frelling_tralk | Television Meme

May 2020

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01. Earliest show you remember getting into.

Fandom-wise it was Buffy, that's when I first discovered message boards and was blown away at how many people you could connect with to talk about the characters. That was around the time of early season 5

02. First anime watched.

I've never been into anime

03. A show you've been meaning to finish.

The Good Wife! I do really love that show and should have binge-watched it already, but I seem to take long breaks in between catching up with each season,then I start on the next season and wonder why it took me so long to get around to it. I've just started on season 5 and it's been really awesome so far

Oh and I watched season 1 of How I Met Your Mother a while ago and it seemed like a fun show, I'd like to catch up with the rest of that at some point

04. 2 shows you abandoned.

The Flash. I really wanted to like the show because it had a lot of fun twists and plots, but I found after a while that I was only watching it casually and I just wasn't emotionally engaging with the characters, so I ended up dropping it around the midway point of the first season.

Gotham I dropped even sooner, I was really excited for the premise of that show, but I guess that I'd been hoping for more dark and gritty and it wasn't what I'd been hoping for. It seemed really campy, so I dropped it three episodes in. That was a shame because the pre-publicity had made it sound like a show that was really appealing to me

05. A series you're currently watching.

Currently Hannibal, Pretty Little Liars, The Vampire Diaries, From Dusk Till Dawn, Daredevil, Wentworth, and Doctor Who are all my favs. I'm looking forward to the return of The X Files as well in January, and I watch The Big Bang Theory casually. I'm also enjoying iZombie for the characters and it being a fun show, although I'm not super invested with it so far, and then there's Community which I probably won't bother if there is another season tbh. I'm starting to lose interest with season 6 and all of the changes, it isn't the same for me without the original study group and their bond.

I don't seem to watch as many current shows as my flist does, I guess that I tend to spend my tv time more on binge-watching past favourite shows, or on checking out older shows for the first time, which is probably not so great for keeping up with current discussion when half of the shows that are popular on my flist I'm not watching. Or idk, maybe my judgement is skewed and that really is a lot of tv lol, I just don't seem to have several new episodes of shows to watch every night of the week the way that a lot of people on my flist do? Hannibal, Daredevil, From Dusk Till Dawn, Wentworth, and Doctor Who are all shortened seasons as well, so it's really only TVD, PLL, and TBBT that I watch year-round

06. A show you're sad is over.

I guess Buffy, Breaking Bad, Nikita, Veronica Mars, Gilmore Girls, and Farscape would be the shows that I miss the most

07. Favorite series finale.

This might sound silly, but I thought that Dawson's Creek had a near-perfect finale. For a show about growing up, I thought that it was a great choice to flash-forward to their future and the lives they were all living, before they all reconnect one more time. That one was chockfull of nostalgic touches for me

08. A series finale you would change.

Not so much a series finale, as a complete last season that I would change lol with Gossip Girl. I could have really enjoyed the revelation of Dan being GG if they had set-up it up from the beginning, but it didn't track in such obvious ways that it just made the whole show come off even more ridiculous to not even keep the in-show logic consistent. I also wasn't a fan of Derena ending up together, of Chair in general, or of the 20 second cameo's (and that's being generous) for long-standing characters like Jenny and Vanessa

09. Worst TV program you've ever seen.

I don't know how to answer that question really. There's been shows that haven't been for me, but I can't think of one that I've just been "this is the worst" about that has really stuck in my mind. I guess that I only tend to check out the shows that come highly recommended, or that I have an interest in in the first place, it's not like I'm just browsing and coming across awful shows

10. A show that shouldn't have been cancelled.

Dollhouse deserved more time IMO, it would have been nice if season 2 could have had a full season. You can tell that they were really pushed for time with certain story arcs, like Echo developing self-awareness, or Alpha reforming and working with them. In ratings terms I can't object to FOX cancelling it, but in terms of wasted story potential, it would have been nice to have a few more seasons of that show

