Like everyone, I have stuff I don't like, but others do. Most of the time, people act like I committed the worst crime if I don't like what they like.
Cartoons is a great example. I hate Animaniacs, and it bothered a handful of people and a couple berating me for having bad taste. Even when I explained my reason (obnoxious characters, tried way too hard to be funny), it was for naught. I prefer other Spielberg cartoons over it. Frankly, I didn't watch kids networks (TV in general ) until 1996/97 and even then, I watched other channels like TBS. I think cartoons get many offended if you don't love them the same way others do. I think part of it is nostalgia and being big fans of said programs. But they are the ones that suffer from age most of the time and don't hold up.
Movies is a bit different. For a lot of the really loved ones, I can see why. Part of it is the high bar that is set for movies like The Godfather Part II, and E.T. The Extra Terrestrial. I watch those and I feel underwhelmed. I can find enjoyment and say they are good, but that good? I don't think so. Definitely watchable, though. One I watched recently was the first Gremlins. I like the Gremlin design and set up. It had funny moments, but I didn't find it that scary. Not that good, but still pretty good.
Video games fall in the same thing as movies, but way worse. There is a very high bar set and if I don't agree, regardless of if I love the game or not, it would hypothetically bother many. My big example is The Legend of Zelda for the original NES. A lot of people view it as a masterpiece. I don't see it as being more than just a good game. I think nostalgia is heavily involved as it has its share of flaws like the grinding and the health system as get a bigger life meter. You can't ignore small things that hurt a game, regardless of age.
I don't try to be different for the sake of being different. Just understand that the opposite opinion can occur unless someone is being different on purpose or trying to hate something on purpose.
Showing posts with label tv. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tv. Show all posts
Monday, November 4, 2019
Wednesday, March 6, 2019
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Your Ideal Break Show
I work. My parents work. We all have breaks. And in our break rooms, we have TV sets. On my night shifts, they typically have it on Friends, which is not a bad show, but damn, it's very overrated and it's the same episodes over and over. My parents break includes The Price is Right, which is one of the few game shows I like. I would rather have it on something like Price is Right. What would be your ideal break show?
If A&E wasn't obsessed with The First 48 (which is good, but hear me out) and Storage Wars I would love to see reruns of some of their older shows. Stuff like Dog The Bounty Hunter and Parking Wars. Parking Wars is funny for the reactions from the people who just got ticketed for a parking violation. Add in a little Live PD and that would make my day. TruTV is something I would put on for a lot of their shows. Carbanaro Effect, Impractical Jokers, Hack My Life, and a few others are something that I would put on because of what they are capable of doing. I wouldn't want it on World's Dumbest (washed up people and B-writers suck at commentary and humor) and Adam Ruins Everything (douchebag Collegehumor gimmick should stay on YouTube)
As far as scripted stuff, there's a few that would make my ideal break. I honestly wish Seinfeld had a little more airing time or at least a different time on cable, because it's a much superior show than Friends. I'm a 90s kid, but some shows from the 70s would be delightful in my eyes. Shows like Sanford and Son and M*A*S*H are great. My preference on scripted material is comedies, so very rarely will I talk dramas as something I would want on my break.
What kind of shows would you want on your break? Let me know, because there is a vast world of great shows that someone would enjoy for 30 minutes before getting back to work.
If A&E wasn't obsessed with The First 48 (which is good, but hear me out) and Storage Wars I would love to see reruns of some of their older shows. Stuff like Dog The Bounty Hunter and Parking Wars. Parking Wars is funny for the reactions from the people who just got ticketed for a parking violation. Add in a little Live PD and that would make my day. TruTV is something I would put on for a lot of their shows. Carbanaro Effect, Impractical Jokers, Hack My Life, and a few others are something that I would put on because of what they are capable of doing. I wouldn't want it on World's Dumbest (washed up people and B-writers suck at commentary and humor) and Adam Ruins Everything (douchebag Collegehumor gimmick should stay on YouTube)
As far as scripted stuff, there's a few that would make my ideal break. I honestly wish Seinfeld had a little more airing time or at least a different time on cable, because it's a much superior show than Friends. I'm a 90s kid, but some shows from the 70s would be delightful in my eyes. Shows like Sanford and Son and M*A*S*H are great. My preference on scripted material is comedies, so very rarely will I talk dramas as something I would want on my break.
What kind of shows would you want on your break? Let me know, because there is a vast world of great shows that someone would enjoy for 30 minutes before getting back to work.
