Unpopular TV Opinions You Hold

sagitare wrote:

LadyGayle wrote:I'll go y'all one better. The Wire, widely regarded as the Best Show in the History of Television? I couldn't care less. I can't point to anything actually bad in the episodes I've seen, but I never saw anything impressive, either.

I was JUST about to post this myself, almost verbatim! I have no quibble with any of the episodes I've seen so far but it's just that I don't think it's doing anything that Homicide: Life on the Street already did, and did it much better. If it wasn't for Idris I wouldn't have watched much beyond the first few episodes, to be honest.

This is me with The Sopranos. What I've seen is, you know, fine. But I don't get the OMFGSOBRILLIANT from it.

Dudes, I've been watching Dawson's Creek because I wasn't allowed to when it was on the air, cultural touchstone, etc., and I am convinced that it is the worst television show ever made. I hate it. I don't think I'll be able to finish watching it, it's just so.bad.

I've mentioned it before, but I'll join the "yes, I have watched Buffy; no, I don't love Buffy; yes, perhaps there's something wrong with my brain, go ahead and look, you won't be the first" crew. I don't hate it or anything. I just don't love it. In watching it, I did not find the thing that I find when watching a show that makes me want to keep watching that show. That's fine and does not reflect on the show. The biggest block for me is probably Sarah Michelle Gellar, who just grates on me, though I certainly have nothing against her personally. And I also find the dialogue a little too stylized, although I admit I can be inconsistent in this preference. Joss Whedon seems like a cool dude and I like a lot of what he says. High five, Joss Whedon.

And yes, maybe if instead of a few scattered episodes I sat down properly and watched it from the beginning, or watched someone's top eight episodes, or read this or that article about it, I might be sucked in but I DON'T WANT TO OKAY BECAUSE I HAVE OTHER THINGS TO DO IN THE LIMITED TIME I HAVE ON THIS EARTH. (Sorry, misplaced crankiness directed not at anyone here but at the multiple Buffy hard sells I've been subjected to over the years. Which thankfully have eased. Now it's mostly Castle. I ALSO DON'T CARE ABOUT CASTLE I AM SORRY I'M SURE IT'S A NICE SHOW.)

I've never watched Dr. Who either. I do intend to get around to that one though, one of these days. Sherlock or the Sherlock movie or the American Sherlock with Lucy Liu is not even on my radar, to be quite honest, and I can't tell any of them apart and maybe I forgot some. BUT I'M SURE IT'S A NICE SHOW.

Menshevixen just skip to Season 3 (or really watch the last episode of Season 2 so you have the set up). S3 is when it reached its apex as a teen soap. (Also it helps if you like Pacey... if not, you may never have a hope of liking this show)

I've never seen Dawson's Creek. Sounds like I'm not missing out on much, though.

On the flip side, I watched a few 90210 reruns a while ago and was surprised to find they were actually entertaining. I avoided that show when I was a kid because it didn't look like the type of thing I would enjoy, but it was better than I thought it would be. It was still TV crack, don't get me wrong, but it was entertaining crack.

I watched the pilot episode for Buffy, and I've seen one or two episodes occasionally, but I didn't care for it. Honestly, I'd take the movie over the show any day.

I also tried to watch The Wire, but it never grabbed me. Ditto The Sopranos, though that had a lot to do with Lorraine Bracco, (who is never not Karen from Goodfellas to me, which makes me want to punch her). Both of these things make my husband really sad and he constantly tells me I'm missing out, but he hated Sports Night when I made him watch it, so he's clearly not in a position to judge, hee.

And I have no idea how popular or not this opinion is, but I thought the first season of Episodes was good, and I'm excited for it to come back this weekend.

he hated Sports Night when I made him watch it

That sounds like grounds for getting everything in the divorce.

I freely admit that the show-in-the-show failed to deliver on the hyperbole delivered by the characters on Studio 60, but that incongruity aside, I really enjoyed Studio 60. And I still chafe a bit at the argument that the show sucked or didn't have anything worth saying because it was about people who made silly entertainment but still took their jobs (intensely) seriously, as if every show needs to be literally about life and death in order to be dramatic.

