TV History Repeats Itself?

24 is Dallas and Bones is Moonlighting.
Or so say the writers of those respective articles. And... that's all I have to say about that.

On a different note... How many shows are good beyond their first season? According to critics and fans, some shows just aren't as good after the first season. Lost, The OC, Desperate Housewives, Alias, CSI, The Apprentice and others just lost their spark after the first season, many claim. And why is that? In the case of some of the shows, the "spark" is gone. What was an original TV program suddenly becomes yet another program on the schedule. And, for some shows, the first season is all about setting up various plotlines and making mysteries, while later seasons are dealt with resolving those threads. Therefore, later seasons may not be as "good" (aka "original" or "ground-breaking") as the first season, even though thematically, it's just the natural continuation of the first season's plotline.

That's why I'm wary when people talk about a freshman series being better than a longer-running series. Like, most people compare Heroes to Lost (or even 24), saying that it's a lot better of a show than the other two. But with Lost and 24, we know lots of the characters really well and we're going in-depth into their world. With Heroes, we're still skimming the surface. It's the blessing and the curse of the first season.

One thing that I would recommend is to not compare one TV show to another, but rather, enjoy the show's for their own respective merits. It's tough to do, but, then you won't be shouting at the TV like "If Jack Bauer were here instead of Ryan Atwood, Marisa would have been dead after three episodes!" Unless the show is a spinoff of another series, chances are, the programs have little in common with each other. They each exist in their own fictional universe, not in the same one. For example, I'm not going to whine about how The 4400 isn't like, say, The Closer. I don't expect Brenda Lee Johnson to come over and start going "Ya'll" all over the 4400 Center. I treat each show based on their own merits and shortcomings.

Each show is different. It's perfectly fine to not like one show or another, but the less time you spend comparing every. show. made. to every other show made, the less stress you'll bring on yourself, and the more you'll enjoy the escapism on the idiot box.