I’ll go first:
Breaking Bad.
I can’t do it. I’ve seen the first season! I know what you’re going to say next: oh but it gets better after the first season you HAVE to watch it.
The Walking Dead.
Can’t do it. There is so much walking dead bullshit I simply can’t watch it.
Battlestar Galactica.
I know its good. I’ve been told over and over and over again. I simply can’t!
None of these shows are going to live up to the hype I can feel it in my bones.
Andor might be in that boat but I did watch it all the way through. Probably won’t again. I liked it, but if you haven’t seen it yet I can’t imagen it lives up to the hype. Maybe a little.
was game of thrones for a while then i was massively paid off when the quality fell off a cliff and now nobody talks about it.
Never seen a show falloff that bad where its at one point put up there with sopranos to not revisited much
sooooo funny how bad the last seasons were everyone collectively went “that sucked” and stopped talking about it
And even the books, as it’s become more and more clear GRRM is not even trying to write them.
the guy just loves to keep opening new plotlines without ever resolving shit. “now that I’ve set up five different crises, I’ll spend 300 pages introducing new characters and subplots!” fuck off. it got so annoying that I just quit halfway through one of the later books
and now he’s got so much bullshit happening none of it can be resolved handily and he has given up writing it because of that
a massive bullet dodged, i do dislike when some nerds make comparisons to historical figures or events by referencing the show still though. like i dont know what the “red wedding” or “barethian” or “danerys” was and i dont give a fuuuuuck
I had a good time as a book reader who kept seeing absolutely unhinged shit they came up with for the show and laughing at how stupid it was.
if any of you jokers say ‘the sopranos’…
Oops just saw this comment lol
I will never watch that gangsterslop
that slop’s good eatin though
suit yourself!I give it a significant share of the blame for the scourge that is prestige tv
That’s so fair, honestly. It’s really written quite differently from most of the 2010s schlock that was inspired by it - but that schlock is unbearable
Battlestar Galactica.
lol. lmao, even. This one had such a strong start, but then it devolves into some kind of Mormon version of Salman Rushdie-style magical realism (magical sci-fi?) starting in the third season and just kind of spirals out of control from there. It’s up there with Star Trek: Enterprise for “if you watch this in 2025, you’re torturing yourself” factor.
I loved Battlestar Galactica when I saw it when it first came out but I rewatched it recently and even that strong start is kinda meh. It’s incredibly “American military is awesome”-coded and despite the fact that it’s about the last 50 000 people in the world who are all living as refugees actively fleeing a pursuing military, they talk about how they have to focus on keeping their free market economy alive and thriving. The only man who questions this and points out that humanity has been wiped out so money shouldn’t be a priority is portrayed as deranged and gets called a terrorist.
The “strong start” was Adama’s retirement speech from the uh … prequel/pilot episode? I forgot how it works, cause episode 1 actually starts with the aftermath of the nukes being fired.
Regardless, it gives you the false sense that it’ll be an anti-imperialist/America-critical kind of show in the aftermath/midst of GWOT. And then the nukes fly and it’s like that speech never happened (I still think it’s a good speech tbh).
My conspiracy theory is that the shows production was captured by the NVIXM cult (a surprising amount of the actors/actressess were members, including Sharon’s actress), which was probably controlled by intelligence, and that derailed any sort of progressive message the story might have ended up having.
Enterprise wasn’t good, but it wasn’t as bad as people say. I’d even rank it above Voyager.
there are two george w bush characters in ENT while voyager has two Datas
Voyager has Neelix which is unforgivable
Ethan Phillips got the best possible deal out of that show. Steady employment for almost a decade, and the ability to go unnoticed in public when not in the makeup.
Shran made enterprise worth it tbh
I did like the “birth of the Federation” stuff in the fourth season, and basically everything involving Vulcans. And Shran of course.
you can clearly mark the moment the writers strike began.
yeah, who would do that…haha
I feel like all of this has happened before…
The Sopranos. I’ve heard only good things about it, it’s ranked as one of the best shows of all time, everybody showers it with praise, etc etc.
But holy fuck, I’ve tried watching the first episode on three different occasions and I just throw my hands up and turn it off. I can’t stand their stupid fucking yank ass accents. Every time they open their mouths they annoy me. My eye twitches the whole episode and I just want it to be over.
And no, they’re not “Italian” accents, they’re fucking American.
dives in front of the shot
i watched it recently after resisting watching it and ultimately its FINE, but man. i hate so many characters on the show that it became grating to watch, on top of all that it looks like shit and is edited so poorly (yes i care about that stuff). i actually fucking LOVE the ending, but goddamn it was a chore to watch sometimes
seriously tho, you HAVE to watch breaking bad
Battlestar Gallactica
Don’t bother, it’s cringe and anyone who says otherwise has on rose-colored glasses if they haven’t rewatched recently and bad tastes if they have.
