I forgot to cover Haruhi in my last post on watch orders. (I also need to again update my Raildex watch order.)
Digi has commented on this issue more then once but most notably in the How to tell a good Anime from 1 episode series. That was supposed to be about the three episode rule thing but both Haruhi and Lucky Star are completely separate from how that usually goes.
Digi's main argument for the original broadcast order is that if you watch them chronologically the end of season 1 doesn't have a climatic finale that feels like something built up to. That is an issue that mattered to the network when they originally were only gonna have 14 episodes and had to air them once a week for about 3 months.
However from the standpoint of being someone new to watching these kinds of Anime when Digi made this video in 2016 as I was and thus planning to binge all 28 episodes followed by the movie in probably less then a day, that is irrelevant.
For all intents and purposes new Haruhi fans are going to be watching them as if it was a 2 cour show. And I actually don't like when a 2 cour show's exact halfway point feels like a season finale. I don't want 2 cour shows to feel like 2 single cour seasons airing in quick succession together. I want them to feel like 1 season that has twice the runtime to work with.
My main reason for advocating chronological viewing is because the 6 episodes that directly adapt the original Light Novel are the best introduction to this universe. In the source material only the first novel is called The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and that's why she is only actually melancholy during those 6 episodes. After that the rest of season 1 are basically bonus side stories where the order you watch them doesn't matter much at all.
The story of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is a satisfying piece of art all on it's own, even if it had never had sequels or an expanded universe it would still be worth revisiting. Something that isn't always the case with Light Novels that start ongoing sagas, especially the trends that blew up in Haruhi's wake. However when Anime viewers are interrupting that narrative to watch future random one off stories some of which are set after season 2, it tricks people into thinking it doesn't stand on it's own.
My first time watching Haruhi I did follow Digi's advice and I deeply regret that. For a brief time right after watching it I convinced myself that the weird tirppiness of binging the show in that order had some artistic value to it. But I have never felt compelled to rewatch the show in that order, and when I did finally just watch the Melancholy episodes in succession they felt so much more cohesive.
And I really don't care that the Anime director says he prefers the broadcast order, because even if you want to apply hyper strict Auteur Theory like Rick Worley would the Auteur of Haruhi is the Light Novel author, the Anime like most Anime was originally made to be a glorified commercial for the Light Novels which is why no one cared that they teased the Sigh arc with no guarantee it'd ever get animated.
After this point I am officially getting into Spoiler territory.
Spoiler Warning!!!!!
When you watch Haruhi in Chronological order nothing Fantastical happens until episode 4. Until then it seems like it could be just a slice of life School Club Anime where most of the characters are weirdos, and that alone is something I could have been down for. So when Asakura attacks Kyon and stuff starts getting weird you are with Kyon in the shock of it. And then things escalate further.
I use mainly Narnia to prove I'm not always for choosing Chronological Order over release order when there is a conflict. But I can add the Disney Star Wars spin off films. I don't hate either Solo or Rogue One, I am fine with glorified fan films, but that is what they are, watching them without having seen all 6 Lucas films (and arguably a good deal of Clone Wars) will not allow them to have their intended effect.
But I am indeed generally biased towards linear storytelling, I hate when a movie or TV show episode starts with something exciting then goes "2 weeks earlier", [if I were making a YT Video Essay instead of a text blog I'd see how much of that one Rick and Morty Purge parody I could get away with cutting to here]. And that goes double for the Historical Fiction genre, I want to feel like I'm watching history unfold, the way Oliver Stone's Alexander keeps jumping around disrupts that.
However there are ways to make being non-linear work, the Venture Brothers episode that was copying Memento worked.
And the one justification for being non linear that works for Haruhi is The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina Episode 00, watching that before you watch The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya arc (which is the last 5 episodes of season 2) can work. It is entertaining on it's own as this in universe low budget student film that feels like a parody of Anime tropes, and then watching the Sigh arc explain how every detail of that happened and going "so that explains that" can be fun.
I suppose I should end with some kind of joke about Endless Eight, but I don't have one. If you really don't want to subject yourself to the full experience just do the first 2 and then the last 2.
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