The Best Seasons Of TV Ever

Lost, Season 3 (2006-2007) - Still the tightest, most tense, compelling season of TV I've ever experienced. The plot moved, the characters were at their best, the mystery was starting to take shape, and oh, yeah, a little thing called NOT PENNYS BOAT. Still trudging my way through the series little by little, but it's becoming blatantly obvious the show doesn't get this good ever again.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 3 (1998-99):   The final season set at Sunnydale High.  The season of The Mayor.  The introduction of Faith and her arc/downfall.  The exit of Angel to his equally great series.   The epic Graduation Day.  This is Whedon series television at his finest.  

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justin Clark 

Lost, Season 3 (2006-2007) -  Still trudging my way through the series little by little, but it's becoming blatantly obvious the show doesn't get this good ever again.

I'm a LOST apologist and like all the seasons to varying degrees, but yes.  

24 Season 5 (2006)- least amount of plot holes with the most amount of suspense and excitement! The President Logan twist is particularly excellent

Angel Season 5. The show built momentum as it went, and this season put it into orbit before folding up the tents.

A textbook example of how to go out on top.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bravejoe24 

24 Season 5 (2006)- least amount of plot holes with the most amount of suspense and excitement! The President Logan twist is particularly excellent

Also Season 4. No Kim at all!

I really think a decade from now people will be able to look back at season 4 and 5 and see the two sides of America's frustrated rage in a post 9/11 world. With Season 4, it's the rage at a foreign enemy. A rage and thirst for revenge so extreme that any form of torture and international law breaking (remember breaking into the Chinese Embassy?) becomes not only acceptable but desired.

And Season 5 about the frustrated rage with a President that puts his own desire for power and legacy over the greater good.

Great Thread. I'm going to wait for someone more articulate to choose which season of The Wire is stronger so...

Dexter, Season 4 (2009)

The best example of how tense the show could be, and sadly the last time it was ever that good. A typically great performance throughout from Michael C Hall and a terrifying showing from John Lithgow. Also, "that" ending.

The Wire, Season 4

Each of the seasons of The Wire had their own focus, and all of them could probably make this list.  But I'll pick one.

The fourth season, diving into the "origin" story of the game, is the most compelling; it links the crime we have seen with the streets it comes from.

I tend to favor first seasons, especially when they can stand as sort of self contained things.

Mad Men season 1 definitely functions that way.  It starts almost like Goodfellas, with the thrill of the world.  Then we get the mystery of who Don really is, and those existential themes deepen the meaning of the show.  Then, the way it ends, with it being clear Don is going to lose his family, it really lays bare the whole myth of the American Dream.

I am a 24 fan but no season of that show is anywhere near the best of anything.  Even 5 has a shitload of stupid stuff.

Lost season 3 has the best ending ever.  In fact, I think that whole final episode is about as masterful as TV gets.  But I prefer the mystery and spookiness of season 1 more than 3 as a whole.  It's just that ending really elevates it.

The Wire season 4 does stand out as probably the finest overall season of television, especially for a "middle" season.

But Breaking Bad season 4 sure gives it a run for its money.

Yeah, although I would have liked more, Freaks and Geeks actually ended perfectly.  What better way to end a show about teenage years than with all the characters in varying states of transition?

The Shield, season five (2006)

Glenn Close's season-four turn was great fun, but then Forest Whitaker comes on board for year five and blows the doors off the joint. Watching the Strike Team trying to wriggle free from IAD's grasp is thrilling ... before turning horrifying in the season's final moments. Oh, Lem. Poor, poor Lem.

"We're going to find who did this, and we're going to kill them."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mangy 

I actually tend to like Season 3 of BB better, maybe because for me, that season takes an excellent show and puts it in The Pantheon.

Hmm tricky. Season 3 has this...

but Season 4 has this...

Quite possibly two of the finest monologues ever written for a television show.

Battlestar Galactica Season 2.  What else needs to be said?

Deadwood season 3-

I said I liked first seasons, and Deadwood's is no exception.  However, all three are great, and in an effort to not just have premiere seasons dominate, I will choose season 3.  Although many seem to remember 3 as the point the show was cut short, I am actually okay with the ending.  The conflict with Hearst may be the most enduring thing about a show that is already notable for featuring possibly the best dialogue in TV history.  Hearst's idea of business was not about advancement, but domination.  Al's journey from villain to a leader in the community (or, as I like to put it, from devil to "the devil you know") makes for the most fascinating arc I've ever seen on a television show.  Milch is making a statement about economics, and how it needs to be linked to a community, lest it become impersonal, and ultimately destructive, that could not be more relevant today.  

