I mean, I personally didn't like it (though not because it was a sidestep, I was perfectly cool with that), but also Ted Lasso S2 was a case where two extra episodes ended up being ordered on top of the main batch. You can clearly tell that Beard's episode and the Christmas (one of my favourites) episode are those two, they're both perfectly lovely but are completely disconnected to the main plot - I have nothing ultimately against how they work but it's a bit of a different context.

Separately, my answer to this thread's question is it does really depend on how you do it and it's on a per-show basis on if it works.

Just imagine if people actually read through a full series like The Dark Tower. That scene is sure, a topic, but if they remotely knew Susannah's arc they'd be flying.

No? Just speaking of a handful but For All Mankind, Ted Lasso, the Cleon plot of Foundation, Shrinking and more are all really great (and Hello Tomorrow is also setting up to be at least cozy good). When AppleTV was announced years ago I had my bias set to "I hope this doesn't work out," but like I genuinely have to admit that Apple pumps out quality television. That and it's more and more feeling like one of the last bastions and safety nets for high-budget scifi, given all the cuts and cancellations going across services like HBO Max.

It's one thing for me to have gone into AppleTV expecting little but I am happy to admit I was wrong, they've genuinely won me over with their output.

They've also been planning four seasons for quite a while, you can feel it's been building to this. Look forward to it ending on a high, especially since most plots have indicators for where they'll end (eg Jane and Shelley, Larry and Mr 104, etc).

E: Typo.

For The Leftovers I'd be inclined to put it an episode sooner and say from A Most Powerful Adversary, the end of that episode is truly what set me off. Similarly with 12 Monkeys (really, good taste in shows you've got listed here), S4 is wild but the Athan arc at the end of S3 definitely had me good for a long while too.

Everything from Self Control to the finale of S4 is gold, what a brilliantly crazy stretch of episodes. In general the show is good as far as shows go (and then in the upper tiers for superhero shows), but I reckon those episodes can actually make punts against even the non-superhero shows in terms of quality.

It's also irritating how highly upvoted it is. Admittedly I've only watched the BBC version of The Three Musketeers, but Milady de Winter is absolutely my favourite character.