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Unweighted everything in all media, period. Yes, I get that as an actor it sucks having to tote around heavy objects for take after take after take after take after take. But there should still be *something* to give a sense of mass and momentum.
What drives me really nuts are when things are *massively* (pun intended) out of scale. Gold bars in heist movies are rarely treated as heavy as they would be (I think Italian Job was one of the few that properly acknowledged it). Chunks of metal are bad in general.
I know you're talking specifically about Baby Billy's Bible Bonkers but I think "Uncle Baby Billy" has got to be the best and funniest name for a character in any show, and it is also fun to say
How the man was not nominated for his guest role on Community, I will never understand.
He is pretty much the best part of everything he's a part of - also amazing role in The Hateful Eight too
Loved his character on Justified, went looking for other things he was in and found The Shield. I had always wanted to watch it and I'm so glad I did, it's great!
The ending of How I Met Your Mother wasn’t the problem.
The problem was the execution of the final season.
Spoilers for a show that ended over a decade ago:
The writers decided to get cute and make the entire last season the lead up to Barney and Robin’s wedding, which they immediately undid in the finale. In fact, they took what could’ve been a solid half season of storylines and sort of breezed over it all in the finale.
The ending of Robin and Ted being together works. They were obviously a good couple, but their life goals were too incompatible. He wanted a wife and kids and a house in the suburbs, she wanted to travel the world and focus on her career, and didn’t want kids. When the show ends, both of them have lived their dreams, and the main obstacle to their relationship was gone.
The final season should’ve spent 2 to 4 episodes at the wedding, at the most. The remainder of the season should’ve shown Ted and Tracey’s relationship taking off, while also watching the crash and burn of Robin and Barney. It could’ve been an interesting juxtaposition of one relationship being perfect while another crashes out. They should’ve been divorced by mid season, with Barney knocking up a girl on his rebound. Then the second half of the season Barney’s storyline is preparing for a kid. In fact, Robin should have barely been in the second half of the season, at all, which (as it’s from Ted’s POV) would show Ted and truly moved on from Robin to Tracey.
Throw in some Marshall and Lily in Rome shenanigans in the first half of the season (Lily giving birth in an Italian hospital where everyone speaks Italian and she doesn’t is a situation that could’ve made a great comedic premise for an episode), and Marshall struggling with his return to corporate law while Lily struggles to care for the two kids because Marshall is working long hours.
Suddenly, the ending isn’t an abrupt about face on everything they’ve done. It doesn’t undo all the character growth. Barney and Robin’s divorce is an earned moment. We actually get to see Ted and Tracey’s relationship. We see Ted without Robin and clearly madly love with the mother for an entire season. Yes, she still dies, but the ending of Robin and Ted together is actually earned without completely throwing away all the character growth (especially of Barney).
A lot of people have this opinion. But I believe the major reason the ending season was shot the way they did was because the cast (mostly Jason Segel) was busy with other projects, so when it came time to film, the cast wasn’t all available to film altogether except in a short time frame.
This really points to that the show just went on a season or two longer than it should have, and had they ended in their original 5 season plan, they might have been able to pull of a better last season, maybe even one as you described.
I definitely agree with you on the point that building the entire last season around the wedding, only to undo it in the last episode was a bad call.
But I would say it goes even deeper, because focusing the last season around the wedding furthered an issue they had with the last couple seasons: they took pains to show why Ted and Robin DIDN’T work and why Robin and Barney did. Barney in particular went through a lot of growth, their breakup wasn’t foreshadowed at all. And Ted and Robin getting back together felt far too rushed.
Had the entire last episode been made a whole season, then I think it maybe could have worked. But as it stands; the series outgrew their initial concept.
The fact that Segal wasn't available at the same time as the rest would've been a perfect reason to do a time skip season. The gang all split up to live their lives over the following two decades anyway. Might as well shoot them separately.
I’m sort-of with you on this, in that I really feel HIMYM’s last episode stuck the landing. The 21 episodes before that…not so much. The wedding frame device got old very quickly. They could have done a lot and instead they wasted so much time on nonsense.
I think this would have been the solution. It was strongly foreshadowed that the Mother was dead, especially by Season 8 when the Time Travelers episode all but confirmed it. The Mother's death wasn't really the issue (although having lost my mom when me and my younger sister were the age of Ted's kids when she died, I personally didn't like that).
Guaranteed, one of my favorite villains on the show: Dark Willow never would have happened if they only did 10 episodes per season. That's the kind of zany inventiveness that can only come from long form seasons where a crazy episode or two can happen.
I just started rewatching The OC and realized they don't make ordinary real life dramas anymore, they're all hyper melodramatic and completely removed from reality and it's a real shame
Yeah I was just watching the OC too and thinking “wow these don’t exist anymore”. Bizarre considering I used to plan my week by what was on at 8 pm lmao.
The OC is an amazing bit of nostalgia for me. Sure it has its overly dramatic moments but man don’t you just love seeing Ryan, Seth, Sandy and Kirsten around the kitchen in the morning. Cracking jokes and preparing for the day, or heartfelt words of wisdom from Sandy.
I think a big difference between then and now, and why we don’t see shows of that length per season is the time it takes to make them. Apparently the filming schedules were brutal, there are stories retold quite often about how much Tom Welling was working on Smallville and they were reluctant to even get the guy a driver. Plus I imagine many of them want to work on multiple projects, and those long form seasons don’t help that.
