Terrible episodes of great shows.

VG_Addict

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Just about every long-running or critically acclaimed show has at least one major stinker in its run. It's just inevitable when you have so many episodes, some of them are gonna be duds. Sometimes, these episodes can be just as well-known as the great episodes.

I'll start with Code of Honor from TNG. Everything, from the racist undertones thanks to the baffling decision to make the actors playing a primitive alien race who lust after strong women black to the terrible fight scene makes me wonder how anybody involved thought this episode was a good idea.
 

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VG_Addict said:
I'll start with Code of Honor from TNG. Everything, from the racist undertones thanks to the baffling decision to make the actors playing a primitive alien race who lust after strong women black to the terrible fight scene makes me wonder how anybody involved thought this episode was a good idea.
I'll take you a Code of Honor and raise you a Shades of Grey.

Least stuff actually HAPPENS on CoH.
 

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Hawki said:
VG_Addict said:
I'll start with Code of Honor from TNG. Everything, from the racist undertones thanks to the baffling decision to make the actors playing a primitive alien race who lust after strong women black to the terrible fight scene makes me wonder how anybody involved thought this episode was a good idea.
I'll take you a Code of Honor and raise you a Shades of Grey.

Least stuff actually HAPPENS on CoH.
Never good when you have a clip show episode 2 seasons into your show. There's a reason shows usually do them for a special event or later in the run.
 

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VG_Addict said:
Never good when you have a clip show episode 2 seasons into your show. There's a reason shows usually do them for a special event or later in the run.
Stargate: SG-1 managed it at the end of their first season, and it's actually reasonably engaging.

You can certainly do a good clip show in a TV series. SoG however, isn't such an example.
 

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In The X Files: The godawful video game episode ("First Person Shooter", S7 E13) and the one with the genie granting wishes ("Je Souhaite", S7 E21).
 

Johnny Novgorod

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The Office S06E14, "The Banker"

It's just a clip show. The title banker visits Dunder Mifflin to debrief Toby from HR about the company's antics (cue the clips). He calls himself "just a glorified fact checker" during a brief talking head before pausing and correcting himself: "I'm just a fact checker". Same applies to the episode. You might call it a glorified clip show but really it's just a clip show.

Cowboy Bebop S01E21, "Boogie Woogie Feng Shui"

The weakest episode in the whole show. The series alternates between developing character-centric episodes and the more lighthearted bounty-of-the-week episodes. This one is meant to be centered on Jet Black, except the character has more or less cashed out by now, having gotten over his personal femme fatale and tied every loose end surrounding his past-defining trauma. This episode is supposedly about his relationship with a girl (daughter of an old friend) but the show can't decide whether she's a romantic interest or a surrogate daughter, so it doesn't take it anywhere in the end. And the scavenging hunt plot just isn't very interesting (or even comprehensible).

Samurai Champloo S01E12, "The Disorder Diaries"

Another clip show episode. I guess I could cite every clip show ever made, including the infamous Seinfeld finale, and that one episode of Evangelion, but the reason this one came to mind is that it always seemed like too soon in the series for a clip show. There just isn't a whole lot to recap.
 

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Johnny Novgorod said:
The Office S06E14, "The Banker"

It's just a clip show. The title banker visits Dunder Mifflin to debrief Toby from HR about the company's antics (cue the clips). He calls himself "just a glorified fact checker" during a brief talking head before pausing and correcting himself: "I'm just a fact checker". Same applies to the episode. You might call it a glorified clip show but really it's just a clip show.

Cowboy Bebop S01E21, "Boogie Woogie Feng Shui"

The weakest episode in the whole show. The series alternates between developing character-centric episodes and the more lighthearted bounty-of-the-week episodes. This one is meant to be centered on Jet Black, except the character has more or less cashed out by now, having gotten over his personal femme fatale and tied every loose end surrounding his past-defining trauma. This episode is supposedly about his relationship with a girl (daughter of an old friend) but the show can't decide whether she's a romantic interest or a surrogate daughter, so it doesn't take it anywhere in the end. And the scavenging hunt plot just isn't very interesting (or even comprehensible).

Samurai Champloo S01E12, "The Disorder Diaries"

Another clip show episode. I guess I could cite every clip show ever made, including the infamous Seinfeld finale, and that one episode of Evangelion, but the reason this one came to mind is that it always seemed like too soon in the series for a clip show. There just isn't a whole lot to recap.


The Bebop episode was fine for me. I didn't mind a lighthearted Jet episode. I've seen that episode multiples times, and it was pretty clear they where having a father/daughter relation. I'll watch it again to double check, but I never saw that one as the weakest.

