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Shows that are good, but I'm a fun-hating curmudgeon

Cardinal

Cardinal

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There are television shows that come around that I can genuinely recognize as being extremely well crafted, but I just can't be bothered to care about for entirely personal reasons, either because I'm annoyed by the very premise or because I'm just not especially interested in the genre itself. Madmen was previously the standard bearer for this concept. I'm perfectly capable of recognizing the superior narrative, acting, pacing, directions, etc., but a pair of car battery cables connected to my testicles can't make me care about an ad agency that takes places in 1950's America. No, don't tell me how relevantly and accurately the culture, history and misogyny of that era was portrayed...really...I just don't care.

Rome was another one of those "super well crafted but I can't seem to get into it for some reason" shows.

The latest example is Netflix's OJ Simpson show. It's well cast, well directed, super clever and poignant, but you can't make me forget that I lived through that extraordinarily annoying time period, and I would rather flush my eyeballs out with acetone than relive it. That said, if you're not old enough to remember the OJ Simpson bull****, you should watch it because I'm still capable of recognizing that it's an excellently crafted piece of entertainment. Really, you'll enjoy it, but don't try to talk to me about it, because I'll unfollow you on Facebook and put you on ignore on this forum if you do.
 
Cardinal said:
There are television shows that come around that I can genuinely recognize as being extremely well crafted, but I just can't be bothered to care about for entirely personal reasons, either because I'm annoyed by the very premise or because I'm just not especially interested in the genre itself. Madmen was previously the standard bearer for this concept. I'm perfectly capable of recognizing the superior narrative, acting, pacing, directions, etc., but a pair of car battery cables connected to my testicles can't make me care about an ad agency that takes places in 1950's America. No, don't tell me how relevantly and accurately the culture, history and misogyny of that era was portrayed...really...I just don't care.

Rome was another one of those "super well crafted but I can't seem to get into it for some reason" shows.

The latest example is Netflix's OJ Simpson show. It's well cast, well directed, super clever and poignant, but you can't make me forget that I lived through that extraordinarily annoying time period, and I would rather flush my eyeballs out with acetone than relive it. That said, if you're not old enough to remember the OJ Simpson bull****, you should watch it because I'm still capable of recognizing that it's an excellently crafted piece of entertainment. Really, you'll enjoy it, but don't try to talk to me about it, because I'll unfollow you on Facebook and put you on ignore on this forum if you do.
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Yeah, I'm a few episodes into it...great to see Nathan Lane as F. Lee Baily, and Dershowitz played by Evan Handler. Travolta is scary..
 
I watched the OJ show on FX last year (American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson), and while I found it extremely well done and the performances to be largely top-notch (sorry, David Schwimmer!), the recent deluge of O.J. stuff (the documentary that won the Oscar, which is now the Netflix thing of which you speak, and other documentaries and true crime shows) is just irritating now.

I lived through it, hated every second of the overblown coverage, and really don't have much desire to relive it over and over again.
 
I've been getting into Schitt's Creek lately. It takes about 5 or 6 episodes till it hits its groove, but it is great, Eugene Levy and Cathrine O'Hara are my comedy gods.
 
I can't tell you how many Netflix Series I've started and can't keep up with :lamo
 
Is HBO's Deadwood worth devoting some time to?
 
Kobie said:
I watched the OJ show on FX last year (American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson), and while I found it extremely well done and the performances to be largely top-notch (sorry, David Schwimmer!), the recent deluge of O.J. stuff (the documentary that won the Oscar, which is now the Netflix thing of which you speak, and other documentaries and true crime shows) is just irritating now.

I lived through it, hated every second of the overblown coverage, and really don't have much desire to relive it over and over again.
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Yeah.

Basically, imagine if the cast, writers and directors from Better Call Saul, The Wire, Breaking Bad and Battlestar Galactica teamed up to make an epic, academy award winning series, "Donald Trump: The Whole Story."

Barf.
 
I totally loved Rome and a pox on HBO for cancelling it!

The Americans, American Horror Story, Mozart in the Jungle, Rectify, Hell on Wheels and Deadwood I just couldnt get into and dropped them from my lineup. I gave up on Halt and Catch Fire and Ray Donovan as well. I liked the first few episodes of Battlestar Galactica, but then it got old real fast too.

Oh if you want a good spy series, watch The Bureau- its in French, but its awesome.
 
PoS said:
I totally loved Rome and a pox on HBO for cancelling it!

