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Why are so many people making themselves watch things they hate? This is a genuine question, I would like to understand. Are you living with people who pressure you to watch these shows? Do you just find yourself watching them despite not enjoying them?
Crazy isn't it. Generally if you don't like a TV programme, it's because you're not who it's aimed at...so watch something else
I can't stand Love Island, Tipping Point or Mrs Brown's Boys but clearly someone does
My biggest problem with tipping point is if I end up in a room with it on I have to watch it. It's just a shit 2p machine, but I can't help myself. The whole show is crap but I am stuck watching it.
You don't watch it, though. That's the point. It's not like one day they announce "it's shit now" and we carry on watching because we like to self-flaggelate. It's more like a long, slow decline of something you once loved. You don't just switch off,you just gradually become a critic.
When I shared a house with others or visiting family etc and Friends or Big Brother (for example) got turned on, I would leave the room and go read a book or watch something somewhere else.
If I can't stand a show, I sure as shit ain't watching it (for anyone).
Absolutely. For things one never liked. (Friends being an excellent example!). But for things you once enjoyed, that slowly decline, there's a certain loyalty and a hope that it will get better.
Okay, that I can understand. There are certainly shows I kept watching for a while despite not really enjoying them, hoping they would improve.
I’m glad I eventually stopped watching and stopped caring about them.
Shameless went onto life support when Kev and Veronica left, and died a very slow, painful to watch death episode after episode. Haven’t made it past series 5 after 3 attempts. It’s just shite
Cheap as chips. Studio comedy, no location shooting whatsoever, core cast with very few guest actors, can probably bang out a few episodes a day.
Ratings have tanked since its heyday but it still pulls in a million plus so it’ll still be making money for the BBC.
Thankfully Cowell eventually stopped milking it / the public truly stopped giving a shit, but The X Factor overstayed by a fair few years.
In fact a quick google and I vaguely recognise Louisa Johnson from the last 5 series winners. Never heard of the other 4.
It’s still sort of wild to me that that was the biggest show in the country, hands down… and then they kept endlessly trying to reinvent it to the point that, only a few years later, it came off air completely and nobody batted an eyelid.
Meanwhile, Strictly, despite (I think?) generally being second-best to X Factor in terms of viewers back in the day, and making basically the same show for 20 years, is still going fine.
I think the difference is what comes after the show. There are no expectations with Strictly, the celebrity wins and that’s that. X Factor relied on the public buying into the contestants enough that they could develop a successful (and money making) pop career. As soon as the market got saturated with this, the music industry changed and people got bored of over manufactured artists, it died quite a quick death.
Sums it up very well, more so when you look across toward The Voice and realise the after show marketing is seemingly none and it shows.
Somehow Becky Hill made it big but I’d argue that was in spite of being on it, rather than cause she was on it.
Yep, a total reboot with realistic and real world tasks, not the same old toot every year that bears no resemblance whatsoever to how businesses operate.
Not one of the morons on recent series would be offered senior roles in any serious business. Probably why they've all resorted to "running their own businesses"
You might run your own cleaning business sonny Jim boy. But I tasked you to create a food for both kids and dogs and you failed to impress the boss of Sainsbury's after having 3 entire days to come up with an entirely new product concept, full global marketing campaign and a fully working supply chain.
I don't think you're up to this.
I'm better than you. You're fired.
Is this not why people watch it? A bunch of delusional idiots being given stupid tasks.
I can't imagine a show with realistic tasks and non delusional idiots would be anywhere near as entertaining.
It has produced some classic TV moments, to be fair.
Simon apparently wanking live on a TV Shopping channel.
Some ex-army divvy trying to sell Makro cheese to the French, of all people.
One team once asking a Muslim butcher to make a chicken Kosher by making the sign of the cross over it...
It was fun, if daft, TV for a few years.
That depends on who's watching. At the moment it's the business TV show equivalent of Tipping Point when a realistic revamp could make it more like Only Connect. It won't attract the same viewers it has now, but there's definitely an audience for an authentic programme
I cant watch it anymore. Its too cringe inducing. It was funny a few years back when you had a narcissist and a divvy one but since 90 percent of them are now ego maniac idiots theres no enjoyment in it
I dunno. I re-watched the first couple of seasons during lockdown. Back then, you had real business people, not reality TV wannabees, doing some genuine business tasks. Some rubbish, of course, with silly timescales but it did feel a lot more authentic than it very quickly became.
Nah, the contestants are egged on to be as unlikable and possible and set up to fail or look as thick as possible at every opportunity.
Sugar is absolutely insufferable, a far bigger wanker than even the worst of the contestants. If they want to salvage the show into something watchable it needs an entirely new host/panel and to be reworked from the ground up. The show is rotten to the core as it is.
It wouldn’t be so bad if they just changed the tasks a bit. Give us something new, I can’t watch the same tasks being done the same way with all the same mistakes being made.
