-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
TV Shows that people went crazy over, but in retrospect were kinda dumb or bad
- Thread starter border
- Start date
Walking Dead is good, dumb fun that probably dabbles too much with being a serious character drama when clearly the writers aren't up to the task. That said, I never understood why people feel it's necessary for TWD to have a predetermined endpoint or goalpost to justify watching. The first season makes it pretty clear that society is fucked and is never going to be rebuilt......so at that point the show is just going to be about surviving an apocalyptic wasteland. It's not like LOST or its successors, where they constantly dangled some satisfying conclusion in front of viewers, only to snatch it away for another season.
Imbarkus
As Sartre noted in his contemplation on Hell in No Exit, the true horror is other members.
Battlestar Galactica (reboot).
I followed Ron D. Moore over from Deep Space Nine, which pioneered an emphasis on serialized storylines in the sort of hostile ground Paramount had in its priorities regarding Star Trek (syndicated reruns and launching a new network, at the time). I always figured DS9's good-but-sort-of-haphazard long-term plotting was more a result of building a serialized universe more or less after-the-fact. Moore's public gripes after a short stint on Voyager, and his public comments leading up to the launch of BSG, led me to believe I might witness a proper serialized TV sci-fi drama with a thought-out storyline running clear through cleanly (not rushed and constantly in peril as was the case with Babylon 5).
I don't feel I got that. As the series went on I definitely got more and more of that "making it up as I go," Stephen King kind of feeling. I had no sense that the final four had been known by the writers years before, or even a few episodes before their reveal. Gaius Baltar went from absolutely crucial and fascinating to a sideshow attraction. Important considerations like scarce water, or the unique nature of their non-networked computer systems, became footnotes. This, after waiting so long between seasons that I lost the plot every time. By the time the ending finally came along: it might have been preposterous or not. It may have been properly set up among a million other plot threads left dangling, or not: I'm not sure how I was supposed to distinguish and remember it. But I definitely feel, for me, it wasn't earned.
I followed Ron D. Moore over from Deep Space Nine, which pioneered an emphasis on serialized storylines in the sort of hostile ground Paramount had in its priorities regarding Star Trek (syndicated reruns and launching a new network, at the time). I always figured DS9's good-but-sort-of-haphazard long-term plotting was more a result of building a serialized universe more or less after-the-fact. Moore's public gripes after a short stint on Voyager, and his public comments leading up to the launch of BSG, led me to believe I might witness a proper serialized TV sci-fi drama with a thought-out storyline running clear through cleanly (not rushed and constantly in peril as was the case with Babylon 5).
I don't feel I got that. As the series went on I definitely got more and more of that "making it up as I go," Stephen King kind of feeling. I had no sense that the final four had been known by the writers years before, or even a few episodes before their reveal. Gaius Baltar went from absolutely crucial and fascinating to a sideshow attraction. Important considerations like scarce water, or the unique nature of their non-networked computer systems, became footnotes. This, after waiting so long between seasons that I lost the plot every time. By the time the ending finally came along: it might have been preposterous or not. It may have been properly set up among a million other plot threads left dangling, or not: I'm not sure how I was supposed to distinguish and remember it. But I definitely feel, for me, it wasn't earned.
Friends is a good one. It seems like America collectively lost its shit over that show in the early/mid 90's. Everyone was talking about it; heck, the fricking theme song used to be played on the radio non-ironically.
I don't think it's an affront to God like some folk, but it was just a bog standard sitcom for its time.
I don't think it's an affront to God like some folk, but it was just a bog standard sitcom for its time.
Poimandres
Member
Hey, at least The Expanse seems to be promising in this regard.
UncleSporky
Member
"TV Shows that people went crazy over, but in retrospect were kinda dumb or bad"
Freeza Under The Shower
Member
Yup. The Big Bang Theory of its day. Like Two And A Half Men, or Family Guy, or The Simpsons post-whatever season you last liked, and it goes on for a while.
LOST is the defining show of this kind though. Trash from the start, and people going 'no but it's great' when it was obvious they were just doing aimless shit.
The status of that show, much like the status of The Walking Dead today, is simply unbelievable from a position of story logic. I quit TWD on the end of S2, and then you read up on the shit after that, and I'm like "why do people watch this trash".
Renegade Frost
Banned
bad opinions
I'm gonna say
Ugly betty
gossip girl
90210
Dawsons Crreek
One Tree Hill
Smallville
Arrow
ect.
