Television Without Pity

Oh God, Jacob has done the recaplet for the latest "Mad Men" episode. And he called Jane "Judy". Please tell me this is only temporary.

I haven't been to TWOP for a while, but I decided to check in there and read the Mad Men forums.... good God, I should have known almost everyone would hate Megan and there would be post after post criticizing the actress's looks. It's embarrassing to me how they act like stereotypical catty bitches who are threatened by a pretty girl.

Also, there is a poster in the Game of Thrones forum dropping spoilers all over the place and generally writing things that make her seem either like she's from Mars and cannot understand human interaction or like she's having a blast trolling the hell out of people. I don't know whether to alert a mod or PM her a high-five.

Red Ghost, I've been getting SO fed up on the Mad Men threads recently because of all the "Yes, we GET it. Megan is PERFECT and we should all bow down to the glory that is Megan." I ... don't get that vibe from the show at all. Her character seems just as complicated and flawed as any of them. Just my opinion, of course, but I really don't understand the vitriol against the poor girl.

I don't get that vibe, either, not in the least. I also think Jessica Pare is a capable actress who makes Megan feel very real and likable to me.

Seeing post after post criticizing her teeth, her walk, her "bobblehead"...complaining that she has taken over the show...suggesting that Matt Weiner focuses so much on her because she's a nobody and therefore a cheap hire....WTF, y'all. Stop embarrassing yourselves with your ugly behavior.

I've seen that response about that character in Mad Men in other places though. Sounds like she's pretty devisive.

Shalamar wrote:Red Ghost, I've been getting SO fed up on the Mad Men threads recently because of all the "Yes, we GET it. Megan is PERFECT and we should all bow down to the glory that is Megan." I ... don't get that vibe from the show at all. Her character seems just as complicated and flawed as any of them. Just my opinion, of course, but I really don't understand the vitriol against the poor girl.

I love it when they say Megan/Jessica Pare is ugly. I would really like to see what some of those posters look like when a stunning brunette with a great figure is ugly. JAYSUS.

Indeed. Sharp knees syndrome abounds.


The mysterious Game of Thrones troll(?) has now written several posts about Arya being involved in a love-triangle in one of the spoiler book threads. I'm posting this here without tags because, uh, Arya has never been involved in a love-triangle. She's 10 years old. Multiple posters have asked this girl to clarify what she's talking about, and the troll will not answer them directly.

Edited exchange:

Troll: <snip>and I don't even pretend like I could understand Arya's particular version of a love triangle, either on the books or the TV show

response: Love triangle? What love triangle? Nothing I read in any of the books and nothing I've seen on the show involving Arya's journey has even remotely resembled a love triangle.

Troll: <doesn't answer question>

response: Can you please clarify exactly who you're talking about here? Arya and what two people make this triangle?

Troll:I wouldn't exactly call Arya the typical romantic heroine, at least not in the sense more iconic Snow White or Bella Swan are, but she does seem to have one of the most intense love lives of the saga IMO.

response: What Love life? She's 10-ish

Troll: <argues about age>

response: There is no Arya love story! Seriously, where are you getting this from? Who exactly makes up this love triangle? <snip>

Troll: <responds to something else entirely>

Again: madness or performance art? Only time will tell.

It really is bizzare. Could be they're getting confused with fanfic. Or just trolling.

Red Ghost wrote:
The mysterious Game of Thrones troll(?) has now written several posts about Arya being involved in a love-triangle in one of the spoiler book threads. I'm posting this here without tags because, uh, Arya has never been involved in a love-triangle. She's 10 years old. Multiple posters have asked this girl to clarify what she's talking about, and the troll will not answer them directly.

I saw your post and knew who wrote that. She trolls on the Once Upon a Time forums too. Actually I don't even know if she's trolling or not, sometimes she makes sense and sometimes is just crazy talk: judging Mary Margaret/Snow White because she isn't motherly to her daughter for example (When Mary doesn't even know she's Snow White and comes from another world, or that she even had a daugher, and all this considering she actually became friends with her daughter and is quite sweet) and not answering directly when others try to understand her. She has many examples like that, Belle is petty because she kissed the Beast only because she was curious if the curse would break, Emma is a slut because she implied she was once with a married man (even if we don't know anything about the story) and this gem:

Gendry and Arya's story on Game of Thrones is how I'd wish Snow White and Prince Charming's would have gone in Once Upon a Time

She kept comparing Game of Thrones and OUAT even if really, the two shows are nothing alike.

