The Liberal Gun Club Forum

I don't know what it is, but for years and years I've mostly hated most TV fiction and very few movies made in the last 10 years or so interest me at all.
I just got halfway through the pilot of "The Amazing Mrs. Maisel" and couldn't stand it anymore! Had to turn it off.
I got through the first season of Westworld, got through 1 1/2 episodes of Season 2, turned it off, and haven't been interested since.
I barely made it through 15 minutes of the new Tracy Ullman show (or was it only 10? Who remembers?)...
About the same for Veep.
I enjoyed the 1st season of Blind Side (actually, they called it the first half-season) but the next couple of episodes? Done. Bored.
Elementary? Same thing. Sherlock? Even with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman after 2 episodes, I was done! Bored.
Our youngest dragged my wife and I to see Infinity Wars and I squirmed through the whole thing! The supposedly great new Incredibles 2? Not much better!
I cannot think of a single movie out there I want to see.

The only (fiction) shows still in production that have caught me are Game of Thrones (though the last season pretty much sucked, except the 1st and 4th episodes), The Expanse, and the new Jack Ryan series--which is OK and watchable. I'm not really looking forward to the so-called "finale" of GOT. The only show I really find exciting is The Expanse.

I'm trying to think of the most recent new movie I really enjoyed and I think it was The Martian. No. Wait--it was the new Star Wars, The Last Jedi, despite its flaws (and The Force Awakens before it). The Rogue whatever movie? Hated it!

I just find SO much so boring! I used to love the Star Trek series, but "Enterprise" was almost torture to get through, and the idea of PAYING for this new series, after a dreadful pilot, is like "No Way" I couldn't even make it through the 3rd Star Trek Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto movie...BOOOOORRRRRING!!!

I don't know why. I have no trouble reading all kinds of books, even not-so-good ones.

I'm not even saying the new movies and TV shows are bad--I'm sure they are not. It's me....I just get bored by them.

I think it may be that the soap opera we've been living through for the last 3 1/2 years is just far more gripping, funny, terrifying, and with unexpected plot twists we don't see coming.

I guess it's like if some writer wrote that 2 founders of a nation, were friends, then enemies, then friends, and both died on the day of the 50th anniversary of the founding we'd call it far-fetched pot-boiling by a 3rd rate hack, and laugh at (not with) the writer....but, of course, it really happened.

Still, my interest in prime-time TV shows waned all the way back in the mid-90s.

Just venting a little. I don't know if others go through this...I look at HBO and Amazon Prime and ...yawn. I DO like "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" and "Real Time with Bill Maher" but they aren't fiction.

I'm the same way. I think it's part that all the shows seem to follow a formula. House was the best example of it. Someone gets sick, everyone is stumped, drama, drug addiction, stumble on the answer, everyone lives happily ever after. It only takes couple of shows to figure out the recipe.
I did like Breaking Bad and I was actually able to watch it. I used to watch the Discovery Channel, TLC and the History channel when it had something worth watching.
I think it's also in part the age. The fascination and the imagination isn't what it was.
I used to love horror movies and scifi but now it's more movies like Gran Torino. I don't like chaotic movies. I prefer steady flow with dialogue.
Or maybe I'm just getting grumpy.

I have pretty much the same sentiments. I really think the notion of binge-watching entire seasons over a weekend incredibly diminishes the overall experience. I can't and won't do that. On any given day I'd rather watch the, "Pine Barrens" episode of The Sopranos for the 13th time than anything new spewed out by any TV vector of your choice.

Speaking of which, over the weekend HBO has been running the entire series of The Sopranos. Still great, no...amazing. I really miss James Gandolfini and the whole crew at the Bada-Bing.

More Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, and less...everything else I guess. Get off my lawn.

My partner had the same reaction to “The Amazing Ms Maisel” as you did, YT. He got 10 minutes into it and couldn’t stand to watch anymore (so of course evil Amazon plays a loud obnoxious commercial for it every time we sit down to watch something...Aaargh! MUTE!). I think you may be going through a TV detox dryout period where nothing will suit. I go through those regularly.This may be the “Golden Age of Television” but it’s still a golden age reflecting a shallow culture running out of ideas. Welcome to the Grumpy Old Man Club!

