Brain Bleed: The Shows We Hate & The Reasons We Hate Them

[SmithW6079]

1 hour ago, Jaded said:

 I'm hating that TNT and USA are getting rid of and have gotten rid of all their more lighthearted shows and are replacing them with these "gritty" dramas. I don't mind those kind of shows but I hate when networks start getting away from what got them more exposure in the first place. I'm not sure if I made sense with this post though.

It's like they decided lighthearted, humorous shows were a bad thing.

[Princess Sparkle]

I have never seen one single second of Superstore, but I have seen their commercials non-stop on Hulu, and that has killed any desire to watch it.  Even if it did interest me, I've seen the commercials so frequently that I wouldn't watch it out of spite. 

[Marsupial]

Yes, they seem to think that dark, gritty dramas give them artistic and/or street cred whereas lighthearted comedies do not. Isn't TNT's motto "very funny"? What the heck happened??

My reason for not liking Queen of the South (I also watched the premiere) is that I utterly adored the show it's based on, which is a Spanish-language telenovela of the same name. The original "Queen" was a huge-budget extravaganza with A-list Latin stars, gorgeous location scenery shot in several different countries, great writing and beautifully developed characters. It was a huge hit and the first telenovela ever put up for an Emmy nomination. It kills me that it's not available on DVD with English subtitles because I can assure you it is 1000 times better than the travesty I saw last night. What a disaster. I kept trying to find some spark of the original there but it was dead and buried. The original "Queen" is a sparkling gem; this was a depressing lump of coal  (I haven't read the novel both are based on so I can't say which version is closer to the book).

Isn't "Animal Kingdom" about a crime family or something? Then there's some new show I've seen previews of that looks like a cheap version of "Empire" and I just can't. Good God, have an ounce of originality.

[M.F. Luder]

I'm dropping Orange is the New Black for the same reason I dropped Oz in the past: nothing good ever lasts. You can't even hope for good to happen for any of the characters because you know it's going to be followed by something far more tragic. It's such a stressful viewing experience for me. And all the injustices the prisoners experience at the hand of the guards and how completely fucked up the power dynamics are just hit too close to reality for me to get any enjoyment out of those shows anymore.

[Neurochick]

22 hours ago, Jaded said:

The commercials for that show and Animal Kingdom made me not want to watch either of them. I'm hating that TNT and USA are getting rid of and have gotten rid of all their more lighthearted shows and are replacing them with these "gritty" dramas. I don't mind those kind of shows but I hate when networks start getting away from what got them more exposure in the first place. I'm not sure if I made sense with this post though.

I'm so glad that this was mentioned.  Some think that networks have to evolve, but I don't think so.  CBS has been catering to older viewers since I was a kid (I'm now in my fifties).  They know what works and stick to it.  USA had these real, fun, lighthearted shows and I'm sure people liked them.  Maybe they want to be taken seriously and collect Emmy's like AMC and HBO.   I have a feeling they expect their new shows to be a hit overseas.  I watched an episode of "Mr Robot" on USA and then watched the same episode on Amazon.  On USA, they bleep out "fuck," while on Amazon they don't.  Why would they have words on a show that will be bleeped out on the US?  Because they know they won't get bleeped out overseas.

[ratgirlagogo]

18 hours ago, Neurochick said:

On USA, they bleep out "fuck," while on Amazon they don't.  Why would they have words on a show that will be bleeped out on the US?  Because they know they won't get bleeped out overseas.

It's not the US thing so much as the basic cable/broadcast thing.  They don't bleep the word if you watch on demand either, which I noticed with Mr Robot and previously with  Longmire and with Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll.  In other words they're filming with the intention to ultimately distribute the show on DVD/BluRay or some kind of paid distribution service.

Edited June 26, 2016 by ratgirlagogo

[Neurochick]

57 minutes ago, ratgirlagogo said:

It's not the US thing so much as the basic cable/broadcast thing.  They don't bleep the word if you watch on demand either, which I noticed with Mr Robot and previously with  Longmire and with Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll.  In other words they're filming with the intention to ultimately distribute the show on DVD/BluRay or some kind of paid distribution service.

