Unpopular Entertainment Opinions • Page 80

Tenuous definition of human being there.


Also yeeeessssss US of Tara rewatch party at my house!

 

Yeah every show I’ve seen from Sorkin sucks ass

 

Hey remember when he devoted an entire series to publicly ragging on his ex? Truly the height of charm.

 

*rolls eyes* the cool people have arrived

 

I don't understand the "prestive TV shows" category. I mean those are praised for good reason, but I've seen so many people refuse to watch anything else that the term irks me.

 

Nobody who likes Sports Night is in any sort of position to rag on The Good Place

 

Agreed.

 

Watch anything else like what?

 

???

 

It's on my list!!

 

On the subject of the "prestige dramas", I've slowly started watching them. Up until literally like two years ago I only watched comedies, but I've now seen stuff like Game of Thrones and Mr. Robot, and plan on starting Breaking Bad really soon now that the new movie is coming out, and watching Westworld when that show comes back. Like I said I've never seen Mad Men but I'll probably watch it at some point, and I don't know if Walking Dead counts as one of those shows but I have absolutely no desire to watch it. I'll stick to the amazing Telltale games being my only exposure to that universe

 

As a TWD fan who still watches to this day, I can say with absolute certainty it does not count as a prestige-level show. It has a handful of incredible episodes but it has been very inconsistent to say the least - If the likes of Mad Men and Breaking Bad are 'A' grade shows, TWD would be like a 'C'. The Telltale games have a much better reputation I'd say!

 

Shows that I don't see referred as being on a prestige level. Idk, it just makes me think those people are missing out. I guess I'm not understanding what exactly makes a show "prestige", especially when I see people count the flawed and inconsistent Westworld and The Walking Dead on the same list as the usual The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, The Wire (I need to watch that one asap), Mad Men, etc.

 

The Walking Dead is more like an E.

 

What show was that?

 

I think I just have no interest in prestige TV I guess

 

I think The Newsroom is p good for the most part and has a good cast

 

“Stave Jobs” is a fantastic movie and “Moneyball” is perfect. Otherwise, I don’t really care about Sorkin’s other work.

 

I agree, disliking Sorkin is a "cool guy" thing

 

Studio 60. He also had another character based on an ex in The Newsroom but I don’t know as much about that one. I think even among his diehard fans that aspect of his work has generally been criticized.

And “prestige TV” is a term that still works as a kind of shorthand, but it’s been diluted and changed so much and the amount of high-quality content has increased so much that it is much harder to pin down what defines it. There are certainly quite a few shows I can think of quickly that never seem to fall under that umbrella despite having most of the general characteristics, and a few with the reverse problem of being included despite being very different.

I can’t remember it ever being used to describe TWD though, but maybe I just blocked that from my memory for being too silly.

 

Anytime Sorkin comes up here, I gotta post this

 

This is a pretty good article for laying out some examples of prestige TV while also acknowledging many times over just how amorphous a title it is and how often inclusion or exclusion makes zero sense.

From Mad Men to Atlanta: 15 shows that define prestige TV

The linked Vulture article is also great for calling out some of the more annoying aspects of discussion about them.

 

I can fully admit that Studio 60 was not a good show and that Sorkin himself has some major problems that bleed into his work too often.

However, I stand by The West Wing being a good show and that most of his other stuff is pretty good. I'm not hailing him as sort of TV God or anything.

 

The West Wing is definitely a solid show, I like it a lot less every time I've rewatched it (like 3 times over 8 years or something) but I have rewatched it that many times, so, you know, lol. The reason I think its his best though is because the premise justifies the self importance inherent in everything he writes, Newsroom and Studio 60 have the same self importance but are about things that absolutely should not be that self important lol.

The politics of WW have always been shit though. And can you imagine Social Network without Fincher? Just a movie about how cool and badass Zuckerberg is? good lord

 

We need to steer this convo toward “Moneyball” haha. Love it