Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
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I got through SE1 of Breaking Bad. The scenes that I suspect were meant to play for dark humor depressed me.
Probably because everyone I knew who watched TV was telling me it was the greatest show ever made, I stopped watching it. The same is true of Six Feet Under, The Wire, and The Sopranos. One season, much hype from everyone, me stopping. I am just realizing this now. You'd think I'd go the other way with so many recommendations, especially since all these shows can be streamed with a few clicks now, without having to borrow/buy then insert DVD box sets disc by disc. (Of course I once rented a VCR from Blockbuster in a giant bag for a weekend and watched videocassettes with my buddy, so convenience probably isn't the issue.) Probably dadhood keeps me from devoting the hours of time to games, shows, etc. the way I used to. Most media now that I watch is when I am showing my sons movies or shows I used to enjoy. Is this a stage of life? Certainly my dad never sat me down to watch Shane (though I do remember him saying once it was his favorite movie.)
The first season of Breaking Bad is pretty slow, it gets more interesting the deeper Walt digs the hole he’s in.
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I watched a few episodes of The Sopranos and it didn't really grab me, just seemed like Goodfellas fanfic, a reaction unaided by the huge overlap in the respective works' casts (David Chase even originally intended to cast Ray Liotta as Tony).
I only got around to watching season 1 of The Wire earlier this year, and while it's definitely a slow burn and the huge cast of characters can make plotlines difficult to follow at times, I can confirm that it lives up to the hype. Watching season 2 as we speak.
Yeah, I also saw a few episodes of The Sopranos and thought "eh, it's okay, but not as good as Wiseguy or Crime Story."
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Kind of shocked by this. Breaking Bad is a low attention span normie's idea of the greatest TV show. It's good! ...But Better Call Saul is probably "better." And I'm not going to say that anything is wrong with liking "lower" brow entertainment that is faster paced or more superficially enjoyable (plenty of action shows and comedies are great!), but The Sopranos and The Wire are probably both consensus top three shows for nearly everyone credible and being out of the top five is probably grounds for not being a reliable rater.
I think it's okay to not like the classics, plenty of people complain about Shakespeare, but you have to understand why they are great and interrogate yourself on your likes, dislikes, and your relationship with art if you feel you have appropriate taste but don't like "the best."
In the case of The Wire it demands your attention and is often deliberately paced (although perhaps not truly slow) and at the same time it is truly literary, it's authentic, it says something, and it is beautiful constructed in ways that are often only noticeable in retrospect.
It is okay not to value these things but I think it's important to understand that they are there.
I've found this sort of examination at times helpful in making me enjoy things I wouldn't have otherwise. For instance I disliked Kpop because of the inauthenticity and somewhat disturbing process but managed to just embrace the fact that some of the songs are bangers and my life is richer for it.
For you taking the time to slowly watch some of those "greats" may bring that richness to your life. Maybe start with some of the British shows like Slow Horses which are a lower time commitment.
You misconstrue. While terms like "appropriate taste" chafe, I should (re)iterate that I have not said that I judge any of the shows I've mentioned as necessarily bad. (I reserve judgment at this point.) Nor am I averse to serialized dramas (I watched all of GoT, all of Andor, and at least three seasons of Slow Horses. With my wife I've watched various shows like The Mentalist and Burn Notice and even Stranger Things until SE3 when I just couldn't accept the bratty behavior of the kids who were supposedly in the 80s. Plus a few other culture warry bits.)
My point was rather that I haven't seen fit to make time for these shows, that they didn't grab me for whatever reason. Even with Shakespeare some plays speak to me more than others. I pass over some sonnets in my memorization project because they don't do it for me. That's not necessarily a reflection on the sonnet (or the tv show), at least in this case)--but no piece of art is necessarily fit for everyone at every point in life.
Sorry, I don't mean to imply that you have bad taste, and from my readings of your writings I suspect you have good taste.
At the same time I figure you should truly try those (sounds like you have!) and maybe also force it to see if you can extract the meaning and see if anything about your interests changes.
I am sure I will at some point. My wife as she has gotten older is drawn more toward Korean dramas and quirky love stories, so I'll probably have to find time to watch by myself.
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I think you might simply not like the pacing of episodic content. I understand, why. One can't make a long movie: if you're a famous director you might get three hours and change of runtime. And this is all you have to do everything, from the introduction through growth and development to the conclusion. And it's hard: you have to spend weeks going over the script, spend weeks in the cutting room.
Serializing your idea suddenly gives you lots of breathing space: your characters now have sufficient screen time to develop more naturally, you no longer have to chop some of your favourite scenes into a montage. Or maybe the story you have always wanted to tell simply cannot be told in three hours.
A lot of viewers like spending more time with their favourite characters. But there's always a cost: inevitably, B-plots and filler episodes start to sneak in. And is the story really worth the time commitment it demands from you?
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