I Don't Really Watch or Like TV or Movies Anymore

[Js1 87333]

1 hour ago, HornOnTheBayou said:

I feel like laugh tracks stopped around 2000, at least for the shows I watched. Seinfeld, Frasier, and Friends had it in the 90s, but by the time you got to the 2000s, Parks and Rec and The Office didn't.

Young Sheldon had no laugh track, which is why it was a pretty good show.  

Then they did the spin-off, added one, and it blew. 

[Pato del Muerto 53629]

7 hours ago, Js1 said:

TV is crushing movies.  Period. 

I like to go to the movies, but everything there is a sequel, a reboot or a remake (which could be due to the writer's strike). But TV, man...just so many bangers. And you're seeing studios like Apple pour a lot of big budgets into shows instead of movies. 

TV is also crushing the book adaptation market better than movies - Fallout and Silo in particular were so good.  Masters of the Air, Say Nothing, Shogun, 3 Body Problem, We Were the Lucky Ones, Bad Monkey are just a few that have been mentioned or came out this year. 

Streaming has started being able to do what I had hoped- allowed for stories to be told in their own correct amount of time.  Have a 6 hour story?  6 one hour episodes. No need to cut it down by half or more to meet a theatrical run time limit.  No need to stretch it out with boring filler to meet a full network tv season.  No need to come up with new content for the characters over and over as episode orders keep coming until viewership numbers drop below an acceptable number. 
 

Tell the story, tell it well, move on.  If there’s another story to be told with a character or the entire group, then tell it well.

PS- have an ending.  Don’t GOT yourselves. 
 

eta: but also, don’t wait forever between “seasons” like severance, foundation, the Tolkien verse series.  A year, sure maybe.  

Edited December 16 by Pato del Muerto

[Js1 87333]

4 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Streaming has started being able to do what I had hoped- allowed for stories to be told in their own correct amount of time.  Have a 6 hour story?  6 one hour episodes. No need to cut it down by half or more to meet a theatrical run time limit.  No need to stretch it out with boring filler to meet a full network tv season.  No need to come up with new content for the characters over and over as episode orders keep coming until viewership numbers drop below an acceptable number. 

This is by the far the most I have ever agreed with something.

Everyone whines about 18-25 episode seasons from the network days - I don't get it.  You had so many things drag, you had to wait for mid-season breaks, you had pointless bottle episodes, it was only 42-45 min with commercials.  And god forbid there was national sports event or something to increase the breaks. 

"Wah I want more content, I hate short seasons" - yeah, well I hate 3-5 episode of the 18-25 episode season being pointless to the plot.  I want a story that starts and ends in 6-10 hours in 6-10 consecutive weeks.  Fuck the network BS with getting 12 episodes and a cliffhanger for 2 months until the holidays/summer are over and then you get 12 more episodes. 

Edited December 16 by Js1

[atomheartbevo 90702]

16 minutes ago, Js1 said:

This is by the far the most I have ever agreed with something.

Everyone whines about 18-25 episode seasons from the network days - I don't get it.  You had so many things drag, you had to wait for mid-season breaks, you had pointless bottle episodes, it was only 42-45 min with commercials.  And god forbid there was national sports event or something to increase the breaks. 

"Wah I want more content, I hate short seasons" - yeah, well I hate 3-5 episode of the 18-25 episode season being pointless to the plot.  I want a story that starts and ends in 6-10 hours in 6-10 consecutive weeks.  Fuck the network BS with getting 12 episodes and a cliffhanger for 2 months until the holidays/summer are over and then you get 12 more episodes. 

And the people wishing we were back to 20+ episodes should try watching Star Trek: The Next Generation to find out how much can be padded out.

1 hour ago, Celery Man said:

i feel the same way, but i have little kids and only an exhausted 20 minutes a night for tv. It’s mostly just something easy and light and requiring little attention, which is often rehashing some old shit I’ve seen a million times before.

20 minutes is perfect for a lot of YouTube stuff, and there’s a lot of quality stuff on there, from original creators to people reposting British stuff.

[Js1 87333]

Just now, atomheartbevo said:

And the people wishing we were back to 20+ episodes should try watching Star Trek: The Next Generation to find out how much can be padded out.

Oh yeah, another holodeck baseball game episode on DS9....

[atomheartbevo 90702]

I would watch Shameless with a laugh track.

