Knightmare.com

We all love it when we can get someone hooked onto a TV series we are already fans of, but if it was KM, where would you start?

The obvious answer is of course season one, but would you be tempted to "cheat" slightly by picking a later, less experimental season? Or would you go with episode 1 season 1 first, but then 'leap' forward to selected episodes or quests from across all eight seasons?

And are there any seasons you would go out of your way NOT to let them see...?

I think Series 6 is the absolute peak in many ways, so I'd probably choose that, unless they were likely to be really offended by Ah Wok. (I fear this is why it's a long time since that series has been legally available anywhere, and might never be again.)

I definitely wouldn't start with Series 1 episode 1. It's soooooo slow and repetitive (that first room goes on for about twenty years), I'd be afraid they would lose interest before it really got going. I think beginners should avoid Series 4 for the same reason, so it's a shame that's the one they chose to put on BritBox. I also wouldn't recommend starting with Series 8.

I do think Barry's quest was a good choice for the CITV Old Skool Weekend.

I also came here to say Series 6.

Even though a few elements that I love about older Knightmare are lost by Series 6, I do think the series as a whole has become slick and interesting by this point. The episodes are faster-paced, the quests contain longer running "plots" that continue through numerous rooms, and the introduction of the atmospheric/tension music really helps to kill the "boring" feel of some of the earlier episodes. Some of those early episodes are so still and quiet, that when a dungeoneer is being slow it's painstaking. With the introduction of the sinister music it really helps to make the adventure feel more exciting.

I think for a modern 2023 person who'd never seen the show before, they'd really struggle getting through more than a couple of episodes of Series 1.

However, if you could make them fall in love with the "higher production value" of Series 6 then they'd be more likely to want to go back and see how it all began.