Party of One: Unpopular TV Opinions

[Chaos Theory]

I kind of miss the days when if a show was cancelled, it was cancelled. That's it, we tried, it didn't work. No resurfacing on one of hundreds of platforms.

Depends on the show. In a lot of cases I agree with you. The show really wasn't that good to begin with. However sometimes like in the case of The Killing Netflix adding a final season was a nice touch. Same goes for Longmire. There are pleeeenty of high quality "bubble" shows that cable networks might tire of high critical acclaim low turnout and drop with a season or two left in them and it is nice when Netflix finishes them out.

Edited May 19, 2015 by Chaos Theory

[ganesh]

Is it a UO that I laughed a lot during the Mad Men finale? There were a lot of funny beats for me. 

[VanillaBear85]

In my experience, that's a very popular opinion :) I actually think all the seasons---even my beloved S2---had some terrific highs and why-do-I-even-watch-this-show lows, but yes, the show's lows were lower and more frequent in later seasons. (I guess I should say 'are' rather than 'were' since the show is still airing, but I kind of feel like it's been over for awhile now!)

Another one: I've ended up with the same UO about Brooklyn 99 that I had about Parks and Rec: it's sweet, it's warm, it's moderately engaging...but it's just not funny to me.

I will follow Community anywhere. That doesn't mean that I think there haven't been lows, but it is the only currently airing show I am watching now. There is only one other show that I watched from the very beginning.

I feel the exact same way about B99. It is only okay to me and I stopped watching. Jake is my least favorite character.

I felt nothing for Parks & Rec. I absolutely hated the first season and vowed to never watch another episode and then I watched part of the second, because "it was so much better" and maybe I was already biased, but I just do not like the show.

Edited May 19, 2015 by VanillaBear85

[ribboninthesky1]

If there is some variant of a "Positive Traits/What The Show Does Right/What I Love About the Show" thread in a show's FIRST season, I often think, "Maybe the show just isn't that good?" It's okay if a show isn't good in its first season. I figure there are a few choices: hate-watching, hope-watching, as mentioned upthread, or moving on.  It's the flip side of the nitpicking coin, and I don't get it. 

Edited May 19, 2015 by ribboninthesky1

[Gudzilla]

I love the Childrens Hospital previouslies.

[ParadoxLost]

I kind of miss the days when if a show was cancelled, it was cancelled. That's it, we tried, it didn't work. No resurfacing on one of hundreds of platforms.

 

This is why I never get involved in 'save our show' campaigns.  When a network decides to resurrect a cancelled show due to fan outcry, they kind of know what they are getting into.  When a show moves, not always.  When Roswell moved to UPN with Buffy, I felt like writing a letter of apology on the behalf of my fandom.  'They didn't know what those last four episodes of season 2 would be like when the campaign to save the show took off.'

[Chaos Theory]

My big UO is I like Elizabeth Keen on The Blacklist. Yes it will forever be The Red Reddington show but Keen's season 2 storyline has been fun.

[ParadoxLost]

My big UO is I like Elizabeth Keen on The Blacklist. Yes it will forever be The Red Reddington show but Keen's season 2 storyline has been fun.

 

I guess I agree with this because every time I enter that forum, I emerge confused.  Everyone is always talking about how they doubled down on what isn't working (Keen) and refer to how it used to be better.  For the life of me, I can't figure out what they are talking about.  It sounds like Keen didn't used to be a focus of the series but she always has been.  I feel like I'm the only one not getting that the balance of Red vs. Keen has gone topsy turvy.

 

Blacklist is one of those shows, like Sleepy Hollow, that I have the UO that it was never as good as people remember it being and its not as bad as people think it is now.

[Qoass]

I don't really care about any of the late night talk shows or the morning "news" programs and ratings tell me most of the nation would agree.  Letterman is retiring, not dying.

 

Since I only watch such things once in a blue moon I never seem to catch that one in 100 episodes where Dave said something totally awesome or Ellen had a moment or whatever.

[ganesh]

I don't watch them either. I respect them as comedians, but it's basically a free advertising show. People come on with something to plug. Though I do respect that way back when there were only 5 channels, a comic getting on the show to do 5 minutes of material could make your career. Now, with youtube, etc., a comedian can work on their own brand. The women on Broad City, for example. Or Amy Schumer. They've all worked hard to get where they are, but I wouldn't say they needed to be on those shows to get there.

 

This is why I never get involved in 'save our show' campaigns.

 

Farscape is the exception that proves the rule because the SciFi network is not a real network. However, I read a great article that criticized the 'save our show campaigns.' Basically, it was like, "Why weren't you telling all your friends to watch in the first place if you thought it was such a great show?"