 

[randomhorn 2310]

36 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

And the people wishing we were back to 20+ episodes should try watching Star Trek: The Next Generation to find out how much can be padded out.

2 hours ago, Celery Man said:

Let’s all watch Data’s Day!

[TwiceHorn 32132]

7 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

And I left out one thing - we don't have to choose between shows, like we did as kids (assuming you were an 80s or 90s kid). I hated certain times of the year in the 80s when I had shows I really liked, that were on opposite of each other, on different channels.  I would have to wait for stuff to hit syndication before I could watch some of it.

Yeah, that youngsters aren't "forced" to watch things like Gilligans Island, Father Knows Best, Leave it To Beaver and on and on seems to leave them on a (pop) cultural foundation of sand.  Similar thing with radio:  they don't get exposed to most most they don't actively seek out.  They didn't have to sit through Styx and REO Speedwagon to get to The Knack.

[Celery Man 21117]

Just now, TwiceHorn said:

Yeah, that youngsters aren't "forced" to watch things like Gilligans Island, Father Knows Best, Leave it To Beaver and on and on seems to leave them on a (pop) cultural foundation of sand.  Similar thing with radio:  they don't get exposed to most most they don't actively seek out.  They didn't have to sit through Styx and REO Speedwagon to get to The Knack.

I know that they are discovering their own shit in different ways and this is old man yelling at the cloud stuff, but finding Space Ghost Coast to Coast way past bedtime at a jr high sleepover or just sitting around with your college buddies watching Austin public access… there is something to be said for the passive mode, the lack of choice.

[TwiceHorn 32132]

4 hours ago, Tuco said:

There is a combination of a few things for me:

1. So many choices for entertainment means that I get distracted.  I don't have the attention span to pay attention to a lengthy setup.  I am rewired for the instant gratification of social media and 10 minute youtube vidoes.  I find this is true even for classic movies that I still kind of love.  I find myself watching Kubrick movies in sections, because no way am I sitting down for three hours straight.  

2. So many choices that I get spoiled.  When it was three channels, you pretty much took the best of three shitty options.  Now, if it's not great, I ain't watching.  Probably a good thing.  But I don't have the patience to sit through a rough first season, or rough pilot, of anything.  

3. I'm old, so it's gotta be weird and pretty.  I've watched every classic story line so many time, in so many forms, it just doesn't interest me, regardless of how well it's done.  The shows I get into now tend to have interesting cinematography and weird storylines.  Mr. Robot is a good example. Peacock has been surprisingly good with Poker Face, Miss Davis, and Hysteria.  I'm sure The Bear is "better" than any of those three, when it comes to writing and acting, but I have very little interest in watching brothers argue in the back of the house of a restaurant.  I couldn't get past the first two episodes.  

I was wondering as well about my attention span.  I don't do social media, other than this and what I see on this and a couple of hobby-specific boards.  I read a lot of medium or long-format articles, so I don't think that's really my problem.

I think atom nailed it that viewing anything is so optional.

[Snake Diggity 4762]

I’m in this boat.  Combination of a lot of things.  Paralysis by analysis because of too many options.  Lack of time to watch TV or go to the movies because of kids.  Large budget films/shows racing to the lowest common denominator.  Better alternatives like YouTube that require much less time investment.

On the other hand, we are in the golden age of entertainment.  I’ve gone to the movies 2-3 times per year over the last 5 or so years and I enjoy it every time.  There are still good movies getting made.  And I’ve made myself invest in a few shows (Masters of the Air, Franklin) over the last couple of years that were worth it.

There are literally hundreds of shows and movies I see on streaming services and think “that looks interesting”, but then I just move on.  I have a recurring fantasy of havin a decade or so catching back up on all these shows and films once I’m too old to do shit else.

[TrashMaster G 18154]

11 hours ago, South Austin said:

I resisted West Wing for a long time.  When it aired on NBC, it seemed to me like it might be too preachy with too much of a liberal bent.  My wife convinced me to binge it with her a few years ago when we were dating, and it didn't take long to get me hooked.  Fantastic story lines, characters, acting, dialogue, and pace.  One of my favorite TV series of all time.  And yeah, it slants more to the left.  I mean, it's a Democratic administration, so you have to expect that going in.  But I didn't think it was too liberal dominant.  However, I'd be curious to hear what a politically conservative viewer might think. 

I also resisted TWW for a while, largely because of my conservative political bent and I knew it portrayed a Dem Admin. My Dad, who was very similar to me politically, finally convinced me to give it a try about mid Season 5. I was sold after a few episodes.

