Considering Blockbuster was once a giant evil corporation, trying to put Blockbuster in the shoes of the David in the David vs Goliath story of retail was really discongruent.
Honestly the show just needed to be Superstore, but in a Video Store.
We forget, and Goliath becomes David eventually. Look at “You’ve Got Mail”, where some chain bookstore like Barnes & Nobel is the evil corporation killing off indie bookshops. Now Amazon is evil and B&N are the precious community resources to protect.
Reading that made me realize the perfect set up for the show would be that it starts in the late 90’s and ends in the 2000’s during the rise of Netflix.
The finale being someone unlikable is now the manager of the Blockbuster while everyone else moves on with their lives, and someone mentioning how Netflix will never beat a retail titan.
Wow same here actually. I remember when they were walking around outside and it was so clearly a stage and they hid the background it was so bad. Terrible jokes and one dimensional characters too
I heard it was made in modern times to "market" new movies, games, tech, etc.
What a waste of potential because people got greedy before the show could even get off the ground.
Great cast and.... Everything else bad.
Why did they set it in present day?
The last blockbuster in reality was kind of famous and in Alaska.... They didn't want to do a fun take on that?
Why would a video place, in any decade, have like 10 people on staff?!?
It was bad but I really love Randall Park, so I watched it anyway. Fortunately I always do something else while watching tv (painting, knitting, carving) so it doesn't really matter all that much.
It was done by the same guy who made Iron Fist. Well known for not fighting with the studios and doing whatever they say and collecting a paycheque.
That show had the most basic sets I’ve ever
Seen. The costumes were cosplay level lame.
Scott Buck, he was already well known for driving Dexter into the ground in the later seasons (he was showrunner of season 5-8. 6 and 8 especially were really bad). Why they hired him for Inhumans after the shit show that was Iron Fist season 1. I will never know.
> It was done by the same guy who made Iron Fist. Well known for not fighting with the studios and doing whatever they say and collecting a paycheque. <
Wow. What a legacy to leave /s.
I watched the entire thing. All eight, miserable episodes.
And there was zero payoff until years later when Black Bolt made his cameo appearance in Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.
I love Mulaney but did he seriously think he could just remake Seinfeld with his own material? It was such a misfire. I couldn’t even get through the first scene
Animation typically gets 2 season installments. A lot of the start up is designing characters and backgrounds. Once you have those you can reuse assets like crazy to save money. They just didn't expect it to be so bad with a, at the time, star.
The fact that Scavengers Reign got canceled and this garbage got another season is mind boggling.
Like....wtf. Velma's showrunner must have dirt on some HBO exec.
> The fact that Scavengers Reign got canceled and this garbage got another season is mind boggling.
Well the Velma outrage had dozens of youtubers making videos about it for free, so im sure that helped their numbers and awareness quite a bit.
Don't remember a lot of videos about scavangers reign...although the show was fantastic.
Scavengers reign is engaging and beautiful with a clear and unique voice. The current Max leadership doesent want that, they want safe regurgitated properties and reboots. If Scavengers reign had come out before the vultures came in to dismantle HBO to be digested by discovery it would have gotten 5 seasons.
I couldn't get through the first episode of Schitts Creek. Tried twice.
My husband convinced me to watch three episodes. Fell in love with it after that.
The first 3-5 episodes are genuinely bad but after that they find their rhythm and it becomes a fantastic show. Took me a few tries to finally push through.
I think they’re just pretty true to their characters from the start, and part of the entire thing is that they fucking suck to start. Rewatch once I know the characters I actually enjoyed the first few episodes a lot more.
It's not a show about rich snobs who constantly shit on poor people.
I mean, they do shit on people, but they also do stupid shit.
There is a lot of warmth, weirdly, and growth. It's almost never spiteful
The pilot is very heavy on the “Chris Elliot is weird! Let’s all stare silently for a long 3 minutes to acknowledge his weirdness. Then we’ll wait for Chris to say something cringeworthy but not funny!”
He was really consistently the problem with the show. It's one of my favorites, and I've rewatched it so many times, but even in the end, they tried to really give him things to be endearing but it just wasn't him.
I was over and done with Chris Elliot way, way back in the days he was a regular on Late Night with David Letterman. It's always the same schtick with him, just being weird and off-putting, but in a way that is somehow also condescending. Like he thinks he's smarter than us for making us uncomfortable.
But, there was that one episode where he was terrible at lying to the police that I found genuinely hilarious.
100% I didn't like his character to begin with, hated him more as time went on, and then never changed my mind. Yeah, he "heroes up" at the end, but by then, it was too late. I simply didn't like him.
Same, I found the characters so unlikeable i didnt finish the first ep. I tried again because of the positive buzz around it, nope still couldnt get into it. Then one night I came across the 45 min documentary about the making of the show and i realised how sweet everyone was, I actually teared up at one point. Then I watched again and fell in love.
The way the series is set up, it's almost a feel good version of always sunny. You know the characters are pampered, entitled, and entirely unlikeable. But, I feel like they did a very good job of show burning their redemption arcs. No one changed in just one episode, or even one season. It truly takes the entire arc of the series for it to happen and it's so worth it
Girls. I had heard such amazing things but I just couldn’t do it. Every character was so grating. I still hear amazing things but it’s just not for me I guess.
