Dave's Blog

Shows that got a bit better after season 1

Each of these shows went from 4.5/5 to 5/5.

Babylon 5

• The first season is great and presented a universe unlike any other, but the mind blowing ongoing story in the second season kicked things up a notch. The fifth season isn’t quite as amazing as seasons 2 through 4 but they came back after they thought they were cancelled.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

• Season 1 consisted of great standalone episodes, but once they started doing season-long storylines with season 2 it was an even better show.

Parks and Recreation

• Season 1 and 2 were funny but season 3 kicked things up a notch. It helped that after the short first season they retooled things a bit — Leslie became smarter.

Shows that got a lot better after season 1

Each of these shows went from 3.5 or 4/5 to 4.5 or 5/5. These shows were given the opportunity to improve — some shows aren’t so lucky.

Stargate SG-1

• Season 1 was OK and showed the series had potential — season 2 kicked things up a couple of notches, and it ran at that level until finishing with season 10.

Stargate Atlantis

• Similar to its parent show, this one took a season to reach its potential. Things dipped a bit in the first half of season 5, the final season.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

• The second season was better than the first, and it really hit its stride with the third season.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

• This show followed a similar pattern to its predecessor, maintaining a consistently brilliant quality in seasons 3 through 7.

Star Trek: Voyager

• Although it never rose to the level of TNG or DS9 — the writers didn’t seem to know quite what to do with the characters — it was a great show with many brilliant episodes.

Star Trek: Enterprise

• This show did something I’ve never seen any other show do. Every season kept getting better and better, until it was a 5/5 show in its fourth season — and then it was cancelled.

The X-Files

• The first season is actually fairly mediocre but after that it was mesmerizing. Seasons 3 through 8 were consistently brilliant. After Mulder left it was still worth watching but things weren’t quite the same.