Also I'm going to say Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, even though quite honestly I never got super into that show (I should probably give it another rewatch sometime as I did like it), but the finale felt like a really crappy place to end it when they obviously had a lot of future plans for that show. Ditto that for Angel, neither of those cancellations quite hit me emotionally if I'm honest, but it's always a bummer for the creators to have to end it on a cliffhanger and not complete their vision

11. A show that needs to end

I guess Supernatural if I had to pick one? It has been an awfully long time, and it's the first time that I've actually more or less stopped watching a show that I was once really into. I kept falling further and further behind, then I tried to catch up again with season 10, then I started falling behind again once DemonDean was no more. It just feels like they keep hitting the same beats over and over again

12. Favorite cartoon.

I watched cartoons when I was pretty small, the only ones I can really remember are My Little Pony, SuperTed, Raggydolls, and The Care Bears, I guess they must have been my favourites? Idk lol, I was always more into the live action shows, even when I was younger.

13. Favorite reboot.

Nikita! That was a show where I was already a huge fan of the original because I loved the characters and the concept, but then the reboot really impressed me by weaving together such a great plot and great characters, and with so many cool twists and turns.

14. A TV adaptation you'd like to see

Erm I have no idea

15. Saddest TV moment.

I mean I don't know if I can immediately pick out saddest EVER moments for me, but for some reason finales are standing out a lot in my mind right now? I cried like a baby at the end of Breaking Bad when "Baby Blue" started playing as Walt takes one last look at the blue meth equipment, also at the end of Dollhouse when Echo chooses to curl up in one of the pods and escape into her own mind. Or Life On Mars with Sam choosing to return to his dreams and the time when he felt most alive, even though it's really disturbing when you think about what he's actually doing.

For some reason I don't usually cry at character deaths or generally sad moments in the lives of tv show characters, I guess that I'm more a sucker for endings and things coming full circle, in terms of what is most likely to bring me to tears?

16. Most satisfying TV moment.

I liked Buffy's finale a lot, I know that the way they dealt with sharing power has been heavily criticised, but I always really liked those clips of the young girls with the looks of empowerment on their faces as they're about to hit the baseball/physically stop their abusive parent, and the potentials feeling the wave of power as they take on the ubervamps. I can appreciate the criticisms when you start thinking about it a little more, but I just felt like it come across as a very empowering moment when you're watching it, it really fits with the mission statement of the show

17. A character you identify with.

I'm not like any one character I don't think, I tend to emphasise with tv characters a lot, but their lives are always so much more exciting than mine that I find it hard to directly compare myself to them :P This might be a bit weird/disturbing, but Will Graham from Hannibal is the character that I think I have the most in common with actually? I'm also very introverted, socially awkward, love the company of dogs, and am drawn to the darker and more morally ambiguous characters

18. A character that reminds you of your friend.

I have no idea

19. Favorite talk show.

Graham Norton

20. Sports or nah.

Nah

21. A TV world you'd like to live in.

Friends would be kind of cool I guess, to have a group of really close-knit friends to hang out with and support you? Or Gilmore Girls has a similarly warm feeling to it where you can really see the appeal of living in that world and that loving community

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I admire my flist's ability to watch all these shows, too! XD I just don't think I can handle more than one thing at a time mentally; I can barely handle the one show I DO watch. The other ones I watch are extremely casual and I think I'll probably end up dropping them all for marathoning later so I can focus on my one show. XD

But yeah, I think I'm like you in that I don't tend to keep up with many things as they're airing, and am more likely to marathon old stuff I missed or rewatch my favorites.

