Party of One: Unpopular TV Opinions

[DoctorAtomic]

27 minutes ago, bluegirl147 said:

I have a friend who recently got into some legal trouble and his long term girlfriend is upset about it and doing the what will people think schtick.   I told mutual friends she is acting like Carmela. Wanted to benefit from what her man was doing but didn't want any of the bad stuff to reflect on her.

Carm. There's no wedding. I don't want to make you an accessory after the fact.
Oh. ooooohhh.

[callie lee 29]

3 hours ago, bluegirl147 said:

I'm like this too.  I saw that a lot on soaps.  There would be a straight up villain but because he was attractive or funny fans would handwave his crimes away and then the writers taking notice of the villain's popularity would start the redemption arc.   

This is exactly why I stopped watching General Hospital after decades. The fandom over Sonny, Carly and Jason was insane. 

[DrSpaceman73]

49 minutes ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I rooted for Tony Soprano because he was actually smart and good at his job and he was able to adapt when the idiots in the crew screwed up. Killing Christopher was exactly the correct 'business' move if you will. 

Sure, the context is what defines the show, and no one on the show could be considered good. Carmela knew exactly what she was buying in to. 

Characters don't have to be rock stars and the best of the best, but if they are objectively good at their jobs, I can buy in. 

I mean, Archer. Come on. But he kills it, whether he's blackout drunk or not. #TransferrableSkills

Tony soprano was the case of someone trying to be a better person. Challenges of being in the 1950s Era environment with gangsters while attempting to bring them into the 21st century.  Or least late 20th century. 

It's in the extreme but it's relatable to all of us, how we change our views and grow over the years. How those changes affect our relationship with coworkers snd family, for better and worse. That's why the character struck such a great chord with the audience. He is part of a group we could never imagine being involved with but at the same time faces the same struggles we all face day to day. Just in a more exagerrated and higher risk form. 

Plus he could be funny and charming and personable, so easy to like most of the time. 

[DoctorAtomic]

And good at his job. He didn't want to whack Vito for being gay because he was a good earner. 

[scarynikki12]

1 hour ago, Enigma X said:

I freely admit I like some villains, some characters because a fave actor is playing them, some characters who are severely flawed, and some who are just shy of problematic (once over the threshold they are gone), but I don't try to make excuses for them. 

Same. I loved Killgrave on Jessica Jones and Katherine on Vampire Diaries because David Tennant and Nina Dobrev played them perfectly. But I would never want either show to restructure and make either character the hero just because a bunch of us loved great acting. 

[Enigma X]

Just now, scarynikki12 said:

I loved Killgrave on Jessica Jones 

💯 Kilgrave was a horrible character with no redeemable quality, but I liked him as a villain and love Tennant as an actor. Nothing I will say about the Kilgrave character can paint him as not being despicable.

Tennant does evil well. I have seen him in other things where the character is the worst. He also does "nice" well, too, though.

That said, most characters I like seem morally gray to average people making "real" decisions and mistakes. That may be boring to some.

[DoctorAtomic]

You need a strong actor to play it to the hilt like Tennant playing Kilgrave so when he says 'tell me you love me' you jump out of your chair and yell. Loudly. 

[Hiyo]

Quote

Tony soprano was the case of someone trying to be a better person

Yeah, but at the end of the day, he is still a murdering sociopath...

[Blergh]

19 hours ago, Hiyo said:

Yeah, but at the end of the day, he is still a murdering sociopath...

Exactly! Just because Tony Soprano shed some crocodile tears didn't change that fact and pretending that his occasional niceties erased that fact is a bit of a crock!

Though I have to admit that it's likely the charm of the late Mr. Gandolfini that somehow got some to pretend that the character wasn't strictly a murderous thug.

Edited September 23, 2022 by Blergh

[DoctorAtomic]

I don't think he shed any crocodile tears. Tony knew who he was and didn't apologize for it. The reason he went into therapy because he was having panic attacks and didn't want to get whacked. 