Walking Dead
Feel like I’m kinda losing it, I thought this show was well known for botched seasons. I remember the infinite shotgun memes from that scene from the first season. Personally, I watched the first season and gave it a pass after that, not worth it.
Breaking Bad
Sorry, but your instincts are wrong on this one. It does live up to the hype. And you have to watch this to watch the spin off which somehow manages to be even better, Better Call Saul.
Andor doesn’t live up to the hype
Rage bait
As for me, it’s any Trek show except for Lower Decks, which was alright I guess. I tried watching TNG, but the first season was too cringe and idc if subsequent seasons are better, it’s just too cringe.
Watch DS9 instead
That’s the only trek I recommend at this point. Its easily the best.
For most Star Trek shows you’re better off with highlight episodes tbh, though now and then a great one is part of a longer story arc.
I just started Babylon 5 and it starts wayyy stronger than any Trek starts.
The first season of B5 has plenty of filler episodes, and I’d argue that season 2 has plenty of fluff until the episode In the Shadow of Z’ha’dum. It’s been a long time since I watched the show though, and at some point in the near future I’m planning to rewatch.
B5’s “filler” episodes are important character development. Except for TKO of course. Completely skippable.
You’re probably right, I read some of the first season articles on Wikipedia and most of them do seem to have something that furthers the characters’ story arcs. TKO is afaik regarded as the worst episode in the series by far.
I think it says something about the high quality of the average B5 episode when a merely dull one like TKO is the worst. It’s not even “bad”, just not up to normal standards.
I’d rather watch TKO again than Grey 17 is Missing.
I haven’t seen the whole show so idk what’s “filler” and what’s not, it’s just episode after episode of really solid 90s sci-fi that isn’t tied down by The Federation/Earth/The US being a utopia
BSG was essentially a giant Bush-era terrorism allegory, so it’s probably extra cringy to watch these days.
Also the (quite literal) deus ex machina ending was super weird and came out of nowhere, I mean I guess some things probably went over my head as a kid when I was watching that but still it was weird.
Any MCU slop, i love superhero shit and all of this stuff has been ruining comics
Everything is a tie-in to something else, they’re gonna start scraping the bottom of the barrel soon and not in a funny way, get a show about fucking Stingray before we get one about U.S.1 (that’s the guy who has a super truck and metal plate in his head and he fights a madman in a blimp)
Hey, heard you liked Moon Knight, here's his new solo run which makes him more like the TV show and ruins the storyline that was already being built up!this is a writing method dreamed up by fools and appreciated only by the most craven dastardsAndor, already hated GoT enough for the prestige TV shock jock use of treating women terribly to be seen as a ‘serious’ and ‘hard hitting’ show. Its a truly terrible meta that has proliferated and forces many women with PTSD to avoid media and media discussions (a wide part of our culture). Its so bad that many survivors I know stick almost exclusively to children’s shows, e.g. Adventure Time, Owl House, etc.
how do they feel about the creepy season 1-2 Ice King stuff in Adventure Time? debating if it would be a deal breaker to someone i know
They said it was fine the early episodes were very short
i was the annoying person and my friend will never watch the wire
Hampsterdam was a fantastic subplot
i don’t base my media consumption choices on spite for people, so i get to watch good shows instead of running a test against some mental list of things I won’t watch because “that will show em!”
ill also watch just about any pilot/first episode, because in theory it’s a team coming together to lead off with their dramatic/emotional hook and A-material for production value. so if they can’t sell me on it and there’s no other compelling, external reason to stick around after the first ep, i move on.
i also don’t recommend shows to people unless they specifically ask my opinion on what to watch, and then i tailor it to them and what they’re looking for in terms of story telling.
because a lot of people have weird hangups where they refuse to watch anything with Peter Falk because their uncle’s piano tuner looked like him and he farted too much one day during hockey practice… and I’d just as soon not know any of this.
