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Dirt Road Junglist posted:My favorite Egregiously Vancouver moment in the X-Files was when they were in “my hometown,” and they didn’t even remotely try with any of the visual details. X-Files did an episode set in Phoenix and I was wondering if it was set in Phoenix before the words "Phoenix, AZ" appeared on screen. So good on them not using some California town as a stand-in.
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Dec 24, 2020 06:28
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A few pages ago we were talking about John Sessions on QI. Apparently he would badger the producers, and get the questions in advance, so he could look them up and appear clever on TV. Which is a bastard move, even for a posh luvvie like him. I did enjoy him in that series where everyone was doing impressions though. I forget it's name, but he was doing Joe Pesci, and the main guy did an awesome Micheal Caine. But if he turned out to be a UKIP supporter than gently caress him. Edit: As a QI aside, I really liked the episode that had the lead singer from Slipknot on it. He was surprisingly clever, charming and adorable. It was a good choice to get him on rather than dour short homophobe Glenn Danzig. BrigadierSensible has a new favorite as of 09:23 on Dec 24, 2020 |
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Dec 24, 2020 09:18
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BrigadierSensible posted:A few pages ago we were talking about John Sessions on QI. I think John Sessions was the guy that they ended up making fun of through the actual show format, giving him an 'ooh, me sir, I know, I know' buzzer and the like. BrigadierSensible posted:Edit: As a QI aside, I really liked the episode that had the lead singer from Slipknot on it. He was surprisingly clever, charming and adorable. It was a good choice to get him on rather than dour short homophobe Glenn Danzig. I do think one of the best parts of QI's format is that every episode is such a weirdly wide net that there's a decent chance that someone has an unexpected chance to actually know some insane fact. My favorite example being when they had Daniel Radcliffe on for an episode about magic--because of course you would--and it turned out he knew things about actual magic tricks.
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Dec 24, 2020 10:54
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The Office is leaving Netflix so I'm watching it over the holidays. I never really saw more than up to season 4 when it first came out, and wow, when Holly comes back to the office it just loving sucks. Just bending over backwards to somehow make Michael happy. He always has had some magical field that makes people seem to like him despite himself, but the way he just ridiculously harasses her and not only does she seem to like it, the show does. In the past his harassment was at least played as a bad thing, but this is just frustrating and maddening for some reason.
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Dec 29, 2020 15:59
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Ravenfood posted:The Office is leaving Netflix so I'm watching it over the holidays. I never really saw more than up to season 4 when it first came out, and wow, when Holly comes back to the office it just loving sucks. Just bending over backwards to somehow make Michael happy. He always has had some magical field that makes people seem to like him despite himself, but the way he just ridiculously harasses her and not only does she seem to like it, the show does. In the past his harassment was at least played as a bad thing, but this is just frustrating and maddening for some reason. Ah well it's OK because she also did a Yoda voice once
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Dec 29, 2020 16:12
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The first three seasons of the office might as well be a different show from the rest of it. I'm just surprised more of it didn't age terribly, but those first three seasons are extremely good.
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Dec 29, 2020 16:18
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sweet geek swag posted:The first three seasons of the office might as well be a different show from the rest of it. I'm just surprised more of it didn't age terribly, but those first three seasons are extremely good. I feel the same way, I have the first 3 on DVD, but never felt the need to ever revisit anything after it.
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Dec 29, 2020 16:37
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Season 4 is still pretty good. The double-length episodes are a bit much and the writer's strike messed with it a little, but there are some classics in there. Season 5+ can be ignored with little of value lost.
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Dec 29, 2020 17:08
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Sir Lemming posted:Season 4 is still pretty good. The double-length episodes are a bit much and the writer's strike messed with it a little, but there are some classics in there. Season 5+ can be ignored with little of value lost. It's not that I don't like Season 4, but more that it is a very different show. Once they get Jim and Pam together the show needs a new hook and it goes fully into cringe comedy. So they're throwing plots against the wall to see if they work and Michael is more Michael than ever. All the characters become less realistic and a little wackier. It stops being a show about regular people working in an office, and more becomes about these lovable weirdos working in an office. Also everything with Ryan.