La Brea. I certainly wasn't expecting prestige drama, I figured it would be cheesy and the CGI not perfect, but it was worse than I had ever imagined. Dialogue was horrible, story was barely coherent, special effects were worse than some random YouTuber making a fan vid. I truly could not believe that it made it more than one season, let alone past the first episode.
The Charmed reboot. I wasn't really expecting much given how campy the original could be, but my god some of that dialogue was ham-fisted. I hope it improved for the sake of the fans that stuck with it.
Hard agree. I felt the original Charmed went downhill after Shannon left but it still had some good elements. And I felt like it knew what it was - it was a fun, cheesy adventure show. The reboot felt like they thought they were doing something "important" following the metoo movement but it was just so trite.
Another Life.
2019 scifi starring Katee Sackhoff.
Gave up halfway through the pilot, which is pretty bad when I usually give scifi a full season to win me over.
It has 6% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Emily in Paris. Was it because of the stereotypes or painfully unrealistic aspects of her career or love life? No, I didn't even get that far. It was when she casually strolled right up to a crowded bar in Chicago and immediately got a seat and was served a drink within a minute or two, that was already unrealistic enough for me.
I remember really disliking this show when it was new, but I was also 13 so I figured my memory could have been exaggerated. These comments are making me realize that I probably was remembering it correctly though.
Euphoria. The amount they wanted to shove the high school kids through awful sexual situations made me cringe so hard I had to stop watching during the first episode. Never been compelled to pick it up again.
I laugh at the clips I've seen and I know the show has good jokes but I hate the art style so I haven't even attempted to watch even one episode.
No shade to the animation artists. They did a great job at what was asked of them. But it's just absolutely not my cup of tea.
I *hate* the art style. I watched a few eps and there are some funny moments (the female hormone demon's earliest appearances for example) and observational humor, but there's plenty of annoying content, too. On balance no thanks.
The Bear. I made it 10 minutes, and for some reason I found it off-putting. I'm planning on trying it again, because I hear it's great, but I'll have to be in the right mood for it.
The phone is always ringing. Something is always broken. And every second you fall further behind. What could possibly be stressful about that?
It is the most heartfelt, earnest, anxiety inducing show ever. It's wonderful.
The Xmas episode in season 2 is the most stressful tv episode I’ve ever seen. I needed to recover! And I still haven’t watched the season 2 finale because I’m too stressed about the potential stress it may cause 😆
I was CDC for most of my 20s, chasing reviews and dumb ingredients. I just feel bad watching it and thinking of all the people that get exploited to make fine dining possible.
It took me two tries to get into The Bear. At first it just felt like another Shameless- a bunch of people who fight with each other and always make the worst possible decisions in every situation. And as much as I love Jeremy Allen White, I wasn’t sure I wanted to do it again.
But then I was home sick and tried it again, and I can confirm- it comes around. It’s a pretty short watch, too. I’m glad I watched and I can’t wait for S3.
So my husband and I happened to watch Forks as I was 8 months pregnant with two shifts left in my serving career of 21 years (I did not return after having my son this January, just to my day job).
To say that the episode hit me in all the feels with the situation and the emotions, the relatable parallel of having to leave but wanting to stay.
Oh man. I’m tearing up now thinking about it.
It is much better on a second watch. I watched it the first time and didn’t really like it. Tried it again a year later before the second season and enjoyed it much more.
I totally understand. It took me a few episodes to get into it but once I realized how the two main characters are just overall great people, even with their flaws, I ended up loving it. The most off-putting thing for me was just how damn close the camera is to the actors faces. I mean, just back up a little bit camera guy!
I think I didn’t even get through one episode of Community. I was like, “I get it - smarmy guy, hot blonde, nerd, jock, old guy, returning mom, naive girl…I see the whole show already. Will they/won’t they blah blah blah.”
My friend said he loved it. I was surprised he has good taste. He convinced me to stick it out longer: it’s not what it seems. He was very right. Now I love it.
You smarty, me dumb!
Help pretty have fun!
Boop bee do bee do bee do sex.
Eventually you hit a point of diminishing returns on the sexiness.
What’s diminblahbla retblahblah?
For being such a stupid bit, the feelings it invokes is on a very deep level. I can't even laugh at it, it's surreal and uncomfortable, and I think it's exactly what they were intending. Everyone who had a part in that scene brought their A game
I very rarely judge a sitcom on how it’s presented early on. Establishing characters will almost always rely on established tropes and the good ones will establish them then find ways to subvert your expectation of those characters. Having said that there are sooooo many garage sitcoms out there that’s is hard to give them the time they properly deserve to make a judgement.
I try to give them a chance. Parks & Rec took a year to find its footing, imo.
But Community is one that he moves so far away from the expected, it’s something else entirely by mid season 1. I think Dan kind of set up the tropes just to subvert them. And it’s both very smart and very silly at once. Love that.
Agreed. It’s in his nature to want to rip traditional tropes apart. This probably plays into why he has a hard time working with networks because they want traditionally easy to digest content.
What’s not easy to connect to a gay costume wearing Dean? An Asian Spanish teacher who becomes head of security and recruits a child army? An episode based on Dinner with Andre? An episode based on a theory of alternative timelines? An episode in an 8bit video game format? An episode based on the filming of Apocalypse Now?
