Episodes you skip on the shows you love

[The Borgified Corpse]

When I'm watching a show on DVD, I tend to watch the whole thing in order. However, sometimes I'll reach an episode where it's just not worth my time to watch it again. Thankfully, it usually only happens once per series, but it happens.

Angel, "She."
99% of this series is excellent. However, this bizarre female circumcision allegory just doesn't do anything for me. I still watch the classic opening sequence with Angel's bad dancing. But after that, I skip right over it.

Doctor Who, "Love & Monsters" and "Fear Her."
I'm not a fan of these episodes of sci-fi shows that make fun of nerds. Furthermore, the ending with Moaning Myrtle being resurrected as a block of concrete is supposed to be hopeful but just ends up creepy. "Fear Her" has too little of the Doctor in it and the little girl's whispery voice is annoying. All in all, when "The Satan Pit" ends, you're better off jumping ahead to the big, season-ending invasion in "Army of Ghosts."

The Catherine Tate Show.
It's a sketch comedy series. So while there's something likable in each episode, there are certain skits that I just can't stand. Mostly, it's that excitable married couple that laughs at everything. Seriously, what is supposed to be funny about that? I hit the fast-forward button every time one of their skits comes up.

So what episodes do you skip when you're re-watching some of your beloved favorite TV shows?

 

[Andrew_Kearley]

Love & Monsters is great. It's not making fun of "nerds" - it's celebrating fandom as a great thing, a source of friendship and social interaction. If it's poking fun at anything, it's at a certain species of "superfan" who try to dictate what fandom should be like, what fans should think and do.

 

[FinalFrontier]

I have to agree with Andrew_Kearley about Love & Monsters. It's really not making fun of nerds. However, the cement block thing at the end is creepy... Especially when he mentions that they still have a sex life. Let's all go fuck cement bricks now!

But anyways...

When I'm re-watching House on DVD, I always skip the episode arc with that prick cop. I just hated how the cop guy was being wicked douchy and basically bordering on corrupt. He used his position to do what he wanted and mess with House. I just didn't like him and wouldn't be able to stand watching them any more than the one time I did.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I know I seem to be in the minority re: "Love & Monsters." But there's just something about its tone that I find very uncomfortable.

Then there's the somewhat similar Stargate SG-1 episode "Avenger 2.0." While I liked Dr. Coombs in "The Other Guys," Dr. Felger was just way too over the top & pathetic.

 

[Mr Light]

Sci-fi shows tend to make really horrible episodes, particularly in their first season. But beyond that, I refused to re-watch Buffy "The Body". Way too "real". I think it came out a year n and a half after my dad died.

 

[The Evil Dead]

I don't think I've watched several of the Deep Space Nine "Ferengi" episodes in 10 years now.

 

[Spot's Meow]

I can't watch any TNG episodes that focus on Klingons. I just can't even pretend to care about them. It's weird because the rest of the show is so great, even the supposedly "bad" episodes, but the Klingon ones feel like they don't fit in.

 

[Jonas Grumby]

Hmm, the only thing I can think of offhand is, when I run across a M*A*S*H rerun, if Wayne Rogers is in it, I'll watch it. Otherwise, I'll skip it. I just can't stand the overbearing preachiness of the post-Rogers era of M*A*S*H.

 

[Kelthaz]

Doctor Who:

So, so many. I find the season 13-15 run to be nearly unwatchable with a few notable exceptions (The Talons of Weng-Chiang for example). I'm only on the beginning of 16 now, so I might me adding more to my Who avoid list.

Nu Doctor Who:

"Tooth and Claw"
"Love and Monsters"
"Planet of the Dead" (Not bad, but too long and boring to watch again)

Star Trek TOS:

Way too many to count. A third of the series is unwatchable, a third is mediocre, and a third is pure brilliance.

