Good show: The West Wing. If I had to pick a gold standard for smart, funny and well written, this would be it. The writing on that show was incredible for network, the casting was phenomenal. It was hip, funny and current. I liked it so much, I ran out and bought it on DVD. It's the only TV series I own physically. The only reason why Star Trek: The Next Generation doesn't make this list is that the series ended sixteen years ago
Good shows that you can only really watch once: Law & Order, Castle: I've been a L & O fan for quite some time, and I've seen every episode of Castle thus far, but I find that rewatching cop shows is kind of like watching a comedy bit multiple times. It loses its appeal because how many times can you solve and resolve a mystery
Good shows that could be better: Burn Notice, In Plain Sight, White Collar, really anything on USA or TNT: USA and TNT are the US and Russia during the Cold War. Burn Notice begat Leverage. The Closer/Saving Grace gave us In Plain Sight. Once a good idea and a good show is made here, it's cheapened by its equally good doppelganger until next season, the quality of both starts to suffer. I can watch the first season of Burn Notice til my eyes bleed, but not necessarily so with the second, and certainly not the third, but I've seen every episode.
Okay shows: House, Criminal Minds, NCIS: For the same reasons, these are shows best when watched once or twice. The writing for these shows isn't so much bad as it is pedestrian, like there's a better version of the same story out there, they just decided to shoot this one., I only watch these shows as 'background noise' I don't neessarily have character affiliation for these kinds of shows, but for those who do, it's generally the nerdy/weird characters (Penelope Garcia, Abby Sciutto, Spencer Reid, Ziva David)
Not Funny Shows: NBC's Thursday night lineup, minus 30 Rock on occasion, SNL (anymore), Fox's Animation Sunday, South Park. This is where most of the bullshit come from, where people accuse me of not liking things because they're popular. LISTEN CAREFULLY, I'm about to explain it. In the case of Fox it's simple, Seth McFarlane runs that night, and Family Guy can only be repeated and replicated so many times before the jokes sound the same. The same holds true for South Park and The Simpsons because the latter has been around twenty years, the former about thirteen. In the case of NBC, they're not funny. A supposed president of a company dating a subordinate's mom as payback for breaking up with him, are you fucking kidding me? That's what she said? What are you, seven? And don't be fooled, Parks & Rec and Community are chips off the same block. If comedy were music, the NBC lineup would be 'indie comedy'
Crappy shows: This would take too long to list so if the show contains multiple instances of, including but not limited to the following, it sucks
- Bad writing
- Bad plot
- Bad casting
- Bad acting
- ALL SCRIPTED REALITY TV
- ALL 'UNSCRIPTED' NON-COMPETITION REALITY TV
- Any original series on any network owned by Viacom from 2000 on
- On the Disney Channel or its sister stations
- Excessive underage/collegiate partying
- The average age of the main cast is under 25
- A pregnancy under the age of 21
- Sitcoms
- Excessive CGI/camera tricks
- Excessive explosions for no justifiable reason
- Douchebaggery/Sorostitution
- Delusions of Jack Bauer/Cordell Walker Gramdeur
- Angsty rock theme/anthems
- Indie rock theme/anthems
- 'Tonight's music was from X, album coming out Y'
That is all...for now.
1 comment:
Now, I kinda understand why you don't like my humor. It's over your head. There's two ways you can look at a show like South Park: Centrally and peripherally. Peripherally, it's mostly smut and in bad taste. If you look at the show from a more centered standpoint, it openly mocks so much of what is irrational about society. Granted, this occurs in such a way that it may neutralize by raunchy comedy, for some audiences. Obviously you want a clearer intellectual message from your programming...
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