This show, about jumping between realities could have been great, but it wasn't. Quite simply, it took a great premise and never went far enough. They always played it safe, which for me, ruined the show.

Like the other reviews stated, good in the beginning, then abysmal later on.Film and TV are formulated to help us look at ourselves, and not really so much the pure creative pieces of visual art as Hollywood would have us believe.So it is that one wonders why the show changed. The first couple of seasons were highly inventive, and then around season three things really took a turn for the worse, I'm guessing there was an effort to cut costs; i.e. stop shooting on location in San Francisco, and maybe throw in some repeatable elements to further cut costs (introduce a returning villain so the group can revisit worlds to cut down on production costs).The result; a disaster. I saw the first several episodes of Season One, then got busy and only saw a few episodes of Season Two, and then when one of the "returning villains" first reared their head, I completely tuned out the show.The first couple of seasons were about parallel Earths, and the main characters visiting the such. The rest of the series became about "fighting the bad guys", and the uniqueness of the show just lost whatever shine or attractiveness it ever had. In short, it became a junk show, and there was only one character left who had been completely turned around from what he was supposed to be.It just strikes me as odd. I mean has any TV series improved and been prolonged by a cut in budget or with cost saving elements introduced into the production? Did original Star Trek in the 1960s see a full five year mission? Did Spielberg's Amazing Stories continue for a third and fourth season? How many non-sitcoms went onto legendary status because of budget cuts? How many improved or lasted with renown because of budget cuts? None, really.So, that's pretty much all there is to it. Even Babylon-5, for as much as I disliked the show, really didn't drop off in terms of show quality. But Sliders, which was made around the same time, just essentially disintegrated. All you can do is shrug your shoulders and forget about the poor stuff.I mean, think about it, there was no series finale. There was only one character left from the original cast. And no one ever got home.I mean there are more reasons for the show's ultimate demise, but those were the big ones, and as a result we get this saga that started out strong, but then became something completely unrecognizable, and essentially garbage. See the first couple of seasons, if you must, then move onto something else.

This TV show was brilliant! It features a college grad student who develops a device that enables him to "slide" among alternate dimensions. In the pilot episode, he gives it a test run, and in the alternate dimension, red means go, green means stop, and vinyl records are replacing CDs as the latest in music technology, among other things. He also encounters his double who has been sliding, and says that among other dimensions, things are different, like the Cubs have won a bunch of World Series! Later, he's showing it to his professor and a friend from work, and (before the timer has been perfected) it opens up and sucks them in. A washed-up soul singer happens to drive by the house at that exact moment and gets sucked in too. They eventually wind up in a dimension where the Communists won the Cold War.Basically, the "alternate dimensions" the team wind up on explore alternate history & social situations, such as:What if penicillin had never been discovered? What if the British had won the Revolutionary War? What if society were overrun by mystics? Basic things like that. This was a thoroughly enjoyable series. I loved the cab driver.*** out of ****

Unfortunately I cannot review each season separately, because the first couple seasons deserve a much better rating than the subsequent ones. The Crew: The show starts out with the usual cast: unexpected male called to be a leader in adverse conditions who finds his confidence and strength through various challenges; the older sage/ wise man/ elder who has experience in all things, but never lives up to the hero; the cute girl next door who has always loved the hero, but never built up the courage to tell him, and the tension builds with each time he saves her; and the comic relief/ strong guy who has no idea whats going on but makes quippy comments and punches people who don't like the hero. In the third season they lose wise sage, and add obnoxious fox. Foxy warrior women only make a show better if you like the person, but this one just seems to pick fights and make bad choices. Her good looks don't matter if the character is ubiquitously hated by all viewers/ characters. The Idea: The show is based on the cast traveling to parallel Earths trying to get back to theirs. The first many episodes have no intertwined plots, and are based solely on the peculiar differences between worlds, and the struggles that causes to stay out of harms way and help the locals overcome tyranny and oppression. The show could have gone on this way so long as they kept thinking up new clever ways to make these worlds different, but they didn't. They started taking from age old plots of scientist mixing animals and humans, invisible person only one crazy person can see, dinosaurs, underground morlocks, back in time to change your worst moments...the works. In season 3 the plot changes to tracking down a murder, even though there's been murders in every other world, this one needs to be stopped, and they go on a rampage trying to stop one guy who's always one step ahead. It's been done. The comic relief stops being comic relief in season 2 and becomes debbie downer. The nerdy hero boy learns boxing and kung-fu at some point and stops being beat up all the time, and wails out the pain. The girl next door becomes a major whiner too, and completely stops pursuing hero-boy. Overall Jist: The first couple seasons are good, but after that they really seem to be riding it to the bank. The acting gets over the top, the stories becoming trite, and the whole situation becomes a joke. Everyone has a sliding device. Nobody knows how to use it. Everyone's hunting everyone. Weird earth-bound aliens are some overarching evil that really done't seem to do as much as people give them credit for.