I don't know about that.  I watched "Mr Robot" on demand and they did bleep out "fuck."  With "Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll" they didn't bleep out "fuck" if the original broadcast was over a week old.  

[ABay]

I had to give up on Mr. Robot after an episode and a half because I was spending the entire time worrying what would happen to the dog. 

[Ohwell]

I also gave up on Preacher after two episodes.  It's just too weird.  Maybe if I'd read the comics it would be more interesting, but I'm not interested enough to do even that.

[Sparger Springs]

I've cancelled Orphan Black. It's just a convoluted mess. 

[Babalu]

24 minutes ago, Sparger Springs said:

I've cancelled Orphan Black. It's just a convoluted mess. 

I did, too. Watched a couple of episodes this season and realized it had become mostly a chore, despite Tatiana. 

I also cancelled Brain Dead about 10 minutes into the 2nd episode. Way too head-explodey.

[Neurochick]

18 hours ago, Sparger Springs said:

I've cancelled Orphan Black. It's just a convoluted mess. 

Me too.  I watched about three episodes, missed one and then realized I didn't give a shit anymore.  That show should have been about the clones and not ventured into evil global conspiracy land.

[amaranta]

Game of Thrones.  I've seen still photos and read some of the press, since it's everywhere, all the time.  What I've gleaned from my press exposure: The focus is on how many horrible and different ways a person can be killed.  Oh, and sexual abuse.  And there's dragons.  And royal wars and shit. The dragons seem cool.  The other stuff, not so much.

But then I've always had a low violence threshold and tend to use "I Can't Unsee That" as my litmus test.

[Moose135]

1 hour ago, amaranta said:

The focus is on how many horrible and different ways a person can be killed.  Oh, and sexual abuse.  And there's dragons.  And royal wars and shit. The dragons seem cool.  The other stuff, not so much.

I have a friend I stay with when I'm back in NY who is a big GOT fan, so I've seen a few episodes.  You've pretty much summed up the show.

[Chaos Theory]

9 hours ago, amaranta said:

Game of Thrones.  I've seen still photos and read some of the press, since it's everywhere, all the time.  What I've gleaned from my press exposure: The focus is on how many horrible and different ways a person can be killed.  Oh, and sexual abuse.  And there's dragons.  And royal wars and shit. The dragons seem cool.  The other stuff, not so much.

But then I've always had a low violence threshold and tend to use "I Can't Unsee That" as my litmus test.

Ha!  I have a very high tolerance and GoT breaks me.  I think my problem isn't that it is violent( it is relentlessly violent with no end in sight and no sense of hope.) Some of my favorite violent shows had occasional periods of calm before all hell broke lose again and there was a sense things could get better (not that they would but that they could).  GoT has neither.  

I actually liked the first season so maybe this should go less in shows I never watched and more in shows I quit.  The problem I have is when you kill off characters too often it's the same effect as not killing them when you probably should.  

Edited June 28, 2016 by Chaos Theory
spelling mostly

[Ceindreadh]

I know S3 is the last anyway, but I've cancelled The Musketeers.  Partly because BBC took ages to air it and then started messing around with the scheduling, but mainly because I realised that I really don't care all that much about the characters and the storylines. 

[Misslindsey]

Quote

I know S3 is the last anyway, but I've cancelled The Musketeers.  Partly because BBC took ages to air it and then started messing around with the scheduling, but mainly because I realised that I really don't care all that much about the characters and the storylines. 

I would probably agree if I was in your boat. That said, I thought season three was really good. I enjoyed it a lot, but I can see how the BBC taking a long time to air it and screwing with the schedule would be irritating and hamper my willingness to watch it. I have had the same experience with other shows and not caring about the characters anymore as well, so I get it.

[Ohwell]

I just cancelled Zoo.  Won't even finish watching it.  I don't care about the characters, the show is written so badly, and it's a shame because I think it could have been much better.

[Rick Kitchen]

The very first episode of the very first season was so incredibly bad, and had almost nothing to do with the book (although the ridiculous idea of the girlfriend going to see how the chimp was doing was in both) that I don't even think I watched the whole first episode.

