What popular TV show did not do it for you and you quit watching?
What popular TV show did not do it for you and you quit watching?
What popular TV show did not do it for you and you quit watching?
Never got the appeal of these ones. They aren't bad shows, but they did not do it for me.
Game of Thrones
Lost
Better Call Saul
Peaky Blinders
Breaking Bad
Shit. That's exactly my list.
It's like directors got ahold of this one technique and just beat it into every fucking show in the past decade. It's tired, overused, and you'll notice it's a common trait of many of the shows you and agree on. You have to have tension, but I didn't need every god damned minute to be wondering if someone's going to get their throat graphically slashed with a straight-edge.
Oh man! You just put to words why I couldn't stand Breaking Bad, and Boardwalk Empire.
I watched the first simply because a lot of people love it, and I try to watch everything that seems worth seeing. The second I saw some clips from that I really liked, but then I just didn't stick with the actual show.
In both cases, the series left me on constant edge, in a really bad way.
Now I realize that I kept waiting for the shows to grant me some kind of catharsis, but it just never happened. Or it happened rarely and in ways that quickly gets brushed away as inconsequential.
I'm not fond of the perpetual tension. Just awful.
this tendency in the past decade to base entire shows on tense anxiety.
Yup. I call it the "drama of paranoia," and it's exhausting after a while. It also gives you a veneer of "prestige" without having to make characters I give a shit about or plots that fit together at all. As a good example of a show that realized this, Mad Men always struggled with a certain early-season plotline until they finally just ripped off the band-aid and said,
What worked about that show had nothing to do with "ONE BIG SECRET."
This, plus The Sopranos, The Office, Parks & Rec, IASIP, 30 Rock, etc.
I get that they're well liked, and they are the source of lots of meme material, but I could never manage to get through a whole episode.
I've never been able to make it through an entire episode of Community, for the same reason. It's memeable, but I just don't find it funny at all.
I have watched any of those except the first couple of Breaking Bad. It was too real for me so I just couldnt.
I lasted 5 minutes with Peaky Blinders. The loud music drowning out the dialogue did my head in.
Big Bang Theory
Same here. I always felt they were making fun of my fellow nerds and geeks as opposed to celebrating our intelligence and quirkiness. The writers obviously got the humor and nuance but chose to poke fun so that the rest of the world could laugh at it. I mean I understand why but I didn’t really like it for that reason.
I've been called "Sheldon" for my autistic traits in a degrading manner. The show plays autism for laughs plenty of times, and also ridicules the "nerds" all the time for no reason. It's like a bunch of self proclaimed high school "jocks" wrote it
The most infuriating part about it is I know that if I rant about how terrible bbt is, it will only cement me as Sheldon in their minds.
Lost was the tv version of clickbait. 3 concurrent story lines rotated from week to week. Every episode a cliffhanger that you had to wait 2 more weeks to resolve into a nothing burger. Even watching that shit on disc or streaming is annoying as fuck. I might have liked what was going on story wise, but I got too annoyed with the format to get past mid season 2.
Yeah. Lost was when I was intrugued by J J abrams style, and then completely turned off by his inability to tell a story or have a plan beyond the halfway point.
And then they involved him in seemingly every major movie franchise ever for the next two decades.. and he kept doing the same crap. Lots of flash and dazzle and dramatic moments that ultimately mean nothing because the characters have no story to tell, no real arc, no consistent rules creating a believable universe for the watcher to be sucked in to - any rules can be thrown out the window anytime a dramatic cliche opportunity arises. Yet he still seems very popular.
Lost went on far too long and they backed themselves into a corner by saying that the big secret was what nobody had guessed, but this was right around the Internet getting popular to talk about tv shows, so everything good had already been suggested. If it had been me, I would have just picked the best one and gone with that...
There is a recut of it, still available via torrent, called Chronologically LOST. It is every scene, but in chronological order, and only once each. Really cool way to see the show and make sense of it.
Unfortunately, mid season 2 is where it finally stops having enormous fluff and starts picking up pace. Fair criticisms though
Walking dead. I think I finished the second episode. But I'm not even sure about that one. It was utterly boring
Walking dead is the king of spreading 4 episodes of content across 12 episodes. You could watch the season opener, the 2 episodes that close the first half and start the second if each season, and the finale, and not miss anything of substance.
Wait, is TWD available on the anime filler website?
I watched up to the point where they pretended the Asian lad was dead, but actually he was hiding under a bin.
Not because it was cheap, but because I realised I no longer cared one way or the other.
You've seen the best. I stopped somewhere in the middle of S3 because it was so bad. S1 was tolerable but honestly only the pilot was good. Kids watched all of it so I've got an idea how it went on; like a bad and cheap soap opera
The first few episodes were a slog, but it got much better.
I recomment to give it a try. Maybe start straight from season 2.
I watched the first 2 seasons or so. It felt like all the clichés from all the zombie movies put together in a single show, but worse.
Friends.
Seems like everyone likes this show but I dont think I ever watched a full episode.
My humor is more like Scrubs, Seinfeld, IT Crowd.
Friends had Chandler and Joey bromance, which is a precursor to the Scrubs bromance.
The rest of the show isn't similar, but that part was spot on.
I love Scrubs and IT Crowd, but Friends also. I don't, however, like Frasier. People seem to fall into either the Friends or Frasier camp, and never the twain shall meet.
Friends or Frasier camp, and never the twain shall meet.
I didn't cate for either.
Fair enough. I find Friends to be incredibly unfunny and can't stand sitting through a single episode. Frasier, on the other hand, I find to be pretty entertaining (until Niles and Daphne get together, then the wheels start falling off).
There are quite a few edited 'Friends without the laugh track' videos on YouTube showing how creepy and unfunny some of the characters are. Its a bit of a meme theres so many of them.
Oh I want to check those out... Thanks!
Yellowstone. With shows like The Sopranos or Sons of Anarchy you know the characters are evil, but you can connect just enough for it to be compelling.
In Yellowstone it feels like they want you to see the characters as the heros, when they are mass-murdering, slave-owning oligarchs. They buy cops and politicians to gain power, but get bent on revenge if other powers don't "play by the rules". I didn't last too long, but everyone else seems to love it.
