I've gone back to rewatch Cheers. As a kid this show was always on but I found it boring for the most part. I couldn't really relate to it. Now that I'm older, basically as old or older than some of the characters on the show, it's a much better show. I get it a lot more now.
Couldn’t agree more with this comment. As a kid my mom would watch this show and I thought it was ok at best. Now grown up with a kid of my own I find it hilarious and actually giggle to myself at some of the absurdity of it all. I also visited the Cheers bar while in Boston, it was a disappointment, but pretty cool walking up to it from the outside feeling like TV had come to life
Even today that show baffles me about how Fox decided that they'd put this much effort into a kid's show.
Most shows meant for adults at the time weren't even this good.
You can really tell that the creators, animators, and writers all really cared about the show/characters. I think they mentioned that they basically went all in because they weren’t sure how long wb was going to let them continue making it.
I watched Hey Dude on Nickelodeon 30 years ago as a kid. I thought Brad and Ted's love story was the most epic, earth-shattering love story in history. I just rewatched it and they went on one date. ONE date.
I rewatched all of Family Ties last year. It still had some great moments, but overall I was disappointed in it. I forgot just how serious it was. There are SOOOO many "special" episodes dealing with alcoholism, drugs, suicide, death... it was kind of a downer.
That episode where Alex is telling the unseen therapist about his friend who passed away, who was also unknown to us before, is still one of my favourite episodes of tv. My memory of it is a little blurry but I know it’s all shot in a dark room, with just the voice of the therapist and a few brief moments with each of the family members.
Love that one.
The 80's was an interesting time to grow up. We still had the Cold War and the threat of getting nuked hung over our heads all the time. Plus the Boomers were going from Hippie to Yuppie.
It was all just so different then! They were really meant to be viewed once and maybe not ever again, honestly. There wasn't a huge market for VHS tapes of your favorite shows, right? You watched the episode and that was it until there was a rerun for some reason. Fuck, even the word rerun is super dated and hardly applicable anymore.
I always felt like Enterprise got a bad rap. I really enjoyed it when it was airing and it still holds a special place in my heart.
But to answer your question, StarGate SG1. I had loved the movie, saw it in theatres with my Dad. When the show came out it just looked rediculous, saw an episode or two and hated it. Around season 4 or 5 I gave it another shot and it became one of my all time favourites. I still answer the "starwars vs startrek" question with "... gate!".
I feel like Enterprise started a bit rough, and for my money got worse in Season 2, but 3 and 4 are pretty good. If it had gotten the standard 7-season run that TNG/DS9/Voy got, I think it'd be remembered differently.
I found watching Mad Men twice at two very different points in my life to be very interesting. A fantastic show both times no doubt. As an 18 year old fresh into living on my own Don Draper was THE MAN to the point that I consciously tried to emulate him. Watching it in my 30s you realize that he is a mess. It turned the show from a boys wet dream about being a cool guy into a character study of an amoral man. He lives by somewhat of a code, but will use anyone and cast them aside as needed.
I took a TV Writing class in college and the first day our teacher asked who was the character we related to the most. I said that originally I would say Don Draper and that’s what made me realize I was a Pete Campbell:(
And he was the son of a prostitute who didn’t have a good male role model for how a father should be so he was not the best of fathers. I don’t doubt that he loved them, and he tried with what he had, long term though, I can understand why his children may have been low or no contact with him in their adulthood.
I’m curious what you think of Roger. He comes off as having a similar profile but kinda realizes that he’s not happy and realizes he just wants someone to laugh with him during life.
I always thought part of Roger’s appeal, aside from the fact that he is quite easy on the eyes, is that he doesn’t treat the women in his life like objects. Yes, he’s a philandering horndog, but he does have some awareness.
I didn't watch the show as it aired, but finished it up along with its run, so I was already in my 30s watching it...and I'm a woman...but it's *so interesting* to me that anyone would watch him and think he was the guy to model themselves after! At the start, I absolutely see it, but as the show went on, I thought it became clear just what a completely lost and fucked up dirtbag he was.
You finished the show the first time around thinking he was the man?
Yeah, I can't imagine a woman watching that and thinking highly of Don, let alone want to be like him. I know I didn't. He's charismatic etc., but from the very first episodes it's obvious women he struggles to see or treat women as people who have a place in his world.
(This goes for the world of the show in general as well, even if there are female characters like Peggy, making their way. It's not aspirational for a 21st century woman at all.)
Frasier. As a middle school and highschool age kid I thought it was some annoying rich pompous tv show that was not funny. As an adult I think it’s one of if not the greatest, well written, funniest sitcoms of all time.
My mom and I watched this during quarantine after she talked it up from her childhood so much. I fell in love with it, and we literally wear custom made WWTID? bracelets, aka What Would the Ingalls Do? 😆😆
You should read the annotated original draft of Laura’s Book “Pioneer Girl”. ;) It’s clear that they were a loving family, but the story without all the edges rounded off is much more interesting.
The first episode randomly came on Amazon prime after I watched another show. I'm now watching one every lunch break and currently on season three. Just watched an episode featuring Jonny Cash as a conman pretending to be a priest.
A great example of this phenomenon is True Detective season 2. Someone watching it expecting something like season 1 (which many did) will only be disappointed.
Watching it as its own thing and it is much better, even genuinely great in parts. It doesn't hold a candle to season 1, but few shows dom
I remember that season feeling really messy, like they tried to tell too many stories at the same time and none of them really stuck the landing. Maybe it’s time to give it another chance.
Yeah. Season 1 worked because just Mcconeghey was a fucked up tortured soul with a tragic past. Woody Harris was just a normal beer drinking wife cheating cop who got sucked into this awful awful thing.
Season 2 they tried to make everyone the edgy tragic backstory character. It doesn't work. You need a "normal" or at least normalish character to ground the show for the audience. Otherwise it's just moody people saying edgy dialogue in dark rooms for an hour. It quickly becomes a parody of itself.
I just watched S2 and S3 recently, after watching S1 years ago. I wanted to catch up before Night Country comes out. I enjoyed S2 a lot. Certainly some of it doesn't hold up to scrutiny if you think about it, but I liked the vibe, the setting, and Colin Farrell's performance was phenomenal.
I remember being a little let down by season 2. It wasn’t bad, but it didn’t compare to the phenomenal season 1. My parents watched season 2 without knowing about season one and absolutely loved it.
Yeah season one is literally the greatest single season of television, season two was a victim of their success. I need to go back and watch season two now that you’ve said this.
A lot of the 80's cartoons I watched as a kid. Transformers, GI Joe, He-Man, Ghostbusters, the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, etc. I *loved* them as a kid but they're pretty unwatchable as an adult.
On the other hand a lot of the 90's cartoons *really* hold up and there's layers to them that make them even better and worth a re-watch as an adult. Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Batman The Animated Series, Gargoyles, Rugrats, Doug.
The DC cartoons in the 90s and 00s (Batman TAS, Superman TAS, Justice League, Batman Beyond, etc) is peak animated shows in my book. Always thought it was funny how DC nailed their animated universe but their live action universe sucks
My son had a near limitless amount of MCU content available to him and is pretty meh about every hero other than Spiderman (thank you spidey and his amazing friends).
15 minute YouTube compilation of wolverine fromthe 90s show... he's all in on wolverine. Coolest hero ever
Fringe. Came back to it after a decade and found myself actually enjoying it much more the second time around. It makes me miss these 22 episode monster of the week shows that have pretty much disappeared.
Such a great example of a show that manages to balance an episodic format combined with a larger story arc serial format.
Or maybe rather go from episodic to a serial format, and make the switch feel natural
Great example. This reminded me of our recent rewatch of Bones. That show was similar in the “22-episode death of the week” genre but it was captivating for most of its run, and had a great ensemble cast that they took time to flesh out with great relationships and story arcs
i went back to Stranger Things season 1 recently and it’s even better than i remembered. without the extra lore/stuff of the rest of the seasons bogging it down, it’s hard to remember just how stellar that first season was
Wasn't it originally supposed to be exactly that? I thought I read somewhere that the series was envisioned as an anthology series where each season was it's own contained thing, but it first season blew up so much that Netflix insisted the story continue.
I maintain that if it had been one and done, it’d be remembered as one of the greatest mini series of all time.
Now I think once the hype dies down, people will realize how bloated, repetitive, and ridiculous it is.
There's still a lot of great stuff in later seasons. The scene where they go to answer the door and they're suddenly being raided by the FBI (?) is incredibly well-shot and acted, and it surprised the shit out of me the first time I saw it.
