Best/Worst Seasons of Long-Running Shows on DVD (1 Viewer)

Now that a lot of long-running shows have had a good portion of their seasons out on DVD, I thought it might be interesting to see which seasons people consider the best and worst of their sets. To put it another way, if trapped on a desert island (with convenient DVD connections) and forced to bring only one season of your fave show with you, which one would you want to bring and which would you least like to include? Of course, you may think every season is great, but most shows have seasons that are better than others. Here are mine:
1.) The Simpsons: Best- Season 4 (not out yet, but almost there). This season has my all-time favorite (Marge Vs. the Monorail) and a lot of other great episodes. Season 3 is good, too. All the seasons from four up to nine or ten are golden to me.
Worst- Season 1. Very rough compared to later seasons. I probably wouldn't own this one if it hadn't been given me as a present.
2.) Futurama: Best- Season 3 is very solid.
Worst- I love them all, but Season 1 only has 13 episodes, so there it is.
3.) Buffy: Best- This is really hard. Season 2 has the best overall storyline (Angel vs. Buffy), but has some mediocre early episodes. Season 5 is most consistently great to me.
Worst- Again, no bad seasons here, but 1 is a little underformed and Season 4 had some clunkers and a weak villain.
4.)Xena (Hey, its a guilty pleasure): Best- Season 2 has some excellent episodes, but Season 3 is also good and it has fab extras. A draw.
Worst- Season 1 (First seasons get no respect from me) had a poor DVD transfer and it took a while to get its footing.

This looks like a fun topic. I’m tempted to talk about just how odd of a scenario the desert island thing is if you really think about it, but that rambling best belongs over in the after hours lounge. Anyway, I really like this topic, so I’ll give it a shot. I’m actually only limiting myself to the seasons already released or at least announced on DVD, since it would be hard for me to be stranded on an island with a DVD set that isn’t out yet.

The Simpsons: own seasons 1-3
Best season: 3. It contains my favorite episodes of all time, so that’s what I’d take.
Worst season: 1. It is an ok season, with some funny episodes but I watch it the least.

Friends: own seasons 1-7
Best season: 4. No question about it for me, this would be one of my desert island sets.
Worst season: 2. This is hard because there are a couple of episodes I love from this season, but fewer than any other season I own.

South Park: own seasons 1-3 (waiting for season 4 6/29)
Best season: 4. I love the nambla episode.
Worst season: 2. Not many from that year I think are funny besides Chicken Lover.

M*A*S*H: own seasons 1-5 (waiting for season 6 6/8)
Best season: 3. This is tough because I love the Winchester years so much but none of those are on DVD. My favorite episode is from season 5 but would have to be left behind.
Worst season: 4. I’m not a big B.J. fan so I wouldn’t want to relive his intro to the show while stuck on an island.

The Dick Van Dyke Show own seasons 1-3 (waiting for 4 4/27, 5 6/29)
Best season: all 5. I’ll take them all, whomever is going to leave me alone on a desert island is just going to have to accept the fact that they’re having to make room for 5 seasons of DVD on DVD.

Futurama: own volumes 1-3
Best season: 3. The commentaries are the best for this season also which makes it a slam dunk.
Worst season: 1. Fewest episodes, not as lively of commentaries.

Those are pretty much the longest running series I have on DVD, that aren’t more than just 1 or 2. I have a lot of shows that I own 2 seasons of, but its kind of pointless to rank those. Cheers and Frasier for instance, long running but have only seen 2 releases.

I'll add a couple...

Star Trek The Next Generation
Best Season: 1 - I love the first season. The optimism, the music, the plots, all great.
Worst Season: 7 - Drowning in boring character pieces with only a few gems in the rough.

Star Trek Deep Space Nine
Best Season: 1 or 7 - Season one had great TNG-esque plots where as 7 had the best episodes of the Dominion War arc.
Worst Season: 4 - Although it has the great The Way of the Warrior, 4 is probably DS9's most boring season.

OK. I'll play:

Sopranos:
Best -- Season 1. What a revelation!
Worst -- Season 4. Meandering and pointless.

