Submitted by uzaira6789 t3_zvlsq0 in television
Most of the shows perform below expectations after season 1 hit. Sometimes you're lucky to watch a series that keeps getting better every time a new season is released. For me, following are the series that seemed okayish at first, but turned out really, reeeally well as the story went ahead:
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The entire final season I was on the edge of my seat every week.
I actually think those early BCS seasons are even better than the later ones. It stands on its own, doesnt rely as much on breaking bad subplots with the cartel etc
I use ratingraph.com as a fun little time waster, and the arc for BCS has probably the most unique shape of any I've seen
I don't agree with friends. It declined in quality in its later arc namely in the last 3 seasons.
Exactly. Like many long-running shows, the main cast members became caricatures, just one-note jokes to keep the punchlines flowing. Joey is dumb, Monica is controlling, Chandler is awkward! Yay!
The humour too was somewhat forced. If you watch the finale you will see that the natural humour that once flowed in the show is all gone and it was a pretty laugh less send off.
But then again whilst the last 3 seasons had their moments they were not consistent anymore and they certainly lacked the humour and charm of its earlier years so it wasn't surprising the finale wasn't funny and lackluster. Joey was akin to a special needs person by the end and he was so child like ir just was no longer funny. The writers seemed to have totally ran out of ideas with the joey and rachael affair.
Whilst I only watched the early years of cheers in the shelley long years I can't comment on what came next but I caught the cheers finale on tv a few weeks ago and it was still laugh out loud funny. Again I didn't watch cheers with kristie alley so can't comment on its last 6 seasons but certainly they had brilliant humour in the finale episodes, this wasn't the case on friends.
Cheers remained very funny throughout its run - there’s an episode here or there that isn’t as great as the others, but, IMO, the Kirstie Alley years were great, too. Sam and Diane had that undeniable chemistry, but Danson and Alley played off each other very well, too.
Meh for me cheers was shelley long. She put it on the map and it was pretty much her show greatly helped by her chemistry with danson. After she left I watched the odd ep but my interest was gone.
Schitt’s Creek
The first season was fine, I feel all of the other seasons are strong, but each season is better than the one before it - it got more sentimental without feeling schlocky and the characters were more interesting and felt less and less like caricatures as the show went on.
Parks and Rec
I dunno man Season 3 was peak televisions. 16/16 perfect episodes. While the rest of the show was still great don’t know if anything matched the legendary run of S3. (Really back half of S2 into S3…)
Star Trek Deep Space Nine for me. Not bad s1, good s2, great s3, remaining four are just amazing television
Even though I don't think s7 was quite as good as s6 (Dax stuff, the Prophet storyline turning into some space wizard bullshit), the show was pretty much the gold standard for improvement season over season. And I only watched the whole thing a couple of years ago.
If >!Jadzia had been killed!< at the end of Season 5 instead of the end of season 6 I think Ezri would have worked a lot better. Cramming all of that into one season while also trying to wrap up the Dominion War was a mistake, but one they didn’t have a lot of alternatives for if they wanted her to be a full fledged part of the cast.
Of course Rick Berman >!not running Terry Farrel off the show in the first place!< would be the best case scenario but I do like Ezri, just not how much time was devoted to her in the final season.
100%
Yeah, you can tell DS9 changed for the better after getting slightly different/updated opening credits in S4. Oh, and I have to mention Sisko’s goatee - DS9 definitely got better after Sisko went with the bald and goatee look.
It’s the Riker’s beard of DS9.
I mean it’s top quality family friendly Irish Space man torture porn
The Venture Brothers. The lore is all so self referential and the creators were so continuity obsessed, they just kept building a more deeply connected universe.
