Unpopular Opinions about TV

[Shield Breaker]

It's the pacing. You know it's going to be 16 or 20 episodes with a start, middle, and end.

With western TV shows, the majority of the viewership is too old to notice. So the shows drag on and on.

Yep. They also have a fucking end. They will last for one, maybe two seasons and stop. No dragging out the overarching storyline for six seasons with more and more retärded plot twists.

 

[Glowie Hunter Art Bell]

Korean dramas. They're unironically better than a lot of shit Hollywood puts out these days. If you have Netflix, go watch Beyond Evil.

I tend to stay away from anything newer. Thats why Yellowstone being good was a pleasant surprise

 

[Captain Syrup]

No dragging out the overarching storyline for six seasons with more and more retärded plot twists.

EIGHTEEN SEASONS of NCIS and Grey’s Anatomy. It would be pretty audacious, if it weren’t just pathetic.

I imagine it's midwits who need familiar story structures.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

You don’t have to watch Squid Game because it was astroturfed and in your face 24/7 last year. I’m on the last episode and I think one of the episodes gave me a headache — which is a first for a K-drama.

 

[Gender: Xenomorph]

You don’t have to watch Squid Game because it was astroturfed and in your face 24/7 last year. I’m on the last episode and I think one of the episodes gave me a headache — which is a first for a K-drama.

It starts of well but it gets worse the more it goes on.

 

[A Sentient Cloud]

I feel like this is an actual unpopular opinion so I fully expect to get yelled at, but HBO's Rome would have been immensely improved if they cut out most of the HBO "lol look at all the sex and violence we can do because we're not network" bullshit. I'm sure this outs me as a tea-sipping faggot, but the story of the end of the Roman Republic doesn't need tits flopping around every other scene to be compelling. They spent all this money to get these incredible actors and designers and sets and wound up with a show that's unwatchable in mixed company because you never know when a well-written and brilliantly acted scene will suddenly cut to straight-up porn.

And don't get me started on the second season, which at times veers into grindhouse territory. It's not "gritty realism" or whatever, it's just immature edgelord exploitation bullshit for the sake of ratings. And yes, I'm aware the second season was compressed because HBO wanted to free up money to make Game of Thrones, that doesn't mean we need to watch a 16-year-old boy be assfucked by a grown man and then later stabbed to death by another, or Caesar's widow get brutally raped and tortured, or a mortally injured woman be strangled by her lover and her corpse dumped in a river.

I'm fine with occasional sex/tits/violence, but HBO's weird preoccupation in the early 2000's with having them *everywhere* in *everything* hurt a lot of their shows, and yes I count The Sopranos in that number as well.

 

[Captain Syrup]

I'm fine with occasional sex/tits but HBO's weird preoccupation with having them *everywhere* in *everything* hurt a lot of their shows, and yes I count The Sopranos in that as well.

Spoiler: Her face be lookin 50 but her bod is about 25

 

[Rome's rightful successor]

You don’t have to watch Squid Game because it was astroturfed and in your face 24/7 last year. I’m on the last episode and I think one of the episodes gave me a headache — which is a first for a K-drama.

It starts of well but it gets worse the more it goes on.

I would say it was a pretty good unintentional comedy show.

 

[Krokodil Overdose]

I feel like this is an actual unpopular opinion so I fully expect to get yelled at, but HBO's Rome would have been immensely improved if they cut out most of the HBO "lol look at all the sex and violence we can do because we're not network" bullshit. I'm sure this outs me as a tea-sipping faggot, but the story of the end of the Roman Republic doesn't need tits flopping around every other scene to be compelling. They spent all this money to get these incredible actors and designers and sets and wound up with a show that's unwatchable in mixed company because you never know when a well-written and brilliantly acted scene will suddenly cut to straight-up porn.

And don't get me started on the second season, which at times veers into grindhouse territory. It's not "gritty realism" or whatever, it's just immature edgelord exploitation bullshit for the sake of ratings. And yes, I'm aware the second season was compressed because HBO wanted to free up money to make Game of Thrones, that doesn't mean we need to watch a 16-year-old boy be assfucked by a grown man and then later stabbed to death by another, or Caesar's widow get brutally raped and tortured, or a mortally injured woman be strangled by her lover and her corpse dumped in a river.

I'm fine with occasional sex/tits/violence, but HBO's weird preoccupation in the early 2000's with having them *everywhere* in *everything* hurt a lot of their shows, and yes I count The Sopranos in that number as well.

I, Claudius has yet to find it's equal.

Though I disagree with you about Pullo killing Gaia, that was a big character moment and the series would have been weaker for not showing it. It's the catalyst for him rejoining Vorenus and effectively giving up on the domestic life he'd tried to build with Eirene.

 

[A Sentient Cloud]

I, Claudius has yet to find it's equal.

Though I disagree with you about Pullo killing Gaia, that was a big character moment and the series would have been weaker for not showing it. It's the catalyst for him rejoining Vorenus and effectively giving up on the domestic life he'd tried to build with Eirene.

