TV IV Couch Chat: One is a genius, the other's insane. (The Pinky & The Brain Thread)

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > TV IV Couch Chat: One is a genius, the other's insane. (The Pinky & The Brain Thread)

«‹›372 »

Twee as Fuck: Nov 13, 2012; by Lowtax

They've been giving mostly As and B+s to the recent seasons of HIMYM. AV Club is mostly worthless really.

# ? Mar 18, 2014 17:16

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 26, 2024 06:36

GreenNight: Feb 19, 2006; Turning the light on the darkest places, you and I know we got to face this now. We got to face this now.

They are worthless when they disagree with me.

# ? Mar 18, 2014 17:17

Arist: Feb 13, 2012; _{who, me?}

HIMYM is good this season though, or at least not as bad as the other seasons from how much people complained about those.

# ? Mar 18, 2014 17:18

zoux: Apr 28, 2006

I think it's legit funny that people got mad that a sitcom wasn't advancing the metaplot. Like that is the number one criticism I see about the show, that it took to long to answer the titular premise. Though I guess I can understand, I'm not sure we ever really did find out Who the Boss Was.

# ? Mar 18, 2014 17:20

Irish Joe: Jul 23, 2007; by Lowtax

Its Angela.

# ? Mar 18, 2014 17:27

zoux: Apr 28, 2006

It's arguably Mona but it sure as heck ain't Tony!!!

# ? Mar 18, 2014 17:29

Sober: Nov 19, 2011; First touch: Life.
Second touch: Dead again. Forever.

DaveWoo posted:

I'm starting to think the AV Club doesn't like The Following very much.

I feel like I need to watch The Following to see exactly what not to do when writing TV.

# ? Mar 18, 2014 17:32

PriorMarcus: Oct 17, 2008; ASK ME ABOUT BEING ALLERGIC TO POSITIVITY

zoux posted:

I think it's legit funny that people got mad that a sitcom wasn't advancing the metaplot. Like that is the number one criticism I see about the show, that it took to long to answer the titular premise. Though I guess I can understand, I'm not sure we ever really did find out Who the Boss Was.

Do you watch the show?

People criticize it because the show starting going in circles seasons ago; nothing progressed and it was hard to invest in anything because it became evident the creators wanted the final episode to be when Ted met the mother. The show in it's early seasons was strong enough to survive moving passed that and mostly ignoring the title premise (Friends never became called Lovers even when most of the cast had been involved with each other) but instead the creators were too precious.

# ? Mar 18, 2014 17:32

zoux: Apr 28, 2006

Yeah I watched a bunch of it but sitcoms aren't for plot development they are for laughing at jokes.

"Hmm this Cosby Show doesn't seem to be going anywhere at all..."

# ? Mar 18, 2014 17:34

Twee as Fuck: Nov 13, 2012; by Lowtax

MrAristocrates posted:

HIMYM is good this season though, or at least not as bad as the other seasons from how much people complained about those.

Even if you think this season is good (and I watched the first three episodes and last three, and most certainly disagree), there is no excuse giving As and B+s to last season.

Is there anyone who genuinely believes that HIMYM is still A material and one of the best things on television right now?

PriorMarcus posted:

Do you watch the show?

People criticize it because the show starting going in circles seasons ago; nothing progressed and it was hard to invest in anything because it became evident the creators wanted the final episode to be when Ted met the mother. The show in it's early seasons was strong enough to survive moving passed that and mostly ignoring the title premise (Friends never became called Lovers even when most of the cast had been involved with each other) but instead the creators were too precious.

They also stopped writing funny jokes around the end of the fourth season. The jokes nowadays are on the level of 2 and a Half Men and the reason people even still care is because they've invested so much time into it already.

# ? Mar 18, 2014 17:34

zoux: Apr 28, 2006

AV Club grades are relative. An "A" episode of say, Breaking Bad, is not equal to an "A" episode of The Vampire Diaries.

# ? Mar 18, 2014 17:35

NieR Occomata: Jan 18, 2009; Glory to Mankind.

zoux posted:

Yeah I watched a bunch of it but sitcoms aren't for plot development they are for laughing at jokes.

"Hmm this Cosby Show doesn't seem to be going anywhere at all..."

Well more importantly himym has been unfunny poo poo for like five years

# ? Mar 18, 2014 17:36

zoux: Apr 28, 2006

Occupation posted:

Well more importantly himym has been unfunny poo poo for like five years

That's fine and really the only rubrik by which a sitcom could be judged. But like I said, most complaints I see aren't that it isn't funny, it's that He Hasn't Met Your Mother yet.

