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Awkwardly placed episodes in a show

TheRedSnifit

TheRedSnifit

Member
So the other day I was rewatching The Batman, and the episode with Bane is more or less a straight adaptation of Knightfall, including the part where Bane beats the shit out of Batman so hard that he's forced to consider giving up the mantle. The problem: This is the second episode, so Batman debating whether he should retire doesn't hold much tension when we haven't even seen most of the scenes in the title sequence (would make a hell of a twist, though).

Are there any other TV episodes that seem awkwardly placed when watched in the proper order?
 
S

SexyFish

Banned
Fox's original airing of Firefly was all sorts of fucked, so if you watched it as it aired it was a trainwreck.

Proper order works fine though, and Netflix now has it fixed for the most part.
 
hoverboarder

hoverboarder

Member
If anyone ever watched Undeclared for the first time, you have to go online and lookup the correct viewing order. The girlfriend and I were really confused the first time, as Netflix places the episodes in the order Fox aired them. A station that had no faith in the show and aired what they considered the best episodes of the show until it was cancelled anyway.
 
S

SexyFish

Banned
robotrock said:
Why did they do this
Click to expand...

JM1Ys1Y.png


Fox was idiotic? Like, I don't know how you fuck up this bad. List is in the correct order, date was the original air date Fox had.

The episodes with "never aired" actually aired the next year I believe.
 
S

Schucky Ducky

Banned
Moral Orel's first episode aired was supposed to be the last episode of the first season, but Adult Swim wanted to air it as a part of their Christmas programming. The whole season was supposed to build up to it and it's the first real taste of the darker, more serious turn the series would take later on, so it's really confusing to see it before all the other episodes that lead up to it.
 
E

Easy_D

never left the stone age
SexyFish said:
Fox's original airing of Firefly was all sorts of fucked, so if you watched it as it aired it was a trainwreck.

Proper order works fine though, and Netflix now has it fixed for the most part.
Click to expand...

Didn't Fox also fuck with the episode order of The X Files?
 
B

BKatastrophe

Member
As far as out of order shows go, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Don't Trust the B--- in Apartment 23 are both pretty bad.

Like, that shit is wacky. Worst part is that they're still out of order if you watch them on Netflix (which I did).
 
J

JBourne

maybe tomorrow it rains
Clerks: The Animated Series. They aired the fourth episode first, then the second episode. The second was a flashback episode, and made no sense as it aired.

The show was then cancelled. RIP.
 
B

Beren the Empty-Handed

Member
Smallville was a pro at this, and it becomes even more apparent if you watch episodes next to each other instead of spaced a week apart. Season plot-heavy episodes would be followed up by wacky comedy episodes, and big bads and other seemingly-pressing plots would just not show up or be put on hold so that the lighter episodes could happen, even if it was the end of the season and things were clearly ramping up. Sometimes these contrasting episodes were handled well, but many were not.

The interesting part is that the network didn't air them out of order - they were just written that way.
 
A

AdequateSubject

Member
Community's Video Game episode in season 3 is the third-to-last episode of the season, but has nothing at all to do with the running storyline of the other final episodes. It sits between two connected episodes where the characters have to deal with a crisis at the school.
 
B

BatDan

Bane? Get them on board, I'll call it in.
TVTropes has a whole page of it (warning, TVTropes)

Power Rangers Samurai had a pretty bad example, starting with Episode 3 with the first two episodes airing at the end of the "season". Just one of many signs the show was not in good hands...

I never saw the show, but I read an AV Club article about Til Death, how Fox burned off the show but had two whole seasons to do it, so they mixed up Season 3 and 4 episodes leading to a surreal experience where characters would appear and disappear. Along with Season 4 getting "experimental".
 
S

SigmasonicX

Member
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic season 1 had an episode about the end of winter. Then, two episodes later, was a story taking place at the start of fall.
 
R

Rvaan

Banned
The last episode the Teen Titans could easily be put at the start of the season. The theme of "Things Change" would be a great set up for the season.

It would also make this shot of the team the last shot of the series.
 
S

Seesaw15

Member
1358955586-krystenritter.jpg.CROP.article568-large.jpg


Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23 is the most egregious example I've seen in recent memory/every. ABC aired six episodes that were made for, but went unaired during, Season 1 at random points in Season 2. That shit was insane and probably one of the reasons the show got canceled.
 
