Ask Alan: What Good Shows Can You Skip The First Season?

Happy Friday, everybody! Time for a new installment of Ask Alan, where I take your questions about the past, present, and future of TV.

First up this week, my Bosch review — specifically, my comment about how the first season is easily skipped — inspired a question about other good shows where you can jump in a season or more past the beginning, which is increasingly a concern for people struggling to keep up in Peak TV.

From there, we get into the oddities of TV cast credits: why some people are “with,” some “and,” some “Very Special Guest Star,” alphabetical order versus order of prominence, cast regulars who aren’t in the opening title sequence, etc.

— Alan Sepinwall (@sepinwall) April 24, 2017

And, finally, I am called to account for the above tweet, which of course was in response to the thing that happened at the very start of this week’s The Leftovers. Do I have any regrets (And if you liked both the episode and its very special guest star, might I suggest watching this clip. I apologize if it gets stuck in your head, but it’ll be worth it.)

As always, you can email me questions at [email protected], or tweet at me with the hashtag #AskAlanDay.