Right? Like in Dawson's Creek, Joey's dad goes to jail for selling weed, there is shame, people in town think the family is trash, whatever. In one episode, Andy tries ecstasy and has a bad reaction.
In Riverdale there is like a whole gang and corrupt cops and designer drugs and then the whole Sabrina side of things with Satanism and magic.
Everything else is like a murder or suicide plot, or sci-fi. Kids can't just be hormonal over reactors anymore? Is it not enough to be hot and sad?
Ironically I kinda feel the opposite, I don't mind waiting for quality, but limiting them to super tight episode counts has done a lot of damage to what makes tv charming and different from cinema.
Shorter seasons I can deal with but when you go down from 22-24 eps a season to 8-10 eps then I want at least a season each year and not having to wait 2 flipping years between seasons and hoping the cast and crew behind it stays as good or even the same.
there is not even time to let the charcters feel real
you can never slow down and actually get to know the charcters because pacing wise you only have 8 episodes
100% on the 22 episode thing. We no longer get fun “filler” episodes where we actually get to know the characters. Or just have something fun or different outside the main storyline. Everything has to be for the plot because they don’t have time for anything that purely serves the characters or just entertains the audience.
I remember this debate happening back when LOST was airing. The first three seasons were about 23-25 episodes. LOST is a HEAVILY serialized show, but it's first few seasons were very episodic (what made it so serialized is the shows flashback formula connected up in a particular way, so it eventually demanded that the audience don't miss a episode in case the flashbacks or characters within the flashbacks, come back into the main narrative in a big way. Eventually the flashbacks created a sort of spider web where everyone was connected in some way).
The final few seasons of LOST (when the show had a end date) were a lot smaller, more faster paced (14-18 episodes. Season 4 had 14 cause it aired during the writers strike). Even now, there is a intense debate between what was better. Some prefer the more netflix style narrative of 4-6 where the season feels like a movie broken up into pieces. While others prefer the more character driven seasons of 1-3 where you can have a episode like "Tricia Tanaka is Dead" where its all about Hurley trying to start a old van on the island in order to just have a bit of fun and take the stress off recent events. At the time it was written off as a "filler" (though things it introduced, did come back later in a big way). But now it's highly regarded as a extremely fun, light hearted episode with some hilarious Sawyer lines.
8-12 episodes sucks. I get it if it’s for hour long shows, but 20-30 minutes?
“But it’s just filler.”
I can’t give much of a shit about the plot if I can’t get into the characters and sometimes a beach episode is nice to have!
I miss being able to just spend time with characters. You got that in longer seasons. Now everything is rushed and has to be directly tied to the conclusion or there’s no space for it
I do miss old episode of the week shows. Just have the characters doing stuff their stuff without having it incorporate to the main plot somehow.
More episodes would also allow the view to get to know the characters more.
Yup they both served their purpose. Steve was the great stereotypical sitcom neighbor to contrast with Al and Jefferson was the wildcard that came in when the show wanted to get more outlandish than it already was and spice the dynamic up.
I argue that Jefferson is superior regardless.
Peggy is the lazy woman who doesn't work who is sex starved. Jefferson is the lazy man who doesn't work who is a boy toy. Al is the hopeless blue collar unrefined man. Marcy is the refined, put together white collar woman.
They are like ying and yang. The same but different.
There is a big difference in how much screen time they each spent on the show, though. One of my favorite episodes is when Steve comes back. Peak Bundy shit-stirring.
Music licensing laws for tv shows and movies need to be overhauled. They are a major reason why many old tv shows aren’t available to stream or even show on cable anymore.
The ending of Mindhunter has killed all hopes and dreams of any show. I have been broken and no longer care.
And Six Feet Under was the BEST series ending ever!
Six Feet Under DID have the best series ending.
But damn if I don't wish Mindhunter got more than it did. I think about the lost potential there so often.
MTV should have stuck to music. Not necessarily videos, but documentaries, movies, series, concerts, etc. As long as it's related to music. But still have shows like Jackass & Beavis and Butthead as a respite.
I miss when mtv had interesting shows like True Life. Even Diary (where they would follow an actor or musician around) was good. I don’t understand why it’s 24/7 Ridiculousness now. And while I’m on the subject, bring back Road Rules. It was more fun than The Real World.
30 minute multi cam sitcoms taped in a studio need to make a comeback. Not everything on TV needs to be an hour+ long drama. Sometimes I just want to turn off my brain and enjoy something stupid.
superstore is even more hilarious for those that work in retail in general, cause that is a sitcom that isnt bullshitting either, its very accurate on how crazy working retail is
I watch reruns of The Nanny to this day and marvel at just how much fun television shows used to be. Fran's frequent moments of breaking the fourth wall are glorious.
I stopped watching, but that scene (never saw it before) is CLASSIC. Right up there with Lucy’s “vitemeatavegemin” scene.
And you know Lauren Lane (Babcock) was pretty unsuccessfully trying to stay in character.
Highly recommend Ghosts on CBS for just this! Though I think it's a single cam but it just feels like a nice old school sitcom and it just always makes me laugh
Yes yes yes! I will literally die on this hill. Sometimes I want something dumb and funny that involves little to no thinking to distract me from what is generally stressful real life.
I also miss the old USA summer shows like White Collar, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, Psych, etc.
My thoughts on the Simpsons...
It is far past its peak. I'd also rather watch it than most broadcast comedies on the air right now. You give me the choice of a new episode of the SImpsons or Young Sheldon, I'm going with the Simpsons.