The therapy helped him be better at his job. 

[proserpina65]

16 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I don't think he shed any crocodile tears. Tony knew who he was and didn't apologize for it. The reason he went into therapy because he was having panic attacks and didn't want to get whacked. 

The therapy helped him be better at his job. 

Which was running an illegal enterprise, including having people killed.  I hated the show and the character.

[isalicat]

4 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

Which was running an illegal enterprise, including having people killed.  I hated the show and the character.

Which is why, no matter how hard people try to get me to watch this show and tell me how brilliant the writing and acting is, I won't watch it. I don't want these people in my living room. That includes Breaking Bad and associated spin offs. I've never understood the interest in mobbed up characters or drug dealers as the protagonist of a program.

[Danny Franks]

19 hours ago, isalicat said:

Which is why, no matter how hard people try to get me to watch this show and tell me how brilliant the writing and acting is, I won't watch it. I don't want these people in my living room. That includes Breaking Bad and associated spin offs. I've never understood the interest in mobbed up characters or drug dealers as the protagonist of a program.

Yeah, I watched a handful of episodes of the Sopranos, but just disliked everyone and couldn't understand why people would want to spend time watching them.

It's fine to have unlikeable characters in shows. Most of the time you need them, because they contrast with the characters you're supposed to identify with. But when all the characters are reprehensible and amoral... what's the point?

This is the same reason I only made it through one season of Boardwalk Empire, why I have no interest in Breaking Bad or other shows that ask you to wallow in the shittiness of humanity. There's enough of that in the real world, why would I want to watch it on TV as well?

[Cinnabon]

20 hours ago, isalicat said:

Which is why, no matter how hard people try to get me to watch this show and tell me how brilliant the writing and acting is, I won't watch it. I don't want these people in my living room. That includes Breaking Bad and associated spin offs. I've never understood the interest in mobbed up characters or drug dealers as the protagonist of a program.

Breaking Bad is one of my favorite shows of all time, but I never rooted for Walter White or anyone else involved in the drug trade. 

Edited September 24, 2022 by Cinnabon

[Raja]

I remember on The Shield the TV Guide episode descriptions of the crime of the week made the show sound like the Strike Team were the heroes and some people would never watch a second episode. Compared to Chicago PD where characters would talk about the heroes of the Intelligence unit. I have given up on the Chicago cops being brought to justice.

[sistermagpie]

19 hours ago, Cinnabon said:

Breaking Bad is one of my favorite shows of all time, but I never rooted for Walter White or anyone else involved in the drug trade. 

I sometimes rooted for Walt--or maybe that's the wrong word--I appreciated when he did something clever to get out of trouble. But never rooted for him to be a great drug dealer etc. or thought he was good or better than anyone else. Or justified. And neither did the show, which I think is one of the things that makes it so interesting to watch. Same thing with The Sopranos. A lot of viewers made the characters into heroes, but I never felt like the show itself was saying they were cool.

It often bugged me when it seemed like people would seem to pick their favorite drug dealer and decide they were somehow the good one who wasn't really like the others--usually Mike or Jesse. 

It reminds me of one time when the cast was on some panel and Giancarlo Esposito started talking about Gus that was clearly from Gus's pov. How he was a good man in many ways and really helping his community etc. And Brian Cranston laughed in his face like oh yeah, he's a great guy. I think GE got a little offended but BC was right. I get that as an actor you have to be in the characters' pov, but still!

[Zella]

5 hours ago, sistermagpie said:

I get that as an actor you have to be in the characters' pov, but still!

This is something that really gets on my nerves with some actors whom I otherwise like. I understand as an acting technique that you have to be able to put yourselves in their shoes, but sometimes they'll talk about being surprised about the most expected plot points imaginable, and it just makes me think they have no critical thinking skills at all if they couldn't see that coming. That or they're brownnosing their bosses. LOL 

Edited September 25, 2022 by Zella

[Cinnabon]

32 minutes ago, sistermagpie said:

It often bugged me when it seemed like people would seem to pick their favorite drug dealer and decide they were somehow the good one who wasn't really like the others--usually Mike or Jesse. 

