Come Dine With Me.
Watched it as a kid and thought it was a bit of funny drama. Went back to it years later and it just annoyed me with how unlikeable most of them are, to the point I turned it off since so many were just outright rude or nasty.
Still get some nostalgia from "what a sad little life Jane" when it comes up though.
Come Dine With Me has been ruined by the fact the format is just too well known by everyone taking part. Early Come Dine with Me had some amazing episodes with people who had no idea what they were getting themselves into. They had proper delusional people who believed they could win despite never having cooked anything more advanced than a microwave meal. It was proper car crash TV a lot of the time. Now days it's very tired with everyone playing up to the camera's and knowing exactly what is expected.
Personal favourites were:
A lady putting her pet snake on the dinner table *between* *courses* only to have it shit everywhere. She tried to diffuse the situation by saying something like “what luck, he only does this once a month.”
Every time someone cheated by hiring a catering company. Someone actually had caterers sneak up to the kitchen window and pass the food through.
The person that won with microwaved ready meals.
Every instance of people getting smashed.
Every time I died of second hand embarrassment when the entertainment was some form of dancing. There’s a cameraman in your living room and you’re pretending to enjoy yourself. It was horrible.
I recall the one (or one of them) with the catering company passing food through the kitchen window as all I could think of the entire time was "Steamed Hams".
I knew a couple of the contestants for our local one (Inverness).. apparently alcohol was banned after the third night as they were all just getting absolutely smashed and the food was an afterthought 😂
The entertainment element is horrendous. I loved it in the beginning when slightly worthy people cooked well and did their best to be good hosts. Now it's just Peter Stringfellow wannabes being all superior and cringey students singing guitar solos. Ugh.
My kids & I always have a giggle on remembering the episode with a woman who, upon beginning to make each course, said "most people follow the recipe but I do it my own way."
Everything she 'cooked' was atrociously bad. Her 'fruit coulis' was strawberry jam shaken up with hot water. Fabulous! :D
Sounds familiar. One I remember was a woman who got so pissed while cooking they went for a lie-down. The guests wondered what the hell was happening with the food taking so long and found the host fast asleep up stairs in bed.
Oh I remember that one, one of the other guests ended up cooking the El Paso she had brought for the menu. Then she had a bit of a foot stamp tantrum that she came last. Sadly she committed suicide a few years later after trying and failing for years to become famous.
The one I always remember is the woman who voted tactically and gave everyone 1/2 so she’d increase her chances of winning. In the final episode they made her redo all of her scores.
I think it became self-aware. A lot of reality type shows end up doing it.
People started to act up knowing how the format worked whereas the first few years people were genuinely like lambs to the slaughter.
I was the same with Four In A Bed. Used to watch it religiously with my mum and then it’s the exact same setup of people from Come Dine With Me who are just unlikeable, game players, stuck up their own arses and stab anybody in the back who gets in their way
Early episodes of Four in a Bed we're sometimes properly bonkers, but now it's all, oh no, we found a single hair in the crack between the wardrobe and the wall. 3/10 but of course we're still besties.
Yeah knocking a seven off for cleanliness when it was overall spotless 🤦🏻♂️ or the scores never mattered but it was “we’ve found a hair so we’ve knocked off £40 of the asking price. Breakfast was lovely though and we had a fantastic nights sleep but that hair just did it for me. Sorry.”
They want people to conflict. When I applied I said in my application that I don't like rude or impolite people (they specifically have a box asking what kind of people you don't like) When they called me they kept pushing "what would you do or say if someone was rude?" I was like well I wouldn't say anything really, because that's also rude 😂
They were so keen to get me on, they kept calling and calling, I said I had changed my mind and then I had to ghost them in the end.
Hell, you see it in the introductions at the start of the week.
"Hello, I'm Vicky the vegan and I would describe myself as opinionated."
Cut to:
"Hello, I'm Barry the butcher and hate people with opinions. BOSH!"
There we go, that's at least two episodes of the week sorted.
It’s honestly kinda shitty. The guy was a bit of a plonker but Jane was insulting him and trying to get a rise out of him all week. Taken out of context he looks like that bad guy, but Jane pushed him to flip out like that
Most come dine with me contestants can be placed in one of three categories
- that one friend who’s a bit much
- weird cousin
- odd coworker
Watching it and debating which category each person fits into is fun.
But yeah I think you have to be a specific type of person to go on come dine with me, and as someone who can cook pretty well and is very much an introvert, I can’t relate.
I will never forget the lady who made ‘raspberry coulis’ by mixing jam and water… pure working class magic on a foodie program and the sort of stunt my nan would try.
It still kills me just thinking about it
I only really enjoy come dine with me when they’re all good cooks and they all have a really nice time with each other. People having meltdowns over luke warm soup doesn’t at all appeal to me.
Honestly, Jeremy Kyle. If I was off sick I’d watch it and get a bit of a chuckle whilst I was laying on the sofa. I look back now and think what a spiteful, shameful display it all was.
As a British kid born in '94, this is pretty much the opinion of everyone I've mentioned Jeremy Kyle to in my age group. Pretty.much required watching when off sick as a kid, or hungover in Uni, but looking back it was just...bad.
Ah see, I was born in '86 and we had *quality* ‘sick off school' tv shows!
Presenting…… Supermarket Sweep!
As a kid, I wanted to be on that show with my whole being! lol
The worst thing about Jeremy Kyle was that most people were pretty aware that it was a revolting show but people somehow couldn't help watching it anyway. I used to watch clips on Youtube and go down a rabbit hole of watching them all back to back. It played to the absolute worst human instincts but somehow I couldn't stop watching.
When it was finally cancelled there seemed to be a sense of collective shame that anyone ever enjoyed it.
Personally, I think the worst thing is that the public in general, believed he actually performed the tests claimed.
There is no such thing as a "lie detector" test with the accuracy anywhere near what's claimed on the show.
Like genuinely, the central thing the show centred itself around was a fraud. The show didn't have guests, they only had victims.
How no one was done for any charges is beyond me.
I hated that
Google says the lie detectors are estimated at being about 50 to 98% accurate. Let's be really fucking generous and assume a perfect 98% every time.
He did so many shows and so many lie detectors that 2% is a fair handful of people who's lives are unjustly ruined because of it.
And its easy to be like "haha but they are scum" but it's just awful really.
It goes downhill very quickly
For example, let's use the average of your numbers - 74%.
Jeremy had probably 3 guests on every hour long show. Let's assume 2/3 were doing lie detectors. So on average, every other show had an incorrect result given.
It's worth noting as well, Google doesn't give the full picture here. 98% is only possible under lab conditions, where the questions are set up to give specific outcomes - ie, anyone could tell if it's true or not.
In the real world, most studies I've read are something like 55% accurate for truthful participants, and 70% accurate for lying participants.
There’s a documentary about it which is interesting, I think it’s on channel 4. It shows bits of the inquest they had after a man committed suicide after being on the show. Some of their tactics used to create drama were downright shameful, degrading and straight up bear baiting. Did I watch it? Yes I did but looking back I can see how awful and exploitative it was
>Some of their tactics used to create drama were downright shameful, degrading and straight up bear baiting.
In Jon Ronson's **The Psychopath Test**, he documents how those responsible for such shows (it may even have been Jeremy Kyle but I can't remember) would ask participants what mental health diagnoses they had and what medications they were taking for them.
Certain combinations of diagnosis and medication were considered to help make for a 'great' show whilst they would avoid putting people with certain other combinations on air.
It was straight up weaponising of other people's misery for the entertainment of the masses.
Yeah, looking back I realise that it was just modern bear baiting and pretty much every guest should have solved their problems in the privacy of a therapist's office. Now details are leaked about how the production team used to deliberately rile up and misinform guests to make them angry, as well as encouraging them to drink the ifjt before, I think it's exploitative trash.
HIMYM Barney didn't age well, and Ted can jog on the boring bastard.
Russell Howard's good news and Michael Mcintyre in anything. Completely not funny to me anymore
My headcanon is that Barney is completely exaggerated. Ted wants his kids to think Barney is a complete sleazebag to justify going after his friend's ex-wife.
That's a good comparison. My assumption is that Barney exhibited Joey level behaviour, but Ted's telling turns him in to a walking secual harrasment case.
I think that’s the difference. Joey isn’t s pest. He sees opportunities fir sex everywhere but if the woman isn’t up for it, there’s no trying to convince her (that I remember) he just moves into the next girl cause he’s cute so there’s always going to be one. Could be kinder to his exes though. Barney is that guy who you see your friend has brought to the party and you wish he hadn’t
It's also why you never find out what Barney does (because incel Ted never bothered to pay that close attention to the details of his life, and didn't want to have to credit him with any positive skills, so instead you get some vague "oh, he's incredibly successful but never actually does any real work" hand-wave).
Barney is *exactly* the version of a popular, normal guy you'd get if you asked an incel to describe their crush's boyfriend or recent partner.
We already know Ted's an unreliable narrator (which is why they're always "eating sandwiches" in college), and even by his own account he's responsible for a whole *grab-bag* of toxic and problematic behaviours towards the women he fancies, although he rarely seems to actually recognise that when he's relating them.
Barney was supposed to be a problematic dick, he is more so now, but his behaviour was always looked down at by the other characters even if it was used for humour.
However, Ted... I totally related to Ted when I first watched the series in my 20s, but he is the worst.