Thursday, December 27, 2018
Marathons for TV
Especially around this part of the year, we see a lot of marathons for various movies and to a lesser extent, television shows that air for nonstop hours. It's quick ad it's a ratings grabber for a network who is putting up with more than five hours worth of the same thing over and over. When you look at Christmas, it's clear a lot of channels do it.
It all starts with A Christmas Story. The film started to get attraction with airings during the 90s. Then in 1997, TNT started the 24 hour marathon of the film. That gets ratings, but with that mind, the landscape has changed a bit from what it was 21 years ago. Now, it's on both TNT and TBS, as a lot of networks will lump one program onto multiple channels. Turner and Viacom do this a lot. Anyway, other networks have done marathons similar to Christmas Story. FX has done it multiple movies. So has AMC, Freeform. The list goes on.
Outside of Christmas, there might be something around Thanksgiving or July 4th for a few networks. AMC is the only one now these days that airs The Godfather trilogy, and they do that around Thanksgiving just about every year. They are very long movies, but they are also beloved (the third not so much, but still) and it's something that the network can get ratings on due to rare airings and maybe not finding it on DVD or Blu-Ray.
Television shows have marathons more than movies. Ion does this a lot with various crime shows for a specific day. USA is very guilty of this with the constant marathons of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and NCIS. The way they treat other syndicated shows they have like Modern Family is downright embarrassing. But unfortunately, they get ratings, and other shows don't get the special treatment as the two. A shame, really. You don't see it with comedy shows. WGN is like this a little bit with M*A*S*H and Last Man Standing, but it's not too bad compared to dramas. Comedy Central loves The Office quite a bit, but it's usually weekends if they pick the show that they air it constantly during a part of the day.
These shows cost money to get and if costs weren't a factor, I would spice it up a bit with various shows instead of four hour airings of certain shows. For holidays, grin and bear it. It's not the worst thing in the world, even though it gets repetitive sometimes. For television shows, not much you can do. Complaining to the networks will not help you at all.
It all starts with A Christmas Story. The film started to get attraction with airings during the 90s. Then in 1997, TNT started the 24 hour marathon of the film. That gets ratings, but with that mind, the landscape has changed a bit from what it was 21 years ago. Now, it's on both TNT and TBS, as a lot of networks will lump one program onto multiple channels. Turner and Viacom do this a lot. Anyway, other networks have done marathons similar to Christmas Story. FX has done it multiple movies. So has AMC, Freeform. The list goes on.
Outside of Christmas, there might be something around Thanksgiving or July 4th for a few networks. AMC is the only one now these days that airs The Godfather trilogy, and they do that around Thanksgiving just about every year. They are very long movies, but they are also beloved (the third not so much, but still) and it's something that the network can get ratings on due to rare airings and maybe not finding it on DVD or Blu-Ray.
Television shows have marathons more than movies. Ion does this a lot with various crime shows for a specific day. USA is very guilty of this with the constant marathons of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and NCIS. The way they treat other syndicated shows they have like Modern Family is downright embarrassing. But unfortunately, they get ratings, and other shows don't get the special treatment as the two. A shame, really. You don't see it with comedy shows. WGN is like this a little bit with M*A*S*H and Last Man Standing, but it's not too bad compared to dramas. Comedy Central loves The Office quite a bit, but it's usually weekends if they pick the show that they air it constantly during a part of the day.
These shows cost money to get and if costs weren't a factor, I would spice it up a bit with various shows instead of four hour airings of certain shows. For holidays, grin and bear it. It's not the worst thing in the world, even though it gets repetitive sometimes. For television shows, not much you can do. Complaining to the networks will not help you at all.
Sunday, March 25, 2018
The TV Revival: Why the Push?
Over the last few years, there has been this push to bring back beloved shows and set them in a current era. Some, like Twin Peaks, are held in high regard and fans will cherish that for a very long time. Then there's shows like Will & Grace, where they are a complete bomb and are berated for not being what they used to be. So why are networks wanting to bring back some of these older shows?
There's not really an answer that directly is the reason for a revival. I'll go with Nickelodeon for an example. They know they got older fans. Hence why they are making movies based on some of their 90s shows. With Hey Arnold, Rocko's Modern Life, and even Invader Zim getting their own films for television, they somewhat understand their origins of why they were loved 20, 25 years ago. While they may still go after the younger generation, there is still a soft spot for the older generation of 90s kids. There are ideas for what could be revived, so there's chances of not ruling out other shows like Rugrats and whatever live action stuff was on the channel.