THIS. And it’s still happening, lol. 🤦‍♀️

[kiddo82]

It's always refreshing when I hear an actor actually call out an asshole/villain character that he or she plays.  I can't think of any examples now but I have heard it in the past.  It's always a welcome change from the usual.  

Edited September 25, 2022 by kiddo82

[Gharlane]

On 9/17/2022 at 9:03 PM, JustHereForFood said:

No, I don't need Stephen Colbert to beat John Oliver for an Emmy, why do you ask?

Neither deserve an Emmy for their political clapter.

On 9/18/2022 at 10:32 PM, roseha said:

Years ago John Laroquette stopped submitting his name to the Emmys after winning multiple times.  

Wait, you can nominate yourself for an Emmy? Isn't that like posting something to social media and then "liking" it?

[Kel Varnsen]

On 9/22/2022 at 11:08 PM, DoctorAtomic said:

I don't think he shed any crocodile tears. Tony knew who he was and didn't apologize for it. The reason he went into therapy because he was having panic attacks and didn't want to get whacked. 

The therapy helped him be better at his job. 

Which was the reason why his therapist dropped him as a client. Because she realized that he wasn't going to therapy in order to become a better person, he was doing it in order to feel better about the terrible person he was.

[meep.meep]

17 minutes ago, Gharlane said:

Neither deserve an Emmy for their political clapter.

Wait, you can nominate yourself for an Emmy? Isn't that like posting something to social media and then "liking" it?

No, you can't nominate yourself.  What actors/production companies/studios do is "submit for consideration"- the individual can select the scene or episode or whatever that he/she thinks represents their best work.  The academy picks from those submitted.  Laroquette stopped submitting.

Clapter isn't a word, according to my dictionary.

[Hiyo]

Personally, I enjoy their political clapter. Far from being cromulent, it embiggens us all.

By that I mean they are both funny as hell.

[DoctorAtomic]

It's not necessarily the political clapter, of which I agree is perfectly cromulent, but the production of the entire show. Something like Oliver's interviews with Monica Lewinski or Anita Hill were just well done segments. Or even landing Snowden. 

Other general segments on talk shows that are challenging are when they interact with the public. 

[meep.meep]

Oliver's segment on the Bolivian traffic-calming police who dress up in full zebra costumes is an unheralded gem.

[Gharlane]

On 9/28/2022 at 1:56 PM, meep.meep said:

Clapter isn't a word, according to my dictionary.

It's a joke whose purpose is not to make one laugh, but to elicit applause from a sympathetic audience. 

[Enigma X]

I genuinely laugh heartily at the Colbert and Oliver jokes. 🤷‍♀️ To each their own.

[Cinnabon]

24 minutes ago, Enigma X said:

I genuinely laugh heartily at the Colbert and Oliver jokes. 🤷‍♀️ To each their own.

Same! As do many based on their shows’ longevity.

[JustHereForFood]

On 9/21/2022 at 1:50 PM, Llywela said:

Yes. This. And so many shows do it. They're like, "Sure, the villain is bad because they murdered a bunch of people/attempted to destroy an entire spaceship/city/world, or whatever, but although the hero foiled the dastardly plot, they failed to save everyone and had to kill a couple of villainous henchmen in the process, so really they are all just as bad as each other!" It is just such a false equivalence yet shows always seem to want us to take it seriously.

I have to return back to this, because I just encountered a lot of this BS, not from the show itself, but from some viewers. (On another forum, thankfully not here.)

