|
I enjoy Glee quite a bit, especially the first season, so maybe that kind of tone was more what I was expecting. I feel no connection or interest in any of the characters of VM, other than Kristen Bell, because they are all just exaggerated cardboard cutout high school archetypes? The show got a few chuckles out of me but isn't really smart enough to be laugh out loud funny to a grown up, but also is nowhere nearly edgy or engaging or subversive enough to be taken seriously. And the plot is disjointed and badly paced - characters and entire plot arcs that were the center of one episode completely disappear and are not mentioned at all in the next episode, to the point where I can hardly tell if I've skipped or missed an episode, or mistakenly skipped to another season. Maybe I was going into it expecting something a bit more clever in terms of plot or writing, or the show has just aged badly and has a lot of filler episodes.
Throatwarbler fucked around with this message at 20:18 on Jul 5, 2011 |
#
?
Jul 5, 2011 20:12
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 20, 2024 03:55 |
|
|
Throatwarbler posted:I guess going by the word of mouth here I was expecting it to be like The Wire or something. I found your problem. If there's anything I can say for certain, it's that Veronica Mars is not The Wire.
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2011 20:24
|
|
|
Kid Moe posted:Well, after reading some stuff on Carnivale and finding out it gets much more intriguing as the show goes on, I watched the second episode on anytime TV and can safely say that I'm invested. You don't really find out what's going on till the second season but when it all comes out it's well worth the wait, unlike certain other programmes.
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2011 21:35
|
|
|
Throatwarbler posted:I enjoy Glee quite a bit, especially the first season, so maybe that kind of tone was more what I was expecting. I feel no connection or interest in any of the characters of VM, other than Kristen Bell, because they are all just exaggerated cardboard cutout high school archetypes? The show got a few chuckles out of me but isn't really smart enough to be laugh out loud funny to a grown up, but also is nowhere nearly edgy or engaging or subversive enough to be taken seriously. And the plot is disjointed and badly paced - characters and entire plot arcs that were the center of one episode completely disappear and are not mentioned at all in the next episode, to the point where I can hardly tell if I've skipped or missed an episode, or mistakenly skipped to another season. Maybe I was going into it expecting something a bit more clever in terms of plot or writing, or the show has just aged badly and has a lot of filler episodes. The show is meant to be more like Buffy, meaning it's not supposed to be heavily serialized. There's an over-arching plot for each season, but each episode is meant to be a "case of the week" style format. It's not trying to be The Wire where it's just one story that continues on week to week, but that doesn't make it bad. Also the characters are supposed to be archetypes because VM is a noir set in a high school setting, and everyone is an archetype in noir fiction. Also it started off as a UPN show aimed at the teen crowd, and it has the main character get raped in the pilot, plus a bunch of murder and incest plots later on. I don't know how much more subversive you were expecting it to be... qbert fucked around with this message at 21:58 on Jul 5, 2011 |
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2011 21:55
|
|
|
Up to the beginning of season 3 of Leverage, good show!
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2011 22:57
|
|
|
qbert posted:The show is meant to be more like Buffy, meaning it's not supposed to be heavily serialized. There's an over-arching plot for each season, but each episode is meant to be a "case of the week" style format. It's not trying to be The Wire where it's just one story that continues on week to week, but that doesn't make it bad. Also the characters are supposed to be archetypes because VM is a noir set in a high school setting, and everyone is an archetype in noir fiction. I've never seen more that a few snippets of Buffy, but suspected as much. So basically it's a children's show. I got an inkling that it was being oversold in TVIV threads much like people oversell some anime as being more grown up than they really are.
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2011 22:58
|
|
|
Throatwarbler posted:Glee: they are all just exaggerated cardboard cutout high school archetypes? The show got a few chuckles out of me but isn't really smart enough to be laugh out loud funny to a grown up, but also is nowhere nearly edgy or engaging or subversive enough to be taken seriously. And the plot is disjointed and badly paced - characters and entire plot arcs that were the center of one episode completely disappear and are not mentioned at all in the next episode, to the point where I can hardly tell if I've skipped or missed an episode, or mistakenly skipped to another season. Maybe I was going into it expecting something a bit more clever in terms of plot or writing, or the show has just aged badly and has a lot of filler episodes. I haven't watched a lot of VM but I just had to fix your post 
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2011 23:04
|
|
|
The Duke posted:I haven't watched a lot of VM but I just had to fix your post That's true enough I suppose, and it's true that the plot has gone off the rails a bit since the second season, I just love musical theatre so much. 
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2011 23:07
|
|
|
Throatwarbler posted:I've never seen more that a few snippets of Buffy, but suspected as much. So basically it's a children's show. I got an inkling that it was being oversold in TVIV threads much like people oversell some anime as being more grown up than they really are. Ah you're one of those people who can't just be content with disliking something, you have to be smug in your dislike as well. Now your posts make much more sense.
