jediwands

Which season do you prefer if you had to choose and why? I look forward to hearing everyones responses.

The Crow

Hmmm. Very good question. I can see this topic generating some great, well thought out posts.

Personally, I liked Season 2 better than season 1. I thought that the various character arcs were richer and more varied than in the first season, and I liked Ephram and Andy's more mellow relationship. The first seasons 'explosive' fights had, for the most part, given way to a tentative Father/Son relationship that only occasionally devolved into a knock down, drag out yelling match.

There were so many storylines in season 2 that I loved. I won't bore you with my thoughts on everything though; I'll just ramble for a few paragraphs. One of the best storylines in the season was the 'fall', and subsequent gradual redemption of Dr. Brown. The hero status that he was afforded throughout season 1 was ripped away in the first episode of season 2 with the revelation that Colin had died on the operating table. Gone was the sense that he could do no wrong. His gift had failed him. From the various townspeoples' reactions to him, I believe that many of them had the same thoughts and suspicions that Amy ultimately ended up voicing, they were just keeping those thoughts to themselves.

I think that Amy's downward spiral was the main reason I enjoyed the second season more. EVC did such a good job portraying Amy's journey from being everyone's princess to becoming the disillusioned, depressed teen who feels disconnected from everything she once knew so well...to the point that the person she latches onto the hardest is the worst person she possibly could have. Just watching as Amy undermined every relationship she had previously had, from the special connection with her father to the brother/sister bond, kept me tuning in to see if 'this' was the week that she finally came out of the depression, and back to her senses, all the while worried that she was going to do something stupid like get pregnant or OD on drugs.

Of course, I also tuned in for the whole Madison/Ephram affair. I don't know exactly when it was, but sometime during the middle of the season I became a die-hard Madison/Ephram shipper, even though I knew the relationship was going to be doomed from the outset. I think that both Gregory and Sarah did a great job with some really meaty material, especially during the break-up and subsequent strained relationship. The only real misstep I saw in the entire thing was the whole pregnancy storyline, but I fault the writers for that one.

Also, to show that my shipper tendencies swing back and forth as quickly as the door to McDonald's, I fell right back into the Amy/Ephram relationship that began to rekindle towards the end of season 2. As I watched Amy secretly pining over Ephram I realized that E/A was the relationship I had actually wanted to see all along. When they finally did get together, it made for a much more satisfying ending than the cliffhanger of season 1 did.

Wow. I think this post is longer than my last 15 posts combined. I think I'll shut up now.

jediwands

What a great read. Thanks Crow for posting your thoughts.

-CrazyBeautiful-

I like Season 2 because the characters seemed to be more realistic and better developed. I also love it because Ephram and Amy finally got together

I have to say that if season 3 was a choice I would have to pick it as my favorite overall. The show is amazing this year and i can't wait to see what else they have in store for us. Hopefully, amy will stick by Ephram through everything.

Telli

Um I think I liked season 1 the best but season two was great to um I really don't know. I'll have to say season 2 because of the next to last episode where ephram was all like You played me so I played you or whatever.

glory fades

I liked Season 2 better than Season 1. I think that overall, I was more interested in the storylines. It seems to me that this show just gets better and better as time goes on.

Jerry D

Personally, I liked Season One better, as we “met” Andy Brown and his family, and he had to cope with the loss of his wife through a tragic accident, but he also had to reassess the life he had been living and he was forced to deal with his children, who were virtual strangers to him. Andy Brown’s journey in that season was incredibly compelling to me, and we saw him uproot his family and move them to a place and mind-set far removed from the life they had lived in New York City.

I really enjoyed seeing Ephram adjust to his new environment, and I was immediately intrigued by his friendship with, and romantic feelings for, Amy Abbott, the daughter of the rival doctor in town who initially befriended Ephram so he would persuade his father to operate on her comatose boyfriend, Colin Hart, but who later found herself developing feelings for the guarded but warmhearted boy whose heart she had won.

