Episodes you hate from shows you like

Forgive me if there's already a topic like this.

Even the greatest of shows have their darkest hours; whether it lasts a single episode, or an entire season. So what were the absolute stinkers from otherwise good cartoons?

How is this not going to be a complaining thread?

What's wrong with complaint threads?

Oh, nothing important. They just GET LOCKED is all.

...so why is this one still open?

Similar threads in other sub-forums have stayed civilized and the mods are willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. However, there are some threads in this sub-forum that require a lot of policing and we're not going to add another to the list. If it gets out of hand, it's done.

Well, then let's hope that it can be civil.

Hmm, episodes I don't like from animated shows that I do? Well, Arthur springs to mind. I'm not particularly fond of certain episodes from the fifth season in particular, such as "Sleep No More," or "More!" from season six. The writing on this show has been inconsistent, but I do appreciate that they're willing to listen, learn and improve. The show's been going for fifteen seasons and some of its more recent material has actually been some of its best.

EDIT

edited 1st Apr '13 2:32:30 PM by MsCC93

Some of the early episodes of The Penguins Of Madagascar were kinda off. One that sticks out is "Happy King Julien Day". At one point, Julien just has a total 180 about the piñata he gets and decides to share it with anyone. I just found that the sudden change in tone was very abrupt. It also seemed rather out of character for Julien to suddenly be friendly to the penguins and Marlene with no strings attached.

Also, obligatory Avatar The Last Airbender "The Great Divide" complaint. I agree with the majority; this was a ham-fisted, clumsily written episode with way too blatant SYMBOLISM!!!!1111!!11

I remember the last time I went through the Tiny Toon Adventures DVD that there were some dull episodes, but I can't think of most of the titles offhand. One of them was "Sawdust and Toonsil" — its jokes just didn't connect for some reason, and the plot was really predictable. It felt more like an episode of an 80s kiddie show.

Not All Dogs Go To Heaven.

Every Family Guy fan knows why.

edited 19th Nov '12 6:55:45 PM by Smasher

Not big on the "Blast to the Past" two parter for Sonic Sat Am at all. The way it established the backstory I think was half hearted, wasting potential and rather pretentious. Changing the duration of Robotnik's rule to a decade I also think broke some of the suspension of disbelief (especially since Robotnik was becoming more and more Stupid Evil as episodes passed) and seemed to exist only so as to use "AWW, BABY FREEDOM FIGHTERS". Even outside that I think the episode(s) were rather dull and too reliant on Sonic and Sal's banter.

There are also some more complex cases of episodes I only resent in hindsight, as in stand alone they are okay, but placed alongside other episodes they cause problems in continuity or add to more consistant negative characterization and come off as rather tedious.

For example the aforementioned show did a lot episodes with a recurring "Sonic doesn't listen to Sally and screws everything up" formula. These wouldn't be bad episodes on their own (or even if they just switched the Sanity Ball in some other episodes to even it out), but the repetition of it turned their chemistry into a one note Women Are Wiser dynamic and seemed like them castrating SEGA's icon in order to glorify their own pet character.

Similarly the infamous "Jerkass Rainbow Dash" episodes of Friendship Is Magic" aren't that bad, in fact they were rather charming in places and shown RD's solo appeal, but they were done in such a cluster in Season Two that they came off as uneasy Flanderization of the character, though they seemed to have started toning things down afterwards, which may ease the taintedness.

edited 19th Nov '12 7:01:58 PM by Psi001

I don't like "If It Smells Like an Ed" from Ed Edd N Eddy.

"Eggman Cometh" from Ben 10 Ultimate Alien, siply because dialogues, plot construction and whole rest didnt felt as if they were made by professional writer. It felt like one of laziest stories from CN magazines somehow adapted.

[EDIT]

edited 1st Apr '13 2:33:00 PM by MsCC93

"Lisa Goes Gaga" gets my vote for the worst Simpsons episode ever. Lady Gaga was a spotlight stealing Mary Sue (I'm not exaggerating when I say that she got more screentime than the Simpson family), the jokes just fell flat, and Gaga isn't much of an actress.

I wasn't so fond of "Little Yellow Book" from Spongebob.

the only one i know of is "Face Freeze" from spongebob. i rarely dislike full episodes of shows i quite like. well okay, there is "Randy savage 9th grade wrestler" from MAD, too

I'm not big on TaleSpin's "Save The Tiger. Baloo just elevated into too much of a Jerkass without enough buildup and jusitification, even compared to average Acquired Situational Narcissism stories.

Also, while I've always found The Dreamstone to be very bittesweet, I felt the Urpney humor and interaction usually kept the majority of episodes somewhat enjoyable. "Blob's Incredible Plan" however was pretty awful. Dull and slow paced, pretty bad animation due to being an early episode and the heroes' usual Moral Dissonance is escalated into outright smug bullying douchebag mode for almost half the episode. Even the usually redeeming Urpney scenes aren't all that humorous for the most part. It may get extra downsizing points for having the opportunity to develop the heroes a bit more (eg. the process of making dreams, casual scenes with the Wuts) and making it all as completely boring as possible.

edited 2nd Apr '13 8:44:31 AM by Psi001

The Spirit of Competition from Legend of Korra, Denial from Young Justice, and I'll throw another vote in for Lisa Goes Gaga.

Thirding or whatever Spirit of Competition. I didn't think it was possible for a 12 episode Avatar series but that was the ep you could have cut/ reworked into an already existing episode and it wouldn't have lost anything.

I really didn't like the ending of "Am I'm Joyce Kinney" from Family Guy. I felt that Lois deserved some of the bad things that happened to her since she was a Karma Houdini since she got away with pulling a Carrie-style prank on Joyce.

I'm thirding the Lady Gaga episode of The Simpsons. Unrelated, but you know Michael Jackson wasn't even credited in his guest role?

ISTR he wanted it that way.

So you'd always be left wondering, "Was that even the real Michael Jackson?"

Even in death, I admire that man for his actions, maybe now more than ever, just hearing that (and knowing what The Simpsons has become as of late! GRRR...).