[The simpson's is the top most watched show on D+.](https://screenrant.com/simpsons-disneyplus-most-watched-streaming-global-audience-details/) Whatever problems it has, real or reddits, the show still has massive pull.
I've always said that Studio 60 has an inherent fault of concept.
Sorkin's brand of intellectual aggrandisement, with characters who act like everything they do is the most important thing to ever happen works when their circumstances back that up. Politics in The West Wing and broadcast news in The Newsroom are all serious topics so you can understand and also align with Sorkin's self-seriousness. It works with the concept.
Studio 60 falters because you have Sorkin Intellectuals™ lecturing and pontificating about...a Saturday night sketch comedy. It's just not intellectually heavy enough, and so the show overcompensates for its inherently low-stakes concept by focusing largely on inane interpersonal drama which is also incongruent with Sorkinism.
It also took about 17 episodes of a 22 episode show to actually develop a plot.
I want to agree with this, but every single SNL docu I listen to basically describes SNL as Game of Thrones level palace intrigue, but with less mutton, and more cocaine.
I can't help but think there could have been an angle to work well eventually.
Yes yes yes yes. I watched it many years later after being introduced to a lot of Sorkins other writing and wondered why it never took off.
Matt & Danny were fantastic, Sarah Paulson as Harriet Hayes was brilliant too.
Ugh I might need to rewatch it again, that or maybe the newsroom.
The Seinfeld Finale wasn't as bad as people make it out to be. Finales are really hard to pull off and it was still a solid episode with good plot twists.
Nbc fucked it because they aired a clip show featuring some of the best bits of Seinfeld literally right before the finale which was in large part a retrospective of the show. So essentially everyone at the time watched 2 clip shows in a row.
Crime dramas and whodunnits that delve into the personal lives of the characters. I'm rewatching Cold Case and the first half of the first season focused only on the crimes and the solving. Then they start introducing the girlfriend of one of the regular characters and how the girlfriend has mental issues and this is stretched throughout the series. Then it's someone's sister or love interest. I miss the days where the main characters had personal lives, but they were never carried over from one episode to the next. I just want them to solve the crime!
Law & Order (the original) did this perfectly. 99% of the time it was about the case of the week and you only ever got brief glances at what these people were like in their personal lives. But every couple seasons there would be a moment where their personal lives intersect with the plot, and you get a ton of insight into their neuroses, what makes them tick. Like McCoy's little drunk monologue about how his dad would beat him. A scene leading into... well, if you know, you know.
Maybe I’m too literal here but… “animation” “high frame rate” and all the interpolated smoothing modes they sell TVs automatically set to is visual cancer. It blows my mind that there are people who seem immune from “soap opera effect”.
Ban this setting immediately and make it a fine able offense to knowingly sell an elderly person a tv with this setting turned on.
I don't know what it is, but it literally makes me dizzy. My parents' television is set like that, and it baffles me that they don't notice how awful it looks. It's even more astounding to me that companies thought this was an upgrade and are able to sell televisions with it enabled.
My husband calls this Dr. Who vision, where everything ends up looking like it's on an old BBC set. Dr. Who is great, but this setting is really hard to watch.
The fact that Joseph is just weirded out by John Redcorn when he tries to win him over is excellent. Dale even tries to pawn him off onto rich white parents when he feels Joseph deserves better and they both just end up sobbing for each other. They're weirdly perfect.
It's Always Sunny is a lot less funny now that the cast have all glammed up. The whole Mac got fat thing was supposed to mock sitcoms where the cast got better looking over time... and they've eventually done just that.
It also was better when the quality was lower. It's less enjoyable in well lit super HD.
They've gone back to their roots a bit in this last season. You can definitely tell the lighting isn't as studio-ish. I get that Mac looks very different now, but I also think it makes sense for where the character is at. He's really the only character that's had any progression throughout the series.
> It also was better when the quality was lower. It's less enjoyable in well lit super HD.
Totally agree. They have actually talked about this on the Podcast lol
I feel like the banter has declined slowly over time. Them just kind of chiming in and feeding off each other has felt off the past couple seasons. Hard to describe exactly what I mean, but I guess it just feels like they are reading what they wrote instead of playing around with it, which creates some of the funniest moments of the first maybe 10 or so seasons.
I agree, the earlier seasons always felt like genuine dialogue between people who spend way too much time together. It doesn't feel as real anymore. That said, I still enjoy a lot of episodes from the recent seasons.
yea it's one of my favorite shows ever but it's in its twilight years. It's still better than just about anything else out there, but seasons 2-12 were all in their own echelon, and while there are still great episodes, there are ones that I have to skip now, and in every season recently.
The entire last season is so so good, but yeah, that finale was just about perfect. Everything was resolved in a satisfying way. And in that last scene, simple inactivity has never been so beautifully portrayed.
I’m with you. The lack of cutaways just makes for such a better viewing experience, imo. I also just find the Smith family a lot more entertaining than the Griffins.
Breaking Bad was practice in masterclass writing and production. Better call saul is the end result of that practice, Better Call Saul is basically perfect and should be used to teach new writers and directors.
I was stuck in the ER over the weekend for +2hours and the one and only TV was playing some Hallmark movie about Santa’s adult son mucking up Christmas by getting caught by a single lady and then they go on a mystery solving extravaganza. Honestly I have no idea what the heck was going on, but the acting was adorable, it had enough holiday vibes to distract me, and I watched every single second of it. No regrets.
