Support NeoGAF

[Madflavor]

The past few years have really tested my patience, and I'm finally throwing in the towel. I'm done. The only television I'll watch is older shows I love (Breaking Bad/Saul, Sopranos, True Detective S1, etc), or I'm just going to wait until a show is completed and I hear that all seasons were good.

The greatest age of television began in 1999 and lasted for around 20 years. During that time period we got some of the most prestige and iconic shows, and we received new seasons on a yearly basis. Nowadays we have to wait 2-3 years instead of 1, and we get less episodes with worse quality writing. Even the VFX for something like Stranger Things Season 5 look WAY worse than previous seasons.




(Three years for this shit?)

There's no excuse for any of this. I'm tired of waiting longer for less, and I'm tired of investing myself in tv shows that start off great and then start shitting themselves in later seasons. I do not care if someone tells me if some new shows is off the charts amazing. My mindset will immediately default to the prediction that later seasons will nosedive in quality. From now on I'm spending my free time on gaming, books, and the occasional movie. I was just reading this article and it was pretty much the straw the broke the camel's back for me:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulta...pisodes-in-the-time-pluribus-will-give-us-18/
(We got 62 Breaking Bad episodes by the time we'll get around 18 episodes of Pluribus)

Whatever has happened to the industry, they gotta figure out how to get back to a one or one and a half year wait between seasons. This is bullshit and I don't care for whatever excuses they or some armchair industry expert has. FIGURE it out.

 

[Dacvak]

Sometimes I feel the same way about the game industry, how games take 4-7 years to develop now. But at least that kind of makes sense, since the scope and technology of gaming has increased so much over the years.

But what's TV's excuse? If anything, technology should make TV easier and quicker to produce. Waiting 2-3 years per season is insane.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

The past few years have really tested my patience, and I'm finally throwing in the towel. I'm done. The only television I'll watch is older shows I love (Breaking Bad/Saul, Sopranos, True Detective S1, etc), or I'm just going to wait until a show is completed and I hear that all seasons were good.

The greatest age of television began in 1999 and lasted for around 20 years. During that time period we got some of the most prestige and iconic shows, and we received new seasons on a yearly basis. Nowadays we have to wait 2-3 years instead of 1, and we get less episodes with worse quality writing. Even the VFX for something like Stranger Things Season 5 look WAY worse than previous seasons.




(Three years for this shit?)

There's no excuse for any of this. I'm tired of waiting longer for less, and I'm tired of investing myself in tv shows that start off great and then start shitting themselves in later seasons. I do not care if someone tells me if some new shows is off the charts amazing. My mindset will immediately default to the prediction that later seasons will nosedive in quality. From now on I'm spending my free time on gaming, books, and the occasional movie. I was just reading this article and it was pretty much the straw the broke the camel's back for me:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulta...pisodes-in-the-time-pluribus-will-give-us-18/
(We got 62 Breaking Bad episodes by the time we'll get around 18 episodes of Pluribus)

Whatever has happened to the industry, they gotta figure out how to get back to a one or one and a half year wait between seasons. This is bullshit and I don't care for whatever excuses they or some armchair industry expert has. FIGURE it out.

These past four years have been exercise of me dropping new shows midway through the first season or dropping it while watching the first episode

I still watch TV but when it comes to new shows, I'm rather picky nowadays. And I've been going back to shows I missed out on when they aired

I tried watching the latest batch of Stranger Things episodes that just got released but I just ended up dropping it. I'm really getting tired of lot of these shows having bad writing alongside boring ass characters...

Not to mention the agenda pushing

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

I pretty much stopped watching television 15 years ago. I don't really miss it. Every now and then I'll watch a show, but I can't be bothered to care most of the time.

 

[mitch1971]

I've not been interested in modern tv, film, or music for years. It's shit, too much on offer, far too easily available that I miss the joy of searching it out. The more stuff becomes available the less interest I have. It's not special anymore. It's just part of the background now.

 

[Escape Goat]

You should watch some episodes of Riverdale to calm down.

 

[Toytown Assassin]

You should watch some episodes of Riverdale to calm down.

isn't that cruel and unusual punishment?

