Mary Gaitskill reading.
I watched the entire run of CHEERS, FRIENDS, SEINFELD, THE WIRE, THE ROCKFORD FILES, THE SOPRANOs-you know the list. Yet lately, I seem to get tired of TV shows pretty quickly. Is it that the premises are too predictable, are there too many distractions, is tv too formulaic, is it the Internet calling, or are the plots too been there, done that.
I can't figure it out. In many ways, TV is better than it ever was. A reviewer relooking at HILL STREET BLUES and comparing it to SOUTHLAND (website TV WORTH WATCHING), was amazed at how sluggish the earlier showed seemed. How full of long conversations and extraneous scenes.
For instance, MY NAME Is EARL. Loved year one-never watched it again. Maybe it wasn't good karma. LOST lost me mid year two. FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS-turned me off after two years.
I can go on with examples, but you get the idea.
What shows do you stick with? What ones did you initially like but ditch? Or maybe you don't suffer from this syndrome. What show holds up week after week?
34 comments:
Didn't watch Lost at first but then got into it. Now, it's a must see. Ditto [warning! Truth Alert] for Project Runway, my only dip into the reality show pool. At first, I never watched it, then, only the runway part. Now, I'm so there.
CSI: Miami is a show I watched purely for an actor. Yes, it is Caruso but I got hooked with his one-episode intro on the original CSI. Sue me. I also liked him on NYPD Blue. However, now it's the show that I'll tape instead of watching live on Monday nights (we watch "Castle" live, another show I started watching purely for an actor).
The Office we loved but no longer watch. Same for Monk. The Dead Zone petered out as well.
Shows that hold up for me: 24, Lost, Castle, CSI, CSI: Miami (for the cheese), Rules of Engagement, Project Runway
Yes, I should have stated current shows holding up: Dexter, Big Love, Mad Men, The Office, Big Bang, In Treatment.
Questionable: 30 Rock, Rescue Me.
Keep meaning to try Castle.
I watched CSI for years and finally burned out.
Looking at the shows that keep you coming back it seems you like mostly cable shows. I'm the same way. I think network tv runs too many episodes in any given season. Trying to squeeze out interesting stories for 22+ episodes must be daunting. Cable shows can run as many or as few as necessary to tell their story. Meaning they don't have those "filler" episodes that bore you to death.
I think this is why Lost has been so good the past 2+ seasons. They have a deal worked out to only produce 16 episodes per season through the final season in 2010. Since they did that the quality of each episode has been consistently high.
Yes, twenty is too many for me. And I can't stand the commercials.
I regret not staying with LOST. Maybe I'll catch it on DVD.
The office - didn't like it at first, now love it more than ever. I think our tastes change, too - as a culture perhaps? Love Boat was a hit, as was Fantasy Island. They are awful awful shows, though I adore them still.
I stayed with Sopranos until the end.
I left Lost too, and 24 after the second season. And a million others. And yet now I watch Real Housewives of NYC on Bravo. Maybe my attention span is on a hunger strike.
I never got into Lost. Watching the pilot, I decided it wasn't for me.
24 I made it through half the first season. I don't see how they justify him continually saving the world in 24 hours. Or have they changed the format?
The CSIs have gotten old. L&O once in a while, but no regular viewing.
Of the new shows, I like Southland, Castle, and The Unusuals(I see they've canceled the last two though: shame on them. They were the first things I'd watched on ABC in years and it may be years before I see anything else).
I left 24 after he shot a woman in the knee to make her husband talk. I have my limits and that was apparently it.
I thought THE UNUSUALS was lots of fun. SOUTHLAND is very good so far. I like that they follow different officers.
You can blame sci fi hit BABYLON 5 for some of the drop off.
Ever since they did their five-year story arc, you had to watch every single detail of THE WIRE, ROME, HEROES, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.
I never started watching LOST because I couldn't just walk away from it and come back. I had to be selective. So, for me, it was DEADWOOD, THE WIRE, and BG, shows I knew I'd follow all the way to the end.