[ZuluQueenOfDwarves]

I so spectacularly don't care about talk shows or their hosts. I've watched less than 30 episodes of talk shows ranging from morning to late night in my life, and only then because I was a HUGE fan of whatever celebrity was being featured. I've never understood the appeal of watching the hosts, and read a magazine during the cringe inducing monologues prior the advent of OnDemand and recordable TV.

[ganesh]

I don't understand why people can't just carefully watch a show and make their own conclusions without having to check what the showrunners says how they should have watched. 

 

It seems sensible to conclude that Don had a hand in, wrote, or provided the content for the ad at the end of Mad Men. I had a really big laugh when they played the ad at the end. Not once did I think: I should see what the showrunner meant to do here to make sure I'm watching it right. 

 

It's on the showrunners too. You made a good show. Get out of the way and leave it on the screen. 

[whatsatool]

I love staging shows especially if they mention feng shui. And I haved watched every show the antique road show twins have done on their own.

Edited May 20, 2015 by whatsatool

[Princess Sparkle]

My UO is that I always found Letterman to be too smarmy to bother watching more than a few minutes here and there down the years and while I definitely think he's become more tolerable [and perhaps I've become more tolerant and his tude seems rather tame compared to virtually the remainder of late night folk], I can't say I'm crying buckets of tears over his departure. Still, I wish him well and hope he and his family have a good sunset. Oh, and I always liked his mother Dorothy and hope she's well enough to join in the sendoff.

I just watched a video on Gawker that was a 5 minute supercut of how he's interviewed the women on his show over the years and it's creepy and lecherous as shit. I definitely wasn't upset to see him leave before, and now my only thought is "Good Riddence".

Edited May 21, 2015 by Princess Sparkle

[ganesh]

I don't mean to harp on this, but my FB feed had: 'Mad Men' Creator Matthew Weiner Explains Series Finale. 

 

I'm not a better tv watcher than anyone else, but I think there's something fundamentally wrong with creating a piece of art; movie, tv, song, painting, etc., and then telling everyone how they should view/listen to it. 

 

Was the finale so confusing that it needed an explanation? I get if you'd made a crappy show and no one knows what is going on, so you feel compelled to tell everyone. Well, at that point, you failed at your job. (*Torchwood*)

 

Mad Men was a well made show. People enjoyed the layers, and the characters were interesting. It just really annoys me and I think it's a legit concern that watching the actual tv show is losing importance. 

 

I know I have to let this go. I would just like to promote actually watching a tv show on its own merits. It's really fun!

Edited May 21, 2015 by ganesh

[ribboninthesky1]

I understand where you're coming from, ganesh.  But yes, I encourage you to let it go.  The (sub?) industry of TV postmordems is a consequence of social media.  I know a lot of people don't mind podcasts and special videos and specific websites and such, but it's really all part of the same machine.  You take the bad with the good.   

[opus]

I just watched a video on Gawker that was a 5 minute supercut of how he's interviewed the women on his show over the years and it's creepy and lecherous as shit. I definitely wasn't upset to see him leave before, and now my only thought is "Good Riddence".

To be fair, that's every guy talk show host.

[magicdog]

The only show I watched as a kid and now cringe and say to myself, how could I have loved this show? is Super Friends...Challenge of the Super Friends, when I compare it to Timm's Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited.  Yet I still love to watch Original recipe Loony Tunes, Tom & Jerry, G. I. Joe

 

 

 

Coming fro the same era, I understand.  Looking back, SF was limited by restrictions placed on it by Peggy Charren and her ilk.  They were purposely written down to children.  By contrast, the Looney Tunes and T&J shorts were written for adults but still appealed to a general audience.  That's why they're still watchable after all these years.  BTAS, et al was a return to mature writing;  it shows how much could have been done with [old Saturday morning cartoons] had TPTB been allowed to.  I daresay BTAS could have come down the pike nearly 20 years sooner than it did had it not been for Peggy Charren. 

 

On "hate watching":  I never saw the point of watching something you despise.  Either I change the channel or do something else.   I DO admit to watching a once favorite show hoping against hope that things will improve but that doesn't often happen unfortunately.  When it becomes unwatchable to me, I'm gone.

 

Another unpopular opinion:  I HATED the finale of Legend of Korra.  It made almost zero sense and totally forgot about the rest of the cast.  Suddenly it was about Korra and Asamai walking off into the sunset rather than the entire Team Avatar being focused on.

Edited May 21, 2015 by magicdog

[topanga]

 

On "hate watching":  I never saw the point of watching something you despise.  Either I change the channel or do something else.   I DO admit to watching a once favorite show hoping against hope that things will improve but that doesn't often happen unfortunately.

