They’re funny on Chuck, but Big Mike is a natural Subway customer for the stuff Jarrod won’t touch.
“I’ll have a tuna salad with cheese, mayo, cheese, olive oil, and mayo. What, aren’t fish and olive oil supposed to be healthy?”
This is officially Chuck’s last season, and I believe House is ending this season as well.
Wow, you’re much more forgiving than me. For me Nancy lost all sympathy when she literally burned her entire suburban neighborhood to the ground.
That’s also when the show really lost focus. I don’t like the Botwins on the beach, on the run or in New York. I liked the Botwins in the suburbs selling weed to disillusioned soccer moms.
I still watch, but wouldn’t mind seeing it cancelled.
My stone cold 100% lock is South Park. I remember briefly being a fan of it in college, and that was a LONG time ago. If it had stopped after the movie (maybe a few of tie-up-the-loose-ends eps and a big finale), it would’ve been perfect. Seriously, how much mileage can a show get out of slagging at random celebrities*, toilet humor, jerkish behavior, and positively ancient running gags? (Kenny still dies almost every episode?) If Mike Judge could go from from Beavis and Butthead to King of the Hill, Trey Parker and Matt Stone can create a crudely-animated cartoon that does not require cannibalism, racial slurs, or murder.
The Simpsons, well, that’s a pretty obvious choice, isn’t it? Here’s the thing, though, I’m not concerned about the quality of episodes declining (it’s been pretty much the same for a long time) or running out of ideas (there’s always going to be something, even if it’s trite). The only reason I want it to end is that I want to see a big, rousing finale, which should be awesome. Much like South Park, I think right after the movie would’ve been a good time. Enough treading water. Go with a bang. (Oh, and do something really horrible to Dolph, Jimbo, and Kearney. They’ve had it WAY too easy.)
As for Survivor, the whole “castaways struggling in a hostile land” bit lost its appeal ages ago, and even the competing alliance angle is played out. Throw out all the pretense and just make it a straight-up outdoor-themed game show. You can keep the last-man-standing format that’s apparently sacrosanct, you can have drama, you can put the contestants through the wringer. But no more flying under the radar, no more lady-or-tiger alliance guessing games, no more slacking and coasting. From now on it’s do well in the challenges, get ahead, do lousy, fall back and risk being eliminated.
- Case in point, Mecha-Streissand. Be honest now, do you really believe that Matt and Trey didn’t just pull four names out of a hat when deciding who the heroes and villain would be?
Have you watched any south park in the last ten years?
Like the Simpsons, it has changed, but in the case of South Park, it has evolved into a deeper, more intelligent and more mindexpanding show.
Kenny dies roughly once a season now, and they had a multipart episode descrbing why.
As far as I know, there has only been one case of cannibalism and that’s was Cartman’s crowning moment of evil.
[QUOTE=]
Bart Simpson: I’m a pretty bad kid.
Eric Cartman: Really? What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?
Bart Simpson:*** I stole the head off a statue once.***
Eric Cartman: Wow, that’s pretty hardcore. Geez. That’s like this one time, when I didn’t like a kid, so I ground his parents up into chili and fed it to him.
[/QUOTE]
This was in an episode which explored whether or not we should surrender our freedom of speech just to appease violent terrorists
Anyway, you don’t have to worry, this is almost certainly the final season.
This was final scene of the last episode.
Not a Bones fan I hope. The entire cast (including the guys!) are either pregnant or have just given birth to a healthy nine month old baby. The whole show needs to be on Lifetime.
That was in season 1, over 13 years ago. If anything, pointing to first-season episodes as evidence that the show has been going too long is evidence that the show is better now than when it started.
The very uneven second season of Glee has left me feeling that they should use the third season (which I believe is already in production) to wrap everything up and then STOP. New Directions wins Nationals, most of the current crop of kids graduate, Mr. Schuester and Miss Pillsbury either get together or get over each other, and that’s that.
