8 Legendary TV Shows that Had Awful First Seasons

You know the old saying: don’t judge a television show by its first season. There are so many great TV shows with bad first seasons, that we’re actually shocked they were even renewed for a second one! To give credit though, the shows in this list were able to take the ball and run with it all the way to iconic status.

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1. Friends

As the basic boy that I am, Friends is my favorite sitcom of all-time. However, I remember watching the pilot episode back in 2012 for the very first time and feeling a lot underwhelmed. If you were to base it off the first few episodes alone, you would never have guessed why it became such an instant classic.

I guess the situations that the characters were placed in during the first season were too outlandish for my taste. Do you all remember Marcel the pet monkey? Or how about Rachel walking into Central Perk in a wedding dress? Also, some of the characters in the cast were not yet “themselves” if that makes any sense. For example, Joey was still kind of a bore as opposed to the lovable dumb man-child that he is in the later seasons.

There are glimpses of greatness here and there that still makes it watchable. But overall, the first season is only good to rewatch for nostalgia’s sake, The One with the Blackout, and the start of all the Ross and Rachel drama.

2. Parks and Recreation

Every time someone recommends Parks and Rec on the internet, they inevitably tell the reader that they just have to get through the first season. And for good reason!

Some points of criticism include the show’s slow pacing and its corny jokes. However, the biggest issue is with the characters, whom you don’t feel particularly attached to in the first season. If you’re a fan of The Office and have just started watching this show, you’d have an even harder time getting into it. The mockumentary style and similarity in main characters opens the door to an unfair comparison between the two.

However, the rest of the show becomes a pure joy to watch as the characters start to become more developed, as they grow into people we could actually root for.

3. Teen Wolf

As the vampire-slash-werewolf hype of the early 2010s started to come to an end, Teen Wolf premiered on MTV. However, the first season was comparatively weaker than the next two seasons that followed. When it began, the series heavily focused on the romance between newly-turned werewolf Scott and daughter of werewolf hunter Allison.

It was a cute little star-crossed lovers plot, but Teen Wolf is at its best when it fully delves into the world of wolves and monsters like it does later on. While the mythology is explored in-depth in the first season, the “wolf stuff” is largely forgettable and uninteresting.

In retrospect, the first season just wasn’t a good introduction to the rest of the series.

We will largely remember this one not for its plot, but for the beautiful and chemistry-filled cast that carried it.

4. DC’s Legends of Tomorrow

This show’s ‘legend’-ary status is up in the air because it is definitely one of the great TV shows with bad first seasons. Legends of Tomorrow is an amazing show that revolves around oddball and obscure DC superheroes. Unfortunately, its first season was marred with a lot of problems.

One of them was its uninteresting plot that centered on the blandest character in the cast, Hawkgirl.

It was obvious from the start that the writers were still trying to figure out what vibe they wanted to go for. As a result, they went in multiple directions without sticking the landing for any of them.

In their second season though, things started to change. The writers finally decided that Legends of Tomorrow was going to be the light and goofy show in the whole Arrowverse. And boy, did they deliver big time.

It was obvious how confident the writers were getting as the show progressed, because they started to become more and more experimental with the episodes.

After the first season, we’ve had a Bollywood musical number, a giant teddy bear fighting a time demon, and a puppet episode, among many other things. All this wackiness is still sprinkled with sincere and heart-wrenching moments making this the best superhero show on TV right now.

5. Supernatural

Fun fact: this show is still on-air, as it is currently on its final and fifteenth year. Talk about great TV shows with bad first seasons.

When the show was just starting out, it was pretty much just another generic supernatural teen drama, coming on the heels of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.

Supernatural struggled to find its identity in the first season, as it relied heavily on established mythologies rather than building their own. However, once the cliffhanger at the end played out in the next season, everything started to change. They started to stray away from becoming “just another supernatural drama”, and instead, built their own world with flawless stories to tell.

Most importantly, the show finally realized that the strong chemistry between the two brothers is must-watch material, and started to build better themes from there.

6. Brooklyn Nine-Nine

I can already sense the hate that I’m going to get from this, but you have to admit, Brooklyn Nine-Nine has to be included in any list of great TV shows with bad first seasons.

A big reason why people love this show is because of the characters. Even if they are pretty rootable from the get-go, the writers haven’t learned how to really tap into the characters to make them funny just yet. Captain Raymond Holt, for example, is probably the funniest character in the entire series, but lacks in comedic moments in the entire season.

While there are funny moments, the episodes in the first half are kind of boring especially when you compare them to later seasons. As a viewer, you may not be able to pick up the show’s humor instantly from this season alone, making the show difficult to get into.

7. Mistresses (U.S.)

I’m gonna go a little obscure here, but Mistresses is just such a great nighttime soap once you get past the first season.

Much like The Office, this show is based off a U.K. series. This however, becomes a source of weakness for the show, as it tries too hard to mimic its U.K. counterpart in the first season. Therefore, the characters are much more bland and the pacing is a bit too slow for my liking. You can tell that the writers are just trying to get from one plot point to another without trying to find their own voice.

However, once they had drifted away from the storylines in the U.K. series, Mistresses became a much more enjoyable experience. The four female leads finally came to their own, bringing a much-needed oomph to the show.

In the succeeding seasons, it finally became its own standalone show, rather than taking part in a “monkey see, monkey do” situation.

8. Seinfeld

I love Seinfeld a bunch, and I am firm in my stance that it is the blueprint for all modern sitcoms right now.

However, every fan will tell you that the first season is just so different and boring. And what’s worse is the second season isn’t too hot either. Throughout this list, we’ve been discussing how the shows are “still finding their footing”, and boy, did Seinfeld take that to heart.

Clearly, their “show about nothing” tagline was taken too seriously in the first season, because literally nothing funny or remarkable was going on. The episodes just felt like they were 30-minute ads for Jerry Seinfeld’s stand-up routines.

It’s a blessing that the producers and writers eventually came around to fixing the show’s problems. By the third season, the storylines, brand of comedy, and characters all finally gelled together to land Seinfeld in the sitcom hall of fame.

So if you’re the type to judge TV shows too quickly, make sure you skip the first season! You’re not gonna miss much.

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And that’s our list of great TV shows with bad first seasons. Got any suggestions or violent reactions? List them down in the comments below!

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