[Joe]

Mythbusters. I loved it for a long time, even used to marathon it. But at a certain point, it all started feeling the same. The flavour was stale. While the science was interesting, I was just bored with it.

[CoderLady]

3 hours ago, Joe said:

Mythbusters. I loved it for a long time, even used to marathon it. But at a certain point, it all started feeling the same. The flavour was stale. While the science was interesting, I was just bored with it.

 When it became all about recreating movie stunts and YouTube videos all the time I lost interest. They were pretty good at solidly debunking or proving stuff up until then so I'll even sit through the boring later episodes when there's a marathon.

[DearEvette]

I have to agree with Orphan Black.  I could barely manage three episodes this season.  In retrospect I should have given up last season.  First two seasons were fun as hell.  I really wish it had just been about the clones and maybe just about their creators realizing they were too dangerous to be running about so they were trying to round them up and kill them all.  That's it.  The introduction of the male clones just about killed the show for me.  It feels like they've lost control of the story.

I watched about three episode of season 3 of Orange is the New Black and felt absolutely no desire to pick it up again.  But then i thought maybe I'd just relegate S3 to oblivion and start fresh with four.  Nope.  Read too many spoilers.  So bye bye OINTB.

[LydiaMoon1]

Quote

I watched about three episode of season 3 of Orange is the New Black and felt absolutely no desire to pick it up again.  But then i thought maybe I'd just relegate S3 to oblivion and start fresh with four.  Nope.  Read too many spoilers.  So bye bye OINTB.

I did the exact same thing.

Quote

I just cancelled Zoo.  Won't even finish watching it.  I don't care about the characters, the show is written so badly, and it's a shame because I think it could have been much better.

I didn't even make it through season 1.  The pilot was fun and I hoped they would show cool and different ways for animals "to go predator".  Instead, it quickly devolved into nonsense and tomfoolery and the show decided to concentrate on the humans I liked the least.  I stopped watching.

[Neurochick]

13 hours ago, Ohwell said:

I just cancelled Zoo.  Won't even finish watching it.  I don't care about the characters, the show is written so badly, and it's a shame because I think it could have been much better.

Zoo is fine if you see it as a comedy or farce.

[Ohwell]

5 hours ago, Neurochick said:

Zoo is fine if you see it as a comedy or farce.

But that's my problem.  It's not even hate funny.

[ratgirlagogo]

On 6/28/2016 at 9:32 PM, Ohwell said:

I just cancelled Zoo.  Won't even finish watching it.  I don't care about the characters, the show is written so badly, and it's a shame because I think it could have been much better.

I don't think we'll be watching  this season.  Season one was laughably bad and this season conflicts with things we feel more strongly about.  But one of the best things in the world last summer was the Zoo board here at PTV..  The posters here just made me laugh so much  and I kind of want to keep watching season two  online or on demand just to continue the fun.....

Edited June 30, 2016 by ratgirlagogo

[Shannon L.]

I'm about to give up on Mr. Robot only a few episode into it.  It's way too maudlin and confusing for me.  I would say that there's no one to root for, but that's not always an issue with me since I liked Breaking Bad and there was no one to really root for in that show either (they were just more dynamic characters).  This just dull.  And the corporate bad guy (see, I can't even be bothered with remembering names)?  Let's see, so far, he's either a closet homosexual or bisexual with a pregnant girlfriend (wife?) who enjoys S&M (not that there's anything wrong with that), he's sneaky and calculating, speaks Russian, and was able to make a woman offer herself to him after he walked in on her in the bathroom and stood over her, just staring at her, until she sat back and opened her legs (ew).  I mean, what's next?  What more are they going to add to the character?  Personally, I don't care.  Even he's not that interesting to me. 

[Shannon L.]

Blacklist: Redemption hasn't even aired yet and I'm considering not even trying to watch it because with one small spoiler, I already hate parts of it. 

Spoiler

I just wrote in the Characters You Hate thread that I can't stand Solomon on The Blacklist.  I just can't stand it when he's on screen and what do I read last night?  That he's going to be a character on BL: Redemption. 

I really hope that spoiler is wrong.