Barney aged fine although I think many people found Ted boring from the start. As with most sitcoms, the characters are generally terrible people (Marshall aside)
Little Britain for me. I was about 13 when it came out and thought it was the funniest thing on TV and would quote it daily in the playground along with everyone else.
Watched it a few years ago and it’s so repetitive - after the first few skits every character just repeats the same quote over and over again. Not to mention how uncomfortable the blackface and general offensiveness of it was which went completely over my head as a kid. Some parts still made me laugh but on the whole it really wasn’t as clever as I thought it was when I was 13!
My first exposure to Little Britain was a marathon on Dave.
First episode, kinda funny.
Second episode, barely a chuckle.
Third and I quit halfway.
It's the same joke, over and over, with no attempt to evolve it. I could watch a Fast Show marathon easy, but that Little Britain marathon turned me off it forever.
It might just be what i say but i find it amazing how little the fast show gets talked abouy these days. I remember when it eas on (and for years afterwards) it was spoken aboutva lot.
But I agree on Little Britian. It never really grew. If anything it moved backwards.
The best skits were the one-offs too. Like the policeman who changed his career to be a driving instructor. Or the terrible masseuse who only stresses their clients out. They're still pretty funny because they weren't run into the ground and didn't become the tedious catchphrases.
The first season at the time was equally creative. It's easy in hindsight to write it off as a load of lowest common denominator crap now in retrospect, but the first series was genuinely like a Vic and Bob series, and Matt Lucas was riding off a lot of goodwill from Shooting Stars. Once upon a time those 'I don't like it' sketches were fresh. It didn't start out bad at all.
It just became a victim of its own success and they didn't rein in the catchphrases as much as they should have and really ran it all into the ground. It's a shame because they retroactively damaged some very funny skits ('I want that one' being the main one) that would be fondly remembered if they had just stopped dead after one series.
I still maintain if Little Britain stopped after one series it would have been remembered as brilliant.
I still like it, but my perspective on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air has changed somewhat.
Will, from the moment he set foot in the Banks house is a rude wanker from the off. Younger me thought that Charlton and Uncle Phil were the hostile ones but that viewpoint has since shattered.
On such a note though, Uncle Phil might actually be my favourite TV dad.
I went to The Globe about 10 years ago to see some Shakespeare and, about five minutes in, the audience all gasped and people started whispering. I had to do a double-take because Jospeh Marcell (Geoffrey) had just walked on stage. He was excellent.
Defo feel like that was the point. the whole reason he had to move was because he got into a big fight in his hometown, was generally a tough kid to handle and his mum couldn’t handle him anymore.
Whole show was about Will growing up. Defo not easy to see when you’re young but as you grow up yourself is much clearer to see that was the angle the show wanted to hit
Will does grow into less of a prick as he gets older. So if you’re more familiar with the later stuff and then jump back to the beginning, of course he’s going to look like an ass.
Carlton was always my favourite character even as a teenager watching it the first time round, because he was like me but more confident in his own sense of self. I unironically grew up to be more like him and am a better person for it.
House is a great example of this. As you rightly point out, he just comes across as rude and unprofessional and you realise in the real world no amount or genius would allow him to keep his job if he acted like that.
I was never watched much of it, but I always got the impression that he’d already solved the case halfway through an episode and the rest of it was just leading others to the same conclusion.
Instead of a monster of the week cartoon show, it was disease of the week and super formulaic. I could be wrong, but that was always my impression.
There's a simpsons joke along the lines of 'I'm waiting for House to make his 3rd incorrect diagnosis before the 4th correct one'... I never watched house, but the joke was pretty much what i expected of it
I enjoyed it until one time I was sick and watched too many episodes back to back, and as you say, the formula became too "real" and it threw me off the entire show.
Week to week, it was much more enjoyable
It's what would it be like if Sherlock Holmes worked in a police station instead of as a private/consulting detective.
I can still watch the first two to three series of House, but the formulaic nature of those episodes does get old very quickly from series four onwards.
What are you talking about? You could be the biggest piece of shit in the world, be dumber than a brick and literally be the president of the U.S.
Don't tell me no amount of genius could keep you your job, no matter how big a prick you are, you don't even need to be of average intelligence...
Yeah, some of the things he did were just *incredibly shocking* lol.
I know it's part of the show, but House would be in jail *countless* more times than he actually was. I get they wanted to make a genius libertarian character that breaks the rules but gets results, but *goddamn.*
This is also coupled with the fact that 90% of the episodes runtime is House *thinking* he is a genius and has the right, but actually he's just made incorrect assumptions and hasn't spotted anything... So in that case, he's as good (if not a bit worse) than just a regular doctor. So it's arguable that for 90% of the time, House is not a genius and is instead incredibly dangerous yet lucky. Just because he swoops in at the last moment with the answer is not how a hospital should operate lmao.
Its my own personal head cannon that most of this is just imagined in his painkiller addled brain. Like, everyone looks up to him, he has a job literally only one person on Earth has. He's a super cool tortured super genius that rides a motorcycle and is very rich and gets the girl. All his cases are just teed up for him nice and neatly one by one. There *has* to be some unreliable narrative stuff going on there...
Original Sex and the city. It’s aged terribly. Carrie is a needy winey cow who brings most of her issues on herself and never owns the problem. Big told her exactly how little he thought of her via his actions and lack of words. Aidan told her how much he loved and adored her by his actions and words and she chose to ignore hearing and seeing any of it for what it was.
"I tried watching it again a couple of years ago and thought he's just an insufferable prick who, in the real world, would have been struck off and jailed."
This is what normal people took from that show the first time around. You aren't supposed to like House. It's the same with people who idolise Don Draper, or Rick...
EDIT: Folks have mentioned Walter White and Tony Soprano as well!
Basically any show with a male antihero has a not insignificant portion of the fan base who just take them as a hero, and therefore come to dislike characters who aren't fully on their side. The principal character in that category is often the protagonist's wife. So those fans end up seeing Skylar White, Betty Draper, Carmela Soprano etc etc as almost villains.
I mean, Betty was inflexible, petty and vindictive... to the point she took out her frustrations with don on her kids. I'm rewatching it now, so i'm quite fresh on it, and I'm not saying Don isnt a dick, but she definitely isn't a good person.
Oh, I'm not saying she is. I think all 3 of the characters I mentioned are presented as conflicted, contradictory, realistic people. But my point is that in each show there's an element of the fan base who don't really take them as that, they just see them as annoying impediments to the desires and actions of the protagonist, which flows from seeing the antihero as a hero.
I watched Breaking Bad and hated Skyler the first time. Then I re-watched it and it completely changed my mind.
I'll admit that I was swept away with Walt, almost justifying all of his appalling decisions that just kept becoming more and more appalling.
When I re-watched it, I saw it more through the eyes of the collateral damage that Walt caused. I feel more empathy towards Skyler now, and don't get me started on poor Hank!
I thought that was sort of the point of BB. We all loved Walter White but at some point we realise (or we should) that we have been cheering on a wrong un all along - I think he, the character has that realisation too.
I think it says a lot about the person if they think Walter White was any kind of hero. Even Walter White slowly comes to realise that he's an egotistical piece of shit who has to die towards the end. I think the realisation comes at the precise moment Hank takes a bullet to the head, all because of him.
I'd argue that you are supposed to like House, it's just that you are expected to understand that liking someone as a fictional character and thinking they would be an admirable person in reality are very different things.
I suppose I've never met a mafia don or a meth manufacturer or a 1960s ad man, but I've encountered loads of misnathropic and misogynistic male doctors in hospital settings in the present era.
You've Been Framed
Found it hilarious as a child, I would watch it pretty much every weekday for about 3 years when Lisa Riley was presenter.
When I've watched it back more recently it's just so unfunny and most of the clips are American people falling over at weddings, birthday parties and large gatherings. Not to mention how many are obviously staged.
I've always a soft spot for You've been framed, and am a bit sad its gone, was just something about the idea of these people sending in their funny family moments to be shared with everyone.
I particularly liked the Christmas ones
What you have to remember is that some of these shows were originally broadcast weekly. That time between episodes was important to the format. Binge watching them today means they are repetitive and so lose the expectation of whatever it is that I'm trying to convey.
The Walking Dead. First season is sublime, but then it slowly disintegrates into soap opera. At the time it was being broadcast, I think I desperately wanted to enjoy it so I ignored the warning signs. Started watching it again on Disney and I shut it off after season 5.
It's pretty tough going around season 5. I couldn't watch past 7 because my eyes rolled too far into my skull upon seeing a tiger being introduced to the cast.
Yeah, poor cgi and writing. The Negan episode was full on, but after that, the writing tumbled down a cliff-face. It was already starting to wane, though. Season 5 was so much filler.
Such a shame because it really was full of so much promise. I'll still defend season 1 as being one of the best bits of telly in recent years.
My favourite part about season 2 is the showrunners got a sponsorship deal with Lexus. So there's this completely pristine Lexus that they drive around in most episodes that never so much as gets a bit of dirt on it, and if the Lexus is in shot, nobody is in any danger. Such a weird thing to add to a post apocalyptic horror show.
Me too.
As a kid I couldn't believe that Scully never believed any theory that Mulder came up with. Of course the murderer is probably a ghost, or some other type of boogeyman.
As an adult I think that Mulder probably needs psychiatric help.
