Popular Sci-fi Shows You Dislike...

[Lindley]

And no, I don’t care if these piles of crap were intended to be cheesy and annoying. That really just makes it worse.

That's overstating the case. It's more like they're aware of the cheese aspect and (at times) embrace it. I mean, these is a show about vampires, after all. Can't take itself too seriously *all* the time.

An example is the Mayor, the big bad from season 3. He's this smiling, likable, mini-golf playing family man. Who just happens to be bent on becoming a giant snake and eating the town. I mean, you've got to have career goals, right?

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Buffy isn't always intended to be funny. It's downright dark at times. And sometimes (especially early on) it was intended to be cheesy. Season 1 was shamelessly so most of the time. "I wear the cheese. It does not wear me."

Wow. You almost gave a logical explanation for the cheese guy in "Restless." Not even Whedon could do that!

Doctor Who - Tuned out after one season. Anybody who had been watching sci-fi for the last 10-20 years would know there's not one original idea in the series. As the only sci-fi fan in the family, I tell them that other shows like the Star Treks have done similar things (often better), but they seem to have some kind of prejudice towards them. Maybe Doctor Who is just 'casual' enough that it can be acceptable family viewing.

I kinda agree. I still like Doctor Who but I felt that the new series kinda petered out in Season 3 because they ran out of new things to say. "Human Nature," "The Family of Blood," & "Blink" are the only episodes from that season that I really like. Everything else could be lost by the BBC 1970s style and I don't think it would be a great loss.

I agree that Battlestar Galactica became absolutely unbearable during the 2nd half of Season 2. I still suffer through it, mostly just because I'm curious to see what happens to Baltar. But I hate a lot of the rest of it, particularly anything having to do with Starbuck or the way she has Apollo totally wrapped around her finger.

I like the characters on Farscape, especially the puppets. But I think that the show is too often just being weird for weird's sake.

 

[nevermore]

Really? So, is there nothing you like? Nothing you can get behind? You just trashed much of what was interesting about TV scifi in the last 15 years.(Lexx excluded).

What are you talking about? There's a ton of stuff I didn't list. I only trashed what YOU consider "interesting".

Of course, I'm not one to give most things a pass just because they're sci-fi or "genre". They have to actually interest me on some other level, and preferably not involve snarky teenagers. Even that last one, I'm willing to compromise on, as in the case of Reaper, which I enjoy.

And what the heck is wrong with Muppets?(Careful, bro, you're treading on my childhood friends there....)

Oh, I have no problem with THE Muppets, of course. Even when they're in space.

I do have a problem with grown-up shows that I'm supposed to take seriously featuring muppets. My suspension of disbelief simply does not extend that far.

And no, I don’t care if these piles of crap were intended to be cheesy and annoying. That really just makes it worse.

That's overstating the case. It's more like they're aware of the cheese aspect and (at times) embrace it. I mean, these is a show about vampires, after all. Can't take itself too seriously *all* the time.

Whatever the intended effect, it is intolerable.

Look, my cousin has been in all three of the series. I tried. I really, really tried to at least get through those episodes. I never made it past the first commercial break. I just can't stand the characters, the dialogue or the dramatic sense of self-satisfaction that just oozes from the screen. It just fills me with such a sense of loathing, I can't get past it.

 

[Lindley]

I think we must have been watching different shows, because I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about....I see a universe with a deep (but not overly specific) mythology, and a complex and ever-evolving set of characters, some of whom have evolved quite a long way from where they began despite no single change in them standing out as forced.

Yes, I'm looking at you, Cordelia.

I see something that is, if not always exactly my cup of tea, overall a lot of fun both in its laughs and its ability to explore the darkness inside us.

Honestly, Angel is much more my thing than Buffy, but the latter is enjoyable enough that I certainly don't think it deserves some of the attention it gets in these threads.

 

[The Evil Dead]

I'm sort of in between the two of you when it comes to Buffy. On the one hand, I can see and respect the fact that Buffy tells some really interesting stories that reward you for watching every episode, the characters evolve over time.....and on the other hand, the dialogue makes me want to swallow the business end of a shotgun.

 

[Lindley]

Only the Buffy/Angel love-angst scenes cause that response in me. Moving those two to separate programs was the best thing they ever did....

I mean, it's an epic romance in theory. In practice it's fairly annoying.

I am curious if anyone can come up with actual examples of "cringeworthy" dialog from any of Whedon's shows. I mean, there's certainly some to find, no one would deny that, but I'd like to know what sort of words can really imbue such different responses in different people....so I'm mainly interested in dialog I wouldn't call cringeworthy.

