Tuesday, March 05, 2013

Why I Ditched the Show?

I just ditched THE AMERICANS because it was incoherent, unbelievable, and had no character to root for.

I also ditched THE WALKING DEAD a few weeks agao because it veered wildy between excessive violence and excessive talking and neither worked for me,

Why show did you ditch after watching it for a while and why?

35 comments:

Dana King said...

THE KILLING - Relentlessly dreary, and early on resorted to having a fake suspect of the week. It got old fast. It also strained credulity to believe the female detective wasn't allowed to leave until she'd worked that case, like there were only two homicide detectives in Seattle.

RESCUE ME - This was tough, because The Beloved Spouse and I are both in the tank for Denis Leary. We soon figured out the story arc of each episode was, "Would he drink or not?" After a while, we didn;t care.

Chris said...

I ditched LOST after getting most of the way through the first season. It seemed to be generating more questions than answers, and I got frustrated and impatient. I also dropped BATTLESTAR GALACTICA with one season to go. Same thing. It seemed like they were just trying to drag the story as long as they could get renewed, making it incoherent and messy. So I bailed on it too.

Chris said...

I'm with Dana on THE KILLING as well.

Dave Zeltserman said...

I ditched The Americans after the first episode because there were too many implausible plot points, but the one that sealed it for me was the FBI telling his spy neighbors that he worked for counterintelligence. That would never happen! Then again, I keep watching The Following even though it's utterly preposterous and loaded with plot holes.

I'm not always right with my ditching. I ditched Mad Men early in the 1st season because I found it too slow, but caught up to it in the 3rd season, and it, with Enlightened, has become my favorite show. I almost ditched Lost early, but fortunately caught one of the later episodes during the 1st season and was hooked for good. I also ditched American Horror Story during 1st because it was so disjointed, but heard so much good stuff about it from friends I trusted that I gave it another chance, and was glad I did.

YA Sleuth said...

We ditched ONCE UPON A TIME. Just didn't care enough about the characters. That's almost always the reason I quit a show--that, or bad writing...

I think the abundance of shows, lack of time, and ability to record so easily puts the bar higher.

pattinase (abbott) said...

RESCUE ME was a hard choice. And that is exactly why we did too.
Same thing for LOST. My husband convinced me they had no grand plan and it began to look that way. THE KILLING same thing.
We are not always right with the ditching either. We ditched ENLIGHTENED for instance, but went back and now I love it--now that they will probably cancel it.
ONCE UPON A TIME just seemed too fanciful
But think about the good shows the networks have ditched too soon. TERRIERS and that Ray Romano show come to mind.

le0pard13 said...

What Chris said about LOST and BATTLESTAR GALLACTICA. I'd add NORTHERN EXPOSURE went out of its way to lose me. That was most disappointing as I loved the show from the start.

le0pard13 said...

Hear, hear for TERRIERS. I hated that FX gave up on it so soon.

Dave Zeltserman said...

sometimes I ditch shows accidentally because they move around and I don't realize. I really liked Southland, and had no idea they moved to TNT, and never got back to it once they did.

I'm close to ditching what used to be one of my favorite sitcoms, Community, which NBC lobotomized to try to get a bigger audience (bastards!). In a way it's interesting--you can see everything Kenneth was against in the 30 Rock finale being done to this show.

pattinase (abbott) said...

SOUTHLAND deserves a larger audience but it seems to come and go without the fanfare for me to know it's back.
I ditched COMMUNITY because of Chevy Chase. Never able to stand him.

YA Sleuth said...

You make a good point, Dave: sometimes, this musical chairs scheduling makes it impossible.

Anonymous said...

We are still watching - and enjoying - THE WALKING DEAD. As for THE AMERICANS, we watch it only because there is nothing better on. The only one to root for at all is the husband. He not only does a wonderful American accent (if you heard him talk "normally" you'd know he was Welsh), but does several different ones. The wife is cold and very unsympathetic and you certainly can't root for any of the FBI characters as presented.

What did we stop watching? I've been thinking about it since George asked that this morning. I don't watch any sitcoms at all, period. When HOT IN CLEVELAND first came on, Jackie liked it (Betty White is a hoot) but it got too stupid and Valerie Bertinelli's character is just annoying to me.

On TNT we watched for a time but later dropped: LEVERAGE. Also SAVING GRACE. We liked MEMPHIS BEAT on TNT but no one else did I guess. Other TNT rejects: SOUTHLAND, RAISING THE BAR, RIZZOLI & ISLES (Jackie read the books and really hates what they did with the series), FRANKLIN & BASH (godawful). We do watch MAJOR CRIMES and FALLING SKIES.

On USA we dropped MONK (but I like the books), didn't like PSYCH or WHITE COLLAR or SUITS or COMMON LAW or FAIRLY LEGAL. We did like IN PLAIN SIGHT, so of course it was canceled. We still watch BURN NOTICE and COVERT AFFAIRS and Jackie watches ROYAL PAINS.