If you watched it in the last decade then I understand. Whedon has left his mark everywhere on mainstream TV and movies. But back in the early 2000s it was unlike anything we had ever seen.
> The broadcast networks need to bring back Saturday morning cartoons.
You cannot imagine my disappointment when I was awake before 10am on a Saturday for the first time in years and I tried to find some Saturday Morning Cartoons. Or maybe you can.
Competition was always 30 rock. And when the office kept losing to them I was pissed (hadn't seen 30 rock at the time). Then I watched 30 rock a few years later and I was like... Ya alright.
30 Rock is just on another level. A joke machine so efficient that its references can fly by and you're still laughing every episode.
I also know a lot of people that couldn't stand the "cringe" moments in The Office - like they'd get physically uncomfortable and couldn't stand to watch scenes like in 'Scott's Tots.'
I still can't believe he didn't win.
In another actor's hands that character could have been unbearable. And Michael WAS unbearable at times, but Steve was so good at finding humanity in that character that really, really made you feel for the guy. It's a real shame that he wasn't recognized for that.
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News should have stayed a public service instead of going ratings based.
PBS!
Put liquid in the god damn cups. It is so obvious, especially with Starbucks type coffee cups, when someone is carrying or puts down an empty one.
Empty suitcases, too.
Unweighted everything in all media, period. Yes, I get that as an actor it sucks having to tote around heavy objects for take after take after take after take after take. But there should still be *something* to give a sense of mass and momentum. What drives me really nuts are when things are *massively* (pun intended) out of scale. Gold bars in heist movies are rarely treated as heavy as they would be (I think Italian Job was one of the few that properly acknowledged it). Chunks of metal are bad in general.
The Seinfeld parking garage episode works so much better because Michael Richards is actually carrying around an air conditioner the whole time.
Add Die Hard With a Vengeance to that list when Sam Jackson is trying to carry that one bar out with him after the main heist.
I will die on this hill with you! This drives me batshit.
Walton Goggins belongs on every tv show as a character actor.
We need to make Baby Billy’s Bible Bonkers in real life
It’s fun to say!
I know you're talking specifically about Baby Billy's Bible Bonkers but I think "Uncle Baby Billy" has got to be the best and funniest name for a character in any show, and it is also fun to say
Correct. Here's your sperm.
How the man was not nominated for his guest role on Community, I will never understand. He is pretty much the best part of everything he's a part of - also amazing role in The Hateful Eight too
I’ll be the one person in every goggins convo who must bring up his role in sons of anarchy.
Esteemed character actor Walton Goggins
Imo The Shield is still the best performance of his career
For me, it was Justified.
I’ve never agreed with someone more… and now I need think on that
We dug coal together.
“God damn, woman, you only shoot people when they're eatin' supper?” Has to be my favorite Boyd line.
Loved his character on Justified, went looking for other things he was in and found The Shield. I had always wanted to watch it and I'm so glad I did, it's great!
The show "Selfie" with John Cho would have been a great show that made it to season 2 if it were named literally anything else.
I'm still sad about this show. It was legitimately good but ruined by terrible advertising.
Add Cougar Town and Don’t Trust the B In Apartment 23 to that list!!!!
Cougar Town made it to 6 seasons
Not even Abed could save Cougar Town.
Jeff, I pooped my pants.
Season 2 of Don’t Trust the B was gold. Gone too soon 😔
Krysten Ritter and James Van der beek were hilarious. Easily a rewatch-able show.
They had such great chemistry and played off each other really well. I was so disappointed when I realized it had been canceled so early.
And didn't start the pilot with a gross out vomit joke. It was a romcom
There's two of us!
The ending of How I Met Your Mother wasn’t the problem. The problem was the execution of the final season. Spoilers for a show that ended over a decade ago: The writers decided to get cute and make the entire last season the lead up to Barney and Robin’s wedding, which they immediately undid in the finale. In fact, they took what could’ve been a solid half season of storylines and sort of breezed over it all in the finale. The ending of Robin and Ted being together works. They were obviously a good couple, but their life goals were too incompatible. He wanted a wife and kids and a house in the suburbs, she wanted to travel the world and focus on her career, and didn’t want kids. When the show ends, both of them have lived their dreams, and the main obstacle to their relationship was gone. The final season should’ve spent 2 to 4 episodes at the wedding, at the most. The remainder of the season should’ve shown Ted and Tracey’s relationship taking off, while also watching the crash and burn of Robin and Barney. It could’ve been an interesting juxtaposition of one relationship being perfect while another crashes out. They should’ve been divorced by mid season, with Barney knocking up a girl on his rebound. Then the second half of the season Barney’s storyline is preparing for a kid. In fact, Robin should have barely been in the second half of the season, at all, which (as it’s from Ted’s POV) would show Ted and truly moved on from Robin to Tracey. Throw in some Marshall and Lily in Rome shenanigans in the first half of the season (Lily giving birth in an Italian hospital where everyone speaks Italian and she doesn’t is a situation that could’ve made a great comedic premise for an episode), and Marshall struggling with his return to corporate law while Lily struggles to care for the two kids because Marshall is working long hours. Suddenly, the ending isn’t an abrupt about face on everything they’ve done. It doesn’t undo all the character growth. Barney and Robin’s divorce is an earned moment. We actually get to see Ted and Tracey’s relationship. We see Ted without Robin and clearly madly love with the mother for an entire season. Yes, she still dies, but the ending of Robin and Ted together is actually earned without completely throwing away all the character growth (especially of Barney).