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2011 23:10
|
|
|
Throatwarbler posted:I've never seen more that a few snippets of Buffy, but suspected as much. So basically it's a children's show. I got an inkling that it was being oversold in TVIV threads much like people oversell some anime as being more grown up than they really are. 
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2011 23:16
|
|
|
Conduit for Sale! posted:Ah you're one of those people who can't just be content with disliking something, you have to be smug in your dislike as well. Now your posts make much more sense. Yes, how smug of me to be not entertained by a children's television show as a grown up. Based on reading TVIV threads, I broadly enjoy almost everything that VM proponents like, so I'm surprised that I don't like VM so far. Should I keep slogging to the end of season 1?
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2011 23:28
|
|
|
Throatwarbler posted:Yes, how smug of me to be not entertained by a children's television show as a grown up. Whats your definition of a children show? One that has rape, murder, incest, alcohol abuse since Veronica Mars has all these things?
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2011 23:33
|
|
|
bobkatt013 posted:Whats your definition of a children show? One that has rape, murder, incest, alcohol abuse since Veronica Mars has all these things? A show for teenagers then. None of those things are out of place on a show for teenagers, maybe not incest but I haven't gotten to any episodes featuring incest yet, so I didn't know. Is this incest like Game of Thrones incest?
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2011 23:36
|
|
|
Throatwarbler posted:A show for teenagers then. None of those things are out of place on a show for teenagers, maybe not incest but I haven't gotten to any episodes featuring incest yet, so I didn't know. Is this incest like Game of Thrones incest? Well its that Veronica's mom was banging Duncan's dad so there is a possibility Veronica is Duncan's sister.
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2011 23:41
|
|
|
bobkatt013 posted:Well its that Veronica's mom was banging Duncan's dad so there is a possibility Veronica is Duncan's sister. Well So far Veronica hasn't had sex with Duncan, since she says she lost her virginity at the party where she was raped, which was after Lily's murder. And in any case Veronica is suitably disgusted by the idea, so its not as if the show was putting forward some radical new interpretation on sibling incest.
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2011 23:45
|
|
|
Throatwarbler posted:Well So far Veronica hasn't had sex with Duncan, since she says she lost her virginity at the party where she was raped, which was after Lily's murder. And in any case Veronica is suitably disgusted by the idea, so its not as if the show was putting forward some radical new interpretation on sibling incest. Keep watching.
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2011 23:47
|
|
|
Flatscan posted:Keep watching.  Well, all right then.
|
|
#
?
Jul 5, 2011 23:50
|
|
|
Flatscan posted:Keep watching. Nah, he'll hate it because he's a grown up.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2011 00:01
|
|
|
Brown Moses posted:Hulu is now adding a new episode of Misfits a week for anyone who wants to watch it. There's only 13 episodes in total, so it won't be long until they are all up. Yay a reason to watch it again
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2011 00:53
|
|
|
Throatwarbler posted:Based on reading TVIV threads, I broadly enjoy almost everything that VM proponents like, so I'm surprised that I don't like VM so far. Should I keep slogging to the end of season 1? Watch until An Echolls Family Christmas. If you're not enjoying it by then, it's probably not for you.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2011 00:58
|
|
|
Soo, I'm about 5 episodes in on Six Feet Under and I pretty much despise the three female leads. Well, Brenda is tolerable but I absolutely cannot STAND the actresses/characters of Ruth and Claire. I see some fast-forwarding in my life very soon... P.S. David just had a Dexter-like moment with the Kroehner guy and it was creepy as poo poo 
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2011 02:14
|
|
|
Throatwarbler posted:I've never seen more that a few snippets of Buffy, but suspected as much. So basically it's a children's show. I got an inkling that it was being oversold in TVIV threads much like people oversell some anime as being more grown up than they really are. Well if you're going to criticize Veronica Mars for being too juvenile while giving Glee a pass, then...okay. Perhaps True Blood would be more in your "adult" wheelhouse?
