What flawed show you just can't leave because it's really that good in certain parts despite its wrongs?

Submitted by eidbio t3_11dbaj6 in television

For me it's For All Mankind. The story is full of plot holes, cheap drama, cold war cliches and characters making the dumbest decisions just for the plot's sake. It's really like a soap opera sometimes, kind of a space Grey's Anatomy. But man, what a fascinating concept this show has. It's so ambitious, imaginative and it presents the alternative history in such a good way. The visuals, the production design, the scale are so great. It really has unlimited potential for where the story could go.

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Away_Ad8907 t1_ja7q8xn wrote

The Handmaid's Tale. It's indulgent, more and more often shallow and dull, and spins its wheels ad infinitum. It has a tenuous handle on its own inconsistent worldbuilding. It undermines key thematic underpinnings of the text with oversimplification, contrived shuffling of plot-armoured characters across the chess board and undercooked efforts to appear intersectional or relevant. Arcs and plots have remained static and stale for some time now.

But it still delivers a few truly excellent scenes a season, the best of those being the ones that contain a compelling or cathartic character beat expertly performed by its talented ensemble, opposed to the jaw-dropping traumas it's known for. And for as much of a traumatic slog as it can be, it mines a surprising amount of comedy out of June and Serena's completely fucked up dynamic, and I'm essentially only still watching to see those two characters interact. Strahovski and Moss pull the best performances out of each other, too.

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IndyRevolution t1_ja976b4 wrote

Main issue with Handmaid's Tale is that it feels like there's no driving force in the writer's room. They will start on plotlines and then immediately abandon them an episode later and characters who are set up to be huge players disappear with no explanation. It just seems like they wanna cover a bunch of bases at once and can't actually decide on what the season's "about" (This is the issue I had with the Candyman reboot movie as well).

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ChanandlerBonng t1_jabe3rl wrote

My issue with The Handmaids Tale is that every season, the first 7 or 8 episodes, nothing happens except long drawn out closeups of Elizabeth Moss.... and then the final two episodes are OH MY GOD THAT WAS AWESOME I CAN'T WAIT FOR NEXT SEASON LET'S GOOOO!!!!

.... and I fall for it every time.

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thrilling_me_softly t1_ja8fhtb wrote

The Magicians, it is over now and many parts of it are bad but I could never get it up. I knew most of the episode would be a little annoying but I truly look forwarded to it every week.

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zomboromcom t1_ja8pbgf wrote

> I could never get it up

See your local hedge. I think they have a spell for that.

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WredditSmark t1_ja90nml wrote

Yellowjackets.

It’s like a CW show mixed with True Detective

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just_some_dummy_ t1_ja7wybq wrote

Banshee is like a soft core porn soap opera. Things happen because the plot needs, its garunteed the main character will bang the new girl that shows up, its way over the top, implausible and sometimes just nonsensical.

But its so god damn entertaining. The action, the characters, the story isn't bad if you can suspend your belief. Antony Star is great and he really helps carry the show a bit imo, as well as Ulrich Thomsen who plays one of the most interesting villains I've seen in awhile.

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theyusedthelamppost t1_ja96mvj wrote

Cobra Kai has plenty of flaws, but it's a no-doubter that I must binge ASAP when a new season releases

It's such a fun, easy watch. Johnny's humor alone makes it easily worth it.

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IndyRevolution t1_ja96mht wrote

Legend Of Vox Machina is bogged down by extremely lowbrow and unfunny comedy sequences, as well as rushed pacing (in part due to wasting time with said comedy sequences). Every single time I vocalize this critique, I'm hit with "So...like a DnD game????" (I am not being hyperbolic when I say I get this reply literally every time), which ignores the fact that A: They actively torpedo dramatic moments from the material it adapts for the sake of comedic subversion and B: You do not need to adapt literally every aspect of material and it goes without saying that lowbrow humor is infinitely funnier in improv than it is scripted for a number of reasons.