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Dec 29, 2020 18:17
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Season 5 through 7 you can take on an episode by episode basis. Some very good ones but some total crap as well. Season 8 is an abomination- avoid at all costs. Season 9 (and this is not a popular viewpoint, just my opinion) is decent at least for the first half. Pete, Clark and Nelly are all good characters who inject some new blood into the series. Then it goes downhill with inexplicable heel-turn by Andy and the weird meta-aspects that never really make any sense. On the topic of poorly aged media - I was watching some Friends recently and drat, I know it’s been said before, but it just sticks out so much more today how Lily-white and just straight up boring it makes NYC look. I guess with the reduction in the dominance of multi-can sitcoms, we as viewers are less conditioned to accept shows that take place entirely on 3 or 4 sets with the same rotation of extras. When Girls first came out, it took a lot of heat for not being more diverse in its portrayal of Brooklyn, but even in the first season it’s the goddamn United Nations compared to Friends.
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Dec 29, 2020 18:22
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sweet geek swag posted:It's not that I don't like Season 4, but more that it is a very different show. Once they get Jim and Pam together the show needs a new hook and it goes fully into cringe comedy. So they're throwing plots against the wall to see if they work and Michael is more Michael than ever. All the characters become less realistic and a little wackier. It stops being a show about regular people working in an office, and more becomes about these lovable weirdos working in an office. Also everything with Ryan.
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Dec 29, 2020 21:13
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By season 3 of community the Troy/Abed in-show memes are overwhelming. Probably the only time Inspector Spacetime is funny is when it references the Star Wars Holiday Special but doesn't linger on it.
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Dec 29, 2020 21:26
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I don't think Season 8 of the Office is that bad on a rewatch compared to other late seasons, the main problem is they wipe out almost all the character changes and direction at the end of the season, and then Season 9 most of the stuff is cut out for Andy leaving on a boat and Jim leaving for his new company. I do think the writers did admit they had no idea what to do going forward when Michael left though.
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Dec 29, 2020 21:52
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Tiaer posted:Well, what city HASN'T Vancouver played? I think every metro area in the country has been Vancouvered in a show. Anywhere they need real snow
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Dec 29, 2020 22:07
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Ravenfood posted:Everyone also gets way less horrible (or more horrible and also more sympathetic) because it starts being about, like you said, lovable weirdos and so you have to love them. Hence why Michael somehow becomes an off screen sales savant. The person who was an antagonist has now transitioned into the protagonist. The audience wants to root for them - this was not just the showrunners forcing it upon the audience, they're reacting to demand. I've started listening to In Vorhees We Trust with Gourley and Rust and they talk about how the big slasher villains of the 80s - Michael Myers, Jason, Freddy - were originally characters that you wanted to see be beaten by the end of the movie, but by around the 3rd sequel, people weren't coming to the movie to see that, but instead wanted to see how they killed the deadmeats. Your original movies had characters who were sympathetic and the later movies are all populated with more jerks and frat bro date rapists because you want the audience to be happy when they die.
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Dec 30, 2020 02:26
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I can't wait until I have thirteen streaming services, none of which have any shows I wanna watch. I can cancel them all and go back to pirating everything, like it should be.
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Dec 30, 2020 04:03
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Well here's MY Office take, as someone who never watched it when it was airing but has binged it twice. Season 1 can be skipped if you're not digging it. It's six episodes, dull, dry, depressing, and Michael is unlikeable. Season 2 gets immediately better, andby around the dinner cruise episode through the end of season 4, are gold. Seasons 5 and 6 are still pretty good but not as tight as 2-4. Season 7 is where you can feel the show really losing steam. I wouldn't fault anyone for stopping watching once Michael leaves, but I feel you should at least watch up to that point. If you do want to see through to the end... Season 8, as mentioned above, is pretty dire. The show is spinning wheels with a handful of ideas that could have made decent new premises and then it just shits all over all of them. Season 9 has its moments, it at least seems to have some life in it again after season 8. Also, the finale and the episode leading up to it actually are great and a nice reward for finishing seasons 8 and 9.