#monarchcrewforlife
Yes! HENCH4LIFE
Agents of Shield and The Clone Wars
Both shows wrap up really nicely but you could argue that s4 of AOS is the best season but I had to mention it cuz 1-4 every season gets better and better
Came here to say this about AoS. Whatever your opinion of the show after the stone activates and sends them to space, everyone I've talked to agrees the first few seasons just keep getting better
I agree. However that’s one show that just crashed and burned for me. I just couldn’t get through season 6 despite trying many times
Good call with Clone Wars. I almost gave up during S1 but kept with it and thought it had small incremental improvements each season, culminating in a superb final season
Mr. Robot. I know people think S2 is the weakest, but I honestly enjoyed it a lot more than S1. And then it just got world's better for S3 and S4.
Good call. Great example of a very tightly run show
Besides season 2 being terrible
Yeah cannot get behind S2 being better than S1
It's subjective for sure.
But season 2 WAS the weakest. By far. It was actually pretty awful. So this doesn’t quality. 25% of the show was bad
Shows are subjective. To me it wasn't. To each their own. We can respectfully agree to disagree there :)
Thank You, friend
I stopped watching after season 2. Are you saying I should give it another shot?
Season 3 is bonkers good and has one of my favorite back to back episode sections in television history (Season 3 Episode 5 Runtime Error and Season 3 Episode 6 Kill Process, rivals things like S6 Episodes 9 & 10 from Game of Thrones). Season 4 is maybe the best final season to anything ever. Has both my favorite television episode (Season 4 Episode 7 Proxy Authentication Required) and also has one of my favorite series finales in it (Season 4 Episode 13 Hello, Elliot). And I don't even think I'm really the target audience for the show. I honestly think I should have liked it more and it's like 2nd on my list of best things I've ever seen.
For what it's worth, everyone should definitely watch the show one time through for Proxy Authentication Required alone. It's the greatest payoff to something you didn't even know you needed and it was built to throughout flawlessly while being right under your nose the whole time. If you care about IMDB ratings, that episode had a perfect 10 rating for like 6-7 months after it aired.
Bojack horseman for me. First season picks up in the middle and then after each season I feel hits harder than the last. Beautiful writing
The more shit Bojack did, the more it all haunted him as the series went on. Great show
Buffy the vampire slayer.
Buffys best days were seasons 1 to 3. It declined after that.
Agree! When I rewatch, I never go past 5 because I’m just not into any of the weird shit they did at the end.
Yea they tried to be too arty and pretentious in the later years and for me it just killed it. Season 5 with the key storyline went into overkill and her sister annoyed me. I gave up on season 7 it just was that bad.
Seasons 4 to 6 had their great moments but the consistency of the first 3 years was gone. Season 2 was where it peaked.
The Shield
12 Monkeys only kept getting better as it went on, they planned things out and it really showed.
Just finished that show last month. Very fun ride.
Gotham
I'm going to politely disagree here. For a show that was pitched on the premise of being about Gordon and the street cops of Gotham before Batman, it pivoted hard to "Batman Begins Lite" pretty fast.
I really enjoyed this one
I liked Gotham more when Falcone was a major presence.
This might be one of the top 5 most disappointing shows of all time
Spartacus started of unwatchably bad and then it got decent towards the end of Season 1. Every season after that was great though.
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Black Sails was okayish/good for the first season and then whoa, did it pick up
Funny I only really liked season 1, 2 was decent and then it kept going down hill IMO
Same, I couldn't make it halfway through season 2, just no likable characters anymore.
It’s been a long time since I watched it, but Fringe is this first that came to mind. Started off as a pretty standard paranormal investigation show, but it got pretty wild with alternate dimensions etc
12 monkeys for similar reasons
The original run of Arrested Development. So many layers and callbacks that made it funnier and funnier.
mr f
The Good Place
What we do in the shadows
Dark!
Great show but for me it’s the opposite S1 > S2 >>>S3.
Intersting you mention peaky blinders on this list. I thought PB was best at the beginning and not as good later on.
It is always sunny in Philadelphia. It is awesome :-)
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Stargate sg1
The Venture Bros
Hacks
Only two seasons so far but I like where this is going.
