T.V. shows you've been watching

[ShredmasterD]

BBQ Pit Masters; because you can always learn a new trick to make better BBQ

 

[Carrion Rocket]

I'm rewatching Eastbound and Down.

Waiting for the new season of Barry.

 

[nightflameauto]

I'm rewatching Eastbound and Down.

Waiting for the new season of Barry.

You suppose they'll bring the funny back for this season of Barry? Last season was a little trippy, but not much in the way of lols.

We've been going back through Scrubs. Damn does that show nail it. Even the serious plotlines manage to get laughs the way they perform them.

 

[wankerness]

Barry is an utterly miserable show. The first season's kinda funny but since then it really wants to be taken seriously like it's Breaking Bad or something. It's all misery, almost all the time. Noho Hank was a good counterpoint for a while, but now they've made his plotline miserable, too, with him mostly just trying to live in piece with his lover the rival drug dealer guy and all the threats to their relationship/lives that come with it. I feel like I have to see it through to the end but the last episode of it I really thought was great was the rightly famous one with the little girl that knows martial arts.

 

[nightflameauto]

Barry is an utterly miserable show. The first season's kinda funny but since then it really wants to be taken seriously like it's Breaking Bad or something. It's all misery, almost all the time. Noho Hank was a good counterpoint for a while, but now they've made his plotline miserable, too, with him mostly just trying to live in piece with his lover the rival drug dealer guy and all the threats to their relationship/lives that come with it. I feel like I have to see it through to the end but the last episode of it I really thought was great was the rightly famous one with the little girl that knows martial arts.

And ya don't get why I'm seeing a lot of things labeled comedy that aren't comedy?

I will say Hank's lover being the bike gang's leader from Mayans is sorta funny on a meta level. If only they'd make the character anything but a gay trope wrapped in a mustache.

 

[wankerness]

And ya don't get why I'm seeing a lot of things labeled comedy that aren't comedy?

I will say Hank's lover being the bike gang's leader from Mayans is sorta funny on a meta level. If only they'd make the character anything but a gay trope wrapped in a mustache.

It fits in with the dramedy thing. I can still tell where it's trying to be funny (ex, stuff with The Fonz's character or various super-cringe Barry reactions), but it just doesn't outweigh the miserable factor anymore.

 

[nightflameauto]

It fits in with the dramedy thing. I can still tell where it's trying to be funny (ex, stuff with The Fonz's character or various super-cringe Barry reactions), but it just doesn't outweigh the miserable factor anymore.

Barry strikes me as the typical Hollywood rug-pull. They were pretty silly up front, and built an audience on that silliness. Now they string us along thinking they'll be funny, but I don't know that the writers know what humor actually is any longer.

That said, as much as it's a tough call, I'd still take Barry over what's happened to the Goldbergs. I still watch that show because it's literally turned into the most fascinating train wreck I've ever witnessed. They went from one of the funniest things on TV to one of the most bland, tick-the-box, by-the-numbers, every episode is exactly the same shows I've ever witnessed. It's sad as hell.

EDIT TO ADD: I've found much better long-term humor in shows that don't purport to be comedic at all up-front, yet become more and more self-aware as they go. Supernatural was probably the best of its era at that type of funny. Only in that show could you literally have the main characters being torn apart by God in the same episode that you're guffawing over the brothers' schtick just a few minutes earlier and not make it feel awkward. Some other CW shows managed that too.

Legacies took the whole Vampire Diaries continuity, threw it on its head, then started doing acid. Literally. The girls getting wasted on supernatural drugs, then having the shared hallucination of being pink pandas playing volleyball, then spiraling into a fan-fic star wars / princess mashup may be the funniest thing I've ever seen on TV.

But at no point did these shows ever get labeled "comedy."

 

[wankerness]

Barry strikes me as the typical Hollywood rug-pull. They were pretty silly up front, and built an audience on that silliness. Now they string us along thinking they'll be funny, but I don't know that the writers know what humor actually is any longer.