For instance, I rather liked this exchange:

Anya wraps up a woman's purchase and hands it to her.

ANYA
(to woman)
Please go.

The woman walks away, shaking her head.

XANDER
Anya, the Shopkeeper's Union of America called. They wanted me to tell
you that "please go" just got replaced with "have a nice day".

ANYA
But I have their money. Who cares what kind of day they have?

XANDER
No one. It's just a long cultural tradition of raging insincerity. Embrace it.

Anya calls out to her customer.

ANYA
Hey, you! Have a nice day.

XANDER

[FONT=verdana]
There's my girl!
[/FONT]

 

[Starbreaker]

Oh yeah... I forgot Smallville (post John Schneider) and Supernatural.

 

[JuanBolio]

Buffy/Angel - I HATE VAMPIRES

Stargate Atlantis - Never really thrilled me.

Smallville - Not much interest in Superman, much less teen Superman.

Torchwood - Yawn, mostly. I did like the giant monster episode...

Lost in Space - Blah

Buck Rogers - Also blah

 

[blockaderunner]

I bailed on nuBSG at the end of the second season and the beginning of the third when it just became CNN In Space. Using contemporary events as an analogy in science fiction is one thing, but ripping off the headlines and just changing the names is just piss poor writing. And I just stopped caring if they ever found Earth and imagine that RDM, being RDM, is going to do some lame ass, artsy twist that will satisfy no one.

 

[Ethros]

No one's forcing you to open the thread, much less read or comment about it.

Actually they are, I have a man holding a gun to my head forcing me to read this guff


Well I skimmed the other thread a few weeks back when I was bored, which seems to be exactly the same as this one. I don't know, all it really tells me is that some people on here need to fucking relax and calm down a bit, going apeshit over things the don't even watch and have no knowledge of.
eg. "I watched 5 seconds of TV show Y and think its worse than the holocaust, anyone who watches this travesty should be sent on a rocket to the sun and have their families burnt at the stake" type stuff.
Who gives a fuck?

As Arnie says "Relax, you'll live longer"


For the record for me there are shows I like and shows I don't watch. Some shows I maybe tried out but either wasn't interested in or gave up on. Why would I watch a show I hate? Why would I watch a show I dislike?
I don't really get it. Unless you're one of these uber geeks who watch shows they claim to hate just so they can come online and bash it and its fans to make themselves feel big. I won't mention names but some one whose name rhymes with Laster Lof Olion.
I just find it odd. Do something more constructive with your time. Get a life, you may enjoy it

 

[The Evil Dead]

Personally I find it interesting to look at the shows everyone likes or dislikes and see what kind of patterns pop up. Do most DS9 fans seem to enjoy BSG? How can two people who both like The X-Files and yet only one of them enjoys Smallvile and the other can't stand it? Did those two people like The X-Files for different reasons, maybe the Smallville fan was attracted to the lighter, funny X-Files episodes of later seasons?

Also, for shows I don't particularly enjoy such as Heroes or Buffy, I find it interesting to learn what it is about those shows that people do enjoy. The opposite is true, why don't people here enjoy the shows I love such as Lost, Babylon 5 or BSG?

I don't see the harm in expressing dislike for a show, there's nothing personal about it.

 

[Blamo]

Doctor Who - Tuned out after one season. Anybody who had been watching sci-fi for the last 10-20 years would know there's not one original idea in the series. As the only sci-fi fan in the family, I tell them that other shows like the Star Treks have done similar things (often better),

Shows like Star Trek have had statues that only move when you're not looking at them and "kill" you by shunting you off to the past? Clockwork android's that are after a 18th century courtesan's brain for use in a ship that is made up of the canabalised parts of it's crew, simply because she has the same name as the ship?

 

[crouteru]

Doctor Who - Tuned out after one season. Anybody who had been watching sci-fi for the last 10-20 years would know there's not one original idea in the series. As the only sci-fi fan in the family, I tell them that other shows like the Star Treks have done similar things (often better),

Shows like Star Trek have had statues that only move when you're not looking at them and "kill" you by shunting you off to the past? Clockwork android's that are after a 18th century courtesan's brain for use in a ship that is made up of the canabalised parts of it's crew, simply because she has the same name as the ship?

