Mad Men to Seinfeld – TV's most criminally overrated shows - The Guardian

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UrbanRats said:
The absurd thing is that i don't think anyone, including Jerry Seinfeld himself, ever claimed otherwise.
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In the extras for Seinfeld he always talks about what it was like working with actors as a non actor.

He knows exactly what he is and the show is which is why it worked.
 
If the person who wrote the LOST recap was such a superfan that had the numbers ingrained in her head, then why did she get the flight number wrong?
 
JoeyJungle said:
? They have some of the most complex characters of any show imo.



I think overrated means more like you're tired of hearing it discussed, or that you don't think it deserves the amount of discussion it receives. But that's just, like, my opinion man (to quote an overrated film).
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Not all the characters are paper thin though often the relationships with each other are.
 
Yeah, Seinfield's success has always seemed a little bizarre to me.

Although it's easy to say so in a thread like this and I don't particularly think there's such thing as something "overrated".

Still, I don't understand it.
 
Regarding The West Wing:
Their opponents, meanwhile, are cartoonishly evil figures who exist only so Bartlet and co. can point them towards the righteous path of truth and justice.
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That is just patently untrue. The West Wing is characteristic in that it gives everyone a chance to articulate their points. There are no "evil" characters in the whole series (except for the actual criminals).
 
Never considered anything in that list to be overrated. Don't really understand why the writers get the impression that they are.
 
Lost is criminally underrated these days. The backlash against it was completely out of proportion. People act like it's the worst TV show in history when it's a great show with a couple of weaker seasons.
 
I've just started watching Seinfeld for the first time and I do find it overrated. I mean its good but its not even close to being the GOAT. Jerry Seinfeld himself is a fairly boring character, straight man or not.

This is England being on there is heresy though.
 
Currygan said:
Frasier is truly the best American sitcom of the '90s. The fact Seinfeld is always put as the no.1 is baffling to me
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Yes Fraiser is extraordinary, but it's existence doesn't diminish Seinfeld or make it overrated. Fraiser was also critically lauded and won several Emmy's if I recall. I believe it was also quite popular for a while.

It seems Seinfeld's reign might be coming to a close -- I don't hear many kids talking about it these days. I think it might be because they took so long to release it digitally on Hulu (and even then only 5 episodes at a time for non-subscribers). Probably made more money but it's losing cultural relevancy.

That being said, it's up there with I love lucy in terms of overall cultural impact. I have no doubt that it will be a popular favorite among retirement homes in 30 years.

The only one on the list that is actually overrated is arguably
Lost
. Because it tricked viewers into believing they had a coherent or interesting story plot, when in the end they were just injecting random elements of faux mystery.
 
Sande said:
Lost is criminally underrated these days. The backlash against it was completely out of proportion. People act like it's the worst TV show in history when it's a great show with a couple of weaker seasons.
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The lead up and the pay off was bullshit. The journey there went to shit after season 3.

This is England though, WTF. That's great television. Walking Dead overrated as well? Terrible opinion.
 
janoDX said:
They got TWD right.

TWD is like watching some Anime.

Fillers, some parts of the story change, fillers, special moments change locations or characters completely, the delivery is stronger on the original material.
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This goes probably for all TV shows that are based on comics or books. Good thing I haven't read TWD comics and so I find the TV show amazing. On the other hand I've read ASOIF and find GoT absolutely terrible after Season 2. So well yeah, don't read the original material if you want to enjoy the cutted and shortened TV version.

The newest show I really like is Preacher and I think it is based on a comic like TWD too. So I will probably avoid the comics for some time. Pretty dumb if you think about it. lol
 
That list seems right except for Lost, that series got a lot of backlash. In my mind overrated shows aren't bad, they are just held in regard a tad bit too high.
 
I only agree with The Walking Dead and Lost.

I VEHEMENTLY disagree with AD, of course.

The shows listed in the title were pure clickbait, so I won't discuss them.
 
