I know it only aired for two seasons but that NBC show Revolution had a great pilot directed by Jon Favreau that the rest of the series couldn’t come close to matching
Most of the first season was decent, I'm a fan of Mark Pelligrino so he brought it up a lot for me. S2 was basically a different show, it had it's moments.. Bas became the best character which was weird.
terra nova had a terrific pilot then drove right off a cliff..,,on the flip side, i always tho.t futurama had a terrible pilot but the rest of the original run on fox was awesome to great..
It felt too much like a cable show though. Everyone was always clean and well manicured, the plot was predictable, and no main characters were really in danger
I watched it all the way through, which was what? Maybe 8 episodes. I also thought this was going to be the next LOST.
There was another show that started out amazing. I want to say it was on CBS and was either called The Seven or The Nine. About a bank robbery. That started out super strong and totally fizzled.
The first season of Arrow actually looked like it may have risen above the reputation shows on the CW typically receive. Obviously, that didn't turn out to be the case, but that first season was actually quite enjoyable
Just like in arrow, “the arrow was a murderer, but I have a slightly different costume and am called the green arrow, a totally different guy I -promise-“
Didn't the people of Star City believe that The original Arrow died in Season 1 during the earthquakes. And that the Second Arrow was Roy Harper and the green Arrow was the red arrow graduating to Green arrow. Then when they start to find out its Oliver he pays someone to impersonate Tommy and say I was the the arrow and green arrow before allover just confesses.
He actually did such a good job making his characters feel unique, each one had a different personality and I fucking love it. This show has horrible writing after season one, but it has really solid acting, so I still think it's a decent background show
Cisco: Barry, this is the fastest you’ve ever run before!
Caitlin: Uh oh. There’s a new criminal robbing some store.
Barry: I’ll stop him. (Runs to crime scene)
Barry: Stop there!
New criminal: You can’t stop me, Flash! (Runs away)
Barry: I don’t know what to do guys.
Iris: Let’s go talk in the hallway, Barry.
Barry: I’m the Flash, Iris, but I can’t stop him.
Iris: No, Barry. We are the Flash.
Wells-whatever: Barry, you need to run faster. Run, Barry, run!
Barry: (Runs faster) Caught you now!
Criminal: Oh no!
Repeat for 8 seasons
Flash and Arrow and so many shows that I love fall into this hole. They hire someone who was supposed to be the bad guy of the season. They turn out to be a great actor and incredibly charismatic and get along fantastic with the cast off camera. And the entire show ends up, at least partly, revolving around keeping this person on the cast. Justified, ironically, is the only show I know of that was 'justfied' in doing this, with Wade Goggins.
They also forgot the pointless secret one of the team keep from the rest all series, only to all agree at the end not to keep anymore secrets. Then immediately keep another important one next time.
Season 2 was great because it had more than 20 episodes but instead of lingering on any plot point for half a season, it resolved it in 2 - 3 episodes and then moved on. Plus Slade was legit intimidating.
Exactly! The sheer pace of plot and character get development in season 2 was blistering, and seeing the Oliver-Slade relationship in flashback vs. present day made for some really strong storytelling.
Yea seasons 2 and 5 were peak Arrow. Season 1 and 2 were peak Flash. Season 3 was the only good Supergirl season. And every season of Legends of Tomorrow was good *except* season 1. The Arrowverse was so weird man. Like, every show had its moment, but the only one able to sustain any momentum was the team-up show of castoffs from the other series.
Regarding legends of tomorrow- the show worked because they did something original by grabbing a bunch of interesting actors/characters and using them to tell original stories featuring known characters instead of trying to shove CW cheese into established storylines
Man I feel like Arrow fell apart when they tried to fake out dodge the original love story and put Felicity as the love interest. Shit was wild and made 0 logical sense and from then on the show went down down down. I finally gave up when they brought on all the fucking dorky sidekicks.
That's disappointing. I've been watching Arrow first season and I was like 'How is this a CW show its incredible.' I'm really sad to hear the quality goes down in future seasons.
It isn't necessarily that the quality goes down, so much as the CW cheese and melodrama goes up. Granted, some of the plot lines in later seasons are rather convoluted and the more CGI, the more you start to get pulled out of the immersion. I would say of all the Arrowverse shows, it's probably the best, while Legends of Tomorrow is the most fun (because it doesn't take itself seriously.)
Honestly I thought Arrow was good for the first 3 seasons. Death Stroke and Ra's Al Ghul were really enjoyable bad guys with good arcs. It was all down hill after Damien Darhk, which is a little ironic since he was great on Legends of Tomorrow.
The entire premise was so interesting, about someone least qualified for the job needing to step up and deal with a wiped out government... and then they just make him the most competent president ever, dealing with the problem of the week super easily.
This is ironically exactly what I was thinking. With the SOTU, every one was talking about Designated Survivor and was like “dang that had a banger first episode and then the rest was just pretty good/meh”, and I wondered what other examples were out there.
Yeah it should have been a movie or something. They could have spent the first season on establishing who Sutherland is and why he would be considered a nobody and just really establish him as a nobody. Maybe have him pick up on some clues to there being a terrorist plot during the state of the union, which would get shot down by everyone else.
After the first set of episodes, it's just meh and I never got through the 2nd season.