This is the sanest comment about media consumption I have seen in years Mashallah
you FARTIN’ bastard have ruined my memories for the LAST time!
if someone even MENTIONS a show I haven’t seen to me in person chances of me watching it drop off of a fucking cliff and I don’t know why
I just can’t seem to be recommended shows
That’s really interesting that it works so strongly and for any person who mentions the show, but only in person. I have a theory:
Maybe being made aware that other, real, offline people watch it destroys the illusion for you. So the characters feel less real because in a way, you can’t help but see the show through the eyes of specific other people. Boring, everyday people who can’t help but feel less real and important than either the hyperreal, exaggerated characters on screen or the anonymous mass of countless “not in person” people, who are watching, who might recommend online, but who are abstract enough not to dirty the vision like your friends do with their mundane, limited and singular gaze. While watching, you know they probably like this character or that moment, but doesn’t it throw shade at the show to know they too see it from the outside, never fully part of this fictional world, just like you?
And worse, aren’t they also watching you at the same time? Surly they’ll ask later, how you liked the show and about specific moments. Sartre describes how being aware of another’s gaze prevents us from losing ourselves in the moment. But what if losing yourself is precisely what you’re looking for in a show? To forget your live and who you are, even if just temporarily. Then it just won’t work if a real person, who has also seen it, knows you’re watching it and might ask about it later. So no wonder you hate recommendations.
If it’s that, then please forgive me for “recommending” to try some grounding meditation exercises to practice keeping in touch with basic lived reality and for accepting who you are. Or maybe it’s something else, I don’t know. I don’t know you and this whole thing is just a random idea I had when reading your comment and it probably has nothing much to do with you, really.
lmao
whenever I actually watch shows other people like I usually like them too
I think it’s more of a “starting a show has to be the next natural step of what I do” kind of thing
I have an enormous backlog of stuff I actively want to watch but just aren’t
Got it, that makes sense. I guess I was just suddenly inspired to invent a possible reason out of thin air. Like a creative writing practice.
it was good and resonant in a strange way that I will need time to articulate
Thanks. Glad it resonated
I know its good. I’ve been told over and over and over again. I simply can’t!
People have lied to you. The showrunners basically admitted they had no plan and were making shit up as they went along, resulting in plot twists that rendered previous twists nonsensical.
That’s Incredible! I knew people who wouldn’t shut the fuck up about this show.
By like the halfway point of the series they’d ran out of ideas for twists, so
spoiler
they just started making random people cylons even when it didn’t make sense. They literally admitted they didn’t even think about how it would function and got the math wrong and had to retcon an explanation for the number of Cylons. They also turned a character’s religious belief correct, as in they were canonically a messenger of actual capital G God…
The ones with a massive catalogue. Star wars, star trek, battlestar Galactica etc. Also massive deep worldbuilding.
Anything that got cancelled without a conclusion.
Soap operas and reality TV.
The nice thing about Star Trek is that the episodes are self-contained stories so you don’t need to care about watching all of it.
Star Trek is phenomenal for exactly that reason. My partner can regularly re-watch literally the entire Trek back catalog over a few months, and, good for them, but god damn.
Yet I can still drop in for a night, watch five or six episodes, and I’ve only missed 5% (or less) of the context. It’s great.
I’ve the every single episode of Star Trek at least twice.(Except the final season of Discovery) I have no clue how many times I’ve watched next gen at this point. TOS is my comfort show i use to fall asleep.
I’m not going to wholeheartedly endorse BSG, since it does devolve into slop after the first 2 seasons, but I don’t think to lump it into that group. It’s a pretty tight 4 seasons, the rest of the lore is not relevant at all. The original series is really not something people talk about, and Caprica is an add on that is totally skippable.
I did enjoy all 4 seasons personally, but that’s on me.
An old friend kept trying to get me to watch Seinfeld in high school.
I am vindicated in my decision to not watch it
All three of those suck they’re bad shows
(Andor is good though)
Breaking Bad is not bad
The title seems to disagree with you
it’s not bad it just breaks that way
I love my contrarian takes but I just can’t come up with many negative things to say about this show. It’s just phenomenal
It’s grimdark edgelord bullshit
It’s grimdark edgelord bullshit
People are allowed to have opinions and such
But I really don’t see how it’s grimdark or “edgelord” ish at all
to me ,Berserk the manga is very “grimdark” and especially the first arc is quite edgelord-ish ,I do like it but I can understand people seeing it this way
This is the first time in my life I have heard someone describe it that way ,what makes you think it’s “grimdark” ?
I watched the first three or four episodes before turning it off in disgust.
It literally opens on the main character being condemned to die. He then responds to this by spending all his time with an annoying guy he hates, endeavoring to make the world worse.
I resisted watching it for a very long time but when I finally did, I liked it. And Better Call Saul.
Better Call Saul.
is it good ?
Very. It’s quite sad but not as bleak as Breaking Bad.
Would recommend watching the movie El Camino first, which picks up Jesse’s story right after Breaking Bad.
thanks sis