The Americans, American Horror Story, Mozart in the Jungle, Rectify, Hell on Wheels and Deadwood I just couldnt get into and dropped them from my lineup. I gave up on Halt and Catch Fire and Ray Donovan as well. I liked the first few episodes of Battlestar Galactica, but then it got old real fast too.

Oh if you want a good spy series, watch The Bureau- its in French, but its awesome.
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I started deadwood and stopped quickly because I don't give a damn about the Western genre. I picked it up again with the wife a few years later and realized that it was so much more than its genre. To this day I consider it one of the truly top shelf series of the millennium.
 
Cardinal said:
Yes.

......
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What about The Wire? I'm looking for a new show to get into. And I have Amazon Prime. I've already been through the Sopranos a few times over. Deadwood, I watched 1 episode. It didn't hook me. But, it can also take a few episodes for a story arc to develop and suspense/tension to build.
 
Winston said:
What about The Wire? I'm looking for a new show to get into. And I have Amazon Prime. I've already been through the Sopranos a few times over. Deadwood, I watched 1 episode. It didn't hook me. But, it can also take a few episodes for a story arc to develop and suspense/tension to build.
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Yes, The Wire is also a show worth getting into. And to answer your next question: Breaking Bad is also a decent way to pass the time.
 
Cardinal said:
There are television shows that come around that I can genuinely recognize as being extremely well crafted, but I just can't be bothered to care about for entirely personal reasons, either because I'm annoyed by the very premise or because I'm just not especially interested in the genre itself. Madmen was previously the standard bearer for this concept. I'm perfectly capable of recognizing the superior narrative, acting, pacing, directions, etc., but a pair of car battery cables connected to my testicles can't make me care about an ad agency that takes places in 1950's America. No, don't tell me how relevantly and accurately the culture, history and misogyny of that era was portrayed...really...I just don't care.

Rome was another one of those "super well crafted but I can't seem to get into it for some reason" shows.

The latest example is Netflix's OJ Simpson show. It's well cast, well directed, super clever and poignant, but you can't make me forget that I lived through that extraordinarily annoying time period, and I would rather flush my eyeballs out with acetone than relive it. That said, if you're not old enough to remember the OJ Simpson bull****, you should watch it because I'm still capable of recognizing that it's an excellently crafted piece of entertainment. Really, you'll enjoy it, but don't try to talk to me about it, because I'll unfollow you on Facebook and put you on ignore on this forum if you do.
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All I remember from OJ days was the white bronco car chase. I was like six at the time. So the OJ Simpson FX show really dramatized everything for me. i did not watch the documentary, which people said was good. I felt the OJ Simpson show covered everything pretty well and I didn't need another OJ thing to watch. That being, said, seeing how people reacted to the trial was insane, and because of that a lot of what's happening in this country now came out of that trial.

I'm not here to plug or anything but the blog in my sigy is basically about the television industry, reviews, franchises, reboots, spinoffs, prequels, sequels, what's popular, where it's going, and also the business side of things too. There's other topics (politics) and stuff I care about, but mainly it's about TV as the industry is a passion of mine. Weird but true.

That being said, I have a constant list of top ten TV shows I recommend to everybody (which changes, but not too frequently). They tend to be mostly high quality dramas. Here is the list ranked in order of favoritism:

  • The Leftovers (High Quality religious fiction that makes you curse at your TV with all the crazy sh*t that happens)
  • Breaking Bad (High Quality Drama)
  • The Wire (High Quality Drama)
  • The Expanse (Scifi/Geopolitical Mix)
  • The Chicago Franchise on NBC (Now Loving Chicago Justice)
  • Battlestar Galactica (Scifi/Geopolitical mix)
  • Billions (High Quality Financial Drama)
  • Boardwalk Empire (High Quality Crime/Political Drama)
  • Halt and Catch Fire (High Quality Computer Drama)
  • The Newsroom (High Quality Media Drama)

There are tons more I can add, but these are my top favorite shows of all time. The leftovers being the undisputed champion, even though it's not very popular!
 
PoS said:
I totally loved Rome and a pox on HBO for cancelling it!

The Americans, American Horror Story, Mozart in the Jungle, Rectify, Hell on Wheels and Deadwood I just couldnt get into and dropped them from my lineup. I gave up on Halt and Catch Fire and Ray Donovan as well. I liked the first few episodes of Battlestar Galactica, but then it got old real fast too.