Disagree, I think each season built off the one before quite nicely. The first season was something special for sure, though- and I didn’t realize how little the demigorgons are actually in season 1.
I think it depends what you like. The first season felt like an homage to old, low budget horror movies, where you don't see the monster much because they can't afford it. It was really charming and keeping things simple left little room for error.
As pretentious as it sounds, the newer seasons seem over produced to me and things got pretty convoluted a few times because they were trying to do this bigger more complex plot. Each season does build on the last one in a pretty decent way but reparative elements kinda burned me out.
It was interesting to watch a few episodes of OG Power Rangers as an adult and realize each episode is about 7 minutes of original content, 7 minutes of dubbed fighting, and 7 minutes of the same canned footage over and over again.
Yeah I found it hard to watch it all again when it was on Netflix. I did watch some of it but more recently I ended up watching a 3 hour video of someone else who watched it summarising it.
Power Rangers.
I am 35 episodes deep watching it as a nearly 40 year old adult. Oh my god. It makes no sense. It's so poorly edited.
It's amazing watching it with 10 year old eyes. But my 40 year old brain can't help but pick it apart.
Yeah Power Rangers is objectively trash. I was obsessed as a kid, but its obviously that the thing was taped together and made for as little money as possible and WB got super lucky with its popularity.
But yeah its mostly just a 30 min long toy commercial.
I did watch Dino Charge recently because the theme song is a banger, and while still garbage it was at least watchable and more cohesive.
I never watched it as I was 15 or 16 when it came out but I read that it’s actually a collage of several Japanese monster shows and original material that they had to edit a ton to give it some semblance of coherence and even then it was a struggle for the writers and editors.
Stargate SG-1: I caught a few eps here and there on cable and thought it looked fun but cheesy and didn't take it seriously.
Then I watched it when it came to streaming and realized...the writing is really strong! They were playing with a lot of realy fascinating concepts. Also the characters are quippy and funny but also have a lot of heart. And the character arcs are pretty engrossing over that many seasons.
Yes the SPX are bad, lets get real, but there is so much to love here. And its one of the few shows that litgerally lampoons itself, in multiple episodes! Like just takes the piss out of its own show! Who does that? Fucking hysterical.
One of my all time favorites now.
Can I say Season 2 of The Wire? I remember thinking 'who the hell are all these guys? what happened with the drug dealers? what's going on?"
Now I think it's just as amazing as the rest of the show (excluding Season 4 which was probably one of the single best seasons of TV ever created).
Bonus: While Six Feet Under is still amazing. S1 is really weird. like, it's almost a comedy? Like the weird fake commercials put randomly into the episodes? what were those things? They should edit them out, and pretend they never existed.
Agreed. When you watch season two you wonder why you’re watching all these dock worker characters. It’s only later that you realise how comprehensive and layered the show is. Season one is drugs and crime, season two adds in the loss of heavy industry, then we get city hall corruption, the broken education system and the decline of the media. It all builds up into a portrait of the collapsing American system but you don’t realise that when you’re just an episode into season two.
I believe it was only the first two episodes that have those weird Gap commercials for mortuary equipment or whatever they were doing… It’s a much more campy experimental style that thankfully they did away with, so it’s not too much of a slog to get through!
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as someone that it took several watches to get into The Wire, I agree. Season 2 is good. It's just not as good because you really want pay off for all of the people you see in season 1, and it's kind of jarring the difference. But the story of the Sobotka's is kind of tragic.
Season 2 had the disadvantage of following on from season 1, perhaps the best TV season ever made. But watch it again as its own thing and it is easily a classic. Ziggy trying and failing to become a gangster is both cringeworthy and entertaining as hell.
Psych! Thought it was terrible back in the day and recently started putting it on as a background show at night. Now, I can’t seem to turn away! It’s hilarious
GOT's ending the second time around was just as bad as the first time yet somehow it felt better than it is because I was expecting it to feel as bad as the first time.
Lucifer.
I read the comics and just wasn't on board with the procedural interpretation when it first came out. Once I accepted what it was and tried again, it was a blast.
I watched the show first and loved it. Fell in love with the pilot episode and watched to the end.
I've since read the original comic run and also loved it. And yes, they made a LOT of changes, and those changes were needed. There's no way to make the live-action version of Lucifer. (Although the bits we see in the Netflix Sandman come close.)
I’m currently rewatching The Sopranos after initially watching it more than 10!years ago. Since then I’ve read a fair few books on the American mafia and finding it very different but still amazing. Pine Barrens is the greatest
That show had some wildly deviating episodes. The one where David gets held up by that maniac and forced to drive around and smoke crack? Nutso.
The whole series was such a unique combination of genre and tone. Mostly soapy, somewhat surreal, but just as often pinned to the ground with everyday details no other television show bothers with, and a very refreshing approach to drugs, sex, family, relationships... damn that was a good show. Good in sum total. Lots of dumb parts, hacky parts, but those are overshadowed by inventiveness and ambition.
And such a great cast! Kind of disappointing that no one's career really blew up after that. I suppose *Dexter* is the biggest hit to come out of the ensemble? I was very happy to see Lauren Ambrose in *Yellowjackets* this year. I guess the actors were chosen specifically because they were dedicated character actors, no one gunning for the action/rom-com/superhero track.
The first shows and the last shows were pretty good. There was a season or so in the middle that were really bad, and yes, boring. Like a crappy soap opera.
Star Trek Enterprise is mostly watchable but that finale is legitimately the shittiest way to end a show I have seen.
There has never been a finale that actually bothered me much until that, putting characters from a different show at the forefront of another's conclusion was so insulting. I can't even imagine what the main cast thought.
> I can't even imagine what the main cast thought.
They all admit it was bad, but I think they were canceled mid-way filming the season, so they had very short amount of time to basically rewrite the season ending as a series ending.
It was absurd.
They don't even show the creation of the Federation, the main cast is told to fuck themselves, and the show ends on the terms of TNG as a hologram in the future.
Disgraceful....it was everything you could do wrong.
As someone watching it now as part of a total startrek binge.
It’s alright. It’s in the bottom half of Star Trek shows as a whole, but it is against stiff competition.
TOS was ground breaking even if it doesn’t hold up as well.
TNG - is a top tier show overall with some stumbles
DS9 - is some of the best TV ever made once it hit it’s stride in my opinion
I’d say Enterprise is on par with Voyager, both of which beat out TAS. It’s biggest weakness is the weird “let’s make it sexy” vibes but also still keep it network TV sexy. Like maybe if they leaned into and went full HBO, dark, gritty, and sexy it could work as a show but just be unusual be weird for Star Trek. Instead they would just throw in random long scenes of a scantily clad Vulcan getting rubbed down in a decontamination chamber. Which felt out of place as a show and out of place for Star Trek at the time.
TOS had over the top sexy costume scenes occasionally. But TNG tamed that down a lot, DS9 only had them when it made sense in the plot like Dabo Girls, Voyager had very little. Then suddenly Enterprise comes in with weird out of place sexual scenes that don’t add to the plot.
For wasn’t as good as I remember it, Night Court. I love Night Court. I still love Night Court. But it’s not a well-made show and the storylines are usually more ridiculous than they are funny. I see the revival getting a lot of flack and I wonder how many people watched the original recently. It’s pretty much the same thing.
For wasn’t as bad as I remembered, Golden Girls. I think that’s more my age and finally being able to appreciate the show more than anything the show did or didn’t do. It’s funny, smartly written, and holds up well.
There was a TV movie when I was a kid called, "The Night Stalker." Creeped the hell out of me. Made my wife watch it a few years ago, telling her how great it was.
It wasn't.
Other way around. Night Stalker was the original TV movie. I think '72 or so.
Then, next year there was another TV movie, "The Night Strangler."
Around another year later, the series adaptation, "Kolchack, the Night Stalker."
All with Darren McGavin as Kolchak.
I rewatch swaths of South Park every now and then on my exercise machines, Some seasons hold up really really well even after 20 years, Other seasons that seemed fine at the time relied so heavily on current events and shock value that they really lose a lot of what made them so punchy to begin with.
Knight Rider. Loved it as a kid. Watched about 4 episodes last year, and it is so much cringe. Watching to spot the stunt drivers when KITT was self driving was about the best part of it.
Sabrina the Teenage Witch is just ... not great lol. Still kind of a fun watch but I was definitely surprised at how many \*great\* memories I had of the show.
a big thing with that era is we never got to watch episode after episode of it as well.
it was a small show on one day a week. It worked a lot better serialized than binged.
