I seem to have an uncanny knack of watching TV shows that hardly anyone else I know likes.
None of my friends, for example, watch Mad Men or Breaking Bad. There’s no point talking to them about Sons Of Anarchy because they’re not watching that, either.
Occasionally I’ll get lucky and find that someone (or several someones) else I know has seen Arrested Development or The Sopranos, but it’s not a guaranteed thing.
And all this surprises me because these sort of shows are supposed to be really popular, yet they’re not being watched by many people I know. There’s usually one or two people watching them, but I can’t remember the last show I could talk about with a sizeable number of my colleagues.
Anyway, this got me thinking that surely I’m not the only person on the SDMB with an out-of-synch taste in TV shows. So, what are the supposedly popular shows you like that none of your friends/colleagues are watching?
Star Trek, in any of its incarnations, going back to when I was in high school (a long, long time ago). Its appeal is, it would seem, definitely limited to a particular fan base (to which I belong, BTW).
I love shows like The Sopranos that are well-written and grounded in reality. So much of network TV nowadays is just plain crap, I tend to stick to History Channel, National Geographic, and other more documentary stuff.
Since I live in North America only part of the year, I haven’t been able to follow shows like Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire, which I’d love to watch. I’ll be happy when they’re available for free over the Internet.
The other shows I have strong attachments to are all old and are probably appreciated only by people in my age cohort: Combat!; The Avengers; The Prisoner; Wild, Wild, West; Dick Van Dyke; and so on.
My experience has been much like the OP’s. The same could be said of me by them, though. Many people I know like network crime dramas like CSI and Hawaii 5-0 and I’ve barely seen either.
What aggravates me is when they catch 15-20 minutes of one or two episodes, out of context, and decide they didn’t like the series. To really appreciate the great series like Sopranos or The Wire you need to watch them in order and pay attention.
I tend to enjoy a lot of Brit TV, so living in Wisconsin, as you can imagine, makes it difficult to find others with a similar bent. And I don’t even mean the obscure stuff. I had a friend get angry with me for suggesting that Being Human (US) wasn’t an original.
You don’t get PBS out of either Chicago or Minneapolis/St Paul? :eek:
I remember living in Indiana for a time back in the '70s. I would have slit my wrists without Chicago TV channels! The same goes for when I lived in Milwaukee in the '80s.
Half the people I know watch ‘reality shows’. And maybe the news. The other half of the people I know NEVER watch ANYTHING on TV. I like to come to the SD and read and maybe comment about my favorite shows, otherwise, I’m all on my own. I tell someone, "great episode of ‘House’, the finale is tomorrow night’ and they’ll say, "isn’t that a medical show? I hate medical shows. Speaking of which, do you think that new real housewife of New Jersey has implants?’ :mad:
I seem to have a lot of friends who are either the “oh, we don’t really watch TV” type or who prefer Real Housewives/The Bachelor type reality shows. Thankfully, Suburban Plankton and I watch all the same programs and we have you guys to discuss them with.
I’m always telling my two bosses about whatever series I’m into at the moment. I know as I’m speaking that they will never, ever, go to a video store and rent the series I am describing, let alone watch online. Thier loss.
I’m glad I’m not the only one then. It really makes me wonder where TV ratings figures come from, when you hear that shows have X million viewers… comprising absolutely no-one you know.
I tell someone, "great episode of ‘House’, the finale is tomorrow night’ and they’ll say, "isn’t that a medical show? I hate medical shows. Speaking of which, do you think that new real housewife of New Jersey has implants?’ :mad: