What episodes of TV shows do you always skip?

[Benji]

I like to watch the same shows whilst I go to sleep. It's like a comfort blanket. Over the years there's been a lot of shows I've watched time and time again. There's certain shows where I realise it's a specific episode and always skip. So I thought I'd ask the question - what episodes of your favourite TV shows do you always skip?

For me Rick & Morty has two particularly egregiously awful episodes, one being "Claw & Hoarder: Special Ricktim's Morty" (aka "The Dragon Episode") and "“Rickdependence Spray" (aka "The Horse Semen Episode"). Rick & Morty can be incredibly juvenile - for better and for worse - but these are especially bad episodes in that respect.

[Toe]

If I am in the mood for Star Trek TNG, I always skip Code Of Honor. It's a terrible episode that goes way past "So bad, it's good" territory. A lot of season one of TNG can be rough, but at least there is some charm to it. Code Of Honor just sucks.

[Adam]

I feel like it's often sitcoms where this applies, possibly because of the sheer rewatchability of them.

I find the "Scott's Tots" episode of The Office too cringeworthy to watch so I often skip that one. The last 3 episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's fourth season are always usually a skip for me too, purely because I hate the bank heist framejob storyline that ends the season.

Away from sitcoms, "The Lost Sister" from Stranger Things. There's just no point watching it back when I rewatch the show. Take the Eleven character development from memory and forget the rest because it was basically all pointless.

[Your Mom]

3 hours ago, Benji said:

I like to watch the same shows whilst I go to sleep. It's like a comfort blanket. Over the years there's been a lot of shows I've watched time and time again. There's certain shows where I realise it's a specific episode and always skip. So I thought I'd ask the question - what episodes of your favourite TV shows do you always skip?

For me Rick & Morty has two particularly egregiously awful episodes, one being "Claw & Hoarder: Special Ricktim's Morty" (aka "The Dragon Episode") and "“Rickdependence Spray" (aka "The Horse Semen Episode"). Rick & Morty can be incredibly juvenile - for better and for worse - but these are especially bad episodes in that respect.

Those 2 episodes are actually the reason I stopped watching that show. I actually ended up reading about them before I got to them and just said "yeah that's it for me"

[PkmnTrainerJ]

On my many rewatches, I cannot remember the last time I intentionally watched Stranger In A Strange Land from Lost. Also Orphan 55 in Doctor Who

[Bobfoc]

The episode of Peep Show centred around Mark's birthday comes to mind. I find it too awkward, even by the normal standards of that programme.

[Benji]

4 hours ago, PkmnTrainerJ said:

On my many rewatches, I cannot remember the last time I intentionally watched Stranger In A Strange Land from Lost.

Ah yes, the peak "we had a plan for five seasons but whoops we now have a sixth and have to write stuff for it" episode.

[livid]

I generally skip any Christmas episodes unless it happens to be Christmas because a lot of them end up being side quests related specifically to the holiday and watching it in July takes me out of it entirely. 

[GhostMachine]

On 10/09/2024 at 16:53, Toe said:

If I am in the mood for Star Trek TNG, I always skip Code Of Honor. It's a terrible episode that goes way past "So bad, it's good" territory. A lot of season one of TNG can be rough, but at least there is some charm to it. Code Of Honor just sucks.

That one, and Justice. The one where they want to execute Wesley because accidentally fell into some plants.

The first season had some stinkers. Those two stand out.

[Razohiro Ishii]

Season 2 of South Park, Chickenpox. The "ooky mouth" or whatever it is they play makes me wanna puke. I know by the standards of the show it is pretty tame but there's just something about it.

[9 to 5]

Jurassic Bark.

[Mick]

For Star Trek: TNG, I'll skip virtually all of the first season. Conspiracy is fine if you watch it with the perception that these critters were meant to be the Borg. The Neutral Zone is where the show begins to grow the beard. In fact, it's like TNG's plot power is tied directly to how powerful Jonthan Frakes' beard is. Neutral Zone: Yeah, he's thinking about. Seasoon 2, it's there, just not as powerful. There's a lot more in Season 2 I'd watch. It also has the episode with the Irish, which I'm not sure is funny or bad. 

A few more episodes of DS9's season 1 are worth a watch; Emissary, Past Prologue (Meet quite possibly Star Trek's greatest character, Garak!) Babel, Q-Less, The Nagus (Some Ferengi Nonsense is always worth the watch on DS9), Battle Lines (Ehrmantraut. Immortal Alien.), If Wishes Were Horses (No imagination indeed. Ha!) . Duet (THIS is fantastic. Give Harris Yulin a fucking Emmy for this one.), and In the Hands of the Prophets, because Prophets help us, here comes Winn Adami  . 

Voyager...is mostly skippable. Even Caretaker is skippable. Uh, Phage because the Viidians were a pretty neat idea, The Cloud just for the fucking sludge that Neelix makes. Faces, because the Viidians are back. Really, fucking horrifying race, now that I think about it. Learning Curve is the last decent one. 

Enterprise....Hell, I'd watch the whole first season. The show is more episodic. 

And after that you kina have to watch all the first seasons of Star Trek shows. Especially Lower Decks. You can probably skip Prodigy. 