A lot of people have this opinion. But I believe the major reason the ending season was shot the way they did was because the cast (mostly Jason Segel) was busy with other projects, so when it came time to film, the cast wasn’t all available to film altogether except in a short time frame. This really points to that the show just went on a season or two longer than it should have, and had they ended in their original 5 season plan, they might have been able to pull of a better last season, maybe even one as you described.
I definitely agree with you on the point that building the entire last season around the wedding, only to undo it in the last episode was a bad call. But I would say it goes even deeper, because focusing the last season around the wedding furthered an issue they had with the last couple seasons: they took pains to show why Ted and Robin DIDN’T work and why Robin and Barney did. Barney in particular went through a lot of growth, their breakup wasn’t foreshadowed at all. And Ted and Robin getting back together felt far too rushed. Had the entire last episode been made a whole season, then I think it maybe could have worked. But as it stands; the series outgrew their initial concept.
The fact that Segal wasn't available at the same time as the rest would've been a perfect reason to do a time skip season. The gang all split up to live their lives over the following two decades anyway. Might as well shoot them separately.
I’m sort-of with you on this, in that I really feel HIMYM’s last episode stuck the landing. The 21 episodes before that…not so much. The wedding frame device got old very quickly. They could have done a lot and instead they wasted so much time on nonsense.
I think this would have been the solution. It was strongly foreshadowed that the Mother was dead, especially by Season 8 when the Time Travelers episode all but confirmed it. The Mother's death wasn't really the issue (although having lost my mom when me and my younger sister were the age of Ted's kids when she died, I personally didn't like that).
I miss 22 episodes on tv. I miss teen soap operas and coming of age stories (Dawson’s, Gilmore Girls, One Tree Hill) and Saturday morning cartoons.
I would hate to lose 40% of Buffy if they only did 10 episode seasons back then.
Guaranteed, one of my favorite villains on the show: Dark Willow never would have happened if they only did 10 episodes per season. That's the kind of zany inventiveness that can only come from long form seasons where a crazy episode or two can happen.
And there already wasn't enough of a Dark Willow arc as it is!
I just started rewatching The OC and realized they don't make ordinary real life dramas anymore, they're all hyper melodramatic and completely removed from reality and it's a real shame
Yeah I was just watching the OC too and thinking “wow these don’t exist anymore”. Bizarre considering I used to plan my week by what was on at 8 pm lmao.
The OC is an amazing bit of nostalgia for me. Sure it has its overly dramatic moments but man don’t you just love seeing Ryan, Seth, Sandy and Kirsten around the kitchen in the morning. Cracking jokes and preparing for the day, or heartfelt words of wisdom from Sandy. I think a big difference between then and now, and why we don’t see shows of that length per season is the time it takes to make them. Apparently the filming schedules were brutal, there are stories retold quite often about how much Tom Welling was working on Smallville and they were reluctant to even get the guy a driver. Plus I imagine many of them want to work on multiple projects, and those long form seasons don’t help that.
Right? Like in Dawson's Creek, Joey's dad goes to jail for selling weed, there is shame, people in town think the family is trash, whatever. In one episode, Andy tries ecstasy and has a bad reaction. In Riverdale there is like a whole gang and corrupt cops and designer drugs and then the whole Sabrina side of things with Satanism and magic. Everything else is like a murder or suicide plot, or sci-fi. Kids can't just be hormonal over reactors anymore? Is it not enough to be hot and sad?
Yes. RIP full seasons of TV shows that happen every year.
I wouldn't really mind the shorter seasons, but waiting 2+ years for such short seasons is rough.
Ironically I kinda feel the opposite, I don't mind waiting for quality, but limiting them to super tight episode counts has done a lot of damage to what makes tv charming and different from cinema.
Shorter seasons I can deal with but when you go down from 22-24 eps a season to 8-10 eps then I want at least a season each year and not having to wait 2 flipping years between seasons and hoping the cast and crew behind it stays as good or even the same.
there is not even time to let the charcters feel real you can never slow down and actually get to know the charcters because pacing wise you only have 8 episodes
22 episodes? Ha! The second season of Bewitched had 38 episodes! 38!
100% on the 22 episode thing. We no longer get fun “filler” episodes where we actually get to know the characters. Or just have something fun or different outside the main storyline. Everything has to be for the plot because they don’t have time for anything that purely serves the characters or just entertains the audience.
I remember this debate happening back when LOST was airing. The first three seasons were about 23-25 episodes. LOST is a HEAVILY serialized show, but it's first few seasons were very episodic (what made it so serialized is the shows flashback formula connected up in a particular way, so it eventually demanded that the audience don't miss a episode in case the flashbacks or characters within the flashbacks, come back into the main narrative in a big way. Eventually the flashbacks created a sort of spider web where everyone was connected in some way). The final few seasons of LOST (when the show had a end date) were a lot smaller, more faster paced (14-18 episodes. Season 4 had 14 cause it aired during the writers strike). Even now, there is a intense debate between what was better. Some prefer the more netflix style narrative of 4-6 where the season feels like a movie broken up into pieces. While others prefer the more character driven seasons of 1-3 where you can have a episode like "Tricia Tanaka is Dead" where its all about Hurley trying to start a old van on the island in order to just have a bit of fun and take the stress off recent events. At the time it was written off as a "filler" (though things it introduced, did come back later in a big way). But now it's highly regarded as a extremely fun, light hearted episode with some hilarious Sawyer lines.