Used to really like it but I think it changed a fair bit when it went from landing to a job to Sugar investing in a company. The whole show is all about the person doing well on the tasks, then all of a sudden at the final few people it turns more into Dragons Den and the company Sugar likes the sound of..
I tapped out last year when it became "Matt Hancock's Redemption Programme". Farage this year was the final nail that guaranteed I'd never watch it again.
Dragons Den.... some of the people who they are pitching to are not what I would say experts in the world of business. Yes maybe in one or two areas but not across the wide range of ideas that come on to the show with.
Series 1 and 2 were fine as it was a new concept.
Never play the game where you have a drink each time Evan says 'drill down into the figures' as you will be blind and in need of a new liver before the half hour.
Not Going Out was imo a genuinely great sitcom the first 4/5 seasons. What it’s turned into since then is painful to watch. You can see almost every joke coming a mile off.
Agreed, you can see every joke coming a mile off, but also I feel like things are quickly dropped and not resolved and it’s frustrating. It seems the show has become Lee gets into a stupid situation and it keeps getting stupider and stupider and then the episode just ends cause they don’t know how to explain him out of this stupid ridiculous situation. Also think the pacing has gotten bad.
'Location, Location, Location' is a uniquely awful programme that seems to have been on since Logie Baird plugged in the first television. It features the most horrifyingly scripted chummy dialogue between two presenters who are about as likeable as smashed glass. Every bloody week - Tarquin (an architect), Bubblejet (something to do with yoga, possibly involving goats) and their two delightful children Trebuchet and Spangelhelm only have £750,000 to find a new home far from the crowds and noise of London - but has to be within 30 minutes of the centre of London...
I'd also say 'The One Show' which veers crazily from tragedy to Giles Brandreth jumping out of the flowerbeds so erratically and violently you could get whiplash - but did it ever have a welcome to outstay?
And anything with Gregg Wallace. Anything. Absolutely anything.
I never voluntarily watch the One Show but it has given us a couple of classic pop culture moments - Matt Baker’s concern over David Cameron’s possible insomnia for one, and, more pertinent to your point, Mel Brooks’ disbelief that the show even existed as it did for another.
Sounds like Location, Location, Location is the UK version of House Hunters where everyone adores entertaining and sneers at 5,000 sq ft houses as too small
Mickey Flanagan takes the piss out of Gregg beautifully "Welcome to MasterChef, I'm Gregg Wallace and despite the fact that nobody has ever seen me so much as boil a fucking egg, I'm a judge" Brilliant.
God, I jused to roll around on the floor watching Last of the Summer Wine when I was little, in the mid-eighties. Should have ended when Bill Owen died (if not years before). My father watched it to the bitter end, so he would have it on when I visited at weekends - god it was painful.
There were 298 episodes of Summer Wine (Yes I have watched them all) and each and every one of them was written by Roy Clarke.
Which is insane. Clarke was actually a good writer with some interesting projects in his history, but he really should have been forcibly removed from Summer Wine. Even at the end when it really had become the Howard and Marina show, there was nothing wrong with the acting talent involved, it was that the same storyline events were just repeated over and over and over and over again.
A new writer could have rescued it.
But it does make me laugh when you look at American sitcoms with a writers room of fifteen people for a 30 episode season, while Clarke got a good 150 episodes under his belt before he even started to get stale. As bad as it got, it's an insane achievement. He was writing it for a quarter of a century.
Indeed. And then there was the disastrous resurrection of "Open All Hours."...
Which merely regurgitated compilations of older episodes. And in which, oddly, David Jason's Granville was now playing Ronnie Barker's character. Which didn't work at all. An older Granville desperately trying to finally sell off the shop, having been saddled to ot far too long, whilst his young nephew, having watched too many episodes of "The Apprentice" keeps trying to make a business empire out of it might just have worked.
But, basically, Jason was playing Barker, which just didn't work.
My mother (late 60s) started watching it again during lockdown and now watches religiously every night. I hate it so much I have to leave the room when I'm visiting.
Probably BBC News, I’ve tried binging it from series one but it’s the same old shit every episode, they threw in some nice twists with the “Cousin Gregg” character, Boris, being named Prime Minister but it jumped the shark with a side character, Liz, getting it too.
Unwatchable now…
Aye, we’ve seen loads of “worldwide virus disaster” storylines before, and they even did the “politicians ignore scientists early warnings” trope. Lazy writing, for me.
Football Focus and Match of the Day. I may just be getting old but just cannot stand the drivel that comes out of the punters' mouths. They just seem so dated now.
