90's Baywatch. It wasn't actually all about Pamela Anderson running in slow-motion, and the first season had a number of "Guys, this is actually a real dramatic show about real people doing a dangerous job saving lives" episodes.

IMO Buffy was more than just fine. The episode Hush was nominated for an Emmy, it's excellent even if you're not into the show.

Xena was eye-rolling entertaining at best. But then every season or so they would have one really well-done episode. Callisto comes to mind in season 1.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 15 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Scrubs was a great show all around, but if you know you know - there are two episodes which are absolute gut punches that the show had no right to be that good.

My Screw Up
My Lunch

[–] Psaldorn@lemmy.world 12 points 5 days ago (1 children)

"Where do you think we are?"

[–] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago

[–] Zorque@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

My Old Lady was pretty killer early i. The first season.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 1 points 5 days ago

That one honestly helped me when I met my first person who was fully ready to die. It's a weird feeling, running from the thought of death for your entire life then you meet someone who is content with it.

[–] semisimian@startrek.website 12 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Lost. The first episode is a master-class in both "show and don't tell" and setting up "mystery boxes." It was downhill from there.

[–] GreenShimada@lemmy.world 10 points 5 days ago

Nearly everything up until they went into the hatch was gold. Mysteries to the point of putting on closed captions to see the type of sounds the smoke monster made (IIRC, "mechanical whirling sounds"). Then it all just got sillier and sillier and stupider and stupider.

[–] Zorque@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

That's always the problem with "mystery box" storytelling. It will always disappoint. There's no real storytelling, just "wouldn't it be cool if..." and then no real follow up.

[–] EmilyIsTrans@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Absolutely for me Mythic Quest. I know it's a well regarded show, but I found it pretty average overall. But OMG S02E06 Backstory is so much better that it blows every other episode out of the water.

[–] kate@lemmy.uhhoh.com 5 points 5 days ago

Mythic Quest had a few really good bottle episodes tbh. It's too bad the rest of the show was so average, it's hard to recommend people watch a 4 season show just for 3 really good episodes :)

[–] dumples@midwest.social 1 points 5 days ago

I like all of Mythic Quest but there are a few that are standouts. The bottle episodes are the best to be honest

[–] MirrorGiraffe@piefed.social 8 points 5 days ago (2 children)

X-files had a hilarious parody episode where Mulder was speaking gibberish the entire episode if I recall.

The sandman s1 was very uneven but the one in the diner was top notch tv.

[–] Construc_@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

yea! sandman was awful but that one in the diner was amazing

[–] IWW4@lemmy.zip 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

/boggle

Did you just make the claim that the Xfiles was mediocre?

[–] MirrorGiraffe@piefed.social 3 points 5 days ago

😬

I was tired and didn't read the instructions properly. There is something out there.

[–] kate@lemmy.uhhoh.com 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

for me this show is paradise

[–] kate@lemmy.uhhoh.com 1 points 5 days ago

i don't need to name which episode because anyone that saw the show knows which :-)

[–] bizzle@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

Breaking Bad was mid EXCEPT for the fly episode

[–] thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 days ago

Three Stories - House, MD.

[–] lath@piefed.social 1 points 5 days ago

When the next Stargate drops, we should revisit SG-1s 200th episode to see what i used for inspiration.

[–] whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 days ago

The last episode of the first season of Northern Exposure, s1e8 "Aurora Borealis: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups". It's a decent 90s single camera but that episode really stands out.