On FX we watch JUSTIFIED and did watch RESCUE ME. We quit watching NIP/TUCK and DAMAGES (after one year) and quit after a couple of episodes of THE RICHES and TERRIERS (which everyone else I know seems to have loved, but obviously no one else did).

We quit BOARDWALK EMPIRE after one season and TRUE BLOOD after two.

Obviously, our idiosyncratic taste is not the same as other people's.

Jeff M.

Al Tucher said...

Interesting. I see the points made here, but I still love The Americans, because of the way it toys with my sympathies. Every time I get comfortable with the lead couple, they do something totally ruthless and remind me who they are. To me it's worth suspending my disbelief.

I think I have also reached an age at which distant events that I can remember are becoming more and more fascinating.

I doubt there are any good guys in real espionage.

Randy Johnson said...

MOB DOCTOR because it made little sense after the pilot.

LOST after the pilot. I came to learn it was a very good decision.

THE KILLING: the pilot left me disgusted and not even looking for the next episode.

I have ZERO HOUR queued up with the first three episodes, but haven't felt inspired to watch any of them.

le0pard13 said...

"I doubt there are any good guys in real espionage."

Larry Johnson, former analyst at the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, once said, "There is no such thing as a 'friendly' foreign intelligence service."

I'm sure it applies to us, as well.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Good point, Al. But somehow it's just too difficult to see how they do what they do for me. How they always come up with the info they need, know where someone is at the crucial time, don such great disguises, leave their kids alone. And I find it hard to believe by that era and after being in the US that long, she would still have such loyalty to Mother Russia. Is any spy in place for 17 years?

pattinase (abbott) said...

I think they may have axed ZERO HOUR already.

Chris said...

I can't remember the last time I was watching a show in "real time." It's always been DVD or Netflix for me. Though having just finished season two of GAME OF THRONES, with season three looming, has me considering picking up HBO. . . .

Al Tucher said...

All true, Patti. I think we might compare it to Zero Dark Thirty, which, for the sake of heightened drama, turned a team effort into Jessica Chastain's single-handed feat.

The show I recently dropped is Revenge. I almost couldn't overcome my embarrassment at watching it in the first place, but it has complete jumped the shark.

seana graham said...

I'm not sure I've ditched it for good, but the American House of Cards seems a pale substitute for the wicked British version, so it will be a last alternative.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Too bad. I was hoping to rent it at my library.

seana graham said...

Well, you may like it. It is just very different in tone.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Just listened to a long review on why THE AMERICANS (Sepinwall) is so good. Maybe I need to revisit.

Anonymous said...

And I find it hard to believe by that era and after being in the US that long, she would still have such loyalty to Mother Russia. Is any spy in place for 17 years?

That is the problem in a nutshell, Patti, and indeed it is the argument the husband makes to the wife more than once. But she seems as devoted to Mother Russia and the cause as they day she was recruited, which definitely throws things off.

Jeff M.

Charles Gramlich said...

I'm still watching the Walking Dead. The last episode was really good. I've gotten involved with the characters so I can deal with more talking than I might usually be able to. I've ditched a lot of shows over the years. The comedy The Neighbors, most recently.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I have drifted back and forth with Walking Dead several times.
I tried THE NEIGHBORS a few times and almost liked it but it settled into the typical formulaic routine almost right away.

George said...

I ditched BODY OF PROOF and NIKITA despite the appealing stars (Dana Delany and Maggie Q) and the talented casts. The stupid scripts and incoherent plots finally got to me. Diane and I must be the only people in America still watching SMASH.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I wanted to like SMASH but that Broadway type of singing requires me to be in a theater. On tv it never works for me because it is disembodied from a story.

Anonymous said...

Looks like it George, at least going by the latest Nielsens.


Jeff M.

Kieran Shea said...

Whole messy chunks of THE SOPRANOS, RESCUE ME (after season 2), and I'm with you on the WALKING DEAD because, gee, the existential metaphor is all so ham-fisted and corny. As for BOARDWALK EMPIRE, I almost gave up on it before last season but then it turned a corner and sewed up nicely. Of course then HBO screwed the pooch by picking up another season. To cover what exactly? Now, I just watch hockey (THANK GOD THE STUPID LOCKOUT ENDED), MSNBC, and SportsCenter. Okay...and ARCHER and LOUIE.

Jim said...

I watched every "24" except the last episode of the last show - the next-to-last episode was too graphic for me

Unknown said...

My wife Brenda and I recently dumped "Scandal" because it just became too outrageous. Liked Pan Am despite its non-seriousness, because it was fun. It's the story-line that makes a series entertaining. And isn't that the name of the game? Yours truly, Toe.

seana graham said...

I somehow just noticed the Terriers comment. That was a wonderful show and they did give up on it way too soon.

Kevin R. Tipple said...

About to ditch COMMUNITY because it just isn't funny anymore.

Ditched CSI VEGAS because everyone I liked was gone and they seemed determined to esclatae the gore and the weird.

If the same thing has happened to BODY OF PROOF that also will be out.

Cap'n Bob said...

I gave up on all comedy and drama shows years ago.