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Dec 30, 2020 08:05
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For a long time, Community was far and away my favourite show. I still hold season 2 as maybe my single favourite season of comedy ever, and I still love the characters and show overall. When season 6 originally came out I didn’t really like it, but I was thrilled to have more Community when it seemed certain the show was no more. Upon a recent rewatch, I kind of Wicca it had been cancelled. Season 6 is a miserable experience from start to finish. The actors don’t want to be there, the writing is less snappy and energetic which is compounded by the longe runtime making every episode feel like a slog, character arcs/development are flushed down the toilet so characters are shadows of themselves, the cast are so mean to each other all the time - it legitimately feels like a show no one wanted to make. Some moments are so bad (the episode where the gang all ignore one of their friends telling them they had abusive parents and then forcing her to be around said abusive parents) it sincerely feels like Dan Harmon was killing his show on purpose. This makes sense when you consider he really didn’t want to make season 6 and was working on it right about the tone Rick and Morty was taking of Season 4 isn’t great, but at least the showrunners were trying.
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Dec 30, 2020 10:07
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I really don't enjoy the shift into making Britta a punching bag and it's not done in a very funny way.
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Dec 30, 2020 10:27
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Call it a day when Season 3 ends, like you would with the Simpsons at Season 8. I'm all in favor with Britta being the butt of a joke since she is much more funny and memorable as the person who mispronounces "macabre" than the standard issue love interest. Remember how many comedies there are where the women don't get any funny lines and they get shoved aside/killed off come the sequel.
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Dec 30, 2020 10:33
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My favourite tell for spotting a bad writer is when they make "clumsy" a female character's defining trait.
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Dec 30, 2020 10:40
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Inspector Gesicht posted:Call it a day when Season 3 ends, like you would with the Simpsons at Season 8. I feel weird that I might well be the only one who thinks that the stopping point for the Simpsons is after the single-digit seasons. The Mike Scully era (9-12) still has plenty of decent episodes that are worth seeing if you want more Simpsons, including some really noteworthy ones like the one where Maude dies or when Barney gives up drinking (as well as some EXTREMELY dated ones like the Behind the Music parody), but it's also got a lot of the signs of how the show would crash afterwards. Stop wherever you want to during the Scully era, but the Simpsons died a slow death, so it's at least worth seeing the start of the downturn. Cleretic has a new favorite as of 10:56 on Dec 30, 2020 |
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Dec 30, 2020 10:52
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LIVE AMMO COSPLAY posted:My favourite tell for spotting a bad writer is when they make "clumsy" a female character's defining trait. This also happens when they get a pretty actress, and make her "clumsy" as a way to humanise her and/or make her less like the superduper attractive Hollywood starlet that she obviously is. This is done so she can seem more attainable to the shlubby guy that is her love interest. Jessica Alba has played that role in more than a couple of movies. Because why hire a slightly unattractive comiedienne for a comedic role, when you can hire a super attractive model, and have her fall over in lieu of actually having comedic timing or talent? BrigadierSensible has a new favorite as of 11:45 on Dec 30, 2020 |
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Dec 30, 2020 10:57
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BrigadierSensible posted:This also happens when they get a pretty actress, and make her "clumsy" as a way to humanise her and/or make her less like the superduper attractive Hollywood starlet that she obviously is. This is done so she can seem more attainable to the shlubby guy that is her love interest. I watched the Mechanic: Resurrection a couple nights ago, where she's an ex-special ops orphanage worker who gets kidnapped to motivate Jason Statham. For someone with special ops training, her one minute of actual fighting in the movie was profoundly terrible, they obviously pushed her down to make her need saving.
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Dec 30, 2020 11:01
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Inspector Gesicht posted:Call it a day when Season 3 ends, like you would with the Simpsons at Season 8. IMO, Season 3 is overall good but it fails in a lot of ways (which Dan Harmon admits). They overarching plot can feel intrusive, and there's some real forced character stuff (making Britta dumber to force her into a relationship with Troy, making Abed more outwardly cruel as a symptom of his autism) and overall it's a bit too dark (like, seven people die in that season). Harmon said he wanted three to feel different and try some different things out, but that he preferred season 2's tone and feel. Who knows what the show would have turned into if he didn't get shitcanned. For waht it's worth, there are some great moments in the later seasons with 5 still being mostly good -- it's ust that there's no... Well, reason for any of it. There's no broader narrative, no longterm character arcs, etc. It's a show with some funny episodes with people you recognise but that's it. The season 5 finale is truly poo poo though.