Star Trek TNG:

Vast majority of season one.
"Shades of Gray"
"Sub Rosa"
"Masks"

Star Trek: VOY:

"Drive" (Despite being a worse show than TNG, Voyager rarely had episodes that weren't somewhat enjoyable. Yes, I enjoyed Threshold)

Buffy:

"I Robot, You Jane"
"When She Was Bad"
"Some Assembly Required"
"Beer Bad"
Season 7 after Conversations with Dead People

Angel:

"She"
"The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco"

 

[ThunderAeroI]

I like Masks, if I had to pick a TNG episode I refuse to watch its got to be anything in season 2 and most of season one. When I introduced my kids and wife to TNG i just skipped the first two seasons.

BSG
The episode where Dee off herself, just sad on so many levels.

 

[Orac Zen]

Babylon 5:
"TKO" - the Ivanova part of the story is cool. The rest...awful.
"Grey 17 is Missing" - the Delenn / Sheridan / Neroon part of the story is cool. The rest...incredibly stupid and unwatchable.
I struggle to watch any episode with Byron. The fast-forward button gets a workout there.

Farscape:
"Revenging Angel" - one of the greatest things about Farscape is that it was genuinely innovative. The showrunners took real risks and when they paid off the show was glorious. This ep, for me, is one where the risk definitely didn't pay off.

TNG:
"Genesis" - the "DNA can do Absolutely Anything!!!" "science" in this episode is too stupid for words.
"Sub Rosa" - do I really need to explain why?

Voyager:
"Fair Haven" and "Spirit Folk" - so stupid they make the much-derided "Threshold" look like Shakespeare. Pure, unadulterated televisual crap.
"Q2" - just flat-out stupid.

Star Trek TOS:

Way too many to count. A third of the series is unwatchable, a third is mediocre, and a third is pure brilliance.

That's a pretty fair assessment, really. There are a lot of third season eps I haven't bothered with in years.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

All my favorite shows are serialized so I can't skip anything, even when the episodes suck. And since I don't rewatch shows much at all, by the time I know an episode sucks, it's too late.

 

[AliciaD496]

This is gonna sound kinda silly, and usually I don't skip episodes in DVD rewatch...

I don't know if anyone watched Gilmore Girls, but the episode I always skip when I get into watching again (or if ABC Family is airing it) is They Shoot Gilmores, Don't They?

The whole idea of the stupid 1940s dance competition is bad enough. The break up of Rory and Dean in front of the whole town at the competition is just...painful for me to watch. Sad part is Dean had every right to say the cruel things, doesn't mean I want to watch it again. That and it leads to the whole Rory and Jess era which is even more painful to watch.

I apologize to all the Heroes fans out there, and perhaps he's improved some since Glmore Girls...but Milo's acting was just...not good. The 'bad boy, James Dean wannabe' act was very thin. That's not to say Jared's acting as Dean was any better, and having watched Supernatural I can tell Jared's at least worked at improving (too bad Jensen still acts circles around him). Can't say I see the same improvement in Milo's Peter Petrelli in seasons 1 and 2 of heroes.

Sorry, a little tangent there. I recognize it's a natural progression for teenagers to date around, but still, they could have made it less painful to watch (and damaging to Rory's character, her treatment of Dean was very out of character for her and didn't end up changing her in any positive way). Dean basically became the whipping boy of the whole town in the end because of this episode, when it was really Rory who was the bad girlfriend.

So, yeah...obviously I've watched my Gilmore Girls DVDs way too many times.

 

[Agony_Boothb]

'Hero' - Battlestar Galactica

Cannot express how much i hate this episode.

 

[Trekker4747]

"Shades of Gray" - I'd rather watch a marathon of Sub Rosa and Threshold for 16 days straight than watch Shades of Gray.

 

[Harvey]

"Shades of Gray" is certainly worth avoiding.

I also tend to skip the Hathor episodes of SG-1.

 

[Phillip Culley]

I'm in the minority, however I finally watched one of the ones I normally skip - Angel's 'Waiting in the Wings'.

Dull, interminable nonsense which is thankfully skippable with very little loss to the overall plot

There's also Season 5's Why we Fight, and of course Season 1's She (dancing aside, of course!) - interestingly all these episodes are the 13th episode in the season...