That said, as much as it's a tough call, I'd still take Barry over what's happened to the Goldbergs. I still watch that show because it's literally turned into the most fascinating train wreck I've ever witnessed. They went from one of the funniest things on TV to one of the most bland, tick-the-box, by-the-numbers, every episode is exactly the same shows I've ever witnessed. It's sad as hell.

EDIT TO ADD: I've found much better long-term humor in shows that don't purport to be comedic at all up-front, yet become more and more self-aware as they go. Supernatural was probably the best of its era at that type of funny. Only in that show could you literally have the main characters being torn apart by God in the same episode that you're guffawing over the brothers' schtick just a few minutes earlier and not make it feel awkward. Some other CW shows managed that too.

Legacies took the whole Vampire Diaries continuity, threw it on its head, then started doing acid. Literally. The girls getting wasted on supernatural drugs, then having the shared hallucination of being pink pandas playing volleyball, then spiraling into a fan-fic star wars / princess mashup may be the funniest thing I've ever seen on TV.

But at no point did these shows ever get labeled "comedy."

Yeah, a lot of things that don't often get classified as comedies could regularly be pretty funny. Gilmore Girls, for example. When you have characters that people like watching and are developed enough that they can be introduced to other characters for friction, that just sort of naturally leads to humor. Speaking of, my girlfriend was very excited to introduce me to Supernatural after we saw one of its leads as a major character on early seasons of GG as the vapid "Dean." Or the X-files in later seasons lightened up considerably. The Wire, often considered one of the best shows of all time and very serious, is frequently very funny in every season.

I think Barry's SORT of a bait and switch but I think it might be more that the writers were trying to be like the Sopranos or something. They realized people were having fun, and got mad, cause "THIS IS A SHOW ABOUT PEOPLE GETTING MURDERED HOW DARE YOU FIND THE LEAD CHARACTER SILLY, HE'S A MONSTER!!!" and then try to just make audiences as miserable as possible as time goes on cause "dammit, our show is SERIOUS BUSINESS."

 

[nightflameauto]

Yeah, a lot of things that don't often get classified as comedies could regularly be pretty funny. Gilmore Girls, for example. When you have characters that people like watching and are developed enough that they can be introduced to other characters for friction, that just sort of naturally leads to humor. Speaking of, my girlfriend was very excited to introduce me to Supernatural after we saw one of its leads as a major character on early seasons of GG as the vapid "Dean." Or the X-files in later seasons lightened up considerably. The Wire, often considered one of the best shows of all time and very serious, is frequently very funny in every season.

I've seriously thought about going back to Gilmore Girls just to see him acting like a dumbass. He's got a comedic timing that's brilliant in some ways. He's even making Walker unintentionally funny at times just by entering a room with a quasi-Kramer flair or the way he reacts to things being so silly.

I think Barry's SORT of a bait and switch but I think it might be more that the writers were trying to be like the Sopranos or something. They realized people were having fun, and got mad, cause "THIS IS A SHOW ABOUT PEOPLE GETTING MURDERED HOW DARE YOU FIND THE LEAD CHARACTER SILLY, HE'S A MONSTER!!!" and then try to just make audiences as miserable as possible as time goes on cause "dammit, our show is SERIOUS BUSINESS."

I can see that. It also coincided nicely with the not so subtle shift in public discourse where if you dare laugh about anything, at all, ever, somebody's bound to find a way to be offended by it.

 

[Demiurge]

I can see that. It also coincided nicely with the not so subtle shift in public discourse where if you dare laugh about anything, at all, ever, somebody's bound to find a way to be offended by it.

