InvincibleCakeEater wrote:Let down by Mad Men? FTH?
I've said it elsewhere. It's a boring show without a single character to root for (Peggy, kind of maybe). My world is full of decent people, and while I watch tv for an escape, maybe Mad Men could have ONE. If there was more agency stuff and less soap opera stuff I might like it better. I love the scenes where Draper is kicking ass at work but then he goes home to engage in dull melodrama with his family and never seem to learn anything morally. It's also pretty heavy-handed with their social critiques of the times ('It's like a dog playing piano!'). And seriously, it's pretty damn soap opera-y. But I seem to be the only person alive of this mind, even among men--which kind of surprises me.
I've only seen the first half of the first season, but from what I saw I agree. That's why I stopped there. It was just boring to me. Maybe it gets better, but I didn't want to invest the time in it.
I like Mad Men, I like it alot.
However, I disagree w/ those that put it at the top of the modern TV food chain.
It's not The Sopranos, The Wire, The Simpsons, etc...
Add on that Weiner and the Mad Men crew have basically destroyed Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead's future, I like it a lot less.
robbotis wrote:Add on that Weiner and the Mad Men crew have basically destroyed Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead's future, I like it a lot less.
What did they do?
Weiner demanded such a large increase in pay, that AMC has no budget for other shows.
They are ending Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead had the budget slashed so dramatically the man in charge, Frank Darabont, was up in arms. AMC then fired him. Yes, AMC is either too cheap, or in over it's head w/ hit shows, but Weiner is not helping.
Kurt Sutter(Sons of Anarchy) went off on via Twitter, for him for killing Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead(essenentially doomed w/o Darabont). Sutter quit Twitter after his blow up.
To be fair, it's not Weiner's fault. Breaking Bad was ending anyway. AMC's treatment of The Walking Dead is absurd considering the ratings they pull in. AMC has essentially gone from doing no wrong to screwing the pooch at every turn. That' AMC's fault for not wanting to spend the money. They should be able to pay for Mad Men and the rest of their hit shows.
I'm not entirely bummed about Darabont being fired. For me the show got a lot of traction just by being a show about zombies. Some aspects of that are just inherent to the subject matter and seem hard to screw up. The relationship stuff with Rick and his wife and the other guy never worked for me, and many of the other characters come off a little too stock and cardboard. I kept waiting for Rick to engage me as a character, and it never really happened. There's also something about the look of the show I can't put my finger on that I don't like. It seems deliberately gray or colorless in a way, and I don't think it works. While I'm fonder of the subject matter, it's not as good a show as Breaking Bad or Mad Men. But then again, I guess it's more popular, so what do I know?
robbotis wrote:Add on that Weiner and the Mad Men crew have basically destroyed Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead's future, I like it a lot less.
What did they do?
Weiner demanded such a large increase in pay, that AMC has no budget for other shows.
They are ending Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead had the budget slashed so dramatically the man in charge, Frank Darabont, was up in arms. AMC then fired him. Yes, AMC is either too cheap, or in over it's head w/ hit shows, but Weiner is not helping.
Kurt Sutter(Sons of Anarchy) went off on via Twitter, for him for killing Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead(essenentially doomed w/o Darabont). Sutter quit Twitter after his blow up.
I was under the impression BB was on its way out at the behest of the shows creators long before AMC was a concern?
Hell, story has it that Jesse was set to be killed off at the end of Season 1 before the writers strike/seeing his performance. And I'll be sad to see it go, but given the way things are headed - I don't think lasting much longer is in the shows best interest. See: Showtime, Dexter.
I also heard AMC told the makers of The Killing to keep going with red herrings so as to forestall the big payment they would have to make when they reveal who the killer is.
Interesting premise. However, I saw an episode the other night-did not see much focus on the truckers. They can't get into the real [expletive] that goes on at the Budget Inn either...maybe not such an interesting premise afteralll.
This is incorrect. Vince Gilligan has said all along that he didn't want to overstay his welcome, that he wanted his show to have a planned ending (and not something sloppily put together that's implausible). At one point, I think he even said he'd rather end it too early than too late. And looking at the direction the show is heading, it's pretty apparent that the plausible ending would only need one more season to play out. Anything more than that would be gratuitous and obnoxious. It's a HUGE part of why I'm such a fan of the show.
The problem with so many shows now is that they overstay their welcome. So you wind up with Dexter regurgitating one stupid storyline after another; the Sopranos spending a full season on a gay mobster; Entourage, which hasn't been good in around three years or so; etc... The fact that Gilligan had a calculated idea for an ending and wasn't going to let anyone bully him into stretching it out longer than he wanted is awesome.