Modern shows you think might not age well?

Discussion in 'TV & Media' started by Jayson1, Nov 4, 2017.

  1. Serveaux

    Serveaux Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    Nothing ever goes away again.

    It's pretty remarkable how conversant with - and fond of - trivial 80s crap people are today. TV particularly.

    Frasier has aged remarkably well in most respects. Frankly, the problem it does have is one shared by many older comedies and that really stands out now, which is the number of "gay" jokes.

    Speaking of which, Will & Grace plays like minstrelsy now. It's amazing that its revival has happened and has been accepted so enthusiastically.
     
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  2. MacLeod

    MacLeod Admiral Admiral

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    True, but then again we could say the same things about many other shows having dumb elements. I mean I've tried watching some modern comedies and often I don't find them to be funny. But humour can be very subjective so perhaps it's just the type of humour used in shows that doesn't appeal to me.
     
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  3. Tim Walker

    Tim Walker Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Good point! Yes, references to pop culture will tend to age poorly. Themes that won't will be those that aren't limited to a specific time or place.
     
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  4. JirinPanthosa

    JirinPanthosa Admiral Admiral

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    I agree that shows dependent on cultural references tend to age poorly. But more than that, I think it’s that they’re also anchored to the perceived social status quo of the time.

    Family or relationship dynamics in the shows compare and contrast themselves to the ‘idealized normal’ of our collective subconscious and classify and judge themselves in terms of their degrees of separation from it.

    This even more than pop culture refs make shows age poorly. The minute our idealized normal changes the characters become unrelatable.
     
    Last edited: Mar 15, 2018
  5. scotpens

    scotpens Professional Geek Premium Member

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    Frankly, I didn't think Friends was that funny when it was new.

    The most timeless sitcoms are the character-driven ones, where the humor arises from the characters' personalities and interactions and byplay, rather than trendy cultural references and "hip" one-liners. Taxi, Barney Miller and The Mary Tyler Moore Show fall into that category. I know that Cheers was also a long-running and popular show, but for some reason I just never warmed to it. Maybe because the characters were too normal? :)
     
  6. urbandefault

    urbandefault Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Trailer Park Boys started almost 20 years ago, and hasn't aged a day. :techman:
     
  7. Jayson1

    Jayson1 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    You know I have seen adds about that show yet I have no clue as to what it's even about. Does it involve some boys living in a trailler park?:)


    Jason
     
  8. Refuge

    Refuge Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Reality shows do not stand up to repeat viewing - sometimes even first viewing. That's quite a bit of the our TV programming that will not age well.
     
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  9. urbandefault

    urbandefault Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Uh, yeah. :techman:

    http://www.trailerparkboys.com/
     
  10. Owain Taggart

    Owain Taggart Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Yeah, that's likely down to their formulaic structure. The longer these are around, the more noticeable their shallowness becomes, and you have to wonder if that formula will ever be shaken up.
     
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  11. JirinPanthosa

    JirinPanthosa Admiral Admiral

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    Watching reality shows is like watching sports in that half the fun of watching is not knowing the outcome.

    Also why shows whose anticipation depends heavily on the 'Whos gonna live whos gonna die' are harder to rewatch.
     
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  12. Owain Taggart

    Owain Taggart Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Yep, true. Sometimes they'll have a few surprise twists/rule changes as on Survivor, but for the most part the formula stays the same.
     
  13. The Borgified Corpse

    The Borgified Corpse Admiral Admiral

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    "Not that there's anything wrong with that." :D

    I think that's one of the reasons why Frasier has aged so well. I think we've all been in those kinds of situations of feeling like we don't relate to our parents or have a friendly-ish rivalry with a sibling or have an unrequited crush on someone. And most of the cultural references that it did make were already arcane ones about opera & wine & other hoity-toity things that most of the audience didn't necessarily follow along with to begin with.
     
  14. bigdaddy

    bigdaddy Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I think that's because TV shows weren't allowed to feature gay characters so they made bad jokes instead.

    While I think it's aged well, the sexual assaulting of Ross is jaw dropping and will not go well in the future.
     
  15. TommyR01D

    TommyR01D Captain Captain

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    I'm a little late to the party. I hope you're all still around.

    Some months ago The Inbetweeners had its tenth anniversary. This article describes how teen culture underwent a substantial change very shortly after that program wrapped.