I might even say it would be best to end now, except I wouldn’t want the very disappointing season two finale to serve as the series finale. I think there’s still hope for a strong third season, but I doubt any good could come of dragging things out longer than that.
My wife would enjoy that too much.
The problem with Dirty Jobs is that there are plenty of dirty jobs out there, but the ones he hasn’t done yet are, well, unairable. There’s no way the Discovery Channel would show him in a human dissection lab. There’s no way they’d show him as a Times Square peep-show-booth jizz mopper. So, some jobs will just have to remain unexplored. Although, the last season’s episode where he visited the “body farm” and examined the decomposing pigs was awesome; I’ve never seen Mike get that sick.
South Park gets a pass from me because the Mohammed episodes were so awesome. The mascot costume they put Mohammed in was the funniest goddamn thing I’ve ever seen.
Yeah, I totally would’ve. I mean, I play World of Warcraft, and I raided; I used to spend my free time listening to some guy talking in a monotone about something I wanted to learn. Really, it’d just be expanding on that ;).
Seriously, I think he could’ve been one of the better choices given more time. He had a smile, and he was on a par with, say, Brad from last year. I’d’ve watched Brad, too. I don’t really want a bunch of fakey smiles and stories; I want someone who knows how to effing cook. Fortunately, Jeff isn’t too bad, either, so I’m pulling for him.
House should have stopped at the end of last season. I’d’ve been happy to see it end with him hooking up with Cuddy. It then would’ve been, you know, a full arc; addict starts out as functioning, gradually hits rock bottom such that he needs to be institutionalized, gets help, has a crisis, and manages to pull through not via drugs, but by via a human relationship–I’d even be so cheesy as to say love. That would’ve been great. But, no, they wanted to keep going, so. . .let’s say none of that worked, and he’s an even bigger asshole than before!
And, I hate to say it, and I’m not sure it counts, because it’s a TV show that’s not being continued on TV, but Buffy the Vampire Slayer needs to end. Not continue in a different medium; just end. I’d love a spin-off that involved either minor characters or entirely different characters in the same universe, but none of this Season 8 crap. You know, sometimes budget constraints that impact creativity are a good thing; they force you to be down to earth, and it seems that Joss Whedon needs that. Ditto Angel.
SNL can’t go off the air…not that every episode is awesome, most of the time they’re crappy, and the humor takes a big stretch to actually get the joke and by the time you get it it’s not funny. However, SNL is a social and government commentary, over half the actors who’ve ever been get their start there, and if it actually went off the air…people may actually die, in fact the world could literally stop turning…just sayin’. 
Couldn’t agree more. It started out as a compelling drama of an NYFD veteran struggling with his personal demons in the aftermath of 9/11. I tried to watch season 2 but couldn’t once I realized I hated all the characters and didn’t care that bad things were happening to them.
Exactly right. When someone says a show jumped the shark in episode one they are really saying “I’m using a phrase I don’t understand”.
Are you kidding? That’s comedy gold!
Seriously, if I read “Tonight on The Office, Jim plays a prank on Dwight while Stanley does a crossword.”, I would say “Funnier than anything else that’s on. Bring on that prank!”
Namkcalb – Oh boy, here we go again.
Okay, I have seen a few of the later eps, usually after reading about them on TVTropes. It does seem to have been toned down considerably (celebrity bashing less ham-handed, Eric more a stupid punk than a sociopath, etc.). But I’m not finding anything really deep or edgy or insightful. Suicidal cults are a really bad thing. You shouldn’t go completely overboard over one bad word you heard on TV. Baseball players using steroids is cheating. Like, tell me something I don’t know. And while Kenny’s survival rate has improved dramatically, he still seems to die in an amazingly high percentage of episodes, totally unexpected after Matt & Trey publicly admitted that having to find a way to off the poor kid every episode was driving them up the wall.
Anyway, relevant to the thread, I don’t know why Matt and Trey never made the jump to mainstream. Isn’t that, like, the usual follow-up to a cult hit?
(I could’ve sworn that Mecha-Streissand was the second or third season. Eh. Like I said, college was a while ago.)