[Misslindsey]

I gave up on The Originals after they killed off Davina, who was one of my favorite characters on the show. I was also on of the few who liked Cami, so her death combined with Davina's did not leave me very interested in the show anymore. 

[Rick Kitchen]

Oh, God.  I like Jenna Elfman, but this just looks horrendous.

[Joe]

An old one that popped into my head recently. Good News Week was a news-themed comedy game show. Very funny. But it was moved to a later timeslot and all the jokes were about sex. I'm no prude, but I prefer some more variety in my humour. I got bored with it and stopped watching.

[cynicat]

7 hours ago, Rick Kitchen said:

Oh, God.  I like Jenna Elfman, but this just looks horrendous.

That's bad on so many levels I lost count

[Blissfool]

I started watching The Walking Dead late because zombies are not my thing. Once i saw it available on Netflix I decided to give it a try since it was all anyone could talk about.

I painstakingly watched 3 seasons. I cancelled because it was such a chore for me to watch. Zombies are just not my thing. Fans tell me its not about the zombies. It's about humanity, inner turmoil, yadda yadda yadda.....yeah, no thanks.

[DearEvette]

I watched the first episode of Roadies and was so very massively underwhelmed.  From the opening moments with Luke Wilson having sex with a  barely old enough Asian nymphette (honestly this felt so uncomfortably  fetishistic to have her giggle & parade around naked in front of people) to the caricature of the stalker groupie girl (who looks eerily like the Penny Lane character from Almost famous) everything about it feels stale and uninspired and well, bad. 

No desire at all to try it again.  And glad i made the decision not to because I hear there is a sexual assault in Episode 3 that is played for laughs. Yuck.

[Chaos Theory]

On July 2, 2016 at 11:58 AM, Shannon L. said:

I'm about to give up on Mr. Robot only a few episode into it.  It's way too maudlin and confusing for me.  I would say that there's no one to root for, but that's not always an issue with me since I liked Breaking Bad and there was no one to really root for in that show either (they were just more dynamic characters).  This just dull.  And the corporate bad guy (see, I can't even be bothered with remembering names)?  Let's see, so far, he's either a closet homosexual or bisexual with a pregnant girlfriend (wife?) who enjoys S&M (not that there's anything wrong with that), he's sneaky and calculating, speaks Russian, and was able to make a woman offer herself to him after he walked in on her in the bathroom and stood over her, just staring at her, until she sat back and opened her legs (ew).  I mean, what's next?  What more are they going to add to the character?  Personally, I don't care.  Even he's not that interesting to me. 

I am not going to demand you like a show you don't like but you missed and confused the point of a pretty compelling character (Tyrell is his name by the way).  He isn't a closeted homosexual.  He had sex with a man to get access to his cell phone so he could clone it.   The language he is speaking is Swedish to his very pregnant and demanding wife who is the one who likes S&M.   The bathroom scene you bring up is an attempt to further his career goals when the woman's husband gets the position he wanted.  Again I am not saying you need to like the show and I understand that not everyone has the same sensibilities I have but I don't understand when someone calls any of them boring.

Edited July 15, 2016 by Chaos Theory

[Shannon L.]

5 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

I am not going to demand you like a show you don't like but you missed and confused the point of a pretty compelling character (Tyrell is his name by the way).  He isn't a closed homosexual.  He had sex with a man to get access to his cell phone so he could clone it.   The language he is speaking is Swedish to his very pregnant and demanding wife who is the one who likes S&M.   The bathroom scene you bring up is an attempt to further his career goals by when the woman's husband gets the position he wanted.  Again I am not saying you need to like the show and I understand that not everyone has the same sensibilities I have but I don't understand when someone calls any of them boring.

