Genres that you can't stand

[auntiehill]

I'll give most genres a try; I never cared for Westerns but Deadwood and Hell on Wheels became two of my all-time favourite shows. I generally hate horror but have found a few rare gems that I appreciated.

That said, I have no particular interest in any reality TV-- no reality competition, no dating shows, no"Houswives Of... " or talent shows of any kind. I can't stand it.

What I do appreciate are shows I can learn from, like the late Anthony Bourdain and his travel shows, or programs about architecture ( "Grand Designs" or "World's Most Amazing Homes").

I also can't bear the vast majority of romantic comedies; I find they insult my intelligence and strike me as being pretty degrading towards women, generally.

I have no interest in Anime, but I also have a very limited knowledge/ exposure to it. I haven't been all that fond of what I've seen but I have seen very little, so I can by no means "cross it off my list" until I happen to see more.

 

[Kilana2]

I'm glad nobody has voted for science fiction so far!

Kor

That would be indeed odd and out of place for a SciFi forum.

 

[Kilana2]

Well, Psycho (1960) is considered a slasher film. Personally, I think it's a great movie.

Yes. The remake with Vince Vaughn is not good, though. As is the remake of The Poseidon Adventure. Old style actors like Anthony Perkins or Gene Hackman aren't easily replaced. In the 60ies and 70ies they may not have had those fancy motion picture technology, but they had mostly good acting performances. That's why I prefer the originals over remakes in the most cases.

 

[StefanM]

, Adam sucht Eva (naked celebreties and normal people on an island, this is more a topic for TNZ),

Oh, please don't call them "celebrities". They are also just former participants of reality shows, that would like to be celebrities. So to stay on TV, they rather go naked, than get forgotten.

Another really terrible genre would be "pseudo-erotic TV Shows"
On the german (and other european) version of "Adam sucht Eva", the participants are at least really naked and uncensored, so it's fine for a TV-audience, who want to see this. (I would take a look at this, if they would cast normal/natural women. Women with tattoos, piercings and such stuff all over their body are nothing, I want to see or find sexy.)
But a few months ago, I zapped into an american TV show called "Naked Survival". Also nude people in a jungle, but completely censored???? So what's the point of such a show? Naked people (and much better looking than the participants of Adam sucht Eva), but everything is censored? So why do they have to be naked?

 

[Kilana2]

Oh, please don't call them "celebrities". They are also just former participants of reality shows, that would like to be celebrities. So to stay on TV, they rather go naked, than get forgotten.

Another really terrible genre would be "pseudo-erotic TV Shows"
On the german (and other european) version of "Adam sucht Eva", the participants are at least really naked and uncensored, so it's fine for a TV-audience, who want to see this. (I would take a look at this, if they would cast normal/natural women. Women with tattoos, piercings and such stuff all over their body are nothing, I want to see or find sexy.)
But a few months ago, I zapped into an american TV show called "Naked Survival". Also nude people in a jungle, but completely censored???? So what's the point of such a show? Naked people (and much better looking than the participants of Adam sucht Eva), but everything is censored? So why do they have to be naked?

They have categories for celebrities in Germany: categories A Promi, B Promi, C Promi, Z Promi. Reality shows create Z Promis nobody wants to see.
I don't mind piercings or tattoos as long someone hasn't too many of them. Nose rings are not attractive, though.

I must confess: I watch talent shows like The Voice. But Pop Idol (in Germany DSDS) is insufferable because of the many idiots who think they can sing and idiots in the Jury like Dieter Bohlen. Xavier Naidoo is in the Jury, I think he couldn't resist the money. And a female dancer from Let's Dance. How the hell is she qualified to judge people's voice? On the other hand: I don't f****** care anymore. Offending people in TV is a kind of sport the Germans are obviously great in.

 

[StefanM]

I don't mind piercings or tattoos as long someone hasn't too many of them. Nose rings are not attractive, though.

Yes I know, many people today like it, but for me, that's an absolute No-go.

Xavier Naidoo

Who let the Reichsbürger back on TV?

Offending people in TV is a kind of sport the Germans are obviously great in.

I don't think, that's typical german. Those casting shows work this way, all over the world
I really can't watch this. It's so embarrassing, it's too painful for me to watch.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

One 'genre' I can't stand is where criminals are the antiheroes of shows/movies--so things about drug dealers or mafia-types being the main star (it's the reason I just can't get into Breaking Bad).

 

[JirinPanthosa]

There's nothing I'm completely against. Some I am more forgiving of flaws than others.

I hate a particular common style of sitcom. The style of sitcom with either a family or a group of friends, where characters are defined by their two or three idiosyncracies and not much else, the humor is driven mostly by bizarre behavior or sarcastic quips, and the story is always that characters offend each other some way then learn a lesson and come to a new understanding with each other, only to completely forget the lesson by the next episode.

Another kind of comedy I tend not to like are comedy driven by some dumb 'OMG I'M SO RELATABLE' guy pursuing a one dimensional woman. I think SNL captured a lot of the reason I hate these kinds of movies with their 'One dimensional female character in a male driven comedy' character.

For horror movies, I like psychological horror, but I hate the kind of horror films that devalue the lives of the victims. Which treat them as murder fodder instead of people.

So it'd be easier for me to list subgenres I hate rather than genres.

A running trend among things I don't like, besides being dumb and with simplistic character development, is a certain way of portraying what's socially normal. Sitcoms have a way of showing any time a character steps outside the social norms, they realize they made a mistake and come back to the ground. It has a subconscious message of splitting the 'Normal' from the 'Deviant'. Like "Anyone who doesn't live the way society deems normal has something wrong with them".

