Friday, April 13, 2007

Updated on Sunday

I've been thinking about television shows a lot lately. In films, there's a general understanding that sequels are not as strong as original films (the understood exceptions being things like The Godfather Part Two, The Empire Strikes Back, and The Road Warrior). In TV shows, though, the evidence shows that having multiple seasons is more likely to stimulate creativity (if the terms are that a 2nd or greater season of TV terms equal to sequels to a film). I'm drawing this conclusion based on a rather small data set, though. If anyone can expand on this, or has thoughts, please tell me and I'll update the list, or change my opinion, accordingly.

TV Shows that were best in their first seasons:
  • Arrested Development
  • Deadwood
  • Lost
  • Nip/Tuck (per Ryan)
TV Shows that peaked in subsequent seasons:
  • The Daily Show
  • Homicide (per Mark)
  • Late Night With Conan O'Brien
  • Norther Exposure (per Mark)
  • The Office (US Version)
  • Mr. Show
  • Seinfeld
  • Sex and the City (per Ryan)
  • The Simpsons
  • Six Feet Under (per Ryan)
  • The Sopranos
  • Trailer Park Boys (per Chris)
  • 24
  • The X-Files
  • The Wire

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I haven't seen much TV, but I thought the writing on "Northern Exposure" flew through the roof in Seasons 2-5.

Same for that show "Homicide". I haven't seen all the episodes/seasons, but I remember it becoming awesome as it progressed.

ryan said...

The second season of "Six Feet Under" is widely considered to be the best season. I also think the third is by far the worst season, then it picked back up again.

"Sex and the City," in my opinion, got progressively better each season, as it began focusing less on "politics" and making a statement, and more on building characters and storylines.

I also think "Nip/Tuck" was an incredibly smart, provocative, and engaging show its first season, and after season 2, basically went down in flames in seasons 3 and 4. Season 4 was almost unwatchably bad and boring. It's too bad.