Sophomore Slump

Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. —John 2:10

After a stellar first season, a series has a second season that either feels suspiciously like the last or just isn't as good. Tends to be more prevalent in dramas than comedies. A specific form of Seasonal Rot.

Sophomore Slump concerns shows that make it past an awful season 2 and into a decent or fantastic season 3. If the show doesn't survive the second season, it's a Second Season Downfall.

This happens in music with depressing regularity as well. Usually, it's because after the first album (which usually has a couple years of development under its belt and plenty of trial and error in concerts to determine what does or doesn't work), the record company wants a second album produced within a year. Combine this with the fact that most bands popular enough to get a second album will also be constantly on tour and one can see why this happens.

A related term, used in computing, is the "second system effect." This is like the sophomore slump in reverse; freed of the tight schedule and budgetary demands of the first system, the programmers attempt to "correct" everything that "went wrong" the first time, usually with disastrous effects.

Compare Oddball in the Series, Sequelitis, and Seasonal Rot. Could cause a Broken Base if another portion of the fandom disagree with the opinion that the work is going through a Sophomore Slump. If it's inverted, see Growing the Beard, Surprisingly Improved Sequel, or Even Better Sequel.

Examples of Sophomore Slump include:

Anime

• Pokémon, if one counts Kanto/Orange Islands as the first series and Johto as the second. Many fans felt Ash's Johto team were Suspiciously Similar Substitutes lacking the charm of his original Pokemon, and that the story didn't try hard enough to differentiate itself from the Kanto arc.
  • The Orange Islands arc itself wasn't so well-received, due to the replacement of Brock with Tracey and many fans viewing it as "filler".
• Accusations along this line are currently being leveled at the second season of Darker Than Black. Mileage varies a lot, of course, but a pretty vocal portion of the fandom is not pleased with the changes in tone and displacement of the original protagonist from "main character" to "co-star."
• The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. The first season was wildly popular and well-received. Eight episodes of the second season consisted of effectively the same event eight times due to a time loop. "Endless Eight" is still remembered as one of the most hated arcs in all of anime.
• An accusation tossed at the second season of Psycho Pass, especially after the quite popular Action Girl Risa Aoyanagi was killed off.

Film

• Temple of Doom was this in the original Indiana Jones trilogy, with many fans finding it less memorable than Raiders, not having the fun or heart of Last Crusade and just being generally mean-spirited, squicky and not in style with the other films.
• Second entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe are generally seen as victims of this; films such as Iron Man 2, Thor: The Dark World, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2; not being up to the level of their predecessors or later entries in the MCU. Granted few think they're outright bad films, excepting The Dark World, but the fandom noted quite a drop in quality.
• Kevin Smith's much-loved first film, Clerks, was followed up by the much-maligned Mallrats, which remains the weakest entry in his View-Askewniverse series.

Literature

• On a first read of Harry Potter, the second entry, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, can come across as this. Not a bad book, but it largely has the same plot as its predecessor. Granted books 1-6 generally have the same basic structure but Chamber of Secrets really sticks to the beats that The Philosopher's Stone established while later entries added new characters and locales while becoming Darker and Edgier. Upon revisiting the saga, Chamber of Secrets being the Innocuously Important Episode that stocked Chekhov's Armoury tends to do away with this sentiment, even if it's usually seen as one of the weaker entries.
• The Dresden Files was kind of this way with Fool Moon. It wasn't bad per se, it wasn't as good as Storm Front, but the series certainly improves with Grave Peril. Opinions vary, though.
• Most of the Warrior Cats fandom declares that The New Prophecy, the second arc, just isn't as good as the original series.

