Party of One: Unpopular TV Opinions

[joelene]

20 minutes ago, Ohwell said:

Bullocks?  Is that what they call balls in the UK?  Just curious.

Spelling mistake as was mentioned. Fixed it!

As for it sounding like a porn parody or whatever else; fair point, I guess, but at least that sounds like something fun as opposed to Lovesick, especially since it's a TV-show so it's obviously not going to be that. Keeps you guessing. IMO. 

[izabella]

4 minutes ago, joelene said:

Spelling mistake as was mentioned. Fixed it!

As for it sounding like a porn parody or whatever else; fair point, I guess, but at least that sounds like something fun as opposed to Lovesick, especially since it's a TV-show so it's obviously not going to be that. Keeps you guessing. IMO. 

I would have renamed it, "I Want My Balls Back!"

[joelene]

1 minute ago, izabella said:

I would have renamed it, "I Want My Balls Back!"

Perhaps they can change it to that for season 3.

[Gudzilla]

And we'll be one step closer to "OW, My Balls" becoming a real show !

[Bastet]

Quote

Or the flat, square, blindingly white teeth.  It's gotten to the point where seeing an actor or actress with natural teeth, i.e. pointed canines/different sized incisors/off white, looks jarring.

Ever since this post, those veneers are all I can see when I watch TV.  It's not that I never noticed it before, but now I'm fixated on the ubiquity.

[Princess Sparkle]

On 8/1/2016 at 8:39 AM, Mulva said:

Or the flat, square, blindingly white teeth.  It's gotten to the point where seeing an actor or actress with natural teeth, i.e. pointed canines/different sized incisors/off white, looks jarring.

This is why I have such a soft spot for Kirsten Dunst and Drew Barrymore - two lovely women with slightly imperfect teeth who never fixed them.  And also flows into a long-held UO of mine, which is that I used to hate the criticism over Jessica Pare's teeth on Mad Men - she's a beautiful woman, and was probably the only person on the show with her real teeth and yet she got hammered time and time again over her "gross" teeth.  I'd kill to look like Jessica Pare, imperfect teeth and all.  

Edited August 4, 2016 by Princess Sparkle

[ganesh]

Her teeth weren't even that bad. I like that the show threw a line in there about it though.

[izabella]

Her teeth were fine.  People hated her presence on the show, so she attained "bitch eating crackers" status.

[ganesh]

Oh, no doubt.

[TattleTeeny]

I actually have "perfect" teeth (through years of orthodontia--I was in no way born with them...well, I wasn't born with any, but you know what I mean), and while it's nice and all, I can't help but think that faces look a little more interesting with a crooked one here or there...or that if we all had so-called perfect teeth, we'd all look kind of the same! My orthodontist (who looked like Norm from Cheers and had roller-skating holiday parties...which seems odd for a guy who made a career of keeping kids' teeth nice) pretty much was everyone's orthodontist in the town, and now I wonder if my classmates and I do have the same teeth at a glance, haha!

Edited August 5, 2016 by TattleTeeny

[janie jones]

Sometimes when people's teeth are too straight, they don't even look like real teeth.  But I don't really think that's a problem.  What I think is bad is when people's teeth are so white they aren't even the color of teeth anymore.

[Bookish Jen]

I love imperfections in people, including actors. Give me slightly crooked teeth, bodies not perfectly toned, under eye circles over plastic mannequins any day of the week.

Now if only I could be forgiving of my own imperfections.

Edited August 6, 2016 by Bookish Jen
adding something

[TattleTeeny]

Haha, my favorite "celebrity boyfriends" are far, far from beauty ideals! 

It's funny--in my "formative years" (junior high era), I was made fun of by both girls and guys for being scrawny (ugh, and flat-chested) with large eyes (no one really mocked braces though, maybe because so many of us had them). And what do you know--now that we're real live adults, this is the shit I get unsolicited compliments on. While neither of these things is an achievement or anything (and, oh my goodness, thin is by no means synonymous with toned at this point because I'm lazy as hell when it comes to working out), so there, you junior-high jerks!

Edited August 6, 2016 by TattleTeeny

[bilgistic]

I got picked on in school for having big lips, of all the things. Who's laughing now that everyone's getting lip injections??

[callmebetty]

16 hours ago, bilgistic said:

I got picked on in school for having big lips, of all the things. Who's laughing now that everyone's getting lip injections??

Ha, me too! My family even use to joke I was the love child of Mick Jagger.  It's all an asset now.

[bilgistic]

Here's a huge TV UO, and I'm sure I'll be shamed from here to eternity for it but here goes:

I don't watch Game of Thrones.

[Quof]

Knew there was a reason I loved you, bilgistic.

[Wiendish Fitch]

I stopped watching Game of Thrones, and I have yet to regret it.

I've harped before on this oldie but goody, but I feel like re-hashing it:

I don't know if Ross and Rachel were "on a break", and you know what? I don't give a plumber's crack. If either of them had any maturity to speak of, if they really, truly cared for one another, it wouldn't have made one iota of difference who was right and who was wrong. When you truly love someone and value maintaining a relationship, you don't fixate on being right. You learn to put it behind you and move on. This is not to say you should be complacent, or turn a blind eye, or make excuses, it means you focus on what's truly meaningful and what isn't. It doesn't matter who was "right". Either Ross should have let Rachel be right, or Rachel should have chosen to forgive Ross. Neither of them did this, and they became worse people for it, and it ultimately poisoned their already deeply flawed relationship. 

That's one of many reasons I thought Ross and Rachel were a horrible couple, and why their relationship eventually dragged down Friends. If the writers were half as clever as they thought they were, they could have framed this as a darkly satiric cautionary tale about toxic people, or the fatal mistakes couples make, but the fact that we were meant to love and root for Ross and Rachel is what makes it so damned frustrating to me. 

Edited August 7, 2016 by Wiendish Fitch

[caci]

Not only do I not watch Game of Thrones, but I never had any great interest, esp. after I tried to read the novel and couldn't get through it.

My huge UO is that I don't think 2016 is any worse than other years when it comes to celebrity deaths.  Not being unsympathetic, but the reality is most of us can't remember who died last year.  We might look at the list of who died in 2014, for ex., and think that was a really bad year.  As actors, start getting older, there will be more deaths. It's just going to happen.

[ribboninthesky1]

Agreed, caci. I don't begrudge anyone their grief, but the fact is, everyone dies eventually.  I just can't get in my feelings over someone I've never met, let alone never had a personal relationship with, no matter how much I enjoyed their body of work. I think 2016 is being hailed as worse because some of the celebrities who have died were extremely well-known with somewhat unexpected deaths (ex: Bowie, Prince). I always take mini-media breaks after someone well-known dies - usually within a week or two, it's largely forgotten.  The Internet is a funny place - never forgets, yet has a short memory.         

I couldn't get through season one of Game of Thrones, and like others, never looked back.

I have zero interest in The Walking Dead, and the snippets I've seen of the show while watching TV with my sister weren't remotely compelling. Thinking further, I don't find the post-apocalyptic genre interesting at all.     

Edited August 7, 2016 by ribboninthesky1

[kassygreene]

I considered Game of Thrones (which apparently I can get through Amazon Prime.  Sometimes, anyway.).  So I went to the recap of the first episode at TWOP, read it through, and decided nope, I have better ways to spend my time.

I read the recaps just to be culturally current, but I am not watching that thing.

I also do not like zombies in any way.  I will someday read the CDC white paper on the zombie apocalypse, but That Will Be All.

[Domestic Assassin]

I liked the St. Elsewhere finale.  And I like the various parodies of it over the years, and I like that it spawned the Tommy Westphall Universe.

[Rick Kitchen]

Quote

I considered Game of Thrones (which apparently I can get through Amazon Prime.  Sometimes, anyway.).  So I went to the recap of the first episode at TWOP, read it through, and decided nope, I have better ways to spend my time.

I just went and looked, and GoT isn't available on my Amazon Prime.

