Party of One: Unpopular TV Opinions

[scarynikki12]

My grandma had one of those VCRs that only recorded the show you were actively watching so there wasn't even a point when we visited her. 

[Zella]

This conversation is giving me flashbacks to when my brother and I accidentally recorded cartoons over my mom's soap. Hell hath no fury. 

[DoctorAtomic]

I don't know if this is unpopular, but I'm skeptical there's that much of an appetite for more GOT.  

[Anduin]

8 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I don't know if this is unpopular, but I'm skeptical there's that much of an appetite for more GOT.  

House of the Dragon is the less intriguing of the potential spinoffs IMO, but I'm still curious.

[kiddo82]

3 hours ago, Anduin said:

Yes, I remember that too. And thankfully, no. HOTD is Sundays/Mondays depending on your time zone, while LOTR is Fridays/Saturdays. We don't have to choose, my friends. We can watch and enjoy them both!

You can only like one.  And liking one automatically means you must think the other is rubbish.  I don't make the rules.

[Mabinogia]

1 hour ago, Irlandesa said:

And I didn't even know how to set the VCR back then so I'd have to choose a station, hit record and then record that same channel all day long.  For too many years I only saw the beginning of Santa Barbara until I figured out how to record shows and could even switch channels.

I used to tape Santa Barbara on an audio cassette tape. Those were hard times man. 

22 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I don't know if this is unpopular, but I'm skeptical there's that much of an appetite for more GOT.  

What I liked about GoT was more the characters than the storyline, so I really don't have any interest in prequels about the ancestors, and I don't much care what happens after the finale since they kind of screwed over or killed all the characters I liked watching.  Whereas LotR, for me, has a more interesting world I am willing to explore with or without the main characters from the original story. It's all personal preference. I'm curious to check out the LotRs show but have zero interest in any of the GoTs even though I watched every episode of that show, except the last one which...

I guess that makes my UO that I have no problem at all dropping a show I once loved, even if there is only one hour I need to commit to it. I just, once the love is gone, I am out. 

 

[Zella]

34 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I don't know if this is unpopular, but I'm skeptical there's that much of an appetite for more GOT.  

I've wondered the same thing. I didn't dislike the final season of Game of Thrones as much as the rest of the internet, but I really have no interest in spending more time in that world and the Targaryens were always the most boring part to me. I also laughed harder at the bad wigs in the stills I've seen than i think I was supposed to. Most of the internet discussion I see is apathetic to the new show. I'm really curious to see what kind of viewership numbers they pull in. 

Edited March 31, 2022 by Zella

[DoctorAtomic]

53 minutes ago, Anduin said:

House of the Dragon is the less intriguing of the potential spinoffs IMO, but I'm still curious.

Yes, I'm curious too, but that's not the same as the appetite for the show. I'm not trashing the property, but multiple spin offs is a lot to bank on. 

43 minutes ago, Zella said:

Most of the internet discussion I see is apathetic to the new show.

I suppose it doesn't matter in terms of ratings because it's HBO, but I don't think it's going to be a cultural phenomenon. 

[andromeda331]

I hated having to decide between ABC and CBS soaps to record. It really stink. Hoping and praying the other show you wanted to record but couldn't would air in the summer. Usually it didn't. I was happy when DVDs of entire TV shows finally came out. Then I could finally catch episodes I had been missing for years. Well, for shows that they did put on DVD some they never have and some they only put out a couple seasons and then stopped because they weren't earning enough money. 

[Danny Franks]

4 hours ago, Anduin said:

House of the Dragon is the less intriguing of the potential spinoffs IMO, but I'm still curious.

The only thing that would have interested me less than the Targaryen show would be one about the Iron Islanders.

Honestly, a show about Robert's Rebellion or a Dunk and Egg show probably would have won me over easily, but I haven't even watched the trailer for the new show. If it gets rave reviews, I may give it a shot.

I know even less about the LOTR show, other than the neckbeard subset freaking out because it had brown people in the trailer.

 

[Llywela]

2 hours ago, Danny Franks said:

I know even less about the LOTR show, other than the neckbeard subset freaking out because it had brown people in the trailer.

Whereas because my online experience is so curated, I haven't seen any of the racist freakout, although I know it is happening very loudly out of my sight, but I have seen lots of Tolkien purists wailing about the awful hair and costumes, and how some of the character profiles and advertised storylines don't match the source material at all ("But s/he would never DO that!" they sob).