I watched it for a while, but it just got stupider and stupider with every season. It's a very American show, and it feels like conservative pandering much of the time (even though the show runner isn't a conservative from what I hear).
it most catering to conservative circle jerking.
He is conservative, he's even been on Joe Rogan's podcast
It's a soap opera and if you treat it for what it is It's quite fun! People who never watched soap set expectations too high and expected real plot and depth of a real TV show which it never set out to do.
The Walking Dead. Felt more like the Talking Dead, the pacing was far too slow for me and it didn't seem like much was happening.
I gave up in the first episode when a pair of cops drew their firearms, and the one said to the other "safeties off". And the other cop just brushes the slide release because he was holding a Glock, which famously does not have a safety. I just couldn't take it seriously after that.
Funny, the Talking Dead was a show that aired after that night's episode every week back in the day. It was actually a highlight for me; they'd have the actors and effects artists in to discuss behind the scenes stuff. It was very fun watching Greg Nicotero talk shop
Rick & Morty. Then the whole szechuan sauce thing happened and I can't look at any content from that show without cringing. LOOK GUYS IM PICKLE RI-stop please it's not funny.
The "community" is insufferable, but the show is solid. You might like Solar Opposites. The wall substory is amazing. Really good voice actors, can feel the tension and emotions in the voices
The wall substory is a wild ride
Is there even still any Rick and morty fans left in the wild? After the whole case against one of the voice actors I never see them around too much anymore.
I like Rick and Morty, but I have enough self awareness to know that Rick is not a role model.
Justin Roiland wasn't just the voice actor for Rick, Morty, and various other roles, he was the co-creator, writer, and executive producer of the show alongside Dan Harmon. The whole thing is very much Roiland's baby, and even after it came out that he's an abuser and predator and the show fired him it continues to be his celebrated legacy.
Fuck that guy and his stupid show.
There’s a few shows where the fan base have made it so insufferable that I don’t want to even watch the show . But Rick and Morty are King in this category, the worst fans
I initially found that show a bit interesting, but I found myself feeling more and more cringey about what the show was churning out. I outgrew the whole thing just as the sauce thing was happening
It later became well known what an actual piece of shit Justin Roiland is, and I felt pretty glad not to have been stuck in that fandom still feeling like his work was of any importance to me.
Don't even get me started about the SA scene(s?), especially the grape-man. I try not to judge people too harshly by their choice of mindless entertainment, but if you found that funny, or at least continue to find it funny, I don't think I can take you seriously.
Really triggered my partners PTSD too, so I wasn't surprised at all when the Rolland stuff came to light.
Friends
How I met your mother
Big Bang Theory
The trilogy of "wtf is wrong with those people"
Bazinga.
The Umbrella Academy: in the first couple of episodes like nothing happens and everyone is very sad.
Umbrella Academy was a hate watch for me. I loved the experience of watching it with my sister, even though I absolutely detested the show itself. Every single one of the characters is just the worst fucking person with zero redeeming qualities, and they somehow just get worse as the show goes on.
Game of Thrones. To me it just came across as torture porn. Just a series of awful things happening to people from one scene to the next. The schtick about different kingdoms and families vying for the throne or whatever was just the backdrop and context to rape, abuse and murder, which was the star of the show.
I love fantasy but that show didn't do it for me in the slightest. Not interested in checking out any of that guy's books either.
Breaking Bad. Just lost interest half way through.
I made it one episode. Extremely well done show about a tragically terrible flaw of American society that frustrates me daily. Didn't need a reminder of how terrible things are.
Same. Walt is an unlikeable person making bad decisions. I grave up after season 1.
I gave up on it once, and then continued at a later date. I felt that the mid seasons were a bit of a grind, but the last season goes up to 11 with an extremely satisfying ending.
The Mandalorian
Noped out after season 1. They revealed his face during a filler episode, during a boring scene, instead of waiting an episode or two longer for the real gut punch reveal at the end of the last episode.
It was stupid. It killed what would have been one of the best face reveals in cinema history. I had no patience for the show after that. Almost didn't bother finishing the rest of the season. I don't really care what their reasons were. Contractual. Whatever. Don't care.
Most of the popular ones. Especially Game of Thrones. As soon as the incestuous couple threw the little boy off the tower, I was outta there. I'm so tired of shows about horrible people doing horrible things.
I completely understand and it took me three tries to get through the first few episodes... and then the biggest shock is that you end up partly understanding and feel these horrible people. At times, you may even root for some of them. It's definitely taxing for most of us but that's what makes it a great show.
Jaime was a great story, till they done him shitty in the end
!So that kid end up basically being the bad guy. Pretty much everyone would have been better off if he died!<
Wait. Brandon? Hmmm....
Huh. I never thought about it like that. I'm not sure that would have been the case though. The starks would have lost their shit a lot faster had he died. I can't remember exactly, but it was one of the brothers or the mom that was like "nahhhh he didn't fall" and then went up the tower and figured it out.
And then, had he died, nobody could've stopped her. Even Ned would've rained hell, esp with Robert there. The only reason nothing immediately happened was BECAUSE he didn't die. And then, he wasn't the bad guy because he basically ended up being the/a good guy for the rest of the show.
Wanna talk about misdirected hate, Jeezzz.
What about "the guy who was cucking the king by fucking his twin sister/the queen and when his secret got discovered tried to murder an innocent kid/royal to cover it up with no thoughts of the consequences"? Eh? Can't that guy be the bad guy?
Reddit-style spoilers don't work on Lemmy. Spoilers are done with
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Grimdark stuff is just so infantile. It's not "realistic and gritty" to have every single character cuss a thousand times per episode and be constantly in and out of clothes
Game of Thrones - I'm not good with seeing sexual violence and it felt like it was happening every five minutes.
My Dress up Darling - I understand why people would like it, but I don't understand why it was so huge. But I'm getting old.
Beastars - my friend and I watched it in one day and it just didn't do anything for us. I found most of the characters kind of a annoying.
My Hero Academia - I mean this in the best way possible, but I could see myself loving this if I was a kid.