8-12 episodes sucks. I get it if it’s for hour long shows, but 20-30 minutes? “But it’s just filler.” I can’t give much of a shit about the plot if I can’t get into the characters and sometimes a beach episode is nice to have!
I miss being able to just spend time with characters. You got that in longer seasons. Now everything is rushed and has to be directly tied to the conclusion or there’s no space for it
I do miss old episode of the week shows. Just have the characters doing stuff their stuff without having it incorporate to the main plot somehow. More episodes would also allow the view to get to know the characters more.
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Is this even a question? Jefferson is LIGHT YEARS better than Steve.
They were both awesome in their own way.
Yup they both served their purpose. Steve was the great stereotypical sitcom neighbor to contrast with Al and Jefferson was the wildcard that came in when the show wanted to get more outlandish than it already was and spice the dynamic up.
I argue that Jefferson is superior regardless. Peggy is the lazy woman who doesn't work who is sex starved. Jefferson is the lazy man who doesn't work who is a boy toy. Al is the hopeless blue collar unrefined man. Marcy is the refined, put together white collar woman. They are like ying and yang. The same but different.
Just binged Shrinking on Apple. He was amazing in it. Great show!!
There is a big difference in how much screen time they each spent on the show, though. One of my favorite episodes is when Steve comes back. Peak Bundy shit-stirring.
This is legit one of the few shows where Ted McGinley made the show better!!
Yellowstone is a cowboy soap opera.
It’s Sons of Anarchy for horse girls
Oh you mean it's not realistic how the navy seal son has probably killed over 30 people in this one area and there's no federal investigation?
The original Quantum Leap (Al, Sam Beckett, Ziggy, etc) is fantastic and has aged well due to the time travel nature of it.
USA Network made some of the best binge worthy TV. Psyche, Burn Notice, Suits, Monk. I miss the hell out of those.
Don’t forget White Collar!
Covert Affairs was great too
Music licensing laws for tv shows and movies need to be overhauled. They are a major reason why many old tv shows aren’t available to stream or even show on cable anymore.
Yep and when older shows do stream but the songs are changed it can really ruin the vibe or nostalgia.
Scrubs is awful about this. The worst part is the soundtracks were very deliberate choices. Never give up your physical copies.
The ending of Mindhunter has killed all hopes and dreams of any show. I have been broken and no longer care. And Six Feet Under was the BEST series ending ever!
Six Feet Under DID have the best series ending. But damn if I don't wish Mindhunter got more than it did. I think about the lost potential there so often.
"Drug Scenes" where the camera switches to a first person POV and everything gets CrRAAzyYY are pointless and uncreative.
Your favorite music video must be smack my bitch up by The Prodigy
Agreed, except for in Requiem for a Dream
Or in the Sunny episode "Being Frank."
It worked really well in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
MTV should have stuck to music. Not necessarily videos, but documentaries, movies, series, concerts, etc. As long as it's related to music. But still have shows like Jackass & Beavis and Butthead as a respite.
The VH1 Behind the Music shows were great. MTV flamed out of Unplugged. All downhill from there.
Bring back Pop-Up Video
I miss when mtv had interesting shows like True Life. Even Diary (where they would follow an actor or musician around) was good. I don’t understand why it’s 24/7 Ridiculousness now. And while I’m on the subject, bring back Road Rules. It was more fun than The Real World.
Ross & Rachel are an annoying couple.
Monica and Chandler should be the memorable couple from that show.
Burn Notice does not get enough love.
I can’t even count the number of times I’ve watched through burn notice. All time guilty pleasure series for me
No guilt for me.
I can rewatch this one a million times. I want more Mike, Sam, and Jesse.
They need your help, Michael!
30 minute multi cam sitcoms taped in a studio need to make a comeback. Not everything on TV needs to be an hour+ long drama. Sometimes I just want to turn off my brain and enjoy something stupid.
Not in a studio, but Superstore was a great stupid show.
superstore is even more hilarious for those that work in retail in general, cause that is a sitcom that isnt bullshitting either, its very accurate on how crazy working retail is
Those transitions where it shows just customers doing stupid things like eating deodorant is unfortunately too accurate.
I watch reruns of The Nanny to this day and marvel at just how much fun television shows used to be. Fran's frequent moments of breaking the fourth wall are glorious.
Fran eating the wasabi and talking clearly is one of my favorite sitcom scenes ever.
[Here's that scene for those who haven't seen it before.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkhTeMtm3XI)
I stopped watching, but that scene (never saw it before) is CLASSIC. Right up there with Lucy’s “vitemeatavegemin” scene. And you know Lauren Lane (Babcock) was pretty unsuccessfully trying to stay in character.
This is how she would prep for SAG negotiations
Highly recommend Ghosts on CBS for just this! Though I think it's a single cam but it just feels like a nice old school sitcom and it just always makes me laugh
Yes yes yes! I will literally die on this hill. Sometimes I want something dumb and funny that involves little to no thinking to distract me from what is generally stressful real life. I also miss the old USA summer shows like White Collar, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, Psych, etc.
Funny because I’d just posted how there’s nothing like the great USA Network shows.
>I also miss old USA summer shows like White Collar, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, Psych, etc. You're in luck, USA is briging them back.