 

[Escape Goat]

isn't that cruel and unusual punishment?

 

[IAmRei]

i'm already done with TV since years or even decades ago. only watch mandalorian 1 and 2 but that's also years ago already.

 

[Dr. Samuel Hayden]

 

[Wilhelm_85]

I'm just going to wait until a show is completed and I hear that all seasons were good.

That's me. It's just not worth getting invested in a show only to have it turn to shit 4 or 5 seasons in, or worse, start going heavy handed with some social agenda/propaganda.

I haven't watched any western "TV shows" in over 6 years and that was Game of Thrones, which I only stuck with because I had read all the books. That was basically the end for me unless something amazing comes around, but it seems unlikely unless there are major changes in the industry when it comes to who is allowed to make shows.

 

[Valonquar]

Don't worry, we're about 3 to 5 years away from AI replacing everything. Custom slop directly into your feed forever and you'll like it!

 

[Escape Goat]

Don't worry, we're about 3 to 5 years away from AI replacing everything. Custom slop directly into your feed forever and you'll like it!

Netflix is already there just without AIs help. Market tested and risk free garbage to be consumed while people do other things. If you dont pull Stranger Things or Squid Game numbers you get canceled.

 

[DarkShadowXI]

Oh yeah, I stopped watching TV series and movies years ago.

I just play video games and watch sports (both of which are also getting worse).

Otherwise, I'll watch YouTube or old shows/movies from the 90's.

 

[Bry0]

I think game of thrones broke me. The quality drop hurt. I don't seek out movies either once it all became samey junk food. Maybe I'm getting old and it's me, I dunno.

 

[BillMaxwell]

There's a lot of good television on Apple plus.

 

[jshackles]

I stopped watching TV in English / Western TV almost 6 years ago. I just can't be bothered. The only modern TV I watch now is Asian, they're still making good TV.

 

[GateofD]

what is even airing now for sitcoms?
all i see are a million cop shows.

 

[Nydius]

I was just reading this article and it was pretty much the straw the broke the camel's back for me:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulta...pisodes-in-the-time-pluribus-will-give-us-18/
(We got 62 Breaking Bad episodes by the time we'll get around 18 episodes of Pluribus)

This is one of the things that's made me care less about modern shows. I'm old enough to remember when a show that only had 8 or so episodes was called a "mini-series", not a seasonal show.

I think back to shows like The West Wing which, even if I didn't agree entirely with its political messaging, I loved because they had solid writing, great cast chemistry, and good pacing and still pumped out 22 episodes a year for seven years. Sure, there were "filler" episodes but even a lot of those were well done. If they tried to do that show now, we'd get 10 episodes every two years or some shit.

Very few shows these days pique my interest and then when I find one that does I end up disappointed. The Righteous Gemstones comes to mind. I loved season 1 but season 2 was such a mess that I fizzled out around episode 6 and couldn't be bothered to come back to it.

I've always been more of a book reader and music listener anyway. My wife has always been the TV junkie… but all she does these days is watch reruns of classic Law & Order, NYPD Blue, Homicide Life on the Street that she just on a streaming service, or reruns of veterinary shows. She said she wanted to see IT Welcome to Derry, I even signed up for a holiday promo of HBOmax for her, and she hasn't even bothered launching the app.

 

[I collect VHS tapes]

there's still great TV, it's just not as common. Recent shows I liked are The Rehearsal, Beef, The Pitt, The Curse, Twisted Metal and Fallout.

 

[Hugare]

House of the Dragon S1 was the last one that I was like "Damn, this is good". Then season 2 came and it was dog shit.

Welcome to Derry was really good, tho. Definitely check it out if you havent already.

 

[poodaddy]

TV has always been trash, this isn't news.

 

[rorepmE]

Sometimes I feel the same way about the game industry, how games take 4-7 years to develop now. But at least that kind of makes sense, since the scope and technology of gaming has increased so much over the years.

But what's TV's excuse? If anything, technology should make TV easier and quicker to produce. Waiting 2-3 years per season is insane.