As for sitcoms, except for FRASIER, I kind of ignored until they were in reruns. I can enjoy SEINFELD now since I don't "have to" watch it.
It's funny you brought up this topic just as I was debating whether to stop watching HOUSE. I've been watching since the beginning, but this season has gone out of control. The patient and the medical mystery is a minor part of HOUSE now. It's all about House's addictions or some soap opera drama with House's team. I think the pace of contemporary life has made us impatient with out entertainment.
HOUSE, to me, is about painful medical procedures. I like him though. Yes, modern life has a definite impact.
Yeah, the story arcs get tiring although the other approach seems simplistic now. There must be something else.
Oh, yes. I still watch FRASIER.
I belatedly discovered MONK and THE VICAR OF DIBLEY, two shows that could not be less similar. In any event, I've stayed with MONK, and will watch him disappear with his closing "season" this summer; as for THE VICAR OF DIBLEY, it remains on perpetual reruns on our local PBS station, and for reasons that I cannot quite explain, I remain addicted to Dawn French and the rest of the ensemble (especially Jim and the vicar's blonde assistant, Alice).
I discovered THE VICAR OF DIBLEY in England. Just a charmer.
I have never forgiven the MONK show for getting rid of his first assistant-Sharone and replacing her with Every Woman. He's a terrific actor though. I could watch BIG NIGHT forever.
I prefer my fiction in print, and use my TV for non-fiction. Lots of good docs and intelligent shows on PBS, History Channel, Discovery, etc. I can't remember the last TV drama that did anything for me. I'm not being critical of the shows mentioned in the above posts, or people who watch them (my wife does, i leave the room to read). I can see why folks watch them: escapism, attraction of an actor/actress, drama and suspense. Some are well done; most are retreads. I'm reminded of the Marshall McCluhan (sp) phrase: a vast wasteland. Gee, I sound negative. On the plus side, the production values in television drama have really improved over the years, to the point where many shows look almost as good as features. There are lot of talented people in the industry. Unfortunately, they're not necessarily the scriptwriters.
Is this a bad excuse? By nine or so, my eyes are completed busted from being on the computer all day. So I watch an hour or so of TV. I used to watch more.
Let's see:
Lost-- interest after the first season
My Name Is Earl-- just never got around to catching up after the first season
CSI/ Law & order etc-- Please I have all of Homicide, The Wire, and The Shield on DVD. If I want more I can start making my way thought Oz, Barney Miller, Hill Street, The Streets of San Fransisco etc
I did try Castle, and while I really like Nathan Fillion, I couldn't stand the female lead and the quasi-CSI thing going on. There is already enough of that, give us something silly, like Moonlighting (early on) or even Las Vegas which was dumb fun.
I'm not to broken up about there not being much that I find myself having to watch, I catch most things on DVD, and have discovered some great older series like; Have Gun Will Travel and The Big Valley that are still watchable.
I am watching and liking Southland so far, I'm just waiting to see where it goes.
Eric
Oh, I would also point everyone towards a great film called The TV Set (and check out HBOs The Comeback as well) to see just why TV is the way it is.
SOUTHLAND is good. Last week it fell off a bit though and I wonder with LENO what will happen.
How about FRINGE?
I've become a big fan of British limited series. It affects the writing in a big way to know there's an end in sight.
I've also been watching the first season of Hill Street Blues again and while lots of things about it are dated, what I find interesting is that the attitudes aren't that far off.
And as I'm now working in the writers' room of a new cop show (I feel the need to plug it every time I mention it: The Bridge, debuts on July 9th at 10:00 on CBS) I have to agree, it's daunting to come up with new episodes. We only have a 13 episode order and that's tough, I can't imagine 22 (though I hope we get renewed and we have that problem ;)
Well. I'd suggest US television hit its peak around 2000-2001. It's still more impressive now than it has been for most of its existence.
