Most overrated TV shows all-time?

[ijustposthere]

You don't even enjoy the humor? The pilot is one of the best written pieces of tv i've ever seen

No, I definitely do, not to mention the irony of a mob boss spilling his guts to a therapist while ordering hits on rats. I like the show in general, but going in I was just expecting more I guess. By the time I got HBO, the show was done and I forgot all about it until I saw it on demand a couple weeks ago. It just never grabbed my attention and compelled me to watch each episode.

 

[KittiesKorner]

I think there's something to be said for zeitgeist but I also didn't get into it until a few years after it debuted... all I know is I fucking loved it. I rewatch the whole series once every couple years

 

[KittiesKorner]

Also horrifically overrated:

The American versions of--

The Office
Shameless (this one gets a lot of critical acclaim and I can't believe it)

Just pure shit, and that's not out of any Anglophilia. They're just fucktarded

 

[Shawon0Meter]

I always catch heat in real life when I say this so I'm sure I'll get it here too but i've never liked....

Spoiler

South Park

 

[botfly10]

Currently watching The Sopranos for the first time. I'm about to finish season 5 and I honestly can't see what all the fuss was about. It's just a soap opera with mobsters. I don't hate the show, but it isn't getting me invested to the point where I care what happens to whom. Outside of a few episodes that were really good, it seems like an average tv show IMO. What shows that are/were highly rated by critics and audience do you guys think are overrated?

Have to remember the context of when it came out. Sopranos basically gave birth to TV that is not a sitcom. You know how every cable channel now has shows with actual season long plot arcs and character development? Sopranos and Sex in the City basically made that happen. Those shows changed TV and made things like Mad Men and Breaking Bad palatable to network execs.

 

[botfly10]

Dexter

dude, dexter season 4 to the end are shit. Was pretty good before that.

 

[botfly10]

Gotta cast a vote for the Big Bang Theory- hell- any comedy on CBS that has endured more than a few seasons (Two and a Half Men, How I met Your Mother, etc.) Can't stand staged sitcoms with the laugh track and the 'hilarious' misunderstandings.

Agree. Started streaming big bang theory and its just another bullshit formula sitcom playing on stereotypes.

 

[botfly10]

To each their own but Sopranos fundamentally changed television for a reason. The show was tremendously influential to the modern television drama. The argument could be made that no show ever had more layers to it.

For me the most overrated shows are The Wire and The Walking Dead. Not saying I dislike either just don't understand all the praise.

**** you with the wire. My fav show of all time.

But damn, agree about walking dead. Acting in that show is such a joke, dont get how people can sit through the thing.

 

[KittiesKorner]

Have to remember the context of when it came out. Sopranos basically gave birth to TV that is not a sitcom. You know how every cable channel now has shows with actual season long plot arcs and character development? Sopranos and Sex in the City basically made that happen. Those shows changed TV and made things like Mad Men and Breaking Bad palatable to network execs.

Well, to be fair, 'people' say Oz kicked it off before Sopranos and sure as shit Sex and the City. Also, 'people' say David Milch kicked if off with his work on Hill Street Blues. David Benioff of GoT says he learned all he knew about TV writing from Hill Street Blues. A lot of other showrunners cite it in their canon. I was too young for it.

 

[botfly10]

I feel like people stopped liking Dexter because he stopped killing as much. That was how the show was meant to be, showing the evolution of a psychopath that wasn't supposed to be anything more than a monster.

no. People stop liking it because the story got so implausible that it was ridiculous. And they betrayed Dexter's character. Had him doing stupid shit all through season 5 and 6.

 

[botfly10]

re: the wire being overrated, go shit in your hat.

re: the sopranos, it's kind of funny you're using the shows it made possible as the barometers by which to measure its quality.

Every serial TV show is a soap opera at base.

This exactly. Maybe you don't like sopranos, but it made all the shows you are judging it against possible.

 

[botfly10]

I never stopped liking it, I just didn't like it as much. After the way it built up and then ended through season 4, they just could never really top that writing and development.

What happened is that the narrative arc needed to end somehow. The story/development had come to its natural conclusion, but instead of writing a great ending, they milked it for 3 more seasons and would up with shit.

Its like if they had tried to add 3 more seasons before breaking bad ended. No way it could have been good. The narrative arc was at its end. Too much crazy shit happening.

 

[botfly10]

The wire is the most honest, accurate cultural portrait of a city in our generation.

 

[BestBearsFan]

Fargo is by far the best thing on TV right now. Most over rated was Desperate Housewives. HATED that show.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

 

[botfly10]

Also horrifically overrated:

The American versions of--

The Office
Shameless (this one gets a lot of critical acclaim and I can't believe it)

Just pure shit, and that's not out of any Anglophilia. They're just fucktarded

I got seriously attached to the characters in the office. I thought the show had a lot of heart.

 

[botfly10]

Well, to be fair, 'people' say Oz kicked it off before Sopranos and sure as shit Sex and the City. Also, 'people' say David Milch kicked if off with his work on Hill Street Blues. David Benioff of GoT says he learned all he knew about TV writing from Hill Street Blues. A lot of other showrunners cite it in their canon. I was too young for it.

I had hill street blues in my head when I wrote that, lol.

But theres a big gap there. And Sopranos and Sex and the City are the ones that made the big money. But even then, HBO had to do a bunch more series' before cable got on board finally. You can probably throw 24 in there as finally tipping the scales for execs dragging their ass and content that tells an actual story.

 

[Unannounced Fart]

Have to remember the context of when it came out. Sopranos basically gave birth to TV that is not a sitcom. You know how every cable channel now has shows with actual season long plot arcs and character development? Sopranos and Sex in the City basically made that happen. Those shows changed TV and made things like Mad Men and Breaking Bad palatable to network execs.

Exactly. It was sitcom heaven on TV before the Sopranos came out. I think the Sopranos gave the TV execs balls to put dramas on the air again.

 

[KittiesKorner]

I had hill street blues in my head when I wrote that, lol.

But theres a big gap there. And Sopranos and Sex and the City are the ones that made the big money. But even then, HBO had to do a bunch more series' before cable got on board finally. You can probably throw 24 in there as finally tipping the scales for execs dragging their ass and content that tells an actual story.

Sopranos blew the doors off with ratings and set things in motion. But Milch has hung around. See Deadwood, John from Cincinatti (WTF???), and Luck.

Also, I'm not a big Gary Shandling fan, but chroniclers of the Golden Age of TV we're living through give credit to the Larry Sanders Show and lots of other forays into original programming HBO was farting around with before it struck gold. And you really have to give them credit for that no matter if you hate pay channels. I GOT (no pun intended) HBO because of the Sopranos.

Their pedigree is to this day hard to argue with:

Their early comedy shit
Larry Sanders
Oz
Sopranos
Sex and the City
Six Feet Under
Rome
Deadwood
Carnivale
Life and Times of Tim (where you at Lance)
True Blood
Big Love
Game of Thrones
Enlightened (underrated, I'm told)
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Their later comedy shit (Ricky Gervais stuff, Life's Too Short)
True Detective (starring Alexandra Daddario nude)
Veep (I love Armando Iannucci but Veep is kind of dumb to me)
Silicon Valley


I'm sure I'm leaving a lot out, but they still set the bar

 

[ijustposthere]

This exactly. Maybe you don't like sopranos, but it made all the shows you are judging it against possible.

I never said I don't like it, I just said that for the supposed greatest show ever, it's feels like it's lacking something.

 

[ijustposthere]

I got seriously attached to the characters in the office. I thought the show had a lot of heart.

I found it very boring personally.