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Post by L. T. Dangerous on Nov 26, 2010 11:18:57 GMT
Series 9 deserved to suck, they'd been saying 7 would be the last one then dragged it out for another two tawdry years past the expiration date. Changing the formula was a completely ridiculous idea and more than likely tuned a lot of their audience out (I know I can't be the only one). I know Bill Lawrence was keen to keep Scrubs going in the name of keeping his friends employed during a recession but if that was seriously his impetus behind keeping it going for two years after half the main cast had stopped enjoying it then he should have ensured the show was actually, you know, good, because otherwise- irony of ironies- he's taking up air time that could have been given to someone else and kept their team in a job during a recession.
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Spudiator
Artist Hume
High Priest of the Religion of Football
STC-O's resident footy obsessive
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Post by Spudiator on Nov 26, 2010 12:36:55 GMT
Series 9 deserved to suck, they'd been saying 7 would be the last one then dragged it out for another two tawdry years past the expiration date. That's the saddest thing about it, even though series 8 was undoubtedly a great drop in quality from previous, the series finale was the perfect way to conclude the show as a whole. Everything was wrapped up nicely and it was a fitting end. That should've been the last we saw of J.D. on the show, that way we could all assume that his final "happily ever after" fantasy would come true. Now that I think about it, bringing J.D. back didn't even make sense, given that the reason he was leaving Sacred Heart in the first place was so he could be closer to his son.
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Post by Alex on Nov 26, 2010 16:09:29 GMT
Series 7 only wasn't the conclusion because of the writer's strike. That's hardly something that can be pinned on those behind Scrubs. Series 8 was a bit weaker, but it was good that they put the work in for a conclusion in the end - even if it was about half a series longer than they'd planned.
Series 9 just has no excuse. It just simply shouldn't exist.
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Post by Arch_one_zero_one on Nov 26, 2010 16:17:53 GMT
Series 9 is the one that's just started on E4, correct? If so, then yeah, I completely agree. It's horrible.
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Post by Sam on Nov 26, 2010 18:41:07 GMT
I thought season 8 was quite a strong effort.
Season 9 wasn't great but I found it enjoyable.
But then, I'm a big fan of Scrubs.
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Spudiator
Artist Hume
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STC-O's resident footy obsessive
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Post by Spudiator on Nov 27, 2010 8:44:37 GMT
6. Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps (2001-2009) Two Pints always had a bit of a Marmite factor about it. Personally I loved it in the early 2 or 3 series, the cast seemed to have a genuine chemistry about them and the humour level appealed to me. I’ve always believed the show had run its course even before Ralf Little quit, but once he had done that should’ve been that without any hesitation. From about series 4 onwards the plots were looking increasingly desperate and far-fetched, but even with that in mind, they could’ve finished it off with the end of series 6 (which itself ended with a bizarre, non-canon episode where the cast broke into the now-shut down pub and, one-by-one, get killed in horror spoof-esque fashion) and the issue of Ralf Little leaving would never have had to be addressed but, as is so often the case, sitcom writers never know when to stop trying to flog a dead horse, and they insisted on carrying on without Little, who was arguably the star of the show up to that point, and from thereon it became virtually unwatchable.
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Spudiator
Artist Hume
High Priest of the Religion of Football
STC-O's resident footy obsessive
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Post by Spudiator on Nov 29, 2010 7:51:45 GMT
5. Friends (1994-2004) My feelings on Friends have been made many times before, but just to reiterate: the first series was decent (first series' are rarely much better than decent as shows establish themselves and find their feet), the second and third series were excellent, the fourth and (in parts) fifth series were pretty good with occasional spells of mediocrity. Series 6 was getting desperate though and from there it was only ever going to get worse. For me, series 7 (building up to Monica and Chandler’s wedding) was the lowest point, with episode plots getting increasingly tedious and trivial, and barely ever any episodes that had anything in the way of character development or growth. In fairness, Friends did manage to pick up a little after series 9, and more so in series 10, though series 10 itself has one of the worst episodes ever written (The One Where Joey Speaks French). Where I think Friends really went wrong in the later series’ was trying to shoehorn all the major characters into every episode to keep equal billing at all times, even where it frequently meant involving them in trivial, throwaway plots that were better forgotten. A good example of this is The One With Chandler’s Dad. Monica and Chandler were the main focus of the episode with their efforts to invite Chandler’s dad to the wedding, but the rest of the cast were shoehorned in with such pathetic filler storylines (Rachel and Ross going for a drive in Monica’s Porsche, and Joey and Phoebe playing around with the idea of blokes wearing women’s underwear), and so often throughout the run this was the case, even in a lot of the better episodes. The whole show went way beyond plausibility after Ross said Rachel’s name while marrying Emily, that was the show's "jump the shark" moment for me.
