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Murdoch wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 9:18 pm

mfunk9786 wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 2:40 pm Did anyone get all the way through Season 2 who is eagerly anticipating Season 3? If they'd left the first season as a standalone I would have been excited for new anthology seasons of this show, but as it stands, Season 2 was a big step down and very forgettable, which makes this feel like too little too late for the series as a whole now that the kid actors are almost adults.

I wasn't very impressed by the last season. I'm only sticking around because I've heard the Duffer brothers only plan on doing four seasons. I'm at a point with TV where a short run is a selling point for me.

I'm at the point with TV where I don't watch it unless it's a miniseries

We just stop if we aren't feeling it anymore. There was a certain point with Orange is the New Black where the premiere episode of a season felt like seeing an ex who you hardly remember and realizing you have absolutely no residual feelings for them, all of a sudden. It would take a hell of a thrilling cliffhanger-heavy plot to force us to keep going with a show that isn't working anymore.

The Shield had 7 seasons of almost solid quality throughout. On the other hand the first two seasons of Hannibal told as perfect a story as it could, and I didn't feel that the third rose up to it as much, especially as it essentially crammed what would have been two seasons in one.

As things are now I think it would be rare but not impossible, to reach the levels of both quality and quantity The Shield did. But I am more in favor of shows that have a shorter arc.

mfunk9786 wrote: Wed Mar 20, 2019 9:54 pm We just stop if we aren't feeling it anymore. There was a certain point with Orange is the New Black where the premiere episode of a season felt like seeing an ex who you hardly remember and realizing you have absolutely no residual feelings for them, all of a sudden. It would take a hell of a thrilling cliffhanger-heavy plot to force us to keep going with a show that isn't working anymore.

I feel this way too, and OITNB is an excellent example. The last season I watched of it was so miserable I didn't care to continue.

The only current shows I bother with are the Good Place and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: the former because it keeps reinventing itself several times over every season while remaining true to its characters, so even if it started to suck, I'd only have to wait; and the latter because it's somehow still funny after all these years. But I don't have a lot of time for TV and what time I have is more likely to be spent revisiting one of the handful of ended shows I already enjoy

I still watch It's Always Sunny because it's grandfathered in, but I haven't started a new series since Rick and Morty in 2013

Nice thread title!

I don’t think I’ve watched anything besides It’s Always Sunny since the last season of Game of Thrones (which I’ll definitely be finishing out). There’s just so much padding in even most miniseries that I can’t justify the time commitment anymore relative to fitting in 3-7 more movies in the space of a single season of TV.

Oh duh, I forgot Game of Thrones. I watch that too.

I’m confident I’m having a much better time revisiting Law & Order (and there’s so many episodes that invariably I barely remember or never saw, so a lot of it’s still “new to me” like NBC used to say) than I would with any other modern drama

Free advice, if you want something to watch, I recently saw “Seed” from season five and that is just an incredible episode from start to finish. From “Chinese Walls” to the numerous loopholes McCoy jumps thru to find a way to nail the fertility doctor to the not uncommon downbeat ending, it’s one of the best of the series

Time constraints keep me from taking up new tv shows, although unlike many here I don't have any apathy towards new tv; on the contrary, there is tons of new stuff I'd love to dig into. I'm hoping to catch up on the new OA season when it drops, along with the new Game of Thrones. I watched the new True Detective season (sans the last two episodes), and recently started watching the unusual and inventive Legion, tho' I haven't had time to push through the second half of the second season yet. I'll doubtless watch Stranger Things season three, as I enjoyed the second season more than most here, even with its problems. Late last year I finally watched both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul in a big marathon, so I guess I'll be keeping up with the latter's new seasons. I usually watch It's Always Sunny..., but didn't watch the most recent season for a bunch of reason (not least losing my favourite character). I suppose I'll get around to it eventually.

So I guess I keep up with a handful of stuff, or at least try to. I can really only binge shows (if not held to a clockwork release schedule). If I draw them out, or interrupt them, there's a big chance I won't go back. This is currently the case with True Detective and Legion. I plan to get back to them, but who knows with me.

My issue with TV is the inevitable time commitment. I don't know how much of a concern that is for others but the task seems daunting at times and well, I just don't have as much time as I used to. The only thing I've watched entirely this year so far is the new season of True Detective (Which I liked a lot, despite some caveats.) and Sharp Objects (Which is mostly good, despite one major issue I had with it.)

I've been rewatching Homicide recently which is yet another reminder of TV as good as it gets. Agree with many here in regards to padding in many/most current shows (if it's 10 episodes it almost inevitably could be eight or even six; if it's six it could be four, etc.). I find this to be a pernicious problem for even the best shows (the one recent exception I can think of that had zero discernible padding and an ultra tight narrative is Hardy's Taboo).

For me, time commitment is also a factor, but in the complete opposite sense. That is, at the moment it’s harder for me to commit to more than an hour at a stretch, so it makes more sense to watch something that has multiple natural “pause points” vs. stopping something halfway through and returning (which would bug the hell out of me).

I got into Rick & Morty about a year ago, but otherwise don’t watch much in the way of TV these days – just old episodes of Peep Show on YouTube, mostly. I was a devotee of Girls, but it finally lost me early on in season 5 and I never went back.

The Prisoner is probably still my favourite show ever.

I find the sheer amount of available, quality TV these days to be overwhelming. There is so much that I've made a mental note to watch but I just can't find the time commitment. There are shows I've started watching (Maniac, The Knick) that I've been enjoying but have just fallen away from mid season for whatever reason and have struggled to get back into. As another poster hinted at, if I stop watching for a week or so, that break inevitably turns into months. I find it much easier to follow a show when it's presented in a weekly format rather than dumped all in one go on Netflix. I'll PVR it and either watch it a few days later or be reminded of it sitting there when the next episode comes along.

As for shows I've given up on completely... House of Cards and Orange is the New Black are the big two, with the prospect of a third season of Stranger Things not holding much interest for me.

The time commitment issue is a challenge, and sometimes it gives me more incentive to watch a show if I know its a manageable length, which is part of why I recently watched the (excellent) Russian Doll--a series of 8 25 minute episodes is very convenient to view.

I'll join in the praise of IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA, despite a certain decline in hilarity during the last couple seasons. I'll be one of the bazillions following the last season of GAME OF THRONES, too.

I'm most completely enthusiastic about the sublime majesty of BETTER CALL SAUL, though. The prequel to BREAKING BAD, showing the origin of that show's Saul Goodman, first known as Jimmy McGill, who has to negotiate what's right and what's wrong and why he so often seems to need to do wrong to do right. Impeccable performances across the board, there's just no TV or movie or general entertainment item I look forward to more these days.

I only have three must-watch shows at this point: Search Party; High Maintenance; and Documentary Now! That they're all half-hour series helps a lot. It's pretty rare that I watch any full-hour dramas anymore (although the OA is still keeping me interested).