This is probably a question people haven't asked very often, if ever, but what is the true chronological order to watch Sonic Underground in? I ask this question somewhat rhetorically, having just finished watching a playlist of the episodes. specifically, I watched how the series was listed in the shout factory DVD sets (at least from my best knowledge) however there seems to be major issues with how stuff lines up - but I'll get to that in a minute. So let's go over this with a couple main episodes in positions that Wildbrain (who is the owner of the series) goes by on their Youtube channels: "Wedding Bell Blues" is set to #1. Makes sense to be this early, at least. It's the series pilot that they threw in as a series episode, and has a more routine introduction to the characters and dynamics. the beginnings trilogy, which you'd assume to be the beginning of the series, is placed between 3 other episodes in the middle of the series: Beginnings is #26, Getting to Know You is #28, and Harmony or Something is #30. Now here's the plot twist: The episodes this trilogy is sandwiched between is the other 3-part series where they adapted Sonic 3 - Flying Fortress is #25, No Hedgehog is an Island is #27, and New Echidna in Town is #29. It seems that Shout Factory had the same order, and somewhat took notice of this- they moved the Beginnings trilogy to the front spot, but seemed to move Wedding Bell Blues all the way after the Sonic 3 trilogy, without moving anything else. It occurred to me, after watching through the Sonic 3 episodes in this position: This makes way more sense as a season finale. The episodes have way higher stakes than normal, Sleet and Dingo betray Robotnik in the first part, Mobius is in danger of exploding, there's some extra drama all around. Also, Knuckles and Sonia are teased as a potential couple, something that could only happen if Sonia and her Fiancé, Bartleby, are broken up. This is what makes Wedding Bell Blues' placement after this extra problematic, because it then feels like all character development has been blown back. The first thing we do in this episode is go to Bartleby to sneak the group into the supposed wedding as the band. Why would Sonia show an interest in Knuckles, then go right back to her fiancé the next episode? During the beginning of the series, Manic is also way more likely to attempt to steal stuff, but by this point it's something that's been outgrown by him, but he attempts to steal stuff from Bartleby's home. One episode that is near the end of both lists is "Bartleby the Prisoner", which seems to imply that Sonia and Bartleby break up by the end. If this is one of the accurate listings, then this is more evidence for the series intending to end with the Sonic 3 episodes. Another reason to do this move is because the "finale" proposed with Virtual Danger, a last minute somewhat-joking "fuck you" to Robotnik, could be taken as *the* finale, when it's really not fit for that role at all. Overall, I'm "fine" with just moving these specific problem episodes to the beginning and end, but there's still a gut feeling some other episodes could do with a move around, even though I can't list any in particular. If you want to watch these episodes in this order, then I've created a playlist with all the official uploads set up for this. (Do be aware that at this moment Sonic the Hedgehog 2 advertisements are very likely to play before and during each episode, so look out for that if you're wanting to avoid those advertisements.)
That's why listing episodes of shows like Underground by airdate order is dumb. The episodes aired all out of order. I believe the production order follows the proper chronology.
That's the usual go to order, yeah. But sometimes airdate works too, like when Teen Titans premiered with episode three when going by the production order.
Then I apologize for the war flashbacks. The only source I can find for "production order" still has the trilogy in the middle of the series, but I can't feel comfortable with that placement...
This seems to be a... thing for US television and I've never been able to gather why you'd not air stuff in the order it was intended to be shown instead of throwing random episodes out. I know both 60s and 90s Star Trek suffered from this problem, it seems for some reason some execs don't care unless a show is heavily episodic.
Because you HAVE TO air holiday episodes when it's said holiday and we don't have time to delay shows to do it (except when we do). That is why it usually happens, anyway. Or the people who choose the episodes what to make an event out of a certain few.
That's even worse because of the Wedding Bell Blues placement. not as glaring as being placed right after that kiss, but still pretty setback-heavy. In Underground's case, the production was so rushed that I imagine decisions about episodes aired aren't "what comes first?" but instead "what's actually done?" Looking at the timeline that the show aired on, I don't think that production was so crazy that everything was thrown out of whack, but I do think it was enough to cause some glaring inconsistencies.
I remember thinking with the Shout Factory DVD the most logical order ended up seeming like every 2nd episode I think. It's been a while since I cracked the DVD out, but I feel like I settled on going for the 1st and 3rd episode on Disc 1, 1st and 3rd on Disc 2, etc and then looping around? Definitely something like that anyway, I'll admit it has been a long time XD I literally just watched the "official" first episode online earlier today and I definitely don't remember that being the one I settled on as feeling like the first - so it could be 2nd and 4th per Disc. I feel like I remember the series logically starting with a multi-part origin story?
Those sets actually did have some episodes in the wrong order on both discs. Anyway, did OP try looking at the French broadcast airdates?
Assuming this is what the "original airdate" on Wikipedia is just that, this matches the order that Wildbrain puts it in.
I think the idea is to bookend a season with "better" (or at least more marketable) episodes, because if it's all too quiet and dull and ratings are poor, the network might pull the show entirely in favour of something that will generate more ad revenue. This doesn't happen in UK* because the BBC isn't a slave to advertising, and if it spent bit big on imported American shows, only to not air half of them, that probably wouldn't go down very well. With commercial television... ehh... you only tend to import shows that are good**, and home-grown television usually comes in blocks of six or eight, so if it sucks, they'll take the hit. It's been paid for in advance. There's no excuse for this with DVD box sets though, or with streaming services where you get 43094635349 episodes at once. *speaking of Star Trek, the BBC made a big song and dance about getting The Next Generation in the early 90s, but didn't bother buying the later seasons. So unless you had Sky, you couldn't watch it all! **which means anyone telling you Breaking Bad was a great show must be lying, because IIRC no British broadcasters picked up the first three seasons. You couldn't physically watch it in this country when it was fresh.
You are now aware that I think Breaking Bad wasn't a good show at all and I watched every episode (during a marathon of every episode they did on TV leading up to its finale)!
