Damn, but this site has really gone downhill in the past year. Most of the best writers have left (including Tasha Robinson, my favorite from the site.)
Nearly all the features I enjoyed reading, and of which I used to eagerly look forward to new posts* haven’t had any new installments in over a year and there hasn’t been word one from the folks running the site as to when, or if, they’d ever get new installments again. There was never any notice that they’d be discontinued either so I just kept checking back week after week after week . . .
And the Taste Tests no longer have any real text content - they’re just friggin’ videos! Start writing again, you lazy bastards!
I like their TV recaps (at least Todd Van Der Werff’s) but I haaaaate the comments section. I hate that now the comments aren’t divided by pages, so if you come back to an article you’ve already read to catch up in the comments, there’s no way to tell where you left off and you have to hit “load more comments” 765 times to find your spot.
I haaaaate that you have to scroll through eleventy dozen comments that are stupid jokes and puns (and hit “load more comments” at least 3 times) before you get to one comment that actually addresses the article. And then scroll scroll scroll, load load load again until you reach the next one. It’s so obnoxious.
…yeah, I enjoy Todd, and love his Community reviews, and loved Sonia Saraiya’s take on the terrible Helix.
But I stopped taking the site too seriously when I read this:
It was kind of shocking that so many writers on the site hadn’t watched one of the classic pieces of television comedy: and then they proceeded to critique the episode based on modern sensibilities. Its like having a physics professor who doesn’t understand how gravity works. Never trust a skinny chef, and don’t trust a TV Reviewer who has hardly seen any TV.
Wow. Who are these TV writers that have never watched WKRP In Cincinnati or have only “vaguely heard of” the show? I read AV Club sometimes for reviews, etc. but that was really bad.
It was several years ago when the websites separated. I had been under the impression there was more of a corporate break as well, but a bit of looking now says otherwise.
You know that show (and that episode in particular) are nearly 40 years old, right? You can’t watch everything and a TV reviewer is probably too busy watching current stuff to write about (to, you know, put food on the table) than be able to go back to every classic TV moment.
There’s also the fact that WKRP is hard to find nowadays. Does it air anywhere? I remember seeing it a few times on TV when I was a little kid (the mid 80s), but I don’t think I’ve stumbled across it in 20 years.
Thank goodness you were here to let me know that! Where would I be without you! I should employ you as my personal assistant. I could give you a calculator and you could work out all sorts of things for me! Gosh, its nearly older than me!
I’m a photographer, and studying the guys who paved the path have helped me become a better photographer. So many of the reviews lately on TV Club simply didn’t make sense: I could watch a programme, then hop to the review and it would be like they were watching a different channel. Finding out that many of the reviewers didn’t have a basic foundation in the history of television helped me understand the disconnect.
The art of review and the art of critique are a learned skill and a craft. Any bozo on the internet can offer an opinion. Interesting critique takes a bit more effort. As I mentioned: I love Sonia Saraiya’s reviews, yet she was one of the worst in the WKRP article. I don’t necessarily believe you need to have a Rhodes Scholarship to be a television reviewer. But for goodness sake, its a TV review site, and for the majority of reviewers not to have seen one of the classic episodes of television (and don’t tell me that they couldn’t spare 22 minutes to watch it in the course of a year) is like having a room full of photographers and only one of them having seen an Ansel Adams Landscape.
It’ll get worse when Classic TV Club gets discontinued later this year. That means it will be exhaustive coverage of “Game of Thrones” and “Mad Men” (which makes it like every other place on the internet) and little else. It’s telling a poster named Franko’s reviews of “Golden Girls” and “Barney Miller” episodes, or the posters’ analysis of the latest “Jeopardy”, often are the best show analysis on the site. Critics who cover only the buzzed about topics and are unable to place it in a larger context (especially historically) would be laughed out of movie and music criticism. Why should TV be different?
And that’s not the only problems the AV Club has recently. Making Inventory (its list feature) twice a week means they’re really straining for material, and the “Great Job Internet!” is just cobbled together viral videos.
Look, if you can’t even acknowledge that WKRP is almost 40 years and was hard as hell to watch for decades due to the music rights stuff, then what do you want from me?
Not to mention that because of music rights issues, most of the series isn’t available on DVD.
Anyway, the study of television is really kind of it’s own animal, and I don’t think it’s really fair to compare it the study of, say, film.
For example, if you want to watch Casablanca, that’s what, two hours of your life?
If you want to watch even one season of a classic TV series, it’s probably going to take days. Even if you binge watch it on a weekend without interruption, you’re still looking at a whole day.
Even someone who gets paid to watch television is going to have a hard time making that commitment, especially if they also have to keep up with current series.
That’s not that surprising. Most of the writers are in their 20s and 30s and because of music rights, WKRP is notoriously hard to find on home video.
As far as the site in general, I find I read it less than I used to. I tended to read it mostly on my phone and when they redesigned the site my old phone couldn’t display it 80% of the time so I got out of the habit of checking it daily and mostly just read The Inventories. On my new phone the site displays fine but they autoplay ads that I can’t seem to turn off so again I find myself not bothering.
I see on my preview someone mentioned Classic TV club going away. I didn’t see that announcement. That sucks. I guess after a few years of doing it they are running out of shows.
BTW you may be aware most of the writer who left formed another website called thedissolve.com which is about movies. It is not bad.
…and yet, for the review, even though they live in different places, they managed to watch it. Because, as you are well aware, they are television reviewers, which means that, unlike most of us they specialise in being able to get TV shows to watch. They even get screeners of things before we get a chance to see them on TV. They can literally watch the future!
I did acknowledge its 40 years old. And I don’t want anything from you. Well I wanted you to be my personal assistant, but on reflection I don’t think we’d be a good fit.
I don’t think it works that way for TV that is 40 years old. They probably rented the first season DVDs (which are available) and grumbled through the music removal the whole time.