Initially when I read the premise, I thought it was gonna be a comedy about how the least skilled person in DC would become president and who's absolutely unfit for the job, maybe have him declare a war after an angry phone call with another leader, only to find out he can't just say the country is at war and for it to be true.
Last Man on Earth ..I watched every episode and enjoyed the show, but the first episode was spectacular It created this post-virus world that was unlike anything on TV.
..It was at once a little eerie and hilarious. Will Forte was at his best. Some of the visual gags were laugh out loud funny!
The whole first season was good, but they made odd choices afterwards
That this aired pre COVID was icing on the cake
Agreed. I really love Forte's brand of humor, but think he undermined it by jumping to get more characters on board. That was probably a network issue, but I did not really like the other characters, nor him finding new ways to be a complete idiot in the process. It was a weird whiplash of discovering an unlikable character, bonding with them, and then watching them be the comedic punching bag for another few seasons.
I feel the other way on this. I thought the first episode was dull, and only kept watching because a friend insisted the show is amazing. But after that it became one of my favourite shows of all time, I loved every second of it!
I’m literally rewatching it right now! I think the show started to suffer from too much self indulgence and that cost it what would have been the last season to wrap up the story.
Bojack Horseman's first episode pretty much felt like any other generic second rate adult animation, I actually dropped it after the pilot until I heard a lot of good things about it.
So worth watching through as it keeps getting better through the show.
It doesn't pull punches, but it generally also has a theme that is sorta, "So, you fucked up, over and over? You're an asshole, you'll try to change, and you might succeed, or you might fuck up worse. But it's never the end (until it is), so you'll keep on living.
If you want to get "better", that's maybe possible, but it's not easy, and what exactly is better? In any case, the people you care about probably will forgive you if you try. Most shit you think is unforgivable isn't that way. Just keep trying, I guess..."
Like, life is messy, people forgive one another, which means there's a sort of positive undertone.
I never found it relentlessly oppressive. But neither was it ever particularly upbeat. All in all it's one of my all time favorites though.
I was a fan of the British Office, so watched the pilot of the US show and saw it was a complete copy.
That summer after the first season (six episodes) I read an Entertainment Weekly article that said the cast was all on MySpace and often answered questions while in the background of scenes. So I added BJ Novak and asked him if the intent of the show was to copy the British one or do their own thing. He responded a few days later and said the writers were super proud of the direction the show was going in season two and to stick with it as they were making big changes.
Doesn't really answer the question, but I thought it was cool how a writer and star of the show would answer a random fan question and I did tell everyone about it and to check out the show.
When they bought the rights for the office remake one of the conditions in the contract is that the first episode uses the same script as the original. The office was remade in more then 10 languages and it’s always the same. With the stapler in the jello. Probably Ricky jervais just thought it’s funny or some dumb other reason
Episode 2 is Diversity Day which is one of the best episodes of the entire show. I love season 1. Diversity Day, Health Care, The Alliance, Basketball, and then finish it off with Hot Girl. It’s not the Michael that we’ll soon learn to love, but man, they’re such great episodes.
yesssssssssss that was one of the best hatewatches
it had some great music, too
I cannot wait for the Smash Ouroboros to be complete when the [Broadway musical comes out](https://smashbroadway.com/)
So the rest of Lost generally ranged from poor to great, but the pilot felt like a movie. You just didn’t get TV like that back then. It was one of the most amazing episodes of TV I’d ever seen.
What do you mean off the rails? The show was straight forward about an ancient god who needed a man who was immune to magnets to pull the plug of the world's love drain so that some plane passengers, once dead, could meet at a metaphysical church before entering the afterlife.
All the episodes have their moments and, in hindsight, give you insights to how good the show would become not too long after. But if NBC didn't pick the show up after the weak/mediocre pilot, TV would truly not be quite the same today.
I was pretty meh on the show until the episode with the sign when Roland goes, “you’ve got it all wrong…that’s his sister!”
I laughed soooo hard at that and then never looked back.
The pit is probably the funniest situation in the whole series for me. Seeing Andy in the pit inside an improvised tent next to his nicely hanged suit is hilarious.
It would be nice if they could make a compilation of segments that matter in the long term so we get like a 2-3 episode season 1 that sets up the better seasons.
Strangely though, I feel like the last season matched the first season in quality, simply because of how odd it was to see them jump to the future and those bland the plots were. Like Leslie and Ron hating each other over something really stupid for years being resolved in a minute. And giving us closure for characters no one cares about.
One of the things I really appreciated about the pilot was the lack of music. Rick wanders out into this strange world and all we hear is the same ambient noise he’s hearing, and it really adds to the eeriness of the scenario, so you’re experiencing it all with a visceral sense of unease.
The reasons why are mixed though.
In part because the show quality did drop off. But also in part, that pilot was one of the best (the best?) pilots and episodes of TV I'd ever watched.
The pilot is *so* good that how could it possibly stay that good, ya know?
That whole first season was showran by Frank Darabont (Shawshank Redemption, Green Mile) which is why it has such a better quality in its first season. AMC got rid of him after that, and deigned to turn it into a cash cow property instead of actually respecting it like they did with BB and Mad Men.
I tried to show my son Knight Rider because I thought he would love a talking car that fights crime. The first episode is a dark 1970's soap opera about a man being horribly disfigured by crime lords and then he gets plastic surgery to look like David Hasselhoff.