I'm not planning to watch either show, although I stand prepared to change my mind if I see good reviews.

[Haleth]

9 hours ago, Mabinogia said:

I guess that makes my UO that I have no problem at all dropping a show I once loved, even if there is only one hour I need to commit to it. I just, once the love is gone, I am out. 

I do that sometimes.  Most recently it was Yellowstone.  I finally realized I hate all the characters and was not entertained by the show so I quit with one episode left.  No regrets.

5 hours ago, Danny Franks said:

The only thing that would have interested me less than the Targaryen show would be one about the Iron Islanders.

Speaking of hating all the characters.  Can you imagine? <shudder>

I'll watch both the GoT spinoff and LotR but I don't have high hopes for either.  I expect both to be poor imitations of the source material.

[Lugal]

18 hours ago, Anduin said:

The new Game of Thrones show will be airing at the same time as Lord of the Rings. Oh no, competition! We must immediately pick sides! To which I say, no. Let's not. Let's all enjoy two great shows at the same time.

Besides that battle was already fought:

Personally, I never got into GOT but I am curious about the LOTR show.

[DoctorAtomic]

10 hours ago, Danny Franks said:

Honestly, a show about Robert's Rebellion or a Dunk and Egg show probably would have won me over easily, but I haven't even watched the trailer for the new show. If it gets rave reviews, I may give it a shot.

I'm agreeing, but there's your problem. Prior to the 'present time' GOT there was repressive iron rule from the Targaryens because they basically had nuclear weapons. The show itself was good because we came in when all that was fractured, so there's chaos all over the place as everyone is squabbling for the throne. 

I don't know much about this prequel, but it's only going to be Targaryen drama? Because losing the throne isn't a threat at this point. Maybe go back far enough before they're a dynasty.

Focus on the rebellion instead, even though we know how it ends, there's something more there. Robert still needs to hack together an alliance, you have the disintegration of the Targaryens, how the kids get hidden away, etc. It seems more to mine imo.

Amazon did great with Wheel of Time, so I'm checking out LOTR just for that. 

[proserpina65]

17 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I don't know if this is unpopular, but I'm skeptical there's that much of an appetite for more GOT.  

I think HBO is correct in thinking House of the Dragon will be huge for them.  Perhaps not quite as huge as GOT was but big enough to be well worth the money.

16 hours ago, kiddo82 said:

You can only like one.  And liking one automatically means you must think the other is rubbish.  I don't make the rules.

It's the Star Trek or Star Wars thing all over again.  (Says the woman who loved both.)

[supposebly]

This is easy. I don't have HBO at the moment. I do have Amazon. And if I really get interested in the Targaryens, I can watch them later.

I'm about lukewarm about either show at the moment.

The characters in the early LOTR are more archetypes than characters, so they have to do quite some interesting writing and plotting to flesh them out to make them palpatable for the audience of a modern TV show.

The GOT early Targaryens are even thinner as far as I'm aware. So I'm guessing these shows will have very different tones from the originals.

If they are different, that's fine with me. I wouldn't want a show that is written in tone like the Silmarillion. I barely got through that when reading and I found it hard ot follow and rather boring.

And I couldn't even finish the first Game of Thrones book. I thought it would be good as a show but for reading? Hell no. I have about 2 hours time to read for fun in the week. That kind of writing does not lend itself to actually following or caring about what's going on. Not unless you can spend longer stretches of time to read them.

[Zella]

20 minutes ago, supposebly said:

I wouldn't want a show that is written in tone like the Silmarillion. I barely got through that when reading and I found it hard ot follow and rather boring.

Same. I enjoyed reading LOTR and The Hobbit--I actually like The Hobbit better than LOTR as a book--and I soldiered through The Silmarillion, but it was like a chore more than anything else to me.  

[JustHereForFood]

23 hours ago, Mabinogia said:

Even worse if they weren't even paying for it because they tapped into the neighbors cable! Not that we did that, I'm comment for a friend. ;)

I used to watch three soaps at the same time, sitting a couple feet from the tele with the cable box in my lap, my fingers poised over two buttons while my other hand was on the toggle switch. As soon as a commercial or a storyline I didn't like came on I'd switch to the other show. Of course I have the memory of a rather forgetful hamster I would forget to switch back. Luckily soaps tend to have storylines that go on for so long it was easy to figure out what I'd missed or are over so fast I didn't even realize I missed them. 

Ah, this was my childhood: 

That was my childhood too.