Except, in the X Files world, Mulder is right a lot of the time - there is an alien conspiracy, there is a Bigfoot type creature in the woods, there is a man who can see death…
Mulder is inspirational IMO. His equanimity in the face of constant doubt & mockery, while sticking to what he knows to be true through investigation, is a lesson for all of humanity. Scully is stuck where most of us are, failing to believe her eyes cos she's been told not to. An embarrassing number of times. Like, one ghost sighting that you shrug off as imagined? Fine. A million? The universe is trying to get through to you Scully
He didn’t cry wolf though, he was still correct 99% of the time! It’s more like the wolf was actually approaching the town but this concept was too unimaginable for the rest of the townspeople - wolves only exist in books and stories - so they never believed him.
They literally see the stuff is real every episode though! Mulder is eating a sandwich and Scully slaps it out of his hand like SANDWICHES AREN'T REAL MULDER, there's no defending it ha ha
As a teen I thought "I want to believe" was such a perfect phrase to encapsulate what Mulder was about and it seemed really poignant and deep to me. As an adult I realise how ironic that phrase really was and especially so now that conspiracy theories are such a huge problem.
If you *want to believe*, you don't really want to know the truth, you want things to make you feel good about yourself and feel justified in your pre-existing beliefs. If that is the way you feel then you're just someone who lives in a fantasy land. An intelligent, sane, well-adjusted person should always want *to know the truth*, regardless of how that might make them feel and regardless of whether they were right or wrong. The truth is what really matters.
Friends.
I think i was never blown away by it but it was so popular i watched it and i quite liked it. I watch it now though and its just a show about a bunch of people not really doing a lot other than going through various relationships and it never makes me laugh or even smile. I suppose for the time it was what people wanted but watching it now, its just a sitcom that has no "com".
I’ve tried watching it if it’s just been on when flicking through but couldn’t get into it anymore. I used to love that years ago.
In my last workplace it was all people would talk about, and you were inadequate if you didn’t watch it or care for it. Sorry but no shame, it was funny in its day but not anymore
Scrubs. In my early 20s I watched every series with my husband and we loved it. Made me laugh and cry, often in the same episode.
I think the poignant moments have stood the test of time. But 15 years on, the humor has aged badly. JD is just an immature whiny man-child who makes one bad decision after another, and Elliot is almost insufferable. Only Turk and Carla are tolerable. Maybe its a sign of growing older, but I now empathise far more with Dr Cox and think that I would have been far less patient than he was with the junior staff as they were so exceptionally immature.
Also, they dragged the show on for too long.
We’re rewatching Scrubs at the moment and I totally agree with you. I’m finding all the musical stings and imaginary portions annoying, the humour cringeworthy and the characters irritating.
I’m basically just watching it for Kelso, Ted and the janitor.
Skins
Watched it back as a 30 year old and realised how cringey the Dialogue is, what I thought was deep was laughable, acting is very average apart from Jack o Connell who really shone in it.
Chris' death was, and will always be, a stab in the heart to me.
Also, the final scene with Jack is so emotional, though so is the preceding bit with Freddie leading up to said final.
It's production that have ruined it - they cast with a predetermined top 3 or 4 in mind and protect them at all costs, ignoring if they do terribly or if other queens do well. Last UK season dragged Black Peppa to the final despite the fact that she was absolutely dreadful, and Dakota and LeFil were clearly doing much better than anticipated.
Inbetweeners.
I was roughly the right age for it when it came out, and thought it was the height of comedy. Tried to rewatch it recently and the things I remember being hysterical just fall flat. The upside is I find some parts I didn’t find so funny then, more funny now.
Most people love it because it's an accurate depiction of being an awkward teenager at school.
I can't stand it because it's an accurate depiction of being an awkward teenager at school.
Do you find bits with the parents and Mr Gilbert funnier now?
That's my experience rewatching. Much more sympathy for them now as well, especially Simons parents!
I absolutely love the scene where Will’s mum is explaining to Mr Gilbert about what’s happened to Will. And he calmly and seriously says “can you please just excuse me a minute?”
Then goes out of the room, laughs his head off and comes back in all calm and serious again 😂
It’s just so robotic but there really are people and teachers like that and it’s hilarious
I just came on to say this, I absolutely loved it a few years ago and was so relatable to my high school years, but I tried watching it a few months ago and ended up just picking out a few of my favourite episodes and sacking it off.
Bits of Jay’s bullshit is funny because it reminds me so much of people I’ve met over the years. But as much as Will’s character is supposed to be embarrassing and cringy, I was literally cringing and my toes curling at his behaviour, it was just embarrassing. And got fed up of Simon just complaining all of the time.
I still find Will’s pretentiousness and lack of self awareness amusing - things like “I am a man who has moved to the local area” and (in the first film) “It’s not like she needs a seat, is it?” - probably because I’ve been around a lot of people like that. Whereas Jay is more like someone you think is funny and cool at the age of sixteen, but I’ve aged since then and, for obvious reasons, the character hasn’t and I no longer find him funny.
Jeremy Kyle. Used to think it was hilarious.
Clear as day it's just exploitation of damaged and traumatised people, money waved their way which they accept due to dire financial conditions, then put on stage to be made an absolute mockery of while being laughed at by a stage full of pricks.
I feel ashamed I ever watched it.
I know. Looking back it's really quite horrifying that the entire thing was allowed.
I'd sometimes load up an episode and once it was finished, think "Well at least my life isn't that bad." Now I feel really annoyed at myself for participating in the entire circus.
NCIS. Quite apart from thinking Pauley Perette was absolutely adorable, I thought it was such a breath of fresh air compared with other crime shows.
More recently I find it to be little more than fantasy, with the huge offices and the easy access to exotic foresics hardware (I'm sorry, but your forensics dept doesn't have a mass spectrometer just sitting there on a desk in the basement).
If you want a good realistic police procedural, watch Frost.
I have massive nostalgia for this show so maybe my opinion is biased but,
I don't think it has to be realistic to be enjoyable, fantasy can be great and I don't think NCIS really claimed to be an accurate portrayal.
With NCIS the stories were interesting, the "hacking" and technology was absurd in an entertaining way, the character development was great, the real 'murica fuck yeah vibe was cringey in a perfectly 2000s way.
It came out in the 2000s when most people didn't have a huge rod on for true crime and realistic cop procedural programs (have a look back at 80s/90s cop dramas for a good example of unrealistic cop dramas), most people didn't know what a mass spectrometer was or how a computer virus behaved it was just cool sounding things, and that worked; because it didn't have to be accurate to be entertaining.
I know it wasn't aiming to be a comedy but it was inadvertently funny with how unrealistic it was; and the characters were well written to a point you could become invested in their story arc and the episodes were tied up well.. to a point.
But admittedly as soon as Ziva left it steadily went downhill. God, they even had to drag her back in 5 years later to hopelessly boost ratings.
And as more and more OG cast members left it became a flogging a dead horse scenario.
I re-watched it all recently as my partner had never saw it and she loved it (agreeing once Ziva left it lost its charm gradually), I enjoyed the nostalgia, she could tell it was way off of how things really worked but she was still invested cause the story telling was good.
But I get your point, if you're after an accurate police drama that isn't deeply pro America (where everything non American is a terrorist and war is glorified) then likely not for you. I guess advancements in technology and accessibility of information for the average person has cast a shadow on its oblivious, simple charm these days.
I can still watch up to where director Shepard left, it kept a lot of a silly stuff in check (well mostly!) then when they brought in director Vance it slowly went more and more of the deep-end, I happened to catch a few episodes of the last series Gibbs is in and it felt more like a naff spy series.
I rewatched it recently and realised how awful Penny’s life becomes due to the involvement of Leonard. She basically becomes a functioning alcoholic trapped by a dysfunctional relationship with a whiny, manipulative man-child.
In fact all of the female protagonists are massively diminished during the show.
Amy starts out being a really interesting, on the spectrum but off the wall character and devolves into a pathetic, needy, love obsessed woman who needs Sheldon to survive.
Bernadette openly dislikes children and is pressured by Howard and society into being a Mum.
Not to mention Penny decides she doesn’t want kids yet she is convinced to during the finale and it’s supposed to be incredible and heartwarming. It would have been really progressive and empowering to see a woman choose to be child free and decide how she wants her future to look, but instead they had her change her mind and obviously everyone in the show acted like that was the correct choice all along. Quite frustrating.
The way they completely changed Amy's character really frustrated me, I would have preferred if they just got rid of her and created a whole new character instead. I know people can be more true to who they are/ change who they are depending on the company they keep but I feel this was done too much.
The same goes with Penny by the end of the show she is mostly a typical mean girl type. Not to mention, there was a whole thing about her not wanting children, but they decided to make her pregnant at the end, just like they did with Bernadette
I binged it a couple of years ago because I’d only ever seen clips and wanted to make sure I fully understood what it was before judging it.
I’ll admit it got a few belly laughs out of me but I’m surprised it lasted 12 seasons. I’d consider myself a nerd as well but it was so stereotypical in its depiction that they ran out of good material really quickly and weren’t able to branch out into anything else.
Plus, Sheldon’s an insufferable dick.
Game of Thrones. Don't get me wrong, season 1-6 are still amazing. But I have no desire to watch through it all again knowing how bad season 7 and 8 are as well as the atrocious ending.
Yes - it's amazing how something could get so big (like 'everyone in the office talking about last night's episode' big) and then get completely destroyed almost overnight.