It's the occasionally cloying humor that strikes me as the most dating aspect of HILL STREET BLUES...but, then, that (and the obviousness of how the show used Frank Furillo as the metaphor for the put-upon middle manager Everyguy--something that BARNEY MILLER had done in less naturalistic circumatances before it) were its most blatant ploys aside from the "mature themes" envelope-pushing. Tony Soprano was in every way Frank Furillo's younger brother, albeit a bit more fleshed out (also literally as well as figuratively).
I guess I like clever and borderline surreal, so my best night of television this season was the several Wednesdays with SCRUBS, LIFE and LIFE ON MARS (US) episodes...BETTER OFF TED, which joined those, mistook cruel for funny, though it wasn't terrible. I like 30 ROCK and THE OFFICE (which has bobbled a bit this season) better than you, and MY NAME IS EARL expertly runs over the same ground over and over, making it amiable but missable.
The agressive stupidity of the LOST pilot (initially released to reviewers and such as a two-hour thing) with its jet engines that keep running after crash just so an inattentive unfortunate can get sucked into one, and other hoky Kewlness, and a cast of plastic stereotypes, my favorite being the Really Sensitive ex-Iraqi Republican Guard who can fix a broken printed-circuit radio transceiver with a paperclip, all adrift in the usual JJ Abrams pile of incongruity upon dull enigma with the hope of keeping it dancing fast enough (see also, ALIAS, even FELICITY in its more mundane way, and now FRINGE) so that someone finds some entertainment in it.
I don't know what kept you with FRIENDS or the later SEINFELDs, but a lot of today's almost-good drama has learned how to look good, and to take on some of the slicker (emptier) hallmarks of the genuinely good shows...deal with the outre or extreme (THE UNITED STATES OF TARA comes to mind, as does the hugger-mugger of 24 which quickly devolved into self-parody, along with BETTER OFF TED and the new PARKS AND RECREATION, where they haven't learned that Arch isn't necessarily funny)...
But among the better series right now, for me:
PARTY ON
BREAKING BAD (even if it does have difficulty finding new ways of dunking its protags in excrement)
MAD MEN (even if it is being overpraised, it doesn't seem to move with the glacial pace of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA)
BURN NOTICE (lightweight but mostly fun); similarly, NUMB3RS mostly still holds up, even though it's easy to miss.
SAMANTHA WHO? (and, to a slightly lesser extent, THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE)
HOUSE (still clever, I'd say, if perhaps running more on charm than previously)
DA VINCI'S INQUEST (though I'm listening to them in order on Hulu rather than putting up with US syndication distributor Program Parnters' pointless swapping them around--though Hulu is even more graceless in plopping ads into the early episodes from before CBC had commercials than Program Partners is...Hulu similarly clumsy with their movies and PBS programs).
IN TREATMENT and SECRET DIARY OF A CALL GIRL both improve with their second seasons. DEXTER amd BIG LOVE, I agree, remain engaging.
I don't think even LIFE was quite as good as JOURNEYMAN or THE WIRE, and ONCE AND AGAIN is still my default choice for best dramatic series so far (it having supplanted HOMICIDE, which supplanted ST. ELSEWHERE...going back to THE FORSYTE SAGA, which fascinated me as a kid).
But, of late, after the 14-hour day, I've found myself caught up in movies on IFC and Sundance Channel of late, even when, as with KISSING JESSICA STEIN, I've seen them (just not recently).
Canadian or American? I wonder if we get it here?
My husband likes Party On and Head Case. ONCE AND AGAIN-brilliant.
BREAKING BAD-too sad for me. I steer away from cancer plotlines. New Christine-funnier than it seems at first.
Why I stuck with FRIENDS? Habit. I probably wouldn't do it now. And it was well-written even if the characters were narcissists-ala Seinfeld.
Two probably dead, and similar, fun series from the past two seasons--CHUCK and REAPER. FUTURAMA's new products not too shabby, if not the best of the series...Comedy Central's IMPORTANT THINGS a good sketch show, to go with its tentpoles.
Seems like BBC America was running more interesting stuff a few years back than it does these days, albeit I don't mind seing the umpteenth repeat of COUPLING (it's the reality shows I could live w/o). I wish I had Ovation...and the Dcoumentary Channel and Link TV, for that matter.