Live Action TV

• Wildly debatable, but Dexter's second season has garnered a fair amount of scorn. Heavy reliance on quickly-resolved cliff hangers, introducing a scrappy and killing a favorite character. Still good television, but not as sharp as the other three seasons. Your Mileage May Vary certainly applies.
• Desperate Housewives had a decline in quality after season one. Some people say it return to its premises in season three.
• Veronica Mars - season two made a major error by splitting up the Super Couple and the mystery was paced very poorly after the subtle yet steady clue-building of season one. It was later Vindicated by History and considered to be nearly as good as the first season, but it was too late: the initial negative reaction led to Executive Meddling for season three, leading to short, rather predictable mysteries rather than the season-long epics of the first two, and ultimately causing its cancellation.
• Friday Night Lights had a number of implausible developments in its second season (including a murder perpetrated by two of the main characters) that did not fit at all with the realistic, muted tone of the show. The move to cable in the third season helped it to return to its previous feel.
  • In the How I Met Your Mother episode "Field Trip", Marshall's boss says he's prepared for the end of the world because he has a mine shaft ready with all five seasons of Friday Night Lights on DVD. Marshall tells him: "Okay, first of all you can skip season 2..."
• The first season of Glee had a relatively succinct plot arc, which helped make it the runaway hit Fox was banking on. Season 2 suffered some meandering story lines, which alienated many fans.
• A common sentiment among fans of Victorious was that Season 2 saw a noticeable decline in quality, mainly due to the massive Flanderization of Cat (from a Mood Swinger Cloudcuckoolander to The Ditz) and Jade (from a Jerk with a Heart of Gold Noble Demon to The Sociopath) and the Ship Sinking of Cat and Jade's Odd Friendship. Depending on who you ask, Season 3 either amped up these flaws into outright Seasonal Rot territory or it found a nice balance.
• Doctor Who:
  • Despite it introducing the very popular Tenth Doctor, Series 2 is generally seen as the low-point of Russell T. Davies's first tenure as showrunner. It may have brought back Sarah Jane Smith in "School Reunion" but it also produced some genuine stinkers such as "Love & Monsters" or "Fear Her" with Rose/Doctor becoming a Romantic Plot Tumor that consumed both their characters and the story arc. It's also the point that Rose went from largely well-liked to one of the show's most polarizing Base Breakers.
  • Series 6 for the Steven Moffat era. The general consensus is that Moffat went too big by trying to juggle too many character plots (Amy and Rory's relationship with each other, Amy and Rory's relationship with the Doctor, the Doctor's increasing protectiveness of the Ponds, the mystery of River Song and her romance with the Doctor) on top of the Myth Arc. A Myth Arc that was not only bogged down by filler but also wasn't resolved until the Eleventh Doctor's very last episode. In Series 7. At a time when Amy, Rory and River had all been gone from the show for over a year. It also doesn't help that Series 6 was heavily serialized with little rewatch value.