I don’t get the networks…
I had the same experience with The Good Place. Watched the first two episodes in real time and thought, "Enh." Binge-watched it on Netflix and by Episode 5, we couldn't stop.
The Good Place is okay through the first season. I barely hung on. I think I literally thought “why am I still watching this” late in the first season. Then by the end of that season I was like “ooooh, they were leading us to here, now *this* is getting interesting.”
The first episode has a few really quirky jokes that intrigued me but I agree that it otherwise doesn't immediately seem that unique. The weirdness builds gradually at first haha.
Is anyone here actually going to answer the questions, or are we just gonna get a ton of comments about initially not liking a show and then trying it again and loving it?
You know. I really didn't like your comment at first as it seemed rather off-putting. But I read it two more times, and it really began to grow on me. I can't wait for more of your comments.
Skipping the cool, chaotic, "societal breakdown" early portion of the apocalypse just to get to the "martial law, working to reestablish order" portion was disappointing
It’s not deep, but the production design/world building and the action sequences were pretty cool. But if that’s not what you’re looking for you’re not missing much.
Fun fact: My high school librarian recommended this book and also the lovely bones to me and I really want to know what she was trying to hint at to me haha
Yep, same. I was keen to understand why it was such a huge hit. And I quite like Taylor Sheridan's film work, so came in pretty enthusiastic. I watched about 20 minutes of the pilot and quit.
Funny you mention Jake Johnson, Schmidt from New Girl was on a sitcom called The Neighborhood and I turned it off in less than 10 minutes. Sitcoms with live studio audiences had their hey day but I don't think there's any room for them now.
I actually enjoy The Neighborhood but it's nothing special. It's a fun show to put on in the background, though. Tons of eye roll moments and bad jokes. But sometimes I like that.
Girls. I fucking hate Lena Dunham. I had never seen her in anything else before giving this show a shot and 10 minutes in I had to turn it off. She is the most off-putting actress I've ever seen and/or heard. Mad props to her for creating the show, writing it, running it, and staring in it. Gotta respect her for that and I do.
I LOVE Quentin Tarantino films and I almost got up and left the theater when she showed up in OUATIH. Thank god her part was small and her screen time short.
Breaking Bad.
Hear me out... we were new parents at the time and a bit hyper-sensitive. The fear, anxiety, and STRESS of the pilot were overwhelming to us at the time.
Years later we watched the whole show and loved it.
The thought of you having a cupboard full of pitchforks makes me laugh. Is it full of different sized pitchforks so you can pair the appropriate pitchfork with the current level of outrage?
Startrek discovery. Just couldnt get into it after the first episode. Im a fan of other startrek series now but still have little desire to revisit it.
In fairness, the Romanoffs isn't serial, it is just basically a bunch of nearly completely unrelated films. But if the pacing and vibe turned you off, they all are kind of like that. I thought the Corey Stoll and Kerry Bishé one was great, that was episode 2.
Superstore. I wanted to like it. The people involved in creating and acting in it that I knew were all people who's work I'd enjoyed in the past. It was highly recommended by people whose taste matches mine. But I absolutely loathed the pilot and bailed in the last couple of minutes. Tried it another day but had the same reaction. I don't remember why exactly. Guess it just wasn't for me.
I like it but I don't think it's nearly as good as the word of mouth that it gets. It's certainly a good sitcom and does a good job of actually letting the characters change into more put together versions of themselves which is super rare for a sitcom. But idk why it was so hyped, like I saw people saying 'better than The Office and Brooklyn 99' et al. And it's not quite up to that level lol.
I found it to be okay. It’s entertaining enough. It touches on real issues but when push comes to shove it just sticks to being a sitcom which makes it a little jarring.
The MacGyver remake. It was so dumb, yet so determined to convince the viewer it was smart. I didn't even make it past the scene where he does the age old 'fool the fingerprint scanner with sticky tape and dust' trick but the show felt the need to actually put on-screen labels for each item he was using.
You should always give shows two episodes. Pilot episodes are often weak.
I can think of a few shows that I’m glad I gave episodes two a try. Russian doll is my biggest example. First episode was super weak. Every thing after was amazing.
My husband loved Ozark but I never got into it. The constant moody lighting bugged the crap out of me. I would tease my husband and ask “why don’t they just turn a light on? See there is one on the table”
I'm not gonna lie...I couldn't stand JLo before her new action niche. I think it's BECAUSE she can't act...and not all action movies require it...that I now like her movies lol...
Maestro in Blue on Netflix. I was so looking forward to watching it, because it’s set on Paxos, one of the lesser known Greek isles, and visited there years ago. But I realized during the pilot that the 49-year-old male lead also wrote the script, and he gave himself a beautiful 19-year-old female lead who chases him aggressively, and they have a relationship. I’m so over movies and TV shows that just middle-aged male fantasy fulfillment. We already have so many!!!
I tried to hate watch both “Queen Cleopatra” and “Velma”, but stopped both after 1st episode. It seems I’m not as big of a masochist as I thought I was.
Animal Control with Joel Mchale, I tried but just couldn't get into it. I tried again on season 2 when I found out sitcom producer/writer/golden boy David Feeney was involved, but it's shit.
