In regards to SM, don't concentrate on monster of the week. You should be concentrating on the characters interaction with one another, and once Zoisite gets involved, their interaction with the monster of the week, because they're usually human characters the cast latches on to. Also, storylines start to last for long stretches of episodes like Naru's depression from Nephrite's death.
And Sailor Moon is from the 90's.
I think the first season is fantastic by virtue of Usagi's character growth, the mystery of the silver crystal, the moon princess, and the moon kingdom. Then again, I haven't seen later seasons of SM since I was a teen.