Mushoku Tensi - I know people love this one. I watched the entire first season and I found the protagonist so revolting. I didn't care that he was a cute kid now and gets better and what have you, I thought he was gross.
Friends - I could never get it. I found it boring and unfunny.
Stranger Things - I actually really enjoyed the first season, but I got tired of the kids as they got older. It felt like it was shifting into a teen drama and I found myself skipping through it before I let it go.
YOU - Weird guy stalks a girl. Glad someone enjoys it, but I got tired of it real quick.
It makes me happy to see others shit on Friends.
When it first aired, my mom was a fan and it would regularly be on in the living room, which was the crossroads of my childhood house - you had to go through it to get anywhere else. Which meant that Friends was impossible to ignore. Walking by, the highest praise I could conjure was, "Wow, that laugh track is doing a lot of heavy lifting."
At the time of its popularity, I never heard anyone else dislike it. When the show ended, I felt alone in not being sad about it. Since then, I can't tell if people look back on it with nostalgia or if they are truly still amused by the bland, low-fruit, celebration of stupidity that makes up most of that show's humor.
The theme song was good though.
Friends was created in a different time for media.
Part of it fulfilled the parasocial relationships we see in modern social media. People developed real relationships with these fake characters.
Second is that most television had to have broader comedy because they had larger audience. Over 10% of America watched Friends regularly. I can't think of any show nowadays that even approaches that.
At the time of its popularity, I never heard anyone else dislike it.
We were out there... What a terrible show.
Friends has to be the most overrated TV show of all time. I feel like an insane person whenever I hear people saying that it's a funny show.
I dont k ow if you watched it when it was new, but today it's not very funny. In the 90s, it was funny, but comedy has changed a lot since then, and some of the show is not very "woke" if you will excuse the term.
I think there are still funny and quotable moments but i dont think any of it would resonate with a younger audience. Comedy today is so much better and different to then. And a lot of shows that have come along since friends have used plots and jokes from the show and done them to death so it seems unoriginal and derivative.
I think this is all true of a lot of old shows. Tv is just a different beast now.
Definitely agree on Stranger Things. Season 1 was actually really good, but they kept ramping everything up in later seasons and it lost all of what made S1 good.
I tried watching My Hero Academia with a friend and it was rough. Basically every trope that made me burn out on anime was dialed up to 11. My friend tried to explain that it was satirizing those tropes, but I couldn't handle it.
My Hero Academia
I really enjoyed this, but one day I kind of just stopped watching. I think I get bored with anime shows that are set up to go on and on with endless hundred episode arcs.
Stranger Things
The first season really felt like something the creators had been developing for years as a creative idea. The ending with a sandwich left for Eleven was just the right amount of ambiguous to end off the story. The second season felt like a rushed idea pumped out when offered more money where the creators just leaned into full 80s nostalgia by copying ALIENS rather than forging something 80s inspired but unique like the first season.
Friends
I don't get it either. It's just vapid interpersonal dynamics comedy. I've watched a little and it has the wide and low appeal, it never did anything interesting.
I was sort of with you on My Hero Academia as I’m currently watching it for the first time. Parts of it were good and it was enjoyable for the most part watching it as an adult. Dragon Ball Z doesn’t hold up as well but I still love it as I grew up with that.
However, just yesterday I finished s03e11 “One For All”. And holy shit was that a gut-wrenching and emotional episode about the legendary hero “All Might”. Seeing this Superman like hero being broken and exposed while the whole world watches was incredible. I won’t say anymore, but it was incredibly moving how that episode turned out. Cemented it as an incredible anime for me so far. I’m looking forward to watching the rest of it, and hopefully I will still enjoy it. But boy did it take a long time of watching and filler episodes to get to this point.
Mushoku Tensi - yeah agree on having a lot of trouble seeing past the perviness of the main character, and the narration is really annoying. I did like the depiction of combat though, rather unique for anime.
Most anything in recently years, TBH. I always check out what's popular with the reasoning that something about it has to be good if so many people like it, and it used to work out pretty well. Not so much in the last 5 or 6 years.
Have you tried Severance or Common Side Effects?
I liked common side effects, but I would rather have had s2 of scavenger's reign.
Also kind of wish that common side effects was live action with animated elements, I think that would have been cool visually.
Common Side Effects
premise sounds nice, but I just tried watching the first episode and couldn't get past the first minute. The artstyle is so... annoying? Hard to describe, but I absolutely can't stand it
Can't get past the trailers or previews. Awful.
Walking dead. Only season one was good
When that show was popular, I had a boyfriend that didn't seem able to handle the idea of us liking different things. I never cared for zombies, but I'd heard good things about The Walking Dead and gave it a try. I pushed myself to watch the entire first season before deciding, "Nope, I can't."
But when I told that boyfriend? Apparently I "didn't watch it enough." When I told him I didn't care for zombie stories, he insisted, "But it's not about zombies! It's about the people." Uhh yeah, it's about people in a world with zombies. I could watch a million shows about "people" that don't involve zombies, so why would I keep watching this one that I already don't like?
Same, only watched the first two episodes and was just bored and weirded out by the writing. Heard much better about the last of us series.
Yeah, for me The Walking Dead were the non-zombie characters, on the run with no expectation of anyone surviving to their next birthday.
It was also just so goddamn boring. Far too much talking and milling about, not enough walking dead.
Sons of Anarchy
It's basically a soap opera. Over the top and with no real direction. The writers were pretty much making it as they go using all the old tricks to keep you hooked.
I watched it until season 2. Before I started watching the season finale I realized I didn't care how it ended and just dump it.
I remember watching that show because people told me it's good. I was kinda hooked in the first season, then i started to realise that everyone who told me the show was good, was coincidentally a woman. For some reason on youtube a video popped up that said: the ending of sons of anarchy is hilarious. So i watched it and i had to laugh so hard i could never go back to watch it.
I hated everybody in this show except for one person and then they killed them off in I believe the ending of season 1.
Kept with SoA until I tired of the "3 concurrent life-or-death crises" formula, with a new life-or-death crisis introduced each time an older one reached its end.
All principal characters even went to prison for a year, with no such crises for the rest of the MC, and then as soon as they got out, straight back to "3 concurrent life-or-death crises" as usual.
