Tropescilloscope: Early Installment Weirdness

The early episodes of a series are vastly different than the later installments. (read more at tvtropes.org)

More Tropes Animated Credits Opening Break the Haughty Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas Henpecked Husband Not Quite Dead Brutal Honesty Evil Laugh Older Than They Look Action Prologue Overprotective Dad Dramatic Gun Cock Naked People Are Funny Narrator As Long as It Sounds Foreign Horror Comedy Air-Vent Passageway Villain Protagonist Brick Joke Dirty Old Man Beauty Is Never Tarnished Smoking Is Cool Dwindling Party Artistic License – Law Tagline Cluster F-Bomb Kick the Dog Nice Hat Chekhov's Skill Bad Boss Rule of Symbolism Dressing as the Enemy What the Hell, Hero? Dirty Cop Not So Above It All Vacation Films Eiffel Tower Effect Canadian Movies '80s Hair Becoming the Mask Music Stories Woman in White One-Man Army Pre-Asskicking One-Liner Credits Gag As You Know Super Strength Funny Background Event Ambiguously Gay Not Using the "Z" Word Homage Improbable Weapon User After the End Reasonable Authority Figure All There in the Manual Cowboy Cop Only One Name Italian Films Eye Scream Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" Taking You with Me Only Sane Man Country Matters Dissonant Serenity Time Skip The Dragon Unreliable Narrator Scare Chord Cruel and Unusual Death Made of Explodium Loads and Loads of Characters Serial Killer Bring My Brown Pants Mundane Made Awesome Would Hurt a Child Historical Hero Upgrade Random Events Plot Mr. Fanservice You Killed My Father Slasher Smile Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer Award-Bait Song Index of Film Westerns Let's Get Dangerous! Title Drop Market-Based Title Action Girl Drowning My Sorrows Screw the Rules, I Have Money! Here We Go Again! Catapult Nightmare Smug Snake Dark Reprise Nice Guy Composite Character Red Oni, Blue Oni Break the Cutie Obviously Evil timeperiod Does This Remind You of Anything? A Minor Kidroduction The '80s Big Applesauce Our Zombies Are Different Hollywood Darkness Book-Ends Cool Shades Genre Shift Curb-Stomp Battle Pimped-Out Dress Insistent Terminology You Have Failed Me Fantastic Racism Cool Old Guy No Celebrities Were Harmed Names to Run Away from Really Fast Gender Flip Dirty Coward Framing Device Final Girl Noodle Incident Actor Allusion Film Noir Truth in Television Sole Survivor Broken Pedestal Historical-Domain Character Villain Song Straight Gay Parental Substitute Girl-on-Girl Is Hot In Medias Res Adapted Out War Is Hell Four-Temperament Ensemble Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! Adaptational Villainy Motor Mouth Bolivian Army Ending Only a Flesh Wound Casting Gag Dramatic Irony Artistic License – Physics Scenery Porn Plucky Comic Relief The Hero Rasputinian Death Cat Fight Exactly What It Says on the Tin Martial Arts Movie Yandere Closed Circle Unspoken Plan Guarantee A.I. Is a Crapshoot Crazy Jealous Guy Unwitting Instigator of Doom Romantic Comedy Hair-Trigger Temper B-Movie Danny Peary Cult Movies List Impaled with Extreme Prejudice Even Evil Has Standards Dropped a Bridge on Him Real Life Writes the Plot Agony of the Feet Asshole Victim Zombie Stories Cassandra Truth Heroic Sacrifice Kick the Son of a Bitch Redemption Equals Death Shout-Out Took a Level in Badass Madness Mantra Card-Carrying Villain He Who Fights Monsters Throwing Your Sword Always Works Malevolent Masked Men Gilligan Cut Jerk with a Heart of Gold Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy Our Vampires Are Different Mercy Kill Bound and Gagged Those Wacky