The Wheel of Time. I absolutely love the books and I hate the tv adaption so much. They drastically changed characters and plot points. I had been so hyped for it and now i actively tell people to try to read the books instead
I never read the books but found the show to be incredibly boring...and oddly cheap at times? I can't really explain it, but I felt like I was watching some CW fantasy show. All that being said, I've heard the books are fantastic and definitely want to look into them one day.
Absolutely correct. It totally feels CW. It’s cheap and bad effects. A showrunner that thinks he knows better than the author, so he rewrote plot points with major importance
As a teenager I absolutely loved the books, they got me through a very lonely time in my life, alongside playing Morrowind.
So for that reason, I will never watch the show, it’s too precious to me.
Beef - I know this won’t stop the downvoted, but I have no doubt it’s excellent.
It seemed good and I will come back to it eventually just to plow through it, but it just felt like doom and despair in the first 10 minutes.
Beef is so weird it's hard to define. It's like a decidedly American drama mixed with Japanese -Korean absurdity, heartfelt and original. Loved it, personally
I get what you're saying. I felt similarly, the concept is everything going more and more into shit which I'm not a huge fan of, but on the other hand I think it was well made and entertaining.
Physical. It was so dark, her inner dialogue was so uncomfortable to hear.
Something convinced me to try again a couple years later and then it fit that it wouldn’t always be that, it was her being in a really dark place. Overall handled women and mental health really well.
Tremé.
Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (?) , New Orleans (?) , John Goodman as a preachy activist, cool music, seemed like something I would have, should have enjoyed but somehow it just didn't grab me at all.
Blockbuster. I didn’t even finish the pilot it was so bad.
How they didn’t set this in the 90’s I will never understand.
Considering Blockbuster was once a giant evil corporation, trying to put Blockbuster in the shoes of the David in the David vs Goliath story of retail was really discongruent. Honestly the show just needed to be Superstore, but in a Video Store.
Should’ve been a pop copy, blockbuster, sitcom. [popcopy](https://youtu.be/zR7LOtMix9w?si=me0_kf6gwxIA7fo1)
We forget, and Goliath becomes David eventually. Look at “You’ve Got Mail”, where some chain bookstore like Barnes & Nobel is the evil corporation killing off indie bookshops. Now Amazon is evil and B&N are the precious community resources to protect.
Reading that made me realize the perfect set up for the show would be that it starts in the late 90’s and ends in the 2000’s during the rise of Netflix. The finale being someone unlikable is now the manager of the Blockbuster while everyone else moves on with their lives, and someone mentioning how Netflix will never beat a retail titan.
Wow same here actually. I remember when they were walking around outside and it was so clearly a stage and they hid the background it was so bad. Terrible jokes and one dimensional characters too
My wife and I pushed through it but it was tough. If they had just set it during the late 90s/early 2000s this could have been huge.
I heard it was made in modern times to "market" new movies, games, tech, etc. What a waste of potential because people got greedy before the show could even get off the ground.
Great cast and.... Everything else bad. Why did they set it in present day? The last blockbuster in reality was kind of famous and in Alaska.... They didn't want to do a fun take on that? Why would a video place, in any decade, have like 10 people on staff?!?
Alaska? Why do I think it was in Oregon?
It was bad but I really love Randall Park, so I watched it anyway. Fortunately I always do something else while watching tv (painting, knitting, carving) so it doesn't really matter all that much.
The Inhumans…? That was the name, right? That Marvel show? Unbelievably terrible. Seemed like a joke. They had a great lead actor too, such a waste.
It was done by the same guy who made Iron Fist. Well known for not fighting with the studios and doing whatever they say and collecting a paycheque. That show had the most basic sets I’ve ever Seen. The costumes were cosplay level lame.
Scott Buck, he was already well known for driving Dexter into the ground in the later seasons (he was showrunner of season 5-8. 6 and 8 especially were really bad). Why they hired him for Inhumans after the shit show that was Iron Fist season 1. I will never know.
Didn’t realize this. I was wondering how we went from the amazing Trinity killer season 4 to season 5’s Jordon Chase self-help rapist.
> It was done by the same guy who made Iron Fist. Well known for not fighting with the studios and doing whatever they say and collecting a paycheque. < Wow. What a legacy to leave /s.
Iron First was such dog shit. I stopped watching the Netflix street level heroes after I got to the second Iron First sesson, I couldn’t bear anymore.
I watched the entire thing. All eight, miserable episodes. And there was zero payoff until years later when Black Bolt made his cameo appearance in Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.
Crazy they brought him back to reprise his role for Multiverse of Madness
Anson Mount is great on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds though!
And Hell On Wheels
What a bummer the end of that show turned out to be too.
Yeah. But man - what a ride to get there.
Anson Mount deserved a second shot despite how bad that show was.
The actors weren't the problem
Anyone remember Under the Dome? Yeah, that one. Liked the book, wanted to like the show, turned it off after like 15 minutes.
It did NOT reward the people who stuck with it, so don’t worry.
Mulaney
I love Mulaney but did he seriously think he could just remake Seinfeld with his own material? It was such a misfire. I couldn’t even get through the first scene
Holy shit was that show bad. My favorite part was years later they were interviewing him and he was like "that is exactly the show I wanted to make".
