If you could have one TV show back...

[number51]

Breaking Bad

WW is dead, Jessie is gone, Saul is managing a Cinnabon in Omaha, so no.

The good news is we have BCS, I know this is sacrilege, but sometimes I like it better than BB. The scenes I enjoy the most are with Chuck McGill played by Michael McKean. Last seasons courtroom scenes with Chuck were the best TV of the year.

Spoiler

Chuck may be dead going into next season, I'm hoping he survives. Not because he is such a great guy, but because he is the perfect foil to Jimmy.

 

[number51]

Is Mad TV still around?

Can someone please get this fucking idiot internet access?

 

[Tater]

Wished for 24 they reboot it and it stunk without jack Bauer

The a team would be cool if any of the originals were alive. Idk if it would be the same with new people

Same with married with children everyone is too old to bring it back and won’t be right with other people

If tony saprano didn’t die I would pick sapranos

So maybe I guess entourage would still be entertaining. Californication might still work also

I thought of Married with Children too. Maybe Al and Peg could be Grandparents and the show could focus on Bud and/or Kelly's kids and dysfunctional families.

 

[Icculus]

I miss In Living Colour and Def Comedy Jam

 

[Warden of the Northeast]

Can someone please get this fucking idiot internet access?

That's not very nice.

 

[Hawkeye OG]

When are they going to put Better Call Saul season 3 on Netflix? FFS

 

[Ares]

Dead Like Me (F.U. Showtime)
Jericho
Warehouse 13
Eureka
Alphas (F.U. 3x SyFy Channel)

Jericho and Warehouse 13 both died those weird show deaths where they were to be cancelled, but then the network allowed 1 more short season to "finish it".

I am not a fan of that tactic.... either renew the show for another actual season or leave it cancelled.

I also loved Eureka.... the ending felt forced... like most Syfy show endings.

 

[Dr. Manhattan]

King of the Hill.

I know Brittany Murphy died, but honestly Luann was probably my least favorite character.

 

[remydat]

I thought the writing/story of Dark Matter was going a bit off the rails, but I didn't have the feeling it would be cancelled.

Idk why I went and checked the wiki but i saw it was cancelled....

I think Dark Matter had a great concept, but they blew thru the concept capital so fucking fast.

They figured out who they were way too fast.... One died for no apparent reason.... Four turned back to a psycho way too fast/easy.

It felt like they rushed 4-6 seasons worth of main character progress into like 2 seasons.

I kinda feel like Killjoys has done similar.... you have this interesting concept/formula for both shows and they immediately try to get away from it.

Dark Matter... these 6 characters who don't know who they are and go on a variety of missions and find out little by little who/what they are. But within season 1 they were already figuring things out and sprinting thru overarching plot.

Killjoys.... space bounty hunters going on a variety of warrant missions.... within 2 seasons that whole concept has been burned in the name of a bigger overarching plot they are sprinting thru.

I feel many shows with solid foundations are ruined by ridiculous pacing.

I agree the writing at the end wasn't the strongest but I disagree regarding them finding out too fast. Given the tech involved, I think stringing these out for too long would start to not make much sense in a world with it is easy to get a lot of information on people.

Also, only Ryo really went back to his old self because he got his memories back but fundamentally Ryo was never really merely a psycho. Of the flashbacks we see, he seemed to be the one with the most humanity particularly regarding his relationship with 5. He was just pushed to ruthlessness by the circumstances of his exile and his desire to get back what he had lost. I found him to be the most interesting character on the show. But to each his own I suppose.

Never got into Killjoys so I can't comment.

 

[LordKOTL]

I miss In Living Colour and Def Comedy Jam

Unfortunately, much like Blazing Saddles, no thanks to the PC Left and the Religious Right there's little chance you can get away with that kind of humor anymore. "Men On..." and "Vera DeMilo" would probably be gone, and possibly also "Anton Jackson"

 

[Axl Rose]

King of the Hill.