I thought that Treat Williams did an incredible job in that season, as Andy, overwhelmed by guilt, moved his family to Everwood Colorado due to something his wife had said about the town once, and we saw him temporarily lose his sanity due to his grief and guilt, and the conflict and struggles between Ephram and Andy were epic in that season, but I also enjoyed seeing their relationship evolve and grow over that season.

I also enjoyed seeing Harold and Andy’s relationship evolve from one of bitter rivalry to one of mutual, if grudging, respect and admiration, and I think that Season One of Everwood did a fantastic job of introducing us to all the characters that we grew to know and love.

There were elements of Season Two that I really liked, but I found the story of Amy’s “downward spiral” in the aftermath of Colin’s death to be overdone and depressing, and I really didn’t like the whole Ephram and Madison storyline, and although Season Two was marked with the same great production values and stellar acting that was the hallmark of Season One, I personally just liked Season One better.

I also didn’t really care for Linda, and although her struggle with HIV was touching and poignant, I also felt that her deception of her family and of Harold especially cost him his practice, and I didn’t like her as Andy’s love interest.

Overall, although I liked Season One more than Season Two, both seasons were first rate, and I’m really looking forward to this season.

Aquillea

I think I might be able to make a reasonable sized post. I'm very much in synch with you on this subject.

I can be a bit persnickity, I guess. I like it when a show can be high quality, make you think AND be entertaining. And it's not that I am so fluffy I can't handle dark material. My all-time favorite movie is Schindler's List. But as a confessed TV-holic I don't want to get beat over the head, week after week, with troubles and angst. I like dramedy... I like balance. I like a spoonful of sugar while I reflect on human nature and life's complex issues. I like overarching themes and continuity in my episodic TV but I'm not big on long story arcs because you don't see too many long comedic story arcs. You usually wind up getting beat up week after week with something unpleasant. If it's not President Bartlet's Multiple Sclerosis/re-election scandal it's Amy Abbott's depression... Prior to these seemingly neverending storylines I used to hate having to wait a whole week until the next episode aired. But that enthusiasm waned when it became obvious that I'd just be tuning in to more of the same unhappiness.

I too didn't like Amy's depression... was ambivalent about Linda... was ambivalent about Madison and never really felt enough chemistry between her and Ephram to make it realistic that Madison would get involved with a high school kid. And how many episodes did we get last season where one, if not more of these things failed to be front & center? In saying I liked Season 1 better, that doesn't mean I want to slam Season 2. All over that season were sprinkled moments of genius that I wouldn't want to let go of. As we discussed in the thread for S3-Epi3, the Andy/Harold relationship probably wouldn't be where it is right now had it not been for the events of Season 2. But you know, the only season 2 episode that sticks in my mind because I liked the entire package so much is 3 Miners From Everwood. Contrast that to Season 1 where I liked Episode 21... the medical marijuana episode, Is There a Doctor in the House, the Thanksgiving episode... and many more. The episodes of season 1 were more complete packages onto themselves and, thus, stick in my mind more favorably than the season 2 episodes.

-Aquillea

Jerry D

Great post, Aquillea. I also never saw enough chemistry between Ephram and Madison to understand why she would enter into a romantic relationship with him, and I always felt that she was ashamed to be with him, and I just didn’t like them together. I also hated the whole story of Amy and druggie Tommy, and Laynie was largely wasted in that season and then never heard of again. I also thought that it was completely unrealistic that Harold and Rose would allow Amy to live with Edna and Irv, and the scenes where Amy would exchange harsh and hurtful words with Harold were painful to watch, because I had loved their closeness in Season One, because Harold showed a side of himself that we rarely saw when he would have his heart to heart talks with Amy, so I really didn’t like seeing his relationship with her become bitterly estranged.

One thing that I did enjoy seeing in Season Two though was the development of Ephram and Bright's friendship, and I think we really got to know Bright in that season as he struggled in school and also competed with Amy for his father's attention, love, and respect.

I never warmed up the idea of Andy and Linda, and I was also disappointed that we saw so little of Nina in Season Two, so overall, I’ll always feel that Season One was the better season.

jediwands

I would love to jump in here and ask a random question if I may..

Can someone tell me what season (or if there even is a specific episode) it was where Amy started to realize that she had romantic feelings for Ephram? Was it in season 1 when she was still with Colin or was it not until season 2? Just wondering.