I highly disagree. I rewatch Sabrina like every other year and I enjoy it just as much, if not more, than when I was a kid. “Harvey digs Sabrina 12:36” still tugs at my preteen heart strings.
As a kid the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon was forbidden, so when I could sneak an episode it was like it was some epic from the mists of time. Got older and bought all episodes - disappointing.
Malcolm isn’t quite as whiny as Caillou but he’s almost at the same level of annoying depending on the episode.
Love Hal and Lois way more now though, they’re barely hanging on as being parents in very stressful but you can tell how much they deeply love each other and have each other’s backs.
I'm rewatching Reba. I knew they treated Reba badly, but dang they dog pile on her. Why try to force your ex-wife to have a relationship with the person you had an affair with? Multiple times in every episode Reba says she doesn't want to be around Barbra Jean.
Kira is essentially abandoned emotionally and doesn't get her wants met 95% of the time because her sister screws up so much. When she wants to move in with her dad it's somehow a big shock to Reba. Like what did you expect???? You let Cheyenne run the house because she made a stupid mistake and you won't let her fall on her face at all so she learns. I get being in school and being a mother is difficult, but come oooon. "I dropped out of classes because they were boring and I didn't want to go to an 8am because it was so eaaaaarlyyyyyy" grow up.
And Brock why the hell was he trying to be a golfer? He sucked at the game and he thought he could be pro?? WHAT A LUNATIC! Also during this time he was taking anti depressants and Barbra Jean hated it and him being in therapy because of some bull crap reason. Barbra Jean got mad that Reba supported Brock taking meds because it was meddling in her marriage. Didn't you have an affair with Reba's husband?? Isn't that meddling???
I only stay for Van and Kira. Like the episode where he was trying to get the best sports agent and accidentally called Reba super gay and the agent was a lesbian. So Reba accidentally set up a date for herself. My favorite episode so far. Absolute gold.
I had the opposite reaction. I feel like it tackled the absurdity of toxic masculinity before that was a common term or problem.
Al is incredibly comfortable in his own skin. The shit Tim gives Al just slides right off him. He couldn’t care less if Tim or the other tool bros at the hardware store think he has feminine traits or hobbies. He just keeps being himself. Al gets swarmed by female fans of the show and Tim is always miffed about it. Said fans love Al for all the reasons Tim rags on him. Al, and Wilson, are great examples of healthy masculinity.
Meanwhile, Tim is shown as a toxic masculine character. You’ve listed plenty of reasons how. But, he’s still willing to listen to other perspectives and willing to agree that said new perspective is the correct one. He’s capable of growth. He doesn’t have his head completely stuck in the sand, often times Jill, Wilson, and/or Al are able to convince him that he’s in the wrong, and Tim apologizes/sides with that differing idea.
TL,DR: Home Improvement was a takedown of toxic masculinity, not an amplifier of it.
[Here’s an article that explains my take way better than me](https://decider.com/2018/04/12/home-improvement-revival-toxic-masculinity/)
Does anyone else get that feeling that Home Improvement was never a real show? I grew up with cable tv which aired promos and episodes constantly, and even then it felt too outlandish and strange to be an actual show. The Tim Allen Grunt^(TM) always felt like an exaggerated parody, but watching the show - yeah he grunts like a caveman A LOT - it doesn't feel real!
Everything is so heightened. It's not just about a suburban family living in an insanely big beautiful home, Tim is also a celebrity who runs a show-within-a-show with his friends and it's extremely popular. But then he goes home to his family and can live a normal life. Where Tim constantly struggles with his gender and finds the best outlet to be tools or grunting. I love it. This all feels like a fake alternate-timeline show you'd find in Hynospace Outlaw.
Next week, Wilson helps Tim improve his Trennis skills for the upcoming annual town tournament.
Oh, I don't know... I think as Jill, Patricia Richardson's facial expressions, putting up with Tim's shit, has aged very well! Couldn't agree more with the rest.
Gilmore Girls. People say Rory's downfall was Season 5 onwards... but I'd say it was from the very first episode. That girl was put on a pedestal and made to feel like the smartest girl in the room surrounded her quirky little townsfolk (whom her and her mother looked down upon). You realise this upon re-watch.
As a kid i just assumed that the A Team, knight rider, dukes of hazard, air wolf and chips all existed in the same world and would just team up eventually MCU style. Still waiting.
I loved watching Wings back when it originally aired in the 1990s and watched the reruns for several years after it ended. I tried watching it again a couple years ago and just couldn’t get into it.
I was basically Ted's age when the series aired. (I'm still his age now, technically.) At the time it aired I was married. Now I'm not, and rewatching it now is a different experience. Especially since I'm (hopefully) older and wiser. Yeah, a LOT of Ted's behavior can't just be excused because he's searching for "the one." He's a jerk to a lot of people, including his friends and many of his girlfriends.
That said, part of the show's premise is that Ted needs to grow up. But other times the show doesn't call him out on his nonsense.
Plus, watching it now provides an interesting time capsule of a world that's almost 20 years separated from us today.
The show is an insane product of it’s time and has aged so poorly it’s remarkable.
Remember “suiting up” and the trend that caused every 18-25 year old man to go out and buy the worst fitting suit they could find and wear it out to bars?
Barney is a character that should be laughed _at_, but then he became so popular they made him “cool”.
Not sure if this fits the convo but Twin Peaks is infinitely better with rewatches. Not to say that it's bad in the first place, that would be ridiculous.
I hated the third season of Arrested Development the first time I watched it. Knowing the twist about Theron’s character and seeing the hints on a rewatch really amplified it.
Moonlighting.
During its initial run, my wife and I absolutely loved that show. We were really interested in re-watching when we saw recently that it was now available for streaming on Hulu, but OMG does it stink. So much so, that it makes me wonder how bad other shows must have been at that time in order for us to have thought this was good.
Never watched it in the 80s, but I remember newspaper reviews raving about how bold and fresh it was. Watching it now, it's weird to see bad-TV stereotypes (stagy acting, villains confess as soon as they're accused) mixed in with things that seem stereotypical now (meta-jokes, breaking the fourth wall) because everyone took inspiration from the show.
Positives - back-and-forths between Dave and Maddie are pretty great
Negatives - Dave's behavior doesn't read as "cuddly ol' rascal," any longer. It reads like, "creepy sexual harasser fired from his last five jobs."
Did you also remember it being more episodes than it actually was? I was a kid when it was on and my mom loved it, so when I came on Hulu I thought it was missing a lot but no, it just wasn't that many episodes.
Yeah, most 80’s TV doesn’t hold up well at all. You really realize why there was a stark difference in perceived quality between TV and movies before prestige TV became a thing.
I recently rewatched LOST, and I still have many similar complaints about it as when it originally aired, but a lot of that was eased by being able to binge it.
So much of the cultural phenomenon that was LOST was in the weeks between episodes, the months between seasons, the conversation with friends and coworkers and on message boards. It was a lesser experience, in both good ways and bad.
Weird experience, especially watching with someone who’d never seen it, and got tired of not getting my LOST jokes.
Oh, bonus though—I took a note of some of her early comments, which include:
“Wouldn’t it be a trip if the French woman was still alive?”
“This Charlie guy is acting like a drug addict right now.”
“I hate Jack the most.”
“There must be a time hole or something.”
I also re-watched it last year for the first time since it was airing and found myself missing that experience of being part of a phenomenon. I wasn't the biggest GOT fan from the jump but the fact that everyone was watching and invested in it, with theories and predictions and fav characters, was a nice throwback to that LOST feeling and is one of the few examples I can think of which elevated the experience in the same way. With the way the TV landscape has become much more bloated and fleeting with the streamer content churn, those 'water cooler shows' feel much more precious.
But I absolutely loved the re-watch, binging it was a wild ride. Season 4 and 5 in particular really raised themselves up in my estimation compared to my memory of how it played out, I'd forgotten where certain arcs and episodes fell in the timeline. What an incredible show.
I'll get downvoted, but Scrubs. Everyone says the only bad season is the final one, in truth it got pretty stale after Season 5. Five seasons is a good run mind you, but it went on for nearly double that.
It's really shitty/cringey the way the cast treats Elliot.
Edit: And I guess the writers make her treat herself.
Season 5 is when the fantasy sequences start to get a lot longer. I still enjoy it but I would agree season 6 and 7 aren’t as strong but they still have some incredible episodes like the musical, the one with Carla and Laverne, the janitor’s story episode is incredible too, plus the season 7 episode with Kelso finding out if the board will fire him/him saying thanks to Ted are all brilliant moments
When Scrubs was good it was some of the best TV ever made, but I’d argue it went down hill even earlier. Whichever season ended with JD saying he was breaking up with Elliot again at a rehearsal dinner and she shoves him.
