Party of One: Unpopular TV Opinions

[ganesh]

No. If you read all of my posts on the topic, I think my point is fairly clear. 

[ribboninthesky1]

But I agree, it is no fun to be on a board where the aura is negative.  For me this is analogous the The Scandal boards.  Ironically, I think this season is the best it has been since S2 on a lot of levels, but it feel like people seem only interested is hating Liv & Fitz and LOVING how AWESOME!! Mellie is.

 

Which brings me to my UO (or maybe not) but kinda like the near universal loathing some characters seem to engender (I am looking at you Laurel on Arrow) I don't understand the tongue baths some really rather awful characters seem to get. 

 

Mellie is one of them.  She is just a terrible creature yet so many people think she is just the best.

 

Rowan was another one, at least in season 3.  I gave up on Scandal in season 3, and popped in to see what thoughts were on season 4.  It didn't exactly motivate me to watch the season, though I did watch a season 4 episode where Rowan was bloviating yet again and it turned me right off.  Maybe I'll binge-watch the season over the holidays, and see if my interest can be reignited. I very rarely come back to a show once it thoroughly annoys me, but thanks to technology, I don't have to record or watch a show live to catch up.

[amensisterfriend]

but thanks to technology, I don't have to record or watch a show live to catch up.

 

You just reminded me of another UO I have :) I still very strongly prefer to watch TV on a TV. I'm ridiculous enough to buy my favorite episodes online and watch them on my computer and/or my iphone, but I still "need" to own the DVDs of my favorite shows anyway---not because of the extras, which I usually watch either just once or not at all, but because I have this thing about enjoying TV far more when it's shown on an actual TV screen. The teens I work with find this highly amusing! 

Edited December 9, 2014 by amensisterfriend

[ribboninthesky1]

I understand, and for what it's worth, I don't think your preference is all that unpopular.  I'm 37, and just about everyone I know around my age or older still prefers to watch TV on TV.  I'm unconvinced the under 25 set is the majority.  Even with social media, the popularity of live blogging/tweeting/chatting/whatever means that you have to watch live to get in on the conversation.

 

Speaking of, I tried live tweeting once, and it was entirely too distracting.  I like to pay attention to what's actually happening on screen, not reacting and providing commentary.  I feel like that's a significant part of why some viewers see things that aren't there, or didn't actually happen, and I've observed discussion forums completely derail because of stuff that didn't even occur in an episode. It's not a new phenomenon, but it's a growing one.    

Edited December 9, 2014 by ribboninthesky1

[DittyDotDot]

You just reminded me of another UO I have :) I still very strongly prefer to watch TV on a TV. I'm ridiculous enough to buy my favorite episodes online and watch them on my computer and/or my iphone, but I still "need" to own the DVDs of my favorite shows anyway---not because of the extras, which I usually watch either just once or not at all, but because I have this thing about enjoying TV far more when it's shown on an actual TV screen. The teens I work with find this highly amusing! 

 

I can probably one-up you there and provide hours of amusement to those teens...I still own a projection TV and prefer it to most flat screen TVs. It's big and clunky and I can't attach a HDMI cable to it or plug in a USB device or pretty much attach anything except my old boring DVD player. It's a rare thing of beauty, IMO. ;)

[callie lee 29]

I don't like The Nutcracker. I don't know what the hell a sugarplum is. I just don't get the whole thing. 

I don't know either, but I was in Austin one Christmas visiting relatives and Central Market (the most awesome, fucking store ever!!) had these little "sugarplum" jelly candies. I LOVE them!! Haven't been back in a few years and I still think about them.

 

Personally, I like the Nutcracker. But I have no interest in seeing It's A Wonderful Life. And if I ever have to sit through Wizard of Oz or Sound of Music it's too damn soon.(seriously, I couldn't remember the last name and they advertised it on TV as I'm typing. It's stalking me!)

[Minneapple]

Even legit gripes about a show can spin out of control.

Well, I think part of the issue with the Sleepy Hollow and Arrow forums is that the criticism of Katrina and Laurel is just so overwhelming that you kind of get swept along in it. And then I think for some anti-fans, that hatred of the character just colors everything about the show for them. Which is really unfortunate because there are good things about both shows! Even Sleepy Hollow, which yeah, has gone off the rails this year, but who couldn't predict that? You're telling me the writers were never talented enough to write a good, multi-season story about the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, featuring a biblical apocalypse, an American history angle and a fish out of water tale sometimes involving a mystery of the week? I'M SHOCKED, PEOPLE. I'm shocked!