The dialogue is fantastic, the storyline are good and some of the best characters in tv history are there. The politics never really bothered me because the stories are so good.

Admiral Fitzwallace may be my favorite character of all.

 

[atomheartbevo 90702]

47 minutes ago, Snake Diggity said:

There are literally hundreds of shows and movies I see on streaming services and think “that looks interesting”, but then I just move on.  I have a recurring fantasy of havin a decade or so catching back up on all these shows and films once I’m too old to do shit else.

The only way I could watch my backlog/queue is if I was stuck in a Palm Springs-style loop for 40 years like Nyles was.

[HornOnTheBayou 9076]

15 minutes ago, TrashMaster G said:

Admiral Fitzwallace may be my favorite character of all.

Yep.

 

 

[bschoolprof 6352]

It's the worst of both worlds for me now.

They don't make good drama movies anymore.  It's all comic book shit for overgrown children.

The great drama writing is definitely on TV/streaming . . . but great editing also died long ago. So instead of a tight 2 hour mystery or drama, we get some bloated 8-10 hour nonsense. Case in point: presumed innocent the movie vs the steaming pile of shit from apple.  

[TrashMaster G 18154]

1 hour ago, bschoolprof said:

It's the worst of both worlds for me now.

They don't make good drama movies anymore.  It's all comic book shit for overgrown children.

The great drama writing is definitely on TV/streaming . . . but great editing also died long ago. So instead of a tight 2 hour mystery or drama, we get some bloated 8-10 hour nonsense. Case in point: presumed innocent the movie vs the steaming pile of shit from apple.  

Go see Conclave. It's terrific. 

[wild_turkey 3300]

I like to watch about 1 hour of TV each night, usually a drama but occasional comedy, and there are tons of good options for that. I maintain Apple+, Netflix, HBO, and Amazon subscriptions, and I randomly activate Hulu or Paramount long enough to binge a specific show.

Movies have been in a slump for a while but I’ve still enjoyed some of the 2024 new releases- Dune pt II, Civil War, Hit Man, Fall Guy, Challengers, The Substance, A Quiet Place Day 1, Furiosa. I’d still like to see Gladiator 2 and Anora, so that’s a decent list but not enough to supply me with a new good movie every weekend

[F250 29214]

4 hours ago, Js1 said:

This is by the far the most I have ever agreed with something.

Everyone whines about 18-25 episode seasons from the network days - I don't get it.  You had so many things drag, you had to wait for mid-season breaks, you had pointless bottle episodes, it was only 42-45 min with commercials.  And god forbid there was national sports event or something to increase the breaks. 

"Wah I want more content, I hate short seasons" - yeah, well I hate 3-5 episode of the 18-25 episode season being pointless to the plot.  I want a story that starts and ends in 6-10 hours in 6-10 consecutive weeks.  Fuck the network BS with getting 12 episodes and a cliffhanger for 2 months until the holidays/summer are over and then you get 12 more episodes. 

Slow Horses is a good example of why short seasons work. Every season is great and doesn't have fluff episodes and turns out new seasons fairly quickly.

[royiv 9916]

My wife asked me this afternoon if I wanted to walk over to the River Oaks Theatre to watch a holiday romcom that was made 18 years ago. Something we could have easily watched from the couch and definitely for less money. Instead, we got out of the house, enjoyed the experience of a nice theater with people all enjoying themselves and having a great time looking forward to Christmas. I had a great time. I love going to see a movie and make it something more special than sitting on the couch. I think I’m in the minority of my generation and subsequent generations that genuinely enjoys making going to see a movie appointment entertainment.

[Horn Under a Bad Sign 20972]

I went to see a movie at the Alamo on Lamar last week. Everything was SO FUCKING LOUD ---- and I'm partially deaf. I have 50% hearing loss in my left ear and 20% in my right and every preview was deafening, painfully so. The movie itself was not quite as loud but Jesus Christ I'm not 100 yards away I'm RIGHT THERE.  I don't care about the cost/expense and I'm always good to get a pizza and beer and whatever my girlfriend wants but FUCK ME I'm never going back to an Alamo again. I mean, they lost me for life with that bullshit. 

[Vegas64 721]

Quote

And I left out one thing - we don't have to choose between shows, like we did as kids (assuming you were an 80s or 90s kid). I hated certain times of the year in the 80s when I had shows I really liked, that were on opposite of each other, on different channels.  I would have to wait for stuff to hit syndication before I could watch some of it.

