What were your revelations?
 

I generally don't go for these "list your favorite/best/etc. TV on DVD sets," but a couple of discussions on Buffy/Angel got me to thinking about this.

What TV season sets would you say were revelations for you? Those sets that no matter what you were expecting going in, at some point while watching it you realized that you've been surprisingly blown away.

I'm not asking what sets were good? I'm asking what ones were surprisingly good -- or even if you were expecting them to be good, they still were much more than you were expecting them to be?

I guess to be totally fair here, they probably would have to be seasons that you saw for the first time on DVD. I can't imagine that a season you watched in broadcast could all of a sudden be revelatory on DVD.

I don't have a hell of a lot of TV sets, but here's my revelatory list:

Sopranos S1: It more than lived up to the hype.
Buffy S2: S1 was cute and entertaining, but where the hell did this come from?
Angel S2: Wasn't expecting a hell of a lot after the disappointment of S1. What a leap forward.
Angel S5: Budget cuts, standalone eps, more Spike? Yawn. But the old Spike was back, the change in direction seemed to spark a burst of creativity and this turned out to be one of the best Mutant Enemy seasons ever.
Alias S1: Man, was that ever fun.
La Femme Nikita S1: A little bit cheesy but strangely dark and compelling.
Oz S1: Just couldn't take my eyes off that train wreck.

Just to give context, sets that weren't necessarily bad but fell disappointingly below expectations included The West Wing S1, Seinfeld S1&2, Xena S1, Angel S1.

I'd have to say the first episode of Six Feet Under blew me away.
I had seen the previews for it, and planned to watch it...but I never expected how good it would actually be. The first episode is maybe the best of the entire series. So much emotion, quirk, and strangeness all in one.

Sports Night is another.

Farscape S1: Blind buy during a clearance sale. I was expecting a level of cheese, given the puppet aliens, but it turned out to be really good. Now I'm looking for a deal on S2.
24 S1: Another blind buy. Over the course of the season my opinion went from ok to interesting to meh. I still have not watched the last 3 episodes and really don't care to.
Firefly: Ok, so my expectations were high because I enjoyed the TV show. But the DVDs were better than I remembered. The three unaired episodes were a bonus.

Wait ... a TV Talk thread that excludes those of us who actually watch the shows on television? ;)

I can't really comment on DVD sets, but I've admitted to being completely shocked that <i>Everwood</i> was as good as it was when it premiered. For most shows I can usually anticipate a range of quality from the talent involved (e.g. how could anything on HBO be a surprise?), but I never saw this coming. <i>The Invisible Man</i>'s probably another one. <i>Farscape</i> looked awesome from the previews, but <i>I-Man</i> looked cheesy. I didn't expect it to be as great as it was.

And as already mentioned, Season 2 of <i>Buffy</i> came out of nowhere. I watched Season 1 and enjoyed its quirkiness, but I can remember that "holy shit" moment during Season 2 when I realized this was much greater television than I had ever anticipated.

das

Will we ever see that show on DVD in the US? :(

I keep hoping the TV-on-DVD explosion will filter down to this wonderful show, but it seems unlikely.

das

Freaks & Geeks do a search for it and you can see why it is so popular. It is easily the show truest to the average High School experience. Oh the days.

and

Sports Night - I'd say the first season is the best first season of any sitcom

Brooklyn South. Never saw it on TV, was suprised how good it was, didn,t want it to finish knowing there were no more seasons.. THe Sheild season 1. Saw most of it on TV, but it became really intense and gripping when I could watch episodes back to back and with no commercial breaks. And oh, I completely agree with the OP about Buffy season 2