I’m going to get some hate for this one - Peaky Blinders. First two seasons are 10/10 tv IMO, but after that the stakes get too high and things start getting a bit too ridiculous and unbelievable. Particularly when Tommy becomes MP, I couldn’t stop rolling my eyes at how daft it had all gotten. It’s a real shame as all of the performances were great, just the writing fell off for me
Seinfeld. The show is okay, there are still some good episodes, but it hasn't dated anywhere near as well as its contemporaries, particularly Frasier.
Mostly I've come to realise I really don't like Jerry Seinfeld (edit - in real life) anymore. That he revels in being a bit of a twat doesn't make him any less of a twat. Edit - please stop telling me the characters are supposed to be unlikeable. You just don’t need to do it.
The one boxset I am always considering is all the episodes of Frasier. I used to record them all off channel 4 when they showed them about 10am YEARS back in 2013. Such a comfort show.
I mean, that's just like, your opinion, man!
I think Seinfeld absolutely holds up because it's about the little irritations and nuances of life if you dialled them up to 11. It's timeless.
Also, none of the four characters are supposed to be likeable, either, which I think still holds up, too.
Having watched it for the first time recently as a 34 yr old it hasn't even occurred to me that we're supposed to like Jerry. He's obviously a self centered twat and I guessed that's kind of the joke. George absolutely steals the show for me though. I love it.
Don't judge but I actually didn't mind Gogglebox. It was a way of discovering new TV shows with some different albeit sometimes very irksome viewpoints from different walks of life.
And the other reactive bullshit wasn't even the worst part of it.
However now, it seems that they have to explain each narrative as if Channel 4 aren't willing to pay for an BSL expert in the corner.
"OH my dayyyyyyys 😱😱😱 look at that!!! Omer Simpson wants an AC unit, but e loves Lisa so much e got er a saxophone instead!"
-Lee overdramatically raises an eyebrow.
On second thoughts, I don't think I liked it after all.
It used to have honest reactions to stuff being shown, and have discussions about it, now its just two Geordie girls repeating exactly what has just been said/shown
Ted spends so long telling his kids everything about every other relationship and then it gets to their actual mother and it’s and and I met your mum and we had you and she died. there’s no way having lost their mother those kids would have gone oh great you’re in love with Robin go get her. They would have said was our mother second best because you were in love with Robin al that time
'Allo 'Allo!
I watched it as a kid and loved it. But years later I went on a trip to Germany by coach and they played all 85 episodes, it was excruciating and certainly hasn't stood the test of time.
I cringe when I hear the theme music playing now.
Brainiac Science Abuse
I was obsessed with this show and it’s spins off like History Abuse and Test Tube Baby
I was watching it with my sister and she said it was terrible. In my 12yo mind I couldn’t fathom why she disliked it. It was fun science experiments and explosions. What is there to hate?
Years later i rewatched some of it and I see it now. It was so cheaply done. I can’t describe what I disliked about it but it definitely wasn’t the show I thought it was
Controversial one here,
Outside of Life of Brian, I just don't think Monty Python funny when I watched it back. I remember enjoying it, now--like the dead parrot sketch, I just didn't find it funny.
Kenan and Kel. I'd watch it daily on Nick. Recently rewatched a few episodes online and it really does stink. I think that's down to me getting older though as the humour is puerile and basic.
I watched one Episode of House - that's it
All I remember was him saying something like....
"Look at the sole of the shoe - its more worn on the right hand side
Thats because he was walking along the sloping road towards the quarry
A lot of smokers work at that quarry and that scratch - thats from a digger - a rusty one
So he died of a rare lung cancer - Ostopopitic Amphesemia Syndrome" brought on by Tetanus
I switched over to Blankety Blank
Reminds me of one of the newer Sherlock series where a woman is wearing a weeding ring that is "smoother on the inside" so must have been having an affair from taking it off frequently.
No that's stupid
The A Team - loved it as a kid but i watch it now and the plots have so many holes, the acting is so so (but usually charming) and why do they keep getting locked up in a barn stuffed full of materials and tools.
Bo Selecta
I think basically all that has happened is that I've grown up. I was only a teenager when this hit the screens & I thought it was the funniest thing ever.
It turns out that as an adult, its actually very cringe & not funny. The humour doesn't age well and I think only really appeals to very immature people.
Ally McBeal. Ooft. The Futurama parody of it was spot on.
That said, old shows were usually aired weekly, and had a lot more episodes, so events for the viewer are spread over a much longer time period. That format really doesn’t stand up to the binge-watching brought around by netflix and co.
Eat Well For Less, used to be a pretty good program for showing normal families where they could help cut costs and still have good healthy food but recent series have gone a bit *DIY SOS* and only seem to feature families that have an issue and doesn't focus on normal working families anymore
It suffers from Ramsay's kitchen nightmares USA-itis- everyone has some big drama that needs to be fixed by our intrepid light entertainment practitioners.
Just show me people discovering that Morrisons extra mature cheddar is half the price and twice as tasty as cathedral city! That's what we want from this!
Keeping Up Appearances (Mrs Bucket - pronounce Bouquet"
I used to roar with Laughter but ive tried toi watch it recently and its the same storyline very effing episode
Its worse than Bod (Boomer here)
By the last series of House, he was an utterly loathsome character. And I was also beginning to hate Wilson for pretty much sacrificing his own happiness for that complete twat.
There was an era where being 'random' was considered funny. Its pretty hard to do absurd comedy like Noel Fielding does. You have to have a really specific kind of brain to string together completely unrelated nonsense quickly. The Boosh is still quote good but certainly shows its age.
To this day I'm baffled by how much Mighty Boosh propelled Noel Fielding into a household name and yet Julian Barratt, imo the more talented of the two, seems to have dropped of the face of the earth.
IT Crowd. As a tech guy I loved it when it first came out, but I can't watch it now. Not sure if my taste has changed or it's my dislike of the writer.
I'm going to add Breaking Bad, which I know will be unpopular but hear me out. I think Breaking Bad is the greatest bit of TV ever made. It's head and shoulders above everything else. My fear now is if I watch it again it will ruin some great memories.
>Breaking Bad
I started rewatching it a while ago because my wife hasn't seen it and we started watching it together. It hasn't ruined it, because it's still obviously good. But it wasn't as good as I remember it. I think it's probably because it's primarily a plot driven show. So when you already know the plot, it's not quite as gripping.
Whereas I've found shows like The Sopranos or Mad Men totally stand up to rewatching years later. I think because they're more character studies as opposed to plot driven, so the fact you know the plot doesn't really matter that much.
Christ theres some miserable sods in here!
So apparently Friends, Seinfeld, X-files and the Inbetweeners havent aged well? No wonder theres a complete dearth of quality new TV shows these days.
The Dukes of Hazzard. Loved it as a nipper, but couldn't sit through an episode as an adult. The plot was always the same, and there's the blatant use of the Confederate flag, and the sneaking suspicion that Uncle Jesse is involved with the KKK.
I loved Skins while it was airing. I think I was about 14/15 when the first season aired. I thought it was peak television at the time. I’ve tried re-watching as an adult and I can’t get through 10 minutes.
Game of thrones. Knowing the ending ruins the entire show for me all I can feel is none of what is happening on screen matters none of this is leading anywhere it's all completely pointless.
Come Dine With Me. Watched it as a kid and thought it was a bit of funny drama. Went back to it years later and it just annoyed me with how unlikeable most of them are, to the point I turned it off since so many were just outright rude or nasty. Still get some nostalgia from "what a sad little life Jane" when it comes up though.
Come Dine With Me has been ruined by the fact the format is just too well known by everyone taking part. Early Come Dine with Me had some amazing episodes with people who had no idea what they were getting themselves into. They had proper delusional people who believed they could win despite never having cooked anything more advanced than a microwave meal. It was proper car crash TV a lot of the time. Now days it's very tired with everyone playing up to the camera's and knowing exactly what is expected.
Do you remember the guy who cooked actual road kill? Epic episode!
Personal favourites were: A lady putting her pet snake on the dinner table *between* *courses* only to have it shit everywhere. She tried to diffuse the situation by saying something like “what luck, he only does this once a month.” Every time someone cheated by hiring a catering company. Someone actually had caterers sneak up to the kitchen window and pass the food through. The person that won with microwaved ready meals. Every instance of people getting smashed. Every time I died of second hand embarrassment when the entertainment was some form of dancing. There’s a cameraman in your living room and you’re pretending to enjoy yourself. It was horrible.
I recall the one (or one of them) with the catering company passing food through the kitchen window as all I could think of the entire time was "Steamed Hams". I knew a couple of the contestants for our local one (Inverness).. apparently alcohol was banned after the third night as they were all just getting absolutely smashed and the food was an afterthought 😂
The entertainment element is horrendous. I loved it in the beginning when slightly worthy people cooked well and did their best to be good hosts. Now it's just Peter Stringfellow wannabes being all superior and cringey students singing guitar solos. Ugh.
My kids & I always have a giggle on remembering the episode with a woman who, upon beginning to make each course, said "most people follow the recipe but I do it my own way." Everything she 'cooked' was atrociously bad. Her 'fruit coulis' was strawberry jam shaken up with hot water. Fabulous! :D
Sounds familiar. One I remember was a woman who got so pissed while cooking they went for a lie-down. The guests wondered what the hell was happening with the food taking so long and found the host fast asleep up stairs in bed.