Nazis Shoot the Shaggy Dog Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism Did Not Get the Girl Sci-Fi Horror Spiritual Successor Bilingual Bonus Love Triangle Token Minority My Beloved Smother An Aesop Vomit Discretion Shot Large Ham Accidental Murder Car Fu Playing Gertrude Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold Horror Films Central Theme Red Herring Plot Hole Too Dumb to Live Video Credits The Ghost Depraved Bisexual Mexican Standoff Character Development Not So Different Stepford Smiler Hollywood Law Frame-Up The Un-Reveal Fanservice Extra Training Montage Dramedy Bi the Way Humans Are Bastards Police Brutality Breaking the Fourth Wall Bloody Hilarious All Just a Dream Double Entendre The Starscream Chewing the Scenery Imagine Spot Deliberately Monochrome Evil-Detecting Dog Kids Are Cruel Death Seeker Rule of Funny Hell Is That Noise Affably Evil Death by Sex Gory Discretion Shot In Name Only The Musical No-Holds-Barred Beatdown The Atoner Improvised Weapon Ambiguous Ending Interrupted Suicide Heel Realization Fire-Forged Friends Grievous Bottley Harm From Nobody to Nightmare Early-Bird Cameo Deadpan Snarker Silent Movie Intrepid Reporter Hero of Another Story Big Brother Instinct Cloudcuckoolander Deal with the Devil Take That! The Casanova Evil Is Hammy Every Car Is a Pinto Biopic Betty and Veronica Anachronic Order Drill Sergeant Nasty Green-Eyed Monster Evil Plan Pet the Dog Implacable Man Made of Iron Never Trust a Trailer aka: Trailers Always Lie Rewatch Bonus Soft Glass Sequel Hook Abhorrent Admirer Instant Death Bullet Body Horror Deliberate Values Dissonance Daylight Horror You Have Outlived Your Usefulness Military and Warfare Films Brother–Sister Incest The Smurfette Principle Eureka Moment Abusive Parents Bland-Name Product Arranged Marriage Black Best Friend Camera Abuse Beware the Nice Ones Alliterative Name The Oner Chiaroscuro Continuity Nod Unusually Uninteresting Sight "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue Fate Worse than Death Blood from the Mouth Hong Kong Films And I Must Scream O.O.C. Is Serious Business Hypocrite Corpsing For the Evulz Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds "Awesome McCool" Name No OSHA Compliance Artistic License – Biology The Vamp Together in Death Serious Business Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking Developing Doomed Characters Boom, Headshot! Extremely Short Timespan Fun with Acronyms Femme Fatale Make It Look Like an Accident Meaningful Name Bond One-Liner Rule of Cool Enemy Mine Darker and Edgier Outrun the Fireball Demoted to Extra Crucified Hero Shot Mooks Expository Hairstyle Change Big "NO!" Japanese Films Bar Brawl Author Appeal Mind Screw Captain Obvious Manic Pixie Dream Girl French Films Refuge in Audacity Same Language Dub Punny Name The Sociopath Toplessness from the Back Hidden Depths Match Cut Victoria's Secret Compartment Captain Ersatz Irony One-Word Title The Smart Guy Chekhov's Gun Disguised in Drag Fish out of Water Groin Attack And the Adventure Continues The Un-Favourite aka: The Un Favorite Fingore Curse Cut Short Stalker with a Crush Everyone Has Standards Bullying a Dragon Cain and Abel Never Found the Body All Men Are Perverts Laser-Guided Karma Destination Defenestration Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil All Girls Want Bad Boys Jerkass Epic Movie It's Personal Dumb Blonde Star-Crossed Lovers Cool Car Loophole Abuse Freeze-Frame Bonus Sequel Escalation Fatal Flaw Superhero NO INDOOR VOICE Only in It for the Money Spiteful Spit Mugging the Monster Reality Has No Subtitles