Shows that got better with age

[AndrewCrossett]

I'm definitely not saying SNL qualifies, but as I get older I notice sometimes two eras where SNL is a benchmark of quality:

1. the OG cast and crew of the first few seasons
2. whatever era someone first begins to watch SNL consistently

That is, when I see comments of someone saying "SNL isn't as funny as it used to be," 50% of the time they're comparing modern seasons to when they first started watching the show, and sometimes this includes seasons that other folks would consider as contenders for worst seasons of the 80s and 90s.

Again, that's not to say that SNL gets better with age, it's just that SNL seems to be a creature of perspective as time goes on.

A lot of people's perception of the original-cast SNL days is based on the syndicated packages and best-of compilations that only take the high points. I bought and watched the complete sets of the original five seasons, and... boy there was a lot of crap mixed in with the classic stuff. The good stuff definitely outweighed the bad, especially after the early days when the show was finding itself... but it definitely wasn't the "home run every at-bat" show that some people think it was.

Looking back, only a handful of SNL's 46 seasons have been truly awful. Seems like a rule that the show is at is funniest in the second half of each decade, but it's actually pretty good now.

[Kirby101]

As someone who watched the first seasons of SNL in college sitting with buddies, I can tell how new, irrelevant and funny it was to us. It was like watching the National Lampoon. I am sure some of it might not track now, but it was ground breaking and must watch.

[numberthirty]

Thinking it over...

Fear The Walking Dead

[Midvillian1322]

Lucifer- I've liked the show from the jump but I've liked it more as time has gone on. This last season with Haysbert as God was great imo. I think Netflix embraced the outlandishness and allowed them more power to cut free. Also Post Netflix the procedural part has become less pronounced. Still a huge part but not as much a before. Probably because they needed that angle to fill the huge episode counts for network TV.

[chachi]

Friday Night Lights definitely got better with age. Season 1 wasn't bad, but because it was marketed for teens, the writers had to pack a lot of drama into 22 episodes. Season 2 dialed the teen drama up to 11 and a very unrealistic storyline for an otherwise very realistic show, plus the season ended abruptly due to the writer's strike. But Seasons 3-5, when the writers had to tighten the story to fit 13-episode seasons rather than 22, were perfection.

100% agree on FNL. I would argue the final 2 seasons were the best of the entire series. The cast got trimmed down, and by far some of the best storylines happened during these 2 seasons. Agree season 2 was "out there" in some of the storylines. I think they had such a huge cast they had to come up for storylines for once they graduated is part of what led to some of the unrealistic storylines. Season 3 was a big improvement.

[Chris Lang]

Pretty much all the Star Trek shows. TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise all started out shaky and got better a few seasons in.

Agree on the Star Trek shows. I'd like to add...

Agents of SHIELD started off shaky, but got better toward the end of the first season with the Hydra storyline and improved from there.

Legends of Tomorrow got better with the second season as they embraced the weirder and more ridiculous aspects.

[Valentis]

The Sopranos
Friends
The X Files
Mad Men
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Cheers
Friday Night Lights

[Jack Dracula]

As someone who watched the first seasons of SNL in college sitting with buddies, I can tell how new, irrelevant and funny it was to us. It was like watching the National Lampoon. I am sure some of it might not track now, but it was ground breaking and must watch.

Young people never take context into account when bashing “classics” of any sort. Their perspective is flawed because they’re measuring something which was ground-breaking at the time against everything since. Watchmen and original Star Trek episodes often get the same treatment.

[Sacred Knight]

Seinfeld immediately comes to mind. The first season was short and rough although the pieces were there once Elaine was introduced after the pilot. Hell the pilot wasn't even initially picked up, it got lucky and had the backing of an exec that gave it a chance.

[Captain Craig]

Echos
ST:TNG, DS9 - these for sure. S3 cliffhanger Best of Both Worlds, nearly everything after that was elevated writing, even for the routine episodes. DS9, S3 was a good build off the first two seasons and that S4 opener BAM, drop the mic warp drive perfection nearly the whole way.

ST: Enterprise - S4 was fantastic and had the show not lost so many viewers due to writer apathy in S2 we might say how Enterprise was the best prequel show. Instead we can only say S4 gave us glimpses of what should've been.

Fear the Walking Dead - I watched S1, none of the characters hooked me. I returned to it this past Fall cause a friend who didn't had compared it to the Treks. He was right. S3 it finds better footing, then S4 Morgan comes over and now I can't wait for the S6 finale this upcoming Sunday(6/12/21)!

For Consideration:
Magnum P.I.(2018-current) - it just got a S4 pickup and I think this show really came into its own even more with this past season. I felt the show could get axed anytime the first two years.
Young Indiana Jones Chronicles - we only got two seasons but I've re-watched in the last several years and S2 was a marked uptick. Shame to not have gotten a S3.

[Midvillian1322]

Lie to Me
I liked each season more then the last up until the very last episode in season 3 where Michale B Jordan was joining the cast as a regular. That show got cut short.

[Sutekh]

ST:TNG, DS9 - these for sure. S3 cliffhanger Best of Both Worlds, nearly everything after that was elevated writing, even for the routine episodes. DS9, S3 was a good build off the first two seasons and that S4 opener BAM, drop the mic warp drive perfection nearly the whole way.

ST: Enterprise - S4 was fantastic and had the show not lost so many viewers due to writer apathy in S2 we might say how Enterprise was the best prequel show. Instead we can only say S4 gave us glimpses of what should've been.

Enterprise had the left-handed benefit of getting cut off before it got it's traditional seven seasons, and, IMO, ended strong. DS9's final season, by comparison, kind of fell down, after six seasons of constant improvement, IMO. (Same with Babylon 5. Seasons 3 and 4 just were a quantum leap in improvement over the first season, and then season 5 was just like, 'we rushed out our big climax in season 4, and they gave us another season, and we've got nothing left in the tank...')

Next Generation got more bold and experimental in later seasons, I think, with more excellent standalone episodes like Inner Light, but didn't really have the same sort of story-arc structure of the later shows, being a ton of 'one-and-dones,' making it feel less consistent, since for every great episode, there were some clunkers.

[Agent Z]

Avatar The Last Airbender only gets better with age, with its theme becoming more relevant each day.

[Jackalope89]

I actually liked Burns in MASH. But his character was about the one holdover of the first 3 seasons I liked the whole way through. But overall, MASH season 4 onward, especially with giving Margaret more depth (and Winchester later too), was when the show really shined.

Golden Girls, that show is just a gold mine. Especially Sophia roasting Blanche, which never gets old.

The Avatar series, obviously.

[caj]

MARY TYLER MOORE.

Most probably prefer the early seasons with Rhoda. But to me, the writing just kept getting better every year.