I would extend that to the number of crap [insert favourite Star Trek series here] episodes they've filtered out, nostalgia leaving them with only the best of the best.
What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?
- Thread starter Amasov
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Honestly, the 80's had WAAAAY more crappy shows than what we have now. Most of them were generic copy-paste formats with different characters and different settings or plot devices....but they were basically the same shows over and over again. Exceptions might be shows like Hill Street Blues or (honestly) TNG.
I think THE A-TEAM and MacGYVER fall into the category of really good shows of the 80s.
I don't think it's a bad thing that/if Generations and Insurrection felt kind of like TV episodes, that's OK. They both had story issues and the latter tonal issues but an adaptation or follow-up to a TV series also feeling a bit like an episode is different, is frequent in any film adaptation/follow-up and not a bad thing.
The A-Team is literally the same episode every single week.
- Episode Opens with the team narrowly escaping that guy who chases them
- One member of the team finds a group of innocent people who are being harassed by some bad guys
- Team reluctantly decides they need to help innocent people, despite the risks and reservations
- Team needs to break Reginald Barcaly out of a mental health institution through silly hijynx
- Team needs to get Clubber Lang onto a plane by drugging his milk
- Lt. Starbuck needs to charm some female guest character to achieve some random goal
- Team designs non-lethal defenses to thwart a final attack by the bad guys, who have been antagonized into action
- Team fires 859,000 rounds and detonates 20 megatons of TNT to scare off bad guys...no deaths or injuries. Team also fires rotten tomatoes and heads of lettuce at bad guys...because it's non-lethal and funny.
- Hannibal refuses payment for what the team did...."It was all for the kids"
- Team narrowly escapes as guys who chase them show up at the very end.
- Roll credits
I understand, but I disagree, because these are $60M productions and franchise events that only take place every 2-3 years.
If they want a boring, meandering, tepid, risk-averse, soggy, undercooked presentation (like INS)...don't spend $60M on it and expect people to pay $10/ticket to go see it. If they want something that "feels a bit like an episode"...well...make a made-for-TV 2-hour episode that costs $3.5M and put it on TV for everyone to see.
Movies need to be movies. Go big or go home. Otherwise, make it a 2-hour special event on TV and call it a day.
Right, agreed. But back then...these were moderately big budgets for a film franchise that was viewed as having a built-in but limited (and diminishing) audience. So, I do think that the argument still stands: If you want to make a 2-hour TV episode...make a 2-hour TV episode. Don't make a $60M major motion picture.
Doesn't mean the show wasn't good.
"Good," as I've argued nearly non-stop for over a decade now, is all relative in the eye of the individual viewer.
If you and others enjoy it, it is "good." If you don't, it is "bad."
All I'm saying is that it was an extremely repetitive, risk-averse, predictable, sophomoric show, particularly by modern standards- which is the context comparison for this discussion. And, yes, I watched it every damn week.
"Good," as I've argued nearly non-stop for over a decade now, is all relative in the eye of the individual viewer.
If you and others enjoy it, it is "good." If you don't, it is "bad."
All I'm saying is that it was an extremely repetitive, risk-averse, predictable, sophomoric show, particularly by modern standards- which is the context comparison for this discussion. And, yes, I watched it every damn week.
I must have watched a couple of episodes if that. I see I didn't miss much.
Macgyver was good until late, when it (1) got preachy about guns and (2) stretched reality too far. For instance, early on, Mac's past as a hockey player was regularly mentioned. But in a 7th season episode, they just decided to add out of nowhere that he was once a professional race car driver, too. I mean, six years of regular car chases and he never mentions this? REALLY?!
Those of you who have seen my past posts, I really get hit under the collar about a movie or TV series that thinks I'm an idiot.
I don't judge shows/movies of the past by current standards. I find that unfair to the product and it just makes it harder to enjoy something.
There are episodes in Season 3 of TOS that are better than anything in season 1 of TNG, DS9 or VOY.
It's not a competition. If it isn't entertaining I don't give a 
that something else is more entertaining. I just am no longer interested in what I just watched.
that something else is more entertaining. I just am no longer interested in what I just watched.
I hate ST:First Contact.
I believe Alexander Pope would call that "Damning by faint praise."
I think "Duet" is pretty good, arguably one of the ten best episodes of the whole franchise.
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