I know Brittany Murphy died, but honestly Luann was probably my least favorite character.

Boomhauer is a good choice for the favorite character thread.

 

[Ares]

I agree the writing at the end wasn't the strongest but I disagree regarding them finding out too fast. Given the tech involved, I think stringing these out for too long would start to not make much sense in a world with it is easy to get a lot of information on people.

Also, only Ryo really went back to his old self because he got his memories back but fundamentally Ryo was never really merely a psycho. Of the flashbacks we see, he seemed to be the one with the most humanity particularly regarding his relationship with 5. He was just pushed to ruthlessness by the circumstances of his exile and his desire to get back what he had lost. I found him to be the most interesting character on the show. But to each his own I suppose.

Never got into Killjoys so I can't comment.

I have been seeing a pattern in TV shows that has gotten worse and worse the last 10-15 years.

It goes:

1. Start with an interesting premise
2. Draw in viewers
3. Be surprised people like your show so much
4. Panic because now you need to write more seasons and you only have a vague notion of what happens next.
5. Abandon any pacing in your storytelling and start shoveling juicy plot into the viewer's mouth
6. Run out of runway and get cancelled.

But this is a natural response to network impatience where it goes:

1. Start with an interesting premise
2. Have a long term plan for overall narrative and character development
3. Begin telling the story at a pace that unravels the main story slowly
4. Get cancelled because most viewers have ADHD and already changed the channel.

 

[remydat]

Well I think it is hard to keep certain premises going for multiple seasons. At some point there has to be a payoff. I think the issue to your point is what do you have planned after that initial payoff happens.

It is almost like you need to have 2 or more shows within a show. X-files did this well for a few seasons where it was pretty much 2 shows. A show about an overarching government conspiracy and a monster of the week type show.

I was fine with the crew finding out about their pasts towards the end of season 1. What I thought was missing is the fact that the elements of their past that they encountered after season 1 were not done as well. They fell into some standard sci fi tropes and didn't really put their unique spin on it. I also think where they lost it a bit was trying to make everyone sympathetic. They start out with the premise that this crew are the most wanted and most feared crew in the galaxy due to some very dastardly things but then they basically give everyone a tragic backstory. Ryo's makes sense as we knew that from early on. 6 makes sense as well.

However, I thought Boone and Portia worked better as genuinely bad guys prior to losing their memories. Particularly when you have alternate reality versions of them that kept their memories and are still huge dicks. I don't think there was any need to give both of them love interests that humanized them as you then lost the element of their memories being wiped and their experiences afterwards being the impetus for change.

 

[Ares]

Well I think it is hard to keep certain premises going for multiple seasons. At some point there has to be a payoff. I think the issue to your point is what do you have planned after that initial payoff happens.

It is almost like you need to have 2 or more shows within a show. X-files did this well for a few seasons where it was pretty much 2 shows. A show about an overarching government conspiracy and a monster of the week type show.

I was fine with the crew finding out about their pasts towards the end of season 1. What I thought was missing is the fact that the elements of their past that they encountered after season 1 were not done as well. They fell into some standard sci fi tropes and didn't really put their unique spin on it. I also think where they lost it a bit was trying to make everyone sympathetic. They start out with the premise that this crew are the most wanted and most feared crew in the galaxy due to some very dastardly things but then they basically give everyone a tragic backstory. Ryo's makes sense as we knew that from early on. 6 makes sense as well.

However, I thought Boone and Portia worked better as genuinely bad guys prior to losing their memories. Particularly when you have alternate reality versions of them that kept their memories and are still huge dicks. I don't think there was any need to give both of them love interests that humanized them as you then lost the element of their memories being wiped and their experiences afterwards being the impetus for change.

Yeah I thought they wrote themselves into a corner to some degree.

Most feared ruthless crew.... but they are tragic hero/anti-heroes?