That's me, magicdog. I hate-watched seasons 3 & 4 of Scandal. I loved the first 2 seasons but kept watching even after it became ridiculous and "shocking!" every week because it was the only TV show my husband and I watched together, and I still wanted to support a show that featured a black female lead and a diverse cast. I kept hoping Shonda would start dialing down the shock factor or the "craziness" that people praise her for, but alas, that did not happen. So I'm done.

[DittyDotDot]

I kind of miss the days when if a show was cancelled, it was cancelled. That's it, we tried, it didn't work. No resurfacing on one of hundreds of platforms.

 

I could go either way on this. I think it's great when people can ban together to accomplish something. However, many times, I find when the show resurfaces, it's lost that special spark that made it special to me. It's almost like the show becomes self indulgent.

 

Which leads me to my current UO: I don't mind watching something that's done well knowing there won't necessarily be a satisfactory ending where every storyline gets tied up. A show getting cancelled will not deter me from watching what was little was made of it (if it can be found, that is). I think I tend to enjoy the journey far more than the destination.

[Ambrosefolly]

 

Another unpopular opinion:  I HATED the finale of Legend of Korra.  It made almost zero sense and totally forgot about the rest of the cast.  Suddenly it was about Korra and Asamai walking off into the sunset rather than the entire Team Avatar being focused on.

It is the same reason I hated the Katara and Aang make out session that closed out Avatar the Last Airbender. 

[proserpina65]

I've only watched seasons 2-4 of Community (and a few episodes of season 1), but I really don't like Abed.  He's okay with Troy (whom I loved) but on his own or with the other characters, he's just annoying to me.  And I hated, absolutely loathed, Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas.

[ByTor]

Blue Bloods UO:  I don’t hate Nikki.  In fact, she and Erin are pretty much the only people in that entire self-righteous, myopic, intolerant, reality-denying family I remotely like.

This is why I love this board...just when I think I'm all alone in an opinion I find someone who agrees with me :)

[Wings]

My UO, I loved the Sopranos finale.  I thought it was brilliant. 

[The Crazed Spruce]

I thought Felicity and Ray made a great couple.

*ducks for cover*

[ganesh]

I wouldn't say I loved the Sopranos finale, but it wasn't nearly as much as everyone made it out to be. I think they should have ended it the episode before. The first episode ended with Tony on guard with his rifle, and that one did as well. 

[Shannon L.]

 

I thought Felicity and Ray made a great couple.

I think Felicity and most people would make a great couple.  I liked her with Ray, I like her with Ollie, I like her friendship with Barry (The Flash).....I think she's a great character and the actress is adorable.

Edited May 22, 2015 by Shannon L.

[FormerMod-a1]

My Survivor UO - the jury questions/speeches are my least favorite part of the show.

[Janet Snakehole]

I don't care how cute people think the Teen Mom babies are or how interested people are in the Kate Plus 8 kids' lives, I do not think kids should be on reality TV. They are too young to be able to consent to having the world know their lives and be googled later by employers and future dates. Adults, whatever, but kids can't make that choice.

And in light of the recent Duggar controversy and the Mama June stuff, I can't trust most parents who do make that choice for their kids.

[ribboninthesky1]

Related to that, it's why I don't like to read negative comments about said children.  They didn't give consent, so they shouldn't be subject to ridicule and snark. 

 

On a very separate note, I've been watching episodes of the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.  I don't find the title character funny in the least.  Most of the hilarious moments are from the supporting cast. Some of the racial humor disguised as social commentary falls flat and perilously close to hipster racism.  

[joelene]

What is hipster racism? Serious question, in case this is something that is common knowledge.

[Anna Yolei]

I kind of miss the days when if a show was cancelled, it was cancelled. That's it, we tried, it didn't work. No resurfacing on one of hundreds of platforms.

I don't mind that so much if it's an immediate resurrection,and it has happen pre-streaming era (ie JAG moved to CBS after NBC dropped it if I remember right). But after five years? Not so much. I appreciate Arrested Development's fourth season being a gateway to the online series concept, but the mojo was gone.

And then there are campaigns for shows that had far more than enough chances to get good and never did. Star Trek: Enterprise, anyone?

[ganesh]

I have no idea what hipster racism is, but I already don't like it.

[Brandi Maxxxx]

I have no idea what hipster racism is, but I already don't like it.

Because you're anti-hipster or anti-racism?

[DittyDotDot]

Hispster racism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hipster_racism

[tomatoflyer]

The first season of Person of Interest was amazing, but its quality has really dropped and a big part of that is Finch and Reese's friendship has been really sidelined for Shaw/Root. I really miss the flashbacks to before they knew each other, and I liked when the show left ambiguities, was more morally grey, and wasn't afraid to build things slowly.

[AimingforYoko]

My favorite character on Pushing Daisies was Emerson Cod.

Oh, hell yeah.

[pandora spocks]

The appeal of Sex and the City always eluded me, as did 30 Rock and How I Met Your Mother. The Law and Order franchises never held my interest. Anything Kardashian related can go fuck itself.

