Party of One: Unpopular TV Opinions

[Mabinogia]

1 minute ago, BlackberryJam said:

Mad Men, period scumbags, completely uninterested AND Jon Hamm makes my skin crawl. I have never seen even a photo of him which did not make my skin crawl. If I lined up ten photos of random men and had to pick out which ones I thought were creepers, Jon Hamm's photo would be the very first one. 

OMG I thought I was the only one! There is something just...icky about him. 

I've never seen nor never had any interest in seeing Mad Men despite my absolute love of the style and fashion of the time period. Of course I could say the same about that Marvelous Mrs. Maisel show. I tried watching the first ep because I like the actress, and thought the costumes would be wonderful and it sounded like it could be fun but I just could not get into it at all. And whenever I hear all the praise for it I just wonder what I missed because I just don't get it.

[Annber03]

4 minutes ago, BlackberryJam said:

Another unpopular opinion, I think Criminal Minds is hilarious. Other family members love it, so sometimes at holidays I will randomly say, "I think our unsub is, dramatic pause, a Christmas cookie cutter designer." And I actually say the words, "dramatic pause."

LOL :D. I share your family's interest in the show, but yeah, I won't argue it can be very cheesy and overdramatic. But for some fans, that may be part of its charm :p. 

[Irlandesa]

1 hour ago, bmoore4026 said:

Second unpopular opinion - I hate Community because that show has given people carte blanche to crap all over community colleges and the people who go there.  Not everyone can afford Harvard or Yale.  In fact, screw Marc Maron in general. .

What does Marc Maron have to do with Community?

16 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

Oh yes, he absolutely got away with it. His product was hands down the best ever and no one could duplicate it, and the family would be set for life if they could launder enough of the money.

Except his family didn't want the money in the end.  I wanted them to at least have that.

Spoiler

That's probably why his actions with Gretchen and Elliot bothered me the most. Scaring them into accepting 10 million dollars to give to Skylar but saying it was from them instead of him is just one plan I hoped would fail .  And still hope it did. 

[bmoore4026]

2 minutes ago, Irlandesa said:

What does Marc Maron have to do with Community?

Got him confused with Dan Harmon.  Now correcting.

  Hide contents

[BlackberryJam]

19 minutes ago, Mabinogia said:

OMG I thought I was the only one! There is something just...icky about him. 

I've never seen nor never had any interest in seeing Mad Men despite my absolute love of the style and fashion of the time period. Of course I could say the same about that Marvelous Mrs. Maisel show. I tried watching the first ep because I like the actress, and thought the costumes would be wonderful and it sounded like it could be fun but I just could not get into it at all. And whenever I hear all the praise for it I just wonder what I missed because I just don't get it.

I feel a bond right now. A connection. Something true and real. (I may be watching the situation comedy Bachelor in Paradise.) Hamm is SO icky.

Mrs. Maisel doesn't interest me even slightly!! I watched about ten minutes because yes, great costuming. But uninterested. I can see why some people enjoy it. I just don't. 

[Enigma X]

RE: Jon Hamm

My UO is that he can't act and is overly sweaty (the latter may or may not be an unpopular opinion).

[bmoore4026]

1 minute ago, Enigma X said:

RE: Jon Hamm

My UO is that he can't act and is overly sweaty (the latter may or may not be an unpopular opinion).

I like him but that maybe because he's from St. Louis so it may be a town pride thing.  It's just that because of Mad Men, people are going to associate him with that scumbag Don Draper.  That and him trying to helm a feature film doesn't really work out.  I don't know if it's a lack of charisma or if it's because the role that made him famous is so inescapable.

[Wiendish Fitch]

I don't find Jon Hamm interesting, likable, or even attractive. In fact, ever since someone on TWoP pointed out that he has a Stan Laurel* smile, I can't unsee it.

*Full disclosure: I'm actually a fan of Laurel and Hardy, and Stan Laurel sounded like a decent enough chap. I highly recommend the movie Stan and Ollie, it's sweet.