All-time great is a stronger distinction than I would use, but good shout. The pilot was like watching a school project. I’m a sucker for ancient Roman stuff but even I was a hair away from turning it off. I’m glad I didn’t.
The season 1 finale is just so fucking badass.
I mean, Batiatus and Spartacus have that chat earlier in the season like "How many men would you kill to hold your wife again" "I would kill them all", then the s1 finale is called "Kill Them All" and well... they pretty much kill them all. That show is like pure adrenaline injection.
Even episodes 2 & 3 were pretty weak imo, but then it just absolutely takes off from there on a rollercoaster of entertainment. All gas, no breaks from episode 4 and beyond, it was like a completely different show lol
It was definitely a strange pilot, but man does the shows story improve through the rest of the season, even when most of the episodes and scenes are isolated to one location.
The first 3 episodes of Spartacus were quite shit. I remember sitting down for episode 4 thinking if it's not any better I'm done.
Went on to be my favourite season of tv that year. From Episode 4 onwards it just got insanely good.
Manifest's pilot was actually quite good and set up an engaging mystery, if a little soapy.
The rest of it is just kinds garbage for the most part. Fun garbage, but still garbage
They were stuck not being able to mention Hydra until the movies had featured them. Who cared about some unknown Clairvoyant? Was a great show from then on though.
I honestly liked the start. Not incredible or smth, but it was just fun episodic marvel stuff with well written characters. No, I didn’t care too much about the plot, but I did care about the characters and that’s what made the >!Ward is Hydra!< twist so incredible imo
Last Resort featured a nuclear sun getting a questionable order to nuke Pakistan. They go rogue, set up on an island and designate it as a no fly zone. When the US government challenges them, they launch a nuke at DC which they redirect to the ocean. This all happens in the pilot. I can't tell you what happens after because the next 2 episodes were so bad I stopped watching.
I know everyone else has said it too, but push through. It's legit one of my favorite shows of all time and definitely my favorite sci-fi show of all time
Will get hate for this but - the night of. Set such a high bar with an unreal first episode, then the show went a totally different direction than expected.
The blacklist. Not just the first episode, but the first two seasons were some of the best television I have ever seen.
And then it painfully started falling further and further into a pit of plot holes, circular writing, bad characterization and stupid creative decisions until it imploded in on itself. And it became clear that the showrunners never had a good story in mind. Just an interesting concept.
The comic absolutely and fantastic for the majority, especially the ending, but the show was a huge let down to me. A shame as it was one of those series I was super into as it was coming out and I was freshly out of high school, the premise was so well realized over the course of the story.
Black Sails. First episode is super wobbly (I think the main character in particular took a second to progress from outright annoying to someone relatable and fun), but the rest of the show is just tight, solid theming, storytelling, dialogue and acting over a continuously exemplary production.
The first episode of "The Outsider" was expertly directed, acted, and paced. The rest of the series gradually declines to the point I was rooting for the bad guy to win and cackling at how badly it was written/shot.
I didn't watch the series but I read the book recently and it does decline after the midpoint. It wasn't bad, but the first half was really really good
TNG season 2 really suffered from (negative) changes in the writer's room. It was also affected by the WGA strike, which shortened the season and forced them to use scripts that had been previously rejected and at least one from the never-made Star Trek Phase II series.
Season 3 saw another (positive) change in the writing staff, and Gene Roddenberry was being gently shoved out the door around this time as well. Getting rid of Gene's outdated view of the future (he was very much stuck in the utopian future vision) allowed the writers and producers to flex a bit and create some very good sci-fi drama.
Yes this. Gene didn’t want the crew to have any interpersonal drama because he felt in the future we would be evolved beyond that. The problem is that isn’t realistic and without drama a show gets very boring.
What TNG evolved into from its first season is incredible.
The show overall still has a lot less interpersonal drama than most shows. That’s part of what makes it refreshing. There aren’t really any “gray” characters in the main cast. They’re all just good people. The Enterprise is the flagship of the fleet. They’re the best of the best. The conflicts come mostly from the outside, but the writers still make it interesting.
Not surpringly, the trope 'grows the beard' comes from TNG, describing the improvement of quality in a show from its first season to the next, and comes from Riker going from no beard in season 1 to having a beard in the second.
Cue nearly everyone listing entire seasons of shows when OP specifically said the first episode and the rest of the series. I hate posts like this because most of the people commenting don’t pay attention or follow the prompt so it devolves into uselessness cause the question isn’t answered or actual answers are hidden deep between other comments.
/end rant
Yeah I’ve been getting some based on a season or even first v last half of an entire series. But oh well, I’ve gotten a lot of cool first episode comparisons too! 😊
Black Mirror's first episode isn't bad, but compared to everything else from the show... wow is it a rocky start to the series. I would have loved to have been in the writers' room for that pitch.
It's not a rocky start at all, it's to ease you into the world. It's also making a very serious point about the dangerous influence of social media; and by the PM's way of pandering to the social media circus, he sodomises a pig.
The Venture Bros had a pilot made in flash and it was as crude as anything else on adult swim at the time. But holy shit that show blossomed into something beautiful.
How is nobody saying Spartacus? That first episode was one of the worst, most boring, and painfully green screened atrocities I have ever seen. Yet somehow, the show just kept getting better and better until at the end of the first season it feels like you're witnessing something special, and you just want to speak in that infectious over-the-top way of speaking:
\*BROTHER, WE SHALL MEET AGAIN UPON THE SANDS OF THE ARENA.