The rest of the MC should have realized "Hey, things were so chill when those guys were away, let's get 'em sent back".
The new version of Lost in Space just has people in danger constantly and then making the dumbest decision in that situation possible.
Same with 'suits', I really liked it in the beginning, until it was just too painful to watch. Each storyline was set up in a way that there was one path for the protagonists to take that would lead to certain disaster, and lo.and behold, at the end of every episode that path is exactly the path they took.
This happens until you start wondering if you're just looking at the dumbest lawyers or astronauts in existence.
It's such lazy writing, but it seems like almost everything is written this way these days. Characters make the dumbest possible decisions, and refuse to talk to each other or share important information.
It's so annoying. Miscomunication and coincidence is just such poor writing. Surely there are other more meaningful ways to move the plot right?
Westworld. I started watching it twice, and both times I thought it was really good until I ran out of patience about not knowing what the hell was going on.
The show was good but so hard to follow. Every time I'd watch an episode, I'd have to watch the Alt Shift X video to explain wtf I just watched: https://www.youtube.com/@AltShiftX/search?query=westworld
Having just completed rewatching the series, I completely understand.
It really requires binging an entire season over a few days in order to properly track, especially given that the story is told across a number of different periods of time - and it doesn’t truly become apparent until the last few episodes what is meant to have occurred when.
I can’t even figure out how I was able to keep up with it when it was coming out episodically! I probably didn’t.. 😬
Masked Singer.
Panelists after every song: OMG that was unbelievable! That singing blew me away! Greatest singing in the history of music! I'm a changed person! Thank God I lived to witness this incredibly amazing performance!
Audience members: [gasping, staring in disbelief, open-mouthed amazement, verging on tears]
Better Call Saul. I liked Saul in Breaking Bad and learning more about him and his past was great, but I hated knowing how low he has to be by the end for Breaking Bad to make sense. The higher he climbed in the show, the more of a tragedy it became. Just had to put it down some time near the end of Part 2 when he started doing stuff to his brother.
On the one hand I do still want to know what happens to his brother, but on the other hand I hate watching a car crash I know is about to happen before its shown the first signs of drifting into the wrong lane and (mentally) shouting at the screen to stop making stupid decisions.
Worth mentioning that although I acknowledge Breaking Bad would not really happen at all if not for Walter and his pride, but I still despise how much he lets his pride destroy him over and over again. As such I also don't particularly care for the later seasons of Breaking Bad, but at least with those I didn't really know the end so I didn't know how much it was going to keep going downhill beforehand. Oddly enough for this reason I feel like I may have enjoyed Better Call Saul more before having watched Breaking Bad.
Its a real shame. The part with his brother is, in my opinion, the worst part of the show. It gets better and better.
Not to say its a bad part, i liked it. Its just that it gets better and better as the show goes on, and the ending is great.
Dark.
First season was decent, but after a certain point the cognitive load required to keep track of the timeline(s) and character relationships just made it feel exhausting and not fun to watch.
Battlestar Galactica. Like a lot of the shows people have been mentioning, all it did was raise the stakes every episode. It didn't feel like it was building anything meaningful, just building up to something.
The most meaningful example of this (spoilers for like a twenty year old show) for me was when they're in the ship looking for water or whatever and the human cylon just ignores the indicator saying "Water here! Check here!" and the scene just. keeps. going. I swear it felt like half the episode.
Yeah that show is a slow burner vibe thing and i think you were right to stop watching it because you gotta meet it where it's at - messy, creative, emblematic of the paperback sci-fi classics, not quite so neat as something like Expanse or Star Trek in terms of structure and plot and character taking a backseat to the themes, it's less Stellaris, more Solaris, less Mass Effect and more No Man's Sky.
This show to the original BSG is like Primer to Back to the Future.
What helped me through is I just enjoy military dramas so the standalone episodes like the one about the industrial workers and such just kept me engaged in the moment as episodic adventures and so I was in no hurry for a thread to follow, though the arc in S2 and onto the climax in Season 4.
It's not everyone's cup of tea but I do find this show beautiful in a way,
and more No Man’s Sky
Speaking of highly overrated things...
I enjoyed episodes that had their own story, like the one with Richard Hatch in prison ship.
That scene in particular - spoilers - is her realizing that she might be a cylon and literally not being able to control herself to reveal there's water cause she's a sleeper agent.
I agree with a lot of the shows listed. I loved TWD but after the Negan stuff, I was so incredibly bored that I gave up, couldn't get into Parks and Rec. Tried 3 episodes before deciding it wasn't for me, etc.
But the one show I haven't seen listed yet is Supernatural. I was obsessed with that show for the first 5 seasons (which was how many the show creator wanted it to go on for) and then it just became so unbearable and ridiculous that I completely gave up by season 7. This one died, but not really. This one died and got brought back - 3 times. This one swapped bodies. This character is actually this character, but SIKE! it was THIS character all along!
Give me a break.
Then it went on for like 8 more seasons and I just cannot fathom that.
First season (or two even) of Parks & Rec is not at all representative of the rest of the show.
Yeah, I tried P&R twice without it clicking for me. Only once I got past season 1 did I begin to enjoy it.
If you ever want to retry Parks and Rec, I highly suggest starting at second last episode of the second season (S02E23) - which is the episode where Rob Lowe and Adam Scott join and round out the cast.
If the show still doesn’t click for you then, then it’s definitely not going to - and you can ignore it forever more without any niggling doubts!
I'll definitely keep that in mind! Thank you.
I remember the exact episode that I noped out of forever with Supernatural: when they brought in Snookie as a cross road demon cameo. Literally stood up and left my mom to watch the rest without me lol. I had already thought it sucked for a while though, yeah. I can tolerate season six okay, but it was definitely a very noticeable quality drop.
I watched Supernatural one or two seasons too long. The first five were great all around and then it got weird.
I watched 8ish seasons of Supernatural but none of them were good
Game of Thrones. Just couldn't get into it.
Severance - So. Goddamn. Slow. Every scene was slow. The lines were delivered slowly. From all the characters. Always. And somehow even the action scenes are slow?? Like when dude is in the hallway loop, that whole scene dragged on for way too long. I couldn't get past the second episode. Ain't nobody got time for that.
