One More on the Telly: Page 118 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

One More on the Telly

MistaT

I think Mad Men is fine to "binge" in the watch an episode per day approach, but I'd agree it's not great if you're looking to sit down for 4+ hours a few days in a row.

goon

Yeah. I thought one of the reasons I enjoyed the second run was I was able to binge. You become a lot more immersed into the characters and their world.

Daz

Mirth wrote:
Daz wrote:
That's about as far as I made it into the show as well. I just could not find anything to like about the male characters and found myself not caring about what happened to Don.

Yep, all the three main male characters - Don, Pete and Roger Sterling - are pretty terrible human beings but that's the whole point.

I don't think the show gives them any redemption at all for acting the way they do and the opening title sequence sums up the premise of the show. Think of it as a more nuanced interpretation of the message Wolf of Wall Street tried to get across.

I agree that it is a very well written and acted show. I enjoyed the first couple of seasons for sure, but by the third season my interest declined because I just didn't really care what happened to the main characters, particularly Don. So I just stopped watching which is something I do with lots of shows, partly because I don't spend that much time watching TV anyway, so I have to be pretty into the show to make it worth it.

Daz

FEBravo wrote:
I think it's one of those that doesn't do well if you binge-watch it, which is why it's less popular. I watched them recently, watching one or two episodes a week at the gym, and it was perfect. You could really reflect on the episodes and the broader social themes and issues, and then the next episode would some times be months later. It doesn't have the same weekly suspense of breaking bad or the wire in that sense. Much more slow paced, but in a good way.

I might be missing something here, but how do you watch tv at the gym? There's no way I could work out hard and be able to concentrate on a show.

Burnwinter

Daz wrote:
I agree that it is a very well written and acted show. I enjoyed the first couple of seasons for sure, but by the third season my interest declined because I just didn't really care what happened to the main characters, particularly Don. So I just stopped watching which is something I do with lots of shows, partly because I don't spend that much time watching TV anyway, so I have to be pretty into the show to make it worth it.

This has increasingly been a problem for me with dramas. The characters and plots aren't actually compelling.

I think Mad Men managed to retain my interest in later seasons by putting Don in increasingly surreal / hyperreal / Pynchonian type scenarios. Lane also develops into a genuinely interesting character.

Season two of The Handmaid's Tale is the only thing I really watched episode by episode this year, thought it was solid. It works because it intertwines a meaningful premise with worthwhile character and relationship hooks.

FEBravo

Daz wrote:
FEBravo wrote:
I think it's one of those that doesn't do well if you binge-watch it, which is why it's less popular. I watched them recently, watching one or two episodes a week at the gym, and it was perfect. You could really reflect on the episodes and the broader social themes and issues, and then the next episode would some times be months later. It doesn't have the same weekly suspense of breaking bad or the wire in that sense. Much more slow paced, but in a good way.

I might be missing something here, but how do you watch tv at the gym? There's no way I could work out hard and be able to concentrate on a show.

Klaus

Burnwinter wrote:
Daz wrote:
I agree that it is a very well written and acted show. I enjoyed the first couple of seasons for sure, but by the third season my interest declined because I just didn't really care what happened to the main characters, particularly Don. So I just stopped watching which is something I do with lots of shows, partly because I don't spend that much time watching TV anyway, so I have to be pretty into the show to make it worth it.

This has increasingly been a problem for me with dramas. The characters and plots aren't actually compelling.

Personally I feel this applies to Mad Men in a big way. All the high-quality writing and production values in the world, and it's a little bit wasted on a viewpoint that I just don't find that interesting. Golden age of american television and its current post-peak years summed up when you think about it.

I did get through the show, but it took me three attempts, and in the end it was a bit like that Macbeth quote ("I am in blood stepped in so far, that should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er") you once hilariously used to describe Sons of Anarchy. I did like the humour though. And I ended up being impressed with how much the show committed to the idea of Don as someone incapable of real change, who no matter how hard he tries still can't overcome the lack of human substance that has turned him into this hollow man who keeps selling himself. Was it worth 92 episodes of overproduced drama about inherently unlikable people though? Not for me.

Also can't help that the whole show reminds me of the first copywriter job I took because I scrambled for money, where the old heads would tell you how the golden age for advertising ended once they discovered that there's no real-world connection between how funny an ad is and how well a product sells.