They also seemed to decide the whole story behind One wasn't worth pursuing.... which to me was odd.... start a show with 6 main characters and one of them you just decide to kill off and ask us to forget about him. The reaction from the other characters was "Omg they killed One, aight who's up for Thai food?"

 

[CODE_BLUE56]

Boomhauer is a good choice for the favorite character thread.

Yea man gottaagreewiththatcharacterchoice man boysrealchillbutgotdangfunny man realcharacter man

 

[nc0gnet0]

Loved both those shows but not sure I would reboot. Mainly because I think there is already a lot of good Sci-Fi out there with (Dark Matter, Expanse, and Star Trek Discovery). As for Alphas, Superhero TV shows and movies abound so that is pretty well covered as well. The Gifted and Legion are probably my 2 favorites when it comes to government conspiracy type shows dealing with people with superpowers. My top 3 are

1. Profit due to it being well ahead of its time. It centered on an exec at a multinational conglomerate and all the shit you think about when you think of corporate greed, US financial crisis, etc. were epitomized in the lead character. Unfortunately Americans at the time couldn't wrap their head around watching a show with a lead that was not heroic in the least so it got canceled after 3 episodes.

2. Twin Peaks - Weird as **** and really still nothing that captures Lynch in all his insanity.

3. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - I liked this better than all the movies.

Loved Dark Matter, hated that it got canceled. I like the gifted as well.

 

[nc0gnet0]

I thought the writing/story of Dark Matter was going a bit off the rails, but I didn't have the feeling it would be cancelled.

Idk why I went and checked the wiki but i saw it was cancelled....

I think Dark Matter had a great concept, but they blew thru the concept capital so fucking fast.

They figured out who they were way too fast.... One died for no apparent reason.... Four turned back to a psycho way too fast/easy.

It felt like they rushed 4-6 seasons worth of main character progress into like 2 seasons.

I kinda feel like Killjoys has done similar.... you have this interesting concept/formula for both shows and they immediately try to get away from it.

Dark Matter... these 6 characters who don't know who they are and go on a variety of missions and find out little by little who/what they are. But within season 1 they were already figuring things out and sprinting thru overarching plot.

Killjoys.... space bounty hunters going on a variety of warrant missions.... within 2 seasons that whole concept has been burned in the name of a bigger overarching plot they are sprinting thru.

I feel many shows with solid foundations are ruined by ridiculous pacing.

Dark Matter went off the rails when it slid into that parallel universe crap, I hated having clones of the main cast. Still liked the show though.

 

[nc0gnet0]

At the risk of getting laughed off the board............

Babylon 5

 

[Ares]

Dark Matter went off the rails when it slid into that parallel universe crap, I hated having clones of the main cast. Still liked the show though.

I feel like they were grasping for a concept to have evil versions of the characters to reconcile them being reputed ruthless bad guys.

IMO they should have just wrote it where the Raza crew is known to be badass but not ruthless villains... then they could have written their backstory much as they did without feeling the need to try to justify their reputation.

 

[remydat]

Or they could have just stuck with the fact they were ruthless villains who changed because their memories were wiped and they had to start over. That was the more interesting story. How we are the sum total of our memories and experiences as evidenced by these ruthless villains learning to work together because they had to and in doing so becoming better versions of themselves.

There was so much story potential of these guys meeting people from their past who had every reason to hate them or want them dead but then having to cope with the fact that these people were no longer the villains they remembered. Instead every encounter with their past seemed to soften the characters and reveal some tragedy that made the whole idea they were ruthless villains seem unwarranted. Mainly because they kept running into people worse than themselves.

If they had gone that route then when they introduced the parallel versions of themselves you would accept how evil those alt characters appeared because you would have stories supporting all the bad things they did. Instead there is a disconnect because you are suppose to believe these alt versions are evil but those alt versions largely still have the same tragic backstory where they are generally victims of more evil people or the evil system. The writers betrayed their own narrative.