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TV Shows that people went crazy over, but in retrospect were kinda dumb or bad

H

higemaru

Member
Gazoogleheimmer said:
Ah yes, the old "hasn't aged well" argument. Hate it.
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If we were talking about like, Father Knows Best or something, then maybe I can understand that argument but Seinfeld has legitimately aged better than most TV shows. The characters are bitter, self-defeating, cruel, and miserable, it's timeless.
 
O

Onemic

Member
The Shield

I actually dont know how it was seen as being good when it was running tbh. The first 2 seasons are bottom tier TV.
 
H

higgsboson1997

Member
Tubs_McNubs said:
Gotta agree with people saying Game of Thrones. D&D were never good writers (check their credits prior to Thrones), and the strength of the show was always the source material and the actors. Now that there is no more source material, the show is basic as hell. The show can still get me going with awesome bits of fan service (Ex. s7e4
Arya and Brienne sparring, Seeing Drogon in action
), but at the end of the day D&D are creating a fan-fiction level conclusion.

Also, I almost had a conniption when I saw the OP list the Sopranos. The Sopranos only gets better. Long live David Chase.
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Benioff is a good writer. His 25th Hour is a great work that has won and been nominated for awards. It was adapted into a movie, which was fantastic as well. City of Thieves is also an amazing book, and my personal favourite thing he's done apart from GoT of course. It was a heavy inspiration for The Last of Us, which the game's director has noted before.

You should check those out if you haven't.
 
M

minor effort

Banned
I get that they're geared towards baby boomers and older, but I'm amazed that they still keep making laughtrack sitcoms in 2017. It just seems so obsolete.
 
S

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
border said:
To their credit, the show never took itself as seriously as programs like Dexter or 24. They also did a far, far better job of handling a massive cast and tons of concurrent plots. While some characters definitely had dull arcs, it wasn't a situation were you groaned and sighed every time they cut away from the A-plotline. And oftentimes you were looking forward to seeing the sideplots progress more than the main Sookie story.
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To clarify, I loved the show. I loved the trash.
 
K

Kayhan

Member
Fallout-NL said:
No it wasn't, save for a final episode I'm still not entirely sure about, season 1 was fucking great.
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Agreed.

True Detective Season 1 was a modern masterpiece.

Fukunaga's direction, Pizzolatto's writing. Maybe it was lightning in a bottle but it WAS LIGHTNING.
 
K

Kayhan

Member
The reputation of Lost is sinking faster than that CGI submarine.

ZYmEYYS.gif
 
A

awcarew

Member
The way this thread is heading... I'm just gonna throw

The Wire
Breaking Bad
Friday Night Lights
The Shield
Twin Peaks

out there in case anyone missed them.
 
T

Timbuktu

Member
Did you guys actually like Friends back then? I have a feeling a lot of people who were 'crazy' about the show back then would still like it and watch it when they see it on syndication now.
 
V

VDenter

Banned
The writing of Game Of Thrones while entertaining has gotten pretty bad after season 3. It pretty much feels like fan fiction now that they have no further material to adapt and Season 5 was just a complete mess.
 
D

Dadasch

Member
FairyD said:
Seinfeld.

Looking bad at old episodes it hasn't aged well.
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What do you mean by this? Are the jokes old or what?
I still love it. If I catch an episode on TV I usually watch and enjoy it.

There is only one Comedy-centric show I put before Seinfeld: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Frasier is great too. :D
 
K

Kayhan

Member
Timbuktu said:
Did you guys actually like Friends back then? I have a feeling a lot of people who were 'crazy' about the show back then would still like it and watch it when they see it on syndication now.
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I liked Friends. I didn't think it was some masterpiece but it was solidly entertaining.

It is pretty dated now sure but has anyone tried rewatching Seinfeld? Oooh boy.
 
C

Catdaddy

Member
Two and a Half Men – didn’t realize until Sheen went nuts, every week it was the same exact show.
Sheen fucks hot girl(s)
Jon Cryer fails at something – everyone makes fun of him
Housekeeper says something sassy and racy
Kid is dumb and treat as so
Mom drinks alot and everyone tries and fails to avoid
 
S

Solo

Member
Kayhan said:
Lost should be in the OP.

"We are just going to make this shit up as we go along."
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I'm not going to defend Lost, because it has lots of problems, but that's ("making shit up as they go") what happens on 99.9% of shows. As it should. Creative endeavors aren't locked in on day one.
 
K

Kayhan

Member
Solo said:
I'm not going to defend Lost, because it has lots of problems, but that's ("making shit up as they go") what happens on 99.9% of shows. As it should. Creative endeavors aren't locked in on day one.
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But, you know, when your show revolves around a big mystery it might help to have some idea what the fuck it is supposed to be about.
 
M

MikeyB

Member
border said:
True Blood - this show was fun trash. It was very fun, but still kinda trash. With its similar penchant for bloodshed and T&A, I can't help but wonder if Game of Thrones will occupy the same space in our memory 5-10 years down the line. It doesn't have the same soap opera tendencies as True Blood did, so perhaps it will fare better in retrospect.
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Nope. Game of Thrones is saved by tight and clear writing, rich characters, and the complex relationships; all of which are established in the first few seasons. The foundation is strong enough that, barring any colossal missteps, the show will end as being better than trash. Miles better than True Blood trash.

That being said, the dialogue and logic of the series shit the damn bed after they got away from the books. HBOs tendency to trashiness came through with the "bad pussy", android Bran dialogue, and goddamned Sheeran cameo, but it is just tarnish on an otherwise well crafted thing.
 