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2011 02:24
|
|
|
Mr. Sloth posted:Soo, I'm about 5 episodes in on Six Feet Under and I pretty much despise the three female leads. Well, Brenda is tolerable but I absolutely cannot STAND the actresses/characters of Ruth and Claire. I see some fast-forwarding in my life very soon... Brenda and Claire definitely grew on me. Ruth takes a long time to grow on you. Six Feet Under is one of my favorite shows of all time. I will have to restart watching that soon.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2011 02:43
|
|
|
Mr. Sloth posted:Soo, I'm about 5 episodes in on Six Feet Under and I pretty much despise the three female leads. Well, Brenda is tolerable but I absolutely cannot STAND the actresses/characters of Ruth and Claire. I see some fast-forwarding in my life very soon... Claire grows a lot as a character. She might even be the center of the show by the end of it. Ruth and Brenda has their ups and downs, but Brenda is really hosed up and she's basically a slow motion car crashing self destructing nympho. I love it. Mu Zeta fucked around with this message at 02:55 on Jul 6, 2011 |
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2011 02:52
|
|
|
I'm watching The Riches now. So far it's pretty good. From reading the wiki, I know that it does not conclude after season 2 when it got cancelled. That's a bummer but I'm going to watch it anyway.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2011 02:55
|
|
|
Throatwarbler posted:I've never seen more that a few snippets of Buffy, but suspected as much. So basically it's a children's show. I got an inkling that it was being oversold in TVIV threads much like people oversell some anime as being more grown up than they really are. I don't know why people compare it to Buffy. I would be turned off on Veronica Mars as well if that's how I was introduced to it. Buffy is terrible with teen girls doing karate kicks and judo chops on dudes wearing rubber monster masks. Veronica Mars isn't like that. But you're right VM's target audience is for teens, it's set in a highschool. It's just much better than it had to be.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2011 02:59
|
|
|
I have to say I hate Veronica Mars too. Netflix told me I'd give it 5 stars and then I read the thread here and everyone seemed to love it to death. Then I tried it. And I thought it was awful. Everyone talks about the writing being amazing and I don't see it at all, I just find it generic to an annoying degree. Sure, incest and murder and rape, whatever, at the end of the day the main character is just the same sassy teenage girl that's in every single teen drama. And every character is like that. I even like Kristen Bell, but every other character is so annoying that it's hard to watch. I tried to give it a fair shake, but the main character is literally Juno and the rest of the characters are the cast of Degrassi. I don't find it witty or darkly comic or whatever else I'm supposed to find it, I just find it bad. Reading the show's thread, I even went through several pages just to find ONE person who didn't LOVE it, but I couldn't. I felt like the entire world was trolling me. So I sympathize with ANYONE who doesn't like it because this guy is the first one I've seen on the internet with that opinion. I don't mean to poo poo up the thread or anything, but with everything I hate that seems to be largely loved, I can at least understand why certain people would enjoy it. I honestly don't see a single redeeming quality in Veronica Mars. It feels like a really bad ABC Family original show. Sorry for the massive rant, I just have to get it out because I don't understand the love at all. Maybe someone can explain something that'll make it click, but I'm just glad I'm not alone in despising the show to it's core.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2011 04:11
|
|
|
qbert posted:Well if you're going to criticize Veronica Mars for being too juvenile while giving Glee a pass, then...okay. Perhaps True Blood would be more in your "adult" wheelhouse? I was pretty confused by this myself.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2011 04:19
|
|
|
PDMChubby posted:I have to say I hate Veronica Mars too. You've articulated it better than I could. None of the characters in the VM universe are even the least bit sympathetic, characters like the computer girl and the "punk" girl have forced and unnatural introductions and are then never seen again, Kristen Bell's character is interesting only because she has a backstory - her dialogue does remind me of Juno too, although I shrugged that off as just being a product of the time. I get the feeling that it's trying to be funny but it's just not, and the side plots are, for lack of a better term, uncompelling - I want to say unrealistic, but a plot can be unrealistic and still be interesting and engaging (see below). The side cases in Veronica Mars are like mini Uwe Boll movies: both boring AND nonsensical. The episode where they had the punk girl and the school election, or something. What the hell was that about? Did that even have anything to do with the main plot? I don't remember because I just couldn't give a poo poo, and that episode had Jane Lynch. Everyone here is on my case because I liked Glee. Glee is fun and witty and enjoyable despite drifting away from the main plot, the characters are likable, the musical theme episodes are always well done, maybe it's aimed at a teen audience too but I could enjoy it thoroughly as an adult.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2011 05:02
|
|
|
Throatwarbler posted:You've articulated it better than I could. None of the characters in the VM universe are even the least bit sympathetic, characters like the computer girl and the "punk" girl have forced and unnatural introductions and are then never seen again, Kristen Bell's character is interesting only because she has a backstory - her dialogue does remind me of Juno too, although I shrugged that off as just being a product of the time. I get the feeling that it's trying to be funny but it's just not, and the side plots are, for lack of a better term, uncompelling - I want to say unrealistic, but a plot can be unrealistic and still be interesting and engaging (see below). The side cases in Veronica Mars are like mini Uwe Boll movies: both boring AND nonsensical. The episode where they had the punk girl and the school election, or something. What the hell was that about? Did that even have anything to do with the main plot? I don't remember because I just couldn't give a poo poo, and that episode had Jane Lynch. Its film noir, they never really have sympathetic characters. They are all flawed. Also characters do come back. Also you may not realize it but the side cases do sort of tie in with the big case. bobkatt013 fucked around with this message at 05:40 on Jul 6, 2011 |