B

bjork

Member
In the first season of Saved by the Bell (not counting Miss Bliss), episode 15 is actually the first episode, but it's looked at like a flashback.
 
S

Sephzilla

Member
The finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation's second season - Shades of Gray - is literally a clip show from previous episodes. I know it's a biproduct of the writers strike, but holy shit, they didn't even try.
 
J

JC Lately

Member
Beren the Empty-Handed said:
Smallville was a pro at this, and it becomes even more apparent if you watch episodes next to each other instead of spaced a week apart. Season plot-heavy episodes would be followed up by wacky comedy episodes, and big bads and other seemingly-pressing plots would just not show up or be put on hold so that the lighter episodes could happen, even if it was the end of the season and things were clearly ramping up. Sometimes these contrasting episodes were handled well, but many were not.

The interesting part is that the network didn't air them out of order - they were just written that way.
Click to expand...

Came to post this. It's even more glaring when you marathon the series.
 
S

sixteen-bit

Member
There was a telethon themed episode of A Different World that was shuffled around to coincide with Sinbad's exit from the show. If I remember correctly, this caused continuity errors like Dwayne Wayne still being with Kinu who should have been his ex by then.
 
S

Sabercrusader

Member
BKatastrophe said:
Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Like, that shit is wacky. Worst part is that they're still out of order if you watch them on Netflix (which I did).
Click to expand...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Star Wars: The Clone Wars supposed to be out of order? Like, I'm pretty sure the episode Rookies is supposed to be one of the later episodes timeline-wise of the whole series. I was watching a shit ton of Clone Wars with my roommate earlier this year and I don't believe Netflix has them out of order. They have them all placed correctly, it's that the way the show is written is that many episodes take place at various points in the timeline of the show.
 
A

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Sephzilla said:
The finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation's second season - Shades of Gray - is literally a clip show from previous episodes. I know it's a biproduct of the writers strike, but holy shit, they didn't even try.
Click to expand...
Clip shows used to be a lot more common.

It still weirds me out that Dr. Pulaski's appearance and then exit is barely explained.
 
P

Pop-O-Matic

Banned
Rvaan said:
The last episode the Teen Titans could easily be put at the start of the season. The theme of "Things Change" would be a great set up for the season.

It would also make this shot of the team the last shot of the series.
Click to expand...

No, it's slotted perfectly. The episode starts with them returning from the epic globetrotting adventure they'd been on for the past season, and the whole story about things changing and moving on from the past is suppose to be a sub-textual acknowledgement of the show ending and telling it's audience to let go of it.
 
V

Violence Jack

Member
bjork said:
In the first season of Saved by the Bell (not counting Miss Bliss), episode 15 is actually the first episode, but it's looked at like a flashback.
Click to expand...

Came to say this. Random episodes of middle school flashbacks in the middle of a Saved by the Bell season.
 
E

Einchy

semen stains the mountaintops
In The Sopranos there's an episode where Pussy talks to Tony when he comes back and then the next episode has Pussy talking to someone being worried how Tony will react to him coming back. It wasn't a flashback either, they just put that scene an episode later for some reason.
 
J

Jimnymebob

Member
Pop-O-Matic said:
No, it's slotted perfectly. The episode starts with them returning from the epic globetrotting adventure they'd been on for the past season, and the whole story about things changing and moving on from the past is suppose to be a sub-textual acknowledgement of the show ending and telling it's audience to let go of it.
Click to expand...

That didn't work.
 
K

Kyne

Member
anyone watch the Mindy Project?

during last season (keep in mind this is just a normal comedy sitcom) there was an episode where Mindy A) pulled an Edge of Tomorrow to change her life around and B) switched bodies with a male to see what life was like as a man.

The weird thing about A was that it actually changed the entire course of the story.. it wasn't like a filler episode.
 
