I wasn't sure whether to put this here or in the thread dedicated to TV shows, but here goes nothing. FOCUS: Almost everyone watches TV. I'm sure you all have shows that other people you know enjoy and you simply hate. Comment on the shows you hate and why, be it crappy acting, shoddy writing, etc.. For me, there's two that stand out. I tried with both these shows, I really did. I persevered with the entire first season of Mad Men - I stopped watching because, in my opinion, the show was just mental masturbation by the writers. The acting was decent enough, but it was the writing and some of the characters (Draper's wife, the annoying mousey secretary) that turned me away - I realise some characters are placed there to be irritating, but all that does is make me stop watching. I watched the first three episodes of Lost, but the show's pacing was snail-like, as was the fat guy Hurley and the pregnant woman and the amazing inability of either of the Koreans to string together a sentence in English. A foreign language film I can understand, since it's a shorter viewing period, but reading subtitles every week gets old, so I stopped watching. If I want to watch TV, it is because I do not want to have to sit and think too much about what is going on - I want to be entertained. Isn't that the point? If I wanted to pontificate, I'd read a book.
True Blood. I watched 2 episodes of Season 1 after hearing from everyone how great it was. The only thing that show can claim is the most horrible overacting ever aired on HBO. Not to mention, it's only perpetuating the complete emasculation of vampire lore.
I've already written about a few of these; The Sopranos- Aside from a good performance from James Gadolfini imitating James Cagney, it's a boring show with laughably bad, pretentious dialogue, and a lot of thin scenes and cliche characters. Where is the thought/depth? Where is the action? Where is the funny? A good show only needs one of these, but "The Sopranos" is missing the whole trio. Friends- A bunch of fucking idiots without a funny tendon in their bodies horribly mis-delivering third-rate comic material. I'll pass. The Modern Family- The gay couple is amusing, and the Ed O'Neil family is passable, like a way less funny "Married with Children", but the married man one with children is dire and completely unwatchable. It single-handedly turns the series from a respectable, enjoyable sitcom to mostly lousy.
Friends: I have to second this show. The standard sitcom joke delivery with a group of pretty faces. My brother loves the show and his only defense is, is that girls dig it. 30 Rock: I think Tina Fey is powerfully over rated in her writing abilities. Most people just have a hard on for her because she's "dorky hot." Ive never been impressed with any episode Ive ever watched. Alec Baldwin is probably the best on the show but even then the material just isn't that funny. Honorable mentions: Shows that I like but I think are highly over rated by everyone else. Arrested Development - After hearing this show was the funniest thing since Lucy was on the air I final checked it out. I admit that over all it is a lot better than most everything else out there. But is not as funny as people like to believe, it is not the next coming of christ. I made it through to the midway of season three and got really bored with where the plot of the show was going. Charlize Theron was some sort of British spy? Ive tried about 5 times to get started so I could finish up the last season but I always get bored and fall asleep. Dexter- Now this is a show that I really like, Id say top 10 tv shows this decade. I hear so many of my friends saying this is the best show that has ever aired on TV. It is a great thriller show that can leaving guessing and yearning for more action each week. But the most over rated part is the drama aspect of the show. Aside from Dexter there is really no good drama when they start focusing on other characters' plot lines. Even with Dexter I think that his voice over narration hits you over the head with glaringly obvious information. I know we are supposed to be viewing it through his eyes but they hardly ever leave anything to subtlety.
Heroes There's a reason it's not on the air anymore. Every single thing about it sucked. I am absolutely astonished that even in the idiotic state pop culture is in nowadays that it made it past its megawatt stupid pilot, much less became a worldwide phenomenon for however long this expensive polished turd aired for. I've seen professional wrestling programs with better script writing. Lost Don't tell me me I haven't given the show enough attention, because I have. I simply find it to be an overrated third rate movie script-turned-TV show with an uninteresting cast. House "This week on an all-new all-original House, some dude is dying for some reason and House has to break the rules in order to save him and prove everyone else wrong.".....repeat 200 times.