RedAssedApe

RedAssedApe

Banned
Seems more like people are discussing shows jumping the shark as opposed to shows that haven't aged well and you'd think are legitimately bad from the start. There are probably very few shows that were legitimately good through out the entire run. Especially broadcast TV where you're forced to do filler episodes to kill time.

Semantics of the thread title though. OP did at least give context to the discussion.
 
W

wazoo

Member
Got is too recent.

go back to 1997 and ask people if friends will age well, you will get the same hysterical reaction as GOT fabs here
 
D

Draper

Member
LOST

And I was a devout follower of the show.

What was the cabin?

What were the vaccinations for?

Why was Ethan initially portrayed as a deranged lunatic, then a nice wholesome guy?

Why Is there an obnoxious intense close up of their faces before every damn commercial break?
 
RedAssedApe

RedAssedApe

Banned
zoukka said:
Then again a lot of people still buy and watch Friends.
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yup...if its on syndication and i have nothing better to do i'll still occasionally just watch a random episode and get good feelings about it. maybe just nostalgia but i wouldn't call the show bad. maybe dumb in the guilty pleasure sense.
 
O

Oveja Negra

Member
Sherlock for me too. After all the praise I was expecting something really clever but I never got connected with the characters, first, and second, as OP pointed out, the chapters never were really well thought.

I stopped watching it after
the chapter where they explain how Sherlock faked his suicide jumping off the building.

I was like "ok, the guys in charge of this show REALLY think everybody is an imbecile with no brain".
 
A

admiraltaftbar

Member
Walking dead was never good in my opinion. The first episode was almost great but the stupid "my wife's a zombie and she knows it me" really threw off an otherwise great episode with just a pointless plot point. It's a shame because leading up to the show I was excited.
 
R

Ralemont

not me
A solid half of Twin Peaks is really dumb and kinda baffling, and it's a testament to how much people (including me) like the other half that it's viewed as positively today as it is. But if someone were to say that all the bad stuff spoiled the rest, I wouldn't have a very good rebuttal.
 
S

Spieler Eins

Member
Naruto. The world building and character developments made zero sense from the very beginning. The tactics based fights were good early on, but then it went DBZ knockoff quickly.
 
S

Schucky Ducky

Banned
Kayhan said:
Lost should be in the OP.

"We are just going to make this shit up as we go along."
Click to expand...

Rewatching it now and I definitely agree. The last two seasons in particular do not hold up well, even if they have some great moments. It should have ended at the end of Season 4 IMO. I would have preferred the darker ending of the Oceanic 6 getting off and never returning, leaving the fate of everyone else a mystery.
 
S

Seirith

Member
The thread title should have added "in my opinion" to it. Shows people have named here, I have loved. It's not like just because you don't like it the show it bad.

I personally hated The Shield but my husband liked it. Doesn't make it a bad show, it means I personally didn't like it.

Stating an opinion of something does not make it a fact.
 
P

PSqueak

Banned
Random Human said:
Heroes. The show got terrible post-season one, but in retrospect even season one was super dicey, and a lot of its appeal was because it was the "good Lost" at a time when Lost was floundering.
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To be fair, that's cause they got hit pretty harshly by the writer's strike.
 
W

wazoo

Member
Seirith said:
The thread title should have added "in my opinion" to it. Shows people have named here, I have loved. It's not like just because you don't like it the show it bad.


Stating an opinion of something does not make it a fact.
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so we are on internet ?
 
QuantumZebra

QuantumZebra

Member
RPGamer92 said:
Lol at people saying Lost.
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Yea this thread is garbage but Lost, Breaking Bad,...?

Lost was groundbreaking and while it went nuts from S3 on it was still an amazing show.

Skylar was written terribly but Breaking Bad was still a great show.

What fits in this thread is Dexter, True Blood, Heroes, True Detective, etc. I'm not a fan of the Walking Dead from S3 on so I'd put that in there. It was horribly boring, but I quit at S4 so maybe it got better.
 
K

karmaforgotme

Member
QuantumZebra said:
Yea this thread is garbage but Lost, Breaking Bad,...?

Lost was groundbreaking and while it went nuts from S3 on it was still an amazing show.

Skylar was written terribly but Breaking Bad was still a great show.

What fits in this thread is Dexter, True Blood, Heroes, True Detective, etc. I'm not a fan of the Walking Dead from S3 on so I'd put that in there. It was horribly boring, but I quit at S4 so maybe it got better.
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Yes this thread is nothing more than excuse for people to say they hated a show that critics or fans loved in hopes in 10 years everyone will agree them. Sorry that will not happen with a lot of these shows mentioned. In 10 to 20 years most of them will still be considered great.

That said I agree Dexter (I did enjoy the first 2 seasons in a fun way, but once the 'surprise motherfucker' stopped the show wasn't fun anymore), True Blood, Heroes, and I would add Sons of Anarchy (it was never great) to that list.
 
D

Dadasch

Member
Seirith said:
The thread title should have added "in my opinion" to it. Shows people have named here, I have loved. It's not like just because you don't like it the show it bad.

I personally hated The Shield but my husband liked it. Doesn't make it a bad show, it means I personally didn't like it.

Stating an opinion of something does not make it a fact.
Click to expand...

Ehm...of course it's their opinion.
What else could it be?
 
D

daveo42

Banned
Random Human said:
Heroes. The show got terrible post-season one, but in retrospect even season one was super dicey, and a lot of its appeal was because it was the "good Lost" at a time when Lost was floundering.
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I was basically out on Heroes when the show was still airing its first season. It actually goes off the rails after the Skylar episode and never recovers. I think anyone still interested in the show then just wanted to believe a super hero show could be good.

I also remember ragging on my roommates at the time that the show was trying to pull a Lost at the start of Season 3, plane crash and all.
 
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