# What in an otherwise decent TV series made it impossible for you to watch? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 21, 2019, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023 "2019-08-21T20:48:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/81 "2019-08-23T18:25:35Z")
> [@River\_Hippie](#): > > Knowing that one of the actors is a Scientologist. Ha! Yes. ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/82 "2019-08-23T18:43:05Z")
I like Law & Order. However, over the years they had a couple of main characters that rubbed me the wrong way. Occasional I’ll skip to the courtroom part (none of those characters have bothered me). ---
**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/83 "2019-08-23T18:43:15Z")
I just finished the final season of _Orange is the New Black_, and (among its many strengths and weaknesses) I couldn’t stomach how they made every single male guard stupid, piggish, bigoted and/or over-the-top sexist. Yes, I get that it’s a show about women, and that the writers had a political agenda (which I generally share), but it seemed like they forgot the show was supposed to be a comedy and then decided to make it “funny” by making all the guards despicable idiots. ---
**Author:** ![TimfromNapa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@TimfromNapa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimfromNapa)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/84 "2019-08-23T20:15:13Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > Peggy is the one I don’t like. I don’t think you are supposed to like Peggy. She is incompetent and she is opinionated way beyond her meager intelligence, yet she believes she is somewhere close to brilliant. It is a shame that the writers did not go further with her talent for metal sculpture. It could have put her in a very different light. ---
**Author:** ![TimfromNapa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@TimfromNapa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimfromNapa)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/85 "2019-08-23T20:22:06Z")
During its original run, I loved the first season of Space 1999. Of course, I was 13 and knew far less about Physics than I should have. Now, I don’t think I could enjoy it inspite of the otherwise good writing and great acting. While I can forgive Star Trek its sins, there is just to much wrong going on in Space 1999 to swallow. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/86 "2019-08-23T20:48:00Z")
I tried to watch the Icelandic cop show “Trapped” on Amazon Prime, but bailed after two episodes. Every single character was either obnoxious, corrupt, evil, or a mope. Even the lead character’s two little girls were bullies who picked on a boy in the school. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/87 "2019-08-23T21:00:58Z")
**Jessica Jones**. I don’t care for Krysten Ritter, as she’s pretty one-dimensional, but I can get past that. It was the incessant alcoholism, and the really poorly done acts of strength on her part. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/88 "2019-08-23T21:31:19Z")
_The Masked Singer_ is actually a fun concept, and could potentially serve as a nice guilty-pleasure bit of escapist entertainment. But Jenny McCarthy is on it. Her personality is supremely grating, and her over-the-top reaction to _everything_ on the show ramps up the annoying factor right off the scale. All of which I might be able to overlook, except that, knowing how much damage she’s done to childern’s health over the years with her idiotic anti-vaccination views, I can’t even stand to look at her face. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/89 "2019-08-23T22:06:32Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > I tried to watch the Icelandic cop show “Trapped” on Amazon Prime, but bailed after two episodes. Every single character was either obnoxious, corrupt, evil, or a mope. I had a similar reason to Torchwood… I’m a huge Doctor Who fan and a similar show that touches on adult stuff should have caught my interest. But I just didn’t like any of the characters (even Jack, because he was so different from his personality in the main show). They’re an elite team that’s incompetent, petty, reckless, and unethical (ex: in the first episode, one of the team drugs and date rapes people for kicks). Just nothing to hook "I care about these people’ on. ---
**Author:** ![Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Call_Me.Tim)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2019, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/90 "2019-08-24T00:55:19Z")
> [@Clark\_K](#): > > God bless you for this! That episode has haunted me for years. For everyone but Clark K. who probably doesn’t want to know: That episode was inspired by a real dog, [Hachikō](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachik%C5%8D). ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2019, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/91 "2019-08-24T04:18:08Z")
> [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](#): > > I refuse to watch _ **Futurama** _, because the one I did watch was about Fry’s dog, and the ending left me so upset that I refuse to give them the chance to do it again. _Jurassic Bark_, maybe one of the best episodes of animated TV ever, in a “please rip my heart out and make me sob uncontrollably” kind of way. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2019, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/92 "2019-08-24T05:09:05Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > Shows set in locations with all male casts that suddenly throw a female lead in the second season to “shake things up”. > > I have never watched a show and thought “Now this is great but you know what it really needs? All the male characters to suddenly get unresolved sexual tension plots.” Shows with hottish youngish women and they are spies or have some kind of Important Job, and a full and interesting life, with men and work and all of a sudden: their sister dies in a car crash, or their parents, and they are saddled with ‘The Little Sister’. or a niece. And the Little Sister or niece is about 15, is a stabbing pain in the ass, acts out, gets arrested, runs away, gets kidnapped by the villaine, drops out of school, and general just endlessly cockblocks the heroine, until you wish that fool was also killed in the car crash, too. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2019, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/93 "2019-08-24T06:10:14Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Shows with hottish youngish women and they are spies or have some kind of Important Job, and a full and interesting life, with men and work and all of a sudden: their sister dies in a car crash, or their parents, and they are saddled with ‘The Little Sister’. or a niece. And the Little Sister or niece is about 15, is a stabbing pain in the ass, acts out, gets arrested, runs away, gets kidnapped by the villaine, drops out of school, and general just endlessly cockblocks the heroine, until you wish that fool was also killed in the car crash, too. One time I didn’t mind the little sister showing up was when Debra Winger guest starred as Druscilla on _ **Wonder Woman** _. Oh-my-God! Teenaged Debra Winger in a WW outfit, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! :o ---
**Author:** ![wanderer2575](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/2acd7d/32.png) [@wanderer2575](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wanderer2575)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2019, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/94 "2019-08-24T06:29:13Z")
Any Food Network competition with Damaris Phillips or Katie Lee appearing as judges. But that’s individual episodes, so maybe doesn’t count. > [@ZonexandScout](#): > > What? Nobody bitchin’ about Wesley Crusher? As soon as I see him in a TNG episode, it’s time to switch the channel. Even worse: Lwaxana Troi. ---
**Author:** ![wanderer2575](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/2acd7d/32.png) [@wanderer2575](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wanderer2575)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2019, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/95 "2019-08-24T22:57:55Z")
This doesn’t make the show unwatchable per the OP so it really doesn’t count, but I have to note that the premise of three television writers and a stay-at-home housewife who all happen to also be skilled in singing, dancing, and physical comedy strains the effort of suspending disbelief when watching _The Dick Van Dyke Show_. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2019, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/96 "2019-08-24T23:07:02Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Shows with hottish youngish women and they are spies or have some kind of Important Job, and a full and interesting life, with men and work and all of a sudden: their sister dies in a car crash, or their parents, and they are saddled with ‘The Little Sister’. or a niece. And the Little Sister or niece is about 15, is a stabbing pain in the ass, acts out, gets arrested, runs away, gets kidnapped by the villaine, drops out of school, and general just endlessly cockblocks the heroine, until you wish that fool was also killed in the car crash, too. OTOH, when the little sister is a [magical construct](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_Summers) meant to stymie a god, it works. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2019, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/97 "2019-08-25T00:05:45Z")
> [@wanderer2575](#): > > This doesn’t make the show unwatchable per the OP so it really doesn’t count, but I have to note that the premise of three television writers and a stay-at-home housewife who all happen to also be skilled in singing, dancing, and physical comedy strains the effort of suspending disbelief when watching _The Dick Van Dyke Show_. Don’t forget that he met Laura because she was a USO performer at his army base, so there is a backstory. And I believe the other two came from vaudeville, so they were performers. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2019, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/98 "2019-08-25T02:30:51Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > Don’t forget that he met Laura because she was a USO performer at his army base, so there is a backstory. And I believe the other two came from vaudeville, so they were performers. Also, Rob was in Army Special Services, which meant he was heavily involved in providing entertainment to the troops. That’s why he was around the theatre where Laura was performing. He later got his job as a television writer by sending some unsolicited material to Alan Brady, who liked what he read. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2019, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/99 "2019-08-25T03:40:10Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Also, Rob was in Army Special Services, which meant he was heavily involved in providing entertainment to the troops. That’s why he was around the theatre where Laura was performing. He later got his job as a television writer by sending some unsolicited material to Alan Brady, who liked what he read. That’s right- they were both entertainers when they met. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2019, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/100 "2019-08-25T13:19:52Z")
See, for me, I loved Jurassic Bark. But knowing the show brought him back from the dead, and removed the whole hachiko inspired story, ruined the revival. I will never watch any of the new episodes. That 70s Show turned me off because I was that age in 1976 Wisconsin, and the episodes I watched before I quit got nothing right. If you’re going to do a period piece, at least try to get the period right. And if Wes Crusher can’t get in StarFleet, hoe the heck did Reg? Come to think of it, how did that asshole with the webbed hands that yelled at Wes get in? He should have failed the psych tests, too. Maybe, just maybe, Star Fleet is really not a government entity, but just a club, like the Boy Scouts, but this club is for the losers. Wes is just too smart, too good, and no one wants him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023.md?page=6)