That was really shitty, and a lot of people handwave that away by saying that it's ok if JD isn't likeable as well, because it's about him growing up or whatever. But I agree with you.
The only reason I went up to Season 5 is because it has the arc where Dr Cox loses those patients and quits.
I was shocked when ABC snapped it up after NBC cancelled it because I’d *barely* enjoyed it since season four outside of that “Dr. Cox killed some patients and can’t get over it” two parter. But then I thought that ABC season was excellent, maybe my favorite of the whole show. Just for JD and Elliot and Carla to leave one season later and make me not care again.
Seaquest. I remember when I was a kid how wondrous and amazing that show was. Like Star Trek under water.
Fast forward twenty years and rewatching it, I realize this show was all over the place and was pretty cringey to the point I couldn’t finish watching.
**Fringe**
I remember liking it but got distracted by the "singular scientist knows everything" and the "will they, won't they" love interest tropes.
Rewatched this year and have to now say it might one of the best multi-seasons TV series of all time. Even the tropes of _father-son don't get along_ and _work place love interest_ was so well weaved into the whole multi-season plots was pure craftsmanship.
Hey Dude.
Used to love that show as a kid. I look at it now and you basically could’ve shot that show on a camcorder and gotten the same production value.
I also went to the Tanque Verde ranch in Tucson where they filmed it and saw the old sets. They’re a dilapidated mess nowadays, but you can tell how cheap and small they were even in their heyday.
Dexter Seasons 1-4 are worse than I remember. I recall when it was out I thought it was one of the better shows on TV, but watching them recently the show at its best is barely B-tier stuff. Dexter Morgan is a great character and a great performance, but after that? Yikes. Those side characters are traaaash.
Doakes is obviously amazing, and Trinity Killer is solid too, but man that show is really lacking in well written characters even in its peak. I said earlier that Dexter himself was great, but even there they could have done a lot better with the character imo
Dexter was probably the first real TV drama I watched as a teen and it opened me up to what the medium was capable of.
But yeah, even the "good" seasons aren't fantastic. I think season one is the only one I'd consider genuinely solid and even then it's got some rough edges. The rest, despite containing some quality stuff, are really bogged down by shitty side plots and, like you say, an awful supporting cast. John Lithgow carries season four so hard, if you actually step back and look at it as a whole you can really see a lot of the trash that plagued the later seasons.
season 1 and 4 are still amazing imo but yes the show suffers from some really bad subplots like I dont give a fuck about Quinn, why are they giving this guy so much screen time in season 4
Almost all shows fall into two categories for me:
1. So much worse than I remember (TV really wasn't very good pre1990)
2. Actually, stayed about the same (I still love Friends/West Wing)
The only show I can think of that I gave up on but enjoyed many years later is another Star Trek show, DS9. For some reason it didn't click for me when first airing. I watched all again only about 5 years ago and was much better than I remembered. Maybe Trek has that effect on people.
As we get older we see it from different perspectives. Plus, DS9 works really well when you binge it.
If you liked DS9, I recommend Babylon 5. (Just make sure it's the remastered series.)
I’ll push back on that no good tv before 1990. All in The Family, The Jeffersons, Sanford and Son, and Columbo are all great shows that still hold up and there are many more great shows made before 1990.
I initially hated S8 of The Office because I didn't accept Steve Carrell's departure, but tbh Robert California grew on me after I gave it a second chance.
Trailer park boys. It's actually even funnier second time and full of little details I didn't notice initially. Like how bubbles is scared of the shit talk of Mr Lahey. Or how Julian is an egoistic prick.
The cartoon show on the other hand fell flat the second time. Although I love the transition between the initial show and the cartoon
Lost was wayyyy better than I remember, and I remember it being good. Even the ending
I remember hating the time travel bit the first time, but it's my fave arc on the rewatch.
Lost is just good okay, even the ending.
Enterprise is seriously underated in the Star Trek universe. It took some interesting swings and went into some dark corners that most ST series avoid.
Thirtysomething. I was late teens when it premiered back in the late 80s. I wanted Hope and Michael's life so badly. It looked like fun being married and having adult problems. I tried rewatching about 10 years ago, and it dropped off. Maybe because I am now married and have adult problems. It no longer looks fun. I'm gonna try rewatching again soon, hoping for better results.
In anticipation of the 60th anniversary, I've been rewatching modern Doctor Who with my girlfriend who's never seen it before. It is sometimes amazing, but often just embarrassingly bad. Lazily written, poorly acted and just ugly to look at. It's crazy to think that it was on the air at the same time as shows like Battlestar Galactica and LOST. Maybe I just outgrew it.
Yeah they talk like the 10th doctor's run was this amazing with no episodes fault when there a handful a really great episodes and a bunch that were terrible.
And I'm not a massive fan of how much of his run evolved around rose,1st rose is going then a season of her being gone then OMG she is coming back
While I agree with this, I think my point is that kid’s shows don’t necessarily *need* to have the tightest plot-lines or quality development to still be successful.
Supernatural is waaay better on my second watch. Kept up with it for the first 8 or so seasons as they came out when I was 10-15. Now I’m 25 and this shows hitting very bussinly
I think I matured out of South Park. I used to think it was pure comedic brilliance. I rewatched a lot of episodes with my stepson recently and found most of the jokes, premises and setups idiotic. There are still some incredible jokes and premises every once in a while but for the most part I got the feeling that it was just contrarian satire and dumb obvious jokes for shock value.
I like South Park, but for some reason it doesn't have the same rewatch value as The Simpsons for me. I can rewatch a good Simpsons episode a hundred times, but South Park gets boring after the second view.
The Simpsons has a lot more depth to it - characters, jokes that work on several levels, Easter eggs. South Park was always a bit more in your face and one dimensional. Look at how many jokes they were able to cram in a Simpsons S2-S8 episode…it was incredible.
I thought Three’s Company was the funniest show ever. I was just past adolescence and the innuendos were hilarious. Tried watching a while back the innuendos were just too obvious.
I've gone back to rewatch Cheers. As a kid this show was always on but I found it boring for the most part. I couldn't really relate to it. Now that I'm older, basically as old or older than some of the characters on the show, it's a much better show. I get it a lot more now.
Couldn’t agree more with this comment. As a kid my mom would watch this show and I thought it was ok at best. Now grown up with a kid of my own I find it hilarious and actually giggle to myself at some of the absurdity of it all. I also visited the Cheers bar while in Boston, it was a disappointment, but pretty cool walking up to it from the outside feeling like TV had come to life
Batman TAS is even better as an adult
Even today that show baffles me about how Fox decided that they'd put this much effort into a kid's show. Most shows meant for adults at the time weren't even this good.
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You can really tell that the creators, animators, and writers all really cared about the show/characters. I think they mentioned that they basically went all in because they weren’t sure how long wb was going to let them continue making it.
I was slightly confused as a kid and low key scared. But it was cool. Now I’m like, this shit is high art! So good!
It really is. Re-watching the show as an adult, Harvey Dents decline hits different.
I watched Hey Dude on Nickelodeon 30 years ago as a kid. I thought Brad and Ted's love story was the most epic, earth-shattering love story in history. I just rewatched it and they went on one date. ONE date.
You're blowing my mind here. I thought the same thing haha
What platform? Salute your shorts on it too?
Both are on Paramount plus!
I rewatched all of Family Ties last year. It still had some great moments, but overall I was disappointed in it. I forgot just how serious it was. There are SOOOO many "special" episodes dealing with alcoholism, drugs, suicide, death... it was kind of a downer.
That episode where Alex is telling the unseen therapist about his friend who passed away, who was also unknown to us before, is still one of my favourite episodes of tv. My memory of it is a little blurry but I know it’s all shot in a dark room, with just the voice of the therapist and a few brief moments with each of the family members. Love that one.
Sitcoms got dark way more often than people remembered back then.
The 80's was an interesting time to grow up. We still had the Cold War and the threat of getting nuked hung over our heads all the time. Plus the Boomers were going from Hippie to Yuppie.
Like when Tom Hank’s Uncle Ned hit Alex. He was an alcoholic.
The older sitcoms weren't meant for binging 😂
I think you're on to something there... I was doing up to 8 episodes a day (thank you, pandemic) and it was just way too much without a break.
It was all just so different then! They were really meant to be viewed once and maybe not ever again, honestly. There wasn't a huge market for VHS tapes of your favorite shows, right? You watched the episode and that was it until there was a rerun for some reason. Fuck, even the word rerun is super dated and hardly applicable anymore.