 

[Admiral2]

Oh, please don't call them "celebrities". They are also just former participants of reality shows, that would like to be celebrities. So to stay on TV, they rather go naked, than get forgotten.

Another really terrible genre would be "pseudo-erotic TV Shows"
On the german (and other european) version of "Adam sucht Eva", the participants are at least really naked and uncensored, so it's fine for a TV-audience, who want to see this. (I would take a look at this, if they would cast normal/natural women. Women with tattoos, piercings and such stuff all over their body are nothing, I want to see or find sexy.)
But a few months ago, I zapped into an american TV show called "Naked Survival". Also nude people in a jungle, but completely censored???? So what's the point of such a show? Naked people (and much better looking than the participants of Adam sucht Eva), but everything is censored? So why do they have to be naked?

Do you mean "Naked and Afraid?" Or was this a different show with the same theme?

Funny thing about "Naked and Afraid:" Whenever i've watched an episode it always has this big macho ex-Marine/ex-cop/hunter for the guy and some slim waif for the woman and the guy is always at the beginning: "She looks like a party girl. I hope she doesn't slow me down." And at the end of the show he's on a stretcher with disentery or something and she's dragging his useless ass out of the location. I always laugh at that.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I also hate any show with a laugh track.

Shows like Titus, Monty Python's Flying Circus and The Red Green Show don't count, of course, since 1) the laughs come from a studio audience; 2) there is absolutely no 'sweetening' (i.e. fake, machine-generated laughs, like with a laugh track), and 3) in Red Green's case, the audience is actually part of the show!

 

[Owain Taggart]

Reality shows create Z Promis nobody wants to see.

Sounds like Zero Promise

 

[Kilana2]

Sounds like Zero Promise

Yep. Promi is short for Prominent = Celebrity. This category is in love with itself and has done nothing to earn celebrity status. In the Trekverse Q is a Z Promi...... Everything revovolves around him, he celebrates himself, no one wants to see him (Kathy, Jean-Luc, Guinan).....

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I also hate any show with a laugh track.

Shows like Titus, Monty Python's Flying Circus and The Red Green Show don't count, of course, since 1) the laughs come from a studio audience; 2) there is absolutely no 'sweetening' (i.e. fake, machine-generated laughs, like with a laugh track), and 3) in Red Green's case, the audience is actually part of the show!

The only laugh track show I like is Seinfeld.

 

[Greg Cox]

Honestly, I'm reluctant to dis any genre. There are a few (like anime) that I'm woefully uninformed about, but that's all the more reason not to dismiss it out of hand since I can't speak with authority on the subject. Any genre can be compelling if properly executed. I don't seek out sports movie or gangster movies because, as a rule, they don't push my buttons the way sci-fi, fantasy, and horror do, but I've gotten sucked into some good sports and gangster movies before when I've stumbled onto them by accident.

 

[Kor]

I also hate any show with a laugh track.

Shows like Titus, Monty Python's Flying Circus and The Red Green Show don't count, of course, since 1) the laughs come from a studio audience; 2) there is absolutely no 'sweetening' (i.e. fake, machine-generated laughs, like with a laugh track), and 3) in Red Green's case, the audience is actually part of the show!

The M*A*S*H series is so much better on DVD with the option turn off the laugh track, per the creators' original vision.

Kor

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ I like this one thing that M*A*S*H's creator said, that they originally planned to make the show with no laugh track..."just like the real Korean War."

 

[Admiral2]

^ I like this one thing that M*A*S*H's creator said, that they originally planned to make the show with no laugh track..."just like the real Korean War."

Did he also say he would make the show last eleven years, "just like the real Korean War?"

I personally have no problem with laugh tracks. All of my favorite sitcoms used them either fully or partially at some point in their runs. They didn't stop "I Love Lucy" from being funny, or "The Odd Couple." I just consider it part of the sitcom package.

 

[StefanM]

Do you mean "Naked and Afraid?" Or was this a different show with the same theme?

You are right.
Obviously, the german version got another ENGLISH name for that show.

 

[scotpens]

It seems most of us agree that so-called "reality TV" sucks. How can you cherry-pick a group from a pool of volunteers, throw them into a contrived situation with cameras recording everything they say and do, and have the nerve to call it "reality"?

I've never been a big fan of Westerns, and I'm even less of a fan of Italian neo-realist cinema and British kitchen sink dramas. I don't need to see a movie about folks whose lives are even more miserable than my own.

 

[Spot's Meow]

Reality tv - you cannot point a camera at someone and get an honest, real reaction out of them.

While this is true, why does that prevent one from enjoying what ensues?

I feel like reality TV gets such a bad rap because of it's name. It's not reality and never should have been called that. I enjoy "reality TV" such as Survivor, Amazing Race, Project Runway, Top Chef, etc. These are totally contrived scenarios, and "reality" only in the sense that the contestants are typically not following any scripts or prompts.

But I really wish this type of show had a different kind of name. Like "competitions shows" or something. Or "competition game shows." Whatever you want to call it. But it's not quite the same as shows like Real Housewives, The Kardashians, and the many Bravo and MTV reality shows that are less about any sort of competition and more about just creating drama for the cameras. I don't particularly care for that genre, though I think it's a valid form of entertainment as well and I would not write it (or any genre) off completely.

But it frustrates me that it gets lumped in with the higher quality stuff like Survivor. I feel like many people would like shows like Survivor or Amazing Race if they just gave them a chance. They tell some really beautiful, heart-warming stories while also examining competitive human behavior in a way that we don't often see in other genres.