Why not just quit searching for good? Seems like you’re just wasting your time.
I always thought Burn Notice was essentially Magnum P.I. crossed with MacGyver, and a refreshing return to simpler T.V. formats. Sure, it’s got the token season arc stuff in it, but it’s more-or-less “adventure of the week”. Maybe give that a go.
Which is what I’ve been very directly driving at this whole time. What’s the “good reason”?
To be fair to the OP, it’s season 4 and Skyler and Walt Jr. are completely useless and if they both died no one would care much.
I don’t mind that someone doesn’t like something, I have nothing invested in shows like Breaking Bad that require me to demand others like it.
What I find weird is when you pick it apart by saying things like the “RV romp makes no sense” when really it wasn’t that fantastical at all, he was in a panic, have you ever been in a panic? If not, let me guarantee you that you don’t behave in a rational manner.
Basically you applied a hyper-critical lens on Breaking Bad and then you mention shows like Gunsmoke and Bonanza which honestly have massive faults in all the areas you mentioned Breaking Bad as having faults in. Some episodes of those shows are absolutely unwatchable, and I enjoyed both shows growing up.
The writers of those shows were pumping out episodes like there was no tomorrow, and many of them had the characters doing things that “didn’t make sense” or had uninteresting moments.
I guess for me if you had just said “I don’t like Breaking Bad because I prefer cheap, easy to understand stuff” that’d be fine. But when you criticized Breaking Bad many of the faults you found with it can be readily found in any number of the shows you mentioned enjoying. That suggests to me that there is really some other reason you don’t like Breaking Bad. If I had to guess it’s because you just don’t like having to think or do anything other than look at the surface when watching TV.
I’m not criticizing that, I had someone tell me once they didn’t like any movie where they didn’t have to think about it. I responded that I like those movies but I also really like stupid action films like Escape from New York and Commando because they are fun. I don’t think there is anything wrong with disliking a more intense cerebral drama, but if that’s the reason just say that, don’t post some review picking nits that I could do with probably 100+ of Gunsmoke’s hundreds of episodes.
Walter Jr. is necessary as a concept, and so is Holly for that matter, but not so much as physical actors. The kids are one of his big concerns when it came to his not having anything to leave behind, his concern about how college was going to be paid for, 20+ years of child rearing costs for Holly and etc. So it’s important Walter has kids, but as characters they are only of minor importance.
Skyler was a good source of tension and conflict for the first two seasons, but I’d say in S3 and S4 she has mostly become superfluous. She kind of reminds me at this point of Rita on Dexter, she served a purpose early on but became kind of a drag on the show eventually.
Yeah, I mean for me if it’s just “I like those shows more” I’m totally fine with that. If it’s just “stuff like Breaking Bad and Mad Men aren’t my cup of tea” I’m fine with that. You like what you like, period.
In the realm of music I have certain tastes, some people have had me listen to stuff before sure I’d love it, when I don’t they get upset and demand I explain why. I can’t, all I can say is “I like what I like, and I don’t like that.”
But the OP here isn’t just saying that, there is a strong suggestion there is some objective reason shows like Gunsmoke and Bonanza are superior to shows like Breaking Bad and Mad Men. If there is genuinely such a reason I’m interested in knowing what it could possibly be, because based on the OP’s review pretty much every problem he had with Breaking Bad I could find serious instances of the same problem in any number of Gunsmoke episodes.
I loved Gunsmoke and watched it a lot growing up, but you’re in crazy land if, like me, when you watch it on TV Land or something you don’t find episodes where you’re just like “they really just phoned this shit in.”
Totally. I hate to draw assumptions, but it seems apparent that the issue isn’t with any particular show.
She beat up on BB, because that was the pilot show I asked her to watch, then dared her to not watch the second. 90% of viewers, would likely be anticipating what’s going to happen next, yes?
Well, rather than just say, yeh… maybe I can appreciate it as a fine work of TV, it’s just not my thing, so I’ll pass on watching the 2nd episode.
Ok, that’s totally fine.
But instead she wrote a review heavily slanted to the negative, to an absurd degree; hyper-focusing on aspects of the show that have, at best, very thin barring on the entertainment value at large.
Criticism is subjective, sure, but it seemed so overwhelming and idiosyncratic to me that it seemed she was actually constructing imaginary bricks from whole cloth to build a wall in her “defense” that the show is somehow objective crap.
Just say you don’t like fiction, unless all plots and story is tied up in that one episode, then the characters and past events are completely reset for the next, as if it never happened. There’s still plenty of shows that are written like that.
I’ll just say it now… I really don’t think she can enjoy anything, for whatever reason, that has no sentimental value for her, or at least is close enough in formula to those very shows. Of course, the craft of television changes over decades, but to hold resentment for it, is utterly baffling.
Unless it’s a “routine detective show starring Smug Annoying Bastard with his “Damn White Boy, You Crazy!” Black Friend”
I think Two Many Cats should just stick to reruns of Laugh In and Mama’s Family.
And yet you aren’t upset “at all” that I don’t like Breaking Bad.
What bricks of whole cloth? I said the characters were uninteresting to me. They are. I said I found the show’s climax motive unconvincing. I did. I am not going to call Breaking Bad “a fine work of TV” because it didn’t hit me that way.
I’m sorry you disagree with me.
By the way, I’m glad to be back. Thank you Mods for giving me a second chance.
The OP likes hacky, sentimental shows with “very special episodes”?
So. If I don’t like Breaking Bad I must not like thinking too much. Nice.
No, I can give television plots a lot of leeway. If I find the program entertaining.
This program to me was not entertaining. End of story.
I don’t care to watch multiple episodes of a show I don’t enjoy because I am assured the show turns into a masterpiece as it goes on.
Perhaps the objective difference between contemporary television and what came before is actual entertainment value?
Couldn’t be. I find contemporary TV vastly more entertaining than television from the past.
How nice…for you.
The good reason is those shows entertained me. I don’t find most of today’s TV fare entertaining enough. The comedies are not funny. The dramas tend to be too slow to be interesting.
How sad…for you.
The pilot for Breaking Bad is one (if not THE) best pilots I’ve ever seen. It’s exciting, unexpected, beautifully filmed, and most of all, by the end I was dying to know what was going to happen. I love BB so much that I envy people who haven’t seen it because they still get to see it for the first time!
If it’s not your thing, no problem, but objectively there are no big gaps or criticisms that can be made about this show being poorly written, directed, or acted. It is simply phenomenal, and you should keep watching. However, if you hate it, don’t watch it. You will be in the small minority of people who thinks it’s crap, but that’s your issue. It really is that simple.
Yes, it is, isn’t it.
I didn’t say it’s crap. I said it was uninteresting and unconvincing. I don’t care to watch any more because as Truman Capote said of the book Valley of the Dolls “Just how many bowls of rotten stew do I have to eat?”
People get over it. I don’t like this show. Nor do I care for most other contemporary television. Yes, I understand the programs. It’s not that I don’t want to think. I just don’t find them to be entertaining.
**Two Many Cats: **Have you ever watched Deadwood or The Wire? If so, I’m just curious what you thought of them. If not, give 'em a shot. They’re not new shows - both are over and done with - but if you don’t like either of those, I don’t think any other modern TV shows will do it for you.