B

BKatastrophe

Member
AdequateSubject said:
Community's Video Game episode in season 3 is the third-to-last episode of the season, but has nothing at all to do with the running storyline of the other final episodes. It sits between two connected episodes where the characters have to deal with a crisis at the school.
Click to expand...
They do mention that they are out of the school for a lengthy period of time during Chang's rule. I think it's 2 months or something. It isn't surprising that an event like that could occur. Still, you aren't wrong. There's a lot of episodes out of order, but most of it is small details that are largely inconsequential to plot and just have minor continuity errors.

Jeff mentions talking to Leonard's son on Family Day before Family Day happened. Pierce mentions telling the group about Eartha Kitt before that episode actually happens. The Human Beings mascot appears on the swim team poster before the mascot is officially made. And so forth.
Rvaan said:
The last episode the Teen Titans could easily be put at the start of the season. The theme of "Things Change" would be a great set up for the season.

It would also make this shot of the team the last shot of the series.
Click to expand...
Nah.
Sabercrusader said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Star Wars: The Clone Wars supposed to be out of order? Like, I'm pretty sure the episode Rookies is supposed to be one of the later episodes timeline-wise of the whole series. I was watching a shit ton of Clone Wars with my roommate earlier this year and I don't believe Netflix has them out of order. They have them all placed correctly, it's that the way the show is written is that many episodes take place at various points in the timeline of the show.
Click to expand...
It's how they were aired, but not produced. Nothing about that show is changed if you watch in order vs out of order, except that the continuity actually makes sense. That's why I said that Netflix has them still out of order. Some episodes literally do not make sense as to where they are placed, no matter the argument. The official Star Wars site has a viewing order.
jcutner said:
Pretty sure this happened with Scrubs, and someone had a shaved head then a full head of hair the next episode
Click to expand...
The clip show episode has Cox with a shaved head, but he shaved it two episodes later.
 
M

Mister_Ruck

Member
I don't remember much about this anymore but I know season 7 of Scrubs was aired out of order because of the writer's strike that year. This probably-not-coincidentally was the last season before it moved networks.
 
B

BKatastrophe

Member
Mister_Ruck said:
I don't remember much about this anymore but I know season 7 of Scrubs was aired out of order because of the writer's strike that year. This probably-not-coincidentally was the last season before it moved networks.
Click to expand...
Yeah the fairy tale episode was supposed to have aired before the episode where Kelso retires.
 
R

robochimp

Member
hoverboarder said:
If anyone ever watched Undeclared for the first time, you have to go online and lookup the correct viewing order. The girlfriend and I were really confused the first time, as Netflix places the episodes in the order Fox aired them. A station that had no faith in the show and aired what they considered the best episodes of the show until it was cancelled anyway.
Click to expand...

The episodes they moved out of order are pretty bad though.
 
A

Azzanadra

Member
Simpsons season 9 episode 2, a revelation of that...magnitude should have been either the pilot or the finale. I am leaning towards pilot because it does set a certain prescedent for season 9 and onwards.
 
J

Joeku

Member
I don't know if the split was ever different for different territories, but for me the Arthur episodes where he hit DW and the one where DW was saying a bleeped out "cunt" were aired together. It was weird they mashed those together
but fucking awesome
.
 
E

El Pescado

Member
USA shuffled around episodes of Psych more times than I can remember. Always messed with the long term storytelling of the show. The Musical episode being aired out of order was particularly egregious. The writers always tried their best to cover for it at least.
 
A

AoM

Member
Not awkward, but I'll mention this one from Angel anyway:

"Smile Time" followed by "A Hole in the World".

Goddammit
 
K

KojiKnight

Member
The soccer episode of Eureka 7 always comes to mind with this topic. 45ish episodes of build up. Things are getting being serious... But let's take a break and do some futball.
 
O

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
One Punch Man has Saitama obliterating that skyscraper sized giant in the very first episode! That never sat right with me to see him beating an adversary that was more intimidating than anyone he's faced aside from Boros.
 
B

bucknuticus

Member
The flashback episode towards the end of the season in Ozark was odd, killed all the momentum, should have been earlier in the season.
 
B

BigFwoosh

Member
I remember this happening with the X-Men cartoon. Jean does the whole Phoenix thing, then disappears, and a couple episodes later she's in a bacta tank on Muir Island and no one is surprised.

I think the episode where they find her ended up airing during the next season or something weird like that, which is just as confusing in that season, if not worse.
 
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