Not sure how ads are now in broadcast. But the way they use to do TV shows is they would have sweeps period 4 times a year in a TV season to set ad rates by measuring nielsen ratings for the stations. If you go back and look at shows before streaming, they usually had their best episodes in February, May, July and November. Where you'll see plot twists, big episodes where they go all out etc. I was re-watching Highlander The Series and during the sweeps month episodes they went all out. Everything was blowing up during a 5 minute long quickening with more expensive SFX. Also cars debut in Sept TV ads to coincide with the new Fall TV season.

Everything was done in that set TV schedule and the reason why episode orders were 22-26 episodes was to make it to the magic 100 episode number for syndication which equates to about 4-5 seasons. Makes it easier for a local station to broadcast in syndication for 5 days a week for 90 days.

The shift to 2-3 year gaps between seasons in 2025 is driven by a fundamental change in how TV is produced, moving away from the "assembly line" model of broadcast toward a "mini-movie" approach. The special FX is so much better because they have time for post production. And you don't see the same 20 extras from X-Files, Stargate SG-1 and The Outer Limits

 

[Bojji]

There's a lot of good television on Apple plus.

there's still great TV, it's not just as common. Recent shows I liked are Beef, The Curse, Twisted Metal and Fallout.

Yes, there is still quality stuff being made. I would suggest looking at some European shows, especially Spainish branches of Netflix, HBO (etc.) are very productive. Some S. Korean stuff as well.

And of course there still are many good quality anime releasing every year.

 

[Dacvak]

Yes, there is still quality stuff being made. I would suggest looking at some European shows, especially Spainish branches of Netflix, HBO (etc.) are very productive. Some S. Korean stuff as well.

And of course there still are many good quality anime releasing every year.

Got any good suggestions?

 

[March Climber]

Madflavor take a long break then fix your algorithm when you return.

Don't let Stranger Things of all shows be the one to break you.

Also don't bother following trending shows anymore. I know it's a scary thing to jump in blind, but you'll be better off in finding hidden gems that way.

Only 2 out of my top ten TV shows this year were actually discussed at large on social media sites and GAF, and even then I'd argue the two more popular ones were quickly drowned out by other, larger, releases.

 

[Ozzie666]

People turning on Stranger things like an over due sports dynasty. Sometimes I feel fpeople forget just how shit most TV used to be. Yes sitcoms are a bit of a struggle these days. Free to air TV is a bit of a mess. TB shoes over stay their welcome. Like Shoguon was perfection, no need to make a second season and dilute it's greatness. Everyone is a critic and expects way to much.

In terms of streaming shows off the top of my head: Reacher, Pluribus, Foundation, Diplomat, Landman, Shrinking, Silo, The Pitt, IT, Interview with a Vampire, Dexter.

A lot of good stuff out there.

People even turned on the Boys, which is better than most TV shows.

 

[Dr.D00p]

I dont have the attention span anymore to enable me to stick with any TV series, TBH, whether on a weekly basis or a binge watch.

...Audiobooks have replaced TV for me along time ago.

 

[I collect VHS tapes]

Forgot about The Pitt, think we're about to get s2 too

 

[JimmyF]

Sure there will always be stinkers here and there but apple has a lot of good shows. I think each service will go through a cycle of good and bad, currently Netflix is dog shit, Hbo had good shows but now went to shit as well, for now Apple is doing very well.

Some shows I've watched:
For all mankind
Silo
Foundation
Dark matter
Severance
Hello Tomorrow

 

[Bojji]

Got any good suggestions?

From what I watched this year:

The Forrest / La Forêt (french)
The Mantis / La Mante (french)
The Bridge / Bron/Broen (Denmark-Sweden)
Black Spot / Zone Blanche (french)
Mouse (Korean) - loved it
The Returned / Les revenants (french) - it's amazing

There is also stuff like (if you heaven't watched already): Outer Range, Dark, Fortitude, Marianne, The Fall, American Gods, Wayward Pines.

The best thing is that I mentioned Spain before but mostly watched French tv shows, hahaha. And many of this stuff is from 2015-2020, still last decade but not the newest for sure. From newer stuff: Expanse, Severance, Silo, Foundation, all Flanagan shows (Haunting of the Hill House is incredible) and many others but you probably know most of them already (made in USA mostly).