Mine are similar, seems like everything is zombies, mystery disease, super powers, future travel or past travel...like it's all developed for a juvenile audience. I like Sherlock Holmes but I too never could get into the Cumberbatch/Freeman series. Same with Game of Thrones. I like some of the Marvel and DC comics, but there are duds too like "Iron Fist". Saw John Malkovich as Hercule Poirot in "The ABC Murders", not good. It's like screenwriters don't have any new ideas and steal from fellow screenwriters or they steal the plot from a foreign series. We have more viewing options now but more of it is crap.

lsj74 wrote: Sun Jan 06, 2019 11:29 pm
Or maybe I'm just getting grumpy.

Well, there is that. Despite being active and working out 4-5 times a week--cardio and weight-training, I'm still a 63-year old grumpy old man who, while healthy...has joints that could have been made by 1970's American car companies, they are all such pure crap!

HuckleberryFun wrote: Mon Jan 07, 2019 8:30 am My partner had the same reaction to “The Amazing Ms Maisel” as you did, YT. He got 10 minutes into it and couldn’t stand to watch anymore (so of course evil Amazon plays a loud obnoxious commercial for it every time we sit down to watch something...Aaargh! MUTE!). I think you may be going through a TV detox dryout period where nothing will suit. I go through those regularly.This may be the “Golden Age of Television” but it’s still a golden age reflecting a shallow culture running out of ideas. Welcome to the Grumpy Old Man Club!

I dunno, Huck! I've been going through what you call a "detox dryout period" vis-a-vis TV since the early '90's! -- even before I turned 40! A quarter-century is a long time to detox and dryout!

highdesert wrote: Mon Jan 07, 2019 8:57 am Mine are similar, seems like everything is zombies, mystery disease, super powers, future travel or past travel...like it's all developed for a juvenile audience. I like Sherlock Holmes but I too never could get into the Cumberbatch/Freeman series. Same with Game of Thrones. I like some of the Marvel and DC comics, but there are duds too like "Iron Fist". Saw John Malkovich as Hercule Poirot in "The ABC Murders", not good. It's like screenwriters don't have any new ideas and steal from fellow screenwriters or they steal the plot from a foreign series. We have more viewing options now but more of it is crap.

I agree. It as gotten so bad they are resurrecting old shows with new cast and they weren't that good a show to start with. The HGTV, DIY, and the Cooking Channels have done the same thing no longer shows that inform but have one hit and ten you have multiples of the same thing. How many flipping Flipper shows do we need. Other TV shows have gone to crap. This years new Dr. Who is garbage and I watched Dr. Who for years. Other SciFi addicts i have talked with say the same thing. The Starz Channel Has the Outlander series. I have read all of the Outlander books and love them. I was looking forward to the series for few seasons they were okay but this year they are drifting to far from the books to make them any good. The problem there is the books have many complex plot lines going on and weave backend forth with the characters. The TV writers can't deal with that, so you get lousy results.

The most entertainment fun my wife and I have had is watching the old Bogart movies and other film classics.

I find British sitcoms and comedy dramas far more enjoyable than US tv. They know when they've run their course, too and end them. White Gold is hilarious to me, but so crass my wife can't watch it.

Green Wing and Borderline are both worth a watch.

I just can't watch comic book action movies. I thought comics and action heroes were stupid when I was a kid. I'm perplexed by their popularity. I'm also perplexed that anybody would waste any of their life watching other people play sports ball.

Get off my lawn!

I don't like most TV shows and we haven't had cable TV for some years now, just streaming. A few Netflix series have been entertaining. Penny Dreadful was fun. Bloodline was ok but really dark. I like the dumb comic book movies, just need to turn off the brain and engage the inner 12 year old. Pro sports are about the most awful way to enjoy advertisements I've ever experienced. In all, I'd rather read a book or fart around in the garage.

featureless wrote: Mon Jan 07, 2019 12:06 pm I don't like most TV shows and we haven't had cable TV for some years now, just streaming. A few Netflix series have been entertaining. Penny Dreadful was fun. Bloodline was ok but really dark. I like the dumb comic book movies, just need to turn off the brain and engage the inner 12 year old. Pro sports are about the most awful way to enjoy advertisements I've ever experienced. In all, I'd rather read a book or fart around in the garage.