The Dreaded Dies Wide Open True Companions Twist Ending Even Evil Has Loved Ones Nice Job Fixing It, Villain! Mystery and Detective Films Recap / RiffTrax aka: Riff Trax Movies Auto Erotica Big Damn Heroes Lighter and Softer Intergenerational Friendship Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique Translation Convention German Films Bottomless Magazines Dark and Troubled Past No Ending Adaptation Distillation Adaptation Name Change The Alleged Car The Chessmaster The Bad Guy Wins Anti-Hero Kill 'em All Karma Houdini Only Known by Their Nickname Five-Man Band Silence Is Golden Sacrificial Lion Colour-Coded for Your Convenience aka: Color Coded For Your Convenience Blackmail This Is Gonna Suck Roger Ebert: Great Movies List Disproportionate Retribution N-Word Privileges Take a Third Option Oh, Crap! Manly Tears Scenery Gorn Last-Name Basis Bloodless Carnage Author Avatar Eagleland Informed Ability Film Noir Index Those Two Bad Guys Blatant Lies Totally Radical Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome Rule of Three Honor Before Reason Getting Crap Past the Radar Major Injury Underreaction Small Name, Big Ego Laughing Mad Red Shirt Death Glare May–December Romance Get Out! Big Bad Duumvirate Sassy Black Woman As the Good Book Says... Freudian Excuse The Power of Love Adaptational Heroism Wicked Cultured Pretty Little Headshots Adorkable Parental Abandonment Wham Line Action Survivor Villain with Good Publicity One Steve Limit Papa Wolf Based on a True Story Television Movie Index Age Lift Call-Forward Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass Stuff Blowing Up Screw This, I'm Outta Here! Adults Are Useless Shut Up, Hannibal! The Lancer Meet Cute Off with His Head! Suspiciously Specific Denial Neck Snap Wretched Hive Ax-Crazy A God Am I Big Bad British Films Mood Whiplash From Bad to Worse Parental Neglect Knight Templar Camp Gay Christmas Movies Index Shown Their Work Crazy-Prepared Annoying Younger Sibling Face Death with Dignity Empathic Environment Anachronism Stew The '70s A Father to His Men Diabolus ex Machina Roaring Rampage of Revenge Heroic BSoD Psycho for Hire Comically Missing the Point Belligerent Sexual Tension Sealed Evil in a Can Villain Ball Mistaken for Gay Chuck Cunningham Syndrome Celebrity Paradox Novelization Peek-a-Boo Corpse Disney Death Friend to All Children Artistic License – Military Earn Your Happy Ending Retcon Show Within a Show Sports Stories Distracted by the Sexy Epic Fail Suddenly SHOUTING! The '60s Due to the Dead Bowdlerise Wham Shot Trailers Always Spoil Badass Grandpa The Stoner Insult Backfire Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday Deconstruction Flashback An Axe to Grind Setting Update Chase Scene The Chick Pretty in Mink Gratuitous English Spell My Name with an "S" Evil Is Petty Babies Ever After Grey and Gray Morality Dark Is Not Evil Beard of Evil Broken Aesop Handicapped Badass Cool Guns Drugs Are Bad Dying Moment of Awesome Face–Heel Turn Word of God Actually Pretty Funny Gold Digger Psychopathic Manchild Shipper on Deck Non-Indicative Name Jerkass Has a Point Eldritch Abomination Manchild Sexy Discretion Shot A Date with Rosie Palms Kubrick Stare Antagonist Title Leaning on the Fourth Wall Slasher Movie What Happened to the Mouse? Sadistic Choice I Just Shot Marvin in the Face Evil Brit Those Two Guys Woman Scorned Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane Black Comedy Defrosting Ice Queen Authority Equals Asskicking Once More, with Clarity! Cool Old Lady Heel–Face Turn Fatal Family Photo Hooker with a Heart of Gold Neck Lift