[DearEvette]

50 minutes ago, BlackberryJam said:

Mad Men, period scumbags, completely uninterested AND Jon Hamm makes my skin crawl. I have never seen even a photo of him which did not make my skin crawl. If I lined up ten photos of random men and had to pick out which ones I thought were creepers, Jon Hamm's photo would be the very first one. 

I don't mind Jon Hamm so much, but there is something about the fawning critical commentary around Mad men and Matthew Weiner seems really insufferable that it just turns me off.  So when his much vaunted Amazon show the Romanoff's failed, I was petty enough to be pleased.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel strikes me the same way that Mad men did.  Same reaction.  No desire to watch it.

[festivus]

I think Jon Hamm can be funny but it's like the same kind of funny in everything I see him in. Not much range to it and I don't think he has enough charisma to be a leading man in a movie. However, I still laugh when I think about him saying something about his sweet butt cut on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. He has his moments.

[ParadoxLost]

32 minutes ago, festivus said:

I think Jon Hamm can be funny but it's like the same kind of funny in everything I see him in. Not much range to it and I don't think he has enough charisma to be a leading man in a movie. However, I still laugh when I think about him saying something about his sweet butt cut on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. He has his moments.

I think Jon Hamm's reputation as being funny was heavily reliant on an intersection between the height of Jon Hamm's popularity and an SNL writing staff that was extremely effective at the type of skits that were in Hamm's wheelhouse.

[DoctorAtomic]

He was very funny on Good Omens. 

[cleo]

And 30 Rock. But I suppose these are not UOs. 

[DoctorAtomic]

I think he's been solid in everything post Mad Men. It's not his fault that people see him as Don. He did pay an iconic character. 

I think I like him because we both started our different careers closer to 40. I respect the perseverance and want him to do well. 

[Mabinogia]

I just can't get passed the whole hazing incident with Hamm. I know he was 20 and a frat boy but that isn't an excuse for hazing IMO. It's just institutionalized bullying. I'm sure he's a better person than that now, but I will never look at him and not think he used to be a asshole frat boy. True or not, it is the image I get, and it is one that suits him. He LOOKS like he used to be an asshole frat boy who lit a kids pants on fire.

[shapeshifter]

3 minutes ago, Mabinogia said:

I just can't get passed the whole hazing incident with Hamm. I know he was 20 and a frat boy but that isn't an excuse for hazing IMO. It's just institutionalized bullying. I'm sure he's a better person than that now, but I will never look at him and not think he used to be a asshole frat boy. True or not, it is the image I get, and it is one that suits him. He LOOKS like he used to be an asshole frat boy who lit a kids pants on fire.

Wow: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/10/report-jon-hamm-star-of-mad-men-was-arrested-in-collge-for-brutally-hazing-another-student/
I had no idea.
But then I never watched Mad Men.

Okay.
So Jon Ham has earned a prominent place on my invisible list of So Glad I'm Not Married to That Man
--where every guy eventually finds a place,
but still:
Wow.

[Katy M]

49 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Wow: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/10/report-jon-hamm-star-of-mad-men-was-arrested-in-collge-for-brutally-hazing-another-student/
I had no idea.
But then I never watched Mad Men.

Okay.
So Jon Ham has earned a prominent place on my invisible list of So Glad I'm Not Married to That Man
--where every guy eventually finds a place,
but still:
Wow.

That was pretty bad.  He really should have done jail time for that, assuming it's true, of course.  I wasn't there, and there may be a reason the charges were dropped

Here's what I don't understand, just in general. I pledged a sorority, but there is no way I would have put up with anything like the stuff that makes the news.  Nor would I have allowed anything like that once active.  I don't get why anybody would subject themselves to that kind of treatment.  Or how anyone could do that stuff to another living creature, much less a friend.

