TV is too complicated for me

[Argus]

You know, it used to be you could sit down and pull up a show and follow along pretty easily. Nowadays it seems most of the 'good' TV shows have all devolved into what used to be called serials. You have to watch them in order, and if you miss one, well, you're lost and screwed. And you know what, I don't watch TV that much that I want to keep up with what all these people are doing, esepcially since in addition to being serials television is all about soap opera type stories now.

I've been watching some fire videos on You Tube lately. There are a lot of them. Anyway, just because I came across it, I recorded Chicago Fire. Bleh. Horrible show! Again, coincidentally, I found, while looking through the fire videos, an old episode of Emergency! Emergency was about LA firefigters, circa sometimes in the early seventies. I used to watch it every week. And every week it would be about car crashes, paramedic calls, and fires. That was it. The two main characters were engaging, there were some funny moments, but you know what the show never did? It never went home with them. It never delved into their private lives. There were no episodes devoted to their alcoholism, or whether one of them wanted to come out of the closet with his secret love for another character. There was nothing about their families, or the trouble paying bills, or any of that other stuff. It was all about the job. Chicago Fire, by contrast, is about the lives of the underwear models who only occasionally ever go out on calls at the firehall.

It reminds me of what Third Watch became, another soap. Instead of being about police, it was about alcoholism and cancer and gay rights, and marrital problems and drugs and all the other soap opera crap that I don't want to see. I remember Adam 12. Never saw anything about their home lives, and never wanted to. One call after another with an occasional trip back to the station. What was wrong with that? Cheap, quick entertainment and I didn't need to know a thing about what happened last week.

We need more Adam 12s and Emergencies, and less serial soaps. We need something to watch while eating dinner. Not everything has to be complex social commentary on the human condition.

And while video of female firefighters making out does constitute entertainment, there's just too much angst there compared to the internet.

[Boges]

So you like Procedurals. There are 30 plus seasons of Law and Order and CSI that should keep you entertained for awhile.

The best shows nowadays are "soap operas" that follow and extended narrative. The best being Breaking Bad. It's smart TV. If you want brainless entertainment that doesn't require you to follow along, watch Archer.

Edited February 25, 2014 by Boges

[Black Dog]

I'm the opposite. Crime/disease/disaster of the week procedurals like Law and Order bore the heck out of me because they are so formulaic. The Brits seem to do those a bit better, probably because they don't run enough episodes in a series for things to get stale (Prime Suspect has as many episodes in its entire run as a single season of L&O) but even they can't resist staying away from the nitty gritty details of people's lives. Why? Because that's what people care about. Can't imagine watching a show where the big questions are "will they put the fire out? (yes they will)" or "will they get the cat out of the tree? (no, the cat got down on its own.)"

That being said, you'd like The Wire. Yeah you have to watch the whole thing, but it seldom gets too deep into the personal lives of its characters (the occasions it does so are IMO the weakest). Very much about the process, whether that's investigating crime or dealing drugs.

[Mighty AC]

You know, it used to be you could sit down and pull up a show and follow along pretty easily. Nowadays it seems most of the 'good' TV shows have all devolved into what used to be called serials. You have to watch them in order, and if you miss one, well, you're lost and screwed. And you know what, I don't watch TV that much that I want to keep up with what all these people are doing, esepcially since in addition to being serials television is all about soap opera type stories now.

For quite a while I also avoided serials, simply because I didn't have the time to commit to them. I hated having to watch a show at a set time, especially when I was generally busy most evenings. PVR's improved the situation somewhat, but I was still turned off by the network game of extending seasons by inserting reruns mid run. Now that I have cut the cord and consume the bulk of my entertainment through Netflix and Hulu+ I absolutely love serial dramas now; I can watch them when I want. I can watch one episode or more if I have time. I can turn off a show half way through and automatically resume it, at the same point, at a different time or on a different TV, tablet, phone or computer. It's great.

Recently, I have started to watch shows like Orange Is The New Black, House Of Cards and Weeds. All three have been really good so far, but I never would have put up with the inconvenience to watch them on traditional TV.

Edited February 25, 2014 by Mighty AC

[Bonam]

You know, it used to be you could sit down and pull up a show and follow along pretty easily. Nowadays it seems most of the 'good' TV shows have all devolved into what used to be called serials. You have to watch them in order, and if you miss one, well, you're lost and screwed.

How do you "miss one"? They play in order automatically, starting wherever you left off last time. Or do you mean for old people who still haven't switched away from archaic cable television technology?

The content changes as the medium changes, and for many people "missing" episodes of a show they want to follow isn't really a concern anymore. Shows with storylines that persist across multiple episodes or seasons are more engaging, more likely to bring audiences back for future episodes/seasons, etc. If you want to watch something that is complete in itself, watch a movie rather than an episode of a show.