Maybe I’m just a softie but I just don’t think Pullo could be redeemed after that. Any man who did that in the modern era would be spending the rest of his life in prison if he was lucky, and it’s not like the Romans were super cool with domestic violence, either. It made my stomach turn that three episodes later Pullo is suddenly a good-hearted sitcom dad. The writers could have given the character any number of reasons to ditch his girlfriend for a life of adventure. This one felt like edginess for edginess' sake, and it didn’t work in a show that postured as "mature."

 

[Krokodil Overdose]

Maybe I’m just a softie but I just don’t think Pullo could be redeemed after that. Any man who did that in the modern era would be spending the rest of his life in prison if he was lucky, and it’s not like the Romans were super cool with domestic violence, either.

If memory serves, Gaia was still technically his slave, so he had unambiguous power of life and death over her. Considering that she just fessed up to murdering his wife and son, I don't think even the most soft-hearted Roman would have objected to putting her down like a dog.

It made my stomach turn that three episodes later Pullo is suddenly a good-hearted sitcom dad. The writers could have given the character any number of reasons to ditch his girlfriend for a life of adventure. This one felt like edginess for edginess' sake, and it didn’t work in a show that postured as "mature."

I disagree. He was going towards "goofy Roman sitcom dad," but Gaia fucked that up and it's only reuniting with Caesarion that brought that spark back a bit. It's a bit tragic, but Pullo doesn't seem like the sort of person who could leave the violence behind on his own, especially once Vorenus had everything fall apart on him.

 

[A Sentient Cloud]

If memory serves, Gaia was still technically his slave, so he had unambiguous power of life and death over her. Considering that she just fessed up to murdering his wife and son, I don't think even the most soft-hearted Roman would have objected to putting her down like a dog.

I disagree. He was going towards "goofy Roman sitcom dad," but Gaia fucked that up and it's only reuniting with Caesarion that brought that spark back a bit. It's a bit tragic, but Pullo doesn't seem like the sort of person who could leave the violence behind on his own, especially once Vorenus had everything fall apart on him.

I don't disagree with you that the writers front-loaded plot elements to excuse Pullo's actions, but I can't help but feel like it was all in service to allow the audience to enjoy watching a nominally heroic (or even anti-heroic) character murder a woman.

 

[Krokodil Overdose]

I don't disagree with you that the writers front-loaded plot elements to excuse Pullo's actions, but I can't help but feel like it was all in service to allow the audience to enjoy watching a nominally heroic (or even anti-heroic) character murder a woman.

Is that bad though? "Murderer gets his just desserts" is a standard payoff in every cop show ever. It's a bit jarring for a modern audience for the murderer to be a woman and have it happen on screen, but it's a big character moment for Pullo and absolutely in keeping with the spirit of the times and tone of the show. There's a lot of gratuitous shit in Rome that you pounted out, but I don't think that's part of it.

 

[A Sentient Cloud]

Is that bad though? "Murderer gets his just desserts" is a standard payoff in every cop show ever. It's a bit jarring for a modern audience for the murderer to be a woman and have it happen on screen, but it's a big character moment for Pullo and absolutely in keeping with the spirit of the times and tone of the show. There's a lot of gratuitous shit in Rome that you pounted out, but I don't think that's part of it.

I'll agree with you that the whole episode had a *little* more writing around it than the other moments I mentioned, but in a world where women are routinely killed by their romantic partners to the point where 50% of all female murder victims are a consequence of intimate partner violence, it felt evil. I'm not averse to exploitation or horror but this was something else. The perpetrator is one of the heroes of the show and the way the act has quite literally zero consequence for him (either legally or emotionally) didn't sit right with me. We're supposed to root for this character and I couldn't forgive the writers for that, in the same way Hustle and Flow lost me after its protagonist dumped a single mother and her infant child on the street for the crime of yelling at him. Certain things aren't forgivable no matter how awful the writers choose to paint the victim.

As for "the spirit of the times", I *vehemently* disagree with this contemporary notion that people in the past, even the ancient past, were more violent, or that acts of grotesque brutality were shrugged off more. It's just not true.

 

[Dysnomia]

How is Bob Hearts Abisholla still on the air? It's the same joke all series. Culture shock romance between a no nonsense Nigerian woman and a bumbling white guy. My family thinks it's hilarious. But I find it pretty dull.

 

[Krokodil Overdose]

I'll agree with you that the whole episode had a *little* more writing around it than the other moments I mentioned, but in a world where women are routinely killed by their romantic partners to the point where 50% of all female murder victims are a consequence of intimate partner violence, it felt evil. I'm not averse to exploitation or horror but this was something else. The perpetrator is one of the heroes of the show and the way the act has quite literally zero consequence for him (either legally or emotionally) didn't sit right with me. We're supposed to root for this character and I couldn't forgive the writers for that, in the same way Hustle and Flow lost me after its protagonist dumped a single mother and her infant child on the street for the crime of yelling at him. Certain things aren't forgivable no matter how awful the writers choose to paint the victim.