Hannibal
Seinfeld
The. Motherfucking. Leftovers.
Was scrolling to make sure the leftovers was commented here
Better call saul
Succession currently
Breaking Bad Yellowstone
I put off watch Yellowstone cause I thought it was going to be a little house on the prairie. From the 1st episode it punched me in the face and had me gasping. But it crescendo in season 3 and has now turned into a little house on the prairie. It’s still good just not balls deep crazy shit anymore
I just ended Season 3. Now you’re saying it’s going downhill? I know what you’re saying though. Haven’t started Season 4 but I’ll still watch even if it’s disappointing.
It’s good but season 4 is a bit of a trainwreck you keep watching. Season 5 takes a turn in style completely. Not bad but I can’t see how this ends crazy
Monk
The first season Natalie was introduced was a bit rocky as they needed to properly build the chemistry between her and Monk. After that season it was back on form.
My fiancé and I just watched through new girl and I was supposed at how much better it got as the seasons went on. The last season was fine, last episode I would say was actually maybe the worst episode but in general it fits the bill of each season being better than the last. The character writing and development was phenomenal
Halt and Catch Fire. Went from a wannabe Mad Men clone in its first season to a very thoughtful relationship-oriented show about a bunch of nearly successful failures in the tech world.
Super underrated.
The expanse, at least for the 3 seasons sy-fy had it, Amazon seasons aren’t bad either but those first 3 seasons just got better and better.
Game of Thrones.
I just finished season 6 and can’t wait to see how the next two brings this awesome story to a close!
From what I gather about the end of that show, and I fell off around season 3, is that you’re going to be very disappointed haha.
Mad Men
Adventure time
You! Every season has been more interesting than the last.
The Boys.
Dark
Mr robot by far. The character development that needed to have happened by season 4 and 5 story lines was neccececary and totally worth it. The episode Eliot betrayed that girl it seemed like he had a connection with was the best I've seen on tv. When he finds her in the bathroom.. that moment the tone of the episode changes and he reveals himself. my god. the best hour of tv. And you needed 4 season of Eliot being alone. To find this strange connection only to betray it. Then the intensity of the reaction. Fuck
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Succession
The Shield. Just finished a rewatch.
“Shane?”
Yessiree Bob.
You think peaky blinders got better as it went on? I dont know for me it started to lose me after it turned from a gangster show so quickly into politics and then ended it all very anti climactically. I wanted it to build up slowly but after they end season 1 they get rid of the villain they build up. Season 2 they have the whole london plot which was good but season 3 jumped way too far too fast for my liking
Attack on Titan
The Venture Bros.
Succession
Seal Team
Yellowstone
Power
Homeland
I think the only show that genuinely does this for me is Shingeki no Kyojin.
Others come close though. Mr Robot would but 2 is a little worse than 1. Black sails would but 3 is a little better than 4. Avatar is the same except it's 2 that's a little better than 3.
The final season of Ozark was terrible
Battlestar Galactica
Bojack horseman
The Sopranos
Narcos
Luke Cage - season was rough but season 2 went so hard
Better Call Saul
The Expanse. That third season was incredible and IMO would have been difficult to top. A slight hiccup with the fourth season that evolves into an amazing finale, and an incredible Fifth and Sixth season.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
The final 4 episodes remain some of the best content in the entire franchise
This is the first time I've ever seen a thread about "shows that gets better every season" where The Leftovers is not one of the top comments.
Like the list - I humbly submit American Horror Story. Darker and weirder each season. It was much improved by the completely different story line sharing the same cast. Loved it.
Vikings
With every season they just became more savage and powerful.
Heroes
Genuinely interested to hear an explanation for this, because Season 1 was pretty much peak TV for a lot of people, myself included, and I fully believe it never recovered after the writers' strike.
Mdku22 t1_j1psfs7 wrote
Better Call Saul may be one of the best examples of this IMO