I mostly watch international Rugby these days via ESPN+ and NBCSports Gold. Two, 40-minute halfs with no commercials other than during the 15-minute halftime which I usually skip through as I only watch the rebroadcasts. American sports and broadcast networks can eff right off.

Too often shows imitate other shows, and writers imitate other plots. As for "comedy" shows, you can just see the writers pulling out their catalogs of "jokes" to recycle. I mostly ALWAYS hated sit-coms because somehow writers thought it was funny to put characters in painful and embarrassing situations that made my flesh crawl. M*A*S*H was a favorite because they rarely did that, until seasons 10 and 11 when the show began to seriously suck.

As for dramas, as I said, and others have said, invention vanished along with the novelty of (some) new shows and repeated plots! One interesting prime time soap, "Dallas", and next thing you know there are half a dozen all claiming to be "Better than Dallas". Yawn. "Who Shot J.R.?"

OK. I'm done.

GET OFF MY LAWN!

Haven't watched TV in 20+ years. I manage to sit with my Wife for 10 or 15 minutes if there is a nature/animal show on and the scenery/photography is good but other than that I just have no interest in it.

Mostly crap, mindless BS and Mind Control Commercials with lots of colors, sounds, and manipulation. Don't get me started on "The Evening News" which is basically paid propaganda. Doesn't help having friends who work for the BBC and Al Jazeera that I speak to on a weekly basis. American TV is really, really bad.

VooDoo

VodoundaVinci wrote: Mon Jan 07, 2019 4:32 pm Haven't watched TV in 20+ years. I manage to sit with my Wife for 10 or 15 minutes if there is a nature/animal show on and the scenery/photography is good but other than that I just have no interest in it.

Mostly crap, mindless BS and Mind Control Commercials with lots of colors, sounds, and manipulation. Don't get me started on "The Evening News" which is basically paid propaganda. Doesn't help having friends who work for the BBC and Al Jazeera that I speak to on a weekly basis. American TV is really, really bad.

VooDoo

As a curmudgeon, you make me feel like a tenderfoot!

LOL....I am The Curmudgeon, thank you very much.

VooDoo

Well, what exactly do you like watching?

KlownKannon wrote: Tue Jan 08, 2019 6:36 pm Well, what exactly do you like watching?

You mean beside watching Hickok45 test-shooting stuff?

I watch hockey, and that's about it. The last shows I've watched with any real interest are Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad.

Bob's Burgers is pretty OK though.

I do watch football and some college basketball...and news.

Mason wrote: Mon Jan 07, 2019 11:36 am White Gold is hilarious to me, but so crass my wife can't watch it.

Slimy Vince Swan - great acting from Ed Westwick. Very funny.

I'll occasionally watch Animal Planet (until it gets to a commercial) or some History Channel. Other than that I hang out on several Internet Gun forums and work with an Open Source Flight Sim developing/coding virtual aircraft and coordinate a lot with guys all over the world on improving 3D models and animations and adding new aircraft as well as flying together in Virtual Airspace. Geeky and Tweeky and much better for the brain than watching TV.

Then I also shoot handguns and have taken up precision rifle shooting and reload for both.....2 dogs to take care of and a full time job. So TV is just wasted time having my brain bashed and induces Anxiety Attacks when I watch the evening news or catch bits of propaganda, It's just a waste for me. Unproductive, idle mind, neither learning, sharing, nor being entertained. I watch a lot of online precision rifle stuff from how to properly mount and zero scopes, ranging via reticle, reloading for precision rifle, and all that stuff.

TV is just so far down the list of idle time stuff that is entertaining or satisfying that it never gets done.

VooDoo

ESPN. All day background noise.

I'm still awaiting someone to explain "Mother" movie. It was as pointless as "Bird Box"

Wino wrote: Wed Jan 09, 2019 9:48 am I'm still awaiting someone to explain "Mother" movie. It was as pointless as "Bird Box"

Don't ask me! Never heard of it, don't want to know!

YankeeTarheel wrote: Wed Jan 09, 2019 11:46 am

Wino wrote: Wed Jan 09, 2019 9:48 am I'm still awaiting someone to explain "Mother" movie. It was as pointless as "Bird Box"

Don't ask me! Never heard of it, don't want to know!

I think "mother" was an exploration of eternal damnation and the follies of men at the expense of women and the world. Or maybe just a really weird movie.