I don’t know if this phenomenon has ever been noticed but, if not, I may as well claim it for myself: Whenever you convince someone to finally sit down and watch a TV series that you can’t stop raving about, the episode in question will be, always, the very worst single episode in the series’ entire run!!! This never fails and there are no exceptions.
That is all.
I was recently forced to watch the “first episode of the final season of Battlestar Galactica” (it helps if you say it with reverence). For those who don’t know BG is the single greatest thing to ever be on TV.
It was your basic Melodramatic, Over-the-top, Soap Opera and left me unimpressed to say the least (the only thing Sci-Fi about it was the silly sets).
But that was “a really strange episode” according to the experts and I really need to watch the series from the beginning to “get it”, I plan to start on the series right after I finish jamming the red-hot Poker up my butt.
Unclviny
Too true. It drives me bonkers. Although I also wonder if I am overly critical when watching with a new person.
That’s why you wait until the first season is released on DVD to force them to watch an episode. I got my wife hooked on Babylon 5 by skipping right to “Passing Through Gesthemane.” After she was hooked I slowly showed her the rest of the show.
FtG’s corollary: Much later you’ll tune in to try the show again and it will be a repeat of the exact same episode.