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[Neonivek]

So I was thinking...

Often in TV shows there comes a time where the plot comes to a screeching halt and all that seems to occur is another monster, another alien, and the show's arc is mostly just one random monster after the other. You just want the story to continue and yet all this meaningless filler is getting in the way.

Yet every once in a while you get a show where the filler "Monster of the week" stuff manages to be more engaging and interesting then the actual plot!

Some examples

-Witch Hunter Robin (Anime): The anime mostly plays out as a sort of cop detective show where they need to track down supernaturally capable felons and stop them. Often delving into their minds and how they do things. This was actually the best the show got, the anime later just ends up being "How Witch Hunter Robin turned super Saiyan".

-X-files (Live action): Honestly part of me feels like this is what the show was always supposed to be like. Detectives investigating the supernatural that was largely unknown to them. Now I know that once the plot got going it was incredibly stupid, but I almost feel like no matter how good the plot was, the show always felt like it was meant to be episodic with maybe a hidden arc going in the background if you pay attention.

Yet I would like to know... are there other shows where the "Monster of the week" was genuinely the most interesting part of the show?

[DJ]

Some episodes of Supernatural.

[RedKing]

Charmed. Plotline got overly complicated after a few seasons, like a Whedon-lite.

[Itnetlolor]

Grimm has it's share of monsters of the week. Some more interesting than the developing plot in the background foreground.

[kaijyuu]

The original Slayers anime, with the possible exception of season 2.

[Tawa]

Technically not a monster and also reversed, but this is never true of the Pokemon anime, which I flicked on regularly for some weird reason last summer. Like 75% of the episodes involve the characters bumping into random other people on the road. Nothing happens in these episodes, they just chat or fight or team up to accomplish next to nothing or whatever. The "characters of the day/week/episode" themselves tend to be annoyingly (choose one):
[]Ignorant
[]Happy-go-Lucky
[]Etc.

My two cents there.

[darkpaladin109]

Megas XLR, at least to me.
Don't know quite ho to put it, but yeah, the MOW's were all really interesting and funny, while the plot just kind of was there, I guess, and more often than not the monster ha nothing to do with the plot at all. The Monsters of the Week were the best part of the show to me. One of the recuring villians was a floating head with tiny arms named Magnamomous voiced by Bruce Campbell, who also had a mech armed with a chainsaw and shotgun.

[freeformschooler]

Buffy, obviously. Then again, "plot" in Buffy meant Monster of the Season. Sometimes there wasn't even a monster, just a wacky supernatural shenanigan.

[Dutchling]

This perfectly describes Attack on Titan. Literally every main character in that show was on my "please get eaten by Titans" list because they were constantly acting like a bunch of gossiping screaming 12-year-olds. The monster/combat scenes are really awesome though.

[Vector]

Merlin.  It's got some overarching plot, but mostly it's good for monster-of-the-week episodal things.

[mainiac]

-X-files (Live action): Honestly part of me feels like this is what the show was always supposed to be like. Detectives investigating the supernatural that was largely unknown to them. Now I know that once the plot got going it was incredibly stupid, but I almost feel like no matter how good the plot was, the show always felt like it was meant to be episodic with maybe a hidden arc going in the background if you pay attention.

X-files was supposed to be monster of the week.  The meta-plot was just an asspull they invented towards the end of season 1 because Gillian got pregnant and they wanted to explain where she went.  William B. Davis was originally cast as an extra and he went on to be the center of like half the plot because he was the only character they had already established who they could use in that episode.  They just kept making it up as they went along from there without any planning ahead ever.

[Xantalos]

Samurai Jack was monster of the week.
And it works beautifully.

[XXSockXX]

In hindsight I'd say Lost was a show that had some pretty entertaining individual episodes with what turned out was a pretty dumb overall plot.

[Flying Dice]

Samurai Jack was monster of the week.
And it works beautifully.

This right here. There's always that underlying awareness of the plot, but it's really about the episodic format, the art, and the characters, all of which are superb.

[Neonivek]

Samurai Jack was monster of the week.
And it works beautifully.

This right here. There's always that underlying awareness of the plot, but it's really about the episodic format, the art, and the characters, all of which are superb.

Though I will say unlike the vast majority of shows of this type... Samurai Jack did keep continuity with itself.

It was genuinely interesting when he would bring a skill he only used in one episode, into another.