Good point and thank you for the corrections. I should have waited a few more episodes to better understand the character before writing up a post that leans heavily towards smart-ass territory, but, even a few episodes later, I just can't take him seriously.  He's too much.  They've piled way too much on him, imo. Even more now, since I just saw the episode with the wife on the roof.  My first thought when she walked through the door was "Of course she's going to up there!" followed quickly by "This isn't going to end well" and "Add that to the list of character flaws now".  I'm sorry--I understand how frustrating it can be when someone doesn't like a show or character that you find compelling (I had to deal with it for the entirety of Breaking Bad from my own husband and even jumped in to defend it a couple of times online), but I just can't get into the show.  Like I said, it's too maudlin for me. I will, however, admit to liking the actor who plays Elliot and finding him intriguing. But, my favorite character was Shayla and, well....*sigh*

[Ohwell]

I tried watching the last two episodes of Mr. Robot because of the good press I've heard about it lately.  While I do find Elliot rather intriguing (frankly, I think it's just the eyes) I've decided to bail.  If I have to try that hard to understand what's going on, then I give up. 

[atomationage]

I used to watch The Simpsons when it was a small part of the Tracey Ullman show, but I've never watched it on its own in all the years it's been on.  I just can't stand  the voices.  My only knowledge of the show comes from another website.  Whenever a person started a new page on the General Hospital forum, they would correct their post and add, "The, something, The", so it would appear on the top of every page.  What people didn't understand was that since you could customize the number of posts per page, it wasn't necessarily the top of everyone's page.   Eventually, to conform, I just set my pages to default. 

[Neurochick]

On 7/14/2016 at 7:41 AM, DearEvette said:

I watched the first episode of Roadies and was so very massively underwhelmed.  From the opening moments with Luke Wilson having sex with a  barely old enough Asian nymphette (honestly this felt so uncomfortably  fetishistic to have her giggle & parade around naked in front of people) to the caricature of the stalker groupie girl (who looks eerily like the Penny Lane character from Almost famous) everything about it feels stale and uninspired and well, bad. 

No desire at all to try it again.  And glad i made the decision not to because I hear there is a sexual assault in Episode 3 that is played for laughs. Yuck.

I detest this show, not even because of the things you mention; I watched the first episode and to me, it just sucked.  It was very bad.

[selkie]

On 6/6/2016 at 11:25 AM, Bookish Jen said:

I tried watching "Girl" but just gave up in disgust. I first thought I didn't like it because I am a card-carrying member of Generation X. But then again, I adored Millennial Betty Suarez from "Ugly Betty" and truly despised fellow Gen X-ers like Carrie Bradshaw and Ally McBeal.

I guess I just can't relate to privileged young women who live off the largesse of others, continuously fuck up and think their first world problems are of any great significance. Sure, I wasn't perfect when I was in my twenties; I look at a lot of the decisions I made both professionally and personally and just cringe. But I also managed to see beyond my own little bubble every now and then.
 

 

I've absorbed bits and pieces of 'Girls' by osmosis because the spousal unit likes to watch it while I'm on the computer. Have really disliked what I've seen of it- 'Please Like Me' gets called the Australian version of 'Girls' sometimes, and while Josh is a flawed and sometimes annoying character, he redeems himself by giving a real damn about his friends and family, often to his own detriment.

[Cherpumple]

On 7/10/2016 at 3:45 AM, Rick Kitchen said:

Oh, God.  I like Jenna Elfman, but this just looks horrendous.

It actually looks like an okay show without the hideous furry thing. Nothing special, but a relatable premise and I like the actor playing the dad. So why the hell did they add that horrible creature? Was it a joke among the writers that went too far and accidentally got approved?

[spaceytraci1208]

I have to admit, I didn't see the point of this thread until the promos for Animal Kingdom  started lol. I  just get a Sons of Anarchy rip-off vibe from it, especially Ellen Barkin's character who at minimum seems to be inspired by Katie Sagal's performance as Jemma Teller. Yeah, fuck that show

[bmoore4026]

Oh, I got another one to mention - Welcome Back Kotter.

That show is so 70s that it causes physical pain!  That hair, those clothes, THAT MUSTACHE!!!  PAIN!  PAIN!  PAIN!