The creeping inertia is part of it. All good if not your thing, but that pacing is very much on purpose
You can say that, and maybe it is true for the better season 1, but season 2 has the unshakable feeling of real life considerations affecting the art by having to stretch out the story.
That was exactly what I liked about it. My primary complaint about season 2 is that it's faster paced. But if the pacing's not your style then season 2 would not be worth the grind.
I was completely hooked until a major moment in season 2 that felt like it was going to turbo charge the story, but then the follow up episodes were just lots of doing nothing with it.
Man, I want my time back from watching season one.
Twin Peaks. Couldn't stand it.
Oh yeah. I heard all the hype online, and got two episodes in.
I can appreciate Twin Peaks for being groundbreaking at the time in many ways. And David Lynch was a genius...
But yeah, as someone who tried getting into it for the first time relatively recently, I just couldn't. Got one or two episodes into season 2 before calling it quits.
Bro season 2 is suuuuuuch a slog. I got into it for the mystery and esoteric horror imagery, and I understand that they were trying to emulate a soap opera for season 2, but it's just so long and uninteresting to me.
It's been such a road block to getting to Firewalk With Me and The Return :/
Personally, I actually enjoyed it. It had that 90s nostalgic vibe, and I liked it.
However, the renewed 25 years later season felt like Lynch was mocking the audience (or was high on something). The season was boring as fck, story was bad and made no sense. None of the loose ends from the original show were resolved. The acting was so bad, I actually wanted to give it up after the first episode. And he didn't even give us what we wanted to see more of... Detective Cooper. Instead we got braindead cooper and evil doppleganger cooper for all but the last few minutes of the season. And for some weird reason, every episode ended on some bad recording of a live song that had nothing to do with the show.
I really wanted to like twin peaks. I wish I could see what other people see it. But damn if I can't tell the difference between it and an actual soap opera.
Oh, God, such nonsense
Squid Game.
Bring on the down votes, I don't care, that show was garbage and I was baffled at the HYPE around it.
I stopped watching the Big bang theory around season 3.
And I think I've only seen one game of thrones episode...
I lasted about half an episode when I realized they were directly making fun of me and my friends in a pretty horrific way.
Dark. Sad thing is that I'm very intrigued by the overall narrative and atmosphere, but it's just so damn boring. I also thought Midnight Mass was bad but I did manage to force myself to finish that one.
I love Dark! It's pretty slow at start but it get's pretty exciting. Also it is 3 seasons and then finished, which is rare for a show.
1899 was the best!!! NF cancelled tho :(
It stops being "boring" after a while.
Same (re: Dark). I'd rather just rewatch Steins;Gate.
....really? I liked steins gate okay for what it was, but to me that's like comparing a fine dining experience to a chain restaurant.
Game of Thrones, the Expanse, Breaking Bad
The Expanse was great. The books too. What didn't you like?
Despite being a very human-centered series from what I heard, it had too much "space-awe" in its presentation. That stuff is boring as hell to me, bordering offensive as I am more of a "Whitey's on the Moon" kind of guy.
The sound is just bad in the expanse. Everyone sounds like they are choking on a sock.
Hannibal
I enjoyed Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs, but I just couldn't get over how hamfisted the series was with the whole "It's gory, but isn't it bEaUtIfUl?!" thing. I don't normally like using the word "pretentious" as criticism, but I can't think of any other word to describe it.
The UK version of The Office isn't wholesome. The boss is awful and has no redeeming qualities. The rest is just cringeworthy and not funny.
Wholesome?
I don't see juvenile irresponsibility and adversarialism as "wholesome". If you wanna say funny, to each his own, but in no way is that show "wholesome".
Sweet baby Jesus. I love all of these. Fantastic sci fi and fantasy
I have to say severance season 1 was way better imo
Dark turned into nonsense unfortunately. It felt like Lost all over again. I never finished it.
I disagree, I think Dark was much more coherent. It was admittedly a bit convoluted, but I think it did a good job tying everything together.
Whereas Lost was them constantly creating new mysteries that they didn't have the answers too, and tying it up in the end with some random bullshit.
Agree. Season 3 jumped the shark in my opinion. It's bad enough that they just kept
But the s3 finale just felt completely random and confirmed all of mt suspicions about them not being able to provide meaningful explanations for most of the interesting stuff that happens
GoT... Too much rape as a plot device, and general subjugation of female characters.
Love... She was supposed to be the cool girl but she was just rude. I lost respect for the characters in episode 2.
If I reduce it to the shows where I watched more than a few episodes:
I tried many times and I did always like it, but for some reason I never felt the urge to finish the first season.
Ooh, me too. I got more than one season on my second attempt, but I'm honestly not sure how much more. Definitely didn't get through 3 full seasons. I enjoyed it, but...just not enough to go out of my way to keep watching it.
I had the same issue with Vikings
You probably meant the third season of casa del papel. The first heist, which was good, was two seasons. The second heist in seasons three to five was crap.
Altered carbon season 2 was such a let down. Idk why they even bothered
As much as I tried to get into it, I couldn't get myself into Game of Thrones.
Breaking Bad. I made it part way through the first season before giving up. Everyone loves that show but I just couldn't enjoy it.
Sons of anarchy.
I enjoyed the first season of Yellowjackets, but have given up halfway through S2 as I realised the writers didn't seem to have a plan, and were Lost-ing it, making up extra mysteries as they go along, just to pad the story out.
I recently watched a video by Jason Pargin, about how pretty much all TV shows are Lost-ing it, due to how modern TV production is done. If you don't think they're Lost-ing it, it's simply because the writers are doing a good job making it up as they go.
Most recently, Yellowjackets and White Lotus. I watched the first 2 seasons of Yellowjackets because the premise was interesting, and I wanted to see what happened (how the rescue happened) but it turned into a hate watch for me by the end of the second season. It all felt pointless and super depressing with no moments of hope or levity at all. The introduction of random supernatural elements and magic felt like they were drifting into Lost territory, and I couldn't force myself to watch the third season after that.
White Lotus I tried rewatching because everyone seems to love it but I could never get past the first episode in the first season, everyone was so unlikeable and awful or totally ridiculous that I couldn't stomach spending more time with them.