With you on Studio 60. It probably would have worked better if the hyperbole was more about trying to do great, relevant sketch comedy instead of claiming that they were. But, yeah, people who took themselves and their jobs seriously. The horror. I remember-- I'm 97% sure this was on TWOP-- people complaining about the plot of K&R, in that studio heads were doing what they could do organize a private rescue of Tom's brother, saying, "Can you imagine, as this is asking us to believe, that if Jimmy Fallon's brother had been kidnapped in the line of duty, Lorne Michaels and Jeff Zucker would be making phone calls all night long to save him?" You know what? Yeah, I can imagine it.

Plus-- and I'm seeing the same thing right now with The Newsroom-- most of the reviews against it had far more to do with the reviewers issues with Sorkin than the show itself. ESPECIALLY on TWOP.

Not sure how popular/unpopular it is, but I just tried to watch Pysch, based on the recommendations of friends I trust. Never has there been a show populated with more characters needing to be punched in the face by me. I made it two episodes.

Wings is supposed to be Cheers set in an airport and is seen as the lesser of the two shows but not by me. I love Wings. I like Cheers too but I prefer the characters on Wings. Plus, it had Tim Daly and probably one of the best marriage proposals in TV history.

laddical wrote: And I still chafe a bit at the argument that the show sucked or didn't have anything worth saying because it was about people who made silly entertainment but still took their jobs (intensely) seriously, as if every show needs to be literally about life and death in order to be dramatic.

I probably made that argument at some point. Although it wasn't so much that the characters took their jobs super seriously, it was the general attitude of "our GENIUS SKETCH COMEDY will single-handedly elevate America from the morass of slack-jawed reality-tv-watching dumbassery it has fallen into!" that bugged me.

Throw in two intensely unlikeable leads and the infuriating way Sorkin tends to write women and, yeah, I didn't care for Studio 60, and I've decided to give the The Newsroom a pass (especially after I read somewhere that one of the major female characters is the ex-girlfriend of the lead. Oy.)

Sorry, I didn't mean to go on and on. I do still love Sports Night!

Never has there been a show populated with more characters needing to be punched in the face by me.

Truth!

Reading this thread, it seems like friends, family, and SOs of Snarkers just need to be less pushy when recommending TV, eh? I've had two friends try to recommend Breaking Bad to me by insisting that it's better than The Wire, and I'm all, "That is one of my FAVORITE SHOWS, why on earth would you try to get me to watch something else by dismissing one of my favorite shows in the process?"

I've had two friends try to recommend Breaking Bad to me by insisting that it's better than The Wire, and I'm all, "That is one of my FAVORITE SHOWS, why on earth would you try to get me to watch something else by dismissing one of my favorite shows in the process?"

I absolutely hate when people do that and it usually makes me feel a bit grudgeful towards whatever thing is being touted as being better than my favorite show/album/movie/etc.

I don't understand the need to try and promote on show by degrading the other. If I want someone to like a show, I always try and play up its own merits. And most, I might offer a relevant comparison to a show they like, such as, "It stars the same actor from X" or "It's written by the same people who did Y." But, really: tell me why it's good, not what it's better than.

Exactly. When I was trying to get a friend to watch some of Joss Whedon's shows, I opened with, "You loved The Cabin in the Woods? Well, he also did this show called Firefly!" Not, "Buffy is so much better than stupid Lost!"

queenofdenile wrote:Reading this thread, it seems like friends, family, and SOs of Snarkers just need to be less pushy when recommending TV, eh? I've had two friends try to recommend Breaking Bad to me by insisting that it's better than The Wire, and I'm all, "That is one of my FAVORITE SHOWS, why on earth would you try to get me to watch something else by dismissing one of my favorite shows in the process?"

Blarg. Yeah, I hate that. And yeah, I never respond well to TV-recommending pushiness. (Or pushiness of any kind, really.)

I will compare a show to another show, but only to give a clearer picture of what it's like ("it's about fairy tales, but it also has a sort of Lost-y vibe to it"). Or talk about *my* experience watching it and what I like about it, with phrases like "I am into this kind of thing so I enjoy those scenes" as opposed to "The best part is this element." Or, even, talk about how the other person might feel, but not in a "you must watch this because it's awesome and the thing you like is not as good!!!!" way -- more like "You really like The Office so you might enjoy Parks and Rec; it has a similar good-natured, low-key ensemble feel with sort of deadpan jokes, and I know you like Chris Pratt and he's really funny in it. It's true, Rashida Jones is in it and you hated her on The Office. I didn't really like her on The Office either, but I'm enjoying her in this."

