grundle

Please recommend what you consider to be the best season of any TV show.

Please only do this for shows where you are strongly familar with the entire run of the series (or for shows that are still in production, please be familiar with the entire run so far).

It's OK if the show or season has not yet been released on DVD, because, hopefully, it will eventually be released.

The reason I am starting this thread is for people who are considering purchasing just one season of a particular show, but who may not be sure about which season to purchase.

If you think that enjoyment of the season is heavily dependent on being famililar with plotlines from previous seasons, please say so in your answer, so people can be warned.

OK. I'll start out. My favorite season of Magnum P.I. is season 2. This has been my favorite season of this show for many, many years, long before the DVDs ever came out. On a per episode basis, this season has more fun, action, adventure, etc., than any other season. And each episode is pretty much self contained. A newbie shouldn't have much trouble understanding what's going on.

On edit: You can recommend as many different shows as you want.

Wazootyman

The 4th season of NewsRadio is my absolute favorite. With classics like Super Karate Monkey Death Car, Bill and his Piano, Pure Evil, Security Door, etc. etc. All of them so very hilarious

NitroJMS

It's hard to judge things I haven't seen in awhile, so I'll stick with things I've watched lately.

ER Season 3 - I thought season 2 was fantastic and 3 was every bit its equal. Great storylines, acting, guest stars, etc. made this an extremely compelling viewing. I only wish today's ER was even half the quality of the older seasons.

Simpsons Season 5 - Brimming with now classic episodes such as Cape Feare, The Last Temptation of Homer, and many more.

tasha99

Tie: Farscape Season 3 and Babylon 5 Season 3

You have to watch the preceding seasons to follow both of them since both shows are pretty serialized and have highly developed mythologies.

Edit (adding some other shows since we're not sticking to 1):

Blackadder III
Star Trek DS9 Season 6
Buffy Season 3
Angel Season 3
Six Feet Under Season 3

Very short or new shows with only one or two seasons (and I have no real preference between seasons):

Deadwood
Carnivale (season 1 had a better pace, but both seasons are great)
Arrested Development
Freaks and Geeks

nny

I agree with the season, but you forgot to mention the best episode, Treehouse 4. It was so good that in a later episode when they showed deleted scenes from various episodes, Treehouse 4 had the most deleted scenes and they were all great.

Buffy season 5 may be my favorite season of any show ever. It felt like a great comic book how it continually built up to a major showdown the entire season. It also features the 2 best episodes, The Body and The Gift.

Six Feet Under season 3 is way up there in favorite season of any show too. I loved the subdued, darker tone the show took during this season. I remember watching it and every week thinking that each episode was better than the last. I do despise the season finale of this season, but it was made up by actually having a real season finale in the form of the season 4 premiere. Too bad I had to wait a full year to get that finale.

Both of these shows have a lot of continuity, but you could still get by just watching them on their own. Buffy season 5 was the first season of Buffy I watched and I wasn't lost at all.

Three of my most hated dramas on TV today all started in Fall 01. One thing they all have in common is they all had great first seasons and have been pathetic ever since IMO. The 3 shows are Alias, 24, and Smallville. Btw, I don't hate them because they're the worst shows on TV, they just have more wasted potential than just about any other show out there.

While there's a bunch of people that will agree with me about Alias and 24, it seems the majority of people seem to like Smallville seasons 2 and 3 much more than season 1. The biggest criticism of season 1 is that's it's all monster of the week stuff. Personally, I feel that everything from writing to music to special effects to even acting was better in season 1 than it has been since. I will say my favorite parts of most of the episodes were the last few minutes where they would have already finished dealing with the MOTW and they would do a little bit with the ongoing storylines. While it seems like it would be ideal that they actually expanded those few minutes into whole episodes in later seasons, the writers just showed that they could only handle doing a few minutes of that stuff every week. The most frustrating thing about Smallville is that it seems like they try to change the characters, but everything has to turn back to status quo before long.