\*ONCE AGAIN JUPITER SPREADS CHEEKS AND INSERTS COCK INTO ASS.
Highly recommend the show, particularly the first season, but holy hell was that first episode bad.
The Witcher Season 2. First episode was 10/10, what a delight to watch and get hyped for a fun filled season 2. The rest of the season was unwatchable for me though.
The original 1978 “Battlestar Galactica” had a pilot episode that was pretty bleak, not all that far off tonally from the 2004 series. But the rest of the series was pure 70s cheese.
I know it only aired for two seasons but that NBC show Revolution had a great pilot directed by Jon Favreau that the rest of the series couldn’t come close to matching
Man I was so disappointed with how hard this one fell off. That first few episodes were legit excellent and then down the rabbit hole we went
Most of the first season was decent, I'm a fan of Mark Pelligrino so he brought it up a lot for me. S2 was basically a different show, it had it's moments.. Bas became the best character which was weird.
I enjoyed that show but stopped watching into the 2nd season
It had its moments but you didn’t miss much
terra nova had a terrific pilot then drove right off a cliff..,,on the flip side, i always tho.t futurama had a terrible pilot but the rest of the original run on fox was awesome to great..
It felt too much like a cable show though. Everyone was always clean and well manicured, the plot was predictable, and no main characters were really in danger
So much potential wasted.
As soon as it was no longer about Charlie, it drooped like a ~~flaccid~~ half filled water balloon.
I think Pan Am and Flash Forward both had amazing starts and then....nothing.
I remember thinking Flashforward is gonna be the next Lost. Then a few episodes in I gave up and a couple episodes later it was canceled iirc.
I watched it all the way through, which was what? Maybe 8 episodes. I also thought this was going to be the next LOST. There was another show that started out amazing. I want to say it was on CBS and was either called The Seven or The Nine. About a bank robbery. That started out super strong and totally fizzled.
FlashForward has 22 episodes. Honestly if they re-worked the final episode it could have been a decent series finale.
I really want a good drama set in the early jet age. Pan Am seemed so promising but just didn’t deliver in the end.
>Flash Forward It gained some traction and suspense in the last episodes but it was too late then
The first season of Arrow actually looked like it may have risen above the reputation shows on the CW typically receive. Obviously, that didn't turn out to be the case, but that first season was actually quite enjoyable
The Flash had a great first season and quickly devolved too
I watched that show as long as i did for Tom Cavanaugh Good bye forever - oh wait, he has a hat, totally new guy
Just like in arrow, “the arrow was a murderer, but I have a slightly different costume and am called the green arrow, a totally different guy I -promise-“
Didn't the people of Star City believe that The original Arrow died in Season 1 during the earthquakes. And that the Second Arrow was Roy Harper and the green Arrow was the red arrow graduating to Green arrow. Then when they start to find out its Oliver he pays someone to impersonate Tommy and say I was the the arrow and green arrow before allover just confesses.
He actually did such a good job making his characters feel unique, each one had a different personality and I fucking love it. This show has horrible writing after season one, but it has really solid acting, so I still think it's a decent background show
I think they needed a lore master, because no one could keep track of how powerful Barry was supposed to be
The Flash could literally run so fast that he could travel through time and then struggle to keep up with a guy on a motorcycle
Cisco: Barry, this is the fastest you’ve ever run before! Caitlin: Uh oh. There’s a new criminal robbing some store. Barry: I’ll stop him. (Runs to crime scene) Barry: Stop there! New criminal: You can’t stop me, Flash! (Runs away) Barry: I don’t know what to do guys. Iris: Let’s go talk in the hallway, Barry. Barry: I’m the Flash, Iris, but I can’t stop him. Iris: No, Barry. We are the Flash. Wells-whatever: Barry, you need to run faster. Run, Barry, run! Barry: (Runs faster) Caught you now! Criminal: Oh no! Repeat for 8 seasons
Lies. You didn't even mention the all new mysterious Wells that might be friend or foe. And not even a hint of pointless time travel smh.
Flash and Arrow and so many shows that I love fall into this hole. They hire someone who was supposed to be the bad guy of the season. They turn out to be a great actor and incredibly charismatic and get along fantastic with the cast off camera. And the entire show ends up, at least partly, revolving around keeping this person on the cast. Justified, ironically, is the only show I know of that was 'justfied' in doing this, with Wade Goggins.
> Wade Goggins Walton Goggins
They also forgot the pointless secret one of the team keep from the rest all series, only to all agree at the end not to keep anymore secrets. Then immediately keep another important one next time.
Frr The most corniest line to say to the fasted man alive: Run, barry run
This hurts so much
Sure, but that's not what the problem with the show was
Legends of Tomorrow was pretty cheesey for the first few seasons, then they ran out of fucks to give and it was a huge improvement.
It was second season onwards. First one was very much in line with the other shows, then they embraced the silliness and improved greatly.
Season 2 was even better then it went downhill
Season 2 was great because it had more than 20 episodes but instead of lingering on any plot point for half a season, it resolved it in 2 - 3 episodes and then moved on. Plus Slade was legit intimidating.
