Shows you can't stand to watch?

Zach6848 wrote: I wholeheartedly agree on the Family Guy statement. It used to be an excellent show, with plenty of genuine humor and good jokes. Now it's all...well, I'll break it down. 1. 60% cutaway gags that usually have nothing to do with the situation. 2. 20% incredibly crude humor that adds nothing and has no purpose aside from shock value. 3. 10% Seth MacFarlane's personal political opinions being spouted by the characters. 4. 5% useless pop culture references. 5. 5% actual, genuine humor.

Along with that, the characters are now cardboard

1. Then Peter Griffin: goofy, yet lovable/ Now: Just Downright dumb at least he had a little bit of sense in the earlier episodes.

2 Then Lois: sensible wife/ Now: a whore

3: Then Brian: smart, witty, sesnsible/ Now: a desperate drunk, and the puppet where MacFarlane takes advantage the most in your #3 (I don't mind politics or political opinions, but save it for American Dad which odd enough is now better than current Family Guy)

4. Then Chris: just kind of there, dumb-geek, almost easily disposable/ Now: Still the same, but now trying to hard to make him sound witty (he never was witty at the start, just stop)

5: Meg: typical high school girl with typical adolescent insecurities/ Now: just a waste, her family completely hates her (she had some sort of family support in the earlier episodes, but now,YEEESH just harsh)

When I get into Family Guy for any stretch of time, I watch it in reruns.  Since the reruns seem not to be presented in any chronological order, I don't see the changes that you guys have noted.

Giggity!

Jimbo wrote: I want to see Lois naked. Full frontal.

Codtaro wrote: I'm actually enjoying the show a little bit more recently. And if anything I think cut-aways have decreased compared to older seasons. I'll also throw in that I think the main reason the main cast has lost some depth is so that there can be more focus on the background cast, which I really like. Quagmire was funny as the town pervert with no morals, but I honestly have really come to love the character due to his recent developments.   But then again, I've never really got into critiquing Family Guy and exploring it in depth. It's a show I can sit down, relax, watch, and laugh, and in the end that's its intention.   I also have to throw in that I love how - when people started complaining about Brian being Seth's mouthpiece, we had him become a lot less perfect, and even have someone openly hate him (Quagmire). Say what you will, you have to admire someone actually responding to critique of their show/characters.

Defiantly see where you are getting at. I was kind of thinking the same way too with the main cast loosing more depth just to focus more on the B characters. I still continue watching the new seasons just to see where this will go, but I felt like the B characters weren't really pulling me in enough. I have found it interesting out of all the B characters they chose Cleveland to give his own show to (probably to gather more black and other viewers of different races, I don't know), but he still just feels bland to me even some of the comedic aspects, after watching all the episodes of his show.

Good point about the Brian thing. Personally, I never felt as though he was a complete straight guy or perfect in the early seasons (especially when interacting with Lois). I could very much see how he could be annoyance, and I laughed when Quagmire just went off on him like that.

Hahahahaha Family Guy just got DEEP in here. I do want to do graphic novels in my future and thinking about veering into animation at some point. Stuff like this does interest me a lot.

Zach6848 wrote: My biggest problem with the show is the continued presence of annoying characters. The chicken who fights with Peter, James Woods, Herbert the Pervert, etc.

Zach6848 wrote: I wholeheartedly agree on the Family Guy statement. It used to be an excellent show, with plenty of genuine humor and good jokes. Now it's all...well, I'll break it down. 1. 60% cutaway gags that usually have nothing to do with the situation. 2. 20% incredibly crude humor that adds nothing and has no purpose aside from shock value. 3. 10% Seth MacFarlane's personal political opinions being spouted by the characters. 4. 5% useless pop culture references. 5. 5% actual, genuine humor.

Hootman wrote: Entertainment "news" shows....like the one with Billy Bush...

Shows that have jarring and arbitrary zoom-ins, zoom-outs and camera swivels, like The Office.

JuiceHead wrote: NJtoTX wrote: Shows that have jarring and arbitrary zoom-ins, zoom-outs and camera swivels, like The Office. Agreed.  I'm sure it's camera operators, producers and editors who think it's clever and requires skill.  I'm sure that it does, and that's great.  To the viewer it's just plain obnoxious to watch!

JuiceHead wrote: Thor wrote: JuiceHead wrote: NJtoTX wrote: Shows that have jarring and arbitrary zoom-ins, zoom-outs and camera swivels, like The Office. Agreed.  I'm sure it's camera operators, producers and editors who think it's clever and requires skill.  I'm sure that it does, and that's great.  To the viewer it's just plain obnoxious to watch!   It makes it all seem more interesting and "exciting", I guess.  Similarly, segways that have whooshing or drum or guitar or bell sounds.  News shows like to use these.  Very annoying.     It pleases the technical folks.  Clever camera tricks and tight, rapid editing are wonderful skills to possess, truly.  Sound effects and Foley professionals also deserve much credit for their technical abilities and prowess.  But for every one of them there's a thousand viewers - you know, the people the show is produced for in the first place - who hate that crap and want to strangle whoever is responsible. An idea: why not have an annual competition, like a film festival, just for technical people.  They can each produce a 5 - 10 minute segment of their very best production tricks and show off their skills and bore each other to death for an entire weekend in, say, Las Vegas each year and give each other gold trophies and stuff.  And leave us out of it!

After The Matrix came out, everybody had to copy, overuse, and exaggerate the swivel-cam effect. Then everyone began to tire of it, and it finally got to a point where it became subtler in most cases and less of a gimmick. That needs to happen on these shows.

NJtoTX wrote: JuiceHead wrote: Thor wrote: JuiceHead wrote: NJtoTX wrote: Shows that have jarring and arbitrary zoom-ins, zoom-outs and camera swivels, like The Office. Agreed.  I'm sure it's camera operators, producers and editors who think it's clever and requires skill.  I'm sure that it does, and that's great.  To the viewer it's just plain obnoxious to watch!   It makes it all seem more interesting and "exciting", I guess.  Similarly, segways that have whooshing or drum or guitar or bell sounds.  News shows like to use these.  Very annoying.     It pleases the technical folks.  Clever camera tricks and tight, rapid editing are wonderful skills to possess, truly.  Sound effects and Foley professionals also deserve much credit for their technical abilities and prowess.  But for every one of them there's a thousand viewers - you know, the people the show is produced for in the first place - who hate that crap and want to strangle whoever is responsible. An idea: why not have an annual competition, like a film festival, just for technical people.  They can each produce a 5 - 10 minute segment of their very best production tricks and show off their skills and bore each other to death for an entire weekend in, say, Las Vegas each year and give each other gold trophies and stuff.  And leave us out of it! After The Matrix came out, everybody had to copy, overuse, and exaggerate the swivel-cam effect. Then everyone began to tire of it, and it finally got to a point where it became subtler in most cases and less of a gimmick. That needs to happen on these shows.

Yeah, NJ, I sorta forgot about the "Matrix technique."  They're even doing that 3D pan thing on TV sow promos - I'm thinking of that Rizzoli & Isles and some of those Bravo & TNT sort of shows.  Over-used and annoying.  I think you're right that they'll be with us until they're old & stale (and producers are on to the next annoying trend!).

PrincessOfTheAncient wrote: The Walking Dead. I just remember being so pissed off around Halloween expecting to watch some good horror movies, but they just kept pimping out that show. I hate zombies with a passion and can't wait for this trend to fade back out. They don't do anything interesting, and they don't look gross or scary enough to make up for it with visceral scares.