[DoctorAtomic]

How about having to run the 100 m dash in 7 seconds when there was a commercial and you needed to pee and get a snack? 

[Mabinogia]

1 hour ago, DoctorAtomic said:

How about having to run the 100 m dash in 7 seconds when there was a commercial and you needed to pee and get a snack? 

I'm still not used to being able to stop a show any time I want to go pee. I still wait for the commercials that never come so I end up holding it until the show is over. Old habits die hard. 

My UO that is unpopular with myself, is that I kind of miss television dictating my life. I liked the structure of knowing what was on when and knowing I had to be done with everything by 8PM to start watching my prime time shows. 

Now it's just a free for all. I can watch anything available to me at any time so what do I do? Spend an hour a day flipping through every show on Netflix and Prime until I realize I have already binged everything they have that I had any interest in watching then head over to Pluto where I've seen reruns of everything about ten times, then go read a book. TV watching has greatly diminished my To Be Read pile. 

[DoctorAtomic]

I actually do set a schedule for myself as shows come out. If I know there's going to be a lot of discussion here on one, I'll try to watch it within a couple of days. 

[Blergh]

Well, I like the looks I get from whippersnappers when I tell them I'm old  enough to remember what it was like growing up when there were only three commercial TV networks, PBS and an independent UHF station in my city, the set was black-and-white AND whenever I wanted to change the channel, I had to walk ALL the way to front of the set and TURN THE  KNOB- and they think they have it tough with hundreds of cable stations, online options and that one that rhymes with Few Klewb - ALL in color and with just a brush of a finger to get to something else! HA!

Edited April 2, 2022 by Blergh

[DoctorAtomic]

I watched Live-Aid on a UHF channel because I read an article about it in the newspaper. 

[Glitches]

1 hour ago, Blergh said:

Well, I like the looks I get from whippersnappers when I tell them I'm old to remember what it was like growing up when there were only three commercial TV networks, PBS and an independent UHF station in my city, the set was black-and-white AND whenever I wanted to change the channel, I had to walk ALL the way to front of the set and TURN ON KNOB- and they think they have it tough with hundreds of cable stations, online options and that one that rhymes with Few Klewb - ALL in color and with just a brush of a finger to get to something else! HA

Off topic but I was talking with someone the other day who was explaining to a kid that there used to be no GPS. Kid just didn’t understand that people would get lost, couldn’t just pull out their phone and look it up and actually had to stop and ask people how to get there. Good times. 

 

On 3/30/2022 at 4:43 PM, scarynikki12 said:

My grandma had one of those VCRs that only recorded the show you were actively watching so there wasn't even a point when we visited her. 

I was the only one in my crowd who could program any VCR. A friend used to call me and ask how reset the clock on their microwave.

[Zella]

3 minutes ago, Glitches said:

was explaining to a kid that there used to be no GPS. Kid just didn’t understand that people would get lost, couldn’t just pull out their phone and look it up and actually had to stop and ask people how to get there. Good times. 

Honestly in some rural areas, it's still not that great. I wish I had a dollar for every person I've encountered who was lost where I live because they followed the GPS. Then they still have to stop and get actual human-generated directions. LOL 

[bluegirl147]

9 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I actually do set a schedule for myself as shows come out. If I know there's going to be a lot of discussion here on one, I'll try to watch it within a couple of days. 

Yes if you want to be included in the immediate discussions of an episode you need to watch it immediately.  I don't watch anything live.  I will usually watch things the next morning and by the time I get here the episodes already have a couple pages of comments.  And then of course you have people spoiling things on their social media posts.

6 hours ago, Glitches said:

 

I was the only one in my crowd who could program any VCR. A friend used to call me and ask how reset the clock on their microwave.

I remember when I figured out how to program the VCR.  It was like finding the Holy Grail.   I could record shows when I wasn't home!!!  Kids today just don't know the struggle of life before DVRs and streaming.

 

[Blergh]

14 hours ago, bluegirl147 said:

Yes if you want to be included in the immediate discussions of an episode you need to watch it immediately.  I don't watch anything live.  I will usually watch things the next morning and by the time I get here the episodes already have a couple pages of comments.  And then of course you have people spoiling things on their social media posts.

I remember when I figured out how to program the VCR.  It was like finding the Holy Grail.   I could record shows when I wasn't home!!!  Kids today just don't know the struggle of life before DVRs and streaming.

 

To say nothing of having two   members of the same household having VERY different fave programs being aired at the exact same time believing that the programs could only be seen the single time they were originally broadcast then forever gone! 