Maybe a reason is to see how a certain set of characters are for a new era. One of the curious things is one of the newest revivals, Roseanne. When it first aired in 1988, it was a blue collar and stayed down to earth compared to The Cosby Show and Married... With Children. It was part of that era that pushed for a more realistic look at family, making certain sitcoms feel very fresh and unique. This one is an odd choice to revive, but who knows how people will react. It has the same cast and probably will tackle some issues and deliver on laughs. Some websites have praised that it stays true to what made it great 30 years ago. It's just a matter of how viewers will feel about it when it airs.
The same can be said for something like The X Files. It was one of Fox's biggest shows of the 90s, and has held onto a decent run of new episodes the last couple of years. I'd say part of it is fans wanting more. With all this conspiracy stuff and internet website theories, it's lightning in a bottle for anyone craving for more adventures of Mulder and Scully solving cases, whether or not the truth is out there. There will always be shows, short lived or long running, that will always have fans wanting new episodes.
Another possibility is people thinking something from back then worked, and trying something different with it for a new era. What I mean is a new set of characters and/or new ideas in a setting that was used years ago. It also applies to movies as well. Unfortunately, there's nothing that is coming to my mind.
I see this fad going on for another few years and then dwindling down. That doesn't mean revivals are going to stop completely. However, new content will always keep interest for a longer set of years if loved by both critics and fans.
There's not really an answer that directly is the reason for a revival. I'll go with Nickelodeon for an example. They know they got older fans. Hence why they are making movies based on some of their 90s shows. With Hey Arnold, Rocko's Modern Life, and even Invader Zim getting their own films for television, they somewhat understand their origins of why they were loved 20, 25 years ago. While they may still go after the younger generation, there is still a soft spot for the older generation of 90s kids. There are ideas for what could be revived, so there's chances of not ruling out other shows like Rugrats and whatever live action stuff was on the channel.
Maybe a reason is to see how a certain set of characters are for a new era. One of the curious things is one of the newest revivals, Roseanne. When it first aired in 1988, it was a blue collar and stayed down to earth compared to The Cosby Show and Married... With Children. It was part of that era that pushed for a more realistic look at family, making certain sitcoms feel very fresh and unique. This one is an odd choice to revive, but who knows how people will react. It has the same cast and probably will tackle some issues and deliver on laughs. Some websites have praised that it stays true to what made it great 30 years ago. It's just a matter of how viewers will feel about it when it airs.
The same can be said for something like The X Files. It was one of Fox's biggest shows of the 90s, and has held onto a decent run of new episodes the last couple of years. I'd say part of it is fans wanting more. With all this conspiracy stuff and internet website theories, it's lightning in a bottle for anyone craving for more adventures of Mulder and Scully solving cases, whether or not the truth is out there. There will always be shows, short lived or long running, that will always have fans wanting new episodes.
Another possibility is people thinking something from back then worked, and trying something different with it for a new era. What I mean is a new set of characters and/or new ideas in a setting that was used years ago. It also applies to movies as well. Unfortunately, there's nothing that is coming to my mind.
I see this fad going on for another few years and then dwindling down. That doesn't mean revivals are going to stop completely. However, new content will always keep interest for a longer set of years if loved by both critics and fans.
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Too Many Commercials
As television has grown to where there are lots of cable networks competing, there is always a constant. That is the constant feed of commercials. In a time of watching stuff on AMC and Spike, you will always find five minutes of commercials before going back to the show or film before getting another five minutes. With that in mind, here is one that will creep up and anger people more. It is seven minutes of commercials per break.
Last year, I watched a few movies on cable. Early in the year, I watched an airing of Jackass: The Movie on MTV. It's not lengthy, but there was a point in the middle of the film where it was bombarded with two straight breaks of seven to eight minutes. A few months later, I watched the 60s version of The Jungle Book on Freeform. That film was not lengthy, either, but it was reaching points where it had some of the commercial lengths as Jackass did and had a two hour fifteen minute air time on the channel. As I look at some of these channels, it's been very evident for years that they are desperate for money and a few extra commercials is their way of getting more revenue in a time where people are going to Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, and other sites to get their TV or movie fix. The thought of every channel going seven minutes is a scary one.
As of now, the biggest offender is Viacom. Most of their channels employ tactics to get extra commercials. The air times on stuff like Comedy Central, MTV, and BET is beyond absurd and stupid. Looking at what is on for films for the rest of the week, two films had three and a half hour air times. These weren't dramas or even mob films. They were comedies that aren't that long. One clocked at below an hour fifty and the other was a few minutes past two hours. The tactic might work for Viacom in the short term, but long term is going to be a rough road if it backfires.
