Party of One: Unpopular TV Opinions

[Minneapple]

Maybe the best thing to come from Diana's life and death is that the royals are no longer arranging marriages between kids who don't want to be with each other. William and Kate are clearly in love. Harry is dating a biracial, divorced woman. SCANDALOUS. Nice that those two grew up well, in the public eye and without a mother. 

[Chaos Theory]

I like Nikki on Animal Kingdom.  

[topanga]

4 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

I like Nikki on Animal Kingdom.  

I don't hate her, but she's not cut out to be part of a crime family. She's going to get someone killed--maybe herself. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

21 hours ago, Kel Varnsen said:

I'll take it one step further and even though i don't know a whole lot about their marriage I have more sympathy for Charles (outside of the fact that she died of course). If anything he was the one forced to marry someone he didn't love when he was already in love with someone else. It really seemed like she got a lot more public sympathy because she was attractive and he wasn't. Of couse the fact that Camilla was also not as attractive as Diana  made it worse. 

It's not Diana's fault that he married or had to marry her.

I think she got a lot of sympathy because he didn't hide his affair. I was a kid when they got married, so I don't know the details of why she was chosen, and why Charles couldn't marry Camilla.

[Wiendish Fitch]

5 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

It's not Diana's fault that he married or had to marry her.

I think she got a lot of sympathy because he didn't hide his affair. I was a kid when they got married, so I don't know the details of why she was chosen, and why Charles couldn't marry Camilla.

They just weren't a good match, plain and simple. It sucks that Charles couldn't marry the woman he really loved at the time, but from what I've read, he was an utter dick about it (the infamous "whatever [being in love] means" line). Diana wasn't to blame in the slightest. In the end, it was just idiotic, arbitrary royal protocol and crap that resulted making everyone involved miserable.

That said, it's time to let Diana just rest in peace and move on. 

[callie lee 29]

On 8/29/2017 at 6:29 PM, Kel Varnsen said:

I'll take it one step further and even though i don't know a whole lot about their marriage I have more sympathy for Charles (outside of the fact that she died of course). If anything he was the one forced to marry someone he didn't love when he was already in love with someone else. It really seemed like she got a lot more public sympathy because she was attractive and he wasn't. Of couse the fact that Camilla was also not as attractive as Diana  made it worse. 

I'd agree with this to a certain extent. I may have been a little young for the whole Diana phenomenon, but I always bristle at the notion that one side is perfect, perfect princess and the other is the evil, mean guy (or vice versa). Very rarely is it that black and white. And all the clothe-tearing that happened when she died just seemed to vault her to Catholic saint status. 

 

(and this is super bitchy, but I never thought she was that pretty) 

[Ohwell]

n/m

[TattleTeeny]

I like The Sinner. I don't care if it's ridiculous (not that I even necessarily think it is) and I wish that at least a few other people in the forum for it liked it too. I want to read opinions other than, "I hate this." 

Edited August 31, 2017 by TattleTeeny

[Blergh]

OK, since this is the landmark anniversary, I'll say this: while I do believe that the BULK of the failure of the Waleses' union was with Prince Charles, I can't help but think that Diana contributed to it by the fact that ,despite having known the Royals her entire life due to her own family's close ties with them, she went into the union with somewhat naive ideas about what it meant becoming one. Moreover, I think she was enthralled with the idea of becoming a Princess and was hoping to  eventually learn to love Charles for himself (and that he'd do the same for her) in the process but to say it didn't work that way is an understatement. However; it did give her two sons she adored and she was able to help so many folks as well as bring to light so many desperate causes that had been hithero ignored or derided. Oh, and as far back as George III, royals had been active participants in charities and outreaches so what Diana did was not new in itself but her example helped them rediscover a good part of their positive purposes.

[DittyDotDot]

5 minutes ago, Blergh said:

OK, since this is the landmark anniversary, I'll say this: while I do believe that the BULK of the failure of the Waleses' union was with Prince Charles, I can't help but think that Diana contributed to it by the fact that ,despite having known the Royals her entire life due to her own family's close ties with them, she went into the union with somewhat naive ideas about what it meant becoming one.