[callie lee 29]

22 hours ago, bmoore4026 said:

Oh, and while I'm at it, I don't give a fuck about Steven Universe.  Or Rick and Morty.  Or Adventure Time.  Or Spongebob Squarepants.  Or The Transformers way back in the 80s.

Omfg, I was ready to shoot my TV if I heard that damn Steven Universe song one more time this weekend. Creepy fucking kid.  And Rick is an asshole. (I have no opinion on the other two.)

My big UO, I don't really get the love for Netflix. Other than Taylor Swift concerts and the occasional Queer Eye I just find it exhausting. Most of the time I came really find anything interesting or they simply don't have it. I keep starting and stopping my subscription and everyone thinks I'm nuts 

[shapeshifter]

5 hours ago, Katy M said:

That was pretty bad.  He really should have done jail time for that, assuming it's true, of course.  I wasn't there, and there may be a reason the charges were dropped

Having worked at a college for 18 years, they generally have their own justice system that bypasses the real criminal justice system by asking the parties involved to agree to use the college system and not report it to the police.
A lot of that is changing now. Reporting to the police would be mandatory in a case like Ham's, which I believe happened as reported because the source is the Washington Post.

And. Again. Wow. IMO as bad as many of the sexual harassers now in the news. And worse than many.

Edited September 4, 2019 by shapeshifter

[Mabinogia]

23 minutes ago, Katy M said:

Here's what I don't understand, just in general. I pledged a sorority, but there is no way I would have put up with anything like the stuff that makes the news.  Nor would I have allowed anything like that once active.  I don't get why anybody would subject themselves to that kind of treatment.  Or how anyone could do that stuff to another living creature, much less a friend.

I personally can't imagine subjecting myself to even the mildest of hazing, but I'm also not a joiner. Some people are joiners who don't go that far, who just like being a part of something bigger than themselves and then there are some people so desperate to be a part of something that they will allow themselves to be humiliated or worse. And they then become perpetrators as a twisted sort of "payback" but they are paying back the wrong people. It is a cycle of abuse really. 

The whole thing disgusts me on such a level that even if he wasn't an active participant, knowing he was a part of that frat when this thing happened is enough to turn me off him for life. It is bullying in disguise. It is gang mentality gone horribly wrong. 

[janie jones]

On 9/2/2019 at 6:07 PM, bmoore4026 said:

I like him but that maybe because he's from St. Louis so it may be a town pride thing.  It's just that because of Mad Men, people are going to associate him with that scumbag Don Draper.  That and him trying to helm a feature film doesn't really work out.  I don't know if it's a lack of charisma or if it's because the role that made him famous is so inescapable.

IMO, it's absolutely a lack of charisma.  I've only seen enough Mad Men to know I find it boring as hell so neither his nor any of the other characters made any impression on me.  I've seen him in various other things and it's like watching a post.  I also don't think he's good looking.  He's not ugly, but he isn't handsome, either.

One of my friends was telling me all about Steven Universe once, and the more she told me about it, the less interested I grew.  I kind of think she forgot she and I don't have the same taste in TV.

[proserpina65]

On ‎09‎/‎02‎/‎2019 at 2:02 PM, DearEvette said:

I don't think it was meant to be any sort of commentary about the American Health care system.  Except tangentially.  Walter was a science teacher who had a cancer diagnosis and the cost of fighting it was prohibitive.  We also see prior to that that he and the family were struggling a bit on his teacher salary.

But that is only presented as background to give grounding into his own justifications  to go into criminality.  Also to give the audience some initial sympathy for Walter.  As the show moves on though, you realize Walter is an intellectual snob and has a bitter sense of entitlement.  He approaches it as scientific exercise and a way to create an object of his own pure perfection.  Sure, he starts off wanting the money, but then he starts to see his creation as a legacy of sorts.  I think of Walter sometimes like one of those horror movie mad scientists who creates a horrific disease or creature and is more enamored that his creation is doing exactly what it was designed to do than horrified  by the result. 