ER and SEINGELD were very tired by wrap-time; THE SIMPSONS sadly likewise. L&O is improving again, but is hardly essential these days.
John, looking forward to seeing THE BRIDGE...hell, I need to see SOUTHLAND and HARPER'S ISLAND yet. A few fewer 14-hour days would be useful.
(FRIENDS just struck me as banal, after giving it its first season to play out, and finding some of the cast rather good in other work.)
There's not a network show I watch now. In fact, The Beloved Spousal Equivalent and I are into Season Four in our retrospective viewing of The Wire, and it hold up just as well. After that, we'll go back through Deadwood, then The Sopranos. With luck, Generation Kill will be available by then.
We watched Earl for a season, then lost interest. We're looking forward to The Bridge in July, but, except for sports and DVDs, I don't watch television anymore.
BTW, I never missed Cheers, Hill Street Blues, Seinfeld, or St. Elsewhere.
I watch very little TV. One show I've watched fairly regularly is Nip/Tuck. Other than that I don't follow anything. I'll watch old Star Trek and Star Trek TNG, and Frazier. And that's about it.
Got out of the habit of watching TV when I worked two jobs and never had HBO so I never saw most of the shows on the list with any regularity. I find some of them pretty funny in syndication...but I always liked cooking shows...Ace of Cakes is pretty good when the final product is displayed, but I am getting a bit tired of Diners, Drive-ins and, Dives.
My husband is a fan of cooking shows. Esp. Bobby Flay's throwdowns.
I don't watch much TV these days. My daughter and I watch The Mentalist together. It's quirky and funny and a good story.
I used to watch Hill St. Blues, LA Law and ER. And St. Elsewhere. I haven't looked at them in a long time.
Hey Todd,
Glad to hear you're enjoying Da Vinci's Inquest. Alan DiFiore who wrote many of the episodes is the head writer on the show I'm working on and he's a great guy to work for.
Have you seen the CBC show, Intelligence? It was created and written by Chris Haddock who also created Da Vinci's Inquest.
Just a note, though, CBC has always had commercials
Ah, did CBC not interrupt programs for commercials, then? It seems the early DA VINCI episodes, at least, have no preset commercial breaks. Then again, Program Parntners, for US distribution, want to trim off the opening credits both for the (somewhat gratuitous, but not unappreciated) discreet nudity and to make more time for ads in their packaging...the closing version of the theme is better, anyway.
Yes, I've like DA VINCI'S INQUEST since first being able to see it, and consider it a kind of link between NYPD BLUE and the CSI-style programs, which latter also spring from the same Canadian production company, Alliance/Atlantis...diFiore, Hancock and co. have every reason to be proud. Haven't seen INTELLIGENCE yet, and am surprised that Program Partners hasn't jumped on it, unless they couldn't get it cheaply enough yet (they have a near-monopoly on Canadian imports in the US syndie market at the moment, but mostly for the lack of trying by anyone else [aside from APT, among the public-broadcasting syndicators, continuing to buy THE NEWSROOM as it or other new Ken Finkelstein materials become avaialble]...they also syndicate COLD SQUAD, TOM STONE [redubbed STONE UNDERCOVER], REGENESIS and perhaps some others [forget if they're the ones offering CORNER GAS or not]).
And, indeed, both Prof. Abbott and I like PARTY DOWN, rather than PARTY ON. (Garth and Wayne would be pleased for me to note.)
The only show mentioned that I followed through with is the original 24. Never watched it since as it had been done. Same with Heroes - season 1 was fine it had a beginning and an end. Never bothered with it since.
I watched 'SURVIVORS' series one out of curiosity as it was a remake of the original seventies series. Will watch Series 2 purely because of the original (if Resident Evil type) ending to series 1.
Watching series 2 of 'ASHES TO ASHES' with fading interest.
More often than not we use the TV to watch DVDs.
ASHES TO ASHES seemed too much like LIFE ON MARS.
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