I don't know if it's about the concern over offense as much as that straight-up comedy is not as respected as drama; in an era of so-called "prestige TV", everything needs to have that perception of depth or gravitas of a drama to sell. For comedy, that apparently means adding a layer of pathos, darkness, or weirdness which can have mixed results. Horror- another genre similarly ghettoized- gets a similar treatment, where it also has to be sad or contain Obvious Social Commentary.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Rewatching Party Down- it's still fucking funny after all these years

 

[nightflameauto]

I don't know if it's about the concern over offense as much as that straight-up comedy is not as respected as drama; in an era of so-called "prestige TV", everything needs to have that perception of depth or gravitas of a drama to sell. For comedy, that apparently means adding a layer of pathos, darkness, or weirdness which can have mixed results. Horror- another genre similarly ghettoized- gets a similar treatment, where it also has to be sad or contain Obvious Social Commentary.

I don't mind pathos or darkness, if it's handled well. The problem is, Hollywood writing has to be some bland and milquetoast in order to appeal to everyone, their hands are really tied when it comes to coming up with creative ways to do things, so everything comes off as hacky bullshit.

Then again, I know I'm not a majority, but I have more respect for something like Letterkenny, where it's obvious everyone involved is just having a good time being goofy, than I am when a show bogs itself down into social commentary and forgets that people usually don't turn on fiction for yet another god damned lecture about everything we're doing wrong, have always done wrong, will always do wrong, and should feel guilty about because god fucking damn it, we're human and humans are PURE, UNADULTERATED EVIL INCARNATE! You flip on a 'comedy' and end up with a sermon, you walk away feeling pretty hollowed out.

Party Down is a great show. I hope the new season lives up to the old stuff. If they pull something as garbage as some of the come-backs have become (Arrested Development, puke), it'd be really sad.

 

[Demiurge]

^ The new Party Down is pretty good. It's short, at 6 episodes, so it's a little cramped with the new cast members and storylines. I recommend waiting for a free trial from Starz and banging them out then, because there is fucking nothing else on that channel.

 

[manu80]

Tried to watch The Night Agent....my god...I stopped at the 5th episode. Weak acting, bland plot...it's him, no it's her, no it's....whatever....and it has a Season 2 already....and archive 81 no....sad lol

My hopes go to Rabbit hole with Kiefer S. A bit weird and twiested, curious to see where they gonna take us...

 

[Spaced Out Ace]

I don't mind pathos or darkness, if it's handled well. The problem is, Hollywood writing has to be some bland and milquetoast in order to appeal to everyone, their hands are really tied when it comes to coming up with creative ways to do things, so everything comes off as hacky bullshit.

Then again, I know I'm not a majority, but I have more respect for something like Letterkenny, where it's obvious everyone involved is just having a good time being goofy, than I am when a show bogs itself down into social commentary and forgets that people usually don't turn on fiction for yet another god damned lecture about everything we're doing wrong, have always done wrong, will always do wrong, and should feel guilty about because god fucking damn it, we're human and humans are PURE, UNADULTERATED EVIL INCARNATE! You flip on a 'comedy' and end up with a sermon, you walk away feeling pretty hollowed out.

Party Down is a great show. I hope the new season lives up to the old stuff. If they pull something as garbage as some of the come-backs have become (Arrested Development, puke), it'd be really sad.

Far too many things are too dark and serious these days. Quite a few movies and shows are so dark/serious, it is almost verging on parody.

 

[ElRay]

I just found "The Ark" on SyFy. Holy crap is it bad, but it's "Can't look away" bad. Definitely nobody that passed High School Physics, Biology or Chemistry was involved at any point, at any level bad.

 

[CanserDYI]

My wife put on "Squidbillies" from our young adult years and my god I had forgotten how INSANE of a show that is, like an acid fever dream with shotguns.

 

[Seabeast2000]

I won't not stop extolling the virtues of Toast of London for a good straight Brit comedy. Damn its funny, just the names alone. Bee Keeper? No Beak Keeper.

"Stephen this is Clem Fandango, can you hear me? "

Stlll need to see Toast of Hollywood.

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

Just smashed the first 3 episodes of Beef. It's quite wild, and seeing Steven Yuen and Ali Wong going completely off the chain is great, both are really selling it. Looking forward to seeing this through.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

trying to slog my way through succession. It's boring as fuck