Edited April 2, 2022 by Blergh

[Haleth]

1 hour ago, Blergh said:

To nothing of having two   members of the same household having VERY different fave programs being aired at the exact same time believing that the programs could only be seen the single time they were originally broadcast then forever gone! 

Oh, the humanity! 🤣

I remember one situation when I was a little kid.  There was some special broadcast (it was something like a Wizard of Oz prequel or sequel) that I really, really wanted to see but I was being punished by being sent to my room.  I was not allowed to watch and it was never repeated on tv.  To this day I'm still angry about it.  😄

[Shannon L.]

I'm old enough to remember that when my brother and I were kids, we'd have to hope and pray that our parents didn't plan anything for nights that our favorite Christmas cartoons were being aired because if they did, we missed them for a whole year. 

Edited April 1, 2022 by Shannon L.

[JustHereForFood]

For a while, I used to record some series daily when it was on in the morning when I was at school. And when I went on school trip, I had to explain to my mother how to set the VCR, because it wasn't possible for me to set it for the whole week. I even wrote her instructions on a paper.

[SusanM]

3 hours ago, Shannon L. said:

I'm old enough to remember that when my brother and I were kids, we'd have to hope and pray that our parents didn't plan anything for nights that our favorite Christmas cartoons were being aired because if they did, we missed them for a whole year. 

Same.  To be honest, in a way I do miss that special excitement of looking forward to watching something you know you will only see once, or certainly only once a year!  I can still remember how much my sisters and I looked forward to the annual showing of The Wizard of Oz for instance.  

Edited April 1, 2022 by SusanM

[ABay]

When I was 5 I had my tonsils removed and had to stay overnight in the hospital. To this day my strongest memory of the entire event is how mad I was that I missed Daktari.

[Mabinogia]

18 hours ago, Glitches said:

Off topic but I was talking with someone the other day who was explaining to a kid that there used to be no GPS. Kid just didn’t understand that people would get lost, couldn’t just pull out their phone and look it up and actually had to stop and ask people how to get there. Good times. 

Or dare I say...get out a MAP!!??!?!! I remember going over the road map and highlighting the route for a big trip we were going on. Oh, those were the days. 

 

9 hours ago, Haleth said:

I remember one situation when I was a little kid.  There was some special broadcast (it was something like a Wizard of Oz prequel or sequel) that I really, really wanted to see but I was being punished by being sent to my room.  I was not allowed to watch and it was never repeated on tv.  To this day I'm still angry about it.  

There is still an episode of Little House that I haven't seen because it used to come on after dinner and I refused to eat my veggies and was stuck sitting alone at the kitchen table staring down at a horrible plate of peas or some such while my sister was in the other room enjoying the antics of Laura and her friends. I honestly can't remember what episode it was, just that I did not get to see it that day and by the time reruns etc came along I didn't know which one it was. 

[Shannon L.]

There was a TV movie that I was so looking forward to, glad that it was on a night when there wasn't a basketball game scheduled (I was a cheerleader), only to get pissed off when I discovered that there was another event that I was required to be at that night.

[andromeda331]

4 hours ago, Mabinogia said:

Or dare I say...get out a MAP!!??!?!! I remember going over the road map and highlighting the route for a big trip we were going on. Oh, those were the days. 

Me too. We had a big book with maps of each of the 50 states that we always took along with us on our road trips. Marking where we were and which cities we just past. 

[Annber03]

2 minutes ago, andromeda331 said:

Me too. We had a big book with maps of each of the 50 states that we always took along with us on our road trips. Marking where we were and which cities we just past. 

This reminds me of how, when I was little, I had a puzzle map of the U.S. that I used to play with all the time. That's how I learned all the states and their capitals :D. And the states were all one of five colors - red, blue, orange, green, or yellow - and to this day, I still remember what states were which colors :p. 

(I also remember that the panhandle of Florida and the southeastern portion of Alaska each broke off by accident at one point, LOL.)

[DoctorAtomic]

5 hours ago, Mabinogia said:

Or dare I say...get out a MAP!!??!?!! I remember going over the road map and highlighting the route for a big trip we were going on. Oh, those were the days.

I had a state road atlas because I drove all over for refereeing soccer matches in high school. I looked everything up before. It was all like farmland and all that. 

[Browncoat]

One of my essential annual purchases was the new Rand-McNally road atlas, back in the day.  I haven't bought one in years, though, and I don't even know if they're published anymore.