Game of Thrones: Most of Season 5, where the show starts to go off the rails. Skip "Sons of the Harpy", except for Barristan's Last Stand, "Kill the Boy", "Unbowed Unbent Unbroken"; aka The Wedding Episode.... , and that's it. I'm more receptive to Season sixes and season, and I kinda stop at the end of Season 7. ,

Other than that, the only episode I can really think of is the episode of ER where it's Mark Greene's final days. Keep in mind, and I know it's ER, it's 30 fucking years old now (....yay....), but I'll watch up to the 9th, maybe the 10th season. After that my interest in the show really waned. You don't deserve to be good when you squander Stanley Tucci  . 

 

 

[Rich]

The first episode of season 3 of the West Wing, Isaac and Ishmael, its non-canonical and was made in response to the 9/11 attacks, I just can't deal with its overt preachiness

[GhostMachine]

@Mick To me DS9 started to fall apart during the Dominion War. It was still a great show, but had issues.

Voyager became crap once they made Janeway into Star Trek Batman, who had an answer for everything. Due to the way she was written, and NOT Kate Mulgrew's acting (she's great), I'd be just fine never seeing Janeway again. Voyager also has the shittiest TNG era finale. Because Future Janeway (groan) showing up changed the timeline and pretty much made everything that happened before in the episode moot. Plus we didn't get to see the crew actually return and meet their loved ones.

Enterprise I gave up on early in season two, but I did watch the Mirror Universe two-parter and the finale. People groan at the ending, but it works because 

Spoiler

making the show Riker fan-fic more or less explains the inconsistencies with previously established canon

I only gave the show a chance because I'm a Scott Bakula fan, and it sucks he chose not to appear on the sadly now cancelled Quantum Leap reboot.

Incidentally, STAR TREK ONLINE, which I play, had some missions that are tie-ins/sequels to some Trek episodes. Most notably "Yesterday's Enterprise" (TNG) and "Ashes To Ashes" and "Deadlock" (Voyager). Sela is the villain in some missions, and Denise Crosby is in the game as both her and Tasha Yar.

 

P.S. I agree with you about ER, because it went downhill and was nearly unwatchable for a while. But if you haven't seen what happened to Dr. Romano, you should really look that up. Also, find the episode with Ray Liotta. Its one of the best episodes of the show, period. 

I was pleasantly surprised when John Stamos joined the show. He was really good on it.

 

[Hellraiser]

I gave up on ER when they

Spoiler

dropped a helicopter on Dr. Romano. Having a character whose sole redeeming trait was being an excellent surgeon lose the ability to do surgery by getting his arm chopped of by the helicopter blade and then watching him unravel was an good storyline for him. And it was obvious that things weren't going to end well for Romano from that point on. But having helicopter crush him was way too much. The show jumped the shark with that episode. There were some good episodes (like the one with Ray Liotta mentioned above), but it was never as good as it used to be in the early seasons.

And I never liked John Stamos character. His whole story with nurse (later doctor) Samantha Taggart just felt like a desperate attempt to re-create the Hathaway/Ross relationship.

 

[Mick]

4 hours ago, Hellraiser said:

I gave up on ER when they

  Hide contents

dropped a helicopter on Dr. Romano. Having a character whose sole redeeming trait was being an excellent surgeon lose the ability to do surgery by getting his arm chopped of by the helicopter blade and then watching him unravel was an good storyline for him. And it was obvious that things weren't going to end well for Romano from that point on. But having helicopter crush him was way too much. The show jumped the shark with that episode. There were some good episodes (like the one with Ray Liotta mentioned above), but it was never as good as it used to be in the early seasons.

And I never liked John Stamos character. His whole story with nurse (later doctor) Samantha Taggart just felt like a desperate attempt to re-create the Hathaway/Ross relationship.

 

Dude. It's 2024. You don't have to put up spoilers for a 30 year old medical drama  . 

 

[Your Mom]

I thought the moment in that spoiler was hilarious

[Hellraiser]

4 minutes ago, Your Mom said:

I thought the moment in that spoiler was hilarious

I laughed out loud the first time I saw it too. I don't think we were supposed to though.

[GhostMachine]

My jaw dropped, then I laughed.

My favorite death scene with that actor was him being doused with toxic waste and hit by a car in Robocop prior to that.

Dr. Greene's storyline that ended with his death was really hard for me to watch, because my paternal grandmother died from brain cancer when I was nine years old. That, the episode with the dying senile man who turns out to pretty much be the founder of their hospital, the Ray Liotta episode, and the storyline involving Ernest Borgnine and his character's wife who is dying in the series finale were all major tearjerkers.

If you quit watching the show, I highly recommend tracking down the Ray Liotta episode, Time of Death. He actually won an Emmy for it, and most definitely deserved it. Its a rare episode without multiple plots.

[Hellraiser]

To get back to the topic:

There are many aspects about the show House (or Dr. House or House MD or whatever it was called in your region) that haven't aged well. But one episode that always stood out to me as particularly bad was the episode Skin Deep from season 2 about the teenaged model who turned out to be intersex.

Edited Tuesday at 21:41 by Hellraiser