Spoilers for episode 6 of The Rings of Power:

Spoiler

Apparently some people now see Galadriel as a racist/specieist genocidal maniac because of her speech to Adar about wanting to kill every single orc. And Adar's speech about how he just wants his children (bleh) to have some place to live apparently makes him sympathetic.

WTF is wrong with people? Did they forget who are the obvious heroes and villains here? I get that people now want more shades-of-grey approach to stories, but some stories (and reality) are black and white and LOTR is one of the top examples. Apart from that, those poor hated orcs have murdered and tortured people, forced peaceful villagers out of their homes just few episodes ago and completely destroyed a part of land just this episode. Yeah, zero sympathy from me about how they are not responsible for what they are born as.

What killed me was someone saying that Galadriel is completely unlikeable character, so it's no wonder that some people now root more for orcs than for her. I don't even know how to unpack that. First, I think that her "unlikeable" traits would not be brought as much if she was a male character. Second, she was fighting alongside many other characters that don't get this level of hate, so that point is moot. Third, even if she was a complete bitch (I don't think that, for the record) and she would still be morally way above the obvious villains.

But yeah, some people have a strange double standard for the behaviour of heroes and villains.

[Anduin]

11 minutes ago, JustHereForFood said:

I have to return back to this, because I just encountered a lot of this BS, not from the show itself, but from some viewers. (On another forum, thankfully not here.)

Spoilers for episode 6 of The Rings of Power:

  Hide contents

Apparently some people now see Galadriel as a racist/specieist genocidal maniac because of her speech to Adar about wanting to kill every single orc. And Adar's speech about how he just wants his children (bleh) to have some place to live apparently makes him sympathetic.

But y'know, Adar and the orcs are just so pretty! Actually, it's funny that people are railing against the pretty one in favour of the ugly ones this time around.

I like a good Blizzard-style orc, but these ones really aren't. Sometimes you need generic enemies for the heroes to fight. Giving them distinct behaviours, personalities, or motives, that's where it gets tricky.

Of course, it depends if Adar is telling the truth. An orc homeland isn't a terrible thing, but will it stop there? Or would he start planning to expand? Furthermore, why does he have to take the land from the people living there? We've seen unoccupied fertile land elsewhere. Also, when your plan involves causing a dormant volcano to erupt, it's not a nice plan!

I suppose some people just always cheer for the villains.

[Haleth]

Joseph Mawle brings a lot of depth to Adar so it's no wonder some viewers might be drawn to him.  He's soft spoken and appears to be regretful about the war, and is affectionate to his people orcs.  He is sorrowful about losing sunlight and plants seeds to counter the carnage, but viewers have to remember he is also the source of all the destruction.  He's like the walrus and the carpenter, crying for the death of the oysters while chowing down.

[BlueSkies]

I respect Larry David for his work on Seinfeld.  But Curb Your Enthusiasm to me is awful 

Edited October 4, 2022 by BlueSkies

[BlueSkies]

Hottest/most attractive woman on TV for the last 30 plus years was Fran Drescher on The Nanny 

[DrSpaceman73]

9 hours ago, BlueSkies said:

I respect Larry David for his work on Seinfeld.  But Curb Your Enthusiasm to me is awful 

I could never get into that show. And I love Seinfeld. Just Larry David being an obtuse ass to everyone isn't really funny. 

13 minutes ago, BlueSkies said:

Hottest/most attractive woman on TV for the last 30 plus years was Fran Drescher on The Nanny 

That is certainly an unpopular opinion I'll give you that. 

Her voice alone I can't get by

Edited October 4, 2022 by DrSpaceman73

[BlueSkies]

4 hours ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

I could never get into that show. And I love Seinfeld. Just Larry David being an obtuse ass to everyone isn't really funny. 

That is certainly an unpopular opinion I'll give you that. 

Her voice alone I can't get by

Well you’re ignoring the rest of her goods then if all your focusing in on is her voice 😊

Actually even as someone who’s not very people-ish her voice doesn’t get to me.  I can be naive but I think she’s good peoples.