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Dec 30, 2020 11:06
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On a rewatch it was amazing to me how short a time it took for Community to crawl up its own rear end with meta jokes and references. They had already played out and lampooned every original element of the show by like halfway through season 2 and then it just spun out from there
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Dec 30, 2020 11:32
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Cleretic posted:I feel weird that I might well be the only one who thinks that the stopping point for the Simpsons is after the single-digit seasons. The Mike Scully era (9-12) still has plenty of decent episodes that are worth seeing if you want more Simpsons, including some really noteworthy ones like the one where Maude dies or when Barney gives up drinking (as well as some EXTREMELY dated ones like the Behind the Music parody), but it's also got a lot of the signs of how the show would crash afterwards. Stop wherever you want to during the Scully era, but the Simpsons died a slow death, so it's at least worth seeing the start of the downturn. I mean fair. Personally I'd stop around series 10. It's gone past the point of parody now, and I really want them to just stop making the Simpsons.
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Dec 30, 2020 11:41
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LIVE AMMO COSPLAY posted:I really don't enjoy the shift into making Britta a punching bag and it's not done in a very funny way. It's just negging the pretty actress. Mila Kunis in Family Guy is the exact same thing. They get a few funny jokes out of it but mostly it's just pulling pigtails.
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Dec 30, 2020 12:15
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Josef bugman posted:I mean fair. Personally I'd stop around series 10. When looking up the seasons for that post, I realized that after picking up showrunning duties in season 13, Al Jean hasn't stopped running the show. Over half the show's run has been under that single tenure. No wonder it's a zombie; the same guy's been running it solo and non-stop for like eighteen years, and judging by the fact he left to make The Critic during the 'golden years' he probably wasn't rich with ideas and enthusiasm for the show when he started that reign. Someone give the guy a rest, we might get good Simpsons again if we do! He might actually step down, too; I've heard some interviews with him, including some hour-long podcasts, that give me the idea that it's not that he's been in the seat this long because he's clutching to it, but more because nobody's been there to replace him. At worst he might see it similar to how the final producer for the original run of Doctor Who did; he had the longest run as producer simply because he felt that the BBC wouldn't replace him and would use it as an excuse to axe the show (which turned out to be true).
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Dec 30, 2020 12:16
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Cleretic posted:I feel weird that I might well be the only one who thinks that the stopping point for the Simpsons is after the single-digit seasons. The Mike Scully era (9-12) still has plenty of decent episodes that are worth seeing if you want more Simpsons, including some really noteworthy ones like the one where Maude dies or when Barney gives up drinking (as well as some EXTREMELY dated ones like the Behind the Music parody), but it's also got a lot of the signs of how the show would crash afterwards. Stop wherever you want to during the Scully era, but the Simpsons died a slow death, so it's at least worth seeing the start of the downturn. Yeah, my personal cutoff point is season 12 as well. Those seasons are when you hit some bumps on the road but are still having a decent ride while 13 onwards you're just going straight down a cliff with no bottom in sight.
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Dec 30, 2020 12:55
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I feel like season 9 is at least as good as 8. 10-12 have some pretty solid episodes if you don't mind them also having some truly awful ones.
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Dec 30, 2020 13:04
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somepartsareme posted:On a rewatch it was amazing to me how short a time it took for Community to crawl up its own rear end with meta jokes and references. They had already played out and lampooned every original element of the show by like halfway through season 2 and then it just spun out from there I stopped watching while S3 was airing because of that and while I still like most of S2, I usually stop any rewatches by the end of it. Season 1 is my favorite season because it’s weird and does gimmick stuff but wasn’t completely up its rear end about it.
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Dec 30, 2020 13:59
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For The Simpsons, I’m another one who is totally fine with seasons 9-10 at minimum. I think a big reason why season 9 gets a lot of criticism is the episode The Principal and the Pauper, which while a dumb plot (Something the show itself would joke about later) it still is an okay episode. I think both those seasons are far more good than bad, and while they are a step down from previous years, you could make an argument that the Simpsons run from seasons 4-8 are some of the greatest scripted comedy ever done, so there had to be a quality drop at some point. I’m partially convinced one reason why people say season 8 is the last good one is that the original Complete Guide to our Favorite Family episode guide book only covered seasons 1-8, and being able to read summaries and many of the little jokes from those seasons back in the day before you could easily search for a full script or watch it online just further cemented those years as the best for a lot of people. I also like seasons 11 and 12, and while not every episode is great, and after a quick glance over the episodes in both seasons, I still think there’s a bunch of good ones that I can remember just off the titles or a quick summary. They may not be perfect, but there’s a lot that make me laugh and are enjoyable. By season 13, that’s definitely slipped a lot, and more so by season 14, but by then you’re already hitting the 300th episode.
