Any TV shows where you prefer the later seasons?

[Panic]

Black Sails. I thought the first season was weaker than what followed.

[JBatmanFan05]

The Simpsons (seasons, what, 3 to like 10 or so were the best), Seinfeld (first 2 seasons IIRC were meh), Doctor Who (which hit its peak with Tom Baker)

I can't and won't say Breaking Bad, a show which I find pretty consistent with every season. All the seasons are nearly equally good for different reasaons.

[ChrisIII]

I also echo color Doctor Who, although the fact that many William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton stories are missing or incomplete might not help them.

Walking Dead really gets good in seasons 3-6, but the Savior stuff does is kind of iffy in seasons 7-8 despite Jeffrey Dean Morgan's iconic Negan. However, the show I think gets good again with seasons 9 to it's ending.

Fear the Walking Dead's season 3 is actually pretty good. The rest, not so much.

[caj]

Seinfeld for sure.

[JBatmanFan05]

I also echo color Doctor Who, although the fact that many William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton stories are missing or incomplete might not help them.

I'm quite familiar with the missing episodes, and I myself can factor that in and still confidently say the Hartnell and Troughton seasons are weaker and it's due a lot to the lower budget nature of the show for those seasons IMHO (Doctor Who long had low budgets, but some Hartnell and Troughton serials take that to the extreme), and perhaps you can throw in that, especially with Hartnell, the show I think wasn't sure what it even was and where it was going with The Doctor.

The Aztecs (Hartnell) is one of my favorite Who serials actually, it's right up there City of Death and other Baker favorites of mine, but even if Hartnell's Marco Polo and some missing others of the Hartnell/Troughton era were that great, it likely still wouldn't be enough overall in aggregate to match the Baker years or etc.

They've animated many lost serials now and I love it and they're interesting and good, but at the same time, they have not led to some radical reappraisal of the Hartnell and Troughton years. The audio of all lost serials has long existed so at least so the writing/voices and all (of the missing eps) could be reviewed even without the video presentation. (the missing serials are only missing the video, not the audio)

[Jokerz79]

I'm quite familiar with the missing episodes, and I myself can factor that in and still confidently say the Hartnell and Troughton seasons are weaker and it's due a lot to the lower budget nature of the show for those seasons IMHO (Doctor Who long had low budgets, but some Hartnell and Troughton serials take that to the extreme), and perhaps you can throw in that, especially with Hartnell, the show I think wasn't sure what it even was and where it was going with The Doctor.

The Aztecs (Hartnell) is one of my favorite Who serials actually, it's right up there City of Death and other Baker favorites of mine, but even if Hartnell's Marco Polo and some missing others of the Hartnell/Troughton era were that great, it likely still wouldn't be enough overall in aggregate to match the Baker years or etc.

They've animated many lost serials now and I love it and they're interesting and good, but at the same time, they have not led to some radical reappraisal of the Hartnell and Troughton years. The audio of all lost serials has long existed so at least so the writing/voices and all (of the missing eps) could be reviewed even without the video presentation. (the missing serials are only missing the video, not the audio)

Funny you mention City of Death because for me that was the end of the great era of Classic Who. What I mean is City of Death is Fantastic, but up to City of Death I felt each season of Classic Who had more good stories than bad and the script flipped afterwards with more bad than good with the last season being the only season that had solid stories all the way through. But a lot of that was in part due to the writing staff realizing that while the show had no money the UK had amazing historical locations and Dr. Who had access to the BBC Drama Departments Costumes, so they focused on Historical based stories rather than space in McCoy's last season.

Edit: Not to have another post I loved the WWII Season 1 of WW also.

[ChrisIII]

Yeah, good point, McCoy's last season was almost totally earthbound except for the Cheetah planet (Which the Doctor didn't use the TARDIS for). Even then it makes pretty good use of the 'paintbox' tech.

Ghost Light and Curse of Fenric might have very confusing plots but both looked great by DW standards, and the costuming certainly helped. Having the Haemavores be in various period outfits (showing how long the Ancient One had been around) was a cool touch too. You can also see some of the Haemavores have different 'stages' that look less and less human and more like the Ancient One, with the oldest wearing Viking-Era outfits.

[ChrisIII]

Also Red Dwarf I think really got good with adding Kryten and doing more with the Starbug in season 3, although by season 7 it started to get kind of meh. I haven't seen some of the newer stuff.

Simpsons also had a "golden age" of the 90s to early 00s, when the animation quality generally improved in season 3.

[ChrisIII]

Seinfeld for sure.

Yeah, there's a lot of more forgettable episodes in the first two seasons (Although of course some classics like The Chinese Restaurant), but the show really starts to hit it's stride in season 3.

[Gaastra]

Agree with simpsons season 3. 2 did have some classics, however.

You can't do that on tv was better than the "whatever turns you on' first season.

Muppet show got better as it went along.

Gunsmoke was better than the half hour Marshel Dillion early seasons.

Avatar the last airbender really took off in season 2.

[chachi]

Friday Night Lights seasons 4 and 5 were the best of the series in my opinion. Season 1 was good; 2 & 3 were a mess.

[caj]

Friday Night Lights seasons 4 and 5 were the best of the series in my opinion. Season 1 was good; 2 & 3 were a mess.

Completely agree.

[ChrisIII]

I'm quite familiar with the missing episodes, and I myself can factor that in and still confidently say the Hartnell and Troughton seasons are weaker and it's due a lot to the lower budget nature of the show for those seasons IMHO (Doctor Who long had low budgets, but some Hartnell and Troughton serials take that to the extreme), and perhaps you can throw in that, especially with Hartnell, the show I think wasn't sure what it even was and where it was going with The Doctor.

The Aztecs (Hartnell) is one of my favorite Who serials actually, it's right up there City of Death and other Baker favorites of mine, but even if Hartnell's Marco Polo and some missing others of the Hartnell/Troughton era were that great, it likely still wouldn't be enough overall in aggregate to match the Baker years or etc.

They've animated many lost serials now and I love it and they're interesting and good, but at the same time, they have not led to some radical reappraisal of the Hartnell and Troughton years. The audio of all lost serials has long existed so at least so the writing/voices and all (of the missing eps) could be reviewed even without the video presentation. (the missing serials are only missing the video, not the audio)

Think in general with color WHO they also did more location/outdoor filming (Even if a lot of it was quarries and beaches to represent "alien worlds"), Hartnell WHO is largely set-bound with a few exceptions like Dalek Invasion of Earth (Where the Daleks in London was part of it's marketing), The War Machines etc. although 90% of the time it was just filming in London.

[Android 17]

Xena is another show where the later seasons were better.

[K7P5V]

Hopefully this counts, but my choice would be MIB: The Animated Series (the writing stayed the same, but the animation quality improved greatly after Season 1):