[ribboninthesky1]

Y'all...A Christmas Story.  It's coming.  The 24-hour marathon.  I'm the only one in my family that hates it.  Sigh.

[kassygreene]

I love A Christmas Story, partly because the three winters I lived in Wisconsin as a child in the mid-sixties was so like that town, partly because the house we lived in was like that house (especially the kitchen - it hadn't been upgraded since sometime between wars, and we had the original icebox in the wall, with a compartment for a big block of ice), partly because the downtown department store was like the store in the movie, but mostly because my parents, who were kids in the late thirties, loved the nostalgia, and knew kids who had the aviator cap or the stocking cap, or wore snowsuits, or had beebee guns.  

 

The trick is to only watch it once, not twelve times.  It's nothing compared to the year that It's A Wonderful Life lost its copyright or whatever it was that made it essentially free to broadcast.  One grim evening I flipped through my cable lineup and found IaWL on eleven channels at once, one of them in Spanish and two others colorized.

[Kel Varnsen]

I love A Christmas Story, partly because the three winters I lived in Wisconsin as a child in the mid-sixties was so like that town, partly because the house we lived in was like that house (especially the kitchen - it hadn't been upgraded since sometime between wars, and we had the original icebox in the wall, with a compartment for a big block of ice), partly because the downtown department store was like the store in the movie, but mostly because my parents, who were kids in the late thirties, loved the nostalgia, and knew kids who had the aviator cap or the stocking cap, or wore snowsuits, or had beebee guns.  

kassygreene, since you lived in a house like Christmas story I am curious, because there is something in the movie that always bugged me. There is a scene when they get the leg lamp and the dad goes to plug it in. You see the outlet he plugs it in and it looks like there are already at least 8 other things plugged into it.  This scene takes place before the tree goes up so I wonder what else was plugged into that outlet? I mean it was 1940 so it is not like people would have a ton of things in their house that would require electricity. In the living room you might have a couple of lamps and the radio. 

[Shannon L.]

 

You're telling me the writers were never talented enough to write a good, multi-season story about the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, featuring a biblical apocalypse, an American history angle and a fish out of water tale sometimes involving a mystery of the week? I'M SHOCKED, PEOPLE. I'm shocked!

I don't watch too many fantasy type of shows, but I've heard the same about Lost (which I didn't watch) and Heroes definitely seemed to be the same way.  I'm assuming this is a fairly common problem with these types of shows?  I still love Sleepy Hollow, although, I understand some of the issues people have with it--I just don't think it warrants as much negativity as it's getting.  It's fun, it's fantasy, it's tv.  I'm going to enjoy every silly moment while it lasts. Although, I don't know why writers of shows like this can't have some sort of long, multi-season outline, with notes on how to proceed, before they start writing the first season.  That would only make sense--why would you write a first season and not be prepared just in case it's a hit? 

[PinkSprinkles]

Sherlock is a good show, but not great. A lot of its shortcomings are overlooked because of the obsession with its cast. 

 

Supernatural should have ended a few years ago. 

 

If Glee had stuck to its plan of replacing cast members as they "graduate" it would not be entering its final season at this point. 

 

Regarding the Walking Dead,  note that there are MAJOR spoilers ahead

Andrea should not have been killed off. The Governor was a decent villain and his death came at the right time. The Termites deserved to live past episode three of S5 and were way more exciting than anything going on at that hospital (i.e. better antagonists). Beth's death was unfortunate, but she's not a huge loss to the show.

 

[kassygreene]

kassygreene, since you lived in a house like Christmas story I am curious, because there is something in the movie that always bugged me. There is a scene when they get the leg lamp and the dad goes to plug it in. You see the outlet he plugs it in and it looks like there are already at least 8 other things plugged into it.  This scene takes place before the tree goes up so I wonder what else was plugged into that outlet? I mean it was 1940 so it is not like people would have a ton of things in their house that would require electricity. In the living room you might have a couple of lamps and the radio. 

