class. & s1e21 Contemporary American Poultry (Good Fellows Homage) was one of their best. And yes, s1e23 Modern Warfare was one of the greatest episodes of any show ever.
I think the Debate 109 episode (s1e9 as a bonus) was really good. S1e13 Investigative Journalism was also very good. The Jack Black guest starring episode.
But season 2 was a most incredible season for any show I can think of. Opening with Betty White, the great Halloween episode, The bottle episode, Conspiracy Theories, stop motion Christmas, AD&D episode, the election and the 2 part paint ball finale highlighting the season.
We really liked New Amsterdam for the first three seasons. But it kind of went off the rails in S4 and we didn’t even bother watching the final season.
I watched New Amsterdam through to the end (just a week ago or so). Frankly, it was kind of dumb.
Heh, but why did you watch all 5 seasons? Or was it ok at the beginning? Four episodes in I’m enjoying it.
I 100% agree with your comments on Community. But then again, I kind of liked the first season of Schitt’s Creek (and was more lukewarm on the schmaltzy episodes later in the series) so my taste may be somewhat dubious.
I thought the first season of Breaking Bad was okay, but seasons 2+ were amazing and just got better and better (for the most part).
I thought the first few seasons were pretty good. Idealistic young medical director trying to run a big city public hospital while having to deal with some major events in his personal life.
It eventually turned into Max’s “crusade of the week”, trying to single-handedly resolve one intractable issue after another, sometimes successfully, sometimes not.
But by the fourth season, too many of the plot arcs just became ridiculous, and by the end of the season my wife and I looked at each other and said “You done?” “Yeah, I’m done.”
ETA: Sorry replying to @kayaker about New Amsterdam.
I agree that the crusade of the week episodes may have been where New Amsterdam got dumb. As to why I put up with it, I have a weakness for medical dramas.
They needed it for the arc, to show how far the characters had come. But yeah, it was way too much and we can safely put se1 in the tomb with Simpsons Se1.
The first season of the original Magnum was nothing really special.
Yeah, I can see this happening…
My two favorite Star Trek series, TNG and DS9, both got off to slow starts. By season 3, however, they were both excellent and stayed excellent through their 7th seasons.
Can long run be relative? These are all shows I’ve seen recently where I thought the pilot or first few episodes were weak, but the show then got much better.
The American version of Ghosts had an unfunny and clunky pilot, but an episode or two in, it became much better. Just a sitcom, and certainly not the greatest sitcom ever, but entertaining and funny enough. It’s in its second season.
Very similar comments about the new Netflix That 90s Show. I thought the first one was very rough, and the live audience cheering and stuff was very jarring to me, but again, an episode or two after it got better. Only 10 episodes so far.
Sex Lives of College Girls had a very cringey hour long pilot, but soon picks up. It got better at balancing the serious problems with the silly problems, and the jokes about the serious problems get better. Only two seasons so far.
I gave up on The Good Place after the first few episodes. It wasn’t until the last season that a review gave away the “big spoiler” (from season 2, maybe) that I was intrigued enough to binge the whole thing.