 

[Ar¢tos]

I don't watch TV (except concerts on Mezzo), I read books.
Since I don't read freshly released books, the stories are already completed, no waiting time for the next book.
It also doesn't have to cost anything, there are plenty of free books to read in sites like Project Gutenberg and other , probably less legal , ones.

 

[Sand Dan Glokta]

Interesting thread. I have nothing to add since I don't watch TV or Movies. I can probably count everything I've ever watched in my life with a notepad and 15 minutes.

I do feel vindicated though that I'm not missing out on that much. Back to books and gaming I guess (and occasional 1-2 yearly anime)

 

[MayauMiao]

I still watch tv but the kind of where I just play Youtube videos. The traditional tv shows is just tiring, stale, made for check boxes.

 

[JimmyRustler]

What do you expect? Different people are entering the entertainment industry these days. The golden days are not coming back. Passion work will decline even more and be replaced by contract work. And what you see today is the result.

I've been listening to a few interviews with James Cameron the past couple of days because of the new Avatar movie. That dude was a truck driver before he got into the industry by a friend of a friend. Then he writes the Terminator script, gets funding and a wide commercial release for it. Do you really think something like this happening is possible in 2025? No, it is not. People making films today are largely pulled for film schools where they have been indoctrinated with politics instead of hard/passion work.

Every now and then something legit will still slip through the cracks but you have to accept that the attitude of the people making this stuff will never be what it once was.

 

[Dirk Benedict]

The past few years have really tested my patience, and I'm finally throwing in the towel. I'm done. The only television I'll watch is older shows I love (Breaking Bad/Saul, Sopranos, True Detective S1, etc), or I'm just going to wait until a show is completed and I hear that all seasons were good.

The greatest age of television began in 1999 and lasted for around 20 years. During that time period we got some of the most prestige and iconic shows, and we received new seasons on a yearly basis. Nowadays we have to wait 2-3 years instead of 1, and we get less episodes with worse quality writing. Even the VFX for something like Stranger Things Season 5 look WAY worse than previous seasons.




(Three years for this shit?)

There's no excuse for any of this. I'm tired of waiting longer for less, and I'm tired of investing myself in tv shows that start off great and then start shitting themselves in later seasons. I do not care if someone tells me if some new shows is off the charts amazing. My mindset will immediately default to the prediction that later seasons will nosedive in quality. From now on I'm spending my free time on gaming, books, and the occasional movie. I was just reading this article and it was pretty much the straw the broke the camel's back for me:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulta...pisodes-in-the-time-pluribus-will-give-us-18/
(We got 62 Breaking Bad episodes by the time we'll get around 18 episodes of Pluribus)

Whatever has happened to the industry, they gotta figure out how to get back to a one or one and a half year wait between seasons. This is bullshit and I don't care for whatever excuses they or some armchair industry expert has. FIGURE it out.

Welcome to the club. It's been since 2008.
I watch shows but very seldom and usually binge entire seasons selectively.
No ads constantly blasting my ears and facial, especially the ones that get louder than the content you're engaging with.
No more reality bullshit, no movie stars, no parrot news networks. Fuck all of that consistent migraine.

Fuck yeah, Bro!

 

[calico]

Television is now intended to be background noise (mostly a subliminal hum of woke messaging) while you're on social media or whatever. It's very unlikely to be consistently good if you actively pay attention to it, as this is well beyond what is expected or required of it.

 

[MaestroMike]

last shows I watched since watching penguin last year were all seasons of squid games, the ultimate fighter, latest season of always sunny in Philadelphia, some of season 1 of Wednesday, the latest season of South Park that are supposed to equal 2 seasons and Pluribus. Squid games was enjoyable I feel like there is still good stuff to watch I just watch when I'm like eating dinner I don't get too invested in anything and if it sucks at least I ate something good. Same with movies. I get serious about stuff and cut out distractions when I play games so I can focus/concentrate.

 

[StueyDuck]

Besides alot of bad writing and modern audiences writing, alot of this comes down to the streaming platforms themselves.

