Canvassing opinions on TV series

[ShogunRua]

Tried watching both Arrested Development and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, since my girlfriend is a huge fan of both.

While I realize comedy is highly subjective, I though they were awful, unfunny pieces of shit. Which one was worse? In the case of AD, I forced myself to sit through the first two episodes, painfully as that was. With It's Always Sunny, I tapped out in the middle of the second episode.

On a more positive note, however, I watched the first two seasons of Rob Cordry's Childrens Hospital. The show ranges from "funny" to "brilliant and wildly hilarious". A really unique, incredibly fast-paced series.

[JacoIII]

Tried watching both Arrested Development and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, since my girlfriend is a huge fan of both.

While I realize comedy is highly subjective, I though they were awful, unfunny pieces of shit. Which one was worse? In the case of AD, I forced myself to sit through the first two episodes, painfully as that was. With It's Always Sunny, I tapped out in the middle of the second episode.

On a more positive note, however, I watched the first two seasons of Rob Cordry's Childrens Hospital. The show ranges from "funny" to "brilliant and wildly hilarious". A really unique, incredibly fast-paced series.

I agree with you on Children's Hospital but totally disagree with your assessment of the other two. It's really interesting to see how and at what point tastes diverge.

[ShogunRua]

I agree with you on Children's Hospital but totally disagree with your assessment of the other two. It's really interesting to see how and at what point tastes diverge.

It's hard to even write much about "It's Always Sunny", since it was so unilaterally awful. Besides the jokes being predictable and unfunny, the main characters might be the most forgettable I have ever come across in a comedy. I don't need them to be good or competent, but they should be at least mildly interesting, and failing that, at least slightly sympathetic.

Instead, they're neither. I actually had to seriously think about whether there were 2 or 3 guys in those episodes, and I couldn't remember anything about them except that one is into the hipster chick that works at a coffee shop.

As for "Arrested Development", I blame the lazy, by-the-numbers writing, indistinguishable from a dozen other dull hipster comedies. David Cross, Jessica Walter, and Jeffery Tambor are all very talented, but even their efforts can't elevate this trash.

[mattorama12]

As for "Arrested Development", I blame the lazy, by-the-numbers writing, indistinguishable from a dozen other dull hipster comedies.

I won't try to convince you to give it another shot. If the low-brow, surface level jokes don't work for you, then you probably won't enjoy the series. However, let me just point out that you're 100% wrong about AD having "lazy, by-the-numbers writing." There are a lot of corny jokes that probably turned you off, but that's only part of the comedy. It's hard, if not impossible, to see with only a few episodes (or even watching the whole series just one time), but the writing is insanely complex. The jokes build on each other over the course of episodes and seasons. There are jokes that are foreshadowed a full year in advance. Even if you don't find it funny (which is crazy to me, but to each his own), the writing is anything but lazy.

[ShogunRua]

As for "Arrested Development", I blame the lazy, by-the-numbers writing, indistinguishable from a dozen other dull hipster comedies.

I won't try to convince you to give it another shot. If the low-brow, surface level jokes don't work for you, then you probably won't enjoy the series. However, let me just point out that you're 100% wrong about AD having "lazy, by-the-numbers writing." There are a lot of corny jokes that probably turned you off, but that's only part of the comedy. It's hard, if not impossible, to see with only a few episodes (or even watching the whole series just one time), but the writing is insanely complex. The jokes build on each other over the course of episodes and seasons. There are jokes that are foreshadowed a full year in advance. Even if you don't find it funny (which is crazy to me, but to each his own), the writing is anything but lazy.

What you have described has nothing to do with lazy writing. All you have noted is that AD relies heavily on joke callbacks. Comedy scripts can reference past events and still very much be lazy.

I'm also not seeing any "insane complexity" to the writing, considering how predictable, canned, and overused most of the jokes are. Gay parade across from a bunch of suited-up, snobbish business people? Amazing.

Young, shy boy sexually attracted to adventurous and wild female cousin, who then gets paired with him in hilarious and wacky ways? Never seen that before!

Look, this stuff [i]could/i] have been funny if it was executed better, but one thing it certainly isn't is "insanely complex".

[martryn]

I'm actually curious what Shogun finds funny, other than stoner comedies on Adult Swim.

[ShogunRua]

I'm actually curious what Shogun finds funny, other than stoner comedies on Adult Swim.

Childrens Hospital is a stoner comedy? Hardly. And I generally despise most comedies on Adult Swim, Aqua Teen Hunger Force especially.

I like British humor in general; the original version of The Office, Keeping Up Appearances, Black Adder, Monty Python, The Benny Hill Show, 8 out of 10 Cats, etc. I also love Trey Parker and Matt Stone (That's my Bush was an overlooked classic), Matt Judge's work (The Goode Family was even more criminally overlooked), and like everyone, Futurama and The Simpsons

[hellboy76]

As for "Arrested Development", I blame the lazy, by-the-numbers writing, indistinguishable from a dozen other dull hipster comedies.

I won't try to convince you to give it another shot. If the low-brow, surface level jokes don't work for you, then you probably won't enjoy the series. However, let me just point out that you're 100% wrong about AD having "lazy, by-the-numbers writing." There are a lot of corny jokes that probably turned you off, but that's only part of the comedy. It's hard, if not impossible, to see with only a few episodes (or even watching the whole series just one time), but the writing is insanely complex. The jokes build on each other over the course of episodes and seasons. There are jokes that are foreshadowed a full year in advance. Even if you don't find it funny (which is crazy to me, but to each his own), the writing is anything but lazy.