RangerX said:
I've just started watching Seinfeld for the first time and I do find it overrated. I mean its good but its not even close to being the GOAT. Jerry Seinfeld himself is a fairly boring character, straight man or not.

This is England being on there is heresy though.
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If you are still only on first 2 seasons, wait. 3rd season on-wards should knock your socks off.
 
Saften said:
Regarding The West Wing:


That is just patently untrue. The West Wing is characteristic in that it gives everyone a chance to articulate their points. There are no "evil" characters in the whole series (except for the actual criminals).
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Yea I was confused by that. It basically portrayed (accurately) how idealistic and driven by power most politicians are. Most of the antagonists in that show aren't really even people--it tends to be ideas more than anything. I mean look at the last season, who's the "bad guy" there? Vinnick? I don't think so. He's ideologically opposed to the Bartlett Administration as well as Santos, but he's not a villain, and it goes to great lengths to develop him as a smart, charismatic, and--above all else--able politician. I actually love Arnold Vinnick in that show, because he's exactly what I wish Republicans in the real US Political System were really like. The only other "bad guy" that pops up is John Goodman's Glenn Walker. But even he isn't a villain, and his intentions are clear from beginning to end.

The only real bad guy I can remember in that show that was cartoonishly villainous was Rep. Darren Gibson. But even he explained his reasoning and it made sense given the context of the show.
 
Wife and I are watching Friends right now, it's not really that great. We are going to go through Seinfeld next, I've seen nearly all of them and I love the show so I'm interested to see what she thinks about it not really having seen it before.
 
Spyder_Monkey said:
Seinfeld? The same Seinfeld that was a refreshing take on sitcoms when it premiered in 1989? The same Seinfeld that influenced a generation of sitcoms? That's overrated? Does the Guardian know what the word overrated means?

Wait, did they say that Jerry Seinfeld is a bad actor? Holy shit this is such a terrible article.
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Seinfeld IS a bad actor. I'm fairly sure even HE knows it and it's completely intentional. We actually spoke about it in my advanced English class back in 1993.

As to the list, Seinfeld and Friends don't belong on it. I'm ok with the rest.
 
How did I know before I even clicked on the thread that Arrested Development would be on the list?

rolling_eyes_lucille_arrested_development.gif
 
I always found Seinfeld to be overrated. It was a good shot, but never thought it was god-tier as some like to think of it.
 
Damn, very harsh on West Wing and Mad Men by the author.
I'll go with Friends being overrated though, and Seinfeld (sorry but Curb is a million times better)
 
I thought we had come to the conclusion, as a society, that Friends was one of those 90s things we were going to pretend never existed.

Like Will Smith's rap career.
 
I definitely agree with Lost. When you have whole seasons that suck the life out of a show and a buildup of mysteries throughout which are never answered, it is hard to call it actually great.

Lost was great at making "OMG WTF" moments, but not the final answers. They never actually planned those. So people were talking about it alot, but in the end all discussion just died off.

Seinfeld is the Evangelion of modern sitcoms - even if stuff improved on it (like It's Always Sunny) it still had a ton of value in terms of what it contributed.
 
OléGunner;211561194 said:
I'll go with Friends being overrated though, and Seinfeld (sorry but Curb is a million times better)
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I dont get it. Curb is good, no doubt. But its just the adventures of George costanza. How can it be million times better than Seinfeld? I absolutely adore Seinfeld but couldnt watch all seasons of Curb. You just know what is going to happen. All setups can be seen from a million miles away. It has some good side-characters definitely (Leon and Crazy eyed Killah are amazing), but Seinfeld had far more of those too.
 
as if anyone but a handful of hopelessly lost souls actually believes that Friends, Walking Dead or Lost are great shows

oh I missed Downtown Abbey on the list, I watched the first two seasons recently, the show is a damn soap opera
 
The only choices that remotely make sense are Friends, The Walking Dead, Downton Abbey, and This Is England.
 
Seinfeld was magic at the time and revolutionized the sitcom genre... but it's painful to watch nowadays.

Frasier though, still stands the test of time.
 
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