5 TV Shows on Paramount+ With Multiple Seasons That Are Great From Beginning to End

It’s very rare that a TV show retains its level of quality throughout its entire run. Just look at the mountain-esque rise and fall that is the fate of most sitcoms. The first season of Parks and Recreation: remarkably bad. The middle chunk of seasons: great. The final season or two: fun enough, but the spark is gone. There are few outliers to this, though it’s not impossible for a comedy show, specifically, to remain solid throughout. Veep and The Good Place, for example. Today what we’re looking at are series on Paramount+, of every genre, that have multiple seasons, yet not one of them could you consider a total waste. There was never a year that failed to justify its own existence in some way, even adding to the overarching series in a meaningful way.

We were tempted to include The Twilight Zone but refrained. On one hand, it’s the very best anthology horror series ever made, and even its last season brought some great stories to the table. However, the experimental Season 4, with its dual length episodes, is pretty weak. Furthermore, by their very definition, anthology shows are going to be hit or miss. But these following shows all ran for multiple seasons and never reached a low that was truly all that low. Are we saying their fifth seasons are as all around solid as their first? Not necessarily, but there was never a season that felt as though it had no reason to exist.

5) Rugrats

The nine-season original run of Rugrats was a big hit for Nickelodeon, and it was impressive in how it appealed to children of a wide age range and even carried with it some moments that the parents would understand better than their progeny. Some would argue it overstayed its welcome with All Grown Up!, Rugrats Pre-School, and the 2020s reboot, but as for the first nine years it was remarkably consistent.

This is an example of a show that peaked with its first few seasons and slowly waned in quality over time, but even in its final three years it was still able to hit emotionally. It had lost some of its sense of humor, but it was still an important and mostly well-liked part of Nickelodeon’s line-up.

4) Ghosts (UK)

The original, UK version of Ghosts is often deemed more consistent in quality than the U.S. version. That said, the U.S. version is still greatly appreciated, especially for the chemistry between the cast members.

Yet it’s still a case of the original being the best. With the UK version you get five seasons (or rather, series) that vary only a tiny bit in quality. The same creatives stuck with it all the way through, so what you have is one big vision being carried out as intended.

3) Star Trek: The Next Generation

As far as most Star Trek fans are concerned, The Original Series has two great seasons and then there’s a steep drop-off with the third and final season, primarily thanks to budget cuts. The seven-season Star Trek: The Next Generation, however, is a more consistent winner.

The third through sixth seasons are frequently considered the apex, but even its first two seasons and its final year are far from weak. They just don’t quite hit the high highs of the show’s middle years. It also was able to keep its high-budget visuals and vibe throughout its entire run.

2) Penny Dreadful

Penny Dreadful was not without its faults. All three of its seasons were somewhat prone to finales that felt rushed. But it was still deserving of the word “great” throughout its entire run.

Season 2 is the peak, with greater character development and scripts that were a cut above, but Season 1 is the most fun, as audiences are roped into a world that doesn’t feel far off from a merger of Poe and the classic Universal Monsters movies. Season 3 ends on a bummer note, but the show can’t be fully blamed for that. The creatives wrapped it up as best they could, knowing it wouldn’t be getting itself picked up for another year. Even with those final two episodes, most fans would agree that Penny Dreadful is one of the more all-around solid shows of the 2010s.

1) South Park

Even after nearly 30 years there has never been an outright bad season of South Park. The closest it came were Season 19 and Season 20, and even then, it’s hard to fault Trey Park and Matt Stone with trying serialization to push the show’s brand of storytelling. After all, 20 years is a long time to be on TV without a shakeup to keep things interesting.

As with any show that has been on air this long, South Park can be divided into eras. The first four season are the classic years. Seasons five through seven were it finding its voice in full. Season eight through 13 are a seamless merger of political commentary and trademark bickering-infused juvenile humor. Seasons fourteen through seventeen saw a dip in quality, but still very funny stuff. Seasons 18 through 21 were the experimenting with serialization years. And, lastly, Season 22 to the most recent Season 28 were the show incorporating said serialization in a way that worked better for it, with the episodes feeling a little more independent of one another while simultaneously walking on a shared thread. Who knows how long South Park will go on, but here’s hoping it never truly overstays its welcome.

What shows on Paramount+ could you watch all the way through again and again? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!

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