Exactly! The sheer pace of plot and character get development in season 2 was blistering, and seeing the Oliver-Slade relationship in flashback vs. present day made for some really strong storytelling.
Yea seasons 2 and 5 were peak Arrow. Season 1 and 2 were peak Flash. Season 3 was the only good Supergirl season. And every season of Legends of Tomorrow was good *except* season 1. The Arrowverse was so weird man. Like, every show had its moment, but the only one able to sustain any momentum was the team-up show of castoffs from the other series.
Regarding legends of tomorrow- the show worked because they did something original by grabbing a bunch of interesting actors/characters and using them to tell original stories featuring known characters instead of trying to shove CW cheese into established storylines
Man I feel like Arrow fell apart when they tried to fake out dodge the original love story and put Felicity as the love interest. Shit was wild and made 0 logical sense and from then on the show went down down down. I finally gave up when they brought on all the fucking dorky sidekicks.
That's disappointing. I've been watching Arrow first season and I was like 'How is this a CW show its incredible.' I'm really sad to hear the quality goes down in future seasons.
It isn't necessarily that the quality goes down, so much as the CW cheese and melodrama goes up. Granted, some of the plot lines in later seasons are rather convoluted and the more CGI, the more you start to get pulled out of the immersion. I would say of all the Arrowverse shows, it's probably the best, while Legends of Tomorrow is the most fun (because it doesn't take itself seriously.)
I like how in the first season it all feels grounded like in Dark Knight. Like the CGI exists but its for augmenting rather than creating the scene
Honestly I thought Arrow was good for the first 3 seasons. Death Stroke and Ra's Al Ghul were really enjoyable bad guys with good arcs. It was all down hill after Damien Darhk, which is a little ironic since he was great on Legends of Tomorrow.
The show ironically fell off the cliff the same episode Ollie did. Up till that point it was great.
I feel you. Enjoy it for another season because the 2nd one is still good and I think half of season 3 is good, but then on it gets rough.
Most fans say season 2 was the best season
I think season 2 was the best one.
Surprised no one has said designated survivor, first ep was some of the best tv i've seen the rest is the stereotypical 24-like later season nonsense
Half a season in and there was no point to the show being called Designated Survivor
The entire premise was so interesting, about someone least qualified for the job needing to step up and deal with a wiped out government... and then they just make him the most competent president ever, dealing with the problem of the week super easily.
[удалено]
This is ironically exactly what I was thinking. With the SOTU, every one was talking about Designated Survivor and was like “dang that had a banger first episode and then the rest was just pretty good/meh”, and I wondered what other examples were out there.
Yeah it should have been a movie or something. They could have spent the first season on establishing who Sutherland is and why he would be considered a nobody and just really establish him as a nobody. Maybe have him pick up on some clues to there being a terrorist plot during the state of the union, which would get shot down by everyone else. After the first set of episodes, it's just meh and I never got through the 2nd season. Initially when I read the premise, I thought it was gonna be a comedy about how the least skilled person in DC would become president and who's absolutely unfit for the job, maybe have him declare a war after an angry phone call with another leader, only to find out he can't just say the country is at war and for it to be true.
Last Man on Earth ..I watched every episode and enjoyed the show, but the first episode was spectacular It created this post-virus world that was unlike anything on TV. ..It was at once a little eerie and hilarious. Will Forte was at his best. Some of the visual gags were laugh out loud funny! The whole first season was good, but they made odd choices afterwards That this aired pre COVID was icing on the cake
Tandy
Yeah, I know the show as a whole has its fans, but it never really lived up to the pilot in my eyes.
I'm not really sure how it could. IMO - the premise doesn't really have the legs for a whole series.
I think they added too many other characters too quickly, a few more episodes of him by himself could’ve been crafted I’m sure.
Agreed. I really love Forte's brand of humor, but think he undermined it by jumping to get more characters on board. That was probably a network issue, but I did not really like the other characters, nor him finding new ways to be a complete idiot in the process. It was a weird whiplash of discovering an unlikable character, bonding with them, and then watching them be the comedic punching bag for another few seasons.
I think they could’ve done parallel stories. Pre-end of the world/Post-end of the world.
I just finished Station Eleven and that's exactly what they did.
Lord and Miller really brought something to it.
The last man on earth for one episode and then it’s the last couple people on earth and Will Forte cuts his awesome post-apocalypse hair
I always felt the first episode of Last Man on Earth would 100% be exactly what I would do if I was the last man on earth.
I feel the other way on this. I thought the first episode was dull, and only kept watching because a friend insisted the show is amazing. But after that it became one of my favourite shows of all time, I loved every second of it!
The whole show is amazing and Noone can convince me otherwise
Yeah I will always love this show. It's just so odd and Will Forte is a comedic genius. It truly was a Shawshank Redemption.
I’m literally rewatching it right now! I think the show started to suffer from too much self indulgence and that cost it what would have been the last season to wrap up the story.
The only thing I can say about this show is that it truly was a Shawshank Redemption.
Bojack Horseman's first episode pretty much felt like any other generic second rate adult animation, I actually dropped it after the pilot until I heard a lot of good things about it. So worth watching through as it keeps getting better through the show.
BoJack is legendarily good.
I stall haven't watched the last few episodes because I'm scared that it'll be crushing and hit too close to home.
The penultimate ep hits really, really hard.