What you have described has nothing to do with lazy writing. All you have noted is that AD relies heavily on joke callbacks. Comedy scripts can reference past events and still very much be lazy.

I'm also not seeing any "insane complexity" to the writing, considering how predictable, canned, and overused most of the jokes are. Gay parade across from a bunch of suited-up, snobbish business people? Amazing.

Young, shy boy sexually attracted to adventurous and wild female cousin, who then gets paired with him in hilarious and wacky ways? Never seen that before!

Look, this stuff [i]could/i] have been funny if it was executed better, but one thing it certainly isn't is "insanely complex".

As previously mentioned humor is completely subjective and most people find different things funny for different reasons, but the sheer fact that AD has story arcs (and foreshadowing for events , episodes or even seasons later) makes it more complex than about any sitcom out there. Sitcoms almost never have seasonal story arcs,it just isn't important to what most of them do.

With AD, whole episodes sometimes spiral around a single joke. You can argue effectiveness but I don't think the effort in the writing is in question too often, in fact it is usually what's most praised.

However, my favorite part of the writing is the sheer amount and variation on comedy shoved into each episode. There is obvious humor, innuendo by the bucket-load, nonsensical humor, flashbacks, foreshadowing, pop culture (entire episodes where all the characters have sad moments and shuffle about to the Charlie Brown sad music) and inside jokes (shopping to HBO for future seasons, having their episodes cut from 22 to 13, the sometimes over opinionated Ron Howard narrating).

Seems like Children's Hospital is getting some decent reviews, I might have to check it out.

[mattorama12]

I'm actually curious what Shogun finds funny, other than stoner comedies on Adult Swim.

Childrens Hospital is a stoner comedy? Hardly. And I generally despise most comedies on Adult Swim, Aqua Teen Hunger Force especially.

I like British humor in general; the original version of The Office, Keeping Up Appearances, Black Adder, Monty Python, The Benny Hill Show, 8 out of 10 Cats, etc. I also love Trey Parker and Matt Stone (That's my Bush was an overlooked classic), Matt Judge's work (The Goode Family was even more criminally overlooked), and like everyone, Futurama and The Simpsons

I'm a huge fan of some stoner comedies (Half-Baked, the first Harold and Kumar, etc.), but man is Aqua Teen terrible. I had too many friends who liked that show in college and it killed me.

Also, how the shit do Matt and Trey have a tv show I didn't know about? I'll have to get on that asap. Thanks for pointing it out.

As previously mentioned humor is completely subjective and most people find different things funny for different reasons, but the sheer fact that AD has story arcs (and foreshadowing for events , episodes or even seasons later) makes it more complex than about any sitcom out there. Sitcoms almost never have seasonal story arcs,it just isn't important to what most of them do.

With AD, whole episodes sometimes spiral around a single joke. You can argue effectiveness but I don't think the effort in the writing is in question too often, in fact it is usually what's most praised.

Well said. One of the things that blows my mind is that the joke foreshadowing (like Buster's line in the first season about never thinking he'd miss a hand so much) was done at a time that it was likely to never be noticed. The show came out before DVD sets of tv shows were common and before the widespread use of DVRs. It was like the jokes were written for nobody...but there they are.

[hellboy76]

I'm actually curious what Shogun finds funny, other than stoner comedies on Adult Swim.

Childrens Hospital is a stoner comedy? Hardly. And I generally despise most comedies on Adult Swim, Aqua Teen Hunger Force especially.

I like British humor in general; the original version of The Office, Keeping Up Appearances, Black Adder, Monty Python, The Benny Hill Show, 8 out of 10 Cats, etc. I also love Trey Parker and Matt Stone (That's my Bush was an overlooked classic), Matt Judge's work (The Goode Family was even more criminally overlooked), and like everyone, Futurama and The Simpsons

I'm a huge fan of some stoner comedies (Half-Baked, the first Harold and Kumar, etc.), but man is Aqua Teen terrible. I had too many friends who liked that show in college and it killed me.

Also, how the shit do Matt and Trey have a tv show I didn't know about? I'll have to get on that asap. Thanks for pointing it out.

As previously mentioned humor is completely subjective and most people find different things funny for different reasons, but the sheer fact that AD has story arcs (and foreshadowing for events , episodes or even seasons later) makes it more complex than about any sitcom out there. Sitcoms almost never have seasonal story arcs,it just isn't important to what most of them do.

With AD, whole episodes sometimes spiral around a single joke. You can argue effectiveness but I don't think the effort in the writing is in question too often, in fact it is usually what's most praised.

Well said. One of the things that blows my mind is that the joke foreshadowing (like Buster's line in the first season about never thinking he'd miss a hand so much) was done at a time that it was likely to never be noticed. The show came out before DVD sets of tv shows were common and before the widespread use of DVRs. It was like the jokes were written for nobody...but there they are.

Yes of all the sitcoms I own, it's re-watchability is about the highest. I Googled it, and there quite a few references to the incident with Buster.

http://thebluthcompany.tumblr.com/post/30202723267/hidden-jokes-foreshadowing-of-buster-losing-his