# ? Mar 18, 2014 17:37

NieR Occomata: Jan 18, 2009; Glory to Mankind.

zoux posted:

AV Club grades are relative. An "A" episode of say, Breaking Bad, is not equal to an "A" episode of The Vampire Diaries.

They're also relative to their own show; vanderwerff has been giving episodes of community Bs and such when they've been some of the funniest television I've ever seen, but in reference to the best the shows ever done they're B episodes

# ? Mar 18, 2014 17:38

Aphrodite: Jun 27, 2006

Are we doing the bad opinions game again?

# ? Mar 18, 2014 17:40

NieR Occomata: Jan 18, 2009; Glory to Mankind.

zoux posted:

That's fine and really the only rubrik by which a sitcom could be judged. But like I said, most complaints I see aren't that it isn't funny, it's that He Hasn't Met Your Mother yet.

Well it's Cause the show became about meeting he mother to the detriment of literally everything else and was unfunny misogynist bullshit besides but kept on pulling red herrings and "twists" revealing that the person wasn't really the mother so it became impossible to point out how poo poo the show was without also noting that the show has been dragging out meeting the mother because that's all the show has been about for five years. Nothing else

# ? Mar 18, 2014 17:40

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

zoux posted:

I think it's legit funny that people got mad that a sitcom wasn't advancing the metaplot. Like that is the number one criticism I see about the show, that it took to long to answer the titular premise. Though I guess I can understand, I'm not sure we ever really did find out Who the Boss Was.

HIMYM's decline for me was more due to them stretching out Ted's supposed narrative arc and him becoming insufferable during the process. In the early seasons it felt more like there was a finish line in sight and there were key milestones that needed to be reached to get there, which made it those early seasons feel pretty tightly written for a sitcom. Had you asked me in season 3, I would have said it felt like it was paced for 2-3 more seasons at the most. That obviously did not come to pass, and the show really felt like it was meandering during that stretch. Maybe it would have been fine if the episodes were still funny, but I don't think it was a coincidence that that started to fall part alongside the metaplot pacing.

# ? Mar 18, 2014 17:40

zoux: Apr 28, 2006

Seinfeld was literally about nothing, making it by default the worst sitcom of all time.

# ? Mar 18, 2014 17:43

Kraps: Sep 9, 2011; This avatar was paid for by the Silent Majority.

tbf Seinfeld, Friends, Reba, Fresh Prince etc don't claim to have a point, which this arguably does.

# ? Mar 18, 2014 17:47

Slamhound: Mar 27, 2010

Maybe it's because I binged through the first five or six seasons so I don't have the time invested in it, but I haven't noticed any significant decline in HIMYM. All it's problems were there from the beginning. It's always been a good, but not great, sitcom.

# ? Mar 18, 2014 17:48

zoux: Apr 28, 2006

Kraps posted:

tbf Seinfeld, Friends, Reba, Fresh Prince etc don't claim to have a point, which this arguably does.

A framing premise is not the same thing as a point. Wonder Years arguably had the exact same framing premise but because the title wasnt "how I got older and Graduated from high school" people weren't flipping out about lack of development. If they had called the show "My Life Before I met Your Mother" then it wouldn't get a fraction of the criticism it gets today.

# ? Mar 18, 2014 17:51

MrFlibble: Nov 28, 2007; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS; Fallen Rib

OK I have actually watched the blacklist episode now - there are no loving ninjas in it at all and whoever said there was is a dirty lying bastard. There is a yakuza boss who makes his enemies commit seppuku - but thats a samurai/bushido thing.

The one similarity they had was the fact that the real 'bad' guy is an american rather than a japanese person as originally suspected.

# ? Mar 18, 2014 17:56

precision: May 7, 2006; by VideoGames

Do people still really do the Ebert Argument, seriously

"Ebert gave this romantic comedy more stars than Blue Velvet! I don't get it!"

Come on the now

# ? Mar 18, 2014 18:06

zoux: Apr 28, 2006

precision posted:

Do people still really do the Ebert Argument, seriously

"Ebert gave this romantic comedy more stars than Blue Velvet! I don't get it!"

Come on the now

What?

Oh, I see nm.

zoux fucked around with this message at 18:15 on Mar 18, 2014

# ? Mar 18, 2014 18:10

Escobarbarian: Jun 18, 2004; Grimey Drawer

I don't see how bitching about scores/ratings is specifically an Ebert thing.*

*because it isn't at all

# ? Mar 18, 2014 18:13

Nate RFB: Jan 17, 2005; Clapping Larry

zoux posted:

If they had called the show "My Life Before I met Your Mother" then it wouldn't get a fraction of the criticism it gets today.