    Yes, Minister was very deliberately designed to be timeless, and it has largely succeeded in that. The Thick of It, by contrast, is listed by TV Tropes as an Unintentional Period Piece. Two years ago Armando Iannucci declared that it would be impossible to make now because the state of politics has moved beyond parody.

    I concur that certain elements of Davies-era Doctor Who might not fit now - particularly the flatulent Slitheen. I understand, of course, that these things were often a necessity to get the series commissioned in the first place. As early as 2007 it is clear that the program had re-established itself enough to move back in a more classical direction.

    As for the spin-offs, I don't think Torchwood will age well, based on a few episodes that I have watched back in recent years. The presentation and style felt very dated, not to mention the look-at-us-we've-got-nudity-and-swearing problem that some members have brought up against DIS. Perhaps The Sarah Jane Adventures will fare better in that respect. Class, of course, was widely regarded as dead before it even began.

    That televisual giant The Simpsons has been accused of this many times in latter years. A lot of the family dynamics (and indeed character designs) are perpetually trapped in the late 1980s.

    Sometimes being up to the moment doesn't automatically spoil a production: Have I Got News For You and Mock The Week are still endlessly repeated on Dave, even though the particular weeks which they mocked might be a decade and several governments ago.

    What particularly interests me is the fate of Clarkson-era Top Gear. A lot of older episodes won't actually work as consumer advice (because the cars being reviewed have long since gone out of production), but the comedy side doesn't seem to have been affected.
     
  16. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    On the other hand, getting "dated" can actually add to a show's appeal. When I'm watching an old movie on TCM or a vintage TV ep on Me-TV, I can enjoy them on two levels: there's the actual plot going on in the foreground and then there's the whole "time capsule" effect of looking backwards in time to a whole different era. "Ohmigod, check out those cool old clothes and cars and phones. Look at that old-time printing press! And listen to the old slang and lingo!"

    "Aw, go suck an orange, you big galoot!"

    I love that kind of thing.

    Old stuff can hold up better than one might expect. Just the other day, I accidentally stumbled onto Bringing Up Baby on cable and got sucked into the watching the whole thing again, even though that movie came out eighty years ago. And the same thing happened to me with Holiday Affair (1946) starring Robert Mitchum and a shockingly-young Janet Leigh; I'd never seen or heard of the movie before but once I started watching I had to stick with it to see how it turned out. Never mind that it was made more than a decade before I was born, the basic situation--young widow torn between sensible fiancee and sexy drifter--was timeless, as was the chemistry and charisma of the leads. That sorta thing doesn't go out of style.

    Like they say in Casablanca: the fundamental things apply, as time goes by. :)
     
    Last edited: Dec 29, 2018
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  17. SolarisOne

    SolarisOne Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Seems to me that particular fear isn't going anywhere, anytime soon.
    24 might not age well because of the way the characters handled the situation, but the underlying motivation behind those actions hasn't gone anywhere.
    Ooooooh, Britcoms? I'm very partial to Keeping Up Appearances. Granted I'm as American as they come--thus, those from the UK on here might pity my ignorance--but I think that show has held up very well.
     
  18. Greg Cox

    Greg Cox Admiral Premium Member

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    The same kinda applies to Car Talk on NPR. The actual auto advice is obsolete, but the humor and banter between the hosts and the callers is still enjoyable.
     
  19. JirinPanthosa

    JirinPanthosa Admiral Admiral

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    I think the more time that passes since 2001, the more shows that depend on Islamic terror hysteria will age. We’ve moved on to different hysterias. All of these elaborate Muslim terror networks that somehow easily get access to WMDs inside the country seem more over the top. A modern 24 would have to focus more on immigrant hysteria and Russia hysteria.
     
  20. Jayson1

    Jayson1 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I'm not so sure. Right now the threat seems kind of distant because we are more focused on Trump and Trumpism and if your on the right it's SJW's that is the big danger right now. All it will take is another 9/11 and that all changes. Pakistan with Nukes is something that I don't see ending well at all. Also most people don't even know the difference between the refuge situation and the islamic terror issue I suspect. That's why Trump can say terrorist are in the caravan and things like that.
    I actually see the next big threat though personally being the internet itself. I heard yesterday that it was found out that literally half of the accounts on the internet are fake accounts. That means their are more fake people than actual real people on the internet right now. All being used to manipulate people's fears in order to help corporations make money.

    Jason