The A-Team Season 1 1983!  Season one introduces one of the most...Awesome, Action, Adventure series ever to...Appear, on network television.  The Team includes...George Peppard as...Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith,  Lt. Templeton "Face" Peck first portrayed by Tim Dunigan, then replaced after the Pilot by Dirk Benedict.  Mr. T co-starred as Sergeant B.A. Baracus.  B.A. Stood for Bad Attitude.  Dwight Schultz was Captain H.M. "Howling Mad Murdock whom is also institutionalized, and is their pilot as well. The Good Colonel and his team are on the run as they were framed for a crime they didn't commit.  Each week they take money to either rescue people, save a friends farm, or stop a mob war, while they are also on the run from the US Army.  The combination of Action, humor, and feel good endings, has not been duplicated.  The A-Team was once described as an...A+ Team for NBC.  It is a fitting statement.  Amy Amanda Allen a reporter from Los Angeles hires the team to rescue a fellow reporter her mentor Al Massey from would be revolutionaries in Mexico.  Melinda Culea co-starred as Amy Allen the rest of season one.  My favorite line was...I love it when a plan comes together!

As great as TV has been recently, I was hoping we'd go back further than the last 12-15 years on this list.

But... not... like... that.

The X-Files - Season 1:  Beginning with the pilot and ending with The Erlenmeyer Flask.  The variety of episodes and evolving relationship of the characters has never been matched on  TV.  I also liked Season 2, with the development of the mytharc and Darin Morgan's human oddities episode, Humbug. 

This could be its own thread, but what's the best season of Seinfeld?  I would say 4 or 5.  But hell if I can choose between the two.

"The Chinese Restaurant" is still my favorite episode... but that's another topic altogether.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mangy 

I lean S4, for "The Contest" and the season-long pilot arc.

This.  At least 10-12 genuine classics in just this season alone.  

Fawlty Towers, Season One (1975) - "The Germans", "Gourmet Night", "The Builders."   Three for the Louvre of sitcom episodes right there.    

Season Two is pretty excellent, too, but the first season wins hands down.  

The Babylon Project was our last, best, hope for peace.

IT FAILED.

Babylon 5, Season 3, aka 'Point of No Return' (1995)

Nothing spells "game changer" like re-writing the opening credits in a way that questions everything that came before. This is where the show shifts into high gear; the cast solidified, years-old plot points paying off, and the unprecedented control-freak spectacle of creator/producer J. Michael Straczynski scripting every single episode himself.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike's Pants 

Hmm tricky. Season 3 has this...

 

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

 

	I used to be a beat cop long time ago. And I'd get called out on domestic disputes all the time, hundreds probably over the years. But there was this one guy, this one piece of shit, that I will never forget: Gordy. He looked like Bo Svenson. You remember him? 'Walking Tall'? You don't remember?
	Anyway. Big boy; 270, 280. But his wife, or whatever she was, his lady, was real small. Like a bird, wrists like little branches. Anyway, my partner and I get called out there every weekend and one of us would pull her aside and say, "C'mon, tonight's the night we press charges." And this wasn't one of those 'deep down he really loves me' set ups, we got a lot of those, but not this. This girl was scared. She wasn't gonna cross him no way, no how. Nothing we could do but pass her off to the EMTs, put him in the car, drive him downtown, throw him in the drunk tank. He sleeps it off, next morning out he goes, back home. One night, my partner's out sick and it's just me. And the call comes in and it's the usual crap. Broke her nose in the shower kind of thing. So I cuff him, put him in the car and away we go. Only that night, we're driving into town, and this sideways asshole is in my backseat humming 'Danny Boy'. And it just rubbed me wrong. So instead of left, I go right, out into nowhere. And I kneel him down and I put my revolver in his mouth and I told him, "This is it. This is how it ends." And he's crying, going to the bathroom all over himself, swearing to God he's gonna leave her alone, screaming - much as you can with a gun in your mouth. And I told him to be quiet, that I need to think about what I was gonna do here. And of course he got quiet. Goes still and real quiet, like a dog waiting for dinner scraps. And we just stood there for a while; me acting like I'm thinking things over, him Prince Charming kneeling in the dirt with shit in his pants. After a few minutes I took the gun out of his mouth and I say; "So help me if you ever touch her again I will such and such and such and such and blah blah blah blah blah".
	Of course. Just trying to do the right thing. But two weeks later he killed her. Of course. Caved her head in with the base of Waring blender. We got there, there was so much blood you could taste the metal. The moral of the story is; I chose a half measure when I should have gone all the way. I'll never make that mistake again. No more half measures, Walter.

 

 

but Season 4 has this...

 

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

Who are you talking to right now? Who is it you think you see? Do you know how much I make a year? I mean, even if I told you, you wouldn't believe it. Do you know what would happen if I suddenly decided to stop going into work? A business big enough that it could be listed on the NASDAQ goes belly up. Disappears! It ceases to exist without me. No, you clearly don't know who you're talking to, so let me clue you in. I am not in danger, Skyler. I AM the danger! A guy opens his door and gets shot and you think that of me? No. I am the one who knocks!

