Shows where the first season is the best

What TV shows do you think have the best first seasons?

Here's some of my choices

• Prison Break
• Dexter
• Mr. Robot
• True Detective

Daredevil and Jessica Jones come to mind.

I suppose Black Lightning as well but it's second season is still quite good.

Sledgehammer

@uninspiredcup: Jessica Jones first season was so good. There was nowhere left to go but down after that.

The Good Place has stayed pretty solid, but the first season was definitely the best.

Also Arrow and the Flash.

Fargo

Mr Robot (though I still need to finish the final season)

Twin Peaks.

Second season was far better in my opinion.

Heroes instantly jumps to my mind. Of course, it's easy to say this as each season was progressively worse.

Heroes

Wayward Pines

Stranger Things

Walking Dead

I don't have a good answer.

I remember years ago someone said they thought the first season of Scrubs was perfect.

And another person said they though the first season of LOST was the best. I don't really agree with those assessments, but people made those.

I thought Avatar The Last Airbender as a whole was great, but couldn't really get into The Legend of Korra.

A lot of times I think people view season one of a show as the best because the ideas are most fresh then, and after that you're essentially building onto the foundations you created with the first season.

When I was younger I used to feel that South Park was best in seasons 1 & 2 because the show focused less on current events, and more on world-building for the cast and the locale of the show's namesake town. But I completely disagree with that and think the show is still great, and in fact had some of its best seasons in the years since.

That 70's Show, I used to think it was better in the earlier seasons....I don't remember where the cut off was for me, maybe season 4 or 2, or 1. But in retrospect, watching a lot of the episodes over more recently, the show as a whole has actually aged pretty well. I can kind of ignore the fact that Donna's older sisters are never mentioned again, and that all of the seasons have a Christmas episode even though it's set across like 4 years. The storylines for the characters all felt like natural progressions.

One show where I think things definitely went downhill after the early episodes is the Pokemon anime. That's because there is so much nostalgia tied to the early episodes for me. It was created at a time when there was an endpoint in mind, and each episode was sort of based around introducing a new monster, and the lighthearted adventures of Ash that loosely related to events from the first game. But as new games were made and the number of monsters grew, it quickly became little more than a vehicle for promoting the series to new fans. The addition of obnoxious appearances by Team Rocket every episode that takeup at least half of the episode, also really got annoying fast.

Modern Family, although I don't think the latter seasons are bad at all. It's just that it's the same old thing over and over. On a side note, I think I'd like it better without the kids, they just water down the humor. No kid can deliver the kind of performance we see from the main actors, playing Phil, Clair, Mitch and Cam.

I personally like seasons 1 and 2 Breaking Bad more then later ones. The first 3 episodes of the series in particular.

I like Game of Thrones 1st season the most.

House of Cards Season 1.

I actually liked Dexter's second season the most.

Definitely agree with Prison Break.

@my_user_name: That's kind of surprising.

While I agree that season 1 of GoT was good, I think that was a hard season to sit through at times because less was going on - there was a lot of build-up for the later episodes. I remember it was really difficult for me early on to distinguish which characters belonged to which kingdoms, and I had to re-watch a few scenes and pay attention to understand what was going on a few times. I have this thing too where I'm like, "Is that the same guy or a different guy?" I actually didn't realize that Barristan Selmy had come back into the show until really late, because I didn't distinguish that it was the same guy we saw like 3 or 4 seasons ago lol.

Breaking Bad I felt hit its sweet spot later, but I enjoyed it from beginning to end. I think season 4 or 5 were my favorite, the first half of season 5 was pretty amazing to me when I watched it I recall. I think it's interesting that you liked the first three or four episodes best, because multiple people I got to watch the show thought it was really hard to get into until late in season 1, or a few episodes into season 2. I didn't have that issue and really became hooked from the first episode, but I think it's an interesting thing anyway, maybe those first few episodes had a different kind of feel to them that you appreciated a lot and others didn't.

I'm going out on a limb and say Girls und Panzer, though more so because I doubt they are going to complete the second season (Das Fanalie).

Daredevil was good it's entire run. I'll give you Jessica Jones though. I've lost interest in Black Lightning. It's been the same story for THREE seasons now.....not two.

@Ovirew: I know I'm in the minority on Breaking Bad. I think I like the amateur hour / humble beginnings aspect of the early seasons. Just 2 (sorta) regular guys who are in way over their heads at times, the show even feels like a dark buddy comedy or something. Still enjoyed the show from start to finish.

With Game of Thrones, there was definitely alot of stuff that went over my head when I first watched Season 1 and rewatching helped paint a much clearer picture but I didn't feel bored at any point... I think season 3 is the one that can drag at times personally. Still Seasons 1 -6 are basically perfection when compared to the train wreck we got after so it's just nitpicking.

Thought season 2 was shite barring the punisher stuff.

Season 3 was better, but still somewhat bloated.

Heroes

Heroes

Westworld

The Last Kingdom kind of got written off as a GOT thrones clone, and while it probably wouldn't have been produced without it, it's still a great show in it's own right.

Unfortunately as seasons have went on, with it's eventual move to Netflix, it's quickly became repetitive.

Kinda would have worked better as a self-contained mini series.

@vagrantsnow: I agree with you on Stranger Things. Didn’t care for season 2. Season 3 felt a little more established but something was off about it at the same time?

• Lois & Clark
• Sliders
• The Big Bang Theory
• The Night Of
• Cobra Kai
• Macross / Robotech
• Berserk
• Death Note
• Gurren Lagann
• Steins Gate

I enjoyed season 2 and 3 but the mystery and the suspense from season 1 was gone. The questions were answered, the conspiracy revealed and what was left was another show of good guys vs the big bad. They were still fun to watch but it did lose a pretty major aspect of what I enjoyed about season 1.

The Russians felt a bit over the top. I know nostalgia is part of the show's shtick but it really felt shoehorned and unnecessary. Also, 11 buggering off to Chicago for an episode was weird.

Ozark

I have high hopes for season 3. Season 2 just wasn’t as good as the first.

One that sticks out to me is Reaper. It's a CW show. The first season is excellent. The second is a major letdown. It's like their budget got slashed to a fraction and they ran out of ideas before they even started filming. Just pretend that season doesn't exist.

Altered Carbon, season 2 was a bit of a letdown.

I love The Last Kingdom! I however don't see the GoT likeness at all besides swords and shit.

Speaking of GoT, I think the first season is the best in the series.

Yes it was.