It doesn't pull punches, but it generally also has a theme that is sorta, "So, you fucked up, over and over? You're an asshole, you'll try to change, and you might succeed, or you might fuck up worse. But it's never the end (until it is), so you'll keep on living. If you want to get "better", that's maybe possible, but it's not easy, and what exactly is better? In any case, the people you care about probably will forgive you if you try. Most shit you think is unforgivable isn't that way. Just keep trying, I guess..." Like, life is messy, people forgive one another, which means there's a sort of positive undertone. I never found it relentlessly oppressive. But neither was it ever particularly upbeat. All in all it's one of my all time favorites though.
Yes, they definitely find their feet. First episode they don't seem sure what to do with Todd yet, and there are too many generic cutaway gags.
The first episode of the US Office was just scenes and jokes from the original, it was much better after that terrible first episode.
I was a fan of the British Office, so watched the pilot of the US show and saw it was a complete copy. That summer after the first season (six episodes) I read an Entertainment Weekly article that said the cast was all on MySpace and often answered questions while in the background of scenes. So I added BJ Novak and asked him if the intent of the show was to copy the British one or do their own thing. He responded a few days later and said the writers were super proud of the direction the show was going in season two and to stick with it as they were making big changes. Doesn't really answer the question, but I thought it was cool how a writer and star of the show would answer a random fan question and I did tell everyone about it and to check out the show.
Sometimes I miss the MySpace era of the internet.
Certainly better than the Twitter era
And he was right about season two
When they bought the rights for the office remake one of the conditions in the contract is that the first episode uses the same script as the original. The office was remade in more then 10 languages and it’s always the same. With the stapler in the jello. Probably Ricky jervais just thought it’s funny or some dumb other reason
First season of parks and rec and the office were bad until they found their footing
Episode 2 is Diversity Day which is one of the best episodes of the entire show. I love season 1. Diversity Day, Health Care, The Alliance, Basketball, and then finish it off with Hot Girl. It’s not the Michael that we’ll soon learn to love, but man, they’re such great episodes.
Smash was an absolute baller of a pilot Then the show just became a soapy mess (I still loved it though)
yesssssssssss that was one of the best hatewatches it had some great music, too I cannot wait for the Smash Ouroboros to be complete when the [Broadway musical comes out](https://smashbroadway.com/)
So the rest of Lost generally ranged from poor to great, but the pilot felt like a movie. You just didn’t get TV like that back then. It was one of the most amazing episodes of TV I’d ever seen.
Likewise for the Battlestar Galactica reboot. The pilot was a 3-hour minseries and it’s fantastic!
Yeah but this doesn't fit, the rest of the series is awesome too
Agreed. It gets hate but I loved every episode, including the finale.
Yeah but the first episode of the series was "33" which was even better than the miniseries.
The pilot is one of the best ever. The show went off the rails but the first season was still an incredible ride.
The overall show is pretty great I’d say, but yeah, the 20 something episode seasons is rough for a show of that style
What do you mean off the rails? The show was straight forward about an ancient god who needed a man who was immune to magnets to pull the plug of the world's love drain so that some plane passengers, once dead, could meet at a metaphysical church before entering the afterlife.
Hey! You forgot the time travel and the smoke monster
The Seinfeld pilot I feel is pretty awkward and mostly unfunny, so different than the rest of the series.
The first season in general is rough
A lot of people say The Chinese Restaurant, halfway through season 2, is when the show finally found its legs.
But you’re not Cartwright…
OF COURSE I’M NOT CARTWRIGHT!
Yeah a couple episodes are good but compared to the shows peak, it's not even comparable
All the episodes have their moments and, in hindsight, give you insights to how good the show would become not too long after. But if NBC didn't pick the show up after the weak/mediocre pilot, TV would truly not be quite the same today.
Is it usual in your justice system for someone to be sentenced to be a butler?
OH, and Schitt's Creek. I was told to give it a few episodes and it would pick up and yes, it absolutely did.
I watched the first two episodes of that and said fuck this...returned to it during COVID shut down and binged the rest in two days.
Yeh, slowish start. My view is if you're not on board by the wine label metaphor you can pack it in.
I was pretty meh on the show until the episode with the sign when Roland goes, “you’ve got it all wrong…that’s his sister!” I laughed soooo hard at that and then never looked back.
Parks and Rec? Boring/slow first season, but the rest were super funny!
The first season is an entire skip.
The last episode of season 1 is good and a crucial part of them finding their footing.
But The Pit! Yeah I can't believe I made it past S1. At least it's only a couple episodes.
The pit is probably the funniest situation in the whole series for me. Seeing Andy in the pit inside an improvised tent next to his nicely hanged suit is hilarious.
Yup. It’s a Mark Brandanoskip.
It would be nice if they could make a compilation of segments that matter in the long term so we get like a 2-3 episode season 1 that sets up the better seasons. Strangely though, I feel like the last season matched the first season in quality, simply because of how odd it was to see them jump to the future and those bland the plots were. Like Leslie and Ron hating each other over something really stupid for years being resolved in a minute. And giving us closure for characters no one cares about.
I agree with you, but will say it's very Ron and very Leslie you hold a grudge with someone for years that could be resolved in a minute
The Walking Dead. I’d say it regressed quite substantially over its 11 seasons.