 

I don't have memories of such a usage of outlets, but my father understood electricity and we never had that many plugs in any outlet, or cords that frayed.  Or fuses that had to be bought by the gross.  But in that house it would have been a lot of lamps on long cords and extension cords, and the radio.  Re-wiring for overhead lights would have been the time to update all the wiring, while installing one or two outlets is simpler and cheaper.

[Kel Varnsen]

I don't have memories of such a usage of outlets, but my father understood electricity and we never had that many plugs in any outlet, or cords that frayed.  Or fuses that had to be bought by the gross.  But in that house it would have been a lot of lamps on long cords and extension cords, and the radio.  Re-wiring for overhead lights would have been the time to update all the wiring, while installing one or two outlets is simpler and cheaper.

I guess if you only had one or two outlets in your whole house it would make sense. Then you run extension cords to lights throughout the house. Still seems weird that you would only install a couple of outlets. Because other than lamps you wouldn't really have that many things plugged in for the living room. I mean just thinking about my living room, most of the things plugged in the wall (TV, cordless phone, cable box, blu-ray player, universal remote charger), didn't exist in 1940 at least in the house of the movie. 

[ganesh]

Although, I don't know why writers of shows like this can't have some sort of long, multi-season outline, with notes on how to proceed, before they start writing the first season.

 

I'm amazed that every show doesn't have a bible. Typically, it's true that most shows try to expand their scope in a second season, so adding some characters isn't unusual, and you might not quite know how every story line is going to play out. But even the Sopranos when into each season with a general outline of where they were going with everything. 

[Janet Snakehole]

I don't watch Sleep Hollow, but posts here are starting to make me want to. I loved Lost and Heroes partially because they were messy. I like imperfect and ambitious over formulaic and repetitive. Not that these shows did not have their formulaic issues, but Lost in particular was new. I loved it in spite of its missteps.

[Bruinsfan]

Honestly the acting on Arrow has become much better since the first season. Stephen Amell was so wooden back then I was afraid of sawdust flying all over the set.

I recently considered watching the series again in the hope that it had improved since the first season. Then I saw a promo with Stephen Amell hissing "YOU HAVE FAILED THIS CITY!!!1!" in a voice that made Christian Bale's Batman sound laid-back in comparison, and just busted out laughing.

If Glee had stuck to its plan of replacing cast members as they "graduate" it would not be entering its final season at this point.

Yeah, it would have been cancelled years ago, halfway through the first season after all the popular characters graduated!

[ganesh]

Sleepy Hollow is pretty batshit and B level entertainment. Which is fine. I think a lot of the gripes fit into my "shows aren't allowed to be just good anymore" theory. A lot of the bitching I've read are largely due to the Gameofthronesization of anything genre on tv. There's just not going to be deep character development on this show. I mean, "We have to kill the Evil Pied Piper," was an actual thing. I think by the end of the 1st season, TPTBs pretty much showed what the show was fundamentally all about. 

[PinkSprinkles]

Yeah, it would have been cancelled years ago, halfway through the first season after all the popular characters graduated!

 

The original cast was comprised of characters who were freshmen and sophomores. That gave the show at least four seasons to make sure they had integrated new characters. 

[Bruinsfan]

My point was that Lea Michele's, Chris Colfer's, Corey Monteith's, and Naya Rivera's characters would have been gone at the end of the third season, and I don't think the show would have been able to survive without them.

[UYI]

I love A Christmas Story...

 

The trick is to only watch it once, not twelve times.  

 

 

This. I love A Christmas Story, but I am so happy that I have the DVD, because although it technically means I can watch it whenever I want, it also keeps me from being tempted to watch the annual 24 hour marathons. I am perfectly happy watching it once during the Christmas season, twice if I really want to watch it again--but if I were to put on the marathon every year, I'd probably lose my fucking mind.

[kiddo82]

You just reminded me of another UO I have :) I still very strongly prefer to watch TV on a TV. I'm ridiculous enough to buy my favorite episodes online and watch them on my computer and/or my iphone, but I still "need" to own the DVDs of my favorite shows anyway---not because of the extras, which I usually watch either just once or not at all, but because I have this thing about enjoying TV far more when it's shown on an actual TV screen. The teens I work with find this highly amusing! 