What a strange person. And Gendry and Arya don't even have a story! I'm leaning towards the "mental issues" explanation now.


A more general gripe: it bothers me when people make a post in an episode thread almost a week after the episode aired, and their post is nothing but a bullet point list of their thoughts as they were watching the episode. I don't like it when they do that the day of the episode, either, but this seems even more ridiculous -- hey, you don't think that in the week of discussion that's followed, these points may have already been discussed ad nauseam?

I completely agree. And so many of the points are technically relevant, but actually not really saying anything. Whenever I post, I try to say something different, or helpful, or interesting. I don't think I always succeed, but at least I try.

Something else that really annoys me these days: even after all this time since the upgrade, they still haven't fixed the not marking forums as read thing. They should have identified that problem during testing and fixed it! Or maybe they just don't care any more. I've learned to navigate by time, but it's frustrating. It shouldn't have to be that way.

Something that's bugged me for ages is they never changed the title of the sitcomes forum ("Sitcomes and Other Yucky(?) Stuff"). It was that way originally b/c TWOP had a rule about not recapping sitcoms (it was even addressed in the FAQ!). So the title of the forum was a play on that and how they didn't want to have anything to do with sitcom.

Yet... it's still the same title and makes no sense now since they recap LOTS of sitcoms. ugh

It's "Yukky" - I think some play on the sound of laughter, "yuk yuk yuk"?

I did not know they had a rule about that, huh.

The idea of "no sitcom recaps" was because what was the point, or how could they, make jokes about a show that already had jokes in it. Anyway, maybe I misunderstood the title. I just always assumed it was "Yukky" in the sense of "yuk! gross!".

I never picked up on the "Yuk-ky" thing either, though it does make sense.

I started watching The Office on Netflix, and I realized that seeing snatches of discussion about it on TWOP (and probably on the old TWOP Sucks site) back in the day had given me the completely wrong idea. I thought it was the epic story of Jim and Pam's romance, not a comedy about their inept boss.

I stopped watching The Office several seasons ago and I stopped reading the forums, too. It was nothing but nonstop bitching and moaning, and it made me wonder why they even bothered watching the show if it brought them no joy. Pam was a bitch, Jim was whipped, Michael should be in prison, Dwight was autistic...absolutely NO happiness. It really was a cesspool.

However, I did get a few laughs out of regulars making big announcements that an episode was so atrocious and unfunny that they were never coming back, only to see them posting again the next week. Heh-heh...way to stand your ground, guys.

Crowbridge wrote:It was nothing but nonstop bitching and moaning, and it made me wonder why they even bothered watching the show if it brought them no joy.

This is my take on the entire board, quite frankly.

mrinsouciance wrote:

Crowbridge wrote:It was nothing but nonstop bitching and moaning, and it made me wonder why they even bothered watching the show if it brought them no joy.

This is my take on the entire board, quite frankly.

LOL...very true.

ugh twophoward is so frustrating. In the General Hospital thread we're discussing how one of the actresses appeared on the Chew (the show that replaced All My Children) and how another actress was grumbling about it on twitter, for maybe have a page, when howard comes by and says "get back to discussing the show". There's barely any conversation about it! The thread normally pretty slow, is there a reason not to let people have fun gossiping? There were no heated words or exchanges at all.

Yeah, you can't stray from the original topic for just a split second without getting bitched out. It's ridiculous.

Trying to read the Glee threads is incredibly frustrating as TwopHoward edits every second post. Mostly for opinion as fact. A poster did one post with every sentance starting with IMO and got temp banned. He desperatly needs a life.

As far as I'm concerned, the next logical step would be to eliminate all statements of opinion and limit each post to nothing but statements of indisputable fact.

I'm impressed that they've managed to take forums based on enterainment and turn them into something so completely joyless. And yes, I realize they have to apply some rules but I've never seen anything so anally over-moderated.

Several years ago, I got a warning for saying Superman was one of my least favorite TV characters. They told me that Superman wasn't technically a television character, hence the warning. I never understood that, since he HAD HIS OWN TV SHOW, but whatever.

Crowbridge wrote:Several years ago, I got a warning for saying Superman was one of my least favorite TV characters. They told me that Superman wasn't technically a television character, hence the warning. I never understood that, since he HAD HIS OWN TV SHOW, but whatever.

He's had THREE television shows, one of which TWoP famously recapped (I didn't even watch Smallville and I read Omar G's recaps). Amazing.