Samurai Champloo, the first episode was absolutely amazing and certainly made me believe it would be just as wonderful as Cowboy Bebop. It almost immediately crashed landed after that though for me. All the mid episodes couldn't really seem to focus on anything. They seemed to want to have some overlaying story, trying to find the samurai that smells like sunflowers, but it kept getting side tracked. Made even worse by the fact that every episode was constantly switching back and forth between the three characters all doing something completely different.
It could have been fine having a few self contained episodes but the fact that their goal kept being brought up without seeming to really move towards it made it feel like the creators were just killing time until the end.