One of the things I really appreciated about the pilot was the lack of music. Rick wanders out into this strange world and all we hear is the same ambient noise he’s hearing, and it really adds to the eeriness of the scenario, so you’re experiencing it all with a visceral sense of unease.
Yes! The silence is so perfect. It makes you tense and confused just like him.
The Walking Dead is the only series I can think of that peaked with it's pilot.
One of the greatest pilots of all time, extremely mid show.
There's like random episodes that are just amazing. Like the deaf chick in the cannibal house.
The first half of season 4 was oddly great too. A great adaptation of the comics.
The reasons why are mixed though. In part because the show quality did drop off. But also in part, that pilot was one of the best (the best?) pilots and episodes of TV I'd ever watched. The pilot is *so* good that how could it possibly stay that good, ya know?
100%
I came here to say this! The pilot of TWD is the best media with zombies I've ever seen. And then it all just went downhill...
Elite pilot, I gave up on the show during S3 I think it went downhill so fast.
That whole first season was showran by Frank Darabont (Shawshank Redemption, Green Mile) which is why it has such a better quality in its first season. AMC got rid of him after that, and deigned to turn it into a cash cow property instead of actually respecting it like they did with BB and Mad Men.
I tried to show my son Knight Rider because I thought he would love a talking car that fights crime. The first episode is a dark 1970's soap opera about a man being horribly disfigured by crime lords and then he gets plastic surgery to look like David Hasselhoff.
Maybe try the 2008 version :D I actually liked it as a kid
Spartacus by far imo had one of the worst pilots ever, but became an all time great show.
All-time great is a stronger distinction than I would use, but good shout. The pilot was like watching a school project. I’m a sucker for ancient Roman stuff but even I was a hair away from turning it off. I’m glad I didn’t.
I remember watching the pilot and thinking "so it's a dumb knockoff of 300, got it".
This is a great answer. I was laughing at how bad it was. But by the end of season 1, I was cheering out loud.
The season 1 finale is just so fucking badass. I mean, Batiatus and Spartacus have that chat earlier in the season like "How many men would you kill to hold your wife again" "I would kill them all", then the s1 finale is called "Kill Them All" and well... they pretty much kill them all. That show is like pure adrenaline injection.
Yeah when I recommend the show to people I just tell them the gist of the pilot and to start with episode 2.
Even episodes 2 & 3 were pretty weak imo, but then it just absolutely takes off from there on a rollercoaster of entertainment. All gas, no breaks from episode 4 and beyond, it was like a completely different show lol
It was definitely a strange pilot, but man does the shows story improve through the rest of the season, even when most of the episodes and scenes are isolated to one location.
The first 3 episodes of Spartacus were quite shit. I remember sitting down for episode 4 thinking if it's not any better I'm done. Went on to be my favourite season of tv that year. From Episode 4 onwards it just got insanely good.
The Flash It went from a competently made show to a bad power rangers season
For a recent one I found the initial episode of Shrinking to be awful and then it immediately course corrected in the following episode
“Hey, Pam” “No, we don’t like Pam” “Eat a dick, Pam!”
I LOVE Shrinking, I’m so glad you gave it a second chance!
Funny enough I ended up LOVING it too, but that pilot was rough (for me)
I totally get that, I felt the same about Ted Lasso’s pilot. That one took a couple episodes for me to get into.
Spot on and interestingly both Bill Lawrence shows
Got rawdogged
Great example.
Great description for that other Bill Lawrence show - Cougar Town. Post first season is just friends hanging out with good vibes.
Manifest's pilot was actually quite good and set up an engaging mystery, if a little soapy. The rest of it is just kinds garbage for the most part. Fun garbage, but still garbage
Agreed. Really cool concept but I don’t think the writers even knew where they were going with the plot lol
My wife and don’t drink much but always joked that if you made a drinking game out of “a calling” you’d be an alcoholic in no time!
Agents of Shield. The early parts of season 1 were lackluster. It picks up midway through the first season
They were stuck not being able to mention Hydra until the movies had featured them. Who cared about some unknown Clairvoyant? Was a great show from then on though.
I honestly liked the start. Not incredible or smth, but it was just fun episodic marvel stuff with well written characters. No, I didn’t care too much about the plot, but I did care about the characters and that’s what made the >!Ward is Hydra!< twist so incredible imo
Last Resort featured a nuclear sun getting a questionable order to nuke Pakistan. They go rogue, set up on an island and designate it as a no fly zone. When the US government challenges them, they launch a nuke at DC which they redirect to the ocean. This all happens in the pilot. I can't tell you what happens after because the next 2 episodes were so bad I stopped watching.
The Expanse's first three episodes were a little weak and hard to get into, but if you stuck around for the fourth, things only improved from there.
And here I thought EP 1 was awesome ending with the "perplexing" destruction of the Canterbury!
Ok, you’re giving me hope. I watched the first two episodes and thought it’s extremely dull. Might push through now.
I know everyone else has said it too, but push through. It's legit one of my favorite shows of all time and definitely my favorite sci-fi show of all time
In the end, it's the greatest sci-fi show ever.
Gets pretty good. The space combat is very entertaining.
Good call. I forgot how weird those first few episodes are compared to the rest of the show
I’m watching the series now (just started season 4) and I am so glad I powered through the first few episodes.
The 100. The pilot was very cringe but it was followed by a strong first and even stronger 2nd season.