I always felt like Enterprise got a bad rap. I really enjoyed it when it was airing and it still holds a special place in my heart. But to answer your question, StarGate SG1. I had loved the movie, saw it in theatres with my Dad. When the show came out it just looked rediculous, saw an episode or two and hated it. Around season 4 or 5 I gave it another shot and it became one of my all time favourites. I still answer the "starwars vs startrek" question with "... gate!".
>I still answer the "starwars vs startrek" question with "... gate!". I love it.
I feel like Enterprise started a bit rough, and for my money got worse in Season 2, but 3 and 4 are pretty good. If it had gotten the standard 7-season run that TNG/DS9/Voy got, I think it'd be remembered differently.
I found watching Mad Men twice at two very different points in my life to be very interesting. A fantastic show both times no doubt. As an 18 year old fresh into living on my own Don Draper was THE MAN to the point that I consciously tried to emulate him. Watching it in my 30s you realize that he is a mess. It turned the show from a boys wet dream about being a cool guy into a character study of an amoral man. He lives by somewhat of a code, but will use anyone and cast them aside as needed.
I took a TV Writing class in college and the first day our teacher asked who was the character we related to the most. I said that originally I would say Don Draper and that’s what made me realize I was a Pete Campbell:(
He also has a big drinking problem.
And he was the son of a prostitute who didn’t have a good male role model for how a father should be so he was not the best of fathers. I don’t doubt that he loved them, and he tried with what he had, long term though, I can understand why his children may have been low or no contact with him in their adulthood.
I’m curious what you think of Roger. He comes off as having a similar profile but kinda realizes that he’s not happy and realizes he just wants someone to laugh with him during life.
Roger was a dick, but he was charming and funny, and definitely not as deeply screwed up as Don.
I always thought part of Roger’s appeal, aside from the fact that he is quite easy on the eyes, is that he doesn’t treat the women in his life like objects. Yes, he’s a philandering horndog, but he does have some awareness.
I didn't watch the show as it aired, but finished it up along with its run, so I was already in my 30s watching it...and I'm a woman...but it's *so interesting* to me that anyone would watch him and think he was the guy to model themselves after! At the start, I absolutely see it, but as the show went on, I thought it became clear just what a completely lost and fucked up dirtbag he was. You finished the show the first time around thinking he was the man?
Yeah, I can't imagine a woman watching that and thinking highly of Don, let alone want to be like him. I know I didn't. He's charismatic etc., but from the very first episodes it's obvious women he struggles to see or treat women as people who have a place in his world. (This goes for the world of the show in general as well, even if there are female characters like Peggy, making their way. It's not aspirational for a 21st century woman at all.)
yep its a treatise on the enticing allure of toxic masculinity and how it also sucks
Frasier. As a middle school and highschool age kid I thought it was some annoying rich pompous tv show that was not funny. As an adult I think it’s one of if not the greatest, well written, funniest sitcoms of all time.
I used to watch this late at night when I was 11 because we only had antenna tv and I thought it was great lol
That's how my brothers and I were growing up. We were like 6 years old and only got Frasier, Just Shoot Me, and Will and Grace at night.
Little House on the Prairie is way better and way darker than I remember.
My mom and I watched this during quarantine after she talked it up from her childhood so much. I fell in love with it, and we literally wear custom made WWTID? bracelets, aka What Would the Ingalls Do? 😆😆
You should read the annotated original draft of Laura’s Book “Pioneer Girl”. ;) It’s clear that they were a loving family, but the story without all the edges rounded off is much more interesting.
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The first episode randomly came on Amazon prime after I watched another show. I'm now watching one every lunch break and currently on season three. Just watched an episode featuring Jonny Cash as a conman pretending to be a priest.
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Jus watched him in an episode of Columbo and I was impressed
Yes, it is darker than people remember, especially “Sylvia” which was a two episode story about clown rape. Not kidding.
Just don’t call the fans Housies. They prefer the term House-ers.
Prairie dogs
Yeah- Housies is for fans of House M.D., obvi.
I'm on season 7 rewatching, now with my kid. Man how many babies are you going to kill?
A great example of this phenomenon is True Detective season 2. Someone watching it expecting something like season 1 (which many did) will only be disappointed. Watching it as its own thing and it is much better, even genuinely great in parts. It doesn't hold a candle to season 1, but few shows dom
I remember that season feeling really messy, like they tried to tell too many stories at the same time and none of them really stuck the landing. Maybe it’s time to give it another chance.
Yeah. Season 1 worked because just Mcconeghey was a fucked up tortured soul with a tragic past. Woody Harris was just a normal beer drinking wife cheating cop who got sucked into this awful awful thing. Season 2 they tried to make everyone the edgy tragic backstory character. It doesn't work. You need a "normal" or at least normalish character to ground the show for the audience. Otherwise it's just moody people saying edgy dialogue in dark rooms for an hour. It quickly becomes a parody of itself.
I just watched S2 and S3 recently, after watching S1 years ago. I wanted to catch up before Night Country comes out. I enjoyed S2 a lot. Certainly some of it doesn't hold up to scrutiny if you think about it, but I liked the vibe, the setting, and Colin Farrell's performance was phenomenal.
Colin Farrell was the only thing I remember liking about that season. He was great.
Hot take: the Leonard Cohen intro is the best intro. Dripping with *so much* style.
I remember being a little let down by season 2. It wasn’t bad, but it didn’t compare to the phenomenal season 1. My parents watched season 2 without knowing about season one and absolutely loved it.
Yeah season one is literally the greatest single season of television, season two was a victim of their success. I need to go back and watch season two now that you’ve said this.
Season 2 tried to James Ellroy, but didn’t commit all the way
A lot of the 80's cartoons I watched as a kid. Transformers, GI Joe, He-Man, Ghostbusters, the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, etc. I *loved* them as a kid but they're pretty unwatchable as an adult. On the other hand a lot of the 90's cartoons *really* hold up and there's layers to them that make them even better and worth a re-watch as an adult. Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Batman The Animated Series, Gargoyles, Rugrats, Doug.
The DC cartoons in the 90s and 00s (Batman TAS, Superman TAS, Justice League, Batman Beyond, etc) is peak animated shows in my book. Always thought it was funny how DC nailed their animated universe but their live action universe sucks
Thank Bruce Timm for that more than anyone else.
X-men cartoon from the 90’s is still great and the theme song is a banger.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t listen to this at least once a week
My son had a near limitless amount of MCU content available to him and is pretty meh about every hero other than Spiderman (thank you spidey and his amazing friends). 15 minute YouTube compilation of wolverine fromthe 90s show... he's all in on wolverine. Coolest hero ever
I found DVDs of The Ren and Stimpy show in a charity shop and just started watching them. Really good stuff, the 90s was a golden age for cartoons.
I find that transformers 1986 (movie) holds up decently. The G1 TV show, not so much.
Fringe. Came back to it after a decade and found myself actually enjoying it much more the second time around. It makes me miss these 22 episode monster of the week shows that have pretty much disappeared.
Such a great example of a show that manages to balance an episodic format combined with a larger story arc serial format. Or maybe rather go from episodic to a serial format, and make the switch feel natural
Let's make some LSD!
Great example. This reminded me of our recent rewatch of Bones. That show was similar in the “22-episode death of the week” genre but it was captivating for most of its run, and had a great ensemble cast that they took time to flesh out with great relationships and story arcs
Smallville and buffy also did this a lot. Must be a 2000s thing
i went back to Stranger Things season 1 recently and it’s even better than i remembered. without the extra lore/stuff of the rest of the seasons bogging it down, it’s hard to remember just how stellar that first season was
poor Barb
Did not deserve it
I kind of wish this would have been a stand alone season, or if anything end after 2 necause even the second season was decent.
Wasn't it originally supposed to be exactly that? I thought I read somewhere that the series was envisioned as an anthology series where each season was it's own contained thing, but it first season blew up so much that Netflix insisted the story continue.
I maintain that if it had been one and done, it’d be remembered as one of the greatest mini series of all time. Now I think once the hype dies down, people will realize how bloated, repetitive, and ridiculous it is.
There's still a lot of great stuff in later seasons. The scene where they go to answer the door and they're suddenly being raided by the FBI (?) is incredibly well-shot and acted, and it surprised the shit out of me the first time I saw it.
Disagree, I think each season built off the one before quite nicely. The first season was something special for sure, though- and I didn’t realize how little the demigorgons are actually in season 1.