Yeah at the beginning of Sept/Oct it seems like a lot of people list which shows they're watching from Monday-Friday, and I'm in awe of managing to keep up with 3 or 4 shows in one night sometimes, I fall behind with just 2 or 3 shows to catch up with each week lol

I'm always finding new shows to marathon, I'm thinking of trying The Fall after I've caught up with season 5 of The Good Wife. Amazon Prime just makes it so tempting to keep checking out different shows, and then I have sooo many DVDs that I keep binge-watching old favourites as well, I always feel like I just don't have the time to add too many new shows to that as well

Lol ikr, I'm just like fuck youuuu Amazon Prime why do you have all the Golden Age HBO shows on you??? What if I disappear into The Sopranos, The Wire, and Carnivale and never find my way back out? That much good TV at my disposal is dangerous, a girl's gotta go to work sometimes. XD

Heh yep, my watchlist just seems to keep on growing, and I never manage to get around to half the shows that I was excited to get started on

I felt the same way about The Flash. And I definitely agree on Supernatural.
Yay for Daredevil and Doctor Who (though I sadly seem unable to be very much into Twelve or Clara... :(
Oh, Breaking Bad! Did you check Better Call Saul? I found it lovely.
And yes, I'm still so sad Farscape is over... :(
I thought Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles had a terrific first season, while I found the second second lacked some of the energy and intensity of the first season, with the core crew being somewhat divided, in fact my favourite episode from the second season is the Mexican one, which I think retains all of the first seasons best qualities.
That, said, I felt like I could watch Lena Headey's portrayal of Sarah Connor forever. (I'm cautiously excited about the new Terminator movie, though)
As for Angel, of course it would have been nice to a six season (and more seasons after that) but I can't say they did a bad job with the season finale, they definitely went out with a bang and I felt that, all in all, it was very in line with the spirit of the series.

It's been a while since I watched Sarah Connor, so I definitely need to have a refresher sometime. I thought that it was a good show, but idk I just never get super invested in it for some reason. It was really crappy for the network to leave it on thst cliffhanger though

And Angel did conclude strongly, but it sounded like they had really cool plans for a sixth season, so it was a shame that it came to an end when they were just getting into their stride

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Profiler was my first fandom experience. No one seems to remember that show.

Gabrielle

I haven't heard of it tbh, what was it about? :)

It was about an FBI Profiler who was being stalked by an obsessed serial killer named Jack of All Trades, so while she was helping solve cases, she was also having to deal with what Jack was doing - mainly killing people close to her.

Gabrielle

Edited Date: 2015-06-13 07:38 pm (UTC)

Ooh that sounds interesting, a bit like the premise of The Fall then?

And now you've named a show about which *I* know nothing. *hee*

Gabrielle

I think it's supposed to be something like that anyway! I haven't actually got around to watching it yet, it's on my list, all I know is that it's a psychological drama which involves a battle of wills between a serial killer and Gillian Anderson's character

Could be something like that, yes.

Gabrielle

I actually just watched the 1st episode of Gotham. You could say I never really gave it a chance, but I mean, a lot of tv-shows gripped me right away, and I didn't really like it at all... just like with Aquarius... I tried 2 episodes and then dropped it because it was just so much bullshit in my personal opinion... oh well :D There are enough tv-shows out there not to waste my time on those :D

I tried it a few times because I liked the more hard-hitting part of the show with Ben Mackenzie's character wanting to clean up Gotham, but I just couldn't get past the more surreal comic book aspects, it felt like the tones were clashing badly

And yeah, I probably don't even give shows enough of a chance these days, a lot of my favourite shows like Buffy you have to overlook their shaky first seasons and persevere with them, but these days I will only give a show a few episodes to grab me. There's just so much quality TV out there these days that I feel like I don't have the time for anything else *g*

I feel like Dollhouse got screwed over on so many levels. In fairness, making it all about sex at first didn't do it any favors, and I was never clear on whether or not that was the network or Joss. I mean, there were honestly episodes that made me want to take a shower. But the second season fixed that, and I wish they'd had more time.