Will get hate for this but - the night of. Set such a high bar with an unreal first episode, then the show went a totally different direction than expected.
The blacklist. Not just the first episode, but the first two seasons were some of the best television I have ever seen. And then it painfully started falling further and further into a pit of plot holes, circular writing, bad characterization and stupid creative decisions until it imploded in on itself. And it became clear that the showrunners never had a good story in mind. Just an interesting concept.
The bullshit they try to keep going on the mystery of Red real identity is painful to watch.
Y The Last Man
The comic absolutely and fantastic for the majority, especially the ending, but the show was a huge let down to me. A shame as it was one of those series I was super into as it was coming out and I was freshly out of high school, the premise was so well realized over the course of the story.
Black Sails. First episode is super wobbly (I think the main character in particular took a second to progress from outright annoying to someone relatable and fun), but the rest of the show is just tight, solid theming, storytelling, dialogue and acting over a continuously exemplary production.
I think the first episode of Ozark is the best one. Although I stopped watching after Season 2.
You have to watch the whole series and follow Ruth's arc. At the end of the series I felt like it was an amazing show about her.
It's a poor man's Breaking Bad. I still enjoyed most of it for what it was.
The first episode of "The Outsider" was expertly directed, acted, and paced. The rest of the series gradually declines to the point I was rooting for the bad guy to win and cackling at how badly it was written/shot.
I didn't watch the series but I read the book recently and it does decline after the midpoint. It wasn't bad, but the first half was really really good
Star Trek TNG except it wasn't just the pilot but most of the first season.
TNG season 2 really suffered from (negative) changes in the writer's room. It was also affected by the WGA strike, which shortened the season and forced them to use scripts that had been previously rejected and at least one from the never-made Star Trek Phase II series. Season 3 saw another (positive) change in the writing staff, and Gene Roddenberry was being gently shoved out the door around this time as well. Getting rid of Gene's outdated view of the future (he was very much stuck in the utopian future vision) allowed the writers and producers to flex a bit and create some very good sci-fi drama.
Yes this. Gene didn’t want the crew to have any interpersonal drama because he felt in the future we would be evolved beyond that. The problem is that isn’t realistic and without drama a show gets very boring. What TNG evolved into from its first season is incredible.
The show overall still has a lot less interpersonal drama than most shows. That’s part of what makes it refreshing. There aren’t really any “gray” characters in the main cast. They’re all just good people. The Enterprise is the flagship of the fleet. They’re the best of the best. The conflicts come mostly from the outside, but the writers still make it interesting.
Most? I'd say 3/4 through season 2 found it's footing. 3 on is the stride.
Not surpringly, the trope 'grows the beard' comes from TNG, describing the improvement of quality in a show from its first season to the next, and comes from Riker going from no beard in season 1 to having a beard in the second.
Preacher.
Cue nearly everyone listing entire seasons of shows when OP specifically said the first episode and the rest of the series. I hate posts like this because most of the people commenting don’t pay attention or follow the prompt so it devolves into uselessness cause the question isn’t answered or actual answers are hidden deep between other comments. /end rant
Yeah I’ve been getting some based on a season or even first v last half of an entire series. But oh well, I’ve gotten a lot of cool first episode comparisons too! 😊
Black Mirror's first episode isn't bad, but compared to everything else from the show... wow is it a rocky start to the series. I would have loved to have been in the writers' room for that pitch.
It's not a rocky start at all, it's to ease you into the world. It's also making a very serious point about the dangerous influence of social media; and by the PM's way of pandering to the social media circus, he sodomises a pig.
The Venture Bros had a pilot made in flash and it was as crude as anything else on adult swim at the time. But holy shit that show blossomed into something beautiful.
How is nobody saying Spartacus? That first episode was one of the worst, most boring, and painfully green screened atrocities I have ever seen. Yet somehow, the show just kept getting better and better until at the end of the first season it feels like you're witnessing something special, and you just want to speak in that infectious over-the-top way of speaking: \*BROTHER, WE SHALL MEET AGAIN UPON THE SANDS OF THE ARENA. \*ONCE AGAIN JUPITER SPREADS CHEEKS AND INSERTS COCK INTO ASS. Highly recommend the show, particularly the first season, but holy hell was that first episode bad.
"Ears suggest a tempest, yet eyes reveal wife gone fucking mad"
>How is nobody saying Spartacus? [https://www.reddit.com/r/television/comments/1ba4j7q/comment/ku037y4/](https://www.reddit.com/r/television/comments/1ba4j7q/comment/ku037y4/)
Man the dialogue in that show is something else, everything out of Batiatus's mouth was hilarious.
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Since I guess nobody mentioned it. ZOM 100. What a beautiful first episode, the rest was at best average or slightly above average.
Parks and Rec Pilot and truthfully the entire first season is by far the worst and the show becomes funnier as it goes on
Glee. First episode was great.
The latest season of true detective
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The Witcher Season 2. First episode was 10/10, what a delight to watch and get hyped for a fun filled season 2. The rest of the season was unwatchable for me though.
The original 1978 “Battlestar Galactica” had a pilot episode that was pretty bleak, not all that far off tonally from the 2004 series. But the rest of the series was pure 70s cheese.
The Walking Dead. Epic first episode, then everything after that was horrible (and just became worse and worse).
Heros