As a chacracter study, the show becomes  the story of a man who becomes undone by his own hubris and his refusal to see the human costs (which in the course of the show become really, really high) of his own action.  The show, imo, after it has taken pains to give  the audience a reason to sympathize with Walter (in the beginning),  also takes pains to deliberately erode that sympathy as the show goes on until in the end his original motives are completely negated.

I do get, though, how the show just isn't for everyone.  I have a chemistry teacher neighbor who hated even the idea of the show.  He was vocal (and quite funny) in his excoriation of it

None of that sounds the least bit interesting to me.  My best friend, on the other hand, loved the show.  To each, their own.

On ‎09‎/‎02‎/‎2019 at 4:13 PM, DearEvette said:

Oh, I totally get this.  This is why Walter makes such an effective anti-hero.  There is a great argument for really despising him but there are some areas where he is the lesser of evils so you need him to triumph in those moments (the last episode especially I needed him to pull off a final win because his adversaries were way worse than he was).   I also think the show did that magical thing where they satisfied both his detractors and the people rooting for him and everybody got the ending they wanted, even Walter.

Drug dealers aren't the lesser evil to me.  They're just evil.

[proserpina65]

On ‎09‎/‎03‎/‎2019 at 9:20 AM, DoctorAtomic said:

I think he's been solid in everything post Mad Men. It's not his fault that people see him as Don. He did pay an iconic character. 

I think I like him because we both started our different careers closer to 40. I respect the perseverance and want him to do well. 

I never watched Mad Men, so I don't seem him as that character.  I just think he's overrated as an actor and kinda icky.

[scarynikki12]

7 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

Drug dealers aren't the lesser evil to me.  They're just evil.

Walt would go against other drug dealers who were way worse than him. Nazi worse to give you an idea.

[WritinMan]

On 9/2/2019 at 7:37 PM, bmoore4026 said:

Second unpopular opinion - I hate Community because that show has given people carte blanche to crap all over community colleges and the people who go there.  Not everyone can afford Harvard or Yale.  In fact, screw Dan Harmon in general. 

I hated Community because it's nowhere near as clever as it thinks it is.

[nodorothyparker]

I liked Breaking Bad well enough.  It was technically brilliant in its writing, acting, and world building.  It's a terrific character study.  But it never really emotionally resonated with me much.  For pure emotional pathos and relatability, my somewhat unpopular opinion is that Better Call Saul is the better show of the two.  Most of us will never be able to relate to stumbling into being a murderous drug dealer but lots of people know at least a little something about corrosively toxic family relationships they struggle to cut ties to and paths not taken because of terrible life choices.

[Anduin]

33 minutes ago, WritinMan said:

I hated Community because it's nowhere near as clever as it thinks it is.

I tried to watch the D&D episode. This was supposed to be funny? I saw cringe comedy, which doesn't entertain me at all. Didn't even finish the episode.

[Hybridcookie]

I loved Breaking Bad but I couldn't get in to Better Call Saul. I watched the first season and just didn't... care

[Chaos Theory]

On ‎6‎/‎9‎/‎2014 at 1:40 PM, galax-arena said:

While Orange is the New Black has some funny moments, I haven't been able to get into the show as a whole. I'm happy for its success and acclaim because we could always do with more female-dominated shows and lots of well-rounded POC characters - and despite my apathy, I can recognize that it's a decent series - but I'm not personally on the bandwagon.

Have you tried Wentworth?  It is the same idea but more of a hard core drama based in Austrailia so the laws are slightly different.  Including one that had a few Americans scratching their heads.    The show is also on Netflix.  

Quote

Drug dealers aren't the lesser evil to me.  They're just evil.

Against cancer maybe.  The original plot of season 1 was Walt thought he was dying and believed that he needed to save money to keep his family afloat.  It turned out to be bullshit but it was an interesting entering point.  