I was in a cabin in Colorado with the grandkids a couple weeks back during ski vacation. Pretty rustic, not a ton of luxury, but ski in/ski out, fire place, sauna, 5 bedrooms, etc. Each room was outfitted with a flat screen 27 inch TV. To the grandkids the TV was tiny and old fashioned, but normal to me. 

There was no streaming services, just a DVD player, a channel guide, and 40 channels on a schedule. Only two of which had any age appropriate cartoons.

It was very interesting watching these kids who can watch any and all cartoon content at the click of a button at any given time have to watch a problematic episode of The Jetsons or an episode of the Flintstones on Boomerang. 

I found that modern cartoons keep tiny kids awake and hooked and stimulated with dialuted pupils. The cartoons from yesteryear where a nice sleep aid as kids would just pass out once they settled in to the acceptance that this is all you can have and there are no other options.

[atomheartbevo 90702]

1 hour ago, royiv said:

 I think I’m in the minority of my generation and subsequent generations that genuinely enjoys making going to see a movie appointment entertainment.

Ehh, young kids love to go to the theater (and Bluey the cartoon has reinforced that). And older kids as well.

We will be seeing Moana 2 this weekend, and next month we'll be seeing the Dog-Man movie, and a few months later, the Minecraft movie.

And now that my son is old enough, he wants to see future Marvel movies in the theater.

[atomheartbevo 90702]

On 12/16/2024 at 6:10 PM, TwiceHorn said:

I think atom nailed it that viewing anything is so optional.

Thank you for summing up my manifestos in a handful of words.

I would toss in this: Netflix dumping entire seasons at once has also really screwed with things, and it's actually hurt TV in some ways. With Game of Thrones or various other shows that have their own threads here in M&T, when episodes were dripped once a week, it gave people a chance to think about stuff, to talk about it with family or friends or co-workers. It also meant that TV shows could build an audience over time as people got roped into conversations they overheard.

With Netflix dumping everything at once, you've created a chasm within your audience - those who binge it in fairly short order (whether it be a weekend or say at night during the week) and they are chomping at the bit to talk. Then you've got everybody else who don't have the time or energy and so are catching a few here or there, or worse, deciding that it will always be on Netflix so it can be pushed off.

These two groups are not going to come together to compare notes (or if they do it's weeks/months later) and there's no shared experience of basically watching the shows together as they air once a week, so there's no hype train.

The only thing saving some of these shows is that social media is filling in for the water cooler and the various clips that get posted online do bring in new viewers, but it's not the same shared experience as we had in the past with Sopranos, Game of Thrones, Mandalorian, or whatever else you can think of that aired once a week.

[shadow_operative2.0 16319]

Stop fucking typing, jesus shit!

You’re worse than ctj at this point, what the fuck is wrong with you? 

[Buzzrock 15185]

On 12/16/2024 at 6:50 PM, TwiceHorn said:

Yeah, that youngsters aren't "forced" to watch things like Gilligans Island, Father Knows Best, Leave it To Beaver and on and on seems to leave them on a (pop) cultural foundation of sand.  Similar thing with radio:  they don't get exposed to most most they don't actively seek out.  They didn't have to sit through Styx and REO Speedwagon to get to The Knack.

They don’t have to watch reruns of anything either. The reason I have so many Simpsons and Seinfeld lines seared into my brain is because I’ve seen them all so many times. 

[RomaVicta 30673]

On 12/16/2024 at 8:34 AM, Red Five said:

I'm sort of with you on movies. But there's a ton of good tv out there. 

There is. Some of what I like to stream originated on cable and a few on the networks. I can't stand commercial breaks anymore since I started streaming years ago.

I haven't read the whole thread, so forgive me if I am repeating someone else:

Look to other countries. Korea is my favorite at the moment. They have created zombie series that I love even though I was all zombied out when I first saw them. Their other genres are interesting as well. Characters have dimension. The plots have interesting twists. Their production values and casts are first rate.

The studios and big producers being interested only in massive gross revenues has killed the creative niches where they used to dabble with some pride involved. Only money-making directors can push the bland envelope of good versus evil sprinkled with wisecracks. It's blasphemy, but I blame Spielberg's success for some of this. His template is simple even if his skills are extraordinary.

I thought Kubrick would be the last artist to work with a studio budget. Thank you, Chris Nolan for making me wrong.  