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Dec 30, 2020 14:01
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Peak Community is probably the back half of season 1 and the first half of season 2. Those are the ones I go back to every time just to have on as background noise. But I tend to like season 6 more than season 5, which kinda falls apart when Donald Glover leaves halfway through. Jonathan Banks doesn't jell as well as Keith David and Paget Brewster. The first episode of season 6 has my favorite gag in the entire series, but it only makes sense if you remember an episode from season 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHGcp1BjlnQ (this video is awful quality though) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdIj74cyO30
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Dec 30, 2020 14:08
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fartknocker posted:For The Simpsons, I’m another one who is totally fine with seasons 9-10 at minimum. I think a big reason why season 9 gets a lot of criticism is the episode The Principal and the Pauper, which while a dumb plot (Something the show itself would joke about later) it still is an okay episode. I think both those seasons are far more good than bad, and while they are a step down from previous years, you could make an argument that the Simpsons run from seasons 4-8 are some of the greatest scripted comedy ever done, so there had to be a quality drop at some point. I’m partially convinced one reason why people say season 8 is the last good one is that the original Complete Guide to our Favorite Family episode guide book only covered seasons 1-8, and being able to read summaries and many of the little jokes from those seasons back in the day before you could easily search for a full script or watch it online just further cemented those years as the best for a lot of people. It's been a minute, for seasons 9-12 for me, but I agree with this statement. If the Simpsons had been cancelled in season 10 to 12, no one would bat an eye and The SImpsons would have been fondly remembered as the greatest animated comedy of all time. In that situation, it also would have followed your standard sitcom downfall, of just having a few final bad seasons that no one really watches or remembers. I loving miss the days of the late 90's and early 2000's when The Simpsons were in heavy syndication rotation, and the worst you could do for the 6:00 hour after dinner was catch a season 1 episode.
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Dec 30, 2020 14:16
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Iron Crowned posted:It's been a minute, for seasons 9-12 for me, but I agree with this statement. If the Simpsons had been cancelled in season 10 to 12, no one would bat an eye and The SImpsons would have been fondly remembered as the greatest animated comedy of all time. That and Seinfeld were in syndication back-to-ack hours when I was in high school and it ruled so goddamn hard.
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Dec 30, 2020 14:18
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Ugly In The Morning posted:That and Seinfeld were in syndication back-to-ack hours when I was in high school and it ruled so goddamn hard. I think everyone’s local WB (Later CW) affiliate did this basically from the time Seinfeld ended and hit syndication in 1998 to the point that FXX gobbled up all Simpsons rights a few years ago. And yes, it was great.
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Dec 30, 2020 14:51
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There were 252 episodes of the Simpsons made prior to the one in which Homer is raped by a panda. There have been 441 episodes made since the one in which Homer is raped by a panda. Ponder that
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Dec 30, 2020 14:59
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letthereberock posted:On the topic of poorly aged media - I was watching some Friends recently and drat, I know it’s been said before, but it just sticks out so much more today how Lily-white and just straight up boring it makes NYC look. I guess with the reduction in the dominance of multi-can sitcoms, we as viewers are less conditioned to accept shows that take place entirely on 3 or 4 sets with the same rotation of extras. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUc0vbSlanM
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Dec 30, 2020 15:04
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fartknocker posted:I think everyone’s local WB (Later CW) affiliate did this basically from the time Seinfeld ended and hit syndication in 1998 to the point that FXX gobbled up all Simpsons rights a few years ago. And yes, it was great. Not my local fox affiliate, but my antenna picks it up from the next market over, airs an hour of Seinfeld at 6am, so I can get a dose of hilarity before I haul my rear end off to work
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Dec 30, 2020 15:06
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