I think we're at an impasse here. I've never seen Hustle and Flow, but the closest analogy I can make is in The Method, where the murderous pedophile scoutmaster is burned alive by the parents of his victims. It's gristly, yeah, and it may perhaps reflect poorly on the people doing it, but you absolutely see where they're coming from. Gaia murdered Pullo's wife and son and destroyed all the happiness he'd found since demobilization. Most people would respond very badly to that.

As for "the spirit of the times", I *vehemently* disagree with this contemporary notion that people in the past, even the ancient past, were more violent, or that acts of grotesque brutality were shrugged off more. It's just not true.

This is factually incorrect. Between the Third Servile War and the Claudian reforms, Roman law concerning slaves (which Gaia was, Pullo's pipe-laying notwithstanding) was famously draconian. For example, one law on the books at this time was that if a slave murdered his master, then all slaves that the master owned were held culpable and executed, men, women and children alike. Remember that rich men could own hundreds of slaves, and yes, this law was enforced. I don't honestly think human nature has really changed between now and then.

 

[A Sentient Cloud]

This is factually incorrect. Between the Third Servile War and the Claudian reforms, Roman law concerning slaves (which Gaia was, Pullo's pipe-laying notwithstanding) was famously draconian. For example, one law on the books at this time was that if a slave murdered his master, then all slaves that the master owned were held culpable and executed, men, women and children alike. Remember that rich men could own hundreds of slaves, and yes, this law was enforced. I don't honestly think human nature has really changed between now and then.

That's not what I said though. The existence of strict laws meant to discourage slave revolts (always a threat in slaveholding societies like Rome) does not support the statement that "people in the past, even the ancient past, were more violent [than in modern times], or that acts of grotesque brutality were shrugged off more." Roman authors wrote extensively on the proper treatment of slaves, and there is at least one example of a Roman slaveholder (Vedius Pollio, who lived at the same time as the events of the series) whose nasty treatment of his slaves earned him *extreme* condemnation from his contemporaries, including some people whose fictionalized counterparts appear on the show.

Regardless of Gaia's status (and I just want to point out here that I don't believe she was actually Pullo's slave, though I may be misremembering) or past behavior (definitely bad), murdering another human being with your bare hands while you stare into her eyes would not have been viewed as any less of a psychotic act by your average Roman than your average contemporary American. There is zero historical evidence to suggest otherwise. This storyline was pure fiction.

Which leads me back to my original point, which is that whatever historical justification one might stir up for it, the fact of the matter is that Rome (the show) is a contemporary work of fiction, written by contemporary writers, for the entertainment of a contemporary audience. The showrunners chose to depict this, and their motives in doing so are worth examining.

 

[Rome's rightful successor]

This is a pretty interesting video.

I never fully watched an episode of glee but I always thought of it as that show with the bad song covers, annoying gay fanbase, and actors that seem to always die.
I think it is a pretty interesting thought provoking topic that glee caused the crazy woke crowd.

 

[A Sentient Cloud]

This is a pretty interesting video.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=MFy-deWh7EcI never fully watched an episode of glee but I always thought of it as that show with the bad song covers, annoying gay fanbase, and actors that seem to always die.
I think it is a pretty interesting thought provoking topic that glee caused the crazy woke crowd.

Interesting. Speaking as a former theater kid, what Glee did in my mind was make "the theater kid" go mainstream. Anyone who was into their high school drama scene is familiar with the earnestness, the live-your-truthiness, the immaturity, the pettiness, the melodrama, and the rampant Main Character Syndrome that permeated that show and its fandom. This stuff has always been there, but Glee made it cool rather than faggy.

Student Theater Showcase, a recurring sketch on SNL, works in large part because you get the sense that the performers are drawing on lived experience as annoying theater kids:

While I think Glee was extremely influential, there was a lot of proto-wokeness in the early 2010s, pretty much all of it coming from a good place; Dan Savage's It Gets Better project comes to mind. But yes, it's certainly true that a lot of "wokeisms" worst excesses are the result of the theater kid mindset running unchecked.

 

[Steamboat_Bill]

Interesting. Speaking as a former theater kid, what Glee did in my mind was make "the theater kid" go mainstream. Anyone who was into their high school drama scene is familiar with the earnestness, the live-your-truthiness, the immaturity, the pettiness, the melodrama, and the rampant Main Character Syndrome that permeated that show and its fandom. This stuff has always been there, but Glee made it cool rather than faggy.

Student Theater Showcase, a recurring sketch on SNL, works in large part because you get the sense that the performers are drawing on lived experience as annoying theater kids:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=HPAtpAelwe4
While I think Glee was extremely influential, there was a lot of proto-wokeness in the early 2010s, pretty much all of it coming from a good place; Dan Savage's It Gets Better project comes to mind. But yes, it's certainly true that a lot of "wokeisms" worst excesses are the result of the theater kid mindset running unchecked.

No, it was still pretty faggy when Glee did it. I doubt anyone actually watched that and thought it was cool. Nor did "wokeness" enter culture through that show. Anything these people are trying to sell you is almost certainly bullshit.

The theater kid mindset running unchecked is a bad thing, but the truly worst manifestations of it in our society have little to do with social justice and all that.