Kind of funny, that is the exact reason I like Law and Order. I really can’t watch any other drama, because I never watch them consitantly. And they alway devote about half the time to stupid, soap-operay relationship and personal crap that I can’t follow. Only watching once a month, I don’t know and I really don’t care about who got a divorce, who fucked who, and who got preganant, or had a retarded kid. But Law and Order I can just turn in and watch a fairly well crafted story about a crime, and not wonder why so and so now hate each other.
That’s why so many of the serialized shows are failing. If you take the time to develop characters you can create a much richer drama but it also means that viewers can’t wander in 3-4 weeks in and follow the story thread.
Shows like Lost and Heroes have the additional baggage of creating a universe in which things happen that are strange and maybe intriguing, at first. But to keep up the interest of viewers they have to keep introducing new odd elements and twists that take the drama so far away from reality that it becomes unwatchable (i.e., Twin Peaks).
I allow myself one serialized show at a time and, as it happens, HBO generally provides one serialized show at a time. The Wire just ended, which makes everything else pale by comparison, but Rome returns in January, followed by The Sopranos (yeah, not as good as it once was, but still superior to anything on the commercial networks). Of course this is the end for both Rome and The Sopranos, Deadwood is gone, and there’s one season left for the Wire. I guess a year from now I’ll be getting more actual work done…
That’s another interesting thread topic: interesting shows that become less interesting in syndication. I guess Seinfeld still appeals to a lot of people, because it seems like it’s on 10 hours/day, but I’ve had the same experience as a lot of people on this thread: I just can’t watch the reruns. I refuse to take personal responsiblity for this though; it was a good show back then. It just doesn’t work as well in reruns.
Comedys, IMHO, should be funny. Family comedies, like Raymond, obviously appeal to a wide variety of the public (like NASCAR fans and Leno fans, these are people who live in a world I have never visited). But humor should be more important than how lovable the characters are.
I was a huge fan of Get Smart back in the day, and MASH was a pretty great show before they decided that they had something meaningful to say (not that I disagreed with them, it just meant that the show stopped being funny).
Seinfeld worked because they weren’t afraid to portray the characters as selfish asses. “No hugs” was their motto. I can’t really enjoy any show that might pop up any week with “a very special episode.” Scrubs wanders back-and-forth across this line a lot; I enjoy the screwball aspects of the show, then I wretch at the “special moments.”
The British version of The Office was good. The American version has its moments (I think because the Brit version had a story arc, and never intended to go beyond a dozen episodes, while the American version is afraid to have the boss be too irredeemable, since there is no end in sight).
And, at the risk of being completely flamed, Arrested Development is the greatest comedy in the history of television. Hands down. No runners up. Totally irredeemable characters, topicality, running jokes and sight gags that carry on through multiple episodes (some of which you don’t see until you watch old episodes again), even some topical humor thrown in. I know many of you disagree with me, and that’s okay: I know that the market spoke, as it were, and no one but me and a few others liked the show. That doesn’t make me wrong. Or, for that matter, more discerning than you are…
I despise all reality (*) shows. Especially ones that are reality ‘contest’ shows. I find somehow insulting that they are presented as ‘reality’ as opposed to a bunch of amatures trying to one-up each other for some screen time.
I hate the Law and Order spin-offs. Especially Criminal Intent. I have never seen such overacting in all my life. And I usually like D’Onfrio.
I have to come to hate the original because it has been taken over by hacks. I wish I could stop watching.
I hate, hate, HATE the CSI’s. Hacks all. CSI is not like that and I simply cannot suspend my disbelief.
[sub]* American Choppers is ok[/sub]
I’m not sure how popular it is, but I hate Friday Night Lights. Please, future DPs, the shaky camera is for a particular effect in a particular circumstance. It’s to emphasize the chaos of chaotic situations, like running from a bear or something. It is not to be used in conjunction with nose-hair close-ups while people are just having ordinary conversations. Please? Okay?
I think Weird Al Yankovic described Everybody Loves Raymond best when he referred to it as “Everybody Tolerates Raymond.”
I hated Seinfeld because the characters we too selfish and petty to be likable. The guys were all major assholes, and the girls were all raging bitches, and I just can’t bring myself to care about any of them. One of the Dopers summed up my feelings when he/she offered the theory that Seinfeld was some witty theologian’s vision of Hell.
I agree that the Seinfeld characters were unlikable, but that’s not inherently a bad thing. It worked, I think. It seperated it from being the type of show that would have a very special episode of something. You get likable in all of the bland, rubber stamp sitcoms out there.
In fact… most good comedy shows tend towards having less likable characters. There were only 2, maybe 3 remotely decent human beings on Arrested Development, but that’s easily the greatest “sitcom” in televisin history.