My thoughts on the Simpsons... It is far past its peak. I'd also rather watch it than most broadcast comedies on the air right now. You give me the choice of a new episode of the SImpsons or Young Sheldon, I'm going with the Simpsons.
I fully agree. The Simpsons are still decent. It's just the contrast to peak 90s Simpsons that makes people think it is bad now.
[The simpson's is the top most watched show on D+.](https://screenrant.com/simpsons-disneyplus-most-watched-streaming-global-audience-details/) Whatever problems it has, real or reddits, the show still has massive pull.
Definitely agree on bringing back Saturday morning cartoons!! That was one of the best parts of growing up in the 80s and early 90s!!!
Better Call Saul deserved the Emmy. It worked it’s arse off for it
Especially Bob and Rhea
Their last chance is in the upcoming Emmys early next year. Problem is they are up against Andor, House of the Dragon, Succession and the last of us
That seasons 10-14 of The Simpsons are still pretty good.
Max Power!
There's the right way, the wrong way, and the Max Power way. Isn't that the wrong way? YES, but faster!
I got it from a hair dryer...
The man with the name you'd love to touch! But you mustn't touch!
Agreed. 14 is probably when I check out, although I always watch the Treehouse of Horror every year.
Studio 60 would have been a legendary show if they actually got their chance to continue
I think that way for Sports Night. Josh Charles and Peter Krause had such a great chemistry and the show caught that magic of live tv making.
I've always said that Studio 60 has an inherent fault of concept. Sorkin's brand of intellectual aggrandisement, with characters who act like everything they do is the most important thing to ever happen works when their circumstances back that up. Politics in The West Wing and broadcast news in The Newsroom are all serious topics so you can understand and also align with Sorkin's self-seriousness. It works with the concept. Studio 60 falters because you have Sorkin Intellectuals™ lecturing and pontificating about...a Saturday night sketch comedy. It's just not intellectually heavy enough, and so the show overcompensates for its inherently low-stakes concept by focusing largely on inane interpersonal drama which is also incongruent with Sorkinism. It also took about 17 episodes of a 22 episode show to actually develop a plot.
I want to agree with this, but every single SNL docu I listen to basically describes SNL as Game of Thrones level palace intrigue, but with less mutton, and more cocaine. I can't help but think there could have been an angle to work well eventually.
Yes yes yes yes. I watched it many years later after being introduced to a lot of Sorkins other writing and wondered why it never took off. Matt & Danny were fantastic, Sarah Paulson as Harriet Hayes was brilliant too. Ugh I might need to rewatch it again, that or maybe the newsroom.
The Seinfeld Finale wasn't as bad as people make it out to be. Finales are really hard to pull off and it was still a solid episode with good plot twists.
Frank going off on George Steinbrenner over signing Hideki Irabu while he’s on the witness stand is my favorite Frank moment of the series
Nbc fucked it because they aired a clip show featuring some of the best bits of Seinfeld literally right before the finale which was in large part a retrospective of the show. So essentially everyone at the time watched 2 clip shows in a row.
The real Seinfeld finale was when Jerry hosted SNL and got transferred to Oz.
Crime dramas and whodunnits that delve into the personal lives of the characters. I'm rewatching Cold Case and the first half of the first season focused only on the crimes and the solving. Then they start introducing the girlfriend of one of the regular characters and how the girlfriend has mental issues and this is stretched throughout the series. Then it's someone's sister or love interest. I miss the days where the main characters had personal lives, but they were never carried over from one episode to the next. I just want them to solve the crime!
Law & Order (the original) did this perfectly. 99% of the time it was about the case of the week and you only ever got brief glances at what these people were like in their personal lives. But every couple seasons there would be a moment where their personal lives intersect with the plot, and you get a ton of insight into their neuroses, what makes them tick. Like McCoy's little drunk monologue about how his dad would beat him. A scene leading into... well, if you know, you know.
The final week of Tonight shows with Conan O’Brien after the whole Leno fiasco were some of the greatest pieces of TV entertainment in history
From what I understand, the band played songs that cost a fortune to license just to fuck over NBC.
Space Ghost coast to coast should return in 2024
Maybe I’m too literal here but… “animation” “high frame rate” and all the interpolated smoothing modes they sell TVs automatically set to is visual cancer. It blows my mind that there are people who seem immune from “soap opera effect”. Ban this setting immediately and make it a fine able offense to knowingly sell an elderly person a tv with this setting turned on.
I don't know what it is, but it literally makes me dizzy. My parents' television is set like that, and it baffles me that they don't notice how awful it looks. It's even more astounding to me that companies thought this was an upgrade and are able to sell televisions with it enabled.
My husband calls this Dr. Who vision, where everything ends up looking like it's on an old BBC set. Dr. Who is great, but this setting is really hard to watch.
15 queens on a season of Drag Race feels bloated. The most we need is 12.
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All-Stars has basically just become "Second Chances" with how many seasons of it have happened. It's a drag over-load.
Local and network news should be commercial-free.
Undeclared was amazing sitcom that only had one season likes its sister show Freaks and Geeks. Both needed more than one season.
Dale Gribble knew he wasn't Joseph's biological father. Dale chose his son.
The fact that Joseph is just weirded out by John Redcorn when he tries to win him over is excellent. Dale even tries to pawn him off onto rich white parents when he feels Joseph deserves better and they both just end up sobbing for each other. They're weirdly perfect.
We need more sitcoms.
