[Movies] Confess your movie sins to me, and be absolved

Status
Not open for further replies.
Sparhawk

Sparhawk

ElJuski said:
Seinfeld, News Radio, Friends, I Love Lucy, Dick Van Dyke... off the top of my head these are five shows that transcend sitcom "topicality". If you're sitting there watching bullshit like Big Bang Theory or How I Met Your Mother, than yeah, mostly useless. But these shows, though very much indebted to the 90's, are also paragons of television scripted comedy that is a strong foundation for what's going on today. It's unfair to say that most TV is stuck to its year or decade--that's just an assumption, and it's silly, Silly Billy.
Click to expand...
I Love Lucy and Dick Van Dyke, I'll give those to you and agree with you, I think mostly because they are the archetype of the format and wrote the "rules" for that type of show.

It may be a difference in age here (not using it as "I'm older, you're younger and stupid") and how shows of that point in our lives affect us. Seinfeld, I was never into, I liked Kramer, but the others, blah. Friends, basically the same thing, except that I didn't like any of the characters. Maybe it has something to do with how New York/East Coast-centric that they come across with, but they just didn't appeal to me. Really there weren't any 1/2 hour shows that did appeal to me in the 90's, and part of that may be that I was in a time that I was learning to take care of a family and new baby (heck, I'm still learning, just not with a baby anymore).

Maybe it's because I grew up with MASH and always preferred the hour long format over the 1/2 hour. Blame PBS and Dr. Who re-runs for that.
 
Tress

Tress

Or The West Wing, The Wire, NYPD Blue, Breaking Bad, Justified, BtVS/Angel... all prime examples of shows that transcend the medium.

EDIT: You brought up MASH, which may be the king of staying relevant even decades after it went off the air.
 
ElJuski

ElJuski

Staff member
Oh, so you didn't LIKE Seinfeld. Okay, cool. Doesn't mean the show isn't garbage or important to the history of pop-culture, or television as a medium. You just don't like it. Cool beans.
 
Cajungal

Cajungal

Staff member
I had an on-again, off-again relationship with Friends. Some episodes were just so hilarious and unforgettable... Then came the later seasons, which seemed like a bunch of unlikeable caricatures in a joke-shouting contest. Quick, bring in even more cameos to draw attention away from the crappyness!
 
S

SeraRelm

ElJuski said:
Oh, so you didn't LIKE Seinfeld. Okay, cool. Doesn't mean the show isn't garbage or important to the history of pop-culture, or television as a medium. You just don't like it. Cool beans.
Click to expand...
Agreed.
 
ElJuski

ElJuski

Staff member
But Friends at its peak is still Friends at its peak. I wouldn't advise anyone to watch The Simpsons after season 9, either.
 
fade

fade

Staff member
I hated Seinfeld. I also didn't get it. Part of the problem is that I'm a South Carolinian. Then I married a New Yorker, and I got the jokes.


...

Most of which were still kind of silly. But on the other hand, they were silly on purpose. Which doesn't make them any funnier.
 
ElJuski

ElJuski

Staff member
but again, we're not talking about whether you liked the show or not, but rather, the fact that it is a television show that has a reputation for being a very innovative and critically acclaimed television show, which, particularly, transcends its place and time.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Seinfeld is funny because it makes up its own universe that happens to resemble New York foibles. You don't need to be from there to get the jokes...

...but it does make you awesome.
 
Gusto

Gusto

Cajungal said:
I had an on-again, off-again relationship with Friends. Some episodes were just so hilarious and unforgettable... Then came the later seasons, which seemed like a bunch of unlikeable caricatures in a joke-shouting contest. Quick, bring in even more cameos to draw attention away from the crappyness!
Click to expand...
I actually had the opposite experience with Friends, where it seemed like the first 5 seasons were only there to provide context.
 
S

SeraRelm

Seinfeld is about a bunch of whiney dicks who hang out with each other to bitch about everything el-

 
fade

fade

Staff member
SeraRelm said:
Seinfeld is about a bunch of whiney dicks who hang out with each other to bitch about everything el-

Click to expand...
Did you see the series finale? That's basically the conclusion the show came to. They were such whiny dicks that they were put in jail for it.
 
S

SeraRelm

Oh I know. I try not to blindly pass my own judgement on something without checking into it. I just didn't like the show. I don't care that they were dicks, it was the whining. The constant, unending whining.
 
North_Ranger

North_Ranger

Staff member
I honestly don't get what people see in Scott Pilgrim vs the World. I've seen it once, and thought it boring, poorly written and generally yawn-inducing.
 
HCGLNS

HCGLNS

North_Ranger said:
I honestly don't get what people see in Scott Pilgrim vs the World. I've seen it once, and thought it boring, poorly written and generally yawn-inducing.
Click to expand...
For me, it's an example of doing bad things differently and preaching that the different way you are doing bad things makes them good.
 
HowDroll

HowDroll

I feel like Seinfeld would have been way funnier if Jerry Seinfeld didn't always have a shit-eating "har har I'm so funny aren't I guise" grin on his face. You can tell he's constantly laughing at his own jokes. Meh.
 
North_Ranger

North_Ranger

Staff member
I dunno, really... I've noticed that a lot of these 90s sitcoms just haven't aged that well. I remember laughing at Friends and Will & Greg... nowadays their reruns just seem, I dunno, dated. There's still a chuckle or two to be had, but the loud guffaws are gone.

Then again, I hate some modern sitcoms - particularly those aimed at teens - with the fire of a thousand suns.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top