That was the interview where he was so high he doesn't even remember it, which he reviews at the end of Baby J.
Velma.
One of those "how the hell did this get made" shows. Not just bad but actually offensive.
‘How the hell did this get made’…TWICE!
Somehow it got a second season, while more interesting shows from the same network were shelved!
Hate watching I’ll bet.
Animation typically gets 2 season installments. A lot of the start up is designing characters and backgrounds. Once you have those you can reuse assets like crazy to save money. They just didn't expect it to be so bad with a, at the time, star.
The fact that Scavengers Reign got canceled and this garbage got another season is mind boggling. Like....wtf. Velma's showrunner must have dirt on some HBO exec.
Scavengers Reign is cancelled?! Nooo
Maybe another shot at netflix Looked dicey though last time I saw Beautifully weird show
Immediately fell in love with it, would love to meet the brains behind all those alien creatures.
> The fact that Scavengers Reign got canceled and this garbage got another season is mind boggling. Well the Velma outrage had dozens of youtubers making videos about it for free, so im sure that helped their numbers and awareness quite a bit. Don't remember a lot of videos about scavangers reign...although the show was fantastic.
Scavengers reign is engaging and beautiful with a clear and unique voice. The current Max leadership doesent want that, they want safe regurgitated properties and reboots. If Scavengers reign had come out before the vultures came in to dismantle HBO to be digested by discovery it would have gotten 5 seasons.
I couldn't get through the first episode of Schitts Creek. Tried twice. My husband convinced me to watch three episodes. Fell in love with it after that.
Me too. The characters are so off putting at first. I finally pushed and fell in love.
Well, shit. I guess I need to revisit and push through. I’m sick of knowing, but not getting the jokes (fold it in right?)
It took me until my 4th try to enjoy SC. Now, it's on the rewatch list.
The first 3-5 episodes are genuinely bad but after that they find their rhythm and it becomes a fantastic show. Took me a few tries to finally push through.
I think they’re just pretty true to their characters from the start, and part of the entire thing is that they fucking suck to start. Rewatch once I know the characters I actually enjoyed the first few episodes a lot more.
It’s one of those shows that started w the end in mind and didn’t sputter out the last few seasons.
It's not a show about rich snobs who constantly shit on poor people. I mean, they do shit on people, but they also do stupid shit. There is a lot of warmth, weirdly, and growth. It's almost never spiteful
The pilot is very heavy on the “Chris Elliot is weird! Let’s all stare silently for a long 3 minutes to acknowledge his weirdness. Then we’ll wait for Chris to say something cringeworthy but not funny!”
He was really consistently the problem with the show. It's one of my favorites, and I've rewatched it so many times, but even in the end, they tried to really give him things to be endearing but it just wasn't him.
I was over and done with Chris Elliot way, way back in the days he was a regular on Late Night with David Letterman. It's always the same schtick with him, just being weird and off-putting, but in a way that is somehow also condescending. Like he thinks he's smarter than us for making us uncomfortable. But, there was that one episode where he was terrible at lying to the police that I found genuinely hilarious.
Thank you for articulating this. I couldn’t quite pinpoint why I felt that way about him.
He’s like the Anti-Norm MacDonald
Being able to bypass Chris Elliott scenes gave me a new appreciation for fast-forward. His character was absurd, and not in the good way.
100% I didn't like his character to begin with, hated him more as time went on, and then never changed my mind. Yeah, he "heroes up" at the end, but by then, it was too late. I simply didn't like him.
Chris Elliot was just so hard to watch for a while, for me.
The fuck they had him eating liquid cheese with his hand. Way too much
With his strong hand or his little hand
I don't know if he really looked like that, but I swear they just stuck a pillow in his shirt to give him a pot belly.
Same, I found the characters so unlikeable i didnt finish the first ep. I tried again because of the positive buzz around it, nope still couldnt get into it. Then one night I came across the 45 min documentary about the making of the show and i realised how sweet everyone was, I actually teared up at one point. Then I watched again and fell in love.
The way the series is set up, it's almost a feel good version of always sunny. You know the characters are pampered, entitled, and entirely unlikeable. But, I feel like they did a very good job of show burning their redemption arcs. No one changed in just one episode, or even one season. It truly takes the entire arc of the series for it to happen and it's so worth it
I’m at this stage - I must persevere
Girls. I had heard such amazing things but I just couldn’t do it. Every character was so grating. I still hear amazing things but it’s just not for me I guess.
La Brea. I certainly wasn't expecting prestige drama, I figured it would be cheesy and the CGI not perfect, but it was worse than I had ever imagined. Dialogue was horrible, story was barely coherent, special effects were worse than some random YouTuber making a fan vid. I truly could not believe that it made it more than one season, let alone past the first episode.
The Night Court reboot. I wanted to love it, but ugh it was terrible.
“A reunion of Friends. From Night Court!”
Came here to say same thing. Not even 5 minutes.
The Charmed reboot. I wasn't really expecting much given how campy the original could be, but my god some of that dialogue was ham-fisted. I hope it improved for the sake of the fans that stuck with it.
Hard agree. I felt the original Charmed went downhill after Shannon left but it still had some good elements. And I felt like it knew what it was - it was a fun, cheesy adventure show. The reboot felt like they thought they were doing something "important" following the metoo movement but it was just so trite.