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Post by Robert Frazer on Nov 29, 2010 19:32:40 GMT
Truth be told, I watched Friends for the theme tune more than anything else. So no-one tol'ja life was, go-nah be this way... DAH-DAH-DAH-DAH! I also remember a fun youth evening I had at church where during one activity we watched an episode and discussed its implications.
I never really followed Friends, but if I was channel-surfing and came across it I'd invariably settle on it. It was always a reliably inoffensive good-natured cushion.
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Spudiator
Artist Hume
High Priest of the Religion of Football
STC-O's resident footy obsessive
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Post by Spudiator on Nov 30, 2010 8:33:51 GMT
4. Red Dwarf (1988-2009) This one will probably divide opinion, because there are those that still love Red Dwarf even as far as series 8, there are some that will say it was on a downward spiral right from series 3, and some who just never rated it in the first place. I personally think it peaked at the end of series 6, even though the way they ended the series almost demanded that a seventh series had to follow. From this point, 2 major mistakes were made as far as I’m concerned, firstly waiting 3 years after series 6 before continuing the story (though this was entirely circumstantial and pretty much unavoidable, sadly), secondly hiring Chloe Annett to play Kochanski (the lack of a Scottish accent was an oversight on its own), who shared none of the personality traits of Clare Grogan (though the way Kochanski was written for series 7 didn’t help). Series 8 was perhaps more of a back-to-origin in terms of the feel and humour, albeit written at a different pace. The real televisual crime came in the 2009 special though, which was a great big kick in the teeth to every Dwarf fan who watched it with high expectation. Everything about the episode was just awful, and to even associate it as part of the Red Dwarf franchise cheapens the entire run of the show.
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Post by madhair60 on Nov 30, 2010 10:45:29 GMT
Was alright. For one series.
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Post by Beeth on Nov 30, 2010 10:48:40 GMT
Which series?
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Post by madhair60 on Nov 30, 2010 11:09:35 GMT
One.
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Post by Beeth on Nov 30, 2010 11:33:27 GMT
In terms of comedy, series 1 was the best of the bunch, if only for concentrating more on the character's tales which did prove genuinely funny. It more or less got overtaken by the sci-fi aspect o things after that. Personally I enjoyed the first three series, then four and five not so much (save for the "learning to lie" scene at the beginning of the first series 4 episode). Six was alright in places, seven was a bit of a flop.
Eight would have and could have been better, really. They tried to return to the style of comedy from series one, ended up making a weird mix of that and the rest of the series. It also more or less made clear why Holly was dropped originally; they were struggling to write much more for the character, and it shows glaringly here. Appearances are sporadic, and jokes, despite the big set-up, fall miserably flat.
I enjoyed Back To Earth admittedly, in it's own way. As well as loose ends left from series 8, however, they opened up a whole heap more and never bothered to address them. I don't mind some loose ends being left unanswered, but this was just bordering on ridiculous. Also, didn't feel right at all without the audience laughter, in spite of the general dislike for laugh tracks.
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Post by Baron Canier on Nov 30, 2010 12:12:29 GMT
Series 6 would've been an ideal place to stop.
The third, fourth and fifth series could probably be cut apart and merged together into a better, single series.
Back to Earth was meh.
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Post by madhair60 on Nov 30, 2010 13:21:57 GMT
Red Dwarf series 1 was sporadically amusing. No other series were worth watching. Come to think of it, series 1 wasn't really worth the while either. There's one excellent, memorable Kryten joke in eight years of TV.