 

Quite possibly two of the finest monologues ever written for a television show.

well lets just say the entirety of BB is the best thing ever :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by First Class 782 

The Wire, Season 4

 

Each of the seasons of The Wire had their own focus, and all of them could probably make this list.  But I'll pick one.

 

The fourth season, diving into the "origin" story of the game, is the most compelling; it links the crime we have seen with the streets it comes from.

While every season of the Wire is better than other television in this world and in others, this is the only answer. Season 4 is hands down the best.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia- Season 3: Unfairly maligned as just "Seinfeld on crack", this was the season the Gang found its groove, and its two best, gutbustingly hilarious episodes, "Mac is a Serial Killer, and "The Gang Dances their Asses Off"

You can make a case for 3 as the ultimate Wire Season, because it is the most Wire season.  It has the biggest, best gangland storyline that gives you both the Barksdales and Stanfields.  The formation of the Co-op, bringing an increased role for Prop Joe and the incredible comic gift that is the Robert's Rules of Order along with it.  It has the MCU in full effect, Carcetti and the mayor coming into focus, the best McNulty arc, the best of Bunny Colvin, the best of Stringer and Avon, the best of Omar, the best of Cutty, the best of Bunk*, the incredible off-handed reveal about Rawls, the gutpunch of the turn Prez's story takes.  It has all of the most striking elements of the show except the kids.

Season 4, on the other hand, is fantastic and absolutely worthy of being in the discussion of the best season of TV ever.  But it is missing a lot of the elements that define the show when you think back on it. In an abundance of caution, I will spoilertag:

Also, this is a great thread topic, but come on people.  If you can't muster more than one sentence on what makes an entire season of television great, why bother?

*Okay, the Bunk is elementally, unfailingly awesome at each and every moment.  But his tearing into Omar is the best work Wendell Pierce does in the entire series.

Mangy, It is...Good Enough!  

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schwartz 

You can make a case for 3 as the ultimate Wire Season, because it is the most Wire season.  It has the biggest, best gangland storyline that gives you both the Barksdales and Stanfields.  The formation of the Co-op, bringing an increased role for Prop Joe and the incredible comic gift that is the Robert's Rules of Order along with it.  It has the MCU in full effect, Carcetti and the mayor coming into focus, the best McNulty arc, the best of Bunny Colvin, the best of Stringer and Avon, the best of Omar, the best of Cutty, the best of Bunk*, the incredible off-handed reveal about Rawls, the gutpunch of the turn Prez's story takes.  It has all of the most striking elements of the show except the kids.

 

Season 4, on the other hand, is fantastic and absolutely worthy of being in the discussion of the best season of TV ever.  But it is missing a lot of the elements that define the show when you think back on it. In an abundance of caution, I will spoilertag:

 

 

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

Can it really be the best season of the show when so many of its strongest characters are either entirely out of the picture (Stringer, Avon) or marginalized (McNulty, Daniels, Bodie despite how powerful the ending is) or dealing with less interesting material (Omar, Cutty) than they have been given in the past?  

 

Sure it can, because so much of the rest of it is so incredibly strong that none of those people need to take the reins.  And it is a great season for Prez, Bunny, Carver, Prop Joe, and of course the kids. But no Barksdales, no focused MCU investigation, and very little McNulty make 4 feel less representative of the show as a whole.  It's very much latter-day The Wire, whereas 3 acts as a perfect bridge between the Barksdale and Stansfield eras, and gets to live in both worlds simultaneously.

 

 

 

 

Also, this is a great thread topic, but come on people.  If you can't muster more than one sentence on what makes an entire season of television great, why bother?

 

 

 

*Okay, the Bunk is elementally, unfailingly awesome at each and every moment.  But his tearing into Omar is the best work Wendell Pierce does in the entire series.

Season 3 also has the 9/11 stuff.  The towers coming down.  The War on Drugs analogy to the War on Terror.  Hamsterdam sometimes looking and feeling sort of like a bombed out Baghdad.  So, while it might be the most quintessential season of The Wire, it might also be the most politically relevant season of television in the whole decade as well.

Farscape Season 4.

There were so many good episodes in this season, including SPACE MADNESS!!! (always a win).  The arc was solid, the stakes were high, then it ended, got cancelled and we had a TV movie to finish it off.  This series deserved so much better.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schwartz 

You can make a case for 3 as the ultimate Wire Season, because it is the most Wire season.  It has the biggest, best gangland storyline that gives you both the Barksdales and Stanfields.  The formation of the Co-op, bringing an increased role for Prop Joe and the incredible comic gift that is the Robert's Rules of Order along with it.  It has the MCU in full effect, Carcetti and the mayor coming into focus, the best McNulty arc, the best of Bunny Colvin, the best of Stringer and Avon, the best of Omar, the best of Cutty, the best of Bunk*, the incredible off-handed reveal about Rawls, the gutpunch of the turn Prez's story takes.  It has all of the most striking elements of the show except the kids.