Oh if you want a good spy series, watch The Bureau- its in French, but its awesome.
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POS if you like HBO and religious fiction check the leftovers. It's the most insane show I've ever watched. Also agree with most of your choices besides for the ones I didn't catch. I have not watched The Americans, but everyone recommends it, so I might check it out soon. It's resting in my queue ready to go.
 
ModerateGOP said:
POS if you like HBO and religious fiction check the leftovers. It's the most insane show I've ever watched. Also agree with most of your choices besides for the ones I didn't catch. I have not watched The Americans, but everyone recommends it, so I might check it out soon. It's resting in my queue ready to go.
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OK, I may look into it. Right now I'm binge watching Rick and Morty along with Tom Hardy in Taboo. I'm just waiting for Black Sails to finish so I can binge it too.
 
Hmmpf. Loved Rome.


But then, I suppose I'm the kind of guy who would (and did in fact) read every last word of Livy and Gibbon, among other works of/on Roman history......






Cardinal said:
There are television shows that come around that I can genuinely recognize as being extremely well crafted, but I just can't be bothered to care about for entirely personal reasons, either because I'm annoyed by the very premise or because I'm just not especially interested in the genre itself. Madmen was previously the standard bearer for this concept. I'm perfectly capable of recognizing the superior narrative, acting, pacing, directions, etc., but a pair of car battery cables connected to my testicles can't make me care about an ad agency that takes places in 1950's America. No, don't tell me how relevantly and accurately the culture, history and misogyny of that era was portrayed...really...I just don't care.
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My wife tried to get me to watch it, but I never bothered.
 
Cardinal said:
There are television shows that come around that I can genuinely recognize as being extremely well crafted, but I just can't be bothered to care about for entirely personal reasons, either because I'm annoyed by the very premise or because I'm just not especially interested in the genre itself. Madmen was previously the standard bearer for this concept. I'm perfectly capable of recognizing the superior narrative, acting, pacing, directions, etc., but a pair of car battery cables connected to my testicles can't make me care about an ad agency that takes places in 1950's America. No, don't tell me how relevantly and accurately the culture, history and misogyny of that era was portrayed...really...I just don't care.

Rome was another one of those "super well crafted but I can't seem to get into it for some reason" shows.

The latest example is Netflix's OJ Simpson show. It's well cast, well directed, super clever and poignant, but you can't make me forget that I lived through that extraordinarily annoying time period, and I would rather flush my eyeballs out with acetone than relive it. That said, if you're not old enough to remember the OJ Simpson bull****, you should watch it because I'm still capable of recognizing that it's an excellently crafted piece of entertainment. Really, you'll enjoy it, but don't try to talk to me about it, because I'll unfollow you on Facebook and put you on ignore on this forum if you do.
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You perfectly described my feeling towards The Godfather and Boardwalk Empire. Thank you for this thread.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
ModerateGOP said:
POS if you like HBO and religious fiction check the leftovers. It's the most insane show I've ever watched. Also agree with most of your choices besides for the ones I didn't catch. I have not watched The Americans, but everyone recommends it, so I might check it out soon. It's resting in my queue ready to go.
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If you like the Americans and Hell on Wheels you will LOVE Justified.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
PoS said:
I totally loved Rome and a pox on HBO for cancelling it!

The Americans, American Horror Story, Mozart in the Jungle, Rectify, Hell on Wheels and Deadwood I just couldnt get into and dropped them from my lineup. I gave up on Halt and Catch Fire and Ray Donovan as well. I liked the first few episodes of Battlestar Galactica, but then it got old real fast too.

Oh if you want a good spy series, watch The Bureau- its in French, but its awesome.
Click to expand...

If you haven't seen justified...you should.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
blackjack50 said:
If you haven't seen justified...you should.
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I tried to get into it, but I couldn't.


Mr Person said:
My wife tried to get me to watch it, but I never bothered.
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Mad Men was great. Don Draper was one of the most complex characters Ive ever seen and the show was worth watching on him alone.

My favorite shows in no particular order: Man in the High Castle, Gomorra, Boardwalk Empire (the first 3 seasons only, then it went downhill), Narcos, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, The Killing (original Danish version), Mad Men, The Wire, Rome, GoT, Black Sails, The Expanse, Westworld, Breaking Bad, Fargo, Les Revenants, Silicon Valley, The Bureau, The Missing, Mr Robot, House of Cards.
 
PoS said:
I tried to get into it, but I couldn't.



Mad Men was great. Don Draper was one of the most complex characters Ive ever seen and the show was worth watching on him alone.