I don't really know that much about Diana or the Royals, nor do I really care to, but wasn't Diana something like 19 years old when she and Charles married? I tend to think of most 19-year-olds as pretty naive in general.

Edited August 31, 2017 by DittyDotDot

[meep.meep]

I'm even more sick of Princess Diana.

[kassygreene]

I seem to recall that her step-grandmother, Barbara Cartland, claimed that the only books Diana ever read were the ones she (BC) had written, "and they weren't awfully good for her".  If you aren't a certain age, a fast reader, and someone who was always running out of romance novels to read, you have no idea what a Barbara Cartland romance is.  They generally irritated the hell  out of me, because the heroine always spoke in ellipses (...), like she was always out of breath (or too tightly corseted).  But I would run out of books, and the used bookstores were full of them.

[Katy M]

21 minutes ago, kassygreene said:

I seem to recall that her step-grandmother, Barbara Cartland, claimed that the only books Diana ever read were the ones she (BC) had written, "and they weren't awfully good for her".  If you aren't a certain age, a fast reader, and someone who was always running out of romance novels to read, you have no idea what a Barbara Cartland romance is.  They generally irritated the hell  out of me, because the heroine always spoke in ellipses (...), like she was always out of breath (or too tightly corseted).  But I would run out of books, and the used bookstores were full of them.

Do you think my dad would like them?  the only author he really likes is Danielle Steele and he's read all of her books.  He also kind of likes Kat Martin.  We're looking for "new" authors for him to read since he has such a narrow interest.

[kassygreene]

I honestly can't say.  I don't like Danielle Steele myself, and never heard of Kat Martin, so comparing Cartland (who always irritated me because she just churned out the romance/historicals, seemingly for the money but "officially" because she was in love with love, and apparently was a very good lover herself) is not something I can do.  If you have access to a used bookstore you could probably find a few books - they'd be paperback, and god knows what kind of condition.

If I still lived in Northern Virginia I'd probably try to find some of her other books, but where I am now, the libraries never had the budget to buy some of everything.

[feverfew]

4 hours ago, Katy M said:

Do you think my dad would like them?  the only author he really likes is Danielle Steele and he's read all of her books.  He also kind of likes Kat Martin.  We're looking for "new" authors for him to read since he has such a narrow interest.

They really are awefully sweet. Like, you'll need dentistry afterwards-sweet. But they're relatively harmless - although perhaps not if you're a princess-to-be and it's the only literature you read. The only Cartland I ever really liked (I got an entire packing box full of her books when I was 14, so I've read a lot) was "A Virgin in Mayfair" which apparently is sort of autofiction. Your father has to like Regency style romance, though - and if he does, Georgette Heyer is a better bet (try something like "The Grand Sophy" or "Friday's Child"). Think Austen, but without the biting social commentary.

For contemporary romance (aka more in the vein of Steel) I'd suggest either Nora Roberts or Debbie Macomber. Or perhaps Rosamund Pilcher and Elizabeth Jane Howard. Again it's mainly popcorn fiction, but none of them will embarass you with either explicit sex scenes or 50s morality ;)

[kassygreene]

Nora Roberts is a good rec (I've read nearly all her books, and liked almost all of them), and her J. D. Robb books are fantastic (set in NYC in the late 2050s/early 2060s) unless you don't like police procedural / contemporary + 50 years romances that do thriller, drama, and comedy (I forget which book it was, but at one point a cop watching an interrogation comments that the interviewee is remarkably polite, and is informed that this POI is, in fact, Canadian, to which the first goes oh of course - this slays me).  These books do have graphic sex scenes, and in some of her later books there are graphic descriptions of the violence done to some of the victims.

Georgette Heyer is great, so great in fact that Cartland apparently plagiarized several of her books.  She wrote many many historical romances and a smaller number of murder mysteries, and is easily findable in most public libraries.

I seem to remember being offered a box or two of Cartlands in my day.  No one ever gave away a box of Heyer.

Edited September 1, 2017 by kassygreene

[GHScorpiosRule]

CO-SIGN regarding Nora Roberts! One of the good things about her characters is that none of the heroines are TSTL (Too Stupid To Live) and that she writes great relationships in that they talk and act like real people and are relatable.