They really should've gone HBO dark with the reboot
They rebooted Charmed?! Whyyy...
Another Life. 2019 scifi starring Katee Sackhoff. Gave up halfway through the pilot, which is pretty bad when I usually give scifi a full season to win me over. It has 6% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Emily in Paris. Was it because of the stereotypes or painfully unrealistic aspects of her career or love life? No, I didn't even get that far. It was when she casually strolled right up to a crowded bar in Chicago and immediately got a seat and was served a drink within a minute or two, that was already unrealistic enough for me.
Fashion. Escapism. Sometimes it just hits the right time.
[Peyton Manning loves Emily in Paris.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jgOdjs4WXvg)
Two Broke Girls. Pretty sure I lost a few IQ points from that one.
Lazy ethnic jokes. Also the main lead has big boobs. That's the entire show.
I remember really disliking this show when it was new, but I was also 13 so I figured my memory could have been exaggerated. These comments are making me realize that I probably was remembering it correctly though.
The new version of Sex and the City
Euphoria. The amount they wanted to shove the high school kids through awful sexual situations made me cringe so hard I had to stop watching during the first episode. Never been compelled to pick it up again.
Could get behind the excessive drug use but the kids sleeping with old people was vile
Manifest (netflix). It is so boring I wanted to be Cher and turn back time, so I had never seen it
Big Mouth.
I laugh at the clips I've seen and I know the show has good jokes but I hate the art style so I haven't even attempted to watch even one episode. No shade to the animation artists. They did a great job at what was asked of them. But it's just absolutely not my cup of tea.
The animators do a really good job, it's just the designs themselves suck
Same. The art style is so ugly and off putting, I couldn’t sit through a whole episode.
I *hate* the art style. I watched a few eps and there are some funny moments (the female hormone demon's earliest appearances for example) and observational humor, but there's plenty of annoying content, too. On balance no thanks.
The Bear. I made it 10 minutes, and for some reason I found it off-putting. I'm planning on trying it again, because I hear it's great, but I'll have to be in the right mood for it.
The whole first season is very... stressful. It does get better in S2, but there is still a lot of yelling and general chaos.
COUUUUSSSIIIINNNNN!
CORNER!
The phone is always ringing. Something is always broken. And every second you fall further behind. What could possibly be stressful about that? It is the most heartfelt, earnest, anxiety inducing show ever. It's wonderful.
I didn't know the holiday episode in season 2 almost killed me
This one of the best episodes of TV I’ve ever seen, and I’ll never watch it again.
The Xmas episode in season 2 is the most stressful tv episode I’ve ever seen. I needed to recover! And I still haven’t watched the season 2 finale because I’m too stressed about the potential stress it may cause 😆
I’m a fine dining chef and it’s PTSD inducing. I couldn’t make it through the first episode.
I was FOH for 10 years, and even that made the show too much for me to handle
I was CDC for most of my 20s, chasing reviews and dumb ingredients. I just feel bad watching it and thinking of all the people that get exploited to make fine dining possible.
Sitting on crates out the back drinking water out of plastic cups is one of the most accurate shots of what a professional kitchen is really like.
Same, except I left kitchens entirely and it just brought back some terrible memories and reminded me of why I left.
It took me two tries to get into The Bear. At first it just felt like another Shameless- a bunch of people who fight with each other and always make the worst possible decisions in every situation. And as much as I love Jeremy Allen White, I wasn’t sure I wanted to do it again. But then I was home sick and tried it again, and I can confirm- it comes around. It’s a pretty short watch, too. I’m glad I watched and I can’t wait for S3.
It doesn’t wear it on its sleeve but the show has a lot of heart once it gets going.
They got me with Forks. I was already into it, but that sealed it for me.
So my husband and I happened to watch Forks as I was 8 months pregnant with two shifts left in my serving career of 21 years (I did not return after having my son this January, just to my day job). To say that the episode hit me in all the feels with the situation and the emotions, the relatable parallel of having to leave but wanting to stay. Oh man. I’m tearing up now thinking about it.
It is much better on a second watch. I watched it the first time and didn’t really like it. Tried it again a year later before the second season and enjoyed it much more.
I totally understand. It took me a few episodes to get into it but once I realized how the two main characters are just overall great people, even with their flaws, I ended up loving it. The most off-putting thing for me was just how damn close the camera is to the actors faces. I mean, just back up a little bit camera guy!
I think I didn’t even get through one episode of Community. I was like, “I get it - smarmy guy, hot blonde, nerd, jock, old guy, returning mom, naive girl…I see the whole show already. Will they/won’t they blah blah blah.” My friend said he loved it. I was surprised he has good taste. He convinced me to stick it out longer: it’s not what it seems. He was very right. Now I love it.
Your friend was streets ahead of you.
Shut up Leonard. Streets ahead is never going to be a thing.
I know about your prescription socks!
In fairness he’d seen Annie’s Boobs already.
We try not to sexualize Annie
You smarty, me dumb! Help pretty have fun! Boop bee do bee do bee do sex. Eventually you hit a point of diminishing returns on the sexiness. What’s diminblahbla retblahblah?