Always Sunny and Arrested Development. Both shows are just people being really fucking stupid and it's somehow hilarious.
Nutrek, most of the live series are were terrible, Kurtzman ruined the franchise. lower decks just got silly. ISAIP past season 12 were just plain awful, they shouldve gave up on the series long time ago.
Even Strange New Worlds?
I couldn't stand Discovery, SNW is wonderful.
I fucking love lower decks, but that last season clearly was outta ideas
Yeah god, I forgot about Nutreks. I could go on for a while.
And people keep trying to convince me that I like Lower Decks (and I like The Orville), but I don't.
anything is better than Enterprise, the dawnson's creek of trek
Star Trek Discovery
Vikings. It started off okay. I just wanted to see vikings do cool viking stuff. But it became a drama about Christianity taking over, which might be historically accurate, but didn't interest me at all. I straight up didn't like any of the characters at a certain point.
Surprised to see so few mentions of For All Mankind, I really wanted to like it I did, but I only got about 2 episodes in. I realized the setting was the only thing that remotely interested me, the characters were bland at best, and absolutely incompetent at worst.
It was a series with the ripe call to the "competency porn" as I've seen described as, but the characters couldn't contrast the setting any further. I did spoil myself before I tried getting into it, a few moments stuck out to me. Firing on two unarmed cosmonauts, getting crushed between two interplanetary vessels while trying to covertly siphon fuel, and having a child on mars. Just did not feel very NASA by the end of it, tell me if you think I'm wrong and should give another chance however.
Oddly enough I think I found that aesthetic I was looking for in Stargate SG-1, I never really gave that franchise a chance until now, I'm almost surprised how well it seemed to age, especially how little I see it mentioned in comparison to Trek, or even Doc Who (which i know next to nothing of)
I had allready seen a lot of documentaries about chernobyl, so the recent series did not cut it fir me. It was too dramatised
Of course it was dramatized, that's kind of the entire point. As you said there are already countless documentaries about it, why would you want another one?
Lost. I got about halfway through the first season back then until I couldn't shake the impression that it was a bunch of convoluted horse shit produced by hacks who thought they were bleeding edge. History proved my impression correct.
Handmaid's Tale.
Never got through even a single episode.
Would it be worth it? Is there vindication or is it just endless boring patriarchy?
Walking Dead. There's like several shows and a dozen seasons each, although I actively avoided it since it started about, not into zombies shows.
Squid Game, never really like dubs and just didn't get into listening Korean yet.
I thought Handmaid's Tale was absolutely amazing. Really felt like I was witnessing late stage america with its path towards a christo fascist future
Yeah, but like, I watch shows to escape from the brutal crutch of reality.
Like Star Trek. Or something set in the past.
There's a whole bunch or drug shows I haven't watched which people think I would like, because I advocate for the legalisation of drugs. But that's exactly why I don't like them; they show the shitty reality that would be so easy to change.
Oh I never watched "man in the high castle" either. Well a lot of S1 but got bored of it.
Last of Us. Fallout I didn't even bother with. I probably would've bailed on Breaking Bad as well if it wasn't for everyone around me telling that it'll get good eventually (it didn't)
Fallout is actually great tho!
Breaking Bad because of the color tone. I don't like desert environments and they leaned into that hard.
Breaking Bad
Black mirror, too depressing
Wheel of time... Just didnt care enough after the first episode
The witcher... Again just didnt care enough and not a fan of the lead
Black mirror's an anthology series, so you can't judge it on a single ep
It's rough to judge black mirror for the first episode. I had. Ahard time getting into it as well, and even when i was fully hooked, i could only watch like an episode or two a week, because it IS pretty depressing. But it's also thought provoking and there are episodes that just live in my head, in a good way.
Dodged a bullet with the Witcher—the show went so off the rails with the source that it’s not even worth pretending it’s an adaptation. By all accounts the same is the case with the wheel of time but I have no first-hand knowledge with that ip.
Rick and Morty. My taste in humor just changed and it and other similar shows don't do it for me anymore
American Horror Story
severance. just so boring... uneventful. i just cant bring myself to care about the characters in any capacity. ive said it in other threads, its just 'depression porn'
Same. It’s not that it’s “uneventful”, it’s just that each “event” just adds more nonsensical mystery. It feels like Lost, which some people thought was twisty in a clever way. But instead the writers literally just kept throwing twists with no actual end in mind.
I’m sure Severance has some kind of plan, but it feels way longer than it needs to be. It’d make a good movie or limited series, but I’m not into this vibe for multiple seasons.
It’s nice to know there’s like 5 of us 🤣
I liked season 1 and season 2 is the most pretentious slop and my friends call it a masterpiece and I feel like an alien
s2e4 has to be one of the worst episodes of television I've ever consumed in my life. stopped watching e right there.
s1 is alright though, endings a bit stupid but whatever
It's definitely not for everyone. It's a very complex show with a lot of symbolism, and you kind of have to think for yourself what's really the implications of what's going on.
I was hooked from beginning to end, but it's definitely pretty boring if you don't get the subtext, or simply want an easy sit back and relax kind of show.
Anything with more than 3 seasons usually fails to maintain my attention. Eventually it's just more of the same.
Most of the adult animated shows (Rick and Morty, inside job, ect.) they're like a 15 year olds idea of what adults are.
Got some anime for y'all
Attack on Titan got me into Gundam. It is basically a ripoff, but the aesthetics carry it so hard I don't even care
I couldn't keep with Demon Slayer. It was just ultimately unpredictable in plot to me, but not really in a good way. I don't know how to describe it.
I hated watching Riko constantly treat Reg like a machine.
But.. is he not?
I mean, he is, but he's also a kid and more importantly a person
You didn't find any of the art interesting at all? But anyway, if the plots suck, we wouldn't watch, either! I recommend that you try My Hero Academia, which is about 80% of the planet's population attaining superpowers; the story follows one boy in the 20% with no special abilities at all as he tries to navigate life in this new world.
I really wanted to like Firefly, but the characters felt too silly and two dimensional.