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Post by Baron Canier on Nov 30, 2010 15:22:41 GMT
I generally think Series 6 is a good-quality season overall, with the exceptions of Legion (excuse for elaborate prop-based gags, mostly) and Emohawk (a shameless rehash of several old ideas).
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Post by Alex on Nov 30, 2010 16:00:36 GMT
I like almost all of Red Dwarf. The Dave special is a bit rubbish, but it has its moments, at least. I think the problem some people have with it is that they changed the show so much season to season. Personally, I found it quite appealing to see the range of stories made through these changes.
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Spudiator
Artist Hume
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STC-O's resident footy obsessive
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Post by Spudiator on Nov 30, 2010 16:25:19 GMT
I don't think it's a coincidence that the writing quality dropped considerably after series 6, given that's when Rob Grant left the team. Doug Naylor's work evidently didn't work as well as combined with Grant's. Kochanski's presence gave the show a different dynamic for series 7, but she was so poorly written it just didn't work all that well. Likewise with series 8, again it was a widely different dynamic having resurrected the crew and imprisoned the core characters in the brig, but again the writing just wasn't as strong as previous series'. As far as Back To Earth (the Dave special) goes, I wish so much I could pretend I never saw it, repress it from my memory altogether, because it was so unbelievably awful I actually felt like my brain was being raped for even acknowledging its existence!
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Post by Baron Canier on Nov 30, 2010 17:07:58 GMT
because it was so unbelievably awful I actually felt like my brain was being raped for even acknowledging its existence! Bit far. It just wasn't very good, is all.
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Pitt
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Post by Pitt on Nov 30, 2010 17:27:53 GMT
If I recall correctly, Grant was responsible for most of the comedy while Naylor handled a lot of the science fiction elements. Might be the other way around, though.
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Post by Robert Frazer on Nov 30, 2010 22:50:05 GMT
I honestly can't see why people are so down on the last two seasons - that had some of the best content of the entire run, bringing the laughs while also introducing a number of introspective and reflective moments to make the experience more lasting as well. "Duct Soup" - particularly the extended version on the DVD - is probably my single favourite episode of them all. "Back To Earth" is a good show, but it was always doomed by a decade of mounting expectations - the cast could have jumped out of the television and given you a foot-rub while hand-feeding you peeled grapes and people would still have been dissatisfied.
Altogether, they're really underappreciated and have been given unfairly short shrift.
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Post by madhair60 on Nov 30, 2010 23:19:29 GMT
People are down on them because like the preceding five seasons they're unfunny, laboured, boring garbage, except through a lens of "we have an American audience now, better broaden our humour". Hence, we have jokes about erections. And a CGI dinosaur.
Any suggestion that Back to Earth was even acceptable is laughable.
I... dislike Red Dwarf. Feel free to ignore this.
(Oh, and in case anyone asks why, if I hate Red Dwarf so much, I seem to know a lot about it - as a child I thought it was great. Ha ha, he said "fish". Ha ha, the alien's in his boxers. Ha ha, he said "period". Ha ha, they're debating which cartoon character they'd rather [censored]. Actually, the latter bleeds into my life fairly often. Red Dwarf's still mince though.)
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Spudiator
Artist Hume
High Priest of the Religion of Football
STC-O's resident footy obsessive
Posts: 2,815
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Post by Spudiator on Dec 1, 2010 8:28:09 GMT
3. South Park (1997-?) South Park was at its best when it was puerile, toilet humour taking amusement in the naivety of children and their view on a corrupted world around them. For me, it all started going downhill when the writers started trying to get a bit too smart-arsed and over elaborate with the plots. Even in series 10, which for me was the beginning of the downfall, it still had its funny episodes, such as ManBearPig, but for me the plots seemed to be trying to be too clever and over elaborate as well as becoming increasingly improbable, and losing track of what made the show work so well in the first place.
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Post by Arch_one_zero_one on Dec 1, 2010 12:01:23 GMT
I hated the first season of South Park, purely because of the puerile, toilet humour, but I enjoyed it a lot more when it became satirical, which kind of started around mid-way in S2. I'd only really say that the latest season has been 'poor', S12 and S13 were quite patchy in places, but the good overshadowed the bad.
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Post by madhair60 on Dec 1, 2010 14:13:04 GMT
South Park is the worst show on television now. It's poison.
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