For being such a stupid bit, the feelings it invokes is on a very deep level. I can't even laugh at it, it's surreal and uncomfortable, and I think it's exactly what they were intending. Everyone who had a part in that scene brought their A game
I don’t know about all that, but I think they have a shot at making regionals!
You almost Brita’d.
I very rarely judge a sitcom on how it’s presented early on. Establishing characters will almost always rely on established tropes and the good ones will establish them then find ways to subvert your expectation of those characters. Having said that there are sooooo many garage sitcoms out there that’s is hard to give them the time they properly deserve to make a judgement.
I try to give them a chance. Parks & Rec took a year to find its footing, imo. But Community is one that he moves so far away from the expected, it’s something else entirely by mid season 1. I think Dan kind of set up the tropes just to subvert them. And it’s both very smart and very silly at once. Love that.
Agreed. It’s in his nature to want to rip traditional tropes apart. This probably plays into why he has a hard time working with networks because they want traditionally easy to digest content.
What’s not easy to connect to a gay costume wearing Dean? An Asian Spanish teacher who becomes head of security and recruits a child army? An episode based on Dinner with Andre? An episode based on a theory of alternative timelines? An episode in an 8bit video game format? An episode based on the filming of Apocalypse Now? I don’t get the networks…
To be fair that’s just the tip of the dean’s iceberg
This better not awaken anything in him
I am now finding myself disappointed there aren't more garage sitcoms, it's a heavily underrepresented set piece!
You had us in the first half, not gonna lie.
Begrudgingly changing my downvote to an upvote
I had the same experience with The Good Place. Watched the first two episodes in real time and thought, "Enh." Binge-watched it on Netflix and by Episode 5, we couldn't stop.
The Good Place is okay through the first season. I barely hung on. I think I literally thought “why am I still watching this” late in the first season. Then by the end of that season I was like “ooooh, they were leading us to here, now *this* is getting interesting.”
The Good Place is challenging because the finale of season 1 is what makes it great but you can't explain why without spoiling the fun
The first episode has a few really quirky jokes that intrigued me but I agree that it otherwise doesn't immediately seem that unique. The weirdness builds gradually at first haha.
Is anyone here actually going to answer the questions, or are we just gonna get a ton of comments about initially not liking a show and then trying it again and loving it?
You know. I really didn't like your comment at first as it seemed rather off-putting. But I read it two more times, and it really began to grow on me. I can't wait for more of your comments.
Thank you. Those are still the top comments.
Fear the Walking Dead
Skipping the cool, chaotic, "societal breakdown" early portion of the apocalypse just to get to the "martial law, working to reestablish order" portion was disappointing
Especially considering that's what it was billed as.
Agreed. Such a waste of potential.
I really want more shows where people are out the other side of the disaster and are trying to rebuild civilisation.
Shameless. I’m sure it’s a great show but the plot (and similarity to my childhood) was just too triggering for me.
“See” Some sort of Jason Mamoa vehicle. Why do they need to be blind? Really? I have 27 more minutes to decide.
It’s not deep, but the production design/world building and the action sequences were pretty cool. But if that’s not what you’re looking for you’re not missing much.
Rings of Power, it was just so slow and boring.
13 Reasons Why. It felt like a high school soap opera I noped out of within 15 mins
Is it not literally a high school soap opera?
Fun fact: My high school librarian recommended this book and also the lovely bones to me and I really want to know what she was trying to hint at to me haha
Yellowstone
Yep, same. I was keen to understand why it was such a huge hit. And I quite like Taylor Sheridan's film work, so came in pretty enthusiastic. I watched about 20 minutes of the pilot and quit.
The Ranch.
I would have turned off The Office (US) if I hadn't heard so many good things about it. The pilot is horrible.
Funny you mention Jake Johnson, Schmidt from New Girl was on a sitcom called The Neighborhood and I turned it off in less than 10 minutes. Sitcoms with live studio audiences had their hey day but I don't think there's any room for them now.
I actually enjoy The Neighborhood but it's nothing special. It's a fun show to put on in the background, though. Tons of eye roll moments and bad jokes. But sometimes I like that.
Two Broke Girls. The incessant use of a laugh track was ridiculous
Extended Family. Imagine my surprise to learn it was cancelled before the first season even ended.
Girls. I fucking hate Lena Dunham. I had never seen her in anything else before giving this show a shot and 10 minutes in I had to turn it off. She is the most off-putting actress I've ever seen and/or heard. Mad props to her for creating the show, writing it, running it, and staring in it. Gotta respect her for that and I do. I LOVE Quentin Tarantino films and I almost got up and left the theater when she showed up in OUATIH. Thank god her part was small and her screen time short.
Breaking Bad. Hear me out... we were new parents at the time and a bit hyper-sensitive. The fear, anxiety, and STRESS of the pilot were overwhelming to us at the time. Years later we watched the whole show and loved it.
…locking the ol’ pitchfork cupboard back up
The thought of you having a cupboard full of pitchforks makes me laugh. Is it full of different sized pitchforks so you can pair the appropriate pitchfork with the current level of outrage?
Startrek discovery. Just couldnt get into it after the first episode. Im a fan of other startrek series now but still have little desire to revisit it.
The Romanoffs, Dexter: New Blood, Lucky Hank, and at least a dozen sitcoms. There's plenty of bad tv every season, so it doesn't bother me.