 

[Gojirob]

I generally will watch any ep of MASH, no matter the season. But one exception is 'The Joker Is Wild' in which BJ is supposed to prank the whole staff, ending with Hawkeye. The premise, that he has to out-do Trapper, is asinine, since Trapper was never a solo prankster. The payoff, aka 'the prank that never came' was epic fail. First, it never came. Second, Potter allows BJ to exhaust Hawkeye as part of this. Great attitude for a regular military man in a situation where, frontline intel or no, wounded can come flooding in at any time. Finally, BJ had the whole staff in on it--which means he never pranked them, part of the bet, not a solo prank, the whole point of his endeavor, and creating fear alone is not a prank. Also, the script throws in a visiting friend of BJ's, there totally coincidentally, which is stupid, some fate/luck/Hand Of God thing. Even the one with Rizzo and Potter's driver test beats this pile.

Buffy S3 - Dead Man's Party - Okay. Buffy had some things to answer for, and the heroes were always depicted as real, flawed people. I still would have slapped Joyce, Xander and Willow around. And that moment when Joyce casually deflected her own part in Buffy running away was pure crap. So, Joyce? Laying down an ultimatum about 'if you leave, don't come back' isn't bad parenting? And as to 'Mommy's Not Perfect', fine. Except you seem to be demanding that of your daughter. That had to be Joyce's lowest moment since her early S1 days as a caricature. And Willow? Way to escalate, when you see Buffy thinking about leaving again. I swear, this ep foresaw every bad thing that happened in the later seasons : Mopey Un-talkative Buffy, Useless Angry Xander, and Venom Tongue Willow.

Mary Tyler Moore - Rhoda begs Mary to be on a double-date. Guy turns into a stalker--a funny, 1970's wacky, before-we-knew-better stalker, but at least as disturbing to Mary's life and routine. Rhoda later *teases* Mary about her problem with this guy. Is anyone else seeing the problem? Why the writers never gave Mary the supremely obvious retort is way beyond my comprehension.

TNG - When The Bough Breaks - Another obvious overlook is why no one brought up that what the Aldeans did - taking something (the children) after first asking and being politely and firmly refused - is something that almost every child knows is an invitation to bad times. I know the Aldeans' arrogance and pig-headedness is part of the idea, but it was so overdone, I hope I never meet the guest actors, for fear of embarrassing myself. I was 21 when I first saw it, and now am an uncle who bristles at the idea presented in the show. Deanna's 'Humans are unusually attached to their children' thing was rotten. Worst of all, it intro'd the single most annoying thing in TNG for me (followed closely by whole fleets sent out to retrieve one person) - and that is the 'we're desperate and dying, so it's not wrong' cliche. I know the scripts usually refute that as an excuse per se, but so many species seem to use it over the 7-season run, I wonder if the UFP even tongue-lashes people like the Aldeans. Finally, why just a glare from Picard to the late-repenting jerk minister? He deserved a full-on JLP speech, firing on all verbal banks. These kids will, later on, realize what really happened, who their 'friends' really were, and have nightmares. I would have had any reproductive-system therapy contingent on a document foreswearing this kind of action. And have UFP child services standing by. Even Wes could tell them 'because you have to' is not always enough for a kid.

 

[OmahaStar]

There aren't many. The one that comes to mind is of Angel, the episode I think was called Smile Time. It's when Angel becomes a fricken muppet. Stupid beyond words. I can take a lot of stupid, but that one is just too much for me.

 

[selina]

I know I seem to be in the minority re: "Love & Monsters." But there's just something about its tone that I find very uncomfortable.

Nope, you're not . Love and Monsters is really the only Doctor Who episode so far, that I didn't like at all and won't watch again. The only part I did like was Rose and the Doctor chasing the alien.

Buffy: Beer Bad and Angel: That Old Gang of Mine I'll skip, the next time I watch either Buffy or Angel. I was bored to death watching them the first time.

Futurama: Jurrassic Bark I usually skip, too. It's not a bad episode, not at all, but too sad for my taste.