Edited September 7, 2019 by Chaos Theory

[Anduin]

Anime. It's a perfectly valid artform, I'm not knocking it. But it just never clicked for me. That said, I really don't like Cowboy Bebop. I tried a couple of episodes, but it rubbed me the wrong way. Good music, though.

[Bastet]

8 hours ago, Anduin said:

Anime. It's a perfectly valid artform, I'm not knocking it. But it just never clicked for me.

Same here.  I also didn't much care for cartoons/animated movies as a kid (and it never changed).  I guess I have a limited imagination, because it's always been somewhat rare for me to get into something that doesn't at least look realistic (I don't like most sci-fi, either).

My mind is a strange place with strange rules, I'm realizing as I think about this, because I can count on one hand the movie musicals I like, but I enjoy quite a bit of musical theatre.  So, somehow, the fact people don't, in real life, randomly break into song and dance makes the lack of realism a problem for me on film, but not when sitting there watching a live performance.

[DoctorAtomic]

Wait. You *don't* break into song during the day?

[auntlada]

You have obviously never met my husband. Although his songs rarely make as much story sense as those in musicals.

[Mabinogia]

2 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

Wait. You *don't* break into song during the day?

Haha. I pretty much sing all the time. If someone says, in conversation, something that is the lyric to a song I know I start singing that song. I'm pretty sure it's quite annoying, but I can't help myself. At night when I leave work I change my sweater and shoes and sing the Mr. Rogers theme song. While taking the train, if I see some unusual types get on I start singing Crazy Train. My head is a terrifying place. 

As for UOs I don't care for any animation that isn't realisticish. Like, I love Disney animation, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty even the newer stuff and some Pixar. Love Finding Nemo and Toy Story but hate stuff like The Simpsons and South Park because it's cheap, amaturish animation to me, like child's drawings. I am very particular in my likes and dislikes. Even with Disney, don't like Cars because talking cars is too odd for me, but I had no trouble with talking fish in Finding Nemo. What is wrong with me? lol

[DoctorAtomic]

Yeah, but I'd say it does take a level of technical skill to achieve the look of South Park though.

[selkie]

On 9/8/2019 at 1:27 PM, Bastet said:

So, somehow, the fact people don't, in real life, randomly break into song and dance makes the lack of realism a problem for me on film, but not when sitting there watching a live performance.

I was in a Tijuana Flats (inauthentic but tasty fast casual 'Mexican' food) over the weekend, and Sweet Caroline came on the radio. While there was no outright dancing involved, more than half the restaurant did indeed end up singing along to the chorus for no real reason other than it was fun 

[Bastet]

1 minute ago, selkie said:

I was in a Tijuana Flats (inauthentic but tasty fast casual 'Mexican' food) over the weekend, and Sweet Caroline came on the radio. While there was no outright dancing involved, more than half the restaurant did indeed end up singing along to the chorus for no real reason other than it was fun 

That's not the kind of breaking into song I was talking about, because a sing-along with an existing fun, popular song (and, indeed, I'd have been among the singing half of the restaurant) is not what happens in musicals - it's routinely having conversations, delivering major and/or extensive information, and such via song that turns me off most movie musicals, yet, oddly, not off musical theatre.

[Danny Franks]

On ‎9‎/‎8‎/‎2019 at 10:54 AM, Anduin said:

Anime. It's a perfectly valid artform, I'm not knocking it. But it just never clicked for me. That said, I really don't like Cowboy Bebop. I tried a couple of episodes, but it rubbed me the wrong way. Good music, though.

I always find anime very false, in its emotional beats. They never ring true for me, probably due to the exaggerated reactions all the characters seem to have to everything. The gasps and "huuuhhh?" responses, gaping mouths and wide eyes. I'm sure there are examples that don't fit this stereotype, but I'm honestly not interested in finding out.

I tried watching Netflix's recent stabs - Voltron and Castlevania, and just found them flat and one-note. The rave reviews they get from fans of the genre suggest that, if I don't like them, I won't really like anything else.