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2011 05:07
|
|
|
"The computer girl" is most definitely not a character who is never seen again.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2011 05:31
|
|
|
I don't think episodic shows are for you then. Many episodes are just mysteries of the week with a 2 minute teaser on the murder or missing mom. It becomes even less serialized in season 2 and 3 so you're not gonna like it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2011 05:44
|
|
|
PDMChubby posted:I tried to give it a fair shake, but the main character is literally Juno and the rest of the characters are the cast of Degrassi. literally Juno? Really? Teenage girl who occasionally comes out with witticisms =/= Juno? Well, okay! I really don't know how people can think the characters in VM are cardboard cutouts or whatever. Maybe in ways they adhere to stereotypes, sure, but they're all very well-developed and fleshed-out.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2011 07:38
|
|
|
Bown posted:literally Juno? Really? Teenage girl who occasionally comes out with witticisms =/= Juno? Well, okay! Obviously she isn't literally Juno, and that was a terrible mistake on my part to say "literally" in my hyperbole, but it's more than just "occasional witticisms" I think. They're both the spunky, offbeat high school girl that has the "occasional witticisms," carving their own paths through the "oppressive society of high school," one pop-culture reference at a time, isn't it wacky being an outcast, etc. I don't find her or anyone else well-developed, but again, I must be missing something. Along with characters being unsympathetic, it's more than that I think. Norma Desmond is unsympathetic, even annoying at the best of times (much like every character on Veronica Mars), but it's still interesting to watch her character. Same goes for every sad sap at the forefront of nearly every film noir; sure, they're flawed, that's important, but they also aren't horribly plain. I mean, obviously most people who watch the show don't think the characters are plain, but I just don't see it. It just feels like a generic teen drama in the skin of a detective story with slightly better, or at least slightly more unique, writing.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2011 07:57
|
|
|
Veronica Mars came out way before Juno so if anything, Juno is literally Veronica Mars.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2011 08:01
|
|
|
I'm not saying Veronica Mars stole the character from Juno, I'm saying it's a trope, and it's a trope that's been around since long before the Breakfast Club. There's nothing inherently wrong with tropes either, but Veronica Mars the character just feels shoved down the audiences' throats.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2011 08:07
|
|
|
qbert posted:Veronica Mars came out way before Juno so if anything, Juno is literally Veronica Mars. Yeah, it got more irritating after Juno ran that poo poo into the ground, but I don't really count it as a "fault" of the show. I just finished S01E14, and yeah, not doing it for me.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2011 08:11
|
|
|
I just blasted through all the episodes of The League. I would have never even looked twice at this show based on its title or association with football since I'm deathly allergic to everything football, but after a few episodes I was very happy that I did start watching it (mainly due to it having Mark Duplass and Paul Scheer among the cast, I love those guys). By the time I finished, I was not so keen on the show any more. I'm not yet quite sure what happened but somewhere around the middle of season 2, the whole thing started to sour on me. All the characters suddenly (or maybe not so suddenly, I dunno) became so full of hate and aggression and everyone started hurling these completely unfunny insults at each other ("you're all shitpeople" etc). It just gets tiresome pretty quickly when a show ends up being about all its cast hating the poo poo out of each other and themselves being just disgusting human beings (same reason I lost interest in Always Sunny). I realize this is kind of the whole point of these shows and I can see the comedic appeal but it just grates on me too much and sucks out all the funny after a while. Anyway, I'll probably keep watching it next season but I'd rather they tone this raw hate thing down a bit.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2011 09:01
|
|
|
So, I finished Parks and Recreation and I think it might just be the funniest thing on NBC right now. Yes, I love the hell out of Community, but Parks and Rec seems to have a heart to it that Community or 30 Rock doesn't. At the end of the day, all of the characters in Parks and Rec seem to genuinely care about or care for one another. There's something about that and the lack of cynicism in the show that makes it stand out and I'm super-stoked about the next season. That being said, I love cynicism and black humor, but it's refreshing to see a show that doesn't rely on that.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2011 09:23
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 20, 2024 03:55 |
|
|
I can't get through the first season of Mad Men. I feel like I should like this show somehow, and everyone else does, but it just bores me a lot and I don't really like the characters. I suppose I need some crime/war/etc angle in my historical shows. Also, apparently the 60's creep me out. DarkCrawler fucked around with this message at 09:34 on Jul 6, 2011 |
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2011 09:28
|
|