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Critically Acclaimed Shows vs. Mainstream Success Shows


Ellsworth Toohey

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http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-big-bang-theorys-character-and-cast-progressio,103291/

 

The above is a really good article discussing the growth in popularity of The Big Bang Theory, but it also makes a lot of good points about how right now a lot of critically acclaimed shows are actually doing horribly in the ratings:

Everybody Loves Raymond and BBT are both Emmy-winning shows that are highly respected in the industry, but are held in contempt by a lot of TV watchers who don’t seem to like live-audience sitcoms anyway. They prefer single-camera sitcoms that are perpetually on the brink of cancellation—such as NBC’s Community, which has aired opposite BBT and has been thrashed in the Nielsen ratings.

 

But The Big Bang Theory’s success shouldn’t be surprising. Like Raymond, it’s about how people are rather than how people would like to be. Like almost every successful sitcom shot with a live studio audience, it makes its main characters seem foolish and vulnerable. And that formula beats comedies about smug and confident characters every time.

 

 

You can praise Arrested Development all you want, nothing changes the fact that its ratings were terrible in comparison to Family Guy or The Simpsons or that Community has horrible numbers in comparison to Eric Christian Olson's current series NCIS: Los Angeles.

 

"One voice against a thousand. Artistic value is achieved collectively by each man subordinating himself to the standards of the majority." - Ellsworth Toohey, via Ayn Rand

 

(And yes, I'm fully aware that Rand intended Toohey as a straw villian.  Doesn't change the fact that Breaking Bad had 6 million viewers versus Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s 21 million.)

 

Oh, and not only is Wilfred moving to FXX, it's also cancelled because it only had 440,000 people watching it.

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I don't care if it doesn't make me sound like a TV snob, but BBT is one of the more genuinely funny sitcoms on a weekly basis.

 

 

I used to quite like BBT.  The first few seasons, it derived its humor mainly from the unique work life of the academic researcher, which was novel and required some clever thoughtful writing. And for awhile the subcultures they explored were genuine and recognizable and not really that exaggerated.  You could tell this was changing for the worse when, instead of having them play Magic: The Gethering, they made up a sillier version (maybe there was a copyright issue or something) that was less "real" but presumably "funnier" (it wasn't really).

 

In recent seasons, as the actors and characters have become "beloved icons" and their relationships with each other have taken center stage, it has become just another Chuck Lorre show made up almost exclusively of vanilla "sex" jokes, jokes about how funny Jewish people are, boobs...you know the drill.

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On this same subject, I've been seeing the ads for the new Michael J. Fox and Sean Hayes shows...and I can't quite put my finger on it, but I've seen it before.  There is something so uncanny-valley about them.  Like, when they look at the camera at the end of the promos, they try to make the shows look so bright and colorful and it ends up looking kind of surreal.  Like, their eyes are too blue.  Their skin is too smooth.  They're surrounded by bright blue and orange.

 

This isn't new.  It's an NBC/CBS sitcom thing that I notice every September.  These "normal" sitcoms can be damned creepy.

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I haven't watched "mainstream success shows" in so long and have grown so accustomed to the artistic style of the "critically acclaimed shows" that I really can't watch drama stuff on the big networks. Every time I catch my parents watching something like CSI: Insert City Here or NCIS or whatever, I just don't understand how or why people watch that stuff. I watched one episode of Under the Dome because I thought it had potential and I was done after the premiere. The cliche dramatic music, the acting, ugh.

 

Yes, I realize that makes me sound like a total snob but I can't help it.

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The only time I see one of those police procedurals now (since my beloved awful CSI: MIAMI went off the air) is the last two minutes of NCIS on the front end of every RAW I dvr.

 

It astounds me how maudlin and poignant those last two minutes of every NCIS try to be.  They always end with someone looking at a photograph and peering into the distance...or Mark Harmon saying something that "really makes them think!"  I don't see how anyone can stand it. 

 

I did used to like LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT when it would be a Donofrio.  The music was incessant and so depressing (like imagine a slow, never-ending clarnet melody with an occasional dark bass note...that's every minute of every episode) and the stories moved slow, like an old episode of KOJAK and it was so dark and dreary, like always set in cramped little New York apartments.  Good stuff at times.

 

Does PSYCH count as mainstream?  I fucking love PSYCH!

 

CSI: MIAMI was like absurd visual and plot-device porn to me.  I ate episodes of that show like Doritos...handfuls at a time..and never getting enough.

 

It's funny.  I have the Dish Network Hopper thing which allows you to automatically record the prime time lineups fo the big four networks without commercials...it's like a big selling point.  And I realized there are maybe two shows on the traditional networks that I actually watch.  BIG BANG THEORY is one and PARKS AND REC is the other...so 50/50 mix.

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The Wire is a great example of a critically acclaimed show that didn't really have great ratings.  It seems to have gained a great word-of-mouth popularity due to people like me who sing its praises and DVD Sales.

 

I also think three things that hurt the Wire when it was on air was the majority Black cast, the local Baltimore slang/diction, and the pace of the seasons.  As essential as they were, the first couple episodes of the seasons can be a chore to get through but once you hit episode five, it was balls to the wall great TV and you end up appreciating the early episodes.  The Wire perfected the "slow burn"

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I didn't read the article, but you could probably do a one-paragraph explanation on it just by looking at what gets the most hits on YouTube or the runaway success of Bleacher Report.

 

There is a formula behind what drives page views and gets eyeballs on television shows. Being "good" is maybe 10% of the equation. It all just comes down to metrics. Nothing worth getting offended over.

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Big Bang Theory is a good show.  Far from great, but solidly into good.  Jim Parsons and Simon Helberg are both great on it.  The female case is pretty strong too.  I'll admit my crush on Melissa Rauch plays into my viewership.