[kiddo82]

3 hours ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

I don't know if Ross and Rachel were "on a break", and you know what? I don't give a plumber's crack. If either of them had any maturity to speak of, if they really, truly cared for one another, it wouldn't have made one iota of difference who was right and who was wrong. When you truly love someone and value maintaining a relationship, you don't fixate on being right. You learn to put it behind you and move on. This is not to say you should be complacent, or turn a blind eye, or make excuses, it means you focus on what's truly meaningful and what isn't. It doesn't matter who was "right". Either Ross should have let Rachel be right, or Rachel should have chosen to forgive Ross. Neither of them did this, and they became worse people for it, and it ultimately poisoned their already deeply flawed relationship. 

That's one of many reasons I thought Ross and Rachel were a horrible couple, and why their relationship eventually dragged down Friends. If the writers were half as clever as they thought they were, they could have framed this as a darkly satiric cautionary tale about toxic people, or the fatal mistakes couples make, but the fact that we were meant to love and root for Ross and Rachel is what makes it so damned frustrating to me. 

The book on Ross and Rachel as a couple should have been closed when Rachel "congratulated" Ross on his wedding to Emily.  That's actually one of my favorite serious Friends moments.  He was moving on and she was accepting that.  And if you think about it, nothing pivotal for the rest of the series changes if they realize they were both over it at that point.  Ross could still say Rachel's name at the altar.  Don't have to be in love for that.  Don't have to be in love to get drunk in Vegas and get married and don't have to be in love to get drunk and procreate either.  The only thing that goes away is the 11th hour "I got off the plane" nonsense and I'm totally okay with that.

[Chaos Theory]

On August 1, 2016 at 6:19 PM, caci said:

My Big Bang UO is that I never cared for Howard's mother and don't think I ever laughed once at her character.  I am sorry the actress who played her died but I don't miss the character at all.

Like with a lot of things Big Bang Howard's Mom worked early seasons but less later on when the show reverted to Howard being a cuckold son who couldnt decided if he loved or hated his mom.

Edited August 8, 2016 by Chaos Theory

[SmithW6079]

20 hours ago, ribboninthesky1 said:

The Internet is a funny place - never forgets, yet has a short memory.     

That is an excellent summation of the Internet. I'm going to steal it and use it elsewhere.

[Bookish Jen]

I get odd comments about my looks, even things I can't do anything about, like my short stature. Yes, I am vertically challenged just to piss certain people off.

And I've received rude comments about features that usually garner compliments. Not too brag, but my eyes are nearly the same shade of blue as Anderson Cooper's. I've been told what pretty and striking blue eyes I have since I was a child. But I've also been called "Fake Eyes" because people think I'm wearing colored contacts.

On-topic: I have no desire to see Game of Thrones, Walking Dead or a lot of water cooler talk type TV shows. And I tried watching one of the Kardashian shows and gave up after 10 minutes. I don't get it. What is so compelling about this family?

[ganesh]

How did you make it through a whole 10 minutes?

[ChromaKelly]

On 8/1/2016 at 9:39 AM, Mulva said:

Or the flat, square, blindingly white teeth.  It's gotten to the point where seeing an actor or actress with natural teeth, i.e. pointed canines/different sized incisors/off white, looks jarring.

I am so distracted by the overwhite teeth, especially in situations where one would not have very white, straight teeth. Like anything set before 2000, people in the lower-to-middle class range, people living in the wilderness.

[Janet Snakehole]

The Olympics are boring. Winter, summer. Both boring.

[ganesh]

It's hard to get into the Olympics knowing the problems Rio has and that all the investment was in the rich part of the city. Two years ago, all these things were built for the world cup and they're unused now. 

[Bookish Jen]

23 hours ago, ganesh said:

How did you make it through a whole 10 minutes?

I have no idea. I swear, liquor was not involved.

[Chaos Theory]

I like watching swimming and the synchronized diving.  Swimming I like because it is about speed and it is not a judgy sport.  Diving I just like to watch.  Maybe I just like pools.  I am not sure about the rest though I will take each even as it comes.  

Edited August 9, 2016 by Chaos Theory

[ribboninthesky1]

18 hours ago, ganesh said:

It's hard to get into the Olympics knowing the problems Rio has and that all the investment was in the rich part of the city. Two years ago, all these things were built for the world cup and they're unused now. 