 

I still prefer to watch a show weekly in its time slot as opposed to binge watching or streaming.  I don't have anything in principle against binge watching. I was binge watching seasons of Angel in college before it was even a thing, but if you were to ask my preference, I'd say weekly almost every time.  I think the anticipation makes the experience better and I like the ritual.  There is something about knowing that Tuesday is Pretty Little Liars day.  Even if I can't watch for whatever reason, knowing that it will be waiting for me on the DVR is still exciting.  And while I'm no stranger to having a lazy weekend and getting sucked into the worm hole that can be burning through entire seasons of a show I missed, having it all at my fingertips does take that anticipation away.  For that reason, I also have no desire to start watching original streaming content like Orange is the New Black or House of Cards.  Not because I haven't heard good things or don't think I'd enjoy them, but because I have no sense of urgency or need.  There are available 24/7 if ever I decide to come around.  When a new episode of American Horror Story airs, I need to see it.  Yes, I can DVR or watch on demand or catch any of the 27 reruns aired during the week but those things can be finite and I also need to stay caught up.  So even if I need to resort to those options, it needs to be done now.  Instant gratification kills that urgency,    

Edited December 11, 2014 by kiddo82

[Shannon L.]

 

For that reason, I also have no desire to start watching original streaming content like Orange is the New Black or House of Cards.  Not because I haven't heard good things or don't think I'd enjoy them, but because I have no sense of urgency or need.  There are available 24/7 if ever I decide to come around.

I don't mind this with regular shows, but it's been driving me crazy for years in regards to Christmas shows/cartoons.  By the time my kids came along, there were so many cable stations it seemed* that they could watch any cartoon at any time in the month of December (at least I remember The Grinch playing a few times).  When I was a kid part of the fun was the anticipation.    Hoping beyond hope that that our parents wouldn't have anything planned on the night the show was on.  Now, it feels like "Eh, whatever--it'll be on again on another station in next week."  Bah humbug! 

 

*My kids are too old for the kids' stations now, so I don't know if they are still played more than once.  But, even if they're not, you can always record it, which also takes away from the anticipation.

[Jipijapa]

Never cared for anything by Joss Whedon.

 

My UO about Fringe (I suppose it wasn't that much of an UO) was that I could never understand why some fans thought the show was about Olivia.  It was clearly about a core of three characters, not just Olivia.  But the Fringe fandom was quietly divided into two sects, like Protestants and Catholics.  One sect believed in the primacy of Olivia over all things.  The others tended to be more into the Bishops (Walter and Peter).  No one ever fought openly about this, because the fandom was so engrossed in trying to save the show, there was no time for serious pissing matches.

 

But it wasn't about Olivia!  It wasn't!  It wasn't!  She was one of three core characters.

 

Also, another general TV UO of mine:  I find ho-yay to be exceedingly tiresome and boring.  

Edited December 11, 2014 by Jipijapa

[ganesh]

I never thought the show was about Olivia at all. 

[amensisterfriend]

My really UO about Fringe is that I thought the first season, which I've generally heard described by fans as "the one before the show got good", was the most enjoyable and rewatchable season of the entire series. I thought the parallel universe stuff and many of the show's more lofty and admittedly fascinating ideas were much better in theory than they ever were in execution. And the overall tone became too self-serious and grim for my taste. 

[DittyDotDot]

My really UO about Fringe is that I thought the first season, which I've generally heard described by fans as "the one before the show got good", was the most enjoyable and rewatchable season of the entire series. I thought the parallel universe stuff and many of the show's more lofty and admittedly fascinating ideas were much better in theory than they ever were in execution. And the overall tone became too self-serious and grim for my taste. 

 

So, this table of yours, are there refreshments? I wholeheartedly agree with you here. I loved the first season, but only enjoyed the others. For me, I generally find the first one or two seasons to be the best of most genre or "high concept" shows. I think it has to do with the first season being something new, and the second they seem to kinda find their footing, but the longer they draw out the mythology of the show, the less it seems to hold up. It's like they feel like they need to go bigger and grander each year, when most of these shows don't have the budget to tackle these more lofty ideas and do them justice. Plus, I usually think these things are better left to the imagination anyway.