Edited February 25, 2014 by Bonam

[GostHacked]

So you like Procedurals. There are 30 plus seasons of Law and Order and CSI that should keep you entertained for awhile.

Law and Order has been beaten to death, same with CSI. Same formula, same pace, same quick endings. Rehash, rehash, rehash.

Something fresh to me is Orphan Black. Another fresh idea was Dollhouse.

Edited February 25, 2014 by GostHacked

[Boges]

Law and Order has been beaten to death, same with CSI. Same formula, same pace, same quick endings. Rehash, rehash, rehash.

That's the stuff that Argus seems to say that he likes.

I still watch the original CSI. I DVR the new episodes and get to them when nothing else is on.

[GostHacked]

That's the stuff that Argus seems to say that he likes.

I still watch the original CSI. I DVR the new episodes and get to them when nothing else is on.

If you watched Season 1 of the first law and order, you have seen every episode and incarnation of the series since then. The formula has not changed. No variety, nothing engaging to keep my interest.

Then again I cut the cord a couple years ago. I will buy the ones I like on DVD. Remember what Springsteen said a couple decades ago. '57 channels and nothing on'. Now we have over 570 channels and still... nothing on.

[Boges]

If you watched Season 1 of the first law and order, you have seen every episode and incarnation of the series since then. The formula has not changed. No variety, nothing engaging to keep my interest.

Then again I cut the cord a couple years ago. I will buy the ones I like on DVD. Remember what Springsteen said a couple decades ago. '57 channels and nothing on'. Now we have over 570 channels and still... nothing on.

The thing about Law and Order was that they took real life cases to give their treatment to. Unlike CSI where they come up with some of the weirdest crimes. Most recent episode I saw was a Santa Clause that died at a Holiday Party with Snow (In Las Vegas) with a Reindeer running free on the strip.

[GostHacked]

The thing about Law and Order was that they took real life cases to give their treatment to. Unlike CSI where they come up with some of the weirdest crimes. Most recent episode I saw was a Santa Clause that died at a Holiday Party with Snow (In Las Vegas) with a Reindeer running free on the strip.

What pissed me off in most of these shows is how they cannot accurately depict how technology is used. I think it was CSI, the nerdy computer geek lady that said on one episode......

Also when you see PC stuff on a screen in these shows, is laughable as well.

[Argus]

So you like Procedurals. There are 30 plus seasons of Law and Order and CSI that should keep you entertained for awhile.

The best shows nowadays are "soap operas" that follow and extended narrative. The best being Breaking Bad. It's smart TV. If you want brainless entertainment that doesn't require you to follow along, watch Archer.

Never watched Breaking Bad. The whole premise -- a guy dying of a terminal disease -- was a total turnoff. :-P

I used to watch Law and Order, but its a tad too humorless and impersonal for my tastes.

Edited February 25, 2014 by Argus

[Michael Hardner]

Never watched Breaking Bad. The whole premise -- a guy dying of a terminal disease -- was a total turnoff. :-P

I used to watch Law and Order, but its a tad too humorless and impersonal for my tastes.

Breaking Bad is at least surprising... and gritty. The disease stuff hardly comes into it after the first few episodes. If you like humour, watch The Sopranos... oh... humour and violence...

[Argus]

I'm the opposite. Crime/disease/disaster of the week procedurals like Law and Order bore the heck out of me because they are so formulaic. The Brits seem to do those a bit better, probably because they don't run enough episodes in a series for things to get stale (Prime Suspect has as many episodes in its entire run as a single season of L&O) but even they can't resist staying away from the nitty gritty details of people's lives. Why? Because that's what people care about.

What people? All people? Seems to me the big blockbuster movies tend to be escapist nonsense. And lots of people go to see them. What was Raiders of the Lost Ark but continuous escapist nonsense? Not a ton of deep thought there, nor in Star Wars, nor in Diehard, the Toy Story series, Jurassic Park, Independance Day, Ghost Busters, Jaws, etc.

Can't imagine watching a show where the big questions are "will they put the fire out? (yes they will)" or "will they get the cat out of the tree? (no, the cat got down on its own.)"

You're simplifying things too much. Sometimes it's just fun to watch the cops chasing the bad guys, or to see how a fire gets put out. Sure it's gonna be put out! But it's still fun to watch. Watch it on You Tube. It's still entertaining even without the dialogue. :-P

[Argus]

If you watched Season 1 of the first law and order, you have seen every episode and incarnation of the series since then. The formula has not changed. No variety, nothing engaging to keep my interest.

I'm not looking to be challenged by television. I'm looking for cheap, escapist fiction. And I bet I'm not alone in that.

