In which posters take two TV shows (or two movies, two comic books, two movies, etc) nominally of the same genre and argue that they are, well, polar opposites.
The only rule I have is that we compare like with like. Please don’t compare a TV show with a movie, a comic book with a play, and so forth; in other words, the two properties you select must be in the same medium. Additionally, I suggest that it’s best not to compare sitcoms with dramas, or single issues of a comic book with graphic novels, and so forth.
To start off: Law & Order (the original series) is the polar opposite of Bones. Both are hour-long murder mysteries with primarily single-episode stories, but where L&O is all about the cases–with a high degree of verisimilitude, very little use of high-tech gizmos, and almost no information about the characters’ private lives–Bones flips all that. Rea-life legal and police procedure are almost ignored; the forensic techniques shown are practically out of Star Trek; and a given week’s story tends to be about the personal life of one or more of the characters, with the crime being investigated serving mostly to illuminate the problem the characters are facing.
In Quantum Leap, the whole purpose of traveling through time is to change the past. In the Back to the Future trilogy, Doc has a fit over the very idea of altering history.
I’m not sure they’re all that polar opposites, but if only to bump the thread in hopes of seeing some better answers, I’ll suggest The Addams Family and The Munsters. As someone put it in an old thread:
Comic books: Marvel’s Daredevil is, surprisingly, the opposite of Batman.
Batman is independently wealthy, and is practically a superpower in his city, a heavily fantastical version of New York City. Wayne Enterprises has no rivals in Gotham City, and Bruce has employees but no partners. Batman was even brought into the Justice League, where he shows up characters with actual superpowers. Batman has inspired any imitators, to the point of being sort of the spooky granddad of a huge chunk of the DC trademark stable.
Daredevil has a day job, & his stomping grounds are just one neighborhood of NYC; he’s actually relatively weak in his setting. Matt Murdock’s most consistent supporting cast member is his law partner, and his archnemesis is a mob boss who claims to own the city. Daredevil, despite having cool powers and being friends with T’Challa, has never been an Avenger. Daredevil has no sidekicks as such, and his main spinoff is Elektra, who until the current run didn’t even intersect with Hornhead’s book, apparently as a matter of editorial policy. (Wasn’t Matt supposed to never see her again or think she was dead? I’m not sure.)
Doc Martin is the opposite of House - both are about thoroughly unlikeable doctors who solve medical mysteries, but one is set in a bucolic Cornish village with an NHS doctor and often mundane illnesses like TB or heart disease, the other in a bright high-tech hospital and diseases that often sound made-up. Doc Martin is about the somewhat provincial yet amusing lives of the villagers, House is more like a soap opera with a support staff of hot young people and Drugs! and Lipstick Lesbians!
onathan Creek is the opposite of the X-files: in JC the case pretty much appears to be proof of the paranormal: Jonathan shows there is a mundane explanation. In X-files, law enforcement jump to a mundane yet unsatisfactory explanation, Fox shows it was paranormal.
Houdini and Doyle is the opposite of The X-Files. Both involve two people – one a believer in the supernatural and the other a skeptic – investigating strange and seemingly paranormal crimes. But in The X-Files, the believer is always right; in Houdini and Doyle, the skeptic is always right.
In B5 you follow a group of elite military and diplomatic high-flyers from the key civilisations of the Galaxy, deliberately assembled together to facilitate negotiations of the highest importance. The fate of millions depends on their actions, all eyes are watching them, and they know it.
The Farscape crew is a ragtag bunch of misfits, sociopaths and criminals, brought together by sheer accident, bad planning, or bad luck. No-one of any importance gives a flying fuck about any of them, except to try to squish 'em like bugs when they get in the way. The lead character is, by the measure of galactic civilisation, a barbarian incompetent with all the nous of a Sumerian peasant trying to work out which fork to use when dining with Queen Victoria. They have no military resources to call on, and in any case whenever they try force as a solution to a problem they’re having it invariably royally buggers up the situation for them even further
Vega$ was the polar opposite of Las Vegas. In Vega$ the hero was a guy on the fringes of the City bucking the System. In Las Vegas, the heroes were the System. Each would have probably been the bad guys in the other show.
As per its title, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE involved our heroes orchestrating wacky cons that weren’t just difficult, but, well, you know. Like, they’d be up against a guy who simply wouldn’t crack – and so, with the power of teamwork, they’d make it look like he was in another city, or a previous decade; or they’d drug him and send in a lookalike to mess with his psychology: what could be better than convincing him that he’s the government agent who’s been tasked with interrogating the prisoner?
The Flintstones is a show about people living in a millenniums-ahead-of-their-time society – one that approximated the culture, mores, and (in their own way) technology thousands of years ahead of their times.
The Jetsons, conversely, is a show about people living in a strangely archaic society – one with super-advanced technology, but remarkably regressive and backward in culture and society.
I will bet cash money that someone looked at the success of COLUMBO and said, hey, let’s do the opposite of a married homicide lieutenant on the West Coast who drives a beat-up car to catch murderers we saw commit the perfect crime: a chauffeur-driven single guy on the East Coast who looks into thefts that stumped the audience, as a rich private citizen looking to get richer! We’ll call him BANACEK!
The way I’ve heard it put is that The Addams Family thought that everyone else was like them (weird); while The Munsters thought that they were like everyone else (normal).
In The Sopranos, Tony Soprano was raised as a criminal, but is sometimes tempted towards good by his “better nature.” (He always relapses, however.) His family mostly accepts his “business” (although his wife sometimes feels guilty about it and his daughter lies to herself about it).
In Breaking Bad, Walter White comes from a “good” background but is sucked in by the temptation to be evil. His family rejects him for it (although his wife is co-opted for a time.)
Matt Houston is a rich and slick Texas private investigator who lived in a penthouse, had good looking Pamela Hensley and a souped up computer help him solve mysteries. When push came to shove, Houston was handy with his pistol or his fists or in a car chase.
Jim Rockford lives in a rundown mobile home, was pretty low tech, rarely carried his pistol, and would rather talk his way out of a fight.
I think the Addammses knew they were strange (though they probably thought of themselves as extraordinary). They thought norms were boring and felt bad for them.
Well…Morticia and Gomez did. Wednesday didn’t care. I think tehy were all a little scared of Wednesday.
They might have thought they were exceptional, but not strange. If anything they thought they were better off than anybody else. They thought all the weird decor in their house was the height of good taste and sophistication. They assumed that anyone else would like to live like them if they could.