Music

• MGMT tried to avert this by following up the synth-heavy, well-received Oracular Spectacular with a totally unexpected surf-rock inspired album, Congratulations. However, this got slightly more mixed reception precisely because of this.
• Fist of God by MSTRKRFT, to an enormous degree. Their debut EP was well received for being a harder-edged take on Daft Punk-style vocoder-filled house with some cool rock-style elements. Fist of God was criticised for gratuitous guest rappers and beats that would've been seen as terribly cliche back in 1992.
• Meat Is Murder by The Smiths is a famous example of this. It's actually pretty good outside of the title track and contains a few of their best known songs, but it received very mixed reviews when it was first released and is frequently regarded as their weakest album.
• The Stone Roses' Second Coming. Their debut is frequently cited as one of the best albums of the 80s and alternative rock, if not as one of the best ever. Many are surprised there was even a second at all.
• Starflyer 59's second album, Gold, is an interesting case. Fans initially disliked it enough that they would tell Jason Martin to his face that his new album was terrible. Then the fans started warming up to the album. Nowadays, the old-time fans are the ones most likely to cite Gold as Starflyer's best album ever.
• Jeff Buckley's unfinished second album Sketches for My Sweetheart The Drunk is an example of this in its most tragic extreme. Buckley died before he could finish his followup to his debut (and masterpiece) Grace. Whatever material Buckley completed until his untimely death was released as the second album, and the album's lack of completeness certainly shows.
  • This is somewhat arguable, as the material on the first disc was considered to be a finished album by everyone working on it but Buckley, a notorious perfectionist. Then again, this perfectionism was no doubt part of what made Grace so great, so maybe not.
• The Menace by Elastica.
• Razorblade Suitcase by Bush.
• Don't Look Back by Boston. For proof, look at their Greatest Hits album, which essentially contains half their first album, plus a handful of other songs.
• 9 by Damien Rice.
• Punk pioneers Bad Religion decided to follow up on their well-received first EP with a prog rock album called Into the Unknown. It may be the ultimate in Old Shame despite the fact that critics loved it (mainly because it's a pretty decent album — if you pretend a different band did it).
• Van Halen II, while not a bad album and has its share of classic songs, is still essentially a retread of their first album, making it one of the band's more forgettable Diamond Dave-era releases.
• The concept of sophomore albums essentially being a slapdash retread of a debut album's concepts/styles gets lampshaded with the title of Talking Heads' sophomore album More Songs about Buildings and Food. The album itself is a subversion; it's generally considered to be much better than their debut.
• Interestingly, the original liner notes to The Beatles' second album With The Beatles have the band's PR guy Tony Barrow not only openly admit that the album is a blatant attempt to recreate the formula of Please Please Me, he uses it as a selling point. Then again, when the band in question is The Beatles...
• U2's second album October.
• Franz Ferdinand's second album, You Could Have It So Much Better, while still quite good, is considered to be considerably worse than both their debut Self-Titled Album and their third album Tonight: Franz Ferdinand. Most critics attribute this to the fact that they sort of rushed it (releasing it about eighteen months after their debut) in order to prove that they weren't just a flash in the pan, while they could take their sweet time on their debut and the third album (which was released nearly four years later and was something of a New Sound Album).
• Mogwai's second album, Come On Die Young received lukewarm reviews upon release in opposition to the universally acclaimed Mogwai Young Team.
• Since Appetite for Destruction is the best-selling debut album of all time, it's only natural Guns N' Roses would have a tough time following up. Their second release, bundling an old EP with some acoustic numbers, did not reach the popularity of their first album. Even the Use Your Illusion albums were following a very tough act.
• Manic Street Preachers' second album Gold Against The Soul is largely regarded as an awkward album, as it is half commercial songs intended to appeal in America, and half ones with intentionally controversial lyrics and somewhat abrasive melodies.
• The Clash's Give Em Enough Rope. The album is not bad, it just fails to deliver. This is because it contains a cover version of a well known song ("English Civil War"), a song with the same riff as a previous single ("Guns On The Roof", the single in question being "Clash City Rockers"), and "Drug Stabbing Time", which may be the worst thing (lyrically) the band ever recorded. However, the album's variety did pave the way for London Calling, their most popular album.
• Puddle Of Mudd's Life On Display, their second major label album was lambasted upon release. Part of the reason for this is that their previous album, the commercially successful Come Clean, consisted of re-recorded versions of what they considered the strongest songs from their first two independent albums, so the material on that album was already what the band considered their best material.
• Gogol Bordello's second album Multi Contra Kulti Vs. Irony has always seemed like somewhat of a rush job. Before it came out they released a single "When The Trickster Starts A Poking/Occurance On The Border" which attracted some indie attention. Presumably this was intended as a stop gap but they included both songs on the album anyway. A few of the other tracks on the album like "Let's Get Radical", "Punk Rock Paranada", "Through The Roof And Underground" and "Baro Foro" are also loved by fans, but the rest of it has the air of filler and failed experiments. The band rarely play anything from the album these days except "Baro Foro".
• The Knack's followup to their widely successful debut Get the Knack was ...But the Little Girls Understand. That album was a total commercial disaster and ruined the band's career.
• Fairweather Johnson by Hootie and the Blowfish sold decently, but it got rather average reviews and quickly fell into obscurity. Granted, their debut album, Cracked Rear View was a Tough Act to Follow, what with it being the best selling debut album of all time at the time.
• Nick Lowe's above-quoted twin songs were inspired by how his previous band Brinsley Schwarz flamed out due to record label mismanagement. Amusingly enough, both the album with them (Jesus of Cool) and its successor (Labour of Lust) performed more or less equally: they both got acclaimed and spawned a hit single ("I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass" for the former, but only in the UK, and "Cruel to Be Kind" for the latter, in the UK, USA and Canada).
• Completely inverted by Country Music singer (and Nashville Star winner) Chris Young. His first album was critically acclaimed, but both singles tanked at radio. His second album started off with a mulligan of a first single ("Voices"), but after that, the next two singles went to number one — as did a re-release of "Voices".
• Chumbawamba attempted to follow up their smash-hit major label debut "Tubthumping" with "WYSIWYG," whose lead-off single ("She's Got All The Friends") was quite obviously an attempt to mimic the shouty-pop of "Tubthumping." No one cared, and Chumbawamba returned to their previous preference of independent releases. (These days, the group would rather pretend that the "Tubthumper" era never occurred.)
• Milli Vanilli actually attempted a second album, believe it or not. After their twin 'debut' releases ('All or Nothing' outside of the USA, and the far more commercial 'Girl You Know It's True' in the USA) hit it big, they immediately recorded a follow-up album ('Keep On Running') using the same gimmick - middle-aged guys on vocals, dreadlock guys on the cover. Shortly after the title track was released as a single, however, the controversy erupted. The new album was retitled 'The Moment of Truth' and credited to The Real Milli Vanilli, showing the actual singers on the cover. In the end, the retooled album was somewhat of a success in Europe, as the group still held popularity there. America, unfortunately, hated the group at this point, and the album never saw a US release. (At least, not in its original form - the vocals were later re-recorded by other singers, and the album was released under the band name Try 'n' B. This version bombed completely.)
• Green Day's Insomniac (though their mainstream sophomore, as it's their fourth) was not as well received as Dookie, particularly for being Darker and Edgier.
• Likewise, after breaking out with Smash, The Offspring failed to deliver the same with Ixnay on the Hombre.
• According to an article in the LA Times, Drake is trying hard to avoid this with his second studio album, Take Care (hence the title). It is too soon to tell if he was successful.
• Inverted hard by Adele's 21, as her second album is astronomically more successful than its predecessor 19 ever was.