I have to agree with Durbanite about Mad Men. I can't stand that show. Time and time again I've tried to watch it and I can barely sit through an entire episode. Although the time period is sweet and the authenticity of the show is awesome, I find the story line to be painfully slow and the show to be more about the nostalgia of the era than quality entertainment.
I can accept that people don't like Mad Men (I said accept, not understand), but you are citing the writing as the off putting quality of the show? You're saying that it's mental masturbation? Can you elaborate on why you think this, because in my opinion the writing of the show is by far it's standout quality, over both the acting and the time period--iness. Granted I am a writer, but how can you say the writing is mental masturbation? I get it, dialogue that goes beneath the surface can be tough, but there is no mental masturbation going on, it's just good writing. Anyone else feel like Durbanite here?
I want to know what mental masturbation even means. I can see why people have a hard time getting into the show, a lot of the first seasons episodes were super slow. I watched 3-4 of them before my Breaking Bad episodes finished downloading. I put the series on hold until I was done with BB and only got back into Mad Men when I sat down and had a marathon run of the show to catch up to the current season. If I were to describe mental masturbation in my terms, it would be writers who's self indulgence in any part of the writing over takes the flow of the show. Six Feet Under started suffering from this in the later seasons. They tried too hard to concoct deaths that tied into the shows story and I won't even go into how bad they fucked up Claire's whole art school story line. The best example I can think of is the movie, Synecdoche, New York. The title itself is a play on words for a literary term whose definition in itself describes the major theme of the movie. Kaufman tried way too hard to insert clever writing devices and motifs that the movie was so horribly paced it is almost unwatchable. The same thing happened with Adaptation, thought to a smaller degree, but Spike Jonez was able to present it in an entertaining fashion.
Already mentioned but I didn't care for Mad Men either. I tried. I really tried. I love a lot of the characters. They were interesting and who couldn't root for Don Draper. But what did me in was his cunty wife. I couldn't watch that shit anymore. Beyond that it felt like the story was going nowhere Leverage Fuck this show. I thought it was an interesting concept, thieves that steal from the rich? Mkay. I can give this a shot. Fuck me. Bad decision. ZERO emotional pay off, same almost MOTW quality to the show. Zero character development, no relation to an overarching story. Characters who do the exact same thing and play the exact same part lacking any nuance week after week? What a fucking turd. Two and a Half Men Is this shit still on the air? How I Met Your Mother Started off a cool concept. I'd fuck the shit out of that firecrotch Lilly and I'd eat Robin's asshole after she got home from the gym. Barney is the shit and is the only reason to watch this show. Fuck this show. It don't go nowhere.
Everyone Loves Raymond No, no they don't. Everyone fucking hates this shit show. And I'm not really sure if anyone likes it to begin with, I just hate it. Seinfeld Fuck. This. Shit. That is all. Any LAPD/NYPD/Cop show based in any city All the fucking same and all boring as hell. Nothing new in any of the episodes either, so each one is the same thing.
Real Housewives of Anywhere - Seriously, fuck all of these whiny, self-involved twats. If I wanted to watch a show about stuck up cunts...well I'd watch Real Housewives of Whereever. Show me a real housewife, one who works to help her husband pay the mortgage, not some spoiled whore bitching because some other "housewife" wore a dress that cost more to their important only to them function. And any Ghost show ever, but especially the tools at TAPS
That is EXACTLY what I meant. The writers made every single character (that I can remember of, anyway) be, in some way, a liar or a fraud, with the exception of Draper's wife - she was just annoying and naive. The boss, Sterling, was one of the worst that I recall of in the first season (I haven't watched the show since then - and I actually like John Slattery as an actor) - why was he involved in a sexual relationship with someone at the office? Were guys really this brazen back then? I don't recall seeing Mrs. Sterling on screen for more than 5 minutes, so we don't have time to assess what sort of character she is and what made her husband have an affair. Draper's is more obvious - he's clearly bored with his marriage and is just "going through the motions" - that one is cleared up in the first episode; I don't even blame him - his wife is an awful character. Also, Pete Campbell was a complete asscreeper, and I can't stand characters like that. Does the writer have issues where he cannot create a "normal" character? Was there a reasonably "normal" (i.e. non-cheating, non-asscreeping, sincere) character introduced in the second season? I kept hoping they'd show more about product roll-outs and such in the 1960's, but they never did.