The Samurai Champloo episode you are dead on correct. A lot of anime from the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s suffered from this. Especially the anime that was 25-26 episodes. Hey, creators & writers, stop wasting our time on shit we already know. If you can't think of anything to do with your characters, don't bother and stick with an episode or two less. Luckily, this trend has mostly died in anime now, but was a huge ***** for short or long running anime. Kill La Kill even made fun of this trend.



Powerpuff Girls (98)- "Moral Decay", "Monkey See, Doggy Two", and the one where Bubbles gets glasess. Two episodes consist of characters being derailed and a lazy retread of the Mane Event and the episode where Mojo first appears. I hated Moral Decay so much. Mime for Change too for its shitty and unnecessary ending. You can blame the CN exes for that last one.

Avatar: TLAB - Avatar Day. Nothing happens, nothing is learned, and villagers are petty assholes. They want to kill Aang for pettier reasons than the fucking Fire Nation! For something Avatar Kyoshi was justified in doing. Why couldn't the fire nation come and kill these assholes after the Gaang left. I would have the most devilish smile on my face.


Foster Home for Imaginary Friends. Debatable as everyone became an asshole after season 2. But "Everybody Hates Bendy" is the worst episode ever, and why Lauren Faust ever made an episode like this beyond me. The villain never gets properly punished, and is one of the worst karma houdinis in animation history. Never has an episode title been more accurate.

Hey Arnold - Iggy. Do I need to say anything? .....Bunny Pajamas. This is an episode so bad, Nick & the creator of the show hate and regret it. The only way to see the episode is on DVD or online. They refuse to air reruns of that episode. I also hated the Longest Monday & most episodes that focused on Helga. The early season really suffered from this.
 

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Feeling Pinkie Keen. "Trying to research the workings of the world around you will inevitably fail and make you look stupid, so there's no point being interested in science, nerd!" That, and the plot isn't even very good; it's just Twilight Sparkle torture porn. The terrible moral is just poop icing on a poop cupcake.
 

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Hawki said:
VG_Addict said:
I'll start with Code of Honor from TNG. Everything, from the racist undertones thanks to the baffling decision to make the actors playing a primitive alien race who lust after strong women black to the terrible fight scene makes me wonder how anybody involved thought this episode was a good idea.
I'll take you a Code of Honor and raise you a Shades of Grey.

Least stuff actually HAPPENS on CoH.
Well if we are talking terrible TNG episodes, let's not forget 'Genesis'. It's shocking how stupid this show can get. The crew 'de-evolve' into their genetic ancestors... which apparently contain spiders in Barclay's case. Then after the ship is wrecked and the crew transformed into twisted monstrosities the writers just snap their fingers and change everything back. Apparently turning into a frog has no lasting repercussions on your mind or body.

Special mention to 'The Host' as well. The show really forces the Trill as a benevolent entity and that Crusher is just closed minded for not accepting it... but it's a parasite that takes over your body!!! There's nothing symbiotic going on here, it just straight up controls you. It takes Riker's body and uses it to fulfill it's own desires without any seeming regard for Riker's own wishes. Just gross.
Vendor-Lazarus said:
Star Trek Voyager. Threshold.

No more need be said.
Also, this. What the heck do the Star Trek writers have with completely transforming their crew into completely different lifeforms with no lasting repercussions at all. This episode seemed kind of interesting at first, but then got weird, and then got dumb.


[hr]Then of course there's the terrible final episode of Merlin that ruined the show. It was so bad it made the entire preceding 5 seasons completely irrelevant.
 

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CoCage said:
Avatar: TLAB - Avatar Day. Nothing happens, nothing is learned, and villagers are petty assholes. They want to kill Aang for pettier reasons than the fucking Fire Nation! For something Avatar Kyoshi was justified in doing. Why couldn't the fire nation come and kill these assholes after the Gaang left. I would have the most devilish smile on my face.
I remember three things about that episode: Sokka's magnificent hat, meeting Avatar Kyoshi (who rules) and Sokka exclaiming at the end of the episode "This is the worst town we've ever been to"
 

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The second half of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, especially the island episodes.
 

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Vendor-Lazarus said:
Star Trek Voyager. Threshold.

No more need be said.
Hey hey hey, hold up there. Thread title says terrible episodes of great shows.

I see you, trying to pull a fast one, but nu-uh, none of those shenanigans!

But yeah, Treshold isn't just bottom of the barrel, it drilled through the barrel, then the planet, and is now merrily on its way to Andromeda.
 

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Chimpzy said:
Vendor-Lazarus said:
Star Trek Voyager. Threshold.

No more need be said.
Hey hey hey, hold up there. Thread title says terrible episodes of great shows.