Firefly's biggest weakness/strength is the dialog. It was wholly done in the Joss Whedon style and cadence. Every member of the main cast was "the snarky one", every conversation was a series of verbal setups- and if it was against antagonists they'd be completely witless and walk into verbal traps, and every classic verbal trope would be lampshaded.
If you've watched enough of his previous shows it is very easy to predict how a conversation in Firefly will sound.
Back in the day that style of dialog was still somewhat novel, especially to people who weren't big Buffy/Angel fans. Nowadays this is the baseline MCU style of dialog, which means it is absolutely played out.
I did like that style of dialogue, at the time, so idk if that was the problem for me.
It's been a long long time since I saw it, so I don't remember details only general impressions:
\
I remember thinking that every characters weren't really differentiated. They were all just kinda amorphous, until an opportunity for their single defining trait had a change to come out for a bit.
Did you watch the one where the people die?
I only watched an episode or two. I don't remember what order.
The Orwell
300+ posts and I only see about 13 or so, time for a new instance I think. Does lemm.ee really censor so much or is it my client.
The News. Repulsive, unbelievable main characters; insane plots; waay too many subplots; you can't understand a story without reading the fucking Wiki or going two knuckles deep on a forum to get the backstory or just picking up on the mode esoteric hints; this whole annoying multi-platform thing where you only fully understand a story if you watch it on six different platforms (I had enough of that shit with the Matrix twenty-five years ago, thanks).
The Boys. First season had raw charm with some cool punk tracks, then season two sterilised it and it seemed to become another day time TV show. Had a similar experience with Black Mirror once that got the American/Hollywood treatment. Always Sunny lost its charm when the gang went to Ireland. Aweful end to what was otherwise a good series. But I mostly dislike American TV.
The Expanse
Stranger Things
Deep Space Nine
The Expanse starts a little slow, it picks up after the first couple episodes. I'm sure you've heard others gush about it, it's worth another try :)
Athens early episodes of the show they tried to inject some hostility among the main crew that simply wasn't there in the books and feels very out of place. It took me several years to get through the first half of the first season.
Once they stopped trying to inject the drama into it, it got a lot better, and I really enjoyed it.
Then the asshole actor playing Alex turned out to be a creepy weirdo, and they ended up canceling the show in the aftermath of the controversy.
The Expanse but I'll try to give it another shot one day.
The first season shows 2 perspectives - detective in asteroid belt and some of the most bland, basic and incredibly uninteresting dude going somewhere. Just kept falling asleep during those scenes.
I heard the layer seasons are quite interesting so I hope to at least skim through it or read the books but tbh the first season feels like it ruined the world for me already.
Wheel of time just finished the latest season in the background and its fun just bad. I've tried reading the book before and it's pretty terrible nonsense too so my expectations were already quite low. I do find the main plot point of basically temu Buddhism and the Witcher cocktail very atractive but it's just so poorly executed. All characters are meaningless. The world has so many plot holes that the wheel might as well just stop rolling right there.
Carnival row - not sure if this counts but it really sucked past season 1. It felt like something was there but it was really ruined by poor writing and Cara Delevingne and her character are so incredibly bad it really ruined any chances the show might have had.
Succession. I stopped watching somewhere in the 2nd season.
it's such a boring premise. rich people being shitty, but in modern times
Yeah, that's why I stopped watching: It became apparent that there was no interesting story other than the soap opera playing out in rich people circles.
The first season at least had the hint of something interesting; that estranged stoner being promoted from theme park furry to inner circle. But they barely did anything with it.
Breaking bad, narcos, the office, friends.
Breaking Bad. I tried twice, got a little farther each time but, just lost interest.
Dr. Who
All of them
The last three are some of my favorites of all time, curious what you dislike about them.
Really all of them didn't grow on me very well. For each of them I watched the first season and decided there was just better stuff I could be watching.
Each had their funny parts but were just a bit too absurd...and I like absurd! Just not my cup of tea.
Came here for Buffy. I remember the film which was entertaining fluff, but then the series came out and almost immediately I hated it. But all of my friends loved it. Every so often one of them would try and persuade me to give it another go but everytime they did it was always by showing me the same fucking episode ('Hush', I think it's called) where no-one speaks.
I guess I just don't enjoy looooong series which are more soap opera than they are story.
looooong series which are more soap opera than they are story.
You just described the entirety of The CW as a channel.
I watch quite a lot of series and enjoy some of them. TV has never been too good, and nowadays its the most obvious that write-as-you-go model has blatant flaws. Storytelling is difficult enough already, but it's worse when you don't know how many episodes you actually have to tell the story, and you have to argue with other writers to include your scenes and plot lines.
I constantly find myself enjoying miniseries the most. The ending makes the story. So, the second best shows are those where every season or series has a self-contained opening and ending arcs. Cliffhangers bore me, most hooks are lost on me. Usually when characters seem to meander and roam aimlessly is because the writers are lost as well. And plots of convenience (where magically something just happened by chance to create or resolve a new plotline, or deus ex machina) just completely bore me.
So, anyways, to answer the question. True Blood lost me completely midway second season. Awesome world, but the writers didn't know how to write for shit.
Stranger Things. Gave up after the first season. It just felt like the show was trying too hard to feel like something nostalgic from the 80s without any of the substance or writing the things from the 80s it was trying to mimic had.
Banshee. There's only so many times you can watch a guy get the absolute piss bashed out of him
Walking Dead, House of the Dragon
The walking dead. A good show with high production value I will admit.
But I found it to be souless morbid and honestly disgusting.
Ozark. It's super well done but I just got to the point that the violence was just too much.
One Piece - with One Pace i got through the alabasta arc. The characters all have good back stories and motivations. I mean it is well written, but with how the stakes and emotional depth are managed it just feels like a sit-com. I want to like it more, but i just don't foresee myself throwing it on again.
Most of that stuff is better handled in the manga. One Pace can't fix the bad soundtrack, animation and such that plagued the series from the start. It doesn't turn into a character drama or anything, I think the online fandom exaggerates that aspect of the series to get people to start watching... But it is better
The animation and soundtrack actually didn't bother me after the first couple arcs. I think it has a lot to do with how the show engages with emotions. It's not meant to dig too deep. It's supposed to be a sort of all ages work and it achieves that. I can totally see how people enjoy it btw. Not knocking it, it's a really big accomplishment in its own right. It just lost my interest after a while. If it evolves beyond there, it wasn't fast enough for me. Which is weird, because i usually like slow burns.