Also, it was the only Joss show I know of that kept a happy couple alive and happy! (Priya and... guy whose name I forget, his actor was Viktor Krum in the fourth Harry Potter movie.)

I remember reading an interview with Joss where he was talking about his original intent being to more openly explore power dynamics and be a lot more explicit about it being wrong what the Dollhouse was selling, but the network stepped in and wanted to gloss over that, which ironically made it come across as more skeevy because no one was then sure what the show was trying to say at times

Dollhouse became great for me once they wrapped up the first five standalones, and started really getting into the inner workings of the Dollhouse. Although I do have a soft spot for the standalone episode with Echo trapped in the bank vault as herself and struggling to cope and define herself as not broken

ETA And that was Victor! They were such a sweet couple, I was really glad that they got their happy ending

Edited Date: 2015-06-13 10:17 pm (UTC)

Ahh, I think I must have gotten the actor/characters confused then. Okay.

Yeah, I'd heard that Joss wanted the show to be more explicit - your version makes more sense. I honestly don't know why he bothered with Fox again. Eliza Dushku's contract or something?

It was Eliza's contract originally yes, what I heard was that they were having lunch together and started talking about different shows to show what young women could do, and then she convinced Joss to pitch Dollhoise with her?

To be fair I think that FOX were very aware of their awful rep for Firefly and so did want to try with a second season, even though the ratings didn't justify that, but I'm not sure that Dollhouse would have shone on any of the main networks. It always seemed like more of a cult show

You know, Dollhouse might have been better for HBO or AMC. I don't think at that point they were really showing shows like they do now, but maybe if he'd waited a few years, that's where it could've worked. I mean, Dollhouse seems to be along similar lines to Breaking Bad in the sense that it's characters doing horrible things and all. It also could've worked on Netflix, although with all the tech they needed that might not have been possible.

And honestly, we only ever hear fandom's side about the evils of FOX. Not saying their reputation isn't deserved, but I don't see Joss Whedon as being a particularly easy person to work with, which can't have helped in either case.

Edited Date: 2015-06-14 11:27 am (UTC)

I think that FOX's main failing is that their promotion of shows like Firefly and Dollhouse was pretty crappy and failed to understand the shows that they were dealing with, their trailers were aiming too much for a mass audience looking for a sexy show with Eliza, or for a wacky spade comedy with Firefly. Still that was part of the problem, that the bigger networks do need that bigger audience, and I don't know if either show would have had the ratings to justify their existence on a bigger network, even if they had been promoted correctly. Firefly especially was costing the network millions, and it never did even close to the ratings needed to justify that cost. Dollhouse could have done really well on Netflix I think, but it's not really a show for everyone, any more than Buffy was

And I respect Joss for his creative vision, but I'm not always sympathetic with how quickly he starts pointing fingers and blaming others when things go wrong. Not so much with Dollhouse, but with Firefly he was very quick to complain that it was all FOX's fault for failing to air the pilot, which might be a fair point if you ignore that he was given millions of dollars for the chance to film another pilot. Joss was certainly happy at the time to say that it wasn't a big deal to address the networks concerns on pacing and to go with a more action-packed storyline, so it's not like FOX just aired the planned second episode first and didn't give the show any opportunity for a proper intro

Edited Date: 2015-06-14 11:41 am (UTC)

Supernatural has definitely gone on a lot longer than it should have, I dropped it about 5 years ago. I think that is a problem with a lot of shows these days though, where they go on for way too long.

I love Graham Norton's show too! :D

He's the only talk show that I watch *g*

And yeah, in retrospect it's a shame that SPN didn't wrap up after season 5, there's been some good episodes and moments since then certainly, but I'm not sure that any of the later seasons have been particularly necessarily when it's just going over the same ground. It doesn't help that there's only two main characters and one main relationship, so they keep retreading the same old issues and rifts between Sam and Dean and them lying to one another or whatever, but the writers have no way to really shake things up without drastically changing the show

Edited Date: 2015-06-13 11:16 pm (UTC)

Interestingly enough I didn't watch the series finale of Dawson's Creek, even though I watched the show. I think I wasn't as interested in it during the last several seasons for some reason. I really need to get the DVDs and do a binge watch at some point.