Syndication cuts are pretty obvious when it boils down to TV shows, but that's for another topic if it gets made. The tactic is time compression, which is speeding up shows to fit in the half hour time span of the syndicated version of the show to get more commercial time. Some movies do that, but they go more for cutting stuff for both time and content. This was a big deal a few years ago when sites and a few entertainment shows talked about a video one did on YouTube in 2013 on Seinfeld reruns ten years earlier at the time. He did a test in 2015 to see how much of a difference it was and it was sped up a little more.
It's not just TBS. It's pretty much the case with any network that has shows up until the 90s to early 2000s. Even some of the early SpongeBob SquarePants episodes suffer because of the era it was in. Yeah, original content like The Walking Dead may get millions of viewers, but for anyone wanting reruns of shows, the choice is obvious now these days. Networks are still going to wonder why they keep losing viewership. Netflix, Hulu, and other sites have access to all episodes of a show and barring certain things like Saturday Night Live and South Park, should be uncut and unaltered. You can watch as many times as you want before deals expire on shows.
Movies, on the other hand, is tougher. It's hard to know when a deal can be made on some films, popular or unpopular. Networks envy the most recent ones and try to get them on HBO or Showtime before going to a cable network like FX or AMC. Companies are making deals to stream exclusively on one platform, though, making them adjust pretty well to the modern era of watching things. Unfortunately, not every film will make it to an online site and unless you're not able to find on DVD or Blu-ray, you might be stuck with the cable version.
Could we see a time where there is ten minutes of commercials in one break? I hope not. With losing viewership from a number of networks (some of which cannot be blamed on commercials) and rising costs per household, it could be a reality that will be dreaded, even if you are dedicated to something like a 15-hour South Park marathon. Only time will tell, and it may look no good.
Last year, I watched a few movies on cable. Early in the year, I watched an airing of Jackass: The Movie on MTV. It's not lengthy, but there was a point in the middle of the film where it was bombarded with two straight breaks of seven to eight minutes. A few months later, I watched the 60s version of The Jungle Book on Freeform. That film was not lengthy, either, but it was reaching points where it had some of the commercial lengths as Jackass did and had a two hour fifteen minute air time on the channel. As I look at some of these channels, it's been very evident for years that they are desperate for money and a few extra commercials is their way of getting more revenue in a time where people are going to Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, and other sites to get their TV or movie fix. The thought of every channel going seven minutes is a scary one.
As of now, the biggest offender is Viacom. Most of their channels employ tactics to get extra commercials. The air times on stuff like Comedy Central, MTV, and BET is beyond absurd and stupid. Looking at what is on for films for the rest of the week, two films had three and a half hour air times. These weren't dramas or even mob films. They were comedies that aren't that long. One clocked at below an hour fifty and the other was a few minutes past two hours. The tactic might work for Viacom in the short term, but long term is going to be a rough road if it backfires.
Syndication cuts are pretty obvious when it boils down to TV shows, but that's for another topic if it gets made. The tactic is time compression, which is speeding up shows to fit in the half hour time span of the syndicated version of the show to get more commercial time. Some movies do that, but they go more for cutting stuff for both time and content. This was a big deal a few years ago when sites and a few entertainment shows talked about a video one did on YouTube in 2013 on Seinfeld reruns ten years earlier at the time. He did a test in 2015 to see how much of a difference it was and it was sped up a little more.
It's not just TBS. It's pretty much the case with any network that has shows up until the 90s to early 2000s. Even some of the early SpongeBob SquarePants episodes suffer because of the era it was in. Yeah, original content like The Walking Dead may get millions of viewers, but for anyone wanting reruns of shows, the choice is obvious now these days. Networks are still going to wonder why they keep losing viewership. Netflix, Hulu, and other sites have access to all episodes of a show and barring certain things like Saturday Night Live and South Park, should be uncut and unaltered. You can watch as many times as you want before deals expire on shows.
Movies, on the other hand, is tougher. It's hard to know when a deal can be made on some films, popular or unpopular. Networks envy the most recent ones and try to get them on HBO or Showtime before going to a cable network like FX or AMC. Companies are making deals to stream exclusively on one platform, though, making them adjust pretty well to the modern era of watching things. Unfortunately, not every film will make it to an online site and unless you're not able to find on DVD or Blu-ray, you might be stuck with the cable version.
Could we see a time where there is ten minutes of commercials in one break? I hope not. With losing viewership from a number of networks (some of which cannot be blamed on commercials) and rising costs per household, it could be a reality that will be dreaded, even if you are dedicated to something like a 15-hour South Park marathon. Only time will tell, and it may look no good.
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