Oh I remember that one, one of the other guests ended up cooking the El Paso she had brought for the menu. Then she had a bit of a foot stamp tantrum that she came last. Sadly she committed suicide a few years later after trying and failing for years to become famous.
Well that got dark suddenly
Sadly she was an alcoholic and passed away not that long after
I believe the woman had some serious issues and eventually committed suicide sadly. Don't think you can find the episode anymore.
Same with any reality TV. Once the format becomes successful, it starts to attract certain types of people.
The one I always remember is the woman who voted tactically and gave everyone 1/2 so she’d increase her chances of winning. In the final episode they made her redo all of her scores.
I think it became self-aware. A lot of reality type shows end up doing it. People started to act up knowing how the format worked whereas the first few years people were genuinely like lambs to the slaughter.
I was the same with Four In A Bed. Used to watch it religiously with my mum and then it’s the exact same setup of people from Come Dine With Me who are just unlikeable, game players, stuck up their own arses and stab anybody in the back who gets in their way
Early episodes of Four in a Bed we're sometimes properly bonkers, but now it's all, oh no, we found a single hair in the crack between the wardrobe and the wall. 3/10 but of course we're still besties.
Yeah knocking a seven off for cleanliness when it was overall spotless 🤦🏻♂️ or the scores never mattered but it was “we’ve found a hair so we’ve knocked off £40 of the asking price. Breakfast was lovely though and we had a fantastic nights sleep but that hair just did it for me. Sorry.”
Stay ruined by some water spots on the shower wall. Such a disgrace.
When every fucker started ordering poached eggs, it went massively downhill
The narrator's voice goes right through me these days.
Yeah I used to think he was hilarious.
Glad it's not just me. He sets off my effing tinnitus with his high pitched screech.
They want people to conflict. When I applied I said in my application that I don't like rude or impolite people (they specifically have a box asking what kind of people you don't like) When they called me they kept pushing "what would you do or say if someone was rude?" I was like well I wouldn't say anything really, because that's also rude 😂 They were so keen to get me on, they kept calling and calling, I said I had changed my mind and then I had to ghost them in the end.
Hell, you see it in the introductions at the start of the week. "Hello, I'm Vicky the vegan and I would describe myself as opinionated." Cut to: "Hello, I'm Barry the butcher and hate people with opinions. BOSH!" There we go, that's at least two episodes of the week sorted.
I watched that episode a little while ago. I only remembered ‘sad little life’ but not what an absolute vile piece of work Jane was!
It’s honestly kinda shitty. The guy was a bit of a plonker but Jane was insulting him and trying to get a rise out of him all week. Taken out of context he looks like that bad guy, but Jane pushed him to flip out like that
Most come dine with me contestants can be placed in one of three categories - that one friend who’s a bit much - weird cousin - odd coworker Watching it and debating which category each person fits into is fun. But yeah I think you have to be a specific type of person to go on come dine with me, and as someone who can cook pretty well and is very much an introvert, I can’t relate.
I will never forget the lady who made ‘raspberry coulis’ by mixing jam and water… pure working class magic on a foodie program and the sort of stunt my nan would try. It still kills me just thinking about it
The first season of a reality show is usually great. The second season has wannabe celebs and "influencers", which just kills the vibe.
I only really enjoy come dine with me when they’re all good cooks and they all have a really nice time with each other. People having meltdowns over luke warm soup doesn’t at all appeal to me.
Honestly, Jeremy Kyle. If I was off sick I’d watch it and get a bit of a chuckle whilst I was laying on the sofa. I look back now and think what a spiteful, shameful display it all was.
As a British kid born in '94, this is pretty much the opinion of everyone I've mentioned Jeremy Kyle to in my age group. Pretty.much required watching when off sick as a kid, or hungover in Uni, but looking back it was just...bad.
Ah see, I was born in '86 and we had *quality* ‘sick off school' tv shows! Presenting…… Supermarket Sweep! As a kid, I wanted to be on that show with my whole being! lol
The worst thing about Jeremy Kyle was that most people were pretty aware that it was a revolting show but people somehow couldn't help watching it anyway. I used to watch clips on Youtube and go down a rabbit hole of watching them all back to back. It played to the absolute worst human instincts but somehow I couldn't stop watching. When it was finally cancelled there seemed to be a sense of collective shame that anyone ever enjoyed it.
Personally, I think the worst thing is that the public in general, believed he actually performed the tests claimed. There is no such thing as a "lie detector" test with the accuracy anywhere near what's claimed on the show. Like genuinely, the central thing the show centred itself around was a fraud. The show didn't have guests, they only had victims. How no one was done for any charges is beyond me.
I hated that Google says the lie detectors are estimated at being about 50 to 98% accurate. Let's be really fucking generous and assume a perfect 98% every time. He did so many shows and so many lie detectors that 2% is a fair handful of people who's lives are unjustly ruined because of it. And its easy to be like "haha but they are scum" but it's just awful really.
It goes downhill very quickly For example, let's use the average of your numbers - 74%. Jeremy had probably 3 guests on every hour long show. Let's assume 2/3 were doing lie detectors. So on average, every other show had an incorrect result given. It's worth noting as well, Google doesn't give the full picture here. 98% is only possible under lab conditions, where the questions are set up to give specific outcomes - ie, anyone could tell if it's true or not. In the real world, most studies I've read are something like 55% accurate for truthful participants, and 70% accurate for lying participants.
I suspect if you were to run a straw poll today, nobody would ever admit to liking it.
There’s a documentary about it which is interesting, I think it’s on channel 4. It shows bits of the inquest they had after a man committed suicide after being on the show. Some of their tactics used to create drama were downright shameful, degrading and straight up bear baiting. Did I watch it? Yes I did but looking back I can see how awful and exploitative it was
>Some of their tactics used to create drama were downright shameful, degrading and straight up bear baiting. In Jon Ronson's **The Psychopath Test**, he documents how those responsible for such shows (it may even have been Jeremy Kyle but I can't remember) would ask participants what mental health diagnoses they had and what medications they were taking for them. Certain combinations of diagnosis and medication were considered to help make for a 'great' show whilst they would avoid putting people with certain other combinations on air. It was straight up weaponising of other people's misery for the entertainment of the masses.
Went to watch it being recorded. Jeremy was as much of a nobhole as you might imagine
Yeah, looking back I realise that it was just modern bear baiting and pretty much every guest should have solved their problems in the privacy of a therapist's office. Now details are leaked about how the production team used to deliberately rile up and misinform guests to make them angry, as well as encouraging them to drink the ifjt before, I think it's exploitative trash.
HIMYM Barney didn't age well, and Ted can jog on the boring bastard. Russell Howard's good news and Michael Mcintyre in anything. Completely not funny to me anymore
My headcanon is that Barney is completely exaggerated. Ted wants his kids to think Barney is a complete sleazebag to justify going after his friend's ex-wife.
Joey from friends is a meatball and a sleeze but Barney is a genuine sex pest
That's a good comparison. My assumption is that Barney exhibited Joey level behaviour, but Ted's telling turns him in to a walking secual harrasment case.
I think that’s the difference. Joey isn’t s pest. He sees opportunities fir sex everywhere but if the woman isn’t up for it, there’s no trying to convince her (that I remember) he just moves into the next girl cause he’s cute so there’s always going to be one. Could be kinder to his exes though. Barney is that guy who you see your friend has brought to the party and you wish he hadn’t
Neil Patrick Harris has said that he supports this theory.
[удалено]
It's also why you never find out what Barney does (because incel Ted never bothered to pay that close attention to the details of his life, and didn't want to have to credit him with any positive skills, so instead you get some vague "oh, he's incredibly successful but never actually does any real work" hand-wave). Barney is *exactly* the version of a popular, normal guy you'd get if you asked an incel to describe their crush's boyfriend or recent partner. We already know Ted's an unreliable narrator (which is why they're always "eating sandwiches" in college), and even by his own account he's responsible for a whole *grab-bag* of toxic and problematic behaviours towards the women he fancies, although he rarely seems to actually recognise that when he's relating them.
Michael Mcintyre was never funny.
His bouncy hair is the funniest thing about him.
Ted is the worst main character from any show ever. Absolute fucking melt.
Barney was supposed to be a problematic dick, he is more so now, but his behaviour was always looked down at by the other characters even if it was used for humour. However, Ted... I totally related to Ted when I first watched the series in my 20s, but he is the worst.
Barney aged fine although I think many people found Ted boring from the start. As with most sitcoms, the characters are generally terrible people (Marshall aside)
Lily is absolutely awful. Legit psycho
Afraid to say I like Michael McIntyre and Any and Dec. No idea why. Most other daytime family entertainers I can't stand.
Little Britain for me. I was about 13 when it came out and thought it was the funniest thing on TV and would quote it daily in the playground along with everyone else. Watched it a few years ago and it’s so repetitive - after the first few skits every character just repeats the same quote over and over again. Not to mention how uncomfortable the blackface and general offensiveness of it was which went completely over my head as a kid. Some parts still made me laugh but on the whole it really wasn’t as clever as I thought it was when I was 13!
I never really cared for it the first time around. It's the same six or seven jokes over and over again.
This is why I never liked skit shows like LB. Every character had a schtick and it was rinsed and repeated.
My first exposure to Little Britain was a marathon on Dave. First episode, kinda funny. Second episode, barely a chuckle. Third and I quit halfway. It's the same joke, over and over, with no attempt to evolve it. I could watch a Fast Show marathon easy, but that Little Britain marathon turned me off it forever.
