My least favorite episodes are as followed:
Body Count
Double Cap
Breathless
I chose 'Body Count' first because, it's my least favorite of all to start with. Even though I believe that the case presented in the episode was original, interesting, some excellent character development, and a great continuation to 'Broken', I felt that the episode was lacking in a few areas for it be be a successful finale to a relatively new show at the time.
One point that was a turnoff for the episode was the amount of screentime given to each actor. As you all know, Horatio and Calleigh had a fair bit more screentime as the rest of the case for various reasons. Horatio's old nemises Stuart was evading him once again, and so a lot of the episode was directed at Horatio's drive to find him. For Calleigh, there was almost a sub-plot for her character. Hank Kerner escaped from jail and was intent on killing anyone who helped put him away. Calleigh was on that list, and it was up to her to stop him-which she did.
As for the Eric Delko and Tim Speedle, very little was given to them on their part. They were both only predominately at the beginning of the episode and, short spurts about twenty five minutes in. Even so, Delko was given a little more action when he was out with Horatio searching for the little girl (with the search dogs) and Speedle was forgotten until the end of the episode. Personally, it made me a little curious as to why they only left out one cast member.
Near the middle to end of the episode, the fast-paced way the writers had started the episode began to flatten out a little and slow down. Stuart's case was almost taking a back seat to the Kerner part of the episode, making the case A, into the case B. So it took away from the quality of the episode right there. Especially since I found the 'Kerner' part of the episode flat and a little boring anyhow.
The ending to that episode was alright. I would have liked to see the team together like we did in 'Innocent', but this time we saw them apart kind of the same way as 'Golden Parachute'. All in all, a good episode but it was my least favorite for the reasons stated above.
I chose 'Double Cap' for another one of my least favorite episodes. The reason I chose this episode because it was, in my opinion very boring. It started out great, but then it quickly turned political and I just find those kinds of episodes almost a chore to watch. It was one of those episodes where there was no case B, and frankly there should have been one to save the episode-unlike in Body Count where the first plot was very strong and could have held it's own without the case B.
Double Cap was also one of those episode which didn't feature the entire case throughout the episode. Horatio was shown a lot more than anyone else, and that's also kind of turnoff to me-not because it's just Horatio but because I like to see everyone and not just one face for 42 and half minutes. I'm also not very fond of Hagen, who was also in the episode a lot. *thumbs down* I really don't like that guy.
I thought the plot for this episode was alright, but not that interesting. It couldn't hold my attention for the whole 40 minutes and that's not an episode I'd want to remember.
Lastly, I chose 'Breathless' as one of my least favorite episodes. It was a good idea to have a 'cupcake' party episode and I'm sure the writers had fun with that idea, but it seemed...Wrong to me. Neither the case A or case B could hold their own, and they were both boring in most parts than interesting.
The case B, in which Eric and Megan worked on seemed like it was put together in five minutes to make the episode longer because the writers didn't know what to do for the case A. The case B wasn't original, and the dynamic between Eric and Megan just wasn't there. (IMO)
So there are my reasons why these three episodes were my least favorite. And just to reiterate, it's just my opinion.
My favorite episodes from season one were:
Grave Young Men
Dispo Day
Golden Parachute
Ashes to Ashes
Tinder Box
A Horrible Mind
Slaughterhouse
Kill Zone