The CW is pure trash lmfao I love it
Imbarkus
As Sartre noted in his contemplation on Hell in No Exit, the true horror is other members.
Huh it's been sneaking by me. I'll check it out. Thomas Jane!?! Is he good?
Crimson_Echidna
Banned
Glee.
Jon Carter
Member
This opinion might suck since I didn't even watch the show, but I remember people talking about The Newsroom like it was a brilliant show, but I've seen two scenes on YouTube and it's enough to make me think it's a stupid show that thinks it's really smart.
pizzaparty
Member
Rewatched BB and laughed at how cartoonish Tuco is.
LAUGHTREY
Modesty becomes a woman
Story wise breaking bad was nothing. Walter White needs money -> Makes meth -> gets in too deep -> loses money, repeat.
The acting and characters are what was so good about that show, you can't watch it again though, you know all the cliffhangers are so forced.
Evil Monkey DTT
Banned
Most of death note is a mess but I was eating every bite off the plate.
LOST is another show that benefited from heavy serialization in an era of mostly episodic or procedural shows. People say it's better to binge-watch LOST, but I honestly imagine that only makes the show's padding and meandering even more obvious and frustrating. I watched it week-to-week from the very beginning and it was quite enthralling. Listening to podcasts and reading listener theories on forums only drew you in more and more. It definitely had weak episodes and weak seasons, but when the revelations were hitting and you got a big development episode it was pretty great stuff.
I think the worst thing you can say about it was that the show was clearly treading water a lot of times, but even the water-treading episodes weren't as offensively stupid or bad as the time-wasting B-plots of shows like Dexter and 24.
I think the worst thing you can say about it was that the show was clearly treading water a lot of times, but even the water-treading episodes weren't as offensively stupid or bad as the time-wasting B-plots of shows like Dexter and 24.
I think Sherlock is the canon answer here.
People gunna come around to the right side of history on Westworld being bad.
True Blood as proposed by OP is an interesting case. It was always pretty trashy but that intro was soooo goooood and promised something great that the show never fulfilled. I kept waiting for True Blood to live up to itself but I never really thought it was good.
People gunna come around to the right side of history on Westworld being bad.
True Blood as proposed by OP is an interesting case. It was always pretty trashy but that intro was soooo goooood and promised something great that the show never fulfilled. I kept waiting for True Blood to live up to itself but I never really thought it was good.
The first season was good and then got really bad. It was like they'd spent years thinking about it and planning it out but everything else after felt like "holy shit. they renewed us? we have no idea where to go from here," and somehow went on for many seasons.
I feel like a lot of shows suffer from this. Someone, or some people, spend a long time thinking about a project and then have just a few months to follow it up.
That's like saying Mad Men's story is nothing.
A character-driven show doesn't need a crazy plot. And for that matter, Breaking Bad has a pretty crazy plot.
It's called a character study
The West Wing is probably a better candidate for this category, to be honest. The Newsroom was really not that well-received from the beginning. Yes, I know people love posting intense monologues from it on social media. But it's one thing to enjoy 2-3 minute snippets of Sorkin preaching through his characters.....to actually enjoy The Newsroom in its entirety is a much more difficult task.
aparisi2274
Member
This!
Freeza Under The Shower
Member
Or you could watch the pilot episode, which is actually available on youtube for free?
I feel like this is the answer that is going to be hard for people to accept but it's true.
I love the first three seasons but at this point I'm just watching to see it through to the end. It's fun enough but the writing has officially been bad for longer than it has been good.
Crimson_Echidna
Banned
I felt like even the second half of the first season started to show some warning signs, like that episode where Finn called Kurt a fag. Like, I get what the writers were going for, but that was just a sloppily written episode and the show only got more heavy handed and poorly written from there.
Dawson's Creek is actually a pretty good example.
It was sort-of well received critically and made a significant impact on the target demo during it's early years, but holy shit if the entire thing wasn't pedantic and over-written. It being a secretly horrible TV show actually gave rise to the now-dead TelevisionWithoutPity, which had some of the best TV recaps of all time.
The rest of that list was either inoffensive or always kind of seen as trashy. Gossip Girl was fun for a year.
thewaffles
Member
I wouldn't say it was dumb or bad, but I was really let down by Sons of Anarchy after years of enormous hype by most people I knew. Maybe a bad opinion but it was the first thing that came to mind for me. After Friends.