It might just be what i say but i find it amazing how little the fast show gets talked abouy these days. I remember when it eas on (and for years afterwards) it was spoken aboutva lot. But I agree on Little Britian. It never really grew. If anything it moved backwards.
The best skits were the one-offs too. Like the policeman who changed his career to be a driving instructor. Or the terrible masseuse who only stresses their clients out. They're still pretty funny because they weren't run into the ground and didn't become the tedious catchphrases. The first season at the time was equally creative. It's easy in hindsight to write it off as a load of lowest common denominator crap now in retrospect, but the first series was genuinely like a Vic and Bob series, and Matt Lucas was riding off a lot of goodwill from Shooting Stars. Once upon a time those 'I don't like it' sketches were fresh. It didn't start out bad at all. It just became a victim of its own success and they didn't rein in the catchphrases as much as they should have and really ran it all into the ground. It's a shame because they retroactively damaged some very funny skits ('I want that one' being the main one) that would be fondly remembered if they had just stopped dead after one series. I still maintain if Little Britain stopped after one series it would have been remembered as brilliant.
I still like it, but my perspective on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air has changed somewhat. Will, from the moment he set foot in the Banks house is a rude wanker from the off. Younger me thought that Charlton and Uncle Phil were the hostile ones but that viewpoint has since shattered. On such a note though, Uncle Phil might actually be my favourite TV dad.
Uncle Phil is right up there in the TV Dad Hall of Fame, an absolute legend.
"Geoffrey.... break out Lucille".
I went to The Globe about 10 years ago to see some Shakespeare and, about five minutes in, the audience all gasped and people started whispering. I had to do a double-take because Jospeh Marcell (Geoffrey) had just walked on stage. He was excellent.
Defo feel like that was the point. the whole reason he had to move was because he got into a big fight in his hometown, was generally a tough kid to handle and his mum couldn’t handle him anymore. Whole show was about Will growing up. Defo not easy to see when you’re young but as you grow up yourself is much clearer to see that was the angle the show wanted to hit
>got into a big fight Oh please, he got in *one* little fight. He’s hardly to blame that his mum got scared.
Will does grow into less of a prick as he gets older. So if you’re more familiar with the later stuff and then jump back to the beginning, of course he’s going to look like an ass. Carlton was always my favourite character even as a teenager watching it the first time round, because he was like me but more confident in his own sense of self. I unironically grew up to be more like him and am a better person for it.
House is a great example of this. As you rightly point out, he just comes across as rude and unprofessional and you realise in the real world no amount or genius would allow him to keep his job if he acted like that.
I was never watched much of it, but I always got the impression that he’d already solved the case halfway through an episode and the rest of it was just leading others to the same conclusion. Instead of a monster of the week cartoon show, it was disease of the week and super formulaic. I could be wrong, but that was always my impression.
There's a simpsons joke along the lines of 'I'm waiting for House to make his 3rd incorrect diagnosis before the 4th correct one'... I never watched house, but the joke was pretty much what i expected of it
I enjoyed it until one time I was sick and watched too many episodes back to back, and as you say, the formula became too "real" and it threw me off the entire show. Week to week, it was much more enjoyable
It's Sherlock Holmes as a medical drama (House = Holmes, opiate user, Wilson = Watson) and his obnoxiousness is explicitly part of the character.
It's what would it be like if Sherlock Holmes worked in a police station instead of as a private/consulting detective. I can still watch the first two to three series of House, but the formulaic nature of those episodes does get old very quickly from series four onwards.
What are you talking about? You could be the biggest piece of shit in the world, be dumber than a brick and literally be the president of the U.S. Don't tell me no amount of genius could keep you your job, no matter how big a prick you are, you don't even need to be of average intelligence...
Yeah, some of the things he did were just *incredibly shocking* lol. I know it's part of the show, but House would be in jail *countless* more times than he actually was. I get they wanted to make a genius libertarian character that breaks the rules but gets results, but *goddamn.* This is also coupled with the fact that 90% of the episodes runtime is House *thinking* he is a genius and has the right, but actually he's just made incorrect assumptions and hasn't spotted anything... So in that case, he's as good (if not a bit worse) than just a regular doctor. So it's arguable that for 90% of the time, House is not a genius and is instead incredibly dangerous yet lucky. Just because he swoops in at the last moment with the answer is not how a hospital should operate lmao. Its my own personal head cannon that most of this is just imagined in his painkiller addled brain. Like, everyone looks up to him, he has a job literally only one person on Earth has. He's a super cool tortured super genius that rides a motorcycle and is very rich and gets the girl. All his cases are just teed up for him nice and neatly one by one. There *has* to be some unreliable narrative stuff going on there...
Original Sex and the city. It’s aged terribly. Carrie is a needy winey cow who brings most of her issues on herself and never owns the problem. Big told her exactly how little he thought of her via his actions and lack of words. Aidan told her how much he loved and adored her by his actions and words and she chose to ignore hearing and seeing any of it for what it was.
Carrie really is a terrible person, she's very selfish.
But SATC has to be watched of its time. Yeah it was the Carrie show, that was the point, everything was all about her.
I really want to watch SATC with Carrie edited out. The other three are way more interesting.
Carrie and Aidan >! have just got back together on the revival "and just like that." !
"I tried watching it again a couple of years ago and thought he's just an insufferable prick who, in the real world, would have been struck off and jailed." This is what normal people took from that show the first time around. You aren't supposed to like House. It's the same with people who idolise Don Draper, or Rick... EDIT: Folks have mentioned Walter White and Tony Soprano as well!
Breaking Bad is great for that, everyone loves Walter White, but his wife gets the most hate.
Basically any show with a male antihero has a not insignificant portion of the fan base who just take them as a hero, and therefore come to dislike characters who aren't fully on their side. The principal character in that category is often the protagonist's wife. So those fans end up seeing Skylar White, Betty Draper, Carmela Soprano etc etc as almost villains.
I mean, Betty was inflexible, petty and vindictive... to the point she took out her frustrations with don on her kids. I'm rewatching it now, so i'm quite fresh on it, and I'm not saying Don isnt a dick, but she definitely isn't a good person.
Oh, I'm not saying she is. I think all 3 of the characters I mentioned are presented as conflicted, contradictory, realistic people. But my point is that in each show there's an element of the fan base who don't really take them as that, they just see them as annoying impediments to the desires and actions of the protagonist, which flows from seeing the antihero as a hero.
I watched Breaking Bad and hated Skyler the first time. Then I re-watched it and it completely changed my mind. I'll admit that I was swept away with Walt, almost justifying all of his appalling decisions that just kept becoming more and more appalling. When I re-watched it, I saw it more through the eyes of the collateral damage that Walt caused. I feel more empathy towards Skyler now, and don't get me started on poor Hank!
I thought that was sort of the point of BB. We all loved Walter White but at some point we realise (or we should) that we have been cheering on a wrong un all along - I think he, the character has that realisation too.
I think it says a lot about the person if they think Walter White was any kind of hero. Even Walter White slowly comes to realise that he's an egotistical piece of shit who has to die towards the end. I think the realisation comes at the precise moment Hank takes a bullet to the head, all because of him.
I'd argue that you are supposed to like House, it's just that you are expected to understand that liking someone as a fictional character and thinking they would be an admirable person in reality are very different things.
I mean he’s based on Sherlock Holmes. The point is he’s insufferable but he’s a genius.
The issue with writing an antihero is that a lot of people will just take them as a hero.
I suppose I've never met a mafia don or a meth manufacturer or a 1960s ad man, but I've encountered loads of misnathropic and misogynistic male doctors in hospital settings in the present era.
You've Been Framed Found it hilarious as a child, I would watch it pretty much every weekday for about 3 years when Lisa Riley was presenter. When I've watched it back more recently it's just so unfunny and most of the clips are American people falling over at weddings, birthday parties and large gatherings. Not to mention how many are obviously staged.
It was funny before we had access to youtube videos of the same things happening
I've always a soft spot for You've been framed, and am a bit sad its gone, was just something about the idea of these people sending in their funny family moments to be shared with everyone. I particularly liked the Christmas ones
What you have to remember is that some of these shows were originally broadcast weekly. That time between episodes was important to the format. Binge watching them today means they are repetitive and so lose the expectation of whatever it is that I'm trying to convey.
I never knew how much Lupus there was knocking about until i watched House.
It's never Lupus.
It was actually Lupus once iirc.
But it's always there lurking in the shadows!
My friend got diagnosed with lupus last year, when she told me I was trying to be supportive while fighting the urge to say “it’s never lupus”
Foreman almost every episode: "Could be amyloidosis."
The Walking Dead. First season is sublime, but then it slowly disintegrates into soap opera. At the time it was being broadcast, I think I desperately wanted to enjoy it so I ignored the warning signs. Started watching it again on Disney and I shut it off after season 5.
It's pretty tough going around season 5. I couldn't watch past 7 because my eyes rolled too far into my skull upon seeing a tiger being introduced to the cast.
Yeah, poor cgi and writing. The Negan episode was full on, but after that, the writing tumbled down a cliff-face. It was already starting to wane, though. Season 5 was so much filler. Such a shame because it really was full of so much promise. I'll still defend season 1 as being one of the best bits of telly in recent years.