You can tell that they were really pushed for time with certain story arcs, like Echo developing self-awareness, or Alpha reforming and working with them.

It makes me sad that there wasn't enough time. I think it's because I think Joss knew the show was going to eventually get cancelled, so any plans of exploring these particular arcs had to be rushed so they could wrap up the show. You could tell he wanted to go so much more into detail on certain things, as did we all. I wanted to know so much more, especially with the Epitaph future and how certain characters banded together. Just too many unanswered questions.

While I do think the TSCC finale was a good one, you could also tell there was so much more planned. Just imagining what could have been if they just had another season fills me with such longing and bitterness.

Originally I only watched the high school years and quit after Dawson and Joey got back together in the season 4 finale, so I missed all of the college years. I brought the single dvd for the finale and found that it worked really well for me, but then I got curious about people telling me how much Pacey/Joey there was in season 6, so of course I ended up caving and buying those seasons anyway *g* But I would definitely say that you can just watch the series finale as a stand-alone, it's very much about pulling the characters into the future and showing where they ended up, before all coming back together for a reunion.

And exactly, I'm satisfied with that final arc of Dollhouse in season 2, but it would have been nice to have had a full season for that arc, you could tell that 13 episodes weren't enough for everything that Joss wanted to cover.

Edited Date: 2015-06-14 08:42 am (UTC)

The Flash did get so good by the end!

I really wanted to like it because I was interested in where Wells character was going, and I also thought that Barry's relationship with Joe was very heartwarming, but I found that I just could not get invested in Barry, Caitlin, Iris, Cisco the way that I usually am with the main casts of shows

That's an interesting meme. I may pinch it. I agree with your thoughts about the Buffy finale.

:) I remember people being very cynical about the power sharing at the time, how it was only privileging a select group of women rather than all of them, and how Willow was still giving some young girls powers without their consent, but it really worked for me as a metaphor for unlocking potential

Not so much a series finale, as a complete last season

Why stop there, tbh.

I'm actually ecstatic about how Dollhouse concluded. More time would have been a blessing, but it did what it set out to do. Whereas the T:SCC story really WAS meant to continue, so if I had my way that's the show I'd bring back.

I cried like a baby at the end of Breaking Bad when "Baby Blue" started playing as Walt takes one last look at the blue meth equipment, also at the end of Dollhouse when Echo chooses to curl up in one of the pods and escape into her own mind.

Still crying on the inside about it. Both worthy selections for a Top 10 Finales of All Time list IMO. Also, "Chosen" 4ever.

Heh, true!

And I'm glad that they managed to bring a sense of closure to Dollhouse, but I do have a few regrets about some of the arcs that year not being given enough room to breath. It's not a show that I would have wanted to go on forever quite honestly, there probably would have been a lot more standalones that I didn't really care about then, it worked best when they were working towards that final arc, but at the same time it would have been nice to have had 22 episodes to build towards the apocalypse. I think that you really feel it at certain points that the writers had to skip or rush over in order to get to the conclusion.

LOL Friends would be cool because apartments like that in NYC would actually be affordable for us common folk ;-)

X-Files was the first fandom I really got into, even though I didn't know that word existed at the time (actually it might not have existed yet...wonder when that term was coined). Message board, filk, fanfic...again, I didn't even know what I was getting into, just so thrilled to find other fans.

And I totally agree about Dollhouse, that poor abused show. I'm sure Whedon and Co. had a vision and then FOX decided to rush it and air it out of order etc. BUT this time they knew it was coming so the writers also pushed to at least get us a decent ending. So sad, could have been so much more if the damn execs had kept their grubby hands off of it.