How I Met Your Mother - Teehee Teehee gay guy in real life hits on women. Ive watched 20 episodes of this and not laughed more than three or four times. South Park - What started out as one of the funniest shows on TV is now fucking retarded. You want to talk about mental masturbation? Look at this show. "Let's see how dumb we can make this social issue look this week". "And then let's out do it next week" "And by the end of the season no one will care!".
This. Also, does anyone like Friends? I don't think that should count. My list: Alias - J. J. Abrams has no fucking clue how a plot works. Here's the scoop, poop - you fucking START it, then you fucking END it. Got it? I especially loved when he'd bring up a storyline out of the fucking blue for one or two episodes (see "the prophecy")*, forget all fucking about it, then fucking bring it back up A FUCKING YEAR LATER, and still have it be fucking pointless. Plus, talk about suspension of disbelief - some random Italian guy from the 1500s or whatever** fucking designs EVERYTHING that is futuretech in the show's universe, and every single intelligence agency in the world is running around interpreting manuscripts and finding artifacts like some fucking Carmen Sandiego game? Fuck outta here. I stopped watching a couple seasons in, though I hear the main bad guy dies in the last episode, so I might watch that just to hate some more. And yes, spoilers, but fuck if you watch this show you deserve it. *An ancient manuscript has Jennifer Garner's picture and some cryptic writing, so the FBI locks her up for months in solitary confinement and does random tests on her. For what? They don't know. And they might have mistranslated the manuscript. Not making this shit up. **Can you say Da Vinci? Also - Milo Rambauldi? MOAR LIKE RAMLOLDI AMIRITE Lost - See above. Burn Notice - I'm Michael Westin! I'm a huge cock! Oh sorry, I put in exclamation points when I should have put in periods (because of his fucking pompous monotone voice) but I can't think of a way to make periods douchey. Oh yeah, I'm in Miami, look how hot everything is. We is secret agents in Hawaiian shirts, yeahhhh doggie. Any criminal procedural - They're all pretty much the same. I can't hate them too much since I don't watch them. I'll edit when I think of more shows to hate.
I have recently started watching early season episodes and am wondering how the show ever caught on. It is fucking terrible. Most of the jokes revolve around 3rd graders cursing, any real attempts at jokes are ham assed bullshit. Like the Simpsons this show didnt start hitting its stride until a few seasons in.
I'm throwing my hat in with "True Blood" too. That show is a moldy condom. It is a dripping garbage bag. Why any self respecting man would watch that worse-than-Danielle-Steel crap I'll never understand. I'm always in awe of how many "Southernisms" they try to cram in there. The writers must think that all people in the South are constantly making metaphors involving toads and crawdads. "You, sahh, are a coward whose belly is yellower than a swamp toad from montgomery!" It's like they got all their dialogue inspiration from Foghorn Leghorn. I've seen this show a handful of times, and I don't see a single draw. Storylines plucked from the worst daytime soap operas? Check. Dialogue so bad Carlos Mencia probably had his hand in it? Check. Half nude dudes walking around half the time? Check. Everyone I try to tell this to says, "But you get to see Anna Pacquin naked!" I'm not sure Anna Pacquin is human, let alone female. Not to mention "Glee." Holy god. "Glee" is why the terrorists hate us.