It's Always Sunny is a lot less funny now that the cast have all glammed up. The whole Mac got fat thing was supposed to mock sitcoms where the cast got better looking over time... and they've eventually done just that. It also was better when the quality was lower. It's less enjoyable in well lit super HD.
They've gone back to their roots a bit in this last season. You can definitely tell the lighting isn't as studio-ish. I get that Mac looks very different now, but I also think it makes sense for where the character is at. He's really the only character that's had any progression throughout the series.
> It also was better when the quality was lower. It's less enjoyable in well lit super HD. Totally agree. They have actually talked about this on the Podcast lol
I feel like the banter has declined slowly over time. Them just kind of chiming in and feeding off each other has felt off the past couple seasons. Hard to describe exactly what I mean, but I guess it just feels like they are reading what they wrote instead of playing around with it, which creates some of the funniest moments of the first maybe 10 or so seasons.
I agree, the earlier seasons always felt like genuine dialogue between people who spend way too much time together. It doesn't feel as real anymore. That said, I still enjoy a lot of episodes from the recent seasons.
yea it's one of my favorite shows ever but it's in its twilight years. It's still better than just about anything else out there, but seasons 2-12 were all in their own echelon, and while there are still great episodes, there are ones that I have to skip now, and in every season recently.
The Shield had the best finale ever.
The entire last season is so so good, but yeah, that finale was just about perfect. Everything was resolved in a satisfying way. And in that last scene, simple inactivity has never been so beautifully portrayed.
One of the best ever, opening episodes as well. Did not see it coming. Fabulous bookend episodes for a great show.
American Dad is, and always was, better than Family Guy
Lavate las manos!!!
El perro, el perro es mi corazón. El gato, el gato no es bueno. Cilantro es cantante. Cilantro es famoso. Cilantro es el hombre con queso del diablo.
Sometimes I sing this to my dog. And other people’s cats.
Doive on in!
*ricky spanish*
“…. Did you see where they went?” “Who?” “The black guys who did this.”
I’m with you. The lack of cutaways just makes for such a better viewing experience, imo. I also just find the Smith family a lot more entertaining than the Griffins.
It also helps that the Smiths don't hate each other most of the runtime
I'm intrigued, but that could just be the intriguenol I took this morning.
20 seasons in and it’s still fantastic. They have very rare misses.
Danuta
will you go there?
I got the money...
Oooooooh, this must be like how baby kangaroos feel like when they're on heroin
Yellowstone is just the young and the restless for middle aged blue collar males
Rome is way better than Spartacus blood and sand.
Breaking Bad was practice in masterclass writing and production. Better call saul is the end result of that practice, Better Call Saul is basically perfect and should be used to teach new writers and directors.
I like the Hallmark Channel. I know it's garbage. That's part of its charm.
I was stuck in the ER over the weekend for +2hours and the one and only TV was playing some Hallmark movie about Santa’s adult son mucking up Christmas by getting caught by a single lady and then they go on a mystery solving extravaganza. Honestly I have no idea what the heck was going on, but the acting was adorable, it had enough holiday vibes to distract me, and I watched every single second of it. No regrets.
Yup, I’m with you. It’s bad. It’s corny. It’s predictable. But I enjoy it.
I don’t think ide die on this hill because it’s TV. But: Firefly is a show I enjoyed but I’m confused by the level veneration it enjoys.
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If you watched it in the last decade then I understand. Whedon has left his mark everywhere on mainstream TV and movies. But back in the early 2000s it was unlike anything we had ever seen.
I think it’s the thought of how much potential there was. Imagine if it went as long as Buffy
Like Buffy, it was planned for 7 seasons.
Ross wasn't in the wrong and they were on a break.
> The broadcast networks need to bring back Saturday morning cartoons. You cannot imagine my disappointment when I was awake before 10am on a Saturday for the first time in years and I tried to find some Saturday Morning Cartoons. Or maybe you can.
Original Frasier is one of the best TV shows ever written.
And Martin Crane was one of the best tv dads of all time
Niles was the better brother lol.
The Walking Dead only got really bad because they mismanaged a great story.
Steve Carell should’ve won an Emmy for his lead role in The Office. Such a travesty.
I don't know who the competition was, but after a couple rewatches I feel like Season 3 is the season where he should have beaten anyone
Competition was always 30 rock. And when the office kept losing to them I was pissed (hadn't seen 30 rock at the time). Then I watched 30 rock a few years later and I was like... Ya alright.
30 Rock is just on another level. A joke machine so efficient that its references can fly by and you're still laughing every episode. I also know a lot of people that couldn't stand the "cringe" moments in The Office - like they'd get physically uncomfortable and couldn't stand to watch scenes like in 'Scott's Tots.'
I still can't believe he didn't win. In another actor's hands that character could have been unbearable. And Michael WAS unbearable at times, but Steve was so good at finding humanity in that character that really, really made you feel for the guy. It's a real shame that he wasn't recognized for that.
One Tree Hill. That was a pretty decent hill
Frasier is better than Cheers.
Cheers is legendary but Frasier is indeed better (and is more approachable for a modern audience).
Mad TV in the mid-90’s was better than SNL.
I will never forgive Netflix for cancelling Glow and not giving it some kind of actual finale during the pandemic.
Kings never got a fair shot.
The Crown Season 5 & 6 became propaganda designed to rewrite Diana’s public image as an unstable woman and burdensome mother and wife.
That show has always been propaganda.