Buffy:
Best -- Season 3. But geez, I'd hate to have to give up the last one-third of S2.
Worst -- Season 4. Riley's boring, Adam's annoying and a couple of episodes just flat-out stink.

Angel:
Best -- Season 2. In spite of the silly Pylea diversion, the best of all Buffy/Angel seasons.
Worst -- Season 3. The Connor story line and the Cordy development left me cold, and I really missed Lindsay and Kate.

Oz:
Best -- Season 1. Totally gripping and revelatory.
Worst -- Season 2. O'Reilly with breast cancer? Adebisi's spiritual transformation?
Give me a break.

Buffy
Best: season 4. I liked the whole Riley thing.
Worst: season 5. WAY too depressing. Every single episode.

Futurama
Best: season 4.
"worst": season 1, I guess. They're all great, but I'll pick season 1 too because it has the least amount of episodes.

Simpsons
Same as you Amy. Same reasons. I'm anxiously awaiting season 8!

Buffy

Best for me is Series 5. Though not as good as the Mayor I thought Glory was great, and it does have The Body and The Gift as highlights

Worst - probably Season 1, just because of its length and the fact the show was still finding its feet

Angel

Best is Season 3. Despite Connor at the end of the series, who wasnt as bad for me as others have found it, I really enjoyed the overall arc of the season and has some fantastic moments - Connor's "birth", Wesley's betrayal and Angel's reaction. Holtz was great as well - someone who you could sympathise with in a way as to why he wanted Angel dead

Worst - Season 4 - didnt realise how much I would miss Cordelia in the show until she was out of it for a while. The last episodes with Justine are a real let-down as well after what has come before.

Babylon 5

Best - Season 3 - difficult one to choose between this and Season 4, but this had the best overall arc for me which wasn't rushed, and it has my favourite episodes (Severed Dreams and Z'ha'dum). Also has my favourite of the title sequences for each season.

Worst - Season 1 - glad I persevered with the show because some of Season 1 really made me want to give up on the show. Some of the stories come off as extremely cheesy - can't remember the name but the one with the worker's strike contained some truly dire dialogue and acting. But it was certain episodes that kept me watching (And The Sky Full Of Stars, Believers, Signs and Portents) as well as the overall arc

Friends

Best - Season 3 - have always found the earlier season far funnier and this was always the best for me. I was also glad to see the direction they took the Ross/Rachel thing because I think they realised having them together would have made their relationship really boring.

Worst - Season 6 - I remember watching this on its first run asking myself is this the same show ? It was actually far better than I remembered it on DVD, but still definitely the worst for me.

X-Files

Best - Season 4 - I love most of the first 6 seasons but this one probably has the highest hit count rather than misses. And Small Potatoes is a great episode.

Worst - Season 9 - Whilst Duchonvy's heart may not have been in it in the latter half of the series, he was definitely missed. The humour was also severely lacking in this Season.

Deep Space Nine

Best - Season 6. The season that I first saw of Deep Space Nine and I loved it. Had to go back and watch the rest of the show when I saw this. It was so refreshing to see an ongoing arc in a Star Trek series. Rocks And Shoals, In The Pale Moonlight and Far Beyond The Stars were highlights

Worst - Season 1. Didn't like Avery Brook's delivery in this season. He just didn't feel like a proper leader and he doesn't have the same presence that he does in later seasons. And I thought Bashir was just terrible. Glad to see they sorted these problems out in later seasons.

Babylon 5

Best Season - Season 3 (barely, just barely beating out season 4). Contains the single greatest moment in my TV watching history in War Without End Part 2)

Worst Season - Season 1 (and hell its not even that bad standing on its own, but when compared to the brilliant seasons 2, 3 and 4, it is the weakest)


Star Trek TNG

Best Season - Season 4, the shows, the writing, the acting, it all came together

Worst Season - Season 1, good god, how much worse can sci fi get? Wesley saving the ship every other show was only topped by the terrible remaking of some of the original TOS scripts



Andy

If I hadn't sold most of my DVDs, this game would be fun. :frowning: What kept are things like complete series sets (Sports Night, Freaks & Geeks, etc.), so I wouldn't have to make that choice. I do agree with leaving Futurama Vol. 1 behind out of the three released so far. I'd definitely say Vol. 3 is the best of the bunch so far and probably will be even when Vol. 4 comes out (if memory serves correctly).

