Is it for me? I can't just take the obvious route and use netflix, as I'm currently working in a country where any Western media is fairly hard to come by and to ship to (for the curious, said country has: a) religious police, and b) drivers that behave as if they were on their way to the worlds' first free superbowl with all skybox seats - there, that narrows it down to about 2 countries :P ). Needless to say, there isn't much of anything for a single male to do after work (this isn't a dig at my host country, in fact, I've met some of the kindest people likely to exist here) - all I can say is I'm very thankful for satellite internet, slow though it may be. I've caught the pilot, and was actually checking the ep countdown timer to see whether I'd have to wait for another ep to see what happened next (unfortunately so). My local analog tv station (remember those days?) in Chicagoland seemed to enjoy screening (for what reason I don't know) season 5, on and off, for the last 6 years. I found it fairly dry, mainly because I didn't have a clue what was going on. I like: Most forms of Trek (probably DS9 for being a serial and not resetting everything to the status quo, VOY being a runner-up) Firefly (what little of it there was, really liked the character development) Babylon 5 (season 1=meh, s2=mehish, s3=gee, this is pretty good!, s4=WOW!, s5=not bad + a lot of standalone stories) The Stargate series as a whole, for me, is pretty meh, but enough of the time, good enough to go out of the way to watch. And that about wraps it up for my forays into sci-fi. I *might* be able to get some of those 2-eps-per-disc dvd's, if so, can I really just watch some 2-parters and key episodes and still get what I like out of the series (thinking I can skip a lot of non-character building, TNG fluff), and if so, could somebody please tell me which eps I absolutely cannot miss?
Watch the first 2 seasons, and then pretend like 3, 4, and 5 don't exist. Trust me. You'll have a much fonder view of the series this way, and almost everyone who watched it agrees. Season 3 is just bad. Season 4 is worse. Season 5 is just !
And actually, you only have to watch the first half of the second season. Robert Hewitt Wolfe's last episode was "Ouroboros." The show goes downhill from there.
The only season you should pretend doesnt exist is the final one. Beyond that seasons 3 and 4 are entertaining and certainly watchable.
I found that you can enjoy Season 3 and 4 if you ignore the huge plot hole's (they have crew, they don't have crew, who knows?). I enjoyed the arc in Season 4 up to the end, thought it was good. Season 5 was totally wtf though. What kind of crack did they smoke to come up with that idea.
In defense (or explanation) of season five, by that time the show had NO budget and ONE set and were told to make a season out of it. They came up with the best they could at the time given their tremendous restrictions. That said, and being totally unobjective LOL, I agree that the strength of the show was in its earlier episodes rather than its later ones.
Agree with those above that thew first two seasons of Andromeda are the best. However, the last three aren't as bad as people say. Just relax and have fun watching.
To be honest, I quit watching 3 or 4 episodes into the 3rd season. I was a much harsher critic then than I am now. I wouldn't mind seeing the rest of the series now that time has distanced me from the disappointment of watching it go downhill week after week. At the time, though, we were watching several shows just dwindle into absurdity, and my tolerance for it was low.
Season three was when it turned from a decent, if somewhat cheesy, sci-fi show into the Kevin Sorbo Power Hour, wasn't it? I don't think I ever saw any episodes beyond season two, and even then I'd only watched a few.
I liked most of Anromeda seasons 1 and 2. While the budget wasnt there to do a full on action hour that they seemed to want to do for some reason, at least it was ambitious and they were TRYING to do something with this story. By the end of season 2 and the fact that the Commonwealth is somehow just restored, i was pretty much done though i did try to watch season 3. I couldnt even make it through. And I am obsessive compulsive about watching everything through to the end. It was just terrible. Watch the first two, thats all thats there.
Honestly, I think people are being overly generous. The first half of the pilot - meaning, just the first hour - is pretty enjoyable fluff. It goes downhill from there. It keeps slipping gradually downwards for the first season and a half. At the halfway mark in season 2 - when Robert Wolfe was fired by the "star" Kevin Sorbo - it went over the cliff. From that point on, it never rose again above a grade of F (or 1 star, depending on your grading system). The last season is completely unwatchable; there are no redeeming qualities. At all.