Not that I'm biased or anything!? Just ask @kassygreene!

[Wiendish Fitch]

Donna Noble is one of my all time favorite Doctor Who companions, if not my favorite, period. Catherine Tate is a gem of an actress. Similarly, I loathe Amy Pond.

[roamyn]

Quote

I think she got a lot of sympathy because he didn't hide his affair. I was a kid when they got married, so I don't know the details of why she was chosen, and why Charles couldn't marry Camilla.

Because:

1) QETQM & Prince Phillip hated Camilla.  She disliked Diana & Fergie as well, tho less than Camilla.  

2)  She wasn't a virgin.  Seriously.  The Royal laws (it might've been the Royal Marriages Act on 1772) expressly stated that the heir had to marry a virgin.

This law has now been changed.

Edited September 2, 2017 by roamyn

[roamyn]

I'm one of the very few that will miss Littlefinger.

He was such a Machievellan little weasel, and a great manipulator.

I loved to hate him.  Whereas I just plain hated Joffrey & Ramsay, and continue to hate Cersei.

[SmithW6079]

On 8/30/2017 at 8:15 PM, callie lee 29 said:

I'd agree with this to a certain extent. I may have been a little young for the whole Diana phenomenon, but I always bristle at the notion that one side is perfect, perfect princess and the other is the evil, mean guy (or vice versa). Very rarely is it that black and white. And all the clothe-tearing that happened when she died just seemed to vault her to Catholic saint status. 

(and this is super bitchy, but I never thought she was that pretty) 

Depending on the camera angle, Diana was not attractive at all.

I hate the way she's been deified. I was watching some special on my local PBS station, which involved her speaking on camera to someone (don't know who; I wasn't paying that much attention). This was about five years before she died. I was amazed at how manipulative she was at times. 

[truthaboutluv]

One of the most ridiculous Diana myths in my opinion was that she was this great style icon. I saw some story a few weeks ago where they were talking about her amazing fashion and sense of style and I swear there was only like one outfit I thought wasn't completely hideous. 

[Ohwell]

Rest in peace, Diana.

[roamyn]

20 minutes ago, truthaboutluv said:

One of the most ridiculous Diana myths in my opinion was that she was this great style icon. I saw some story a few weeks ago where they were talking about her amazing fashion and sense of style and I swear there was only like one outfit I thought wasn't completely hideous. 

In her defense, it was the 80s, and most styles were hideous.  She really came into her own, style-wise, in the 90s.

Her wedding dress, OTOH, can't be considered good in any era. (shudder)

[callie lee 29]

3 hours ago, SmithW6079 said:

Depending on the camera angle, Diana was not attractive at all.

I hate the way she's been deified. I was watching some special on my local PBS station, which involved her speaking on camera to someone (don't know who; I wasn't paying that much attention). This was about five years before she died. I was amazed at how manipulative she was at times. 

This is true. I don't think the 80's were particularly kind too many (and TBH, my issue is mainly the short, poufy hair. I just can't!)

A lot is also the deification of her. The woman was a human being, flaws and all. Elevating her to a level to sainthood isn't being respectful to anyone, including her memory, since it sounds like all she wanted was to be treated normally. 

[kathyk24]

I think every celebrity gets only positive comments when they die. I was talking with my friend Amy who has Muscular Dystrophy. She met Jerry Lewis at a telethon when she was younger and he was very rude to her. That's not a story most people want to hear when someone famous passes away. Some people also believe that you shouldn't speak ill of the deceased because they can't defend themselves.

[kassygreene]

9 hours ago, roamyn said:

In her defense, it was the 80s, and most styles were hideous.  She really came into her own, style-wise, in the 90s.

Her wedding dress, OTOH, can't be considered good in any era. (shudder)

The thing about that dress...  The things about that dress were overall design, overwhelming ruffles and flourishes, a bad, easily creased fabric, very inexperienced designers, and finally the bride kept losing weight and they ran out of ways to take it in.

The train was fun, though.  As I recall it was deliberately designed to fill the aisle at St. Paul's as well as be very very long (25 feet?). On the day, as she was unpacked from the carriage at the cathedral, we wanted to love it, just as much as we wanted this to be a happy ever after fairytale wedding.

