Did SGA go downhill ?

[vszulc]

I just started watching the third season of Atlantis, and man oh man! I forgot how awesome some of those were! I could easily mention 2-3-4 of those to make it into my top ten list of best Atlantis episodes.

However, I've heard some people say, that the show started to go downhill in season 3, and it messed up the franchise for some reason. Struck me as kind of odd. If anyone feels/felt like that, could you please elaborate?

And for the rest of you... Is there any season inwhich you find that they jumped the shark? (No matter how small, lol!)

As for me, I find all of the seasons awesome, though there are probably more episodes in S4 and a couple in S5 that I don't care that much about...

[jelgate]

It went downhill in S2 and had some improvement in S4 then went downhill again

[magictrick]

Near the end of season 3 it just started spiraling downhill.

I would say the turning point was Sunday. Not because of what happened in the episode, but I find that every episode after that just wasn't the same, so I use that episode as my reference marker.

[s09119]

Near the end of season 3 it just started spiraling downhill.

I would say the turning point was Sunday. Not because of what happened in the episode, but I find that every episode after that just wasn't the same, so I use that episode as my reference marker.

I view at as when the uniqueness of Atlantis got swallowed up by endless copies of SG-1 themes and plotlines, and so I mark it at about the same time; end of Season 3, though "First Strike" was a terrific episode.

[EvilSpaceAlien]

It went downhill after The Siege, Part 3, and continued to go down during the rest of season 2 & 3. Then it had a slight increase in quality in season 4, but it quickly went downhill again, towards the end of the season.

[SaberBlade]

For me, when they introduced the Asurans. Oh yay, more bloody Replicators. It did pick up with non Replicator stories, but it wasn't until Fran that I actually liked them.

[Briangate78]

No. Season 4 was the best season, imo. Season 5 had potential but it was not the worst like Season 2.

[General Jumper One]

It is my favorite of the three and I don't think it went downhill at all. actually improved as seasons were add.

[s09119]

I like how the title of this got modified from "Which season did it go downhill?" to "Did SGA go downhill?" to make it less negative.

[Petra]

However, I've heard some people say, that the show started to go downhill in season 3, and it messed up the franchise for some reason. Struck me as kind of odd. If anyone feels/felt like that, could you please elaborate?

I have to agree with SaberBlade and s09119 on this. I became disappointed with SGA in season 3 due to its continous use of old SG-1 plots and enemies. Introduction of Replicators - pardon me, Asurans - was when the show lost me for good.

I think the show had great potential, and the best pilot out of all 3 series. I wasn't impressed with most of season 1 though, I found it lacking and boring up till Brotherhood, I think, which was the first ep since "Rising" that I truly enjoyed. The show continued to get good after that - I'm in minority which loved season 2, despite it having some awful eps (Epiphany, The Tower) and despite getting rid of Ford, whom I liked a lot and replacing him with Ronan to whom I've never warmed up. SGA was finally finding its footing and its own style.

And then season 3 happened. The Genii were swiftly dealt with, the Wraith's sad fate of becoming nothing more than caricatures of villains was sealed, the SG-1's Replicators - Asurans, I keep reminding myself - were introduced, Beckett, the only character I cared about was killed off, Teyla - the only other character I really liked didn't have much to do at all, and my main entertainment during watching episodes came from listing SG-1 episodes that were ripped off. SGA also failed spectacularly to develop its characters (just think where SG-1 characters were in season 3!) and while it touched on some pretty dark themes they were treated in a cartoonish, shallow sort of way that just turned me off. And the show got steadily worse with each next season. I stuck around season 4 for Sam and watched season 5 out of habit I guess, and while I consider myself just a casual viewer and no SGA fan by any means, it was still sad to see the show go downhill so fast.

There were of course some good episodes, but there were just too few of them to really count.

All IMHO of course.

[dolfyn]

In a word, YES.

I also reference Sunday. Killing off Beckett was a big mistake. And tossing Weir aside soon after was a mistake on top of a mistake. Plus, the introduction of the weak & whiny Keller was even worse. Even with the re-hashes of SG-1 stories, the actors made their characters rise above that, so that SGA was still very enjoyable through the first 3 seasons. Dramatically changing the team dynamics dragged the show down for the last 2 seasons.

Feel the love.
dolfyn.

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

It went downhill after The Siege, Part 3, and continued to go down during the rest of season 2 & 3. Then it had a slight increase in quality in season 4, but it quickly went downhill again, towards the end of the season.

I'd agree with this. Though SGA was always a fun action show for me, it never got close to surpassing the glory of sg1.

[SGTB1991]

I just started watching the third season of Atlantis, and man oh man! I forgot how awesome some of those were! I could easily mention 2-3-4 of those to make it into my top ten list of best Atlantis episodes.

However, I've heard some people say, that the show started to go downhill in season 3, and it messed up the franchise for some reason. Struck me as kind of odd. If anyone feels/felt like that, could you please elaborate?

And for the rest of you... Is there any season inwhich you find that they jumped the shark? (No matter how small, lol!)

As for me, I find all of the seasons awesome, though there are probably more episodes in S4 and a couple in S5 that I don't care that much about...

I agree with you - I loved season 3. I think seasons 1-3 were the best.

I think the show started to go a little downhill around season 4. I'm not quite sure why - something was just different. And it's not because Weir left - I liked Weir, and I love Carter too. I think my least favorite season was five (but I don't think it was bad). Something about the flavor of the show just changed. Ronon and Teyla especially bugged me in the later seasons.

And did anyone else notice how all the color got sucked out of the show? There seemed to be a lot less color on the screens. Honestly, I think the costume changes are a critical point. When they ditched the old uniforms in season 4, that signaled a slight change in attitude - costumes were much darker, and in season 5 the women all started wearing leather... wierd.

In any case, I'm not quite sure what makes me not like seasons 4/5 as much as the first three. Maybe the story arcs were just not quite as crisp.

[Rac80]

Season 3 began the Shep and Mckay show, by season 4 it became the Mckay show, then in season 5 it was the mckeller hour....when they focused on basically one character - Mckay (IMHO the worst of the four leads!) they began to lose me. I really disliked the back half of season 5 and hated EatG...they made the other characters as distant background and focused on this whining annoying goon and ruined SGA for me.

But I will agree of the three series it had THE BEST pilot. and I think it had the best opening theme music... epic like the potential of the show.

[SGTB1991]

Season 3 began the Shep and Mckay show, by season 4 it became the Mckay show, then in season 5 it was the mckeller hour....when they focused on basically one character - Mckay (IMHO the worst of the four leads!) they began to lose me. I really disliked the back half of season 5 and hated EatG...they made the other characters as distant background and focused on this whining annoying goon and ruined SGA for me.

Really? I didn't notice them focusing more on Rodney at all. But he's my favorite character, so I probably didn't notice because it didn't bother me.

In my opinion, Keller's character wasn't the greatest. It's not that I dislike her, but she just wasn't quite as strongly characterized as the others. Make sense?