[amensisterfriend]

The appeal of Sex and the City always eluded me

 

I get why others might like it, but for whatever combination of reasons it's among the few shows that I actively loathed. Usually I just decide a show isn't for me, but Sex and the City and Ally McBeal were two of the only shows I've ever seen that inspired like flame-on-the-sides-of-my-face hate [/lame Clue reference.] 

[joelene]

I of the only shows I've ever seen that inspired like flame-on-the-sides-of-my-face hate [/lame Clue reference.]

There's nothing lame about Clue, especially not when Madeline Kahn is involved. I miss that lady.

[Brandi Maxxxx]

Saturday Night Live UOs:

 

Michael Che is a decent Weekend Update anchor. I probably wouldn't miss him if he was replaced but his jokes are usually good.

 

Leslie Jones annoys me. (This opinion is unpopular on these boards, it varies elsewhere.) I liked a bit she did recently on WU but that's about it. Though at least I can say she's more noteworthy than some of the current cast.

[Sandman]

This is probably too wide a dislike to be an opinion solely about television, but I'm annoyed by the idea that irony exists in our culture for its own sake. Doing things "ironically," the way the term is used now, is really just a way of distancing oneself from ... everything, whether it's hipsters doing it, or David Letterman. Holding oneself out as implicitly better than all others does not a sense of humour make. Creating "ironic distance" means nothing if the irony has no purpose other than self-congratulation.

Irony is a technique, not a school of thought, or a higher calling.

[Brandi Maxxxx]

On a very separate note, I've been watching episodes of the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.  I don't find the title character funny in the least.  Most of the hilarious moments are from the supporting cast. Some of the racial humor disguised as social commentary falls flat and perilously close to hipster racism.  

I've watched about half of the episodes so far and I'm not enjoying it as much as I hoped I would. I don't have a problem with Kimmy Schmidt the character though. On the plus side, it gives me an excuse to use this clip from another Ellie Kemper role:

[Ohwell]

Speaking of which...I can't stand Ellie Kemper.  There is nothing remotely funny or cute about her.

 

Jimmy Fallon continues to annoy the hell out of me.

[DittyDotDot]

I don't need my shows to have characters that are likeable and/or people I can root for, I'm just happy if they are interesting and compelling characters.

[ToxicUnicorn]

Re: comedies:  I couldn't get into Arrested Development or Community, even though they seem to be the ensemble type shows that I would expect to like.

[rue721]

Naw, I need at least one of the characters to be likeable. If I dislike all the characters, odds are pretty good I'm going to dislike the show. I just don't care for watching hour after hour of shitheads.

 

And the quality of the show is pretty suspect if there aren't any likeable characters, anyway, because I guarantee there isn't a show in existence for which the writers and producers *set out* to make the entire cast unlikeable and impossible to root for.

 

Not that my standards on likeability are that high. Even on Arrested Development, I liked GOB. God help me.

 

TBH, I think the unpopular opinion has become that characters *should* be likeable or that the audience *should* be able to root for them, because a lot of people like to pretend that they're edgy based on their desire to watch shows about crooks and shitheads. RME.

 

Personally, I like watching shows about characters that have *some* amount of integrity or *some* ideals, because those characters have actual dilemmas and conflicts. Which makes for interesting stories. If a character has no moral/ethical qualms about anything, then he can just choose the most selfish and convenient way of doing things -- which becomes predictable, irritating, and boring to watch imo.

[SmithW6079]

If an actor takes a role in an iconic show (e.g., Star Trek), I think it behooves them to acknowledge its history and accept that this history carries a certain "weight." To say the role is just a job to pay the bills shows a certain lack of respect to the fans.

 

That being said, I also think it's incumbent on fanboys and girls to get over themselves and not put such a burden on an actor who might not share their love/obsession with said iconic TV show (or movie franchise, for that matter). Accept it if the actor doesn't want to be involved with conventions or fandoms.

[ganesh]

Well, I'd also say, if you don't want to go to a few conventions or interact with fandom, then maybe don't take the role either. If you're that much of a name actor that you're being considered for the role, then you're probably not hurting for work. It's a occupational hazard in a way. 

[DittyDotDot]

TBH, I think the unpopular opinion has become that characters *should* be likeable or that the audience *should* be able to root for them, because a lot of people like to pretend that they're edgy based on their desire to watch shows about crooks and shitheads. RME.

 

Oh, I don't know, it seems every new show I watch the comments that follow are "I hate all these characters, I don't want to watch this show because no one is rootable or likeable." That's the reason I came to this thread is because I've read this sentiment over and over and over again over the last couple months.

 

I'm just saying, for me, a story can still be compelling and worth watching even though I don't like the main characters.