Then we grew up.

[Dee]

Unpopular Opinion: I'm so tired of the Empire and Power comparisons. They are two TOTALLY different shows.

[Chaos Theory]

People compare shows all the time especially when recommending a show to another person.  That show is like this....but.     Netflix's Ozark is getting compared to Breaking Bad and Bloodline.   It's not really like either.  If anything it's the reverse of Breaking Bad.  What if Heisenberg wanted to be Walter White again but kinda still had to deal with the shit storm  he caused.  But only kinda.

[ganesh]

That was bugging me too. Marty on Ozark and his wife willingly decided to launder the money. There's a very tenuous connection to BB in the mid-series when Skylar got on board and bought the car wash, but that's stretching it very thin. 

I don't like comparisons in general because it's not fair to the new show to be compared.

[PhoenixDragon]

Created an identity after lurking for years just to post on this topic. So many of my people here:

 

1) I liked the early, non-Samaritan episodes of Person of Interest best of all, though I didn't hate the Samaritan ones.I also enjoyed the widely reviled episode on the plane (4C I think it was called?) 

2) I hate River Song so much I stopped watching Doctor Who, and only returned after I heard she was gone for sure. I loved Rose, was totally fine with the romance angle, couldn't stand Martha, liked Donna, and neither loved nor hated Amy and Clara.Nine is my favorite, followed by Capaldi, Tennant and 11 in that order. 

3) I enjoyed the characters of Spike and Angel but was glad Buffy didn't choose either one. None of them were right for each other. 

4) I desperately hoping for a happy ending on Game of Thrones, even though I know better.

5) "Great" shows I have never seen one episode of: Friday Night Lights, Breaking Bad, Walking Dead, Parks and Rec, Modern Family, Sex and the City, The Office, the wire, the Sopranos or Orange is the New Black. 

6) A show I know isn't great but I love anyway: CSI Miami

7) The only sitcom I've watched in the last 10 years is the Big Bang Theory, though it isn't a must see for me. 

8) I really liked Constantine and was super bummed it got cancelled. 

9) There were a lot of 80s and 90s shows that were ahead of their time, and could in my mind deserve a reboot (although I realize that usually those are disappointing and sucky). They include: Max Headroom (the actual series not the interview show), The Pretender, Profiler, and Quantum Leap. I agree with whoever said the Quantum Leap finale was amazing (and heartbreaking). 

10) I hated the end of True Blood, but I loved it compared to the stinking trash heap that was the ending of the book series. 

 

I feel cleansed . . . 

[GHScorpiosRule]

6 hours ago, PhoenixDragon said:

I also enjoyed the widely reviled episode on the plane (4C I think it was called?) 

I FUCKING LOVED "4C!!!" FUCKING LOVED, LOVED LOVED IT! Because ❤️?❤️Reese ❤️?❤️was Season One ❤️?❤️Reese. ❤️?❤️

Edited September 13, 2017 by GHScorpiosRule

[PhoenixDragon]

I thought of one more thats really going to get me really reviled. 

 

I didn't think Abby's death ruined Sleepy Hollow. (I thought other things did, but not that).

 

-Runs away with asbestos umbrella held over head-

[Hybridcookie]

26 minutes ago, PhoenixDragon said:

8) I really liked Constantine and was super bummed it got cancelled. 

Yay Constantine. I miss that show so much

[Annber03]

1 hour ago, PhoenixDragon said:

5) "Great" shows I have never seen one episode of: Friday Night Lights, Breaking Bad, Walking Dead, Parks and Rec, Modern Family, Sex and the City, The Office, the wire, the Sopranos or Orange is the New Black. 

I've seen "The Office" from this list, and a couple snippets of "Modern Family". But otherwise, same. 

[ganesh]

Walking Dead is not a Great Show.

[Shannon L.]

1 hour ago, PhoenixDragon said:

I didn't think Abby's death ruined Sleepy Hollow. (I thought other things did, but not that).

Neither did I.  I missed her and if the difficulties that were had behind the scenes are true, then I feel bad for Nicole, but, with the exception of the rich villain, I still liked the last season.