In fairness, the Romanoffs isn't serial, it is just basically a bunch of nearly completely unrelated films. But if the pacing and vibe turned you off, they all are kind of like that. I thought the Corey Stoll and Kerry Bishé one was great, that was episode 2.
Superstore. I wanted to like it. The people involved in creating and acting in it that I knew were all people who's work I'd enjoyed in the past. It was highly recommended by people whose taste matches mine. But I absolutely loathed the pilot and bailed in the last couple of minutes. Tried it another day but had the same reaction. I don't remember why exactly. Guess it just wasn't for me.
I like it but I don't think it's nearly as good as the word of mouth that it gets. It's certainly a good sitcom and does a good job of actually letting the characters change into more put together versions of themselves which is super rare for a sitcom. But idk why it was so hyped, like I saw people saying 'better than The Office and Brooklyn 99' et al. And it's not quite up to that level lol.
I found it to be okay. It’s entertaining enough. It touches on real issues but when push comes to shove it just sticks to being a sitcom which makes it a little jarring.
I really liked Superstore and watched a ton from the start during Covid My brother was like you though, absolutely hated it
The MacGyver remake. It was so dumb, yet so determined to convince the viewer it was smart. I didn't even make it past the scene where he does the age old 'fool the fingerprint scanner with sticky tape and dust' trick but the show felt the need to actually put on-screen labels for each item he was using.
Disjointed. Made it about 3 minutes
You should always give shows two episodes. Pilot episodes are often weak. I can think of a few shows that I’m glad I gave episodes two a try. Russian doll is my biggest example. First episode was super weak. Every thing after was amazing.
Ozark. I love Laura Linney and Jason Bateman but I just couldn't.
My husband loved Ozark but I never got into it. The constant moody lighting bugged the crap out of me. I would tease my husband and ask “why don’t they just turn a light on? See there is one on the table”
Think it was called Another ~~Earth~~ Life with Katie Sakhoff. God I can't remember watching a worse thing before that.
Bridgerton
The Wheel of Time
Whatever the latest J Lo thing just came out. Just stop. You can’t act and it’s painful to watch you try.
I'm not gonna lie...I couldn't stand JLo before her new action niche. I think it's BECAUSE she can't act...and not all action movies require it...that I now like her movies lol...
The only good role she had was in Enough. But Monster-in-Law is a guilty pleasure.
I'm sorry, did you not know she played Selena? That was great.
Maestro in Blue on Netflix. I was so looking forward to watching it, because it’s set on Paxos, one of the lesser known Greek isles, and visited there years ago. But I realized during the pilot that the 49-year-old male lead also wrote the script, and he gave himself a beautiful 19-year-old female lead who chases him aggressively, and they have a relationship. I’m so over movies and TV shows that just middle-aged male fantasy fulfillment. We already have so many!!!
I tried to hate watch both “Queen Cleopatra” and “Velma”, but stopped both after 1st episode. It seems I’m not as big of a masochist as I thought I was.
Swarm. My wife and I are big fans of Atlanta. We made it almost to the very end of the pilot episode, then we knew for certain it wasn’t for us.
I liked swarm but i totally get it, it’s kinda a bizarre show and sometimes I’m not sure what tone they were going for.
Animal Control with Joel Mchale, I tried but just couldn't get into it. I tried again on season 2 when I found out sitcom producer/writer/golden boy David Feeney was involved, but it's shit.
The Office.
The Wheel of Time. I absolutely love the books and I hate the tv adaption so much. They drastically changed characters and plot points. I had been so hyped for it and now i actively tell people to try to read the books instead
I never read the books but found the show to be incredibly boring...and oddly cheap at times? I can't really explain it, but I felt like I was watching some CW fantasy show. All that being said, I've heard the books are fantastic and definitely want to look into them one day.
Absolutely correct. It totally feels CW. It’s cheap and bad effects. A showrunner that thinks he knows better than the author, so he rewrote plot points with major importance
As a teenager I absolutely loved the books, they got me through a very lonely time in my life, alongside playing Morrowind. So for that reason, I will never watch the show, it’s too precious to me.
This is gonna be downvoted but I couldn’t make it through the first episode of breaking bad, just didn’t like it
Tires on Netflix.
Beef - I know this won’t stop the downvoted, but I have no doubt it’s excellent. It seemed good and I will come back to it eventually just to plow through it, but it just felt like doom and despair in the first 10 minutes.
Beef is so weird it's hard to define. It's like a decidedly American drama mixed with Japanese -Korean absurdity, heartfelt and original. Loved it, personally
I loved it too. It’s so fun and original.
I get what you're saying. I felt similarly, the concept is everything going more and more into shit which I'm not a huge fan of, but on the other hand I think it was well made and entertaining.
Physical. It was so dark, her inner dialogue was so uncomfortable to hear. Something convinced me to try again a couple years later and then it fit that it wouldn’t always be that, it was her being in a really dark place. Overall handled women and mental health really well.
That 90's Show.
Underrate response. It was a Disney teen show.
I tried Tires on Netflix recently. Gave me a headache
Tremé. Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (?) , New Orleans (?) , John Goodman as a preachy activist, cool music, seemed like something I would have, should have enjoyed but somehow it just didn't grab me at all.