 

I also think the hype and expectations can mess with TPTBs head and they start crawling up their own asses in response rather than just telling their story. So the first season is the most unfiltered sometimes and feels more genuine to me.

[Enigma X]

Add me to one of those who started liking Fringe a lot less after season 2. I will admit that sci-fi and fantasy TV/books are my favorite genres, but I normally am not a fan of parallel-universe or time-travel stories.

 

(And, yes, I know that is more then 50% of those genres.)

[x1013x]

I gave up on Fringe after the second season finale. I adored the show up until that last episode. When Olivia decided that she would rather fuck over the world than be without Peter, I gave the show a serious side eye. I did give the 3rd season a few episodes to redeem itself ( in my eyes) but it just became all about the "love" between Peter and Olivia. I was not interested in that story.  Is it too much to ask that a female character be motivated by something other than a boyfriend and/or her children? God forbid a woman want to save the world or perform her job just because its the right thing to do. 

[ganesh]

The thing is with Fringe, the alt-verse was really cool. Shows like this really can slide off the rails fast. X Files. I think they did a pretty good job overall. 

[2KllMckngBrd]

ganesh, I thought it meant the point in which a show became bad enough that it never really got better--in fact continued to get worse and that people misused the term by making it all about one moment.  But, I could be wrong.

Having watched Fonzie "jump said shark" that Tues. night, I think the term was originally meant to refer to seemingly normal, ground in reality, based shows that inextricably had weird things happen. As though the writer couldn't think of anything else for the character(s) to do but "jump a shark". over time it seems to have evolved in to anything that can be deemed different or unexpected. I think Dan cheating on Roseanne, and/or the family winning the lottery would qualify in sitcom-land. Although husbands can cheat, and folks have won the lottery, it did not make sense for the character of Dan to stray, and completely changed the working poor dynamic of the show for the fam to suddenly be rich.

 

 

Don't know if it belongs here or in the Holiday movie section but I don't like It's a Wonderful Life.  In fact, I loathe it.

 

As a kid, I didn't like it because it was on all the time and bored the ever loving piss out of me.

 

As an adult, I hate it because everyone, everyone uses George.  And he's a pushover, too.  If I were his guardian angel, I wouldn't have shown him a world were he didn't exist.  I would have told him "Get in your car, leave Frostbite Falls (or whatever the hell that town was named), and do not look back.  Do not look back.  They have played you like a deck of cards your whole life; they're not worth it.  You're what?  33?  34?  You're still in your prime, George.  Leave that Podunk Junction of a town and start over.  See the world, like you've always wanted.  And don't worry about Mr. Potter.  I know a guy, his name is Ezio Auditore.  He can make what happens to Mr. Potter look like an accident.  And screw Mary.  She's the worst of the bunch.  Yeah, yeah, you had four kids with her.  But she's had it in for you since you were twelve.  She's not right in the head!"

Based on the ratings for Its' A Wonderful Life every year it is an UO. But I so share that UO. I hate that freakin' movie. Hate. Hate. Hate. I have never even seen the whole thing b/c I can't take it. "Wishing a non-existence", as a euphemism for suicide. Really? Merry fucking Christmas! WTH? I don't begrudge all the love, but do find myself wanting to smack my family for begrudging me my tremendous amounts of hatred.

 

 

Another UO in the world it seems, but not within my family is my disgust w/all things Gone W/The Wind. "I don't know nothing bout birthin no babies"...well I don't know nothing about liking this movie. This movie actually makes me seethe.

[ganesh]

I have never seen Gone With The Wind. 

 

People misuse "jump the shark" to mean something happened that they didn't like, regardless if it does in fact fit into the show. 

[merylinkid]

These are UOs that after expressing them I am going to have move far away and change my name:

 

1.   Cannot stand A Christmas Story.   Watched it once.   Decided it was stupid.   Have never watched it again.   Definitely do not get the attraction of the Leg Lamp.

 

2.   All the Monty Python movies annoy me.   Life of Brian, stupid.   Holy Grail, stupid.   Oh look they swear, how edgy.  I get it satire to take on sacred cows.   But to me it is not well done satire.   I do not get their longevity or the reason so many people want to quote them.   I hear a Monty Python quote and I just roll my eyes.  