Heh, this wasn't the right thread for a Smallville rant, but I couldn't help myself. Given the initial reason of this thread, I probably shouldn't be recommending just a season of a show that I otherwise mostly dislike. I guess these 5 shows are the first ones I think of when I think of seasons that really stand out from the rest of a series run.

grundle

You can recommend as many shows as you want. I guess I should have been more clear about that. So there's no need for it to be a "tie."

superdeluxe

X-files Season 1-4:

The greatest monster, standalone, mythology, humor episodes.

The writing was still crisp, ideas we're still new

Some great episodes include

Season 1: Ice, Beyond the Sea, Tooms, Squeeze, Erlenmeyer Flask
Season 2: Anaszi, Humbug, Colony/End game, One Breath, Ascension/Duane Barry
Season 3:Jose chung, Pusher, Piper Maru/Apocrypha, War of Coprophages, 731/Nisei, Blessing Way, Paper Clip, Clyde Bruckman
Season 4: Herrenvolk, Musings of Cigarette-smoking man, Tunguska/Terma, Paper Hearts, Leonard Betts, Memento Mori, Tempus Fugit/Max, Small potatoes, Zero Sum, Gethsemane

Season 5 is also good..and ends with the movie. You could pretty much stop watching after that..and it would be all good.

das Monkey

Without question, the greatest 20+ episode season is the 3rd season of Babylon 5. With apologies to tasha and the wonderful 3rd season of Farscape, nothing comes close, and I'll be surprised if something ever does.

As for the recent trend of shorter 12-14 episode seasons, I'd say the 3rd season of Six Feet Under is the front-runner, with all three seasons of The Wire close on its heels.

Of course, purchasing either of these by itself without seeing other seasons would be terribly stupid.

das

grundle

Which is those 4 is your favorite?

superdeluxe

If I would have to pick..I would say four is my favorite..followed by 3..then 2..then 1.

But toss up three and four..its pretty equal for me..

Edit: BUt I also recommend seeing the other seasons as well. While as a good portion of the episodes are standalone..things might get confusing in the Mythology arc episodes..and the season premier/finale.

Maxflier

Alias:S1

Geofferson

The Sopranos 1 & 2

Filmmaker

STAR TREK: Season One (1966-1967); still the bar by which all earlier and subsequent TV sci-fi is measured and comes up wanting.

Runner-up: TWIN PEAKS: Season Two; nothing remotely as surreal, inventive and utterly horrifying (not to mention just down right respectful of its audience's intelligence) has ever been on TV.

misterchimpy

Wonderfalls, Season 1
Firefly, Season 1

Ok, there haven't(and probably won't be) any more seasons of these, but they are both terrific tv.

mikeporter

I've gotta go with Tales from the Crypt S2.

Decker

Sopranos Season 1 -- Pure perfection, set a bar so high it'll never be touched again.

Seinfeld Season 4 -- The Contest, The Bubble Boy, The Junior Mint, The Pilot. As good as sitcoms get.

dvd182

All three seasons of the Wire are amazing.

rw2516

Babylon 5 season 3

Quake1028

Freaks and Geeks, although not even a complete season, is the finest tv show ever made. IMO of course.

glassdragon

Rescue Me. Only 1 Awesome season and still going strong

Shannon Nutt

The Prisoner...only had one season, so just watch 'em all.

The Sopranos, Season 1

Twin Peaks, Season 1 (and season 2 up until they arrest the murderer of Laura Palmer)

clemente

EZ Streets Season 1 (well...only 8 episodes were ever aired).
Farscape Season 3 (though truthfully, start with 2-18 and then head into 3)

BJacks

The first season of The Shield was phenomenal. Ditto 24.

And, of course, Freaks & Geeks.

lordwow

Family Guy - Season 1.

Probably the most Laugh Out Loud funny moment on TV... ever.

MrBob

I'm going to say Carnivale S2, excellent mixture of acting and writing, and cinematography, that complimented a really unique story.

Only knock would be the ending, seeing as how it won't comeback for a third season.