It feels like a lot more controversy surrounding the Olympics ever since the allegations of IOC corruption became mainstream.  Plus, it's a lot harder to ignore the insidious implications of holding such large-scale events in developing countries with serious infrastructure problems, especially when there's a proliferation of real-time reactions.  Sochi had similar issues, though the Winter Olympics aren't as popular, I think. And to your point, what happens to the structures built specifically for the games? Rio has the additional burden of the Zika virus hysteria. The rise in general coverage on performance-enhancing drugs doesn't help either.  There's definitely a blemish on the "triumph of the human spirit/spirit of pure competition" perspective that has fueled the machine.    

Anyway, I'm grateful for Youtube highlights that I can access when I'm interested enough.  No desire to waste my time watching live.  

ETA:

That is an excellent summation of the Internet. I'm going to steal it and use it elsewhere.

Feel free! I'm pretty sure I stole it from somewhere. 

Edited August 9, 2016 by ribboninthesky1

[Rick Kitchen]

There have always been problems with the Olympics.  From the Greek marathoner getting help to win in the first Olympics, to Hitler refusing to greet black gold medalists, to Avery Brundage just being Avery Brundage.

[ribboninthesky1]

Agreed, though I think it was simpler to bury or ignore unflattering reports once upon a time.  Now, with 24 hour news cycles + Internet + social media + traditional media picking up stories from social media, it's a lot harder to ignore. 

I just started watching season 2 of Netflix's Grace and Frankie. By the end of season one, I was one step away from hating Frankie. I was hoping time and absence would make the heart grow fonder, but nope, my annoyance flared right back up.  The show is hilarious and poignant and generally well done, but I'm not sure I can get through another season of her.  On the positive end, the entire season is 13 episodes.  If this were a network show, I probably would have dropped it before season one ended. On the other hand, Frankie is a lead, and thus presumably in every episode.  Decisions, decisions. 

[ganesh]

Were there olympics before where the water in the pool turned green, or the rivers used for sailing events were filled with human waste and dead bodies? Or where the hotel had water flooding down the wall when you flushed the toilet? I know Sochi was kind of bad, but I'm not sure in general.

Of course, though, the constant news cycle does make people more aware. 

Edited August 11, 2016 by ganesh

[Haleth]

Unpopular Olympics opinion:  I'm perfectly happy with NBC's coverage, even if it is skewed to the US.  I don't need to see every athlete from every country compete (with the understanding that other viewers may want to).  I only want to see the highlights, which generally means events/heats/games where the US performs well.  I also don't mind NBC's pieces on featured (mostly US) athletes, even if they take time away from the broadcast of the competition.  If an athlete has an interesting story I'm more likely to root for him/her.  I was amused by the Phelps/Le Clos body language the other night and am glad NBC stuck with that instead of focusing on the millionth race (which we didn't miss anyway).

[Chaos Theory]

I wouldn't mind seeing other events but as an American I don't want to focus too much on events Americans do poorly in.  I bet China, Italy, Great Britian etc all focus on events they all do well in as well.  

[MaryPatShelby]

I am tired of swimming.  I get that it's live, but then they show gymnastics way past my bedtime (and I've even stayed up late waiting!), and it's annoying.

[UYI]

The only Olympic sport I truly care about is figure skating, and mainly men and ladies' singles skating, as opposed to ice dancing or pairs. Hell, figure skating is my favorite sport to watch on TV PERIOD. 

And honestly, even though I realize it was changed to avoid a rigged system, the math challenged side of me prefers the old 6.0 system more. It certainly made revealing the marks more exciting to me. 

[cpcathy]

I don't watch the Summer Olympics, I did a teeny bit in London because I was curious about London (they did a fantastic job). I also love figure skating, especially dance (thanks, Torvill and Dean!). I hate the new scoring system, I truly miss the 6.0 system.

[kiddo82]

I love the Olympics but, and we go through this every two years, I am so tired of the tape delay criticisms.  Obviously, I'd prefer live sports but If NBC felt that they could get better viewership showing the women's team gymnastics finals at 4:00 EST on a Tuesday afternoon than at 8:00 in the evening they would.  Plain and simple.  Imagine airing the Super Bowl in the middle of the day during a weekday.  Even if all the events were shown live I'd have to DVR them and watch them later and they would still be on a delay for me.  NBC's coverage is not perfect but the reality of all television is to maximize viewership.  They're playing the game.