I'm guessing a lot of X-Files fans would have no trouble leaving the last two seasons of that series behind!

Babylon 5

Best - Season 3 the way the season progresses
worst- Season 5 feels like a let down after what has come, not necessarily JMS's fault(syndication trauma)

Deep Space Nine

Best- season 7/6 two very fine years and at least for me, hard to separate.
worst- season 4 despite Worf's presence.

Futurama- pretty much as stated above

Simpsons (can I vote for pretty much all the halloween Eps? I'll pick up 3 or 4
worst- season 1 wow definitely a diamond in the rough

X-Files

Best: Season 2
Worst Seasons 6-9. Way to run a show into the ground.

The Sopranos

Best: Season 1
Worst: Season 4

Buffy
Best: Season 2
Worst: Season 6

I liked the Riley stuff too. Just to add my two cents. I didnt think he was boring.

Angel
Best: Season 3
Worst: This is a hard one, the last half of season 4 and the first half of Season 5?


Farscape
Best: Season 2
Worst: Season 4

Babylon 5
Best: Season 3
Worst: Season 1 although I have not seeen Season 5 yet.

X-files
Best: Season 2
Worst: Season 6-9

Angel:
Best: 3
Worst: 4

Buffy
Best: 2
Worst: 7

Cheers:
Best: yet to come out on DVD
Worst: 1 - it hadn't found its legs.

Dick Van Dyke Show
Can't pick. I love 'em all!

Frasier:
Best: 2
Worst: yet to come on DVD (last two seasons fell apart).

M*A*S*H
Best: Anything in the first two-thirds of the run
Worst: Anything in the last third of the run

Star Trek: TNG:
Best: Season 4(ish) (3-5)
Worst: 1

Star Trek: DS9
Best: 6
Worst: 1

Stargate: SG-1:
Best: 4
Worst: 1, 6

X-Files:
Best: 3
Worst: All after 5

Those are my quick recollections, and are only of series that I own AND ran 5 seasons or longer. I'd love to put Alias or Firefly on the list - but neither have the distinction of being long-lived.

-Scott

Star Trek: The Next Generation
Best - pick a season, 3 through 5, and they're all great, but I'd have to pick 3, for including "Yesterday's Enterprise" and "Best of Both Worlds I"

Worst - Season 2: Sure, season 1 was weak but number two began and ended with a whimper. "The Child" was a scipt from the aborted 70s revival of the first season, hauled out of storage to deal with a writer's strike. "Shades of Gray" was, well, the single worst episode of the series.


Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Best - Season 7, although almost every year from four on was almost as good.

Worst - Season 1. Not bad, just not as good as what followed.


Babylon 5
Best - Season 3, no doubt. It was the last season not compromised by the threat of cancellation and the need to wrap up the story early.

Worst - Season 1. Sure, season 5 has the Byron arc but season 1 has "Grail", "TKO" and "Infection". Still, season 1 is worth watching for several great episodes once the big story gets moving.


Homicide: Life on the Street
Best - Season 3. This was the first full season of the series and the last with the original cast mostly intact. This was a great show firing on all cylinders.

Worst - Season 7 (Not on DVD yet). Frank Pembleton is gone and the newer characters are pale shadows of what went before. Still a show worth watching but no longer great.


M*A*S*H
Best - Season 3. I don't think the show had a bad year until after season 8, but this was the last season with the original cast and the show had really hit its stride by this time.

Worst - Pick 'em, 9, 10 or 11. After season 8, the show seemed to lose its comedic confidence. The show became preachy and stopped being fun. Worse, everyone seemed to look and act like it was 1980, not 1952. This is a sad example of a show that stuck around way too long.