My favorite shows in no particular order: Man in the High Castle, Gomorra, Boardwalk Empire (the first 3 seasons only, then it went downhill), Narcos, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, The Killing (original Danish version), Mad Men, The Wire, Rome, GoT, Black Sails, The Expanse, Westworld, Breaking Bad, Fargo, Les Revenants, Silicon Valley, The Bureau, The Missing, Mr Robot, House of Cards.
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I haven't written it off.

I haven't watched Man in the High Castle because I read everything Philip K. Dick wrote, and I don't trust people to adapt it. Adaptations cut out the theme of shifting unrealities that underly every last thing he wrote, the unexpected zigs and zags in the story. He's far from being a master of prose, but he is a genius in storytelling.

Saw Boardwalk 1-4, and fully agree.

Saw Breaking Bad and Sopranos. Thought the former shared some fault with the latter - lost and found again the trail part way through - result of stretching a concept a little thin, I thought.

Loved Rome, though it got Augustus wrong. The younger actor was awesome but the 20s-Augustus actor was terrible, and they didn't quite portray how much of an utter genius he was in negotiating is teenage position into emporer over a Republica he, not Ceasar, he killed. "I, Claudius" got Augustus correct, and was utterly awesome in its own right.

The Wire was great but also declined.

GoT: The wife finally convinced me to try it. Blew threw it all in a few months. Have to wait until, what, July?


Intend to watch House of Cards, possibly Man in the High Castle, with the understanding that it has little to do with D's novel/book/thing.



Caveat: It is a Friday and I didn't intend to drink too much, but it appears I've rather taken advantage of 1/2 of a fifth of whiskey. Oopsie daisy.
 
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Mr Person said:
I haven't written it off.

I haven't watched Man in the High Castle because I read everything Philip K. Dick wrote, and I don't trust people to adapt it. Adaptations cut out the theme of shifting unrealities that underly every last thing he wrote, the unexpected zigs and zags in the story. He's far from being a master of prose, but he is a genius in storytelling.

Saw Boardwalk 1-4, and fully agree.

Saw Breaking Bad and Sopranos. Thought the former shared some fault with the latter - lost and found again the trail part way through - result of stretching a concept a little thin, I thought.

Loved Rome, though it got Augustus wrong. "I, Claudius" got Augustus correct, and was utterly awesome in its own right.

The Wire was great but also declined.

GoT: The wife finally convinced me to try it. Blew threw it all in a few months. Have to wait until, what, July?


Intend to watch House of Cards, possibly Man in the High Castle, with the understanding that it has little to do with D's novel/book/thing.



Caveat: It is a Friday and I didn't intend to drink too much, but it appears I've rather taken advantage of 2/3 of a fifth of whiskey. Oopsie daisy.
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I would say Man in the High Castle is not a direct adaption to PKD's book, but the things they added into it actually improved the show overall.

PKD's original book really had no plot in it. They added one in the form of an actual resistance movement for the show. I originally hated the switch from making the grasshopper book into a film, but after watching the whole season, it made more sense. I'm a PKD fan as much as anyone, but some of his books are badly written in that the characters are stock archetypes or just plain boring, and he was never good with plots. PKD was more of an idea guy than anything else.

Rome had a time jump in the middle of the last season because they knew the show was cancelled and the runner wanted to finish the storyline.
 
PoS said:
I would say Man in the High Castle is not a direct adaption to PKD's book, but the things they added into it actually improved the show overall.

PKD's original book really had no plot in it. They added one in the form of an actual resistance movement for the show. I originally hated the switch from making the grasshopper book into a film, but after watching the whole season, it made more sense. I'm a PKD fan as much as anyone, but some of his books are badly written in that the characters are stock archetypes or just plain boring, and he was never good with plots. PKD was more of an idea guy than anything else.
.
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Well, I suppose I am too an "idea guy" so I love PKD stuff. I love temporally inconsistent plots, meanandering plots, plots that go nowhere, as long as they tell a story - that really does seem to reflect reality in many ways - stories, an infinity of stories, and most of them go nowhere interesting. The Man in the High Castle was one of his most fragmentary works. I'll grant that. There is no single plot and there isn't even anything like a proper ending. But it's about people behaving in a situation given them, and I'm content with that. I'm not even sure what it's supposed to be about. I'll have to re-re--read it again, but I'm fairly certain that the resolution doesn't actually resolve anything.

It still love his stuff. I like uncertainty. After all, living one's own life is the most uncertain prospect possible.

Again, I may be a bit of a weirdo. And at this point, kinda drunk.
 
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