[PhoenixDragon]

3 hours ago, Shannon L. said:

Neither did I.  I missed her and if the difficulties that were had behind the scenes are true, then I feel bad for Nicole, but, with the exception of the rich villain, I still liked the last season.

Same. 

[Dee]

5 hours ago, ganesh said:

Walking Dead is not a Great Show.

Neither are most of the "prestige" shows critics fawned over the last decade & half (Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire, The Sopranos, Game Of Thrones,Homeland, House Of Cards, etc).

[topanga]

5 hours ago, Shannon L. said:

Neither did I.  I missed her and if the difficulties that were had behind the scenes are true, then I feel bad for Nicole, but, with the exception of the rich villain, I still liked the last season.

Ignoring all of the behind the scenes drama and problems with the show over Nicole's last two seasons, it was hard to watch a show about partners with one of them gone.  I would have stopped watching the show if Crane were the one who had died. For me, watching SH without both leads would be like watching Castle without Beckett, Elementary without Watson, or Laverne & Shirley without Laverne. It just wouldn't work for me.  

[Blergh]

11 hours ago, Dee said:

Neither are most of the "prestige" shows critics fawned over the last decade & half (Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire, The Sopranos, Game Of Thrones,Homeland, House Of Cards, etc).

THANK YOU!!

[Katy M]

11 hours ago, Dee said:

Neither are most of the "prestige" shows critics fawned over the last decade & half (Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire, The Sopranos, Game Of Thrones,Homeland, House Of Cards, etc).

So, I shouldn't feel bad about not having a more expensive cable package and not having seen any of these?  I am thinking of watching Game of Thrones, though.  Just because I've read the books and have very little faith GRR Martin will actually finish the series.

[ganesh]

Most of the "prestige" shows can be fun if you don't take them too seriously. There's plodding moments in all of them, but there's just really fun stuff. 

Game of Thrones is far far better once they finally got past the books. And it's canon anyway. GRRM put together an outline for TPTBs on the show for how he intended for the books to end. 

Edited September 13, 2017 by ganesh

[Raja]

20 hours ago, PhoenixDragon said:

I thought of one more thats really going to get me really reviled. 

 

I didn't think Abby's death ruined Sleepy Hollow. (I thought other things did, but not that).

 

-Runs away with asbestos umbrella held over head-

They had already ruined the show but Abby surviving left the opportunity to get things back. As was almost done after the soft reboot at the end of the second season.

[DittyDotDot]

20 hours ago, PhoenixDragon said:

I didn't think Abby's death ruined Sleepy Hollow. (I thought other things did, but not that).

Heh, I didn't even get to Abby's death, gave up on the show in S1 because I just didn't think it was a very good show. I kinda think Abby probably got lucky by being killed off. ;)

[Misslindsey]

Quote

2) I hate River Song so much I stopped watching Doctor Who, and only returned after I heard she was gone for sure.

I hate River Song as well. I found her so smug, but I also hate the whole River Song storyline. I do like Alex Kingston as an actress, just hate River Song. 

I liked all the companions except Amy Pond. I always felt that I should like Amy, but I never warmed up to her. I am the one person who liked Clara. She would be among one of my favorite companions. I liked all of The Doctor's, but Capaldi. I thought I would like him, because I have liked what I have previously seen him in. I was disappointed that I did not like his version of The Doctor. Though I have not watched the most recent season of Doctor Who, so who knows. 

[ganesh]

Twelve was far more watchable with Bill than Clara, so you might want to check it out. 

[DittyDotDot]

1 hour ago, Misslindsey said:

I am the one person who liked Clara.

Oh, no, there's at least two of us.

[ByTor]

On 8/9/2017 at 10:36 AM, ABay said:

I love the character, not the actor.

I'm jealous, I wish I could do that.  Too often I let my opinion of an actor cloud my judgment of his/her character.

[bilgistic]

This seems to be wildly unpopular: I couldn't get through 20 minutes of "The Deuce" on HBO this week. I definitely have a low tolerance level for James Franco, so I went in with reservations. There were what felt like a million characters introduced in the short time I watched, and it was just all over the place.