[Kel Varnsen]

2.   All the Monty Python movies annoy me.   Life of Brian, stupid.   Holy Grail, stupid.   Oh look they swear, how edgy.  I get it satire to take on sacred cows.   But to me it is not well done satire.   I do not get their longevity or the reason so many people want to quote them.   I hear a Monty Python quote and I just roll my eyes.  

There was an episode of King of the Hill years ago where Peggy was trying to show her son Bobby, Monty Python. She thought it was all sophisticated because it was British, and to him all it was, was a guy in a dress talking in a funny voice. That is totally how I feel about Monty Python.

[galax-arena]

I think the CW gets a lot of undeserved flak for being a terrible network that doesn’t deserve good shows like Jane the Virgin and Nikita. There’s really no guarantee that Jane would be doing any better in the ratings with any other network. People can compare it to Ugly Betty on ABC, but Jane was/is hampered by a much iffier premise; you can’t imagine how many people I’ve come across who have preemptively sworn off the show because they think the synopsis is stupid and offensive.

 

And as far as Nikita goes, the only reason the show lasted as long as it did was because it was on the CW. Plus, Craig Silverstein indicated in an interview that it was the network’s idea to have Nikita and Alex working together from the beginning, and a common fandom opinion is that it’s their relationship that makes the heart of the show. If Nikita had been on any other network, it’s entirely possible that the series would have been completely different.

 

The problem with the CW is viewers’ perceptions of the network. So, sure, if the shows were on other networks, then maybe more viewers would watch because they wouldn’t be biased, but that would be offset by the higher expectations that those bigger networks have. Shows on bigger networks couldn’t get away with the 0.4s that Nikita was pulling in. Plus, at least the CW generally allows its shows to run a full season before yanking them off air, even if they’re canceled.

[Jipijapa]

One other Fringe UO.  The "Olivia is a strong woman" meme.  Pardon the expression, but... in what universe???   At the end of the day, Olivia's powers were always at the beck and call of men (typical exchange:  a man says "You must help us, Olivia" and Olivia says "Okay"), she consistently did things for the sake of her man, and in the ONE episode where we saw her completely in control of her powers and womanhood, and in a position of authority over men (Fringe division head, not wanting to bring a baby into the world = reproductive freedom, and having harnessed her telekinesis and using it per her own judgment - the 2026 episode) - what happened?  You guessed it,

she got killed execution-style

.   

Edited December 13, 2014 by Jipijapa

[SmithW6079]

When I lose interest in a TV show, I just stop watching. I don't lament how good it used to be, I don't "hate watch" to the bitter end, just to "see how it ends" (although I did watch "Battlestar Galactica to the end). I enjoyed it while it was on, and when it's over, it's over.

[Neurochick]

My UO is I don't think this last season of White Collar is as bad as people seem to think it is.  For me, it's not the show that's bad, it's me.  I just got tired of the show. I think they're doing the same stuff they did when the show started, only now I'm tired of it.  The show didn't get worse, I just got bored.

[ganesh]

It's not as bad. I think TPTB didn't really have any general endgame in place and just spun their wheels. TPTBs never wanted to go all in on Neal being the bad guy and went too far with Peter/Neal father/son, which it ludicrous. Leverage was better in that fact because the crew had zero fucks to give about what anyone thought. 

[galax-arena]

I HATE remakes of old shows, especially when they take them in entirely different directions. It doesn't matter if the remake is terrible or the quality is excellent, I cannot watch it. Elementary is apparently a good show. But Watson is a Chinese American woman. No. No. No. Just No. I cannot do that.

Elementary isn't a remake of an old show. It's an adaptation/update of the stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 

 

My stance is, what's the point of doing remakes and adaptations* if you don't do something interesting and new with them? We've seen the two-white-guys detective story a million times over. Especially where Sherlock is concerned, considering that he's pretty much the trope codifier for the detective procedural. It's the same with Shakespeare. People have done straight adaptations of Shakespeare for ages, which is fine, because it's Shakespeare and his work still stands on its own, but I'm not opposed to people branching out, either. 

 

It's why I have a problem with the million Spider-Man remakes and reboots that Marvel seems determined to churn out. It's all the same old origin story shit with the same old Peter Parker. I hear that they want to reboot it AGAIN without Andrew Garfield. Come on. 

