# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![Eclipse\_Chaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Eclipse\_Chaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eclipse_Chaser)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2019, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/101 "2019-08-25T21:02:03Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > I liked Voyager but can’t watch any episodes with Neelix in. He’s so cloyingly sentimental, and he’s supposed to be nice, but actually he’s sort of racist, constantly trying to get Tuvok to be less Vulcan - and calling him Mr Vulcan, as if there was nothing to him but his species. Me neither. Couldn’t stand him. In fact there seemed to be a thoroughly unlikeable character (to me) in each incarnation except the first. Wesley in TNG, Odo in DS9, Neelix in VOY and Trip in Enterprise. Come to think of it I didn’t much like Bones in TOS either … ---
**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, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/102 "2019-08-25T22:44:39Z")
> [@Eclipse\_Chaser](#): > > Come to think of it I didn’t much like Bones in TOS either … **SACRILEGE!** :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Jet\_Jaguar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jet_jaguar/32/3562_2.png) [@Jet\_Jaguar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jet_Jaguar)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/103 "2019-08-26T00:08:45Z")
I stopped watching _The Orville_ after they kept Isaac on as part of the crew despite his betrayal. ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/104 "2019-08-26T03:07:13Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > _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. Right up there with _Luck of the Fryish_ and _The Sting_. Damn cartoon show should not make me cry as much as that show did! ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/105 "2019-08-26T16:17:04Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > Oh, and Mean Mr. Mustard, I _liked_ Debra Fucking Morgan. I loved her too. Although, I found myself cussing like a sailor after watching! It took me a couple of tries to get into Dexter. But when I did, I loved it. ---
**Author:** ![road\_lobo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d78d45/32.png) [@road\_lobo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/road_lobo)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2019, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/106 "2019-09-03T00:49:24Z")
> [@Snake\_Plissken](#): > > Ok, so I’m way behind the curve on ‘Breaking Bad’. I binged watched a season and a half last week on vacation… I had to quit. The pregnant wife is soooo annoying. Couldn’t stand her. Same here. Lasted maybe 4 or 5 episodes. Also, Dexter’s girlfriend (on ‘Dexter’) after 2 or 3 seasons. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2019, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/107 "2019-09-03T01:55:25Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > I would be interested in hearing how this interferes with your enjoyment of a television show. > mmm To me, Scientology is such a scam that when I know an actor is a member I can’t stop thinking about it while I’m watching the show. Sometimes an actor is good enough I stop thinking about it. That’s just me, plenty of threads here if you want to argue if Scientology is a scam or not. Let’s not derail this one. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2019, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/108 "2019-09-03T02:08:18Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > The actors are decent, the stories are good…but some concept built into the series makes it impossible to watch. > For me, it was the show “Unforgettable” about a police detective with a perfect memory. > I like Poppy Montgomery, I had no problem with the gimmick of her being able to remember everything…but it was the “everything” she was able to remember that bugged the shit out of me. She could walk through a room and remember months or years later who was in the room and describe everything that was in the room, from the color of the coats on the coat rack to the the notes strewn about someone’s desk _and what each and every note said_. I don’t know how your eyes work, but even if I had perfect memory I wouldn’t be able to tell you what a note _that my eyes never focused on in the first place_ contained. When her character “remembered” she did a mental tour and examined everything close up. This made me abandon the show after the first episode. > What about y’all? It’s rare, but the condition is called [hyperthymesia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperthymesia), and there are about 60 people (known) who have been identified as having it. Marilu Henner being one of the more famous examples, and she consulted on the show. I have no idea how people with superior autobiographical memory re-experience their memories, but the walk-through-the-scene replay was obviously a metaphor so the audience could see it. Anything they look at, however briefly, they will be able to remember. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2019, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/109 "2019-09-03T03:37:44Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > When her character “remembered” she did a mental tour and examined everything close up. This made me abandon the show after the first episode. > What about y’all? I’ve done “memory walks” like this. Often for fun or when I’m really bored. But occasionally if I’m lying in bed thinking “Did I put everything away on the patio?”, I’ll mentally stroll through the backyard. Now, I only have an ordinary memory, so this only helps if I noticed the grill cover was off earlier. But it’s good for \*stuff I know, \*but _I don’t know I know._ But are you familiar with the ancient practice of constructing a [Memory Palace](https://artofmemory.com/wiki/How_to_Build_a_Memory_Palace)? You try to remember a list of things (a To Do List would be the most practical) by walking through an environment you know well, and placing objects that’ll represent each object on your list. Memory Palaces vary from simple (ten items in your living room) to, well, a palace. You could house a hundred mnemonic objects there. But like “Unforgettable” (the example in the OP), you do walk through a scene. Unfortunately without noticing the killer’s bloody Kleenex under the bushes. Literature and media have more ambitious examples, where the protagonist has concocted an elaborate building. There was a _Sherlock_ episode where he did this, but an earlier and more powerful example was Preston & Child’s _Agent Prendergast_ series where the agent performs many mental feats. On more than one occasion he meditates and walks through a house, once imagining the house he’s in as it was generations before. Aloysius Pendergast… what a great name… calls it “a form of mental concentration, one of my own devising, which combines the memory palace with elements of Chongg Ran, an ancient Bhutanese form of meditation.” (I’m hearing him say that in the voice of René Auberjonois, who masterfully reads the audiobooks) ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2019, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/110 "2019-09-03T04:46:11Z")
> [@road\_lobo](#): > > Also, Dexter’s girlfriend (on ‘Dexter’) after 2 or 3 seasons. Well that’s unfortunate. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2019, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/111 "2019-09-03T04:55:08Z")
Family Guy should be a show I like, but something about says it tries too hard to be funny. I work the night shift and it is always on but I really can’t get into it. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2019, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/112 "2019-09-03T12:29:17Z")
Lost - the bear cages made it clear the writers ran out of ideas. My wife watched the rest of it, but from what I can glean by walking into the room once in awhile I made the right decision. The Americans - the second the priest knew and they didn’t shoot him this show became Leave it to Beaver. The Expanse - the female diplomat with the 4 packs a day voice always bothered me, but when the detective was long longer in it I was gone too. Daredevil - the main character is a whiny bitch, without Foggy the show was worthless. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2019, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/113 "2019-09-03T12:41:13Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > The Expanse - the female diplomat with the 4 packs a day voice always bothered me, but when the detective was long longer in it I was gone too. I don’t know if this will help, but… He sort of comes back… ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2019, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/114 "2019-09-03T13:07:50Z")
> [@digs](#): > > I’ve done “memory walks” like this. Often for fun or when I’m really bored. But occasionally if I’m lying in bed thinking “Did I put everything away on the patio?”, I’ll mentally stroll through the backyard. > > Now, I only have an ordinary memory, so this only helps if I noticed the grill cover was off earlier. But it’s good for \*stuff I know, \*but _I don’t know I know._ You could have the most perfect memory possible, but if you didn’t focus on an object vision-wise in real time, then your memory _cannot_ give you a focused image of that object. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2019, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/115 "2019-09-03T23:00:49Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > Marilu Henner being one of the more famous examples, and she consulted on the show. If she used it on _Taxi_ she demonstrated that knowing the lines is not enough–you need the acting chops to deliver them. ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2019, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/116 "2019-09-04T09:23:37Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > The Americans - the second the priest knew and they didn’t shoot him this show became Leave it to Beaver. To me this is the point where the show could have become a classic. A brutal end for the priest and his wife (after a detailed trackdown of where the “evidence” he was keeping was). And then a bullet for Page. So even the fruit of their loins was dealt with swiftly. It did lead to a few seasons of us shouting “put a bullet in page!” ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2019, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/117 "2019-09-04T11:24:42Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > The Americans - the second the priest knew and they didn’t shoot him this show became Leave it to Beaver. > [@Smid](#): > > To me this is the point where the show could have become a classic. A brutal end for the priest and his wife (after a detailed trackdown of where the “evidence” he was keeping was). I was quite confused for a minute there. “Priest and his wife?” That’s…not a thing anywhere. And the priest didn’t “find out,” he was also a Russian spy. Then I realized that you guys were talking about the pastor. I wouldn’t have been confused except that there actually was a priest in the show. ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2019, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/118 "2019-09-04T11:31:38Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > Then I realized that you guys were talking about the pastor. I wouldn’t have been confused except that there actually was a priest in the show. Ah yes, the Pastor. I think the priest was an ally of them… ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2019, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/119 "2019-09-04T11:38:16Z")
> [@Smid](#): > > Ah yes, the Pastor. I think the priest was an ally of them… Yes, he was both a spy and a friend. He went so far as to marry them for real, as opposed to their sham cover marriage. My favorite part of the show was when Paige found out, but then within seemingly a handful of episodes it started going downhill. Still ended “good,” but it started “great” so that was a bit of a bummer. A similar thing (IMO) happened on Dexter when Debra found out. The scene where she walked into his killing room during one of his murders was fantastic, and then, later, her “Are you a serial killer?” was a high watermark, but again, within a handful of episodes it started going downhill. Unlike The Americans, though, Dexter went from very good to almost tedious. ---
**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:** [September 4, 2019, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023/120 "2019-09-04T12:32:15Z")
As for The Americans, I want the sequel show where P&E&P live in some dingy slums of Moscow flat with a common bathroom and no TV or phones or car and as Paige speaks no Russian she has no friends and there’s never anything in the stores. Paige will be all “MOM what did you get me into?”, E will be “this isn’t like I remember Russia” and Phillip will be looking for the nearest CIA operative to defect. That is, if E doesn’t turn him in for disloyalty and he gets sent to Siberia. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-in-an-otherwise-decent-tv-series-made-it-impossible-for-you-to-watch/839023.md?page=7)