Video Game

• Devil May Cry 2 was the video game equivalent of being booted in the crotch by a large angry golfer. Devil May Cry 3 was aces.
• Super Mario Bros 2, the Japanese version, was an even more Nintendo Hard Mission Pack Sequel of the first game that went unreleased outside of Japan. Super Mario Bros 2., the US version was well-received but a Dolled-Up Installment barely playing like other titles. Super Mario Bros 3 was a worldwide success.
  • The phenomenon repeated itself with the 3D Marios. Super Mario 64 was universally beloved. Super Mario Sunshine was much more divisive, stripping away the franchise's most iconic features and adding some very un-Mario gameplay elements. Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel represent a serious return to form.
• MediEvil 2 lost most of the quirky charm of the original, and aside from an Updated Rerelease of the original for PSP and a cameo in the second Hot Shots Golf, Sir Dan hasn't been seen since.
• Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is considered by just about everyone to be an example of Darker and Edgier Gone Horribly Wrong. The Two Thrones goes so far as to Retcon the Prince's behavior in that game into being a curse.
• The second Unreal Tournament game, Unreal Tournament 2003 was such a disappointment that Epic gave out rebates to owners who traded it in for the much better Unreal Tournament 2004.
• Dizzy II: Treasure Island Dizzy is rampantly the least popular of the series, due to the extraordinary Fake Difficulty of Dizzy spending the entire game as a One-Hit-Point Wonder.
  • Not to mention the crappiest Inventory Management Puzzle ever.
• On the NES, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest and Final Fantasy II get flak for being radical departures from the rest of the series. A reason was because the usual conventions and mechanics of the franchise weren't fully defined yet, hence why the developers had tried to expand the gameplay features. Though later games returned to more classical formats, these second entries did leave a legacy (The Adventure of Link, for example, introduced elements to the Zelda games like Dark Link, towns, magic and character names like Saria or Nabooru).
• Dragon Age II has been widely considered a disappointment in comparison to the original, and particularly in light of BioWare's past, due to a rushed development cycle.
• Metroid II: Return of Samus suffered this due to gameplay changes.
• Ace Attorney: Justice For All didn't match up to the first game in the eyes of most fans, but recovered by the third. JFA still had its fans, though, especially "Farewell, My Turnabout."
• Echo Bazaar has a quasi-example, once you start the story line to become a Person Of Some Importance. All the POSI content requires either huge amounts of time and in-game resources or Fate (bought with actual money) to achieve, and are mainly cosmetic awards. Contrast to the earlier game, where things were much more reasonably priced.
• Deus Ex: Invisible War turned off many fans, who felt that it sacrificed much of the complexity and freedom that made the original so enjoyable. Deus Ex: Human Revolution was received significantly better.
• Little Big Planet 3. Not only did it ship as an Obvious Beta but Sumo Digital was thought to have taken the franchise's cuter aspects as thinking it was a series made for kids, the game's plot being a lot sillier than its predecessors. And it was short. Thankfully Sumo Digital learned from their past mistakes in the DLC they made for the game with the later Sackboy: A Big Adventure being considered to have gotten things back on track.