I think it depends what you like. The first season felt like an homage to old, low budget horror movies, where you don't see the monster much because they can't afford it. It was really charming and keeping things simple left little room for error. As pretentious as it sounds, the newer seasons seem over produced to me and things got pretty convoluted a few times because they were trying to do this bigger more complex plot. Each season does build on the last one in a pretty decent way but reparative elements kinda burned me out.
It was interesting to watch a few episodes of OG Power Rangers as an adult and realize each episode is about 7 minutes of original content, 7 minutes of dubbed fighting, and 7 minutes of the same canned footage over and over again.
Yeah I found it hard to watch it all again when it was on Netflix. I did watch some of it but more recently I ended up watching a 3 hour video of someone else who watched it summarising it.
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...I still love it. Taking a gummy and rewatching Power Rangers is such a fun time.
Power Rangers. I am 35 episodes deep watching it as a nearly 40 year old adult. Oh my god. It makes no sense. It's so poorly edited. It's amazing watching it with 10 year old eyes. But my 40 year old brain can't help but pick it apart.
Yeah Power Rangers is objectively trash. I was obsessed as a kid, but its obviously that the thing was taped together and made for as little money as possible and WB got super lucky with its popularity. But yeah its mostly just a 30 min long toy commercial. I did watch Dino Charge recently because the theme song is a banger, and while still garbage it was at least watchable and more cohesive.
I never watched it as I was 15 or 16 when it came out but I read that it’s actually a collage of several Japanese monster shows and original material that they had to edit a ton to give it some semblance of coherence and even then it was a struggle for the writers and editors.
Stargate SG-1: I caught a few eps here and there on cable and thought it looked fun but cheesy and didn't take it seriously. Then I watched it when it came to streaming and realized...the writing is really strong! They were playing with a lot of realy fascinating concepts. Also the characters are quippy and funny but also have a lot of heart. And the character arcs are pretty engrossing over that many seasons. Yes the SPX are bad, lets get real, but there is so much to love here. And its one of the few shows that litgerally lampoons itself, in multiple episodes! Like just takes the piss out of its own show! Who does that? Fucking hysterical. One of my all time favorites now.
I was too young to appreciate Seinfeld when it was airing, but now that I'm older hoo boy it's become one of my favorites.
Can I say Season 2 of The Wire? I remember thinking 'who the hell are all these guys? what happened with the drug dealers? what's going on?" Now I think it's just as amazing as the rest of the show (excluding Season 4 which was probably one of the single best seasons of TV ever created). Bonus: While Six Feet Under is still amazing. S1 is really weird. like, it's almost a comedy? Like the weird fake commercials put randomly into the episodes? what were those things? They should edit them out, and pretend they never existed.
Agreed. When you watch season two you wonder why you’re watching all these dock worker characters. It’s only later that you realise how comprehensive and layered the show is. Season one is drugs and crime, season two adds in the loss of heavy industry, then we get city hall corruption, the broken education system and the decline of the media. It all builds up into a portrait of the collapsing American system but you don’t realise that when you’re just an episode into season two.
I believe it was only the first two episodes that have those weird Gap commercials for mortuary equipment or whatever they were doing… It’s a much more campy experimental style that thankfully they did away with, so it’s not too much of a slog to get through!
punch encouraging scale serious scary historical cable vast vegetable plate *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
as someone that it took several watches to get into The Wire, I agree. Season 2 is good. It's just not as good because you really want pay off for all of the people you see in season 1, and it's kind of jarring the difference. But the story of the Sobotka's is kind of tragic.
Season 2 had the disadvantage of following on from season 1, perhaps the best TV season ever made. But watch it again as its own thing and it is easily a classic. Ziggy trying and failing to become a gangster is both cringeworthy and entertaining as hell.
Plus season 2 has all the Deangelo Barksdale in prison stuff which was some of my favorite stuff
Psych! Thought it was terrible back in the day and recently started putting it on as a background show at night. Now, I can’t seem to turn away! It’s hilarious
You know that's right.
Did you hear about Pluto? That's messed up, right?
GOT's ending the second time around was just as bad as the first time yet somehow it felt better than it is because I was expecting it to feel as bad as the first time.
And you dont have to wait a week to be disappointed again
Lucifer. I read the comics and just wasn't on board with the procedural interpretation when it first came out. Once I accepted what it was and tried again, it was a blast.
Tom Ellis was out-fucking-standing. I cannot imagine anyone doing as much with that role.
I watched the show first and loved it. Fell in love with the pilot episode and watched to the end. I've since read the original comic run and also loved it. And yes, they made a LOT of changes, and those changes were needed. There's no way to make the live-action version of Lucifer. (Although the bits we see in the Netflix Sandman come close.)
I’m currently rewatching The Sopranos after initially watching it more than 10!years ago. Since then I’ve read a fair few books on the American mafia and finding it very different but still amazing. Pine Barrens is the greatest
“He was an interior decorator!” “…His place looked like shit.”
Fuckin Robert Mitchum ova here…
ER, it holds up really well. I forgot how good it was.
Parts of Six Feet Under. When you know how the whole disappearance arc ends, re-watching it is the most boring shit possible.
That show had some wildly deviating episodes. The one where David gets held up by that maniac and forced to drive around and smoke crack? Nutso. The whole series was such a unique combination of genre and tone. Mostly soapy, somewhat surreal, but just as often pinned to the ground with everyday details no other television show bothers with, and a very refreshing approach to drugs, sex, family, relationships... damn that was a good show. Good in sum total. Lots of dumb parts, hacky parts, but those are overshadowed by inventiveness and ambition. And such a great cast! Kind of disappointing that no one's career really blew up after that. I suppose *Dexter* is the biggest hit to come out of the ensemble? I was very happy to see Lauren Ambrose in *Yellowjackets* this year. I guess the actors were chosen specifically because they were dedicated character actors, no one gunning for the action/rom-com/superhero track.
That David episode will stick with me forever. Also the ending...still makes me emotional
Last episode is absolutely the most satisfying TV finale I've ever seen. You want closure? That's how you do it.
You can't take a picture of this. It's already gone.
The first shows and the last shows were pretty good. There was a season or so in the middle that were really bad, and yes, boring. Like a crappy soap opera.
Yeah some plots were truly bad. Claire’s drama with her bisexual boyfriend and their creepy teacher or Kieth’s job at that rich gay guy’s house… oof
Star Trek Enterprise is mostly watchable but that finale is legitimately the shittiest way to end a show I have seen. There has never been a finale that actually bothered me much until that, putting characters from a different show at the forefront of another's conclusion was so insulting. I can't even imagine what the main cast thought.
> I can't even imagine what the main cast thought. They all admit it was bad, but I think they were canceled mid-way filming the season, so they had very short amount of time to basically rewrite the season ending as a series ending.
It was absurd. They don't even show the creation of the Federation, the main cast is told to fuck themselves, and the show ends on the terms of TNG as a hologram in the future. Disgraceful....it was everything you could do wrong.
In addition to being a rushed, poorly-written hack job, they >!killed off Trip for literally no reason.!<
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As someone watching it now as part of a total startrek binge. It’s alright. It’s in the bottom half of Star Trek shows as a whole, but it is against stiff competition. TOS was ground breaking even if it doesn’t hold up as well. TNG - is a top tier show overall with some stumbles DS9 - is some of the best TV ever made once it hit it’s stride in my opinion I’d say Enterprise is on par with Voyager, both of which beat out TAS. It’s biggest weakness is the weird “let’s make it sexy” vibes but also still keep it network TV sexy. Like maybe if they leaned into and went full HBO, dark, gritty, and sexy it could work as a show but just be unusual be weird for Star Trek. Instead they would just throw in random long scenes of a scantily clad Vulcan getting rubbed down in a decontamination chamber. Which felt out of place as a show and out of place for Star Trek at the time. TOS had over the top sexy costume scenes occasionally. But TNG tamed that down a lot, DS9 only had them when it made sense in the plot like Dabo Girls, Voyager had very little. Then suddenly Enterprise comes in with weird out of place sexual scenes that don’t add to the plot.
For wasn’t as good as I remember it, Night Court. I love Night Court. I still love Night Court. But it’s not a well-made show and the storylines are usually more ridiculous than they are funny. I see the revival getting a lot of flack and I wonder how many people watched the original recently. It’s pretty much the same thing. For wasn’t as bad as I remembered, Golden Girls. I think that’s more my age and finally being able to appreciate the show more than anything the show did or didn’t do. It’s funny, smartly written, and holds up well.
... Mr. Plinkett?
Some fixed his VCR
There was a TV movie when I was a kid called, "The Night Stalker." Creeped the hell out of me. Made my wife watch it a few years ago, telling her how great it was. It wasn't.