I always kinda viewed it as Melrose Place with vampires and werewolves. What was the promise you saw in early episodes?
I can't imagine anyone who watched more than two episodes thought it was good. All my friends were eye-roll-watching it for hyucks. Some of the performances were fun.
It was kind of interesting if you were into The West Wing. Because Newsroom was all of Sorkin's worst impulses and virtually none of his good. So it *felt* familiar, and similar to a good thing, but was itself almost entirely bad.
Hey look, it's the Cliffs Notes edition of Prison Break .
disappeared
Banned
That fruit's hanging so low it's touching the ground.
RedAssedApe
Banned
hipster thread of hating popular things
most of the shows being named here at least started off decent enough if not great and are still watchable
most of the shows being named here at least started off decent enough if not great and are still watchable
Not even early episodes, I mean literally the intro credits. That montage of swamp folk and like revival preachers laying on hands and this lurking KKK imagery. There was a kind of edge or social awareness or something fundamentally Southern there that the show just never even touched on.
I now realize this.
Eh, I don't really get Westworld, but Mr. Robot was definitely feeling itself way too much in its 2nd season, to the point where yea, I could see myself being dissatisfied with however the show ends.
People went crazy over Arrow?
Ah yes, the ultimate shutdown for people who aren't as willing to consider and accept flaws of something they like as others may be.
You know what else is popular? Transformers movies.
Freeza Under The Shower
Member
I second it. I had very little interest in watching the latest season and even discussing it is more a matter 'guessing the end' and going through the motions than a legit excitement. It's a shame the current season isn't actually the last one, so we get another rousing waiting year to finally see this end.
It's honestly best binge-watched, which I remember doing with S1 too, since I had no idea this show existed at the time.
But most shows get stale past season four anyway. As fun as The Expanse is now (and yes, it is good), I do sense that it will get into the same territory if it goes past a fifth season. Which the book material it's adapted from does allow for, to some degree.
RespectThySole
Member
True Detective S1. Great performances by the 2 leads, but the writing was quite poor at times.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Oh, got another one!
Babylon 5.
Absolutely terrible show. I remember seeing a few episodes here and there as a teen and finding it mostly OK but not really understanding what was going on. So I tried getting into it for real a few years ago and... holy fuuuuuck it's bad. There's a hint of a decent story buried somewhere in there, but the shitty characterization and shittier acting is just too glaring to ignore. I don't even care about the dated effects, but I can't tolerate bad writing mixed with even worse acting. I really tried to give it a shot too, I knew they recast the captain but Sheridan was somehow even worse than that wooden-ass dude from S1. I lasted until early-to-mid S3 or so, and not even the hotAragorn ranger could redeem it for me.
Babylon 5.
Absolutely terrible show. I remember seeing a few episodes here and there as a teen and finding it mostly OK but not really understanding what was going on. So I tried getting into it for real a few years ago and... holy fuuuuuck it's bad. There's a hint of a decent story buried somewhere in there, but the shitty characterization and shittier acting is just too glaring to ignore. I don't even care about the dated effects, but I can't tolerate bad writing mixed with even worse acting. I really tried to give it a shot too, I knew they recast the captain but Sheridan was somehow even worse than that wooden-ass dude from S1. I lasted until early-to-mid S3 or so, and not even the hot
I went from being super excited for season 4, pretty excited for season 5, then just like "i guess i might as well watch this" for seasons 6 and 7.
I absolutely agree that there is nothing wrong with being a soap, but there is good soap and bad soap.
Game of Thrones seasons 1-3: Great soap
Seasons 4-6: Bad soap
RedAssedApe
Banned
and? the transformer movies aren't critically reviewed like a lot of the stuff getting mentioned here. people go crazy over those but know that they are dumb and bad. there is no retrospect. i give the first movie a pass though.
GOD HATES FANGS
True Blood dabbled in social awareness in superficial ways (the opening sequence, the protests against vampire rights). I'm not sure if setting the vampires up as an oppressed minority would have really been a good direction to go in. The writers they had probably couldn't have accomplished it.
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Wait, isn't it?
Well there ya go.
It's a horrendous movie.
The point is, you shouldn't reduce criticism of something popular to "they're just being contrarian for the sake of being contrarian."
6 more episodes next year.
Similar threads
- Locked