[JustaPerson]

Arrow, for me and it was a bit of slow death. I was really excited for the show when it first came out back in 2012 but it ended up very meh and I ended up dropping it. I stumbled on a season 1 recap episode while watching the Vampire Diaries (another show I've had trouble with) and it sounded like it got very exciting so I decided to try it again. As a default I fast forwarded through all the flashback scenes which bored me to tears even when I liked the show but even then it couldn't hold my attention for more than 2-3 episodes at a time. Funny enough the Oliver/Felicity relationship is mainly what kept me coming back, I'm a sucker for ships (I'm usually a purist but Laurel was just so ugh that I made an exception) and cool action sequences. And superheroes in almost any medium. But the show was just so BAD. In the end I just watched the Oliver/Felicity scenes in each episode. There's a youtube channel devoted to them so I didn't even need to watch the episodes most of the time. I would read the boards here to gauge whether the episode was worth watching beyond the Oliver/Felicity scenes. But as soon I watched the first episode of Daredevil, I knew I didn't need to bother trying with Arrow anymore. IMO, Daredevil is everything Arrow wants to be story-wise and I suspect violent-content-wise. There's not much that can be done about the latter, but the former has no excuse for being that terrible. My experience with Arrow is the reason I haven't tried Flash yet, though I did succumb to Supergirl which I found had a lot of the same problems but is easier to take (I'm still only a periodical viewer though). Considering Daredevil came out in 2015, that was 3 years of disappointment for me. 

[TaraS1]

I think Rami Malek is brilliant, but I'm done with Mr. Robot.  It's become way too precious and clever and meta and "Wow, have you noticed how precious and clever and meta, we are?  No?  Here's some more!" for my taste.

[Chaos Theory]

There are probably a lot of shows I was never going to like that I gave a try to because I was either curious or bored and guess what I didn't like them.  It's more interesting when I actually do like them or there are shows I should like but don't or shows I've just gotten bored of watching.   Orange Is The New Black has gotten far to political for me.   Pretty Little Liars  used to be stupid fun but now not so much.  Maybe I've gotten too old.  Also too old for most superhero shows.  (Except for the ones on Betflix those are awesome) Just can't anymore with them,. 

Edited August 23, 2016 by Chaos Theory

[proserpina65]

On ‎08‎/‎22‎/‎2016 at 1:13 AM, bmoore4026 said:

Oh, I got another one to mention - Welcome Back Kotter.

That show is so 70s that it causes physical pain!  That hair, those clothes, THAT MUSTACHE!!!  PAIN!  PAIN!  PAIN!

Is it painful because you lived through it? :-)

I always like the show, but since I remember the 70s, it's kind of nostalgic for me.

[bmoore4026]

On ‎8‎/‎24‎/‎2016 at 1:03 PM, proserpina65 said:

Is it painful because you lived through it? :-)

I always like the show, but since I remember the 70s, it's kind of nostalgic for me.

I was born in 1980, so no, I didn't live through the 70s and I thank God for that.

And I stand by what I say.  I find Welcome Back Kotter to be ugly.

[selkie]

On 8/22/2016 at 0:13 AM, bmoore4026 said:

Oh, I got another one to mention - Welcome Back Kotter.

That show is so 70s that it causes physical pain!  That hair, those clothes, THAT MUSTACHE!!!  PAIN!  PAIN!  PAIN!

That kind of makes sense because New York City in the 1970s was bottoming out and a lot of it was a rough and ugly place in many ways.

[Snipsa]

I gave up on Mr Robot after the first season. I watched the entire season marathon style on dvfd, and whilst I found most of the performances to be excellent, amd enjoyed some of the storylines, I must agree with those upthread who found it too maudlin.

 

I may give in and buy the second season when it is released, but for now, I am done. It just doesn't have enough "life" and levity to get me excited for season 2. - And this comes from somebody who is currently marathon watching season 2 of The Leftovers, immediately after season 1 - which I loved - So take that for what it is worth...

I realized today that I gave up on a lot of shows during, or just prior to, their last seasons: Gave up on White Collar during Season 5, Chuck during Season 5, Stargate Atlantis: Season 5, The Musketeers - Post Season 2 

 

Gave up on NCIS and Criminal minds around Season 5 as well - apparently I struggle to give a show more than 5 years of my life...

 

Also sure I am not going to watch the next seasons of: The Flash, Supergirl, Chicago Fire