Western Animation

• Season 3 of Rick and Morty. Despite some bangers like "The Rickshank Rickdemption", "The Ricklantis Mixup" and "The Rickchurian Mortydate", it's generally agreed to be a step down from Season 2. The usual complaints about the season are that it relied too heavily on Plot Detours along with Rick and Beth being too Unintentionally Unsympathetic to root for. Thankfully from Season 4 onwards, the show was considered to regain, and some would argue surpass, its old glory.
• Season 3 of the Ben 10 reboot. The Darker and Edgier finale of Season 2 was always going to be a Tough Act to Follow but Season 3 was generally seen as way too Lighter and Softer/Denser and Wackier, having too many Slice of Life episodes. Fortunately Season 4 and the Post Script Season allowed the show to end on a high note.
• The third season of Steven Universe. After the serialized Season 2, whose plots were dramatically resolved in the Season 3 premiere, the rest of the season was largely seen as the show's lowest point. While the season did address some of the ongoing stories; like Peridot and Lapis' relationship, Jasper's power plays and Amethyst's self-esteem issues; and was the first one to mention the critically important Pink Diamond, the majority of episodes were mainly about Steven and Connie just hanging around Beach City. After the fifth episode, "Hit the Diamond", every episode until "Bismuth", the twentieth, had no bearing on the Myth Arc. It says a lot that fans felt it took until the eleventh episode of Season 4, "Steven's Dream", for the show to get back on track.
• While Voltron: Legendary Defender season 2 had some important episodes that helped advance the plot (the Blade of Marmora alliance, clues leading up to Keith's Galra heritage, and Shiro's efforts to bond with Black after learning Zarkon was the original Black Paladin and wanted his lion back), a lot of fans felt the writing wasn't as strong in other places, especially with Hunk's characterization revolving only around food. (Though others argue that him turning an entire restaurant around was an awesome moment for him)
• While Book 1 of The Legend of Korra was far from great due to the assumed episode limit and excessive focus on the love triangle, it did a good job setting up the atmosphere and had a truly terrifying villain tied to the Gaang from the previous series. Book 2 made the romantic drama even worse, bungled Korra's characterization, and resorted to a tired amnesia plot late in the season. The series picked up and improved by the next two seasons, going out on a high note.
• Season 4 of Miraculous Ladybug. While it's accepted that, following Season 2, Seasons 3 through 5 were an overall step-down, Season 4 is generally thought of as the series' lowest point. The usual complaints are that there was too much filler, with some truly silly Akumas, an underuse of the Sentimonsters and that aside from a few episodes (such as Zoé's intro arc, Alya learning Ladybug's secret identity and the finale), it's largely a skippable season.