Line-of-Sight Name How We Got Here Lampshade Hanging Police are Useless The X of Y Put on a Bus Punch-Clock Villain Would Hit a Girl Badass Boast Humiliation Conga What You Are in the Dark Ironic Echo Adaptational Attractiveness Back from the Dead Genre Throwback Ragtag Bunch of Misfits Pragmatic Adaptation Anti-Villain As Himself Fainting Missing Mom Unusual Euphemism Documentary Mighty Whitey Early Installment Weirdness The Bully The Stoic Wrong Genre Savvy There Is No Kill Like Overkill Vampire Fiction Slap-Slap-Kiss Foregone Conclusion Blood Knight Took a Level in Jerkass It Will Never Catch On Paper-Thin Disguise Shower Scene Fourth Date Marriage Politically Incorrect Villain folderlabel Apocalypse How Hero Antagonist He Knows Too Much Dark Action Girl Reality Is Unrealistic Ominous Latin Chanting Department of Redundancy Department Creative Closing Credits Alas, Poor Villain Bond Villain Stupidity The Place She's Got Legs Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Establishing Character Moment Almost Kiss Jerk Jock Evil vs. Evil Genre Savvy Not So Stoic Works Set in World War II Visual Pun Driven to Suicide Psychological Thriller Accidental Misnaming Stealth Hi/Bye Arc Words Aluminum Christmas Trees Nothing Is Scarier Death by Irony Male Gaze Better to Die than Be Killed Bad "Bad Acting" Moment Killer Death of a Child Stealth Pun Historical In-Joke Anyone Can Die Fiery Redhead The Cavalry Bittersweet Ending Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? Dual Wielding I Want My Beloved to Be Happy Extreme Doormat Attempted Rape In the Back The Voiceless Fat Bastard Villainous Breakdown Russian Films Evil Counterpart Calling the Old Man Out Ripped from the Headlines The Faceless Coming-of-Age Story You Have Got to Be Kidding Me! The Hero Dies Awesome, but Impractical Science Fiction Films 20 Minutes into the Future The Ditz Canon Foreigner Say My Name Amoral Attorney La Résistance Man on Fire Chekhov's Gunman Call-Back The Alcoholic Retired Badass Hate Sink Ms. Fanservice Light Is Not Good Dull Surprise Foreshadowing Shirtless Scene The Quiet One Important Haircut Taking the Bullet The Mole Be Careful What You Wish For MacGuffin "The Reason You Suck" Speech Public Domain Feature Films Catch-Phrase Advertised Extra Ass Shove Darkest Hour Whole Plot Reference Reckless Gun Usage Killed Mid-Sentence BFG Mama Bear Does Not Like Shoes Redshirt Army Pragmatic Villainy Lock and Load Montage Heterosexual Life-Partners Male Frontal Nudity The Brute Animal Title Index Contrived Coincidence Armor-Piercing Question Room Full of Crazy Alpha Bitch Evil Cannot Comprehend Good Scary Black Man No Antagonist Obfuscating Stupidity Creepy Child Exact Words Your Head A-Splode Death by Adaptation Ascended Extra Artistic License – History Australian Movies Precision F-Strike Storming the Castle My God, What Have I Done? Bunny-Ears Lawyer Hoist by His Own Petard Black Comedy Rape Failed a Spot Check Dutch Angle Double-Meaning Title Disappeared Dad Riddle for the Ages Really Gets Around Immune to Bullets Real Life The Cameo Black and Gray Morality Disney Villain Death All for Nothing Product Placement Logo Joke Big-Bad Ensemble Tempting Fate Vomit Indiscretion Shot Half the Man He Used to Be The Stinger Guile Hero I Have Your Wife The End... Or Is It? Meaningful Echo Badass in a Nice Suit Red Eyes, Take Warning Crapsack World Very Loosely Based on a True Story "Shaggy Dog" Story Determinator Insane Troll Logic Fanservice Covers Always Lie Love at First Sight Your Cheating Heart Fan Disservice Vitriolic Best Buds Not What It Looks Like Pre-Mortem