[HouTex 1943]

On 12/16/2024 at 7:39 PM, bschoolprof said:

It's the worst of both worlds for me now.

They don't make good drama movies anymore.  It's all comic book shit for overgrown children.

The great drama writing is definitely on TV/streaming . . . but great editing also died long ago. So instead of a tight 2 hour mystery or drama, we get some bloated 8-10 hour nonsense. Case in point: presumed innocent the movie vs the steaming pile of shit from apple.  

I agree on drama movies.  Some new and newer series get my attention.  I recall reading 20+ years ago that all the good movie themes have already been covered—many times in some cases, and so movie critics were predicting a bleak future for feature films.  So we are getting the comic book stuff and more Tom Cruise movies.  

[BabaYaga 15632]

Peaky blinders fucks hard.  Give it a shot

My picky son is praising Prison Break, so I might give it a shot.  

I went hard down the Narcos rabbit hole.  Loved them all, especially the original with Escobar.  The newest about Griselda is great so far.  Reacher and Ryan were great.  Also liked Lincoln lawyer.  Enjoying a series on Prime about the genesis of the SAS.  Rogue Heroes.  

[gernblansten 3272]

5 hours ago, Buzzrock said:

They don’t have to watch reruns of anything either. The reason I have so many Simpsons and Seinfeld lines seared into my brain is because I’ve seen them all so many times. 

[Buzzrock 15185]

I don’t know if it’s true but on a recent podcast I heard that streamers are making shows where the characters constantly explain everything because they know that people watch tv now while scrolling on their phones. There’s not as much appetite for subtlety or nuance any more.

[Don Johnson 4852]

15 minutes ago, Buzzrock said:

I don’t know if it’s true but on a recent podcast I heard that streamers are making shows where the characters constantly explain everything because they know that people watch tv now while scrolling on their phones. There’s not as much appetite for subtlety or nuance any more.

[Steamboat1874 4396]

Give me all of the sports channels, TCM and The Andy Griffith Show and I don’t need anything else.

Oh and while you’re at it, get off of my lawn.

[randomhorn 2310]

On 12/18/2024 at 12:41 AM, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

I went to see a movie at the Alamo on Lamar last week. Everything was SO FUCKING LOUD ---- and I'm partially deaf. I have 50% hearing loss in my left ear and 20% in my right and every preview was deafening, painfully so. The movie itself was not quite as loud but Jesus Christ I'm not 100 yards away I'm RIGHT THERE.  I don't care about the cost/expense and I'm always good to get a pizza and beer and whatever my girlfriend wants but FUCK ME I'm never going back to an Alamo again. I mean, they lost me for life with that bullshit. 

[High Plains Drifter 11195]

On 12/19/2024 at 8:03 AM, Buzzrock said:

I don’t know if it’s true but on a recent podcast I heard that streamers are making shows where the characters constantly explain everything because they know that people watch tv now while scrolling on their phones. There’s not as much appetite for subtlety or nuance any more.

 

Shitty ass talentless hack writers are loving this

 

[MrBig 5660]

On 12/17/2024 at 11:41 PM, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

I went to see a movie at the Alamo on Lamar last week. Everything was SO FUCKING LOUD ---- and I'm partially deaf. I have 50% hearing loss in my left ear and 20% in my right and every preview was deafening, painfully so. The movie itself was not quite as loud but Jesus Christ I'm not 100 yards away I'm RIGHT THERE.  I don't care about the cost/expense and I'm always good to get a pizza and beer and whatever my girlfriend wants but FUCK ME I'm never going back to an Alamo again. I mean, they lost me for life with that bullshit. 

If you lived in San Antonio in the early 2000s, you would’ve hated the Time Warner Cable commercials that came on at 2AM and were 3x as loud as any TV show you had on in the background to fall asleep. I love Manu Ginobili but it pissed me off waking up in the middle of the night to hear him talking loudly with his accent about how much he loved being a TWC customer. 

[NotActuallyALonghorn 5006]

10 hours ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

Shitty ass talentless hack writers are loving this

 

Hacks was actually quite good. 

[Buzzrock 15185]

13 hours ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

Shitty ass talentless hack writers are loving this

 

Until they are replaced by AI. 

[Eskimohorn 5683]

Care to present an argument? Not holding my breath, but would still be nice.

blah blah blah blah. In conclusion, let me make a political hot take outside the Cloak Room. The End