I see you, trying to pull a fast one, but nu-uh, none of those shenanigans!

But yeah, Treshold isn't just bottom of the barrel, it drilled through the barrel, then the planet, and is now merrily on its way to Andromeda.
Ha.Ha. It's not like I said Star Trek Discovery ,)

Speaking of Andromeda..another Great show..with some dubious episodes at the end.
You could even count the entire last season actually.
 

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VG_Addict said:
I'll start with Code of Honor from TNG. Everything, from the racist undertones thanks to the baffling decision to make the actors playing a primitive alien race who lust after strong women black to the terrible fight scene makes me wonder how anybody involved thought this episode was a good idea.
As an aside, that was early in TNG's run, so I might argue it wasn't a great series, at least not by then.

Swap "episode" for "story", as old Doctor who stories were several episodes long, and I give you "The Twin Dilemna". Everything was wrong with that one, not least that they really shouldn't have let the first story for a new doctor followed by a long gap until their next story airs be rubbish.
 

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leet_x1337 said:
Feeling Pinkie Keen. "Trying to research the workings of the world around you will inevitably fail and make you look stupid, so there's no point being interested in science, nerd!" That, and the plot isn't even very good; it's just Twilight Sparkle torture porn. The terrible moral is just poop icing on a poop cupcake.
I've never really got the dislike for this episode.

I can see where people are coming from...sort of. If I agreed that was the actual moral of the episode, I'd agree, but I don't think that's what it's actually saying, even if it could have been phrased better by Twilight. What I took away from it is that it's less taking things on faith and more that sometimes you have to accept things function in certain ways, even if you can't explain how. The faith analogy doesn't really work because the pinkie sense is observable. It isn't something Twilight is taking on blind faith, it's something that she simply can't explain. Off the top of my head, it's observable that the universe is expanding, and accelerating as it goes, but so far we haven't had much luck explaining how apart from invoking "dark energy." That doesn't change the fact that the observation itself is valid.

Drathnoxis said:
[hr]Then of course there's the terrible final episode of Merlin that ruined the show. It was so bad it made the entire preceding 5 seasons completely irrelevant.
That episode.

That god damn fucking episode.

I say without hyperbole that I don't think I've ever seen a series finale that's so thoroughly undermined everything that led up to said finale.

Vendor-Lazarus said:
Ha.Ha. It's not like I said Star Trek Discovery ,)

Speaking of Andromeda..another Great show..with some dubious episodes at the end.
You could even count the entire last season actually.
Wait, we're putting Andromeda above Discovery?

I can't nominate a key episode of Andromeda that vexes me off the top of my head, but Andromeda, having seen seasons 1-4, is an exercise in wasted potential for me. Potential that was squandered in season 2, then we had the wretchedness of season 3, and while season 4 recovered some of its mojo, it never recovered. If I'm comparing the two, Discovery never reached Andromeda's highs, but it never descended to its lows either.
 

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Gordon_4 said:
CoCage said:
Avatar: TLAB - Avatar Day. Nothing happens, nothing is learned, and villagers are petty assholes. They want to kill Aang for pettier reasons than the fucking Fire Nation! For something Avatar Kyoshi was justified in doing. Why couldn't the fire nation come and kill these assholes after the Gaang left. I would have the most devilish smile on my face.
I remember three things about that episode: Sokka's magnificent hat, meeting Avatar Kyoshi (who rules) and Sokka exclaiming at the end of the episode "This is the worst town we've ever been to"
Too bad the hat never shows up again (which I forgot even existed), Kyoshi should have just gotten her own flashback episode without the town, and Sokka's lamp shading only makes things more frustrating. The fire nation conquering the town would have been poetic justice. As a teenager, I sometimes dreamed an army of fire nation soldiers screwed them all over after the trio (before meeting Toph) left. That is the best kind of ending they deserve.
 
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Avatar: The Last Airbender- The Great Divide. Dear lord, I don't know how the episode both before and after were as good as they were with this nothing episode in between. Two tribes fighting for so long they don't even know why they are fighting, as proven by the fact that a complete lie is enough to end their feud, was such a stupid idea in concept, and the execution felt even worse.
 

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Our Mrs Reynolds, from Firefly. I mean it was just obvious from the very first scene with her, at the festival, that Saffron was evil. And then the twist was she's evil, and really hot and...that's it. She's evil and hot, and there's nothing else to her character, and all the dudes just fumble over themselves with how hot she is. And then the women are confounded with how evil she is.
And its the same running joke for the entire episode - she's hot, says something sexual, the dudes blush, she knocks them out, the women roll their eyes.
Of all of Firefly that one felt the most like either an episode of Buffy, or just a regular sitcom episode.