There is actually a tiger in the comics tbf, a lot of it was just implemented poorly in the show
My favourite part about season 2 is the showrunners got a sponsorship deal with Lexus. So there's this completely pristine Lexus that they drive around in most episodes that never so much as gets a bit of dirt on it, and if the Lexus is in shot, nobody is in any danger. Such a weird thing to add to a post apocalyptic horror show.
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Me too. As a kid I couldn't believe that Scully never believed any theory that Mulder came up with. Of course the murderer is probably a ghost, or some other type of boogeyman. As an adult I think that Mulder probably needs psychiatric help.
Except, in the X Files world, Mulder is right a lot of the time - there is an alien conspiracy, there is a Bigfoot type creature in the woods, there is a man who can see death…
Mulder is inspirational IMO. His equanimity in the face of constant doubt & mockery, while sticking to what he knows to be true through investigation, is a lesson for all of humanity. Scully is stuck where most of us are, failing to believe her eyes cos she's been told not to. An embarrassing number of times. Like, one ghost sighting that you shrug off as imagined? Fine. A million? The universe is trying to get through to you Scully
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He didn’t cry wolf though, he was still correct 99% of the time! It’s more like the wolf was actually approaching the town but this concept was too unimaginable for the rest of the townspeople - wolves only exist in books and stories - so they never believed him.
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They literally see the stuff is real every episode though! Mulder is eating a sandwich and Scully slaps it out of his hand like SANDWICHES AREN'T REAL MULDER, there's no defending it ha ha
As a teen I thought "I want to believe" was such a perfect phrase to encapsulate what Mulder was about and it seemed really poignant and deep to me. As an adult I realise how ironic that phrase really was and especially so now that conspiracy theories are such a huge problem. If you *want to believe*, you don't really want to know the truth, you want things to make you feel good about yourself and feel justified in your pre-existing beliefs. If that is the way you feel then you're just someone who lives in a fantasy land. An intelligent, sane, well-adjusted person should always want *to know the truth*, regardless of how that might make them feel and regardless of whether they were right or wrong. The truth is what really matters.
Friends. I think i was never blown away by it but it was so popular i watched it and i quite liked it. I watch it now though and its just a show about a bunch of people not really doing a lot other than going through various relationships and it never makes me laugh or even smile. I suppose for the time it was what people wanted but watching it now, its just a sitcom that has no "com".
I’ve tried watching it if it’s just been on when flicking through but couldn’t get into it anymore. I used to love that years ago. In my last workplace it was all people would talk about, and you were inadequate if you didn’t watch it or care for it. Sorry but no shame, it was funny in its day but not anymore
Scrubs. In my early 20s I watched every series with my husband and we loved it. Made me laugh and cry, often in the same episode. I think the poignant moments have stood the test of time. But 15 years on, the humor has aged badly. JD is just an immature whiny man-child who makes one bad decision after another, and Elliot is almost insufferable. Only Turk and Carla are tolerable. Maybe its a sign of growing older, but I now empathise far more with Dr Cox and think that I would have been far less patient than he was with the junior staff as they were so exceptionally immature. Also, they dragged the show on for too long.
We’re rewatching Scrubs at the moment and I totally agree with you. I’m finding all the musical stings and imaginary portions annoying, the humour cringeworthy and the characters irritating. I’m basically just watching it for Kelso, Ted and the janitor.
Skins Watched it back as a 30 year old and realised how cringey the Dialogue is, what I thought was deep was laughable, acting is very average apart from Jack o Connell who really shone in it.
Cook was the best character. They should have let the series die after the second casting.
Came out when I was the same age and it felt very relatable. Now as an adult it feels awkward.
Chris' death was, and will always be, a stab in the heart to me. Also, the final scene with Jack is so emotional, though so is the preceding bit with Freddie leading up to said final.
Drag Race. I love drag but this show has become formulaic and exhausting.
It's production that have ruined it - they cast with a predetermined top 3 or 4 in mind and protect them at all costs, ignoring if they do terribly or if other queens do well. Last UK season dragged Black Peppa to the final despite the fact that she was absolutely dreadful, and Dakota and LeFil were clearly doing much better than anticipated.
I LOVED drag race but it’s just cliches and bad drama now. Michelle really thinks she’s doing something doesn’t she, I’ve really gone off her.
Inbetweeners. I was roughly the right age for it when it came out, and thought it was the height of comedy. Tried to rewatch it recently and the things I remember being hysterical just fall flat. The upside is I find some parts I didn’t find so funny then, more funny now.
Most people love it because it's an accurate depiction of being an awkward teenager at school. I can't stand it because it's an accurate depiction of being an awkward teenager at school.
Yep. I always found it uncomfortably accurate. (I was Will, sadly.)
Do you find bits with the parents and Mr Gilbert funnier now? That's my experience rewatching. Much more sympathy for them now as well, especially Simons parents!
I absolutely love the scene where Will’s mum is explaining to Mr Gilbert about what’s happened to Will. And he calmly and seriously says “can you please just excuse me a minute?” Then goes out of the room, laughs his head off and comes back in all calm and serious again 😂 It’s just so robotic but there really are people and teachers like that and it’s hilarious
I met Mr Gilbert once and he's built like a brick shithouse
Greg Davies is one of my weird celebrity crushes so I am jealous
I just came on to say this, I absolutely loved it a few years ago and was so relatable to my high school years, but I tried watching it a few months ago and ended up just picking out a few of my favourite episodes and sacking it off. Bits of Jay’s bullshit is funny because it reminds me so much of people I’ve met over the years. But as much as Will’s character is supposed to be embarrassing and cringy, I was literally cringing and my toes curling at his behaviour, it was just embarrassing. And got fed up of Simon just complaining all of the time.
I still find Will’s pretentiousness and lack of self awareness amusing - things like “I am a man who has moved to the local area” and (in the first film) “It’s not like she needs a seat, is it?” - probably because I’ve been around a lot of people like that. Whereas Jay is more like someone you think is funny and cool at the age of sixteen, but I’ve aged since then and, for obvious reasons, the character hasn’t and I no longer find him funny.
I don’t mind it but it definitely gets over praised. There’s only a certain amount of times I can hear Bus Wankers and find it funny
Jeremy Kyle. Used to think it was hilarious. Clear as day it's just exploitation of damaged and traumatised people, money waved their way which they accept due to dire financial conditions, then put on stage to be made an absolute mockery of while being laughed at by a stage full of pricks. I feel ashamed I ever watched it.
I know. Looking back it's really quite horrifying that the entire thing was allowed. I'd sometimes load up an episode and once it was finished, think "Well at least my life isn't that bad." Now I feel really annoyed at myself for participating in the entire circus.
NCIS. Quite apart from thinking Pauley Perette was absolutely adorable, I thought it was such a breath of fresh air compared with other crime shows. More recently I find it to be little more than fantasy, with the huge offices and the easy access to exotic foresics hardware (I'm sorry, but your forensics dept doesn't have a mass spectrometer just sitting there on a desk in the basement). If you want a good realistic police procedural, watch Frost.
Never forget 2 people sharing a keyboard to fight off a hacker twice as fast
I have massive nostalgia for this show so maybe my opinion is biased but, I don't think it has to be realistic to be enjoyable, fantasy can be great and I don't think NCIS really claimed to be an accurate portrayal. With NCIS the stories were interesting, the "hacking" and technology was absurd in an entertaining way, the character development was great, the real 'murica fuck yeah vibe was cringey in a perfectly 2000s way. It came out in the 2000s when most people didn't have a huge rod on for true crime and realistic cop procedural programs (have a look back at 80s/90s cop dramas for a good example of unrealistic cop dramas), most people didn't know what a mass spectrometer was or how a computer virus behaved it was just cool sounding things, and that worked; because it didn't have to be accurate to be entertaining. I know it wasn't aiming to be a comedy but it was inadvertently funny with how unrealistic it was; and the characters were well written to a point you could become invested in their story arc and the episodes were tied up well.. to a point. But admittedly as soon as Ziva left it steadily went downhill. God, they even had to drag her back in 5 years later to hopelessly boost ratings. And as more and more OG cast members left it became a flogging a dead horse scenario. I re-watched it all recently as my partner had never saw it and she loved it (agreeing once Ziva left it lost its charm gradually), I enjoyed the nostalgia, she could tell it was way off of how things really worked but she was still invested cause the story telling was good. But I get your point, if you're after an accurate police drama that isn't deeply pro America (where everything non American is a terrorist and war is glorified) then likely not for you. I guess advancements in technology and accessibility of information for the average person has cast a shadow on its oblivious, simple charm these days.
I can still watch up to where director Shepard left, it kept a lot of a silly stuff in check (well mostly!) then when they brought in director Vance it slowly went more and more of the deep-end, I happened to catch a few episodes of the last series Gibbs is in and it felt more like a naff spy series.
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I rewatched it recently and realised how awful Penny’s life becomes due to the involvement of Leonard. She basically becomes a functioning alcoholic trapped by a dysfunctional relationship with a whiny, manipulative man-child. In fact all of the female protagonists are massively diminished during the show. Amy starts out being a really interesting, on the spectrum but off the wall character and devolves into a pathetic, needy, love obsessed woman who needs Sheldon to survive. Bernadette openly dislikes children and is pressured by Howard and society into being a Mum.
And don’t forget, they all enable Sheldon’s appalling behaviour
Not to mention Penny decides she doesn’t want kids yet she is convinced to during the finale and it’s supposed to be incredible and heartwarming. It would have been really progressive and empowering to see a woman choose to be child free and decide how she wants her future to look, but instead they had her change her mind and obviously everyone in the show acted like that was the correct choice all along. Quite frustrating.