Flaws make people interesting. The one person that isn't flawed you find annoying. I wonder why that is. Are you serious? You're asking why would a boss cheat with an almost disgustingly beautiful secretary? Guys have been and still are fucking their secretaries. It happens. Joan Harris (Christina Hendricks) and Sterling's relationship isn't even cliché, it gets really fucking interesting. Are you requiring that every character be likable? How dull. I'm sure he could, but you're missing the whole damn point in the show. The show is about flawed men. It's about women that are subjected to the sexism of that era. If you want your "normals" of that era go watch some Dick Van Dyke to get your jollies. I'm not normally this harsh, but your criticisms are flat and at times contradicting. You seem to think that the show should focus more on the lighter side of the 60's instead of portraying what the writers want to portray. I don't care if you don't like it, but at least try to dislike it on some sensible grounds.
People don't need to be flawed to be interesting. My gran, for an example, was in her 30's in the 1960's (much like Mrs. Draper) and she was certainly more interesting - you hardly see ANYTHING that Mrs. Draper actually does in the first season, other than crash the car and whining about seeing a psychiatrist. Was it normal then to crash cars and seek psychiatrists? Not really. There seemed to be very little character development (beyond what I stated) with Mrs. Draper. Maybe you missed my original post - I did not watch beyond the end of the first season, because I'd lost interest by then. If it takes the writers more than one season to get a side story arc going, they must accept that some people will dislike their show for its lack of pace. You're aware that some guys didn't fuck their secretaries back then, right? No, just one. Well done. Your reading comprehension is fantastic. I said I wanted to see more of the products they were selling (you know, the show is about the guys working at this advertising/marketing firm, so not too much of a foreign concept there) - maybe that's my Marketing degree talking a little there, but I'd have been fascinated by this, and it's hardly ever shown at all - you'd get maybe one minute in an office per episode with guys talking about strategic planning and product roll-outs. This show could've been set at ANY firm in the 1960's - why didn't the writers pick something less creative, where showing the background would detract from the show? Why did they pick an advertsing/marketing firm, where ALL the work is pretty creative in its nature, if they weren't planning on diving deep into the products and the companies' rationales for their products? As for the sexism part, that one I'll give you - that seemed pretty spot-on with what I heard about the 1960's. Shouldn't there be ONE guy in the show that isn't sexist in some way, who is more supporting cast than fringe character? You know, they did exist back then, as much as you'd tell yourself otherwise, and, in my opinion, its slightly disingenuous of the writers to NOT have a character like this in the first season. It was a good idea for a show, I just feel like it was lacking in some areas, which was why I stopped watching it. Also, please stop trying to derail the thread.
I don't know I think discussions like this will actually give this thread some legs outside of the usual dozen or so regular posters simply listing shows they hate. You do know that in the first season Don was an all all business no nonsense guy when it came to the secretaries right? As far as I can remember in that season he was known for being unattainable for the secretaries. He scolded Peggy for coming on to him and had his next secretary moved off of his desk when she started fucking/seeing Sterling (this might have been in the next season). While I agree there is a lack of redeemable characters on the show and I guess it is your right to not like such a set up, this is however the way shows of this nature are tending to go these days. I think the Sopranos set the standard for modern hour long dramas in this respect. While Tony was relatable as a family man, his cares and concerns for his family, he also had a dark side that made you question whether or not you should like him. Breaking Bad uses this exact same formula. I repped you about the fact that wanting to see more product advertisement role outs being a weak personal preference argument. The show is absolutely focused on the human drama and not the actual business side. Picking this industry in this time period makes perfect sense when trying to come up with an interesting concept for a show. It gave the show the ability to have some style and panache. The only campaigns that actually meant something were when they were tied strongly with the characters dramatic plot lines (the Kodak Carousel being a good example).
I don't know if Jersey Shore is well liked enough to count, but fuck that show and what it represents. The only reason 90%* of the people who like that show watch it is to voyeuristically observe the stupid drama of the ridiculous characters so that the viewers can laugh at them and smugly think to themselves how much better they are than the clowns on the show. All that show is is a platform to facilitate faux superiority mental masturbation for the audience. *The other 10% take the show seriously and really just need to be removed from the gene pool.