There was also a writers strike to remember that did fuck up some shows releases like severance s2 for example.

I do wish some shows would scale back the "prestige" though. I loved shows like chuck, castle, psych, white collar, warehouse 13, fringe and so on.

You still get some shows like that, revival wasnt too bad and seemed to not be chasing the "prestige". Whether it gets a season 2 and how long it will take is another story

While I love severance and foundation and for all mankind etc... you get great shows like slow horses which is clearly well produced and managed, so much so that they even advertise the next season at the end of the current one.

 

[Critical Hit]

House of the Dragon S1 was the last one that I was like "Damn, this is good". Then season 2 came and it was dog shit.

Didn't like it from the start.

Foundation

No, thanks.

 

[MidGenRefresh]

I just realized that I watched exactly zero TV shows this year, old or new. And I only watched one movie, which was not even released this year.

 

[StueyDuck]

I will give TV one thing above something like movies and gaming...

While as I say , most stuff is written poorly and have modern audiences in mind, most new tv is genuinely inventive or have an interesting idea.

Even pluribus which ended negatively for me, still felt new and interesting in premise.

Which I cant say the same for games or film

 

[Sephimoth]

I just work through (usually older) shows that have over 8.0 on imdb that I missed.

Eg, just finished Black Sails, which was great. Now onto Spartacus

 

[thefool]

I said this in the Stranger Things budget thread, half-joking, that it was money laundering. And it evidently is, they funnel this money to fund god knows what.

 

[Sticks]

I just work through (usually older) shows that have over 8.0 on imdb that I missed.

Eg, just finished Black Sails, which was great. Now onto Spartacus

Enjoy, I feel like the last good shows were 5-10 years ago

 

[sono]

How much do you want for the TV's in your house as a job lot

 

[HRK69]

God this thread is depressing

 

[Poppinfresh]

This is one of the things that's made me care less about modern shows. I'm old enough to remember when a show that only had 8 or so episodes was called a "mini-series", not a seasonal show.

I think back to shows like The West Wing which, even if I didn't agree entirely with its political messaging, I loved because they had solid writing, great cast chemistry, and good pacing and still pumped out 22 episodes a year for seven years. Sure, there were "filler" episodes but even a lot of those were well done. If they tried to do that show now, we'd get 10 episodes every two years or some shit.

Very few shows these days pique my interest and then when I find one that does I end up disappointed. The Righteous Gemstones comes to mind. I loved season 1 but season 2 was such a mess that I fizzled out around episode 6 and couldn't be bothered to come back to it.

I've always been more of a book reader and music listener anyway. My wife has always been the TV junkie… but all she does these days is watch reruns of classic Law & Order, NYPD Blue, Homicide Life on the Street that she just on a streaming service, or reruns of veterinary shows. She said she wanted to see IT Welcome to Derry, I even signed up for a holiday promo of HBOmax for her, and she hasn't even bothered launching the app.

TV died in the late 90s/early-2000s when:

1) Shows like Survivor and American Idol became a hit, and networks realized that they could make slop reality TV for a fraction of the cost of a scripted show, and still draw huge viewership numbers

and

2) When cable networks realized they could forego the traditional "season" model for scripted content and produce 8-10 episode "seasons" on a irregular basis, and people would still watch their shows.

The 90s were the last truly great decade for TV. It's been all downhill since then.

I really miss traditional network seasons, mini-series events, and even movies of the week.

 

[Trilobit]

I'm watching Lawrence of Arabia at the moment and I'm saddened by there no longer being epics like it. It's absolutely astounding. I feel like modern cinematic storytelling (including TV) is far from what it could be. Dune came close, but it's no LoA.

 

[Punished Miku]

TV show endings have always been an afterthought. If you think about the format it isn't really surprising. They sell these things entirely based on the pilot and the outline for 1 season, maybe 2. After that, they extend the storyline based on how successful it is. They usually don't get advance notice when they're being canceled and a lot of the time don't have endings at all. In most cases, the ending is rushed and largely unsatisfying. The format almost doesn't end. They usually just bring the whole cast back for a send off, equivalent to a Broadway show ending where everyone comes on stage and takes a bow.