I don’t watch shows anymore I just watch serpadesign feed his frogs on YouTube x
Seen one of those (The Boys). Maybe two if you count the first season of Westworld (don’t plan on watching more because it’s supposed to be shite).
I only really bother with Mike Flanagan’s single season stuff on Netflix, because the man knows how to open and close a story. Others should take note. Don’t start a story unless you know how it’s going to end and how long it’s going to take to get there.
“This is popular, let’s make more” is an attitude that has ruined television.
They don’t care about the quality of television. Writing a story that goes on and on and offers the possibility of several spinoffs is the equivalent of micro-transactions in video games : they make more money that way.
Capitalism only maximizes money, it doesn’t maximize quality. It eats quality to make more money.
The model worked back when episodes were self contained. I don’t need to see seasons 1-20 (or whatever they’re up to now) of The Simpsons to understand the latest episode. Old Star Trek was the same. You didn’t need a huge back story. Kirk/Picard and chums were the good guys. The guy with the plastic on his face and angry eyes was the bad guy. It was easy.
But stretching a simple story over 10 seasons of gradually declining quality is nonsense. By their own logic we can only have a conclusion when the quality has declined to the point that nobody cares what happens. Might as well not even have an ending at that point.
The new Star Trek, Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks, both go back to the standalone episodic model. And they are the best since DS9.
Couldn’t get into Lower Decks. Not interested in ‘comedy’ ST. As for SNW, I watch it, but not sold on it yet. I watched TNG episode “The Bonding” today. Nothing after ENT (S3 and S4) has approached the level of writing of that episode. Except maybe that one S2 episode of SNW. You know exactly what episode I’m talking about. It’s the only episode.
The musical one!
Haha I refuse to watch that one. Cannot believe they wrote a musical for Star Trek. Ridiculous.
I don’t wanna overanalyze the meme, but it is irritating when you can’t have a conversation with someone without their whole identity being based on whatever they’ve recently watched. Then if you haven’t seen it, them uncreatively explaining the plot to you.
TV shows are just an easy conversational topic… that’s all it is.
Growing up in the years before and during Cable television, I am positive television was the most talked about topic over any and all aside from basic hello.
And if you didn’t have cable, well you’d get filled in on whatever, but were oddly OK with it.
It makes sense, people connect through shared experiences, and TV is an easy way to do that.
500 yrs ago we’d be standing in line at the grist mill chatting about the royal parade a few days ago.
Not a cell phone in sight. People just out there living their lives. Occasionally dropping dead of tuberculosis. The good ol’ days.
just rewatch futurama for the 30th time like a normal person (i.e. me, the normalest of all)
I’ve taken to calling this kind of media “Mandatory Adult Television.” I think the first of its species was Lost; there were predecessors with some similar traits like The X Files or The Sopranos, heavily serialized adult content television that was very popular water cooler talk, but Lost was the first one I remember as segmenting the population into those who follow he show, and those who don’t. Game of Thrones was THE big one. You either watched Game of Thrones or you weren’t allowed to socialize as an adult. “Hey, did you see Game of Thrones last night?” “No, I don’t watch that show.” “Oh. Bye.” For nearly a decade. No one wants to talk about that show anymore. Same with Lost.
See also sports as a method of excluding adults social interaction.
People aren’t good with small talk and stuff like this is one of the few things you’d be likely to have in common.
I like to pretend like I know what they’re talking about and see how far I can get before they catch on.
I haven’t even watched breaking bad, much less anything on that list or anything else between now and like 2008
As someone who very rarely watches series, this really hits home. I just rarely have the patience to do so, and because of that I also don’t have any streaming subscriptions. I’d rather play games, because the interaction makes them a lot more rewarding to me. To each their own though, other people don’t play games so they’ll have the same problem with me
The Bear is very very good
I still haven’t recovered from a certain Season 2 episode
The fishes, right?
That somehow made me love Jamie Lee Curtis even more…
Severance is great. I watched it on my 3-month trial to Apple TV.
Yeah agreed, really enjoyed it! I watched it on uh… yeah, free trial thing as well.
The Last of Us and The Boys.
Haven’t seen anything (or even heard of a lot) of the others. Not that they are bad shows. I just like to waste my time in other activities.
Like video games. Not shows, but still wasting time.
Video games feel different. Like I feel like I’ve accomplished something good for myself after playing a game. Shows just make me restless for the most part.
People are so different, I feel exactly the opposite. There’s a bunch of games I’d want to play, but most of the time when I’m about to start playing, I’m just overcome with the feeling of “What’s the point? It’s just a waste of time”. When I’m watching a show I’m processing a shit-ton of stuff, emotions, life, depression. Games are just “for fun”. I just don’t seem to get the same out of games no matter how “deep” or whatever they are. I accomplish something in a game, 99% of the time I just feel “Well, I could’ve used all that time and energy doing something real and now I just wasted all that time for some virtual character in a virtual world.”.
Wow yeah we really are total opposites!
Objectively I know I’m not accomplishing anything real when I play a game, but they still capture my “whole brain” like what you describe when watching a show.
I wonder where the difference comes from. Maybe I’m just more fidgety, so having something tactile to work on while watching the screen does it for me. :P
I feel this
Also Mr. Robot and Foundation and Good Omens and Fleabag and the new Beavis and Butthead and Station Eleven and Doctor Who is about to get good again and Irma Vep was great but I don’t think that one’s coming back
Don’t forget Goliat and Bosch.
Beavis and Butthead
wait there’s a new one? I’ve been living under a rock!
There are two new seasons and a movie!
I want to like Mr Robot sooooo badly but I find it very cringy and tryhard. I gave up midway through season two.
Season 2 is definitely the slowest season I think. It’s a bit of a slog but it’s doing a lot of the legwork for seasons 3 and 4 to go wild so it does kind of pay off in the long run IMO.
… Still haven’t seen The Wire 🥲
I honestly believe half of these shows are fake and you can’t change my mind
Then there’s me, on my 4th rewatch of Mash this year.
Between shows and my steam backlog who has time for it all? Then there is all that other stuff like work, making dinner, getting outdoors, family…