Edited September 10, 2019 by Danny Franks

[DoctorAtomic]

Try Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

[Anduin]

1 hour ago, DoctorAtomic said:

Try Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

I have. I've tried a few of the good ones. Just doesn't click for me. I'm not interested in trying any more.

[Brandi Maxxxx]

On 9/5/2019 at 11:31 AM, WritinMan said:

I hated Community because it's nowhere near as clever as it thinks it is.

I liked seasons 1-2, when the show was at least entertaining enough to overlook the smugness. Seasons 3-4 were mediocre and 5-6 were so bad they made me question how I ever could have liked it. 

[Blergh]

3 hours ago, Brandi Maxxxx said:

I liked seasons 1-2, when the show was at least entertaining enough to overlook the smugness. Seasons 3-4 were mediocre and 5-6 were so bad they made me question how I ever could have liked it. 

That sounds very much like the Three Stages of Friends I went through! I've never seen the above show but, by the time I quit Friends, I was so OVER it that I decided then and there I never wanted to see another second of it again even as a rerun. Oh, and to keep this ontopic, The Central Perk Couch which now has been copied and put on tour wound up being the ONLY likable regular by the time I quit it! 

[DoctorAtomic]

There was an article about some books in Friends being dated, and I just thought it was never as funny as it thought it was. I really don't know why it was so popular. Or maybe it was because the jokes were so derivative. 

MadTv did a great Friends sketch of anyone remembers btw. 

[Katy M]

10 hours ago, Blergh said:

That sounds very much like the Three Stages of Friends I went through! I've never seen the above show but, by the time I quit Friends, I was so OVER it that I decided then and there I never wanted to see another second of it again even as a rerun. Oh, and to keep this ontopic, The Central Perk Couch which now has been copied and put on tour wound up being the ONLY likable regular by the time I quit it! 

I think my unpopular opinion is that I liked the later seasons of Friends better than the first seasons.

[ParadoxLost]

On 9/8/2019 at 6:09 PM, DoctorAtomic said:

Yeah, but I'd say it does take a level of technical skill to achieve the look of South Park though.

Both South Park and SNL are marvels in that they basically go from nothing to air in six days.

[Mabinogia]

12 minutes ago, ParadoxLost said:

Both South Park and SNL are marvels in that they basically go from nothing to air in six days.

Ha, I guess my UO is that I an not even remotely surprised it took only 6 days to make an ep of South Park.

[DoctorAtomic]

Even then, they've changed the ending the day of.

[proserpina65]

On ‎09‎/‎04‎/‎2019 at 8:48 PM, scarynikki12 said:

Walt would go against other drug dealers who were way worse than him. Nazi worse to give you an idea.

Doesn't make him deserving of less loathing on my part.  Which is one of the many reasons I've no interest in Breaking Bad.

[proserpina65]

On ‎09‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 5:06 AM, Brandi Maxxxx said:

I liked seasons 1-2, when the show was at least entertaining enough to overlook the smugness. Seasons 3-4 were mediocre and 5-6 were so bad they made me question how I ever could have liked it. 

I liked it well enough until the last season, but quickly found that the Ahmed-centric episodes annoyed the crap out of me because I found that character insufferable.  I didn't see the Claymation Christmas episode until long after it originally ran, but if I'd seen it during that season, I'd have stopped watching entirely.

I did enjoy the paintball episodes, though.

Abed.  It was Abed.  D'oh!

Edited September 13, 2019 by proserpina65

[Shannon L.]

2 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

I liked it well enough until the last season, but quickly found that the Ahmed-centric episodes annoyed the crap out of me because I found that character insufferable.  I didn't see the Claymation Christmas episode until long after it originally ran, but if I'd seen it during that season, I'd have stopped watching entirely.

I did enjoy the paintball episodes, though.

The paintball episodes, the pillow/blanket fort war episode, the pillow fight episode and the video game animation episode were my favorites.