The formula might not have changed but the cases did from show to show, year to year. Yeah, I agree that Law & Order was as formulaic as it gets. But even that was quite watchable most of the time.

I want to see Adam 12 brought back!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_Qwpopxszc

Edited February 26, 2014 by Argus

[Michael Hardner]

Escapist fiction ? Breaking Bad.

[Black Dog]

What people? All people? Seems to me the big blockbuster movies tend to be escapist nonsense. And lots of people go to see them. What was Raiders of the Lost Ark but continuous escapist nonsense? Not a ton of deep thought there, nor in Star Wars, nor in Diehard, the Toy Story series, Jurassic Park, Independance Day, Ghost Busters, Jaws, etc.

The people who watch and enjoy these programs, who talk about the current "Golden Age" of (primarily cable) television. Strange to think of you of all people aligning with the hoi polloi, but here we are.

You're simplifying things too much. Sometimes it's just fun to watch the cops chasing the bad guys, or to see how a fire gets put out. Sure it's gonna be put out! But it's still fun to watch. Watch it on You Tube. It's still entertaining even without the dialogue. :-P

Emergency ran from 1972 to 1979. Adam 12 from '68 to '75. Add in other network procedurals of the era like Quincy and, I dunno, CHiPS, and all their descendants and we've seen the bad guy get caught, the fire get put out, the cat get rescued about 100 billion times since. It's boring by now. i'm not saying the shows you reference aren't quality, but it's like trying to listen to an influential band that's been aped by so many followers that you can't see what made the originals so great thanks to the imitators.

Now, to be fair, I'm a bit tired of the now ubiquitous cop with issues (alcoholism, family troubles, all of the above) who bristles at authority and does things his (or her; Helen Mirren in Prime Suspect and, more recently, Gillian Anderson in the superlative "The Falls" fit the bill) own way. I'd like to see a cop show where the protagonist is well adjusted with a happy home life and supportive colleagues and superiors just to mix things up.

Another show I'd recommend trying out is the BBC adaptation of "Wallander" based on a Swedish detective novel series with Kenneth Branagh as the title character. yes he fits the mould of what I described above, but each episode centres on the crime of the week with his issues taking a back seat. Plus, he's a grump, so perhaps you can relate?

[Moonlight Graham]

One of my favorite shows of all-time is Star Trek: The Next Generation. It had pretty good stories that almost always resolved themselves within an hour episode (or 44 minutes, if you want to get picky) . I like the serials too, but they just take such a huge time commitment.

[Wilber]

Hands down the best cop show was The Wire. At least that's what cops tell me.

[The_Squid]

You know, it used to be you could sit down and pull up a show and follow along pretty easily. Nowadays it seems most of the 'good' TV shows have all devolved into what used to be called serials. You have to watch them in order, and if you miss one, well, you're lost and screwed. And you know what, I don't watch TV that much that I want to keep up with what all these people are doing, esepcially since in addition to being serials television is all about soap opera type stories now.I've been watching some fire videos on You Tube lately. There are a lot of them. Anyway, just because I came across it, I recorded Chicago Fire. Bleh. Horrible show! Again, coincidentally, I found, while looking through the fire videos, an old episode of Emergency! Emergency was about LA firefigters, circa sometimes in the early seventies. I used to watch it every week. And every week it would be about car crashes, paramedic calls, and fires. That was it. The two main characters were engaging, there were some funny moments, but you know what the show never did? It never went home with them. It never delved into their private lives. There were no episodes devoted to their alcoholism, or whether one of them wanted to come out of the closet with his secret love for another character. There was nothing about their families, or the trouble paying bills, or any of that other stuff. It was all about the job. Chicago Fire, by contrast, is about the lives of the underwear models who only occasionally ever go out on calls at the firehall.It reminds me of what Third Watch became, another soap. Instead of being about police, it was about alcoholism and cancer and gay rights, and marrital problems and drugs and all the other soap opera crap that I don't want to see. I remember Adam 12. Never saw anything about their home lives, and never wanted to. One call after another with an occasional trip back to the station. What was wrong with that? Cheap, quick entertainment and I didn't need to know a thing about what happened last week.We need more Adam 12s and Emergencies, and less serial soaps. We need something to watch while eating dinner. Not everything has to be complex social commentary on the human condition.And while video of female firefighters making out does constitute entertainment, there's just too much angst there compared to the internet.

Blue Bloods. How can you go wrong with Tom Selleck and the not-so-famous of the Wahlbergs, but not the least famous Wahlberg?

Not a bad show...

[Moonlight Graham]

TV is too complicated for me...SAYS MAN TYPING OF THE INTERNET!