For some reason I never really sought out fandom for X Files, I guess it must be that I was starting to fall out of watching the show by the time that I had regular internet access? I was a huge fan of the show during seasons 1-5 though, heh I remember buying the episode novelisations and the video tapes of select episodes, even regular issues of the monthly (I think?) magazine.

Somewhere I have a few issues of the original 'zine that was put together by fans before FOX started the official fan club. And print outs of song of the songs people wrote that cracked me up. I didn't buy the tapes...I sat in front of the TV every Friday night and recorded all the episodes, carefully editing out the commercials. I blame my poor eyesight on the years I spent doing this.

...probably the reason I am also so bitter with how the show went downhill. It really was a bad boyfriend and when we broke up I just kept thinking of all those Friday nights wasted.

I don't remember any big break-up for me with the X Files, I think that it was mostly season 6 that caused me to more start drifting away and feel like it was changing too much? (Also BBC's terrible scheduling after season 4/5 didn't help). I remember younger me getting *really* frustrated with a whole bunch of comedic episodes, or episodes that it turned out didn't actually happen/weren't remembered by Mulder and Scully, and I was complaining to school friends that it just wasn't the same any more.

Ironically these days I find those comedy episodes some of the best episodes the show did and I really love season 6 playing around with the format, so I wonder what I was thinking to dislike them so much back then! I never really reached the season 7-9 seasons which are more uniformly agreed to be terrible, I've seen *some* of season 7, but that's about it

I've told the story many times, but my friend who was hardcore into X-Files with me dropped out before me. I was still trying to convince myself it was a good show. Then I went to visit her and made her watch the latest episodes, so sure it would get her back...and then that episode was the one with the "Butt Genie" and...well, then she made me watch some Buffy and I never looked back LOL.

David Duchovny did own my adolescent years though...

I can appreciate the criticisms when you start thinking about it a little more, but I just felt like it come across as a very empowering moment when you're watching it, it really fits with the mission statement of the show

Honestly, the criticism there has always seemed forced to me. It's so broad spectrum. It's not empowerment 'cause they didn't turn all women in to slayers. It's not empowering 'cause they didn't ask them first. It's rape to do it at all.

It just seems like they forget the entire premise of S7. They're not just random, ordinary girls. They were potentials and marked for death. While their powers were awakened (again, not ordinary people), there was never anything to show a Slayer couldn't care on a normal life outside of being forced to slay like Buffy and Faith and the single slayers were. Now none of them had to slay if they didn't want. They could go to college, do whatever. They weren't targets any more than they were before, except now they could defend themselves, unlike those unlikely girls in Lessons, Beneath You, etc.

S7 isn't perfect by any stretch, but it seems like people were so busy whining about not getting what they wanted, they ignored the story being told.

I definitely agree with that, it just seemed like everyone at the time (well maybe many viewers still are, I don't know what the popular view of it is these days?) were very focused on Willow not asking all of the girls for their consent and how that was just as problematic as Get It Done's flashbacks, but I was always happy to go with the show's reading of it as unlocking their potential, rather than forcing any one girl to actually be a slayer.

Edited Date: 2015-06-16 01:36 pm (UTC)

On Tumblr, yeah, that's still a big theme. Back then, it was usually that or complaints that all women weren't given powers so it was elitist. It's like half a room complaining it's too hot and the other complaining it's too cold.

Yeah, comparing it to GiD, to me, is ignoring the whole of S7. What happened there 'caused all of it. The girls were already in danger because of that. Having superpowers was never the issue; being forced into being The Slayer was. They were targets because of that, not because of the spell.

Yeah, even putting aside the metaphor of female empowerment, it was also the most practical way of easing the slayer burden by turning it into shared power

I die a little inside every time I think of the Gossip Girl finale.

The Gossip Dan ~reveal~ will forever be the greatest unintentionally hilarious thing on TV.

It produced some great memes at least *g*

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