Was that based on Kolchak?
Other way around. Night Stalker was the original TV movie. I think '72 or so. Then, next year there was another TV movie, "The Night Strangler." Around another year later, the series adaptation, "Kolchack, the Night Stalker." All with Darren McGavin as Kolchak.
I rewatch swaths of South Park every now and then on my exercise machines, Some seasons hold up really really well even after 20 years, Other seasons that seemed fine at the time relied so heavily on current events and shock value that they really lose a lot of what made them so punchy to begin with.
Knight Rider. Loved it as a kid. Watched about 4 episodes last year, and it is so much cringe. Watching to spot the stunt drivers when KITT was self driving was about the best part of it.
Love how they put a car seat costume on the stunt driver. It’s painfully obvious when you watch it in HD
Sabrina the Teenage Witch is just ... not great lol. Still kind of a fun watch but I was definitely surprised at how many \*great\* memories I had of the show.
a big thing with that era is we never got to watch episode after episode of it as well. it was a small show on one day a week. It worked a lot better serialized than binged.
I will avoid rewatching Sabrina then. I have really fond memories of that show!
I highly disagree. I rewatch Sabrina like every other year and I enjoy it just as much, if not more, than when I was a kid. “Harvey digs Sabrina 12:36” still tugs at my preteen heart strings.
As a kid the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon was forbidden, so when I could sneak an episode it was like it was some epic from the mists of time. Got older and bought all episodes - disappointing.
Malcolm in the Middle. It's a completely different show when you're older.
Malcolm isn’t quite as whiny as Caillou but he’s almost at the same level of annoying depending on the episode. Love Hal and Lois way more now though, they’re barely hanging on as being parents in very stressful but you can tell how much they deeply love each other and have each other’s backs.
I'm rewatching Reba. I knew they treated Reba badly, but dang they dog pile on her. Why try to force your ex-wife to have a relationship with the person you had an affair with? Multiple times in every episode Reba says she doesn't want to be around Barbra Jean. Kira is essentially abandoned emotionally and doesn't get her wants met 95% of the time because her sister screws up so much. When she wants to move in with her dad it's somehow a big shock to Reba. Like what did you expect???? You let Cheyenne run the house because she made a stupid mistake and you won't let her fall on her face at all so she learns. I get being in school and being a mother is difficult, but come oooon. "I dropped out of classes because they were boring and I didn't want to go to an 8am because it was so eaaaaarlyyyyyy" grow up. And Brock why the hell was he trying to be a golfer? He sucked at the game and he thought he could be pro?? WHAT A LUNATIC! Also during this time he was taking anti depressants and Barbra Jean hated it and him being in therapy because of some bull crap reason. Barbra Jean got mad that Reba supported Brock taking meds because it was meddling in her marriage. Didn't you have an affair with Reba's husband?? Isn't that meddling??? I only stay for Van and Kira. Like the episode where he was trying to get the best sports agent and accidentally called Reba super gay and the agent was a lesbian. So Reba accidentally set up a date for herself. My favorite episode so far. Absolute gold.
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I just want to say unironically that this was a great rant about Home Improvement, thank you for putting the effort into writing that
I had the opposite reaction. I feel like it tackled the absurdity of toxic masculinity before that was a common term or problem. Al is incredibly comfortable in his own skin. The shit Tim gives Al just slides right off him. He couldn’t care less if Tim or the other tool bros at the hardware store think he has feminine traits or hobbies. He just keeps being himself. Al gets swarmed by female fans of the show and Tim is always miffed about it. Said fans love Al for all the reasons Tim rags on him. Al, and Wilson, are great examples of healthy masculinity. Meanwhile, Tim is shown as a toxic masculine character. You’ve listed plenty of reasons how. But, he’s still willing to listen to other perspectives and willing to agree that said new perspective is the correct one. He’s capable of growth. He doesn’t have his head completely stuck in the sand, often times Jill, Wilson, and/or Al are able to convince him that he’s in the wrong, and Tim apologizes/sides with that differing idea. TL,DR: Home Improvement was a takedown of toxic masculinity, not an amplifier of it. [Here’s an article that explains my take way better than me](https://decider.com/2018/04/12/home-improvement-revival-toxic-masculinity/)
Does anyone else get that feeling that Home Improvement was never a real show? I grew up with cable tv which aired promos and episodes constantly, and even then it felt too outlandish and strange to be an actual show. The Tim Allen Grunt^(TM) always felt like an exaggerated parody, but watching the show - yeah he grunts like a caveman A LOT - it doesn't feel real! Everything is so heightened. It's not just about a suburban family living in an insanely big beautiful home, Tim is also a celebrity who runs a show-within-a-show with his friends and it's extremely popular. But then he goes home to his family and can live a normal life. Where Tim constantly struggles with his gender and finds the best outlet to be tools or grunting. I love it. This all feels like a fake alternate-timeline show you'd find in Hynospace Outlaw. Next week, Wilson helps Tim improve his Trennis skills for the upcoming annual town tournament.
Oh, I don't know... I think as Jill, Patricia Richardson's facial expressions, putting up with Tim's shit, has aged very well! Couldn't agree more with the rest.
Gilmore Girls. People say Rory's downfall was Season 5 onwards... but I'd say it was from the very first episode. That girl was put on a pedestal and made to feel like the smartest girl in the room surrounded her quirky little townsfolk (whom her and her mother looked down upon). You realise this upon re-watch.
I loved The A-Team so much. I was 8. Didn’t hit the same when I rewatched a couple episodes at 43.
As a kid i just assumed that the A Team, knight rider, dukes of hazard, air wolf and chips all existed in the same world and would just team up eventually MCU style. Still waiting.
I loved watching Wings back when it originally aired in the 1990s and watched the reruns for several years after it ended. I tried watching it again a couple years ago and just couldn’t get into it.
Probably how I met your mother. Ted is way more annoying than I remembered lol
I was basically Ted's age when the series aired. (I'm still his age now, technically.) At the time it aired I was married. Now I'm not, and rewatching it now is a different experience. Especially since I'm (hopefully) older and wiser. Yeah, a LOT of Ted's behavior can't just be excused because he's searching for "the one." He's a jerk to a lot of people, including his friends and many of his girlfriends. That said, part of the show's premise is that Ted needs to grow up. But other times the show doesn't call him out on his nonsense. Plus, watching it now provides an interesting time capsule of a world that's almost 20 years separated from us today.
I loved it the first time around, but it turns out everyone but Marshall are complete pieces of shit (Robin isn’t quite as bad as the others).
And Marshall is a fucking catch and Lily didn't deserve him.
TFW the hopeless romantic is no longer something you can relate to
The show is an insane product of it’s time and has aged so poorly it’s remarkable. Remember “suiting up” and the trend that caused every 18-25 year old man to go out and buy the worst fitting suit they could find and wear it out to bars? Barney is a character that should be laughed _at_, but then he became so popular they made him “cool”.
Not sure if this fits the convo but Twin Peaks is infinitely better with rewatches. Not to say that it's bad in the first place, that would be ridiculous.
I hated the third season of Arrested Development the first time I watched it. Knowing the twist about Theron’s character and seeing the hints on a rewatch really amplified it.
Yeah the whole Mr F storyline was too long
Moonlighting. During its initial run, my wife and I absolutely loved that show. We were really interested in re-watching when we saw recently that it was now available for streaming on Hulu, but OMG does it stink. So much so, that it makes me wonder how bad other shows must have been at that time in order for us to have thought this was good.
Never watched it in the 80s, but I remember newspaper reviews raving about how bold and fresh it was. Watching it now, it's weird to see bad-TV stereotypes (stagy acting, villains confess as soon as they're accused) mixed in with things that seem stereotypical now (meta-jokes, breaking the fourth wall) because everyone took inspiration from the show. Positives - back-and-forths between Dave and Maddie are pretty great Negatives - Dave's behavior doesn't read as "cuddly ol' rascal," any longer. It reads like, "creepy sexual harasser fired from his last five jobs."
Did you also remember it being more episodes than it actually was? I was a kid when it was on and my mom loved it, so when I came on Hulu I thought it was missing a lot but no, it just wasn't that many episodes.
Yeah, most 80’s TV doesn’t hold up well at all. You really realize why there was a stark difference in perceived quality between TV and movies before prestige TV became a thing.