Jujutsu Kaisen, I just thought everyone lacked charisma, I don't feel bad for it since the manga ended at least and opinions shifted.
Almost every one?
yes
Better Call Saul. I tried, i truly tried, but i just couldn't get through the first few eps. It was super shit.
Prison Break
The sopranos. I got halfway through season 2 and decided I just didn't give a shit about finishing it.
I feel like it was a show that was greatly helped by the once a week group viewing era.
This is going to sound very hipster, but pretty much anything that becomes super popular is too shallow or lowest-common-denominator to pique my interest. There are exceptions, but that's the general rule I've come to realize.
The show that this fuck Microsoft clip is from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zpCOYkdvTQ
I was set on watching until this quote occurs to get the full suspense and context and comedic relief.... but I failed my goal during episode 2. Cannot suspend disbelief for this one, it's too dumb, makes no sense, most jokes fall flat. It's like they gave Gandalf a clown costume and Frodo acts as though that's normal and we're supposed to be falling off of our seats from that
Amerikans.
Like really y'all that addicted to the honey‽ Everybody is fucking everybody and only the two main characters know and can talk about it?
Manifest. Holy shit, I tried. But wow, just mind numbing.
Better Call Saul for me. It felt like Breaking Bad but playing out at like 25% speed. Also Saul is a whiny bitch, I really lost patience with him when he gets to his "boo hoo being rich isn't fun I don't wanna work at a law firm anymore" phase.
Match Of The Day
Yeah, good list.
I was in on Mr. Robot until it Fight Clubbed. Tried it a little bit after that, but completely lost interest.
Also not at all a fan of Walking Dead or most shows that are just depressing. Ive also always had this weird logical problem with Zombie apocalypses that never end. Like, I get it's a monster movie/show, but eventually I'm like "alright, how are there still so many walkers when there's been no food for years".
I lost interest in Battlestar Galactica for a similar reason (depressing). Also how the fuck could they not somehow detect who was a Cylon. They apparently have shit built in that let them transmit their conclsciousness across the galaxy when they die, etc etc. Also all the other shit that never got exolained.
Game of Thrones lost me at Reek.
Haven't gotten into Westworld.
My friends were all 100% convinced I'd be into Stranger Things but it just hasn't clicked with me. I'm going to give it another try.
Also zero, zero "reality" shit.
I gave up on Silo early on in Season 2, don't know how popular it is in truth but the Reddit hive mind (or bots) downvote you almost immediately if you even say you don't love it.
I bailed after the first season, holy shit did that show move slow. I wasn't invested enough to go along with the jump the shark plot only 5 episodes in. Oh no the main character needs to go stop the big machine from blowing up the entire silo and killing everyone and ending the story, will she succeed or fail?! I had somebody spoil the story for me and it actually is pretty cool and sci-fi, but I can't spend that much time getting to it.
Second season at least what I watched is much worse it's pretty much all pointless filler.
I read the wool books and actually liked them but yeah the shows ridiculously slow and doesn't want to advance any plot whatsoever. I've found this is true with a lot of apple shows so I guess they are told not to, but yeah boring as hell.
Like 97% of them
Damn few shows are worth my time these days. Re-tread it's galore, with simplistic emotional appeal to get you to react and continue to watch. Essentially producers saw what worked for "reality" TV in the 90's and applied that same juvenile, transparent, boring approach to new shows.
In that case, we should ask: what have you finished and do you recommend?
Too many. I can count by the fingers of my left hand how many shows I watched to the end and I still have unused fingers.
Which are those (at least, which you suggest)?
Person of Interest and MacGuyver
Yup, old and ancient stuff.
Nearly all of them, most seem to be racist comedy's or stereotypes and just bullshit I can't handle, or the plot is over used so much it's predictable, honestly most popular TV shows are just straight up boring and to much otherism and other racism, sexism, transphobia, ECT in them. Or just about fighting each other and it's all about drama because they don't have the apparent ability to just simply talk to each other.
Or just about fighting each other and it’s all about drama because they don’t have the apparent ability to just simply talk to each other.
Classic sitcom formula. I never got into a lot of the "family" shows in the 90s, because almost every plot revolved around someone being a poor communicator - and that's it. Person A can't talk about event/topic Y, and now Person B assumes reason Z and the entire episode and all its hijinks only exist because of it. Everything could've been avoided if Person A and Person B actually talked things through, like healthy, sane people who actually want to avoid conflict. But writers couldn't think of a way to both model proper communication and create a compelling storyline, so here we are.
My biggest problem with most of the shows listed is they have to outdo themselves and go on for too long.
Season one: Great premise!
Season Two: Same premise, but TWICE the danger!
Season three: I don't know, robot ninjas or something?
I miss when shows could just grow in the first season or two, and then you'd only get raising stakes two or three times a year (season finale/premier and sweeps). Otherwise they're just stories.
These days shows have to justify themselves right out of the gate.
I miss mid-budget live action scifi shows with strong enough episodic elements that I can actually remember individual episodes. These days seemingly every show feels like an 8-12 movie that blurs together.
Star Trek Strange New Worlds is the closest current thing to an exception. Before that The Orville.
Most other scifi that comes out has to be an "event".
The most infamous example of this is Supernatural where the first few seasons were very episodic and exactly what you described. Then, after season 5 it keep escalating until dudes are fighting off the end of the world for the 6th time lmao
Hah, yes!
Just finished season 3 of Yellowjackets and White Lotus and I just felt, meh. I'm hopeful for season 4 of both shows but I'll be living off the honeymoon phase from seasons 1 and 2.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark
Oh, this is about Riverdale, isn't it?
Riverdale actually did what I've always wished for a boring failure of a show to do, and just completely go nuts.
Oh our boring high school drama show is slumping? How about an organ stealing cult, a superhero, and a guy escaping from the cops in a rocketship!
Its more that they have to keep the money train going, than they have to outdo themselves.