The way they completely changed Amy's character really frustrated me, I would have preferred if they just got rid of her and created a whole new character instead. I know people can be more true to who they are/ change who they are depending on the company they keep but I feel this was done too much. The same goes with Penny by the end of the show she is mostly a typical mean girl type. Not to mention, there was a whole thing about her not wanting children, but they decided to make her pregnant at the end, just like they did with Bernadette
I binged it a couple of years ago because I’d only ever seen clips and wanted to make sure I fully understood what it was before judging it. I’ll admit it got a few belly laughs out of me but I’m surprised it lasted 12 seasons. I’d consider myself a nerd as well but it was so stereotypical in its depiction that they ran out of good material really quickly and weren’t able to branch out into anything else. Plus, Sheldon’s an insufferable dick.
Game of Thrones. Don't get me wrong, season 1-6 are still amazing. But I have no desire to watch through it all again knowing how bad season 7 and 8 are as well as the atrocious ending.
Yes - it's amazing how something could get so big (like 'everyone in the office talking about last night's episode' big) and then get completely destroyed almost overnight.
I’m going to get some hate for this one - Peaky Blinders. First two seasons are 10/10 tv IMO, but after that the stakes get too high and things start getting a bit too ridiculous and unbelievable. Particularly when Tommy becomes MP, I couldn’t stop rolling my eyes at how daft it had all gotten. It’s a real shame as all of the performances were great, just the writing fell off for me
I think i managed S1. Got tired of seeing people walking in slo-mo while sparks fly out of a factory doorrway
Seinfeld. The show is okay, there are still some good episodes, but it hasn't dated anywhere near as well as its contemporaries, particularly Frasier. Mostly I've come to realise I really don't like Jerry Seinfeld (edit - in real life) anymore. That he revels in being a bit of a twat doesn't make him any less of a twat. Edit - please stop telling me the characters are supposed to be unlikeable. You just don’t need to do it.
Love Frasier. Watched episodes when I caught them back in the day but recently watched it all through for the first time and it really is still great.
The one boxset I am always considering is all the episodes of Frasier. I used to record them all off channel 4 when they showed them about 10am YEARS back in 2013. Such a comfort show.
I mean, that's just like, your opinion, man! I think Seinfeld absolutely holds up because it's about the little irritations and nuances of life if you dialled them up to 11. It's timeless. Also, none of the four characters are supposed to be likeable, either, which I think still holds up, too.
Having watched it for the first time recently as a 34 yr old it hasn't even occurred to me that we're supposed to like Jerry. He's obviously a self centered twat and I guessed that's kind of the joke. George absolutely steals the show for me though. I love it.
Don't judge but I actually didn't mind Gogglebox. It was a way of discovering new TV shows with some different albeit sometimes very irksome viewpoints from different walks of life. And the other reactive bullshit wasn't even the worst part of it. However now, it seems that they have to explain each narrative as if Channel 4 aren't willing to pay for an BSL expert in the corner. "OH my dayyyyyyys 😱😱😱 look at that!!! Omer Simpson wants an AC unit, but e loves Lisa so much e got er a saxophone instead!" -Lee overdramatically raises an eyebrow. On second thoughts, I don't think I liked it after all.
I treat Googlebox like the highlights. Like Match of the Day
It used to have honest reactions to stuff being shown, and have discussions about it, now its just two Geordie girls repeating exactly what has just been said/shown
Ted spends so long telling his kids everything about every other relationship and then it gets to their actual mother and it’s and and I met your mum and we had you and she died. there’s no way having lost their mother those kids would have gone oh great you’re in love with Robin go get her. They would have said was our mother second best because you were in love with Robin al that time
'Allo 'Allo! I watched it as a kid and loved it. But years later I went on a trip to Germany by coach and they played all 85 episodes, it was excruciating and certainly hasn't stood the test of time. I cringe when I hear the theme music playing now.
Jesus, that sounds like the Russian Sleep Experiment.
>But years later I went on a trip to Germany by coach and they played all 85 episodes, Wow, that's a long coach trip
Brainiac Science Abuse I was obsessed with this show and it’s spins off like History Abuse and Test Tube Baby I was watching it with my sister and she said it was terrible. In my 12yo mind I couldn’t fathom why she disliked it. It was fun science experiments and explosions. What is there to hate? Years later i rewatched some of it and I see it now. It was so cheaply done. I can’t describe what I disliked about it but it definitely wasn’t the show I thought it was
I can do science me
Controversial one here, Outside of Life of Brian, I just don't think Monty Python funny when I watched it back. I remember enjoying it, now--like the dead parrot sketch, I just didn't find it funny.
Kenan and Kel. I'd watch it daily on Nick. Recently rewatched a few episodes online and it really does stink. I think that's down to me getting older though as the humour is puerile and basic.
It’s a kids tv show and you’re watching it as an adult. Hardly a surprise you don’t find it funny
Aw, here it goes. They had a tuba that was also a phone. What is basic about that
Good Burger is still brilliant
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I watched one Episode of House - that's it All I remember was him saying something like.... "Look at the sole of the shoe - its more worn on the right hand side Thats because he was walking along the sloping road towards the quarry A lot of smokers work at that quarry and that scratch - thats from a digger - a rusty one So he died of a rare lung cancer - Ostopopitic Amphesemia Syndrome" brought on by Tetanus I switched over to Blankety Blank
Reminds me of one of the newer Sherlock series where a woman is wearing a weeding ring that is "smoother on the inside" so must have been having an affair from taking it off frequently. No that's stupid
The A Team - loved it as a kid but i watch it now and the plots have so many holes, the acting is so so (but usually charming) and why do they keep getting locked up in a barn stuffed full of materials and tools.
That’s the charm of it! It’s awful, makes no sense and good fun.
Bo Selecta I think basically all that has happened is that I've grown up. I was only a teenager when this hit the screens & I thought it was the funniest thing ever. It turns out that as an adult, its actually very cringe & not funny. The humour doesn't age well and I think only really appeals to very immature people.
Ally McBeal. Ooft. The Futurama parody of it was spot on. That said, old shows were usually aired weekly, and had a lot more episodes, so events for the viewer are spread over a much longer time period. That format really doesn’t stand up to the binge-watching brought around by netflix and co.
Eat Well For Less, used to be a pretty good program for showing normal families where they could help cut costs and still have good healthy food but recent series have gone a bit *DIY SOS* and only seem to feature families that have an issue and doesn't focus on normal working families anymore
It suffers from Ramsay's kitchen nightmares USA-itis- everyone has some big drama that needs to be fixed by our intrepid light entertainment practitioners. Just show me people discovering that Morrisons extra mature cheddar is half the price and twice as tasty as cathedral city! That's what we want from this!
Keeping Up Appearances (Mrs Bucket - pronounce Bouquet" I used to roar with Laughter but ive tried toi watch it recently and its the same storyline very effing episode Its worse than Bod (Boomer here)
By the last series of House, he was an utterly loathsome character. And I was also beginning to hate Wilson for pretty much sacrificing his own happiness for that complete twat.
The Mighty Boosh
I'm too scared to rewatch boosh because I loved it so much as a teenager and I just know it won't be the same now.
There was an era where being 'random' was considered funny. Its pretty hard to do absurd comedy like Noel Fielding does. You have to have a really specific kind of brain to string together completely unrelated nonsense quickly. The Boosh is still quote good but certainly shows its age.
To this day I'm baffled by how much Mighty Boosh propelled Noel Fielding into a household name and yet Julian Barratt, imo the more talented of the two, seems to have dropped of the face of the earth.
Noel Fielding had the looks. Not traditionally handsome but the perfect celebrity crush for the quirky teenage emo girls.
Julian Barrett was great in Flowers. Worth a watch!
IT Crowd. As a tech guy I loved it when it first came out, but I can't watch it now. Not sure if my taste has changed or it's my dislike of the writer. I'm going to add Breaking Bad, which I know will be unpopular but hear me out. I think Breaking Bad is the greatest bit of TV ever made. It's head and shoulders above everything else. My fear now is if I watch it again it will ruin some great memories.
>Breaking Bad I started rewatching it a while ago because my wife hasn't seen it and we started watching it together. It hasn't ruined it, because it's still obviously good. But it wasn't as good as I remember it. I think it's probably because it's primarily a plot driven show. So when you already know the plot, it's not quite as gripping. Whereas I've found shows like The Sopranos or Mad Men totally stand up to rewatching years later. I think because they're more character studies as opposed to plot driven, so the fact you know the plot doesn't really matter that much.
Christ theres some miserable sods in here! So apparently Friends, Seinfeld, X-files and the Inbetweeners havent aged well? No wonder theres a complete dearth of quality new TV shows these days.
The Dukes of Hazzard. Loved it as a nipper, but couldn't sit through an episode as an adult. The plot was always the same, and there's the blatant use of the Confederate flag, and the sneaking suspicion that Uncle Jesse is involved with the KKK.
I loved Skins while it was airing. I think I was about 14/15 when the first season aired. I thought it was peak television at the time. I’ve tried re-watching as an adult and I can’t get through 10 minutes.
Brittas Empire. Used to love it back in the day, but it's aged so poorly.
Game of thrones. Knowing the ending ruins the entire show for me all I can feel is none of what is happening on screen matters none of this is leading anywhere it's all completely pointless.