Larry David I’m with you though.   I watched a few episodes and he came across as an asshole with first world problems to say the least.  If it was more a show about a working class character I might feel differently 

[Bastet]

9 hours ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

Her voice alone I can't get by

I don't know if she sounds in real life like she did on The Nanny or if that was for the role, but whenever I have The Golden Girls on as background noise and that block is over and a block of The Nanny begins, I run into the room to change the channel as soon as I hear her.  That's a voice the term "like nails on a chalkboard" was invented for.

[GHScorpiosRule]

1 hour ago, Bastet said:

I don't know if she sounds in real life like she did on The Nanny or if that was for the role, but whenever I have The Golden Girls on as background noise and that block is over and a block of The Nanny begins, I run into the room to change the channel as soon as I hear her.  That's a voice the term "like nails on a chalkboard" was invented for.

I think it’s for the roles? She also appeared on Who’s The Boss? in a back door pilot, and it was similar. But in guest appearances on dramas*, her voice was much more muted and not as nasally grating.
 

*played the separated wife suffering from depression in Civil Wars and then mother of the murder victim in Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

[WritinMan]

11 hours ago, BlueSkies said:

Hottest/most attractive woman on TV for the last 30 plus years was Fran Drescher on The Nanny 

Ew.

[BlueSkies]

14 minutes ago, WritinMan said:

Ew.

Ew what?

Shes over 60 years old and still looks naturally beautiful 

[RealHousewife]

5 hours ago, BlueSkies said:

Ew what?

Shes over 60 years old and still looks naturally beautiful 

Agree. I always thought Fran Drescher was a beautiful woman. She has a great figure too. Her voice and laugh are endearing imo. It's kind of funny such a conventionally attractive person sounds like that!

[Gramto6]

12 minutes ago, RealHousewife said:

Agree. I always thought Fran Drescher was a beautiful woman. She has a great figure too. Her voice and laugh are endearing imo. It's kind of funny such a conventionally attractive person sounds like that!

From what she said in that video, it seems the voice runs in the women of the family. It grates on me, but if it is truly her voice then God Bless her for her successes!

[Hiyo]

She is an attractive woman, but Most/Hottest of All Time? I couldn't co-sign that even if a gun was pointed at my head.

[BlueSkies]

4 hours ago, Hiyo said:

She is an attractive woman, but Most/Hottest of All Time? I couldn't co-sign that even if a gun was pointed at my head.

Well I wrote of the last 30 years since I was a teen.

Theres that old phrase beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  I mean this to me is sexy…. the tight outfits that fit her figure perfectly 

[Hiyo]

Quote

Well I wrote of the last 30 years since I was a teen.

I was including that period in my statement.

Granted, my statement could apply to any period lol

[Cinnabon]

5 hours ago, BlueSkies said:

Well I wrote of the last 30 years since I was a teen.

Theres that old phrase beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  I mean this to me is sexy…. the tight outfits that fit her figure perfectly 

Definitely hotter than any of the Kartrashians .🤣

[Hiyo]

Thats a low bar to pole vault over, no?

[Cinnabon]

Just now, Hiyo said:

Thats a low bar to pole vault over, no?

I think so!

[Broderbits]

1 hour ago, Cinnabon said:

Definitely hotter than any of the Kartrashians

Whichever one does the migraine ads - I think she's hideous. The pounds of make-up and plastic surgery/fillers/whatever just creep me out. IMHO

[Mabinogia]

3 hours ago, Broderbits said:

Whichever one does the migraine ads - I think she's hideous. The pounds of make-up and plastic surgery/fillers/whatever just creep me out. IMHO

The first time I saw that commercial I actually did a double take. She doesn't even look human anymore. 

[Cinnabon]

2 hours ago, Mabinogia said:

The first time I saw that commercial I actually did a double take. She doesn't even look human anymore. 

NONE of them do. It’s freaky and disturbing.