Okay what else…
Dancing With The Stars. This show has become increasingly unpleasant to watch for me over the past 3 seasons, to the point where I came with at least a couple of elaborate ways to fix it. Later, though, I realized that the real problem is that it’s trying to be two things at once: A seeeeerious competition with technical elements and posture and form and lines, and a goofy, corny cheesefest with costumes and characters and wacky skits. Middle-of-the-road is for dead skunks, which is what this is increasingly starting to smell like. Break up DWTS! Have one contest with traditional, elegant ballroom dances, have a panel of judges (5 at the absolute minimum, and preferably 8 or 9) scrutinize them thoroughly, and have their scores count for at least 75% of the score. (Oh, and when they’re critiquing the contestants, the crowd is free to shut the hell up.) And have another contest with bright colors, hammy acting, gaudy costumes, improv, buffoonery, props, everything but the kitchen sink. No stuffy judges, just a wild, whooping live audience and a popular vote.
The Amazing Race. Yeah. Textbook case of why “rubberband AI” is so annoying. The winner isn’t the team that’s the fastest, strongest, and smartest, it’s the team that’s the fastest, strongest, and smartest in the very last part of the very last stage. Everything beforehand gets devoured whole by bunch-ups, accidents, third-party screwups, and other assorted acts of pure dumb luck. Park it for good.
(Something just occurred to me…could a lot of stale reality shows be revitalized by one simple step…don’t announce the results until the very end? So in the Amazing Race, each contestants time is taken, and the totals are revealed at the finish line: no need for bunchups or manufactured drama, none of this “nonelimination point” nonsense. In Dancing With The Stars, the judges are free to be honest and brutal, and the contestants must give it their all every week to have a chance. In American Idol, have two big cuts instead of a week-to-week shell game, defang groups like Vote For The Worst, and make consistency count. You get the picture.)
The Book of Mormon is doing quite well, I believe.
Also, South Park has still retained most of its edge, and is the perfect vehicle for the pair’s type of satirical humor. They did a pretty good send up of the Tea Party back in May of this year.
Book of Mormon is doing excellent, and very few TV writers make the jump to Broadway.
I agree with House and 2 1/2 Men.
How I Met Your Mother has become the poster child for child abuse. Finish the damn story, already.
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas]
How I Met Your Mother has become the poster child for child abuse. Finish the damn story, already.
[/QUOTE]
I figure the last episode will show the kids grown and pretending to listen to their dad in his nursing home. The story has gone on for 40 years.
As for revamping reality shows, two words: TRUE CRIME. Have prisons compete for the best reality shows, profits to go towards the costs of their incarceration. People vote on whether it’s the Aryans or the Crips who get the extra Rice Krispie treats or the winner of an immunity challenge determined by who can do the best flash mob (like those Filipino prisoners on YouTube) gets a taser. *Death Row Has Talent * with judges David Cassidy, Nancy Grace and Lindsey Lohan could win some lucky budding entertainer a commuted sentence; Apprentice Club Fed allows Donald Trump to take part in rehabilitating an inside trader or embezzler (and, for extra drama, one of the contestants is actually not a white collar criminal but a mass murderer and you don’t know which). Flavor Flav hosts 83rd Time is the Charm- finding Warren Jeffs’ newest wife. Or even if you’re paroled or never convicted you can play: have a new Big Brother with Casey Anthony, Squeaky Fromme, Robert Blake, etc… I think it could revitalize criminal justice and a tired genre.
The way the end of the last season played out, I think
Bones’ anticlimactic pregnancy announcement was due to Emily Deschenel’s real-life pregnancy having to be worked in, because Bones kept making a big deal out of a) not wanting a romantic relationship with Booth for practical reasons, and b) she was emphatic about not wanting kids. IOW, it was the producers and writers having to make the best of the situation, not something they would do just because they wanted to change the character. I wouldn’t consign the show to the ash-heap of Lifetime just yet, but the shark is in sight.