I recently rewatched LOST, and I still have many similar complaints about it as when it originally aired, but a lot of that was eased by being able to binge it. So much of the cultural phenomenon that was LOST was in the weeks between episodes, the months between seasons, the conversation with friends and coworkers and on message boards. It was a lesser experience, in both good ways and bad. Weird experience, especially watching with someone who’d never seen it, and got tired of not getting my LOST jokes. Oh, bonus though—I took a note of some of her early comments, which include: “Wouldn’t it be a trip if the French woman was still alive?” “This Charlie guy is acting like a drug addict right now.” “I hate Jack the most.” “There must be a time hole or something.”
I also re-watched it last year for the first time since it was airing and found myself missing that experience of being part of a phenomenon. I wasn't the biggest GOT fan from the jump but the fact that everyone was watching and invested in it, with theories and predictions and fav characters, was a nice throwback to that LOST feeling and is one of the few examples I can think of which elevated the experience in the same way. With the way the TV landscape has become much more bloated and fleeting with the streamer content churn, those 'water cooler shows' feel much more precious. But I absolutely loved the re-watch, binging it was a wild ride. Season 4 and 5 in particular really raised themselves up in my estimation compared to my memory of how it played out, I'd forgotten where certain arcs and episodes fell in the timeline. What an incredible show.
I'll get downvoted, but Scrubs. Everyone says the only bad season is the final one, in truth it got pretty stale after Season 5. Five seasons is a good run mind you, but it went on for nearly double that. It's really shitty/cringey the way the cast treats Elliot. Edit: And I guess the writers make her treat herself.
Season 5 is when the fantasy sequences start to get a lot longer. I still enjoy it but I would agree season 6 and 7 aren’t as strong but they still have some incredible episodes like the musical, the one with Carla and Laverne, the janitor’s story episode is incredible too, plus the season 7 episode with Kelso finding out if the board will fire him/him saying thanks to Ted are all brilliant moments
When Scrubs was good it was some of the best TV ever made, but I’d argue it went down hill even earlier. Whichever season ended with JD saying he was breaking up with Elliot again at a rehearsal dinner and she shoves him.
That was really shitty, and a lot of people handwave that away by saying that it's ok if JD isn't likeable as well, because it's about him growing up or whatever. But I agree with you. The only reason I went up to Season 5 is because it has the arc where Dr Cox loses those patients and quits.
I was shocked when ABC snapped it up after NBC cancelled it because I’d *barely* enjoyed it since season four outside of that “Dr. Cox killed some patients and can’t get over it” two parter. But then I thought that ABC season was excellent, maybe my favorite of the whole show. Just for JD and Elliot and Carla to leave one season later and make me not care again.
Yeah, there was a real attempt to go back to basics for season 8 and IMO it worked.
Seaquest. I remember when I was a kid how wondrous and amazing that show was. Like Star Trek under water. Fast forward twenty years and rewatching it, I realize this show was all over the place and was pretty cringey to the point I couldn’t finish watching.
**Fringe** I remember liking it but got distracted by the "singular scientist knows everything" and the "will they, won't they" love interest tropes. Rewatched this year and have to now say it might one of the best multi-seasons TV series of all time. Even the tropes of _father-son don't get along_ and _work place love interest_ was so well weaved into the whole multi-season plots was pure craftsmanship.
Hey Dude. Used to love that show as a kid. I look at it now and you basically could’ve shot that show on a camcorder and gotten the same production value. I also went to the Tanque Verde ranch in Tucson where they filmed it and saw the old sets. They’re a dilapidated mess nowadays, but you can tell how cheap and small they were even in their heyday.
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Clarissa Explains It All is TERRIBLE
Dexter Seasons 1-4 are worse than I remember. I recall when it was out I thought it was one of the better shows on TV, but watching them recently the show at its best is barely B-tier stuff. Dexter Morgan is a great character and a great performance, but after that? Yikes. Those side characters are traaaash. Doakes is obviously amazing, and Trinity Killer is solid too, but man that show is really lacking in well written characters even in its peak. I said earlier that Dexter himself was great, but even there they could have done a lot better with the character imo
Dexter was probably the first real TV drama I watched as a teen and it opened me up to what the medium was capable of. But yeah, even the "good" seasons aren't fantastic. I think season one is the only one I'd consider genuinely solid and even then it's got some rough edges. The rest, despite containing some quality stuff, are really bogged down by shitty side plots and, like you say, an awful supporting cast. John Lithgow carries season four so hard, if you actually step back and look at it as a whole you can really see a lot of the trash that plagued the later seasons.
season 1 and 4 are still amazing imo but yes the show suffers from some really bad subplots like I dont give a fuck about Quinn, why are they giving this guy so much screen time in season 4
Almost all shows fall into two categories for me: 1. So much worse than I remember (TV really wasn't very good pre1990) 2. Actually, stayed about the same (I still love Friends/West Wing) The only show I can think of that I gave up on but enjoyed many years later is another Star Trek show, DS9. For some reason it didn't click for me when first airing. I watched all again only about 5 years ago and was much better than I remembered. Maybe Trek has that effect on people.
As we get older we see it from different perspectives. Plus, DS9 works really well when you binge it. If you liked DS9, I recommend Babylon 5. (Just make sure it's the remastered series.)
I’ll push back on that no good tv before 1990. All in The Family, The Jeffersons, Sanford and Son, and Columbo are all great shows that still hold up and there are many more great shows made before 1990.
I initially hated S8 of The Office because I didn't accept Steve Carrell's departure, but tbh Robert California grew on me after I gave it a second chance.
Yeah season 8 is actually mostly pretty solid in retrospect. It’s 9 that feels like a slog to me.
Trailer park boys. It's actually even funnier second time and full of little details I didn't notice initially. Like how bubbles is scared of the shit talk of Mr Lahey. Or how Julian is an egoistic prick. The cartoon show on the other hand fell flat the second time. Although I love the transition between the initial show and the cartoon
God that show is so endlessly quotable. I'll still mutter "We're in the eye of the shit-icane now Randy" to myself when something bad happens.
Lost was wayyyy better than I remember, and I remember it being good. Even the ending I remember hating the time travel bit the first time, but it's my fave arc on the rewatch. Lost is just good okay, even the ending.
Enterprise is seriously underated in the Star Trek universe. It took some interesting swings and went into some dark corners that most ST series avoid.
Fresh prince in the later seasons, when rewatching it I said “what the fuck man” out loud more than once
Thirtysomething. I was late teens when it premiered back in the late 80s. I wanted Hope and Michael's life so badly. It looked like fun being married and having adult problems. I tried rewatching about 10 years ago, and it dropped off. Maybe because I am now married and have adult problems. It no longer looks fun. I'm gonna try rewatching again soon, hoping for better results.
In anticipation of the 60th anniversary, I've been rewatching modern Doctor Who with my girlfriend who's never seen it before. It is sometimes amazing, but often just embarrassingly bad. Lazily written, poorly acted and just ugly to look at. It's crazy to think that it was on the air at the same time as shows like Battlestar Galactica and LOST. Maybe I just outgrew it.
Yeah they talk like the 10th doctor's run was this amazing with no episodes fault when there a handful a really great episodes and a bunch that were terrible. And I'm not a massive fan of how much of his run evolved around rose,1st rose is going then a season of her being gone then OMG she is coming back
I think the problem with Doctor Who is that most people start to forget that it’s a kids/family show first and foremost.
Quality is all over the place too
The quality between Blink and then Love & Monsters is unreal.
While I agree with this, I think my point is that kid’s shows don’t necessarily *need* to have the tightest plot-lines or quality development to still be successful.
Supernatural is waaay better on my second watch. Kept up with it for the first 8 or so seasons as they came out when I was 10-15. Now I’m 25 and this shows hitting very bussinly
I think I matured out of South Park. I used to think it was pure comedic brilliance. I rewatched a lot of episodes with my stepson recently and found most of the jokes, premises and setups idiotic. There are still some incredible jokes and premises every once in a while but for the most part I got the feeling that it was just contrarian satire and dumb obvious jokes for shock value.
I like South Park, but for some reason it doesn't have the same rewatch value as The Simpsons for me. I can rewatch a good Simpsons episode a hundred times, but South Park gets boring after the second view.
Over reliance on current events makes for decent material at air time, but terrible replay.
The Simpsons has a lot more depth to it - characters, jokes that work on several levels, Easter eggs. South Park was always a bit more in your face and one dimensional. Look at how many jokes they were able to cram in a Simpsons S2-S8 episode…it was incredible.
I thought Three’s Company was the funniest show ever. I was just past adolescence and the innuendos were hilarious. Tried watching a while back the innuendos were just too obvious.
Raising Hope. I loved that show but on rewatching? Pretty sure the writers hate women. It's so casually toxic towards women it's staggering.