 

Season 4, on the other hand, is fantastic and absolutely worthy of being in the discussion of the best season of TV ever.  But it is missing a lot of the elements that define the show when you think back on it. In an abundance of caution, I will spoilertag:

 

 

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

Can it really be the best season of the show when so many of its strongest characters are either entirely out of the picture (Stringer, Avon) or marginalized (McNulty, Daniels, Bodie despite how powerful the ending is) or dealing with less interesting material (Omar, Cutty) than they have been given in the past?  

 

Sure it can, because so much of the rest of it is so incredibly strong that none of those people need to take the reins.  And it is a great season for Prez, Bunny, Carver, Prop Joe, and of course the kids. But no Barksdales, no focused MCU investigation, and very little McNulty make 4 feel less representative of the show as a whole.  It's very much latter-day The Wire, whereas 3 acts as a perfect bridge between the Barksdale and Stansfield eras, and gets to live in both worlds simultaneously.

 

 

 

 

Also, this is a great thread topic, but come on people.  If you can't muster more than one sentence on what makes an entire season of television great, why bother?

 

 

 

*Okay, the Bunk is elementally, unfailingly awesome at each and every moment.  But his tearing into Omar is the best work Wendell Pierce does in the entire series.

While I appreciate each and every one of your arguments, to the point I nearly changed my mind, I have to disagree because Season 4 was the season the Cop show (damned good cop show) flipped over and went behind the scenes as to how characters we watch in other shows get to that point. Lesser shows sets up the characters, the Wire shows us everything.  We saw the creation of Game. Maybe I am giving the show extra points because I am a teacher, and this season shows the system as a whole (police, social services, education, community) at its most fucked up. We create those kids because the system gets us. Almost all the students who come to high school with me with behavioral issues starting having issues in middle school.

I may also be giving the show extra points for having the balls to hang the story on 4 unknown black teenage actors and put its finely tuned cast behind them. That takes some chutzpah. But it is so clearly delineated who those boys could turn into and who they do turn into that it is amazing. Dukie is Freamon if he can survive his parents or early seasons Bubs if he can't. Michael never had a chance, as he is Avon if things turn good, someone else entirely if it doesn't. Namond is D'Angelo, drug royalty without the heart. Randy is twice over a Bubs character, except he starts from a worse position, despite the system nearly working for him.

You are right, in that Season 3 is everything about Seasons 1 and 2 taken to its finest. But Season 4 is where they do something with those instruments that is astonishing. 

Goddammit, people, I go away for a bit and this is what happens?

The West Wing, Season 2 (2000-01)

"In the Shadow of Two Gunmen".  "Shiboleth".  "Galileo".  "The Stackhouse Filibuster".  "Two Goddamn Cathedrals".

No way it should have taken 45 posts to get to this one.

I don't have a problem with putting 4 at the top, just saying that it's a race.  For me, there are a couple of imperfections in 4 that pull it down (down from "best season of TV ever" to "maybe no. 5 or 6").

The gangland characters are more purely villainous than ever before, which removes some of the really interesting shading that made the first 3 seasons so compelling.

Omar (outside of his great stay in prison), is mostly just fucking around in his storyline, as opposed to the emotional investment he brings to the vendettas in other seasons.

Bunny's professor sidekick is one of the few major characters in the show that I think is just pitched entirely wrong.  The guy's entire career is focused on inner city youth, yet half the time he acts as if he has never met a teenager in his life.

Then again, 3 has a prominent role for Brother Mouzone, another character I felt like was dropped in from a different, pulpier show and never fully meshed with this reality.  

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrTyres 

 

 Dukie is Freamon if he can survive his parents or early seasons Bubs if he can't. Michael never had a chance, as he is Avon if things turn good, someone else entirely if it doesn't. Namond is D'Angelo, drug royalty without the heart. Randy is twice over a Bubs character, except he starts from a worse position, despite the system nearly working for him.

It's a nitpick, but doesn't Michael really become

Hence the "someone else entirely" part.

Tyres said it better than I did in my single sentence earlier.  I struggled with Season 3 vs 4, almost specifically because of Stringer Bell and the purity of the game in S3.  I agree that Mouzone felt out of place, but that is hardly a dealbreaker.

I just felt that the extension of the game beyond cops and robbers and the larger look at the big picture in 4 was what set it apart.  I would happily argue S3 versus S4, but with no malice.  Most fans could make a case for either, and plenty of reasonable people could prefer 1, 2 or 5.  It is an embarassment of riches.