But then, if they say "Nope, can't get over my Rashida Jones hate" I say "Fair enough, good sir!" and let it go. I mean, geez.

I also find that "trading" shows is more effective than insisting one is OMG SO GOOD. About seven years ago, one of my best friends convinced me to finally watch My So-Called Life, and I said I would if she watched Freaks and Geeks. We both held up our end of the bargain, and our lives are better for it.

big chicken wrote:Wings is supposed to be Cheers set in an airport and is seen as the lesser of the two shows but not by me. I love Wings. I like Cheers too but I prefer the characters on Wings. Plus, it had Tim Daly and probably one of the best marriage proposals in TV history.

Agreed. I LOVE Wings and think it had an amazing ensemble cast. Plus yes, Tim Daly is super hot and that marriage proposal is my all-time favorite tv proposal. It was sweet without being cloying and Tim Daly knocked that scene out of the park. I always see the Monica/Chandler proposal held up as this amazing TV moment but I can barely watch that one without cringing, it just doesn't work for me.

I love Wings! That show is awesome.

And to further cement my status as old lady in my media choices, my husband and I are watching JAG on Netflix and enjoying the hell out of it. I am so old.

mayram wrote:

big chicken wrote:Wings is supposed to be Cheers set in an airport and is seen as the lesser of the two shows but not by me. I love Wings. I like Cheers too but I prefer the characters on Wings. Plus, it had Tim Daly and probably one of the best marriage proposals in TV history.

Agreed. I LOVE Wings and think it had an amazing ensemble cast. Plus yes, Tim Daly is super hot and that marriage proposal is my all-time favorite tv proposal. It was sweet without being cloying and Tim Daly knocked that scene out of the park. I always see the Monica/Chandler proposal held up as this amazing TV moment but I can barely watch that one without cringing, it just doesn't work for me.

"That's our marriage! Those are our kids!" Loved them.

I watched Sports Night when it first came on but that was about it. I didn't love it. I didn't hate it. I didn't think about lines or characters or scenes years later. It was just a show to me. And after years of watching Felicity Huffman annoy the crap out of me as Lynette on Desperate Housewives, I don't think she's all that great.

As always I don't care about Arrested Development at all. I hate that it's always brought up in reference to any new sitcom. I hate that whenever one of the cast gets a show the first thing is OMG they should bring on character XYZ from AD, it would be so awesome! This show gave us Michael Cera. MICHAEL CERA. Ugh.

queenofdenile wrote:I also find that "trading" shows is more effective than insisting one is OMG SO GOOD. About seven years ago, one of my best friends convinced me to finally watch My So-Called Life, and I said I would if she watched Freaks and Geeks. We both held up our end of the bargain, and our lives are better for it.

I did that with my intern last fall. She watched Friday Night Lights and I watched The Vampire Diaries. We were both quite delighted with the other's chocie. But another coworker of mine who has never read Harry Potter tried to convince me that she would only read it if I read Twilight, which was pretty assy because she knew I would hate those books, where I wanted her to read HP because I believed she would love them.

Gilraen wrote:Of course, anyone who wants to knit me either a tiny whiskey bottle or a cylon has my blessing.

You can probably find a pattern on Ravelry. I've seen it for crochet Daleks and sonic screwdrivers.

I think some of it is the fandom thing and that television has gotten more involved than before (I think the AV Club had a great article about how The Sopranos started the whole trend of installment telelvision). Basically you have to watch every episode, catch every detail and do multiple watchings to get everything.

I don't know about you, but that's just exhausting. And there's so many shows that do it now -- Breaking Bad, Treme, The Wire, etc. I'm not saying that I want nothing but procedurals, but I can't watch all those shows on top of Doctor Who, Star Trek and whatever else everyone is throwing at me.

So I guess that I wish people would lay off. I appreciate how involved fandom can get. I know I get involved in the stuff I really dig, but stop nagging me. And stop knitting me Daleks. I don't want them. They're not going to make me watch Doctor Who, cute as they are.

My Supernatural UO is that I like the way the show has progressed from MOTW and the boys running around in the chevy, to the demon/angel/leviathan arcs.

Also, I just don't see the Wincest.

I knitted my best friend Cylon potholders for Christmas this past year. We are ultra-nerds.

Oh! And and, my husband bought me a BSG-themed T-shirt with a glowing red spine decal when I went in for surgery.