 

* That is, if it's an adaptation of something that already has a million other adaptations. I prefer more straightforward adaptations otherwise. 

Edited December 13, 2014 by galax-arena

[ganesh]

Holmes is actually the first of all adaptations. I don't have a problem with it. Even if the BBC version is the same "white guy" version, at least Watson is more integral to the story, and I like the modern update, using phones for information, etc. The chief inspector is shown to be capable too. I haven't seen Elementary but I don't have a problem with a female Watson or a Holmes. 

 

The reboots are just criminal. It's a way of just slapping a known name on something to make money. Star Trek was a typical run of the mill bland pg13 action movie with a space ship and some names known in pop culture. 

[Jipijapa]

 

When I lose interest in a TV show, I just stop watching.

 

Same with me.  Quantum Leap was and still is one of my favorite shows, but I stopped watching it before Season 4 was over.  No rancor, no hate... I just found the quality going down, they moved it to a late time slot on a bad night for me, and I didn't much care for the direction it took in its final season so when I heard about that, I didn't make an effort to resume watching.   In fact, I've never even SEEN the final season.  (Maybe someday)  When I talk about QL, I never even mention my opinions on the decline in quality - I just like to talk about the things about it that I enjoyed, the episodes I thought were great.

 

Life's too short for hate-watching, you know?

Edited December 13, 2014 by Jipijapa

[ganesh]

I don't think it should be called hate-watching. It's a bad connotation. 

[galax-arena]

Don't retell someone else's that didn't need to be told again with different people with the same names.

Well, considering that you aren't close to the first person I've heard express this sentiment, my (possibly unpopular) opinion is: they're names. Changing the names isn't going to suddenly make a story more palatable for me. I wouldn't have liked She's the Man or 10 Things I Hate About You any more if the characters had been given names completely unrelated to Twelfth Night and Taming of the Shrew. If everyone already knows that the story is based off the source material, who cares if they use the same names? But obviously YMMV.

 

Then again, I was also one of those people who never minded reading the crazy AU fanfics where the stories had nothing in common with the canon except the character names. Like I read this one Roswell fanfic where there were no aliens; instead Max was some fitness guru and Liz was a reporter who decided to go undercover by dressing up in a fatsuit. So... yeah. I'm pretty sure that my stance (when it comes to AU) is unpopular. LOL.

 

And it does bother me that people tend to focus on Watson's race and gender change in Elementary as going too far but the contemporary update isn't a problem. Yanking Sherlock out of the Victorian era into the Internet era? That's more than okay, but making Watson a Chinese woman is simply beyond the pale. Like that suddenly makes her alien to the essence of the show. I'd argue that the era change makes a MUCH bigger difference, but people don't get upset over that (probably be weird if they did, I guess, since most of the criticism about Watson's gender/race flip came from the BBC Sherlock corner, IME). There were just a lot of unfortunate implications IMO, especially when you consider that Watson has also been portrayed as a mouse, a vegetable, and a cyborg. 

Life's too short for hate-watching, you know?

NEVER. 

 

...Except when it comes to Glee.

Edited December 14, 2014 by galax-arena

[callie lee 29]

My problem with making Watson a female is that it seemed like it was just a convenient way to have Watson and Holmes hook up.  Now, I'll admit, TPTB have not gone that direction, but yeah, that was an initial fear in the beginning.

[galax-arena]

Oh, they'd better not go there. I know that TPTB have said that they would never hook up, but shows do desperate things in the face of falling ratings.

[kathyk24]

I agree that the first season of Fringe was the best. All the alternate worlds were confusing. My true Fringe UO is I hate Walter Bishop, I'm sorry but someone who experiments on children is not worthy of compassion.

[Rick Kitchen]

 

Cannot stand A Christmas Story.   Watched it once.   Decided it was stupid.   Have never watched it again.   Definitely do not get the attraction of the Leg Lamp.

 

Have never seen it, have never had any desire to see it.

[Haleth]

Has there ever been a reboot of an old popular show that succeeded?  Seems to me they are always doomed from the start.

[DittyDotDot]

Doctor Who seems to be successful, I can't think of another right now. There's got to be at least one other, I would think, but I got nothing.