Qwiss

Burnwinter wrote:
Daz wrote:
I agree that it is a very well written and acted show. I enjoyed the first couple of seasons for sure, but by the third season my interest declined because I just didn't really care what happened to the main characters, particularly Don. So I just stopped watching which is something I do with lots of shows, partly because I don't spend that much time watching TV anyway, so I have to be pretty into the show to make it worth it.

This has increasingly been a problem for me with dramas. The characters and plots aren't actually compelling.

I think Mad Men managed to retain my interest in later seasons by putting Don in increasingly surreal / hyperreal / Pynchonian type scenarios. Lane also develops into a genuinely interesting character.

Season two of The Handmaid's Tale is the only thing I really watched episode by episode this year, thought it was solid. It works because it intertwines a meaningful premise with worthwhile character and relationship hooks.

Yeah I think a lot of shows struggle to present you with an unlikeable protagonist who's also compelling viewing. Since the Sopranos its been the go to for prestige TV and it fails more often than not. Don is one of the very few successful versions of that character on TV. It helps that Mad Men has plenty of light among the darkness and a lot of humour too. If you have a self serious show, thats extremely broody and dark without any sort of hero to sympathise with it gets old very quickly and that seems to be most cable dramas at the moment.

Burnwinter

It's interesting how hard they're finding it to write genuinely great TV given the amount of science they think they're putting into it.

Burnwinter

"On a viewpoint that I just don't find that interesting."

Yes, but it sort of casts about for the better ones, the right ones, in a way that other shows didn't bother to.

For example Breaking Bad was a terrible failure on that front, the final season felt quite pointless, came a season late and totally missed the right notes of conflict.

I think we've discussed this before, but the economics of the format defeat the art of it—the shows of the highest quality all end up running a season or more too long, and with the best grace in the world, there are basically no worthwhile stories that genuinely need fifty hours to tell. In trying to make these shows, they're very much trying to do something that's more or less impossible, and we're congratulating them on how well they're failing. That's why you always hear the critical praise activating these tones of vastness—scale, grandeur, depth, complexity, epic, landscape etc—because vastness is all they have to offer.

jones

Why do you bother watching TV then?

Burnwinter

I basically don't.

I've gone from watching several seasons of things a year (like maybe one a fortnight or something) to watching very very little at all.

It's not like the form is bereft but it's got a low rate of return for me at the moment. Books, films and the net are all way better.

Qwiss

I just think the quality has dropped and thats why I'm watching less TV. And TBH its just cable dramas, there is still plenty of good TV comedy.

I haven't seen a whole lot of great movies coming out in the last few years either though. There's either superheroes and Star Wars or very safe, very middle brow, middle of the road oscar bait or faux indie films that are just like an episode of TV but with less well drawn characters.

Burnwinter

I think there's been lots of great films being made, but the big franchises are really throttling the megaplexes and seem to be hoovering up quite a lot of the production capital too.

The economics of all art production is just so weird now. As a music critic I follow was pointing out, there's both more music, and vastly more good music being produced now than at any time in history. Too much for anyone to wrap their head around. So many works are just flowing into these streams of readily available texture, like mobile, sound-making wallpaper.

arsedocmd

Flipping through channels, I just came across a husband and wife couple marrying a girl. Girl's father,friends and a judge present. Show called you,me and her. And I used to think black mirror was a weird show.

goon

The Man in High Castle season 3 was pretty good I thought. Though I still haven’t decided whether the traveller element adds to it or takes away from it, I think this is the first season where I think it’s the former.

banduan

half binged on The Bodyguard. Solid show, enjoyed it. Not sure why so many hated the ending.

Claudius

I liked the ending. Maybe some felt it was a bit too Hollywood

Finally did Narcos. It was my December obsession. What an addictive and immersive show. I enjoyed how it evolved from Seasons 1 and 2 from this Esco biopic to more of a drug war caper / documentary in the last two seasons. You’re at once fascinated by the entrepreneurial instincts of these men and appalled by their savagery and decades of damage they and their accomplices brought upon their countries. Season 3 probably my favorite. Necessary viewing if you quickly want to see how we allow evil to overtake us.

goon

Been rewatching The Wire for the first time over the last few days, I’d forgotten just how good it was and particularly just how funny it was. Amazing show, amazing characters, possibly my fav.

Burnwinter

Last couple of episodes of Riverdale (the G&G / prison industrial complex / fizzle rocks plotline) have been exceptional. It's a unique show.

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