One-Liner The Ace Undying Loyalty It's All About Me Artistic License – Gun Safety Rich Bitch Cat Scare Rated M for Manly Improbable Infant Survival aka: Infant Immortality Costume Porn Hypocritical Humor The Load Black Dude Dies First Facial Horror Heroes Want Redheads Sanity Slippage Aside Glance Improbable Aiming Skills Left the Background Music On Didn't Think This Through World of Ham Worthy Opponent Protagonist Title Brainless Beauty Butt-Monkey The '50s Affectionate Parody Badass Normal Bait-and-Switch Evil Sounds Deep Tranquil Fury Demonic Possession And Starring Slashed Throat Retirony She Cleans Up Nicely Amusing Injuries Tap on the Head Red Right Hand Badass Bookworm Bald of Evil The Film of the Book No-Sell Sir Swears-a-Lot More Dakka Ghost Fiction Film Series Daddy's Girl Running Gag Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene Not Even Bothering with the Accent Parental Incest The Great Depression Posthumous Character Needs Wiki Magic Love Spanner in the Works Downer Ending Jump Scare Gorn Poor Communication Kills Greater-Scope Villain No Name Given Unresolved Sexual Tension Ugly Guy, Hot Wife Good Is Not Nice Maybe Ever After Damsel in Distress Famous Last Words Punctuated! For! Emphasis! Skewed Priorities For Want of a Nail Gainax Ending It Can Think Artistic License – Geography Well-Intentioned Extremist Guns Akimbo Toilet Humour aka: Toilet Humor Idiot Ball Wounded Gazelle Gambit The '90s Villain Opening Scene Despair Event Horizon Up to Eleven I Did What I Had to Do Combat Pragmatist Stylistic Suck Eyepatch of Power Anguished Declaration of Love Faux Affably Evil No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Properly Paranoid Reality Ensues Adaptation Expansion Never My Fault Corrupt Corporate Executive Historical Villain Upgrade Funny Foreigner I'm a Humanitarian Deus ex Machina Stock Footage Knife Nut Pun aka: Incredibly Lame Pun Recycled IN SPACE! Spared by the Adaptation The Reveal Berserk Button Rousing Speech Thriller Have a Gay Old Time Expy Fantasy Films Happily Married Batman Gambit Leitmotif Offscreen Teleportation Self-Deprecation Broken Bird Big Eater Shell-Shocked Veteran Pay Evil unto Evil Bavarian Fire Drill The Dog Bites Back Easily Forgiven Children Are Innocent Dogged Nice Guy Ungrateful Bastard Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? Fake Shemp Drives Like Crazy Ambiguous Disorder Naïve Newcomer Meaningful Background Event Race Against the Clock Leave the Camera Running Foil Arch-Enemy The Mafia Cold-Blooded Torture Karmic Death Never Trust a Trailer Manipulative Bastard Hope Spot Ship Tease Kill It with Fire Animal Motifs Bury Your Gays The Big Guy Revenge Decoy Protagonist "Well Done, Son!" Guy All There in the Script Suspiciously Similar Substitute Blonde, Brunette, Redhead Re-Cut Screw the Money, I Have Rules! The Remake Race Lift Beta Couple Offscreen Moment of Awesome Action Genre Men Are the Expendable Gender The Lost Lenore Overly Long Gag Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping Adaptation Dye-Job Soundtrack Dissonance Determinator aka: The Determinator Mr. Exposition Romantic False Lead Domestic Abuse Off-into-the-Distance Ending Mythology Gag I Need a Freaking Drink Monumental Damage Faking the Dead Gone Horribly Right Pyrrhic Victory Married to the Job Badass Longcoat Sinister Minister Bare Your Midriff Morality Pet Creator Cameo Flipping the Bird Obstructive Bureaucrat Conspicuous CG My Greatest Failure Big Fancy House An Arm and a Leg Adaptational Badass Adult Fear Defiant to the End Jitter Cam Mad Scientist Bloodier and Gorier Rape as Drama