I stick with it because it has a genuinely good underlying story it's adapting and shows competency in adapting it when it's willing to take itself seriously. If the show hadn't gone with the constant "THIS ISN'T YOUR GRANDAD'S FANTASY SHOW" moments (it literally starts out with a "The Fellowship of the Ring died XD" style scene), then it might even have Invincible levels of good word of mouth and viewership.

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rjdsf1993 t1_jab3pnw wrote

I think that was a very big issue in season 1 (specifically the first 4 or 5 episodes before we're consistently in Whitestone) but season 2 has handled it much better (though not perfect). Most of the humor in season 2 has been bouncing characters off each other outside of a few quick instances

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JayPtl t1_ja7yt42 wrote

I second For all mankind. On HBO it could've been something else.

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sara-ragnarsdottir t1_ja809zf wrote

I mean, Apple made Severance, so it's not like they don't know what quality is. And HBO made Westworld, and we all know how it ended. I guess I don't need to explain further.

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Lil_Mcgee t1_jaaj9m8 wrote

When Westworld was where Severance is at now it was critically acclaimed.

Might not be the best two shows to make your point.

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sara-ragnarsdottir t1_jabmlfc wrote

And then it went downhill. My point is that HBO doesn't ALWAYS mean quality. Want another example? Lovecraft Country, one of the worst shows I've ever watched with a great potential, and, again, it was on HBO.

To sum it up: For All Mankind would have probably been the same show that it is now even if it was on HBO, there's no way to prove that it would have been improved when HBO itself dropped the ball many times in the past.

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Lil_Mcgee t1_jac4j3q wrote

I wasn't saying it was inherently a bad point, just that those were bad examples because Severance could easily go the way of Westworld.

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ShawarmaDepot t1_ja9lf13 wrote

I watch The Blacklist just for James Spader.

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thisnameisused t1_ja9vyy6 wrote

Succession - The characters are all annoying, don’t think the dialogue is all that funny/witty/insightful, and am bored half the time because it’s so sadistically self-indulgent.

I enjoy when it takes itself more seriously as a drama and some of the analysis is interesting. It has gotten more engaging over time, so I’ll finish it, but I’m just not seeing the same show all the critics and fans are seeing.

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Kingofthegnome t1_ja8q3rs wrote

A million Little things. The show is incompetent but so well cast and 50% of the time they are great but the writing is insane.

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MGD109 t1_ja96cm1 wrote

I used to have this with Riverdale. The plot went to crazy town after season one (and even before that it was only so good), characters changed each week and it felt like the writers were picking what they were going to do, who liked who, who was sleeping with who, who dies etc. it by throwing darts at list, and overall it was just ridiculously campy.

But to their credit the actors were clearly trying their best with the material available, the cinematography and set design was utterly beautiful well beyond a show of its quality should have any right to be and the action sequences were surprising impressive, and well camp can be kind of fun its own way if you don't take it to seriously.

Then it just got to silly even for that to justify it and I dropped it.

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stalkythefish t1_jabh2l4 wrote

Doctor Who. Constantly retconning and breaking continuity but it has its moments.

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Mentoman72 t1_jaa7ow3 wrote

Yeah that longer I've sat in season 3 of FAM the less I've liked it in my mind. I'll be there for season 4 but honestly it needs to be really good if I'm going to keep watching. I don't think it's unsalvagable at all for the record and the last few of episodes of season 2 are pretty fucking incredible.

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eidbio OP t1_jaa81ji wrote

I think S4 will be more grounded. The creators said it'll explore the Soviet Union. S3 had many dumb plots, but I still think it set interesting directions for the story.

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Mentoman72 t1_jaaa78o wrote

They honestly just seemed like they needed more time to develop the 90s and the journey to Mars. And I guess the further from earth they get the more Sci fi it will become but it just didn't feel as grounded at all.

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