Well if you're going to nitpick my post so specifically I'll do the same. All those things you mention can come from multiple sources in tv shows and movies. Monster villains in horror films often only move when the potential victims aren't looking. Sending people to the past sounds a bit like time travel, no? Androids have been around since the early days of sci-fi, like the film Metropolis, Data from The Next Generation and Who's own Cybermen for example. Machines from the future that want something or someone in the past sounds like the formula for a Terminator film. Canabalising parts of the crew to build something else is reminicent of Star Trek's Borg assimilation process. I just find the show boring, and that's MY opinion. If you like it, then good for you.

 

[DWF]

Doctor Who - Tuned out after one season. Anybody who had been watching sci-fi for the last 10-20 years would know there's not one original idea in the series. As the only sci-fi fan in the family, I tell them that other shows like the Star Treks have done similar things (often better),

Shows like Star Trek have had statues that only move when you're not looking at them and "kill" you by shunting you off to the past? Clockwork android's that are after a 18th century courtesan's brain for use in a ship that is made up of the canabalised parts of it's crew, simply because she has the same name as the ship?

Well if you're going to nitpick my post so specifically I'll do the same. All those things you mention can come from multiple sources in tv shows and movies. Monster villains in horror films often only move when the potential victims aren't looking. Sending people to the past sounds a bit like time travel, no? Androids have been around since the early days of sci-fi, like the film Metropolis, Data from The Next Generation and Who's own Cybermen for example. Machines from the future that want something or someone in the past sounds like the formula for a Terminator film. Canabalising parts of the crew to build something else is reminicent of Star Trek's Borg assimilation process. I just find the show boring, and that's MY opinion. If you like it, then good for you.

Cybermen don't come from the future for one thing and for another they predate both the Borg and Terminators.

 

[crouteru]

Shows like Star Trek have had statues that only move when you're not looking at them and "kill" you by shunting you off to the past? Clockwork android's that are after a 18th century courtesan's brain for use in a ship that is made up of the canabalised parts of it's crew, simply because she has the same name as the ship?

Well if you're going to nitpick my post so specifically I'll do the same. All those things you mention can come from multiple sources in tv shows and movies. Monster villains in horror films often only move when the potential victims aren't looking. Sending people to the past sounds a bit like time travel, no? Androids have been around since the early days of sci-fi, like the film Metropolis, Data from The Next Generation and Who's own Cybermen for example. Machines from the future that want something or someone in the past sounds like the formula for a Terminator film. Canabalising parts of the crew to build something else is reminicent of Star Trek's Borg assimilation process. I just find the show boring, and that's MY opinion. If you like it, then good for you.

Cybermen don't come from the future for one thing and for another they predate both the Borg and Terminators.

True, but my point being that robots, androids and artificial people have been and are still being done to death in sci-fi, and therefore Doctor Who's versions are nothing special nor original. Anyway, I'm being more critical than I like to be now, so I'll let it drop.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Babylon 5 Bad writing. (dialog especially) Bad acting. The actors were either wooden or scenery chewers. I'm surprised there wasn't cannibalism

 

[Barbados Slim]

I forgot about Farscape. I liked the first season, but one too many nutty Australian actors inhabited the show and it felt discombobulated.

 

[Neroon]

I'm surprised there wasn't cannibalism

Of course there was. It consumed its competition.

 

[Orintho]

Buffy - I was a big Xena fan when it was on and where the show Xena went, Buffy tended to follow. Xena does a musical show, Buffy does a musical show. Xena gets killed, Buffy gets killed. And so forth and so on.

Charmed - tolerable, but it is all fluff and no substance. I wish it had been darker and more mature.

Heroes - fascinating show for the first season. I liked the idea of a 'real-world' X-Men. But then when they came in with season 2 and rebooted the show rather than go for new ground from what was already developed, they lost me. Completely. And that was before the writer's strike.

Stargate SG1 - but only during the time SciFi chose to run it 18 hours a day, seven days a week. I do think it is a good show.

Lost - looked interesting but I was reluctant to get into it and be drawn into a show that would probably turn into a morass of loose ends. Problem with shows like these is that the writers start out to dazzle the audience with their brilliance, but usually end baffling them with their bull****.

Old School Dr. Who - I know, I may upset some fans, but it goes back to that exterminate dude. The scientist who created the Daleks. I still remember him shouting 'EXTERMINATE' in this horrible nasally Brit accent over and over again. It got on my last nerve and put me off from watching the series.

nuBSG - good intro movie and a few good season 1 episodes. But it turned into 'NYPD Blue in Space'. And do I prefer at least a few aliens with my space-faring series.

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

And do I prefer at least a few aliens with my space-faring series.

Feh, most space-faring series turn aliens into planets of the hats, with rare exceptions.

I unerstand the need to have an external force in plots but... it's gotten stale.