It was Serenity and Firefly for me. I saw Serenity before I saw the series (I was interested when it came out, but thanks to Fox it was impossible to know when it was on), and the movie just didn’t click with me. I thought it was kind of dull, and I didn’t feel much attachment to the characters.

It might be best hangout/comfort food show of past 20 years. Once show found its legs, it great to just spend time with those characters, regardless of how good episode is.

100% agree. Leslie was INSUFFERABLE in the early few episodes. Then all those annoying idiosyncrasies of hers became less obnoxious and more endearing and it kind of clicked. That and taking Ron Swanson out of a suit. I mean, come on.

Snuffles was my slave name. You shall now call me Snowball because my fur is pretty and white.

I think it was Alan Sepinwall in his TV book that said that once they decided to not make Leslie the female version of Michael Scott and actually wrote her as a likable, if still kind of insane character, that the show really took off. The shift in tone from Season 1 to 2 is pretty sharp and it became a really good…

Those early episodes were clunkers.

I think that The Phantom Menace especially is better than it’s reputation would suggest.

Attack of the Clones is spotty, and is correctly identified as the worst of the three.

But I find that Revenge of Sith has a slightly better reputation than it deserves among Star Wars fans.

http://www.vulture.com/2015/10/every-song-that-influenced-elvis-costello.html Elvis Costello agrees.

It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia - I watched the pilot and thought it was okay, but a bit bland and cheaply shot, and whilst I didn’t strongly dislike it I had no urge to watch any more. Cut to when season 12 was airing and a friend wouldn’t stop ranting about how good it was, and he suggested watching it from season…

Me had very high hopes for what was billed as The Office but with Amy Poehler and Rashida Jones. And those hopes were dashed so completely by first two episodes that me not go back for years. And of course, by episode 5 they had righted ship and it was terrific. But it took long time for me to go back and give show…

When he discovered cocaine?

Hip hop. Me not proud of this, but Monster Island not terribly diverse, so as young monster me not exposed to much beyond what was on radio, so me only really hear MC Hammer end of spectrum and not have any idea KRS-One exist. It not until me did college radio that me went back and caught up on PE/De La/Tribe, but…

Venture Bros. is definitely a show that takes a little time to warm up. You see the frame work of a great show in the early episodes, but it just stays at “Johnny Quest Parody” for a bit until it starts expanding the universe (Molotov, Dr. Orpheus, Billy Quizboy and the Impossible Family all get introduced in the…

The Dark Knight Returns.

The Godfather. I tried 4 or 5 times to rent(!) the videotape(!) of it through the late 80's and early 90's, and never could make it through the endless wedding sequence that opens the movie. Of course, now I realize how important those scenes were, that they explain everything you need to know about that family…

ABBA. I always thought they were saccharine and awful and everything wrong with pop music. I thought that until I saw my absolute favorite episode of Community, “Epidemiology”, and I found myself liking Dean Pelton’s music so much that I had to listen to it on my own. And yes, they still wrote some incredibly…

Because for as long as I’ve been alive, Rod Stewart has made terrible music. But pre-disco era Rod Stewart is amazing. There isn’t a bad Faces song, and I’m convinced they might be the best band of all time.

Parks & Rec. I’d catch portions of the marathons they played on weekends on some channel, and never really got it. I have no idea why it eventually clicked and I started liking it.

<i>Mad Men.</i> I watched the first episode and found it boring and full of itself. Then about a year later Mrs. Funkhouser wanted to binge Season One so I warned her and we watched Episode One and I was hooked for good.

Rick and Morty. I watched the pilot when it aired, thought it was mediocre, and didn’t understand why people kept making such a big deal about the show. Then, after the second season aired, I decided to give the show a second chance, but started with what was on demand on the cable box (the first half of the second…