[Shannon L.]

Anyone remember Thomas Guides? 

[Mabinogia]

2 hours ago, Browncoat said:

One of my essential annual purchases was the new Rand-McNally road atlas, back in the day. 

I used to pour over the Rand-McNally like other kids read comics. IDK I always found all the tangles of roads interesting and would map out my imaginary trips to different places. 

Truth be told, I still kind of do that with google maps when I'm bored. I'll pick a town I've always wanted to live in, or if it's on tele or in a movie I'll go zoom in an walk the streets to see what it's like.  I don't even have to leave my house to go on a road trip anymore. lol So I guess that is a step up from just looking at all the pretty squiggly lines on the old Rand-McNally. Still, I used to love that giant book of state maps.

 

[DoctorAtomic]

I actually do have a road atlas in my car. Two of them. I drive to very rural areas, like the town signs that have the population on it are only 3 digits and the first is less than 5, for volunteer work and if google maps gives out, I have a back up. Same when I go hiking because you're on a lot of forest roads. 

Fun fact - If you are stuck or lost or don't quite know where to go in those towns - go to the post office. It's like the town square. They know where everyone is. They've actually called people that I'm looking for. 'Oh, he's early, tell him to wait for me at the bar'. It's 9 am. 

[kathyk24]

On 3/30/2022 at 9:10 PM, Mabinogia said:

I used to tape Santa Barbara on an audio cassette tape. Those were hard times man. 

What I liked about GoT was more the characters than the storyline, so I really don't have any interest in prequels about the ancestors, and I don't much care what happens after the finale since they kind of screwed over or killed all the characters I liked watching.  Whereas LotR, for me, has a more interesting world I am willing to explore with or without the main characters from the original story. It's all personal preference. I'm curious to check out the LotRs show but have zero interest in any of the GoTs even though I watched every episode of that show, except the last one which...

I guess that makes my UO that I have no problem at all dropping a show I once loved, even if there is only one hour I need to commit to it. I just, once the love is gone, I am out. 

 

I agree I also don't feel the need to announce that I am no longer watching a show.

[Mabinogia]

6 hours ago, kathyk24 said:

I agree I also don't feel the need to announce that I am no longer watching a show.

But...but, then how will the show runners know that they need to cry themselves to sleep because they've disappointed you? haha

[GHScorpiosRule]

With all the talk about how Oscar hosts aren't funny; and that they're mean spirited, it brought to mind Whoopi Goldberg hosting the second time. She was hilarious. Her opening monologue, mocking all the different ribbons for all the different causes, but she did it in a very funny way that wasn't mean spirited. I'm fuzzy on her first time hosting, and her third wasn't that great. I can't remember her hosting a fourth time. But I loved her second time hosting.

And I also loved Billy Crystal's turns at hosting.

And I'm also going to just sit here at my table for one and just curse the In Memoriam segment for the Grammys because Lata was overlooked again. Yeah, I'm nursing that grudge. And again with the focus on the singers instead of the artists we lost.

[annzeepark914]

I don't/won't use GPS. When I need to learn how to get someplace, I Google it and write down the highways I need to use and the side streets I'll cross over. We've had friends using GPS who ended up driving all around the proverbial mulberry bush to get to our house. 

[JimmyJabloon]

Zero interest in LOTR show, because it looks garbage from the trailer and images. Not to mention it has a cheap feel to it. 
 

Zero interest in House of Dragon, because I hate Targaryens. Can’t take anymore  of those lunatic incestuous freaks with nukes.

[Wiendish Fitch]

Just now, JimmyJabloon said:

Can’t take anymore  of those lunatic incestuous freaks with nukes.

This? Is sheer poetry.

 

[DoctorAtomic]

Lunatic Incestuous Freaks with Nukes was our senior prom theme. Narrowly beat out It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday.

[bluegirl147]

2 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

Lunatic Incestuous Freaks with Nukes was our senior prom theme. Narrowly beat out It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday.

I bet the decorations were awesome.

[Blergh]

Since I quit watching the show after a few seasons  after it became a nonstop perp porn show despite its attempts at handwringing over victims, I'd to ask any longterm viewers of Law and Order:SVU if the show has ever depicted a suspect in there crimes suspected by the show's regular detectives as having turned out to have been innocent of the suspicions? If not, I find it very hard to believe that there would NEVER be a time in 23 seasons that the detectives wouldn't have turned out to have not been infallible in their judgments of others since they're supposed to be human not God!