Jerry D

I think that Amy actually started develping romantic feelings for Ephram in Season One, and he kissed her once, and she kissed him once, but once Colin came out of his coma, she largely repressed those feelings and pretty much cut Ephram out of her life, which saddened me, but we still saw glimpses of the special spark that they had even when she was with Colin, and Amy acknowledged in the final episode of Season One that Ephram was always looking out for her, when she told him: It's just... you. Still taking care of me.

Nikki K

Oh well, all those posts and the topic alone really deserve a post which is well structured and thought through but I'm not sure I'm able to provide this (at this hour anyway). I'll try though.

Personally I prefer Season 1 over Season 2. That's mostly because everything was new then and I liked that the focus was much more on families than on relationships. I liked to see Andy coping with Julia's death (I especially liked the Gretchen Trott storyline because she showed him that it was possible for him to have a life after the tradedy without feeling guilty about it) and coping with getting close to Ephram AND Delia. As for Delia - what did they do with her in Season 2 anyway? Thinking about her storylines in Season 1 (Magilla, Edna and her visiting the Rabbi, the grandmother/Edna battle for her favour, the overall Ephram/Delia closeness), that was all lost in Season 2 and she was just an attachment to the whole Ephram/Madison thing. That was really sad, IMO.

About Season 2 - I think the Amy-Depression-Storyline was well done up to episode 2x16 but then solved far too quickly and just not believable. So she had a bad drug experience, some yoga lessons, suddenly discovered her love for Ephram and all is fine now? Not realistic. I especially didn't like how she treated Laynie. Speaking of which, I also found it really bad that they never really developed her grief etc. over Colin's death. Sure he was Amy's boyfriend and she has every right to feel sad but Laynie was his sister... so... ugh.


I don't think it was. I can totally see why they let her do this: There are limits in what people could endure and obviously Rose's limit was reached. So I can totally understand why they found this to be a good solution. They needed the distance to get close again and they knew Edna/Irv would take good care of her.


More on Season 2: I loved Linda and I loved to see her and Harold interact. Actually I think that was the best thing about Season 2. Even more unfortunate from my point of view that and especially how they got rid of her. It really made me angry.


As for Amy and Ephram - I didn't see a spark. Sorry. Not to turn this into a shipper fight or anything, but I have to make use of my right to disagree here. All I saw in Season 1 was Amy being lost and helpless because of Colin's coma. She obviously had no one to talk to about this - Bright felt guilty and she was afraid (and deservedly so) that her so called friends were pretty annoyed after a time with her worrying. Naturally she was thankful that Ephram listened and was eager to help and stand by her. But I always had the feeling (especially after him kissing her etc.) that she felt guilty for taking advantage of his patience because she obviously didn't want more than friendship.

jediwands

Thanks so much, Jerry, for responding. I really appreciate it.

Jerry D

I actually saw something between Ephram and Amy all along, which I think was evidenced in an early Season One episode called Friendly Fire, when Amy said:

Amy: No no, I think it is. When you first got here, I know I got to know you for all the wrong reasons. Friendship wasn't exactly at the top of my list. But, as it turns out, you're really funny and weird and now you're like this guy in my life that I care about. Does that make any sense?

Yeah, maybe she was just looking to be Ephram's friend then, but I always saw a spark between them, and I always felt that Ephram loved her, and even in the final episode of Season One, where the narrator summed up everything that happened, one passage proved that to me:

NARRATOR: The girl took a chance when she saw it. She begged the doctor's son to help her in her cause.

NARRATOR: And he did because he loved her and could refuse her nothing.

Truer words were never spoken.

jediwands

Great points Jerry. I can't really jump into the convo because I haven't seen these episodes yet. Although I pretty much know from experience that what you say is VERY accurate. And if you saw sparks, I KNOW I will see sparks. LOL I ordered my season 1 dvd online and I'm still waiting for it. Should get it by early this coming week and I cannot wait!

One more question.. You mentioned that Ephram kissed Amy once and she kissed him once.. Which season 1 episodes did this takes place? Thanks..