Episode Ratings Grid

M
Loading chart...
Great
Good

Episode Power Rankings

The peaks and the valleys. Find the essential episodes — and the ones to skip.

#1
S2E12 8.9
Vets

This episode features anecdotes of actual Vietnam Veterans telling their wartime experiences mixed with scenes from previous China Beach episodes.

#2
S3E20 8.9
F.N.G.

A flashback to 1966 shows McMurphy as a hospital ward nurse who joins the army and after months in basic training, arriving for the first time at China Beach where she meets Dr. Richard for the first time and she loses her innocence fast after facing the horrors of real war in dealing with the endless soldiers coming in for medical treatment and getting help from the head nurse, Jan Wyatt, and the head doctor, Dr. Singer, over handling the situations. Meanwhile, K.C. under the name of 'Charlene' and working as a secretary/call girl for the sleazy then-China Beach commander, Lt. Col. 'Mac' Miller, meets Boonie Lanier for the first time and they get close when the wounded Boonie is reluctant to go back into the bush when he recovers. K.C., using her influences, gets Mac to hire Boonie as the lifeguard at China Beach.

#3
S2E16 8.8
The World: Part 1
#4 The World: Part 2 S2E17 8.8
#5 100 Klicks Out S4E11 8.7
#6 Hello Goodbye S4E16 8.7
#7 One Small Step S4E8 8.6
#8 I Could Have Danced All Night... But Didn't S4E10 8.6
#9 Pilot S1E0 8.5
#10 How to Stay Alive in Vietnam: Part 1 S3E9 8.5

Lowlights

#62 S3E22 Strange Brew 7.6

While the rest of the China Beach staff attends a rock concert at Firebase Geronimo, McMurphy and K.C. stay behind, get drunk, and enter a shared surrealistic dreamland of a destroyed fire base where they must deal with unresolved issues from their pasts under the guidance of a Native American solider, named Dream Walker, and K.C.'s former boyfriend Jones, both recently killed in action.

#61 The Call S4E9 7.7
#60 Escape S4E4 7.7
#59 Waiting for Beckett S1E4 7.7
#58 Hot Spell S1E2 7.7

The Quality Arc

Each point is an episode, plotted in order. Colored bands mark season boundaries. Look for the rise, the plateau, or the decline.

Loading chart...

Episode Engagement

High votes + high rating = beloved classic. High votes + low rating = notorious stinker. Low votes + high rating = hidden gem.

Loading chart...

Series Trajectory

One point per season. Smooths out the episode-to-episode noise to reveal the bigger arc.

Loading chart...

Season Momentum

Did each season build or fizzle? Green means the finale outscored the premiere. Red means the opposite. Longer arrows, bigger swings.

Loading chart...

Season Consistency

How steady is each season? Tightly clustered dots mean reliable quality. Scattered dots mean a wild ride.

Loading chart...