I really think it's just the way they went about it. If they had simply ignored the mother subplot entirely it would have strangely probably been better off; the fakeouts they did every season were just obnoxious and hamfisted. Likewise if you step back and assume that it was never really about the mother per se, but rather how Ted would "become the man he needed to be", that becomes difficult when your main character gets more and more unlikeable as time goes on.

# ? Mar 18, 2014 18:15

precision: May 7, 2006; by VideoGames

Bown posted:

I don't see how bitching about scores/ratings is specifically an Ebert thing.*

*because it isn't at all

No, but anytime Ebert is discussed there are always people who don't understand that his scoring system was relative to the kind of film it was meant to be, and that he wasn't literally saying that Tangled and Citizen Kane are equally good because they both got 4 stars.

Actually wait, Tangled IS as good as Citizen Kane, now that I think about it.

# ? Mar 18, 2014 18:29

Austrian mook: Feb 24, 2013; by Shine

Getting misunderstood by stupid loving morons was literally Ebert's whole life.

Also HIMYIM is pretty good for a binge and does long term continuity jokes really good but outside of Neil Patrick it's pretty average.

# ? Mar 18, 2014 18:33

Kraps: Sep 9, 2011; This avatar was paid for by the Silent Majority.

Tangled is the Citizen Kane of vide- wait no that's not right

# ? Mar 18, 2014 18:34

Aphrodite: Jun 27, 2006

Austrian mook posted:

Getting misunderstood by stupid loving morons was literally Ebert's whole life.

Also HIMYIM is pretty good for a binge and does long term continuity jokes really good but outside of Neil Patrick it's pretty average.

I think you need to take a step back and look at what the average sitcom actually is.

It has David Spade in it and I'm not sure what the premise is but it seems to involve sitting in a diner a lot.

# ? Mar 18, 2014 18:39

Irish Joe: Jul 23, 2007; by Lowtax

Kraps posted:

Tangled is the Citizen Kane of vide- wait no that's not right

Its weird when people can't accept that something they like is not the greatest thing ever made. Tangled is an above-average Disney Princess film, at best. So you like it, good for you, but be realistic about its strengths, weakness and relative quality. Admitting something isn't perfect won't diminish your enjoyment of it in any way.

# ? Mar 18, 2014 18:39

Austrian mook: Feb 24, 2013; by Shine

Aphrodite posted:

I think you need to take a step back and look at what the average sitcom actually is.

It has David Spade in it and I'm not sure what the premise is but it seems to involve sitting in a diner a lot.

Frasier is literally perfect so idk what your point is?

Kraps posted:

Tangled is the Citizen Kane of vide- wait no that's not right

# ? Mar 18, 2014 18:39

IRQ: Sep 9, 2001; SUCK A DICK, DUMBSHITS!

Austrian mook posted:

What is this bullshit, this doesn't even have the citizen cane of disney princess movie weapons.

# ? Mar 18, 2014 18:45

Kraps: Sep 9, 2011; This avatar was paid for by the Silent Majority.

Irish Joe posted:

Its weird when people can't accept that something they like is not the greatest thing ever made. Tangled is an above-average Disney Princess film, at best. So you like it, good for you, but be realistic about its strengths, weakness and relative quality. Admitting something isn't perfect won't diminish your enjoyment of it in any way.

I think you're being kinda harsh but Frozen is actually the best so w/e

# ? Mar 18, 2014 18:46

precision: May 7, 2006; by VideoGames

Aphrodite posted:

I think you need to take a step back and look at what the average sitcom actually is.

It has David Spade in it and I'm not sure what the premise is but it seems to involve sitting in a diner a lot.

I actually watched a few episodes of Rules of Engagement and it's really not that terrible. Patrick Warburton is always funny.

# ? Mar 18, 2014 18:54

Cactus: Jun 24, 2006

Can anyone re-post a youtube video I'm having trouble finding?

I saw it linked in one of the walking dead threads a couple of seasons ago (don't have archives so I can't look myself), it was two kids around 12 or so, re-enacting a Rick/Shane conversation and it was hilarious. They absolutely nailed it down to the stupid accents, the over-emoting, grimacing, horse half-whispering tones, it was brilliant. Anyone remember the one I mean?

# ? Mar 18, 2014 19:22

Austrian mook: Feb 24, 2013; by Shine

Cactus posted:

Can anyone re-post a youtube video I'm having trouble finding?

I saw it linked in one of the walking dead threads a couple of seasons ago (don't have archives so I can't look myself), it was two kids around 12 or so, re-enacting a Rick/Shane conversation and it was hilarious. They absolutely nailed it down to the stupid accents, the over-emoting, grimacing, horse half-whispering tones, it was brilliant. Anyone remember the one I mean?

Does one of the kids shout COOOOOOOOOOOORL!?

# ? Mar 18, 2014 19:26