I was wondering if people would give an example of what they thought was an average movie or TV show or book. Something you watched or read that you enjoyed but did NOT think were that memorable.
What brought this up for me was reading about Star Wars and remembering the two TV movies about Ewoks from the 80s I watched as a kid— Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure and Ewoks: The Battle for Endor.
Star Wars fans always talk about how great Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope is and how horrible The Star Wars Holiday Special is. But every time I mention the two Ewok movies most fans don’t seem to be aware they exist. And the ones that do remember seem to just say they were alright–nothing that special but NOT bad.
“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” from 2012 was an average movie. the 2nd movie was bad and third terrible, really terrible.
“Old Guard” is an average movie. I’ve watched it twice now and it is just that, average. I just watched it 2 weeks ago in prep for “Old Guard 2” now being available on Netflix.
The 80s had so many great high school and college movies, but Can’t Buy Me Love from 1987 was average. Same for Three O’Clock High also from 1987.
Star Trek: Voyager fits the bill. The first Star Trek series was generally good, and occasionally excellent, televised sci-fi (with a few clunkers at the end when they ran out of money and ideas). The Next Generation veered from awful in the first few seasons to very good by the end.
But Voyager just sort of hung out in generally good land for a few years.
Get Low, a Robert Duvall/Bill Murray period piece from 2009. Competently made and acted. Fine for what it is. Still mildly ashamed that I paid to watch it in a theater.
Having watched a whole lot of NCIS in recent years with my father when I go to visit him (some cable channel which he gets runs blocks of it all day, every day, as far as I can tell), I nominate that show. I don’t find it to be unwatchable, but I also don’t find it to be particularly great, either. So, at least IMO, “average.”
That said, it clearly does whatever it is that it does well enough to be on the air, and watched and enjoyed by quite a few people, for 23 seasons and counting.
I think that’s the problem - I’m sure there are loads of things that I watched or read and enjoyed but I don’t remember them because they weren’t memorable. I might remember them if someone mentioned them - but until I looked up the top rated TV programs of 1977, I would not have remembered Eight is Enough which I think I enjoyed well enough when it was on.
Probably most of the cop shows i watched in to 70s: Cannon, Barnaby Jones, Starsky & Hutch, Baretta, Toma, Serpico, Bronk, Joe Forrester, Eischied, Amy Prentiss, Police Woman, the list goes on. I watched every episode, and I can’t remember a single one. But I enjoyed them, at the time.
But Hawaii 5-0, McMillan, Chase (all one season) those I remember specific episodes, even after all this time.
I’d say almost any “procedural” show based on a profession like cops, firefighters, doctors, and such. Some are great art, but most are your usual “Crime of the week” kind of thing, with the occasional “Very Special Episode” thrown in.
I mean, if we assume pop media offerings fall along a normal distribution from terrible to incredible, won’t the majority of them fall within the scope of “average”?
Most of the Marvel Cinematic Universe IMO. There are couple of real stinkers and one (or charitably two) really good movies, but other than that they are all just average enjoyable but entirely forgettable movies.
I liked it as a kid, but rewatching it, it’s really pretty blah. Bowdlerization everywhere: “In your ear with a can of beer!” “Twice as far with a chocolate bar!”, bland plots, general moronicness (The segment just before the credits was always Gabe Kaplan just telling his ‘wife’ a stupid joke. Never anything plot-related, never anything remotely interesting, just a joke geared to the mentality of 10-year-olds.)
I’ll add Deep Space Nine to the Star Trek list. As much as I tried, I could not get into it. A hotel In Space, like a soap opera full of people with latex on their forehead. A space show that never actually went anywhere in space. At least it kept some Star Trek actors employed.
FWIW, one thing that DS9 did well, which the earlier Trek series never really did, was utilize complex story arcs which spanned multiple episodes, and even multiple seasons. However, this may have made it more difficult for viewers who didn’t religiously watch every episode, in order, to follow.
Also, I suspect that the producers recognized that, early on, the show may have felt too static, with too much of the plot on the hotel station, so later episodes and seasons were more likely to involve other locations and ships (such as the Defiant, a Federation ship with cloaking technology, which was introduced in the third season).
Dr Strangelove. I saw this recently because it’s been on my “to see” list for a long time, and I came away with a “meh” feeling. I actually thought that Peter Sellers was terrible. He played three different characters, two of which were cringeworthy. But there were some very good performances that saved the movie by George C Scott, Slim Pickens, and James Earl Jones. Actually, what really saved the movie is that it did not end the way I thought it would. I would give it an even 5 on a 10-scale.
Young Frankenstein. I appreciate the movie. I’ve seen most of the jokes on other movies that were made after Young Frankenstein, and I understand that Young Frankenstein can be considered a trend setter in a lot of ways. But I didn’t find the movie memorable in any way. At least other than the fact that it has been the only Mel Brooks movie that I’ve liked.
The Hyperion Cantos series. I’ve read four of the books. It’s just good enough to keep me curious. There is some really good character development and some cool plot twists, but I find myself bored through most of it.
Ready Player One: I read this one a while ago, so I remember very little. I just remember it had some very cool concepts, but I was underwhelmed by the story.
Carter Beats the Devil. I’m glad I stuck with this book because the ending is really cool, but man. Slogging through the first 400 pages was a chore.
There are two romantic comedies I enjoy watching but I acknowledge are mediocre. Both have a fantasy element to make them work that doesn’t bear close scrutiny. The Lake House with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. And Just Like Heaven with Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo.
For books. I read almost everything on my Kindle these days, and there are several sub-genres that are replete with “just average” books. Like, there are multiple, “Person finds a spaceship, goes on adventures” series, most of which are workable stories, but none are great art. You can get most of them for under $10, so they make for decent reading at the cottage, or wherever.