Additionally, the characters that audiences would come to know and love are far more one-note – especially Amy Poehler's Leslie Knope, who comes off as far less likeable during her first appearances. Fortunately, later seasons of the series would treat its characters much more sympathetically, resulting in what is simultaneously one of the most good-natured and sharply satirical comedies of the last decade.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer onto television. A follow-up to the mostly forgotten movie of the same name, Buffy's first season is a strange beast in comparison to where it would eventually end up.

The fights tend to be poorly choreographed, the camerawork can get rather claustrophobic, and a serious whiff of cheese permeates the proceedings. Of course, nothing is inherently wrong with a little narrative cheddar – but the contrast between the pacing and tone of initial episodes (when compared with later seasons) is jarring.

Babylon 5

While it would go on to be one of the most influential and well-loved science fiction properties of the '90s, Babylon 5 was initially derided as something of a knockoff. Released right around the same time as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Babylon 5 spent its first season somewhat clumsily trying to distinguish itself from the elder franchise.

Not only did it often suffer by comparison, Babylon 5's cast was a long way from settling into their roles – so much so that the cast structure was retooled in season 2 and nominal series lead Michael O'Hare (TRON: Legacy).

Doctor Who

This entry feels like something of a cheat, because the 2005 "season 1" of Torchwood) is dipping his toes in the water rather than jumping right in.

Full of divisive episodes and a neck-twisting amount of tonal whiplash, Doctor Who's first 13 episodes are a mixed bag, at best. Granted, Christopher Eccleston (Thor: The Dark World) seems more than game to adapt to the material, but the constant sway between wacky and maudlin does the usually stoic actor few favors.

The X-Files

For a period in the late '90s, the weekly cases of Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) were absolutely mandatory television. This wasn't immediately apparent, however.

Though they are hardly as scattershot and flailing as its final seasons, the first episodes of The X-Files can be fairly rough in retrospect. Still feeling out the relationship dynamic between its leads, season 1 of The X-Files plays fast and loose with characterization, sometimes showing off sides of its leads that were later abandoned. Perhaps more distressingly, season 1 features little of the spritely wit or full-on dread of the series' truly great middle seasons. Indeed, there are few episodes from that first run that land on any "best of" lists.

The Walking Dead

Make no mistake: The Walking Dead has always been ratings dynamite. That said, the truncated first season of the series now plays very oddly – and not just because most of the characters have subsequently died in any number of horrible ways. After an ittedly crackerjack pilot, season 1 tends to feel more like a tentative experiment rather than a fully realized show.

Sleepy pacing, meandering digressions, shallow characterizations, heavy-handed foreshadowing, and a head-scratching finale all combine to create a narrative that fails to live up to the show's open-ended premise. This isn't to say that season 1 of The Walking Dead is horrible – just oddly unfocused for a run of only six episodes.

American Dad

It took some time before Family Guy. Indeed, early episodes ape Family Guy's style to the point that the show almost becomes something of – to borrow a video game term – a re-skin of the former series. Without much unique to call its own, American Dad bled viewers already growing jaded by Seth MacFarlane's brand of animated vulgarity.

Fortunately, American Dad would eventually shuck off the storytelling conventions of Family Guy and move in a far more fantastical direction, embracing a world of alien empires and CIA shenanigans only vaguely hinted at during season 1.

Supernatural

The adventures of Sam and Dean Winchester – demon-hunters extraordinaire – had to go through some growing pains before they actually clicked with audiences.

Unlike later seasons' sprawling story arcs and frightening recurrent villains, Friday the 13th) is only in its nascent stage in Supernatural's first season – meaning the series' trademark breezy humor is in short supply. Clearly, it took a couple of seasons before Supernatural's writers and performers hit their stride.

Seinfeld

The infamously acerbic King of Sitcoms had to work out more than a few kinks before it could reach the heights of "The Contest" and "The Chinese Restaurant" (the latter of which is often cited as the show's first true moment of greatness).

If anything, Seinfeld's first season suffers because it plays like many other sitcoms from its era. During its run, we see little of the existentialist humor and absurd sight gags that came to define the series. Perhaps most importantly, Seinfeld is slow to completely embrace its central, driving premise: that these four New York semi-professionals might actually be really bad people. Without that, Seinfeld just doesn't have the same bite.

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