[ganesh]

I'd counter that fair point by the World Cup. Matches are in real time for the WC and no one really has much of a problem watching. They market it as "here's all the platforms you can watch in real time." In the age where you can watch on your second monitor in your cubicle, and if not, you can watch on your phone, I submit a tape delay is just short sighted and whomever is in charge isn't cognizant of a modern tv audience. Unless there's real time coverage, then ok.

[gator12]

[gator12]

NBC also blame women not caring about results as the reason for them taped delaying the opening ceremony 

 

[kiddo82]

9 hours ago, ganesh said:

I'd counter that fair point by the World Cup. Matches are in real time for the WC and no one really has much of a problem watching. They market it as "here's all the platforms you can watch in real time." In the age where you can watch on your second monitor in your cubicle, and if not, you can watch on your phone, I submit a tape delay is just short sighted and whomever is in charge isn't cognizant of a modern tv audience. Unless there's real time coverage, then ok.

True, but you'd have to imagine the viewership would be better when aired at a more favorable time and it can't be ignored that a lot of people just can't watch at work.  And to your point, every event is being streamed live for these games.  People in the know were tweeting that the US Women's soccer team, a pretty big draw in its own right, was getting over 3 million people on NBCSN for their pool play games, which is a pretty successful number.  This past Friday, however, in an elimination game, they drew less than 2 million.  It's not a head scratcher.  The pool play games started either at 6:00 EST or on the weekend while Friday's quarterfinal started at 12:00 noon on the east.  (Admittedly, given the outcome, it was best for my overall health that I could not watch that game live in its entirety).  Now, I'm not advocating that you edit and tape delay a soccer match or basketball game but I'm sure it would have been much preferred by NBC to have had that game begin in the evening as opposed to the middle of the day.  I think the best thing they could probably do as far as the marquee prime time events are concerned (swimming, diving, gymnastics, track, and beach volleyball) would be to air everything live regardless, then they could do a prime time recap from 8-11 without putting up the pretense that what we are seeing hasn't been all over the Internet for the past 4 or 5 hours.  An Olympic SportsCenter, if you will, and it's not like those guys at ESPN don't loooooove their human interest stories too.  With Brazil being the host nation, it throws a particular monkey wrench into that idea since swimming, track, and Kerri Walsh/April Ross' volleyball matches have in fact, been live.  This is fantastic except for the fact that it has pushed some other events (mainly diving and men's gymnastics) out of the plush evening coverage and drawn criticisms that the evenings are too swimming centric.  You can't have it both ways.

Edited August 15, 2016 by kiddo82

[ganesh]

Sounds more like a mess all around and they need to scrap the whole thing and come up with a different approach. 

I seriously question the amount of people who can't watch at work though. 

[janie jones]

I'd guess a significant number of viewers aren't going to watch at all if they have to go out of their way.  That's why it makes sense for NBC to air it like they do.  People who "really" care will watch online during the day.  I don't think it makes a whole lot of sense to air stuff live on TV duruing the day rather than online, because probably most people don't have TVs at work.  (I feel like I watched the 2000 Olympics live during the day, but I was a kid on summer vacation.)  But I agree that it would make most sense for the primetime hours to be treated more like a three-hour sports report rather than pretending like it's happening in real time.

2 minutes ago, ganesh said:

Sounds more like a mess all around and they need to scrap the whole thing and come up with a different approach. 

I seriously question the amount of people who can't watch at work though. 

I actually cannot, but I'd think the number of people who can is different from people who could but would get caught.

[orza]

3 minutes ago, ganesh said:

I seriously question the amount of people who can't watch at work though. 

That would be the majority of people. Not everyone has a do-nothing desk job in a secluded cubicle. There are bus drivers, construction workers, nurses, teachers, food service workers, to name a few occupations, who have to do their job because others depend on them. Most people are expected to spend the work day working. And a lot of office workers have meany-pants employers like me who told my employees up front that if they want to watch the Olympics during the day they need to take vacation days because I'm not paying them to watch TV at work.