It is very subjective in that way. The people who preferred the first three seasons on my flist, I've found generally speaking (there are always exceptions) tend to like the episodic style better (not necessarily procedural) - with things being more neatly wrapped up at the end of each episode and the end of the season. Definitive beginning, middle and end. And the only seasons that had that definitive feel to them were 1-3 - probably due to David Greenwalt's influence. Greenwalt is more of an episodic television writer, Whedon more serial.
My brother and I discussed this recently and we both realized that we didn't really like the modular plot or episodic style or anthology series. We liked arcs...where the story builds from episode to episode and the series is more like a "novel" for television. Both of us fell in love with Hill Street Blues, BSG, Lost, The Wire, Buffy and Angel and Friday Night Lights. Neither of us had much patience for The X-Files (although we watched it intermittently), Bones, CSI, NCSI, or the others. In fact, I almost didn't watch The Good Wife - because it felt like a legal procedural. But my father loves the episodic format.
I also remember having long discussions with cjl about this back in 2002-2004, he LOVED season 3 - best season, and HATED season 5. LOL! We'd argue for hours. He gave me S5 as a gift, because someone gave it to him and he didn't want it. But he, like you, preferred the more episodic style, and the earlier seasons worked better..he also loved S4. S5-7 - he had major problems with for much the same reasons (well that and he was a die-hard Xander fan.)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2012-03-02 05:21 pm (UTC)Definitive beginning, middle and end. And the only seasons that had that definitive feel to them were 1-3 - probably due to David Greenwalt's influence. Greenwalt is more of an episodic television writer, Whedon more serial.
My brother and I discussed this recently and we both realized that we didn't really like the modular plot or episodic style or anthology series. We liked arcs...where the story builds from episode to episode and the series is more like a "novel" for television. Both of us fell in love with Hill Street Blues, BSG, Lost, The Wire, Buffy and Angel and Friday Night Lights. Neither of us had much patience for The X-Files (although we watched it intermittently), Bones, CSI, NCSI, or the others. In fact, I almost didn't watch The Good Wife - because it felt like a legal procedural. But my father loves the episodic format.
I also remember having long discussions with cjl about this back in 2002-2004, he LOVED season 3 - best season, and HATED season 5. LOL!
We'd argue for hours. He gave me S5 as a gift, because someone gave it to him and he didn't want it. But he, like you, preferred the more episodic style, and the earlier seasons worked better..he also loved S4. S5-7 - he had major problems with for much the same reasons (well that and he was a die-hard Xander fan.)