 

I have very strange taste in television.  I love critically acclaimed things like Breaking Bad and Arrested Development but I also love lots of the stuff people look down on...BBT, Everybody Loves Raymond, King of Queens, Jersey Shore, Pro Wrestling...

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I've found myself liking CBS's more mainstream Elementary than the more acclaimed BBC version Sherlock.  

 

First of all, Sherlock's version of the Irene Adler storyline was pretty awful. Also, I think the (presumably CBS ordered) instructions to make Sherlock more likeable and a decent, actually good person work better and is more in line with the spirit of the original stories. Sherlock was never the immoral borderline sociopath the BBC version made him out to be.

 

Also, Lucy Lui as Joan Watson is more infinitely more interesting than the usual "LOL did we hint that they might be gay?" John/Sherlock relationship. 

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Anyway, I don't see things like Breaking Bad as comparable to NCIS or CSI.

 

Breaking Bad wasn't really a TV show, it was a 45 hour movie, essentially.  Same goes for Arrested Development, The Wire, Hannibal, etc. They're long movies. 

 

An average person couldn't just start watching and suddenly get them. Just like you couldn't start watching Citizen Kane 1/3 of the way through and be entertained. NCIS, CSI, The Big Bang Theory...they are very much TV shows. You don't have to keep up with the storyline to know what's going on. 

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The biggest reason for the difference between the critically acclaimed shows and mainstream success shows is that, at the end of the day: People DON'T CARE.

 

Shows that are critically acclaimed, by nature, tend to be the shows that you do have to CARE about in order to really enjoy them. The fanbases love their show of choice and can't get enough of it- and we see from Netflix that these shows eventually find their legs on DVD [where people who do care about the show can get long marathons in of it and immerse themselves in the show.]

 

These people who do care, however, are the minority and they always will be. The vast majority of TV viewers will always be the person who just got home from a long day at work and just wants to turn their brain off and just laugh [for sitcoms], or [for dramas] have a chance to be led into things, but still feel smart by being a step ahead of the characters onscreen for the finish.  

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Maybe the first couple seasons were okay but Big Bang Theory went downhill fast and now it's terrible. Penny is not even a real person. They just alter her personality to fit the situation. Sometimes she is supposed to ditzy, sometimes she "surprises" the audience with her intelligence but often enough to where it's not really surprising at all..  Sometimes she is ruthless, sometimes she is super caring... Get the fuck out of here with that bullshit.

 

So I watched a little bit of NCIS before RAW the other day.  Hard to believe this is network television's most popular show. I don't think I'll be checking for it. The acting was horrendous. Maybe I've been spoiled by HBO and AMC.

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The biggest reason for the difference between the critically acclaimed shows and mainstream success shows is that, at the end of the day: People DON'T CARE.

 

Shows that are critically acclaimed, by nature, tend to be the shows that you do have to CARE about in order to really enjoy them. The fanbases love their show of choice and can't get enough of it- and we see from Netflix that these shows eventually find their legs on DVD [where people who do care about the show can get long marathons in of it and immerse themselves in the show.]

 

These people who do care, however, are the minority and they always will be. The vast majority of TV viewers will always be the person who just got home from a long day at work and just wants to turn their brain off and just laugh [for sitcoms], or [for dramas] have a chance to be led into things, but still feel smart by being a step ahead of the characters onscreen for the finish.  

This is 100% the truth, people generally don't care about TV/Movies/Music or just about anything else.  I think it is kind of like people who claim they love food, but order well done steak.  They enjoy the act of eating much more than they like food. There are plenty of people who don't know the difference between sushi grade ahi tuna and canned tuna, but canned tuna also outsells the good stuff ten to one.  The only issue I have is when your favorite restaurant stops selling the ahi tuna because everyone would rather have the canned stuff.  As long as we keep getting shows like Parks and Recreation and The Wire that are allowed to exist without the ratings I have no problem, because let's face it sometimes you just want some tuna salad. 

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Is this like that every darn argument on the internet that has the basis of "Just because it is popular, doesn't mean it is good?" Gawd, I hate those things.. Especially when music is the topic. If you don't like something, you don't have to be an shithead to other people who do like it.

 

Anyway, I've always gotten into shows long after they have been cancelled. I am not much of a TV watcher, so when people talk about how great a show is, I just shrug my head. I've gotten into Monk recently. I think it is possibly the best crime/drama show I've ever watched an episode of. Original, great acting, and amazing writing. It was around for 8 seasons, so it was doing something right. It won awards left and right too. Plus, Ted Levine = hot...

 

 

I personally think Big Bang Theory and the likes are fucking awful. I tried watching an episode and thought, "Is this suppose to be funny?" Then again, it was that one with the main character bitching about leaving his flash drive at home. If this was good TV is, then damn.

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"I would rather make a show that 100 people need to see than one that 1,000 people want to see." - Joss Whedon

 

That seems really snobby.  I need to breathe.  I don't need to watch TV.

 

This whole 'I can't believe someone watches THAT, ugh!' mentality is some stupid shit.  Who cares?  Watch what entertains you and makes your life a bit more enjoyable.  And don't try to explain it.  Chances are, the snob won't ever come to see your side of the argument.  So fuck them and do you.

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So I watched a little bit of NCIS before RAW the other day.  Hard to believe this is network television's most popular show. I don't think I'll be checking for it. The acting was horrendous. Maybe I've been spoiled by HBO and AMC.

 

NCIS is pretty bland, but it's not nearly as bad as the disaster that is NCIS: LA. Pretty sure that show just consists of Chris O'donnell and LL Cool J jumping away from big explosions.

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