Amazing series with rubbish pilots

[MadeIndescribable]

So I've finally seen Discovery, and I wasn't as grabbed as I thought I'd be, but it did leave me with the impression things were only getting better and that it would grow on me.

I was slightly dissapointed, but then remembered that some of my favourite series also had really underwhelming pilots and I had to either give them a few episodes, or be persuaded by friends to keep watching, and then I did get hooked. The most obvious ones I can think of are Orphan Black, and Rick & Morty.

Anyone else have any other series that took them a few episodes to get into?

 

[cultcross]

Interesting you say Rick and Morty because I have up after the pilot wondering why everyone raved about it.

 

[MadeIndescribable]

I can see why it's not for everyone, and season one is generally the weakest, but a couple of the later episodes have featured some of the best sci fi concepts I've seen in any series.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I wouldn't call Orphan Black's pilot underwhelming at all. I was hooked in the first few minutes by Beth's suicide, but absolutely riveted when Katja showed up and got shot. The series managed to keep going up from there, and yes the series was completely amazing, but its wasn't a rubbish pilot by any stretch.

"Encounter at Farpoint" is my go-to example for an underwhelming pilot whose series eventually became amazing.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Thrones?

I watched the pilot live and I remember thinking half-way through "No one is going to watch this."

 

[MadeIndescribable]

I wouldn't call Orphan Black's pilot underwhelming at all. I was hooked in the first few minutes by Beth's suicide, but absolutely riveted when Katja showed up and got shot. The series managed to keep going up from there, and yes the series was completely amazing, but its wasn't a rubbish pilot by any stretch.

"Encounter at Farpoint" is my go-to example for an underwhelming pilot whose series eventually became amazing.

I didn't feel like I knew the characters enough for the events to have the impact they deserved. (And it took me far too long to realise that Kira was Sarah's daughter, and I'm blaming that on lack of exposition.)

Thrones?

I watched the pilot live and I remember thinking half-way through "No one is going to watch this."

A lot of the reviews thought the same.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Orphan Black really moves at a break-neck speed, far faster than many series I've seen. There's a tremendous amount of story packed into the 50 45-minute-ish episodes. The whole series is just 38 hours of airtime, give or take.

 

[MadeIndescribable]

Orphan Black really moves at a break-neck speed, far faster than many series I've seen. There's a tremendous amount of story packed into the 50 45-minute-ish episodes. The whole series is just 38 hours of airtime, give or take.

Yeah, once I got into it I was hooked, and even watched all of season 4 in one go!

 

[Jayson1]

Hercules and Xena. I can;t even recall what the plots were. All I can recall from Xena is here camping out by a fire with her armour off,wearing white undergarments and gets into a fight. Then at the end she fights this guy with sticks were they can't touch the ground which means standing on people's heads and then on a roof with rolling stick like things that keep falling off and it ends with her standing on him while he is laying on the ground, all defeated.

Twilight Zone. I think it's the one with the guy in a town all by himself and it turns out he is in a box going through a government experiment. Not bad but nothing special, either.

Family Guy. To be honest I think most of "Family Guy" was kind of subpar until they returned after being cancelled and even then it took another year or so before it really turned great.

South Park;The show use to be very dumb. It didn't become great until it started becoming topical.

"The Office" I am talking about the American version. They stole to many jokes from the British version. It got better once it became it's own thing.

Jason

 

[Tosk]

I won't be surprised if season one of Discovery plays out much better when being able to watch it all at once. Will the people who wait and watch it for the first time in one go have a higher opinion? Let's wait and see.

 

[tharpdevenport]

I'm struggling to think of any great shows with bad pilots. Seems most people here are just listing good shows with bad pilots.

But then again, good shows outweigh great shows in my opinion.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Yeah. Generally great shows have great pilots. And then there are a lot of shows (good, bad, otherwise) where the pilot is the best episode.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I agree about Thrones, it took at least half a season to warm up.

Depending on what you consider the Star Trek pilot, I don't think either Where No Man Has Gone Before or Man Trap are very good episodes.

Twilight Zone's pilot about isolation experiments was not the strongest of its episodes.

Also I was not hooked on Babylon 5 after the pilot.

The Simpsons entire first season was pretty middling to weak.

 

[CorporalClegg]

WNMHGB is a great episode. It's so meta. Network tells Gene The Cage is too cerebral and then he goes on an makes an episode warning against the dangers of super brain power.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Family Guy. To be honest I think most of "Family Guy" was kind of subpar until they returned after being cancelled and even then it took another year or so before it really turned great.

I feel the exact opposite about Family Guy. I loved it when it was first on. It surprised you a lot more. Then when it came back it became all about just rehashing all their well known bits and became a lot more about shock value for the sake of shock value. It's when everybody got inexplicably abusive to Meg (Whereas previously the joke was how mediocre she was) which is just plain not funny. Stewie changed from a Bond villain baby to just bad weird gay jokes. The show's gotten painful to watch.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

WNMHGB is a great episode. It's so meta. Network tells Gene The Cage is too cerebral and then he goes on an makes an episode warning against the dangers of super brain power.

I found it weakly plotted and I don't think they justified the assumption that being super smart magically makes you evil.

 

[MadeIndescribable]

South Park;The show use to be very dumb. It didn't become great until it started becoming topical.

I agree with this. Although I enjoyed it when it was first on (I was about 13), looking back early South Park just doesn'tv appeal anymore.

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

Also I was not hooked on Babylon 5 after the pilot.

Are you talking about episode 1, or the two hour pilot movie, with the Stewart Copeland soundtrack? As I love that film.

 

[Herbert]

Yeah. Generally great shows have great pilots. And then there are a lot of shows (good, bad, otherwise) where the pilot is the best episode.

My problem with pilots is that sometimes they don't age well. The first episode (and sometimes first season) of a long running series sometimes looks and feels much different than later seasons, and not necessarily in a good way. Encounter at Farpoint is a good example.

 

[bigdaddy]

There was an ABC comedy on a few years back call 'The Neighbors', a family of humans moved into a neighborhood full of aliens that are stuck on Earth.

The pilot was one of the worst things ever filmed. I went "How the hell did this ever make it to air?". Somehow though I saw a few episodes later and was hooked. It blended cute little alien invasion jokes in the background with satire about human behavior.

It only lasted two seasons and really would fit in well with The Middle and Blackish on ABC now. But the 43 out of 44 episodes isn't a bad record. Plus if you are a Full House fan the finale episode will make you smile.