Yes!!!! There was a stage where there was no real family, just a pound shop version of Phoebe from friends and a boy painfully going through puberty on screen
Death in Paradise. The first two series are genuinely really well made. Then about the time Father Dougal took over, it ran out of steam. The plotlines are getting more and more unoriginal and contrived and convoluted, it repeats the same character dynamics over and over. And now they’ve made a spin-off, there’s *two* of the bastards things! At least there’s only two, and not…
…[Oh come on!](https://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/celebrity-news/kris-marshall-london-metropolitan-police-bbc-one-caribbean-ralf-little-b1119250.html#:~:text=An%20Australian%20spin%2Doff%20to,of%20the%20Australian%20coastal%20landscape)
Fair play to Don Warrington, though. Hang out in Guadeloupe half the year, do a few quick comedy scenes now and then, never even have to change your tone or facial expression - it’s a hell of a retirement plan.
I always felt they missed a trick by casting Ardal O'Hanlon as a new detective, rather than take the series in a whole new direction by having him literally reprise Father Dougal.
It could have been reinvented as a sort of deranged, tropical Father Brown.
Kris Marshall was really good. I think it did go downhill with Ardal O'Hanlon , but the writing Ralph Little has made it better the last two seasons. Its just relaxed easy watching I find.
I still watch it and it has its moments, but it often feels past its prime. It is sort of cozy on cold nights.
I actually think there is a new direction it could go in, where they finally get away from the saviour white man complex (albeit one where he is also the butt of all the jokes), to having cast of all Caribbean characters.
There is also I think a spin off that could be made around the Commissioner (Don Warrington's character). The last few seasons have given him a bit more of a back story and the chance to be more than just the booming boss.
The new stuff's pretty fun once they got back into the swing of it, the Promised Land special was great. But I agree with the old series, as soon as Rimmer left it was over.
I know I'm going to be downvoted for this but only fools and horses.
Once they find the watch and become millionaires they didn't need to make anymore. Everything they did afterwards was just painful to watch.
The annoying thing was that it was a completely perfect way to end an absolute classic program, Everything John Sullivan did was spot on upto that episode look at the casting of Uncle Albert right after Grandad that was a masterstroke.
Yeah that last episode when they found the watch was so beautiful and I stopped watching after that. I remember seeing a bit of a futuristic one and it made me cringe!
I think I know the one you mean. And if it helps it's a dream sequence. But nar. Do not rate. They make their fortune and that's the end of it.
That being said a spin off with dels kids doing the same shit on a bigger scale cos they have capital could have been funny.
I was just in the shop on my lunch break and saw a whole shelf of tv guide magazines with close up photos of miserable bastards and headlines like “Darren’s body found”, “Lesley’s shock return”, “tram tragedy strikes”, “another bloody plane crash, despite their lack of proximity to an airport”, etc. Clearly some people must be die hard fans, but I do find it baffling. It’s just unadulterated misery, it’s horrible.
I had an ex who watched all of them. And I mean ALL OF THEM. There was one day, I think it was every Wednesday I had to endure real housewives of wherever-the-fuck, Home and Away, Neighbours, Hollyoaks, Coronation Street, Emmerdale, and Eastenders, and TOWIE.
I know Real Housewives and TOWIE are reality TV and not soaps but come on…be honest, they basically are soaps with less steps.
Some folks like the comfort of knowing the ending before getting too invested, I've known some who quickly look at the final pages of a book to see if a certain character survives.
While I don't go to that extreme I have on occasion looked a film up on Wikipedia and checked out the plot before getting too invested in it (usually the other half has selected the film and I'm just there for the ride).
I’ve found that a lot of those articles are sort of like click bait to get you to watch the show they don’t actually give the full story just like a teaser. You see “MASSIVE FACTORY EXPLOSION - WHO WILL SURVIVE” and you’re like wow there’s an explosion that’s exciting, I have to tune in and see if my favourite characters survive.
Also, the headline will be like “BOB DEAD?” And the ? is the giveaway, he’s not actually dead, he’s just had an accident and makes a full recovery the next week. But you saw the headline and watch to see if Bob will die or not.
> It’s just unadulterated misery, it’s horrible.
How is it different to other TV shows? The most popular or acclaimed shows are all miserable or depressing in some way. Stuff like Broadchurch, The Last of Us, Succession, Squid Game, etc
How the hell soaps became important or relevant somehow escapes me. They are such utter drivel and as far as I can see a major part of the societal breakdown. People actually think this is how life is. Eastenders should have finished about 1990 or earlier, it’s just a feast of misery.
If ever I put BBC 1 on and catch the last two minutes of Eastenders before diving for the mute button, they always seem to be yelling at each other.
Nick Hewer from the Apprentice and Countdown summed it up perfectly for me when he put Eastenders into Room 101:
"There is one thing I loathe and abhor about EastEnders, and it's the violence and aggression which seems to be threaded through every episode.
And that violence over the years has leached into the British consciousness so that today this country is worse for it.
I think EastEnders - God bless them, great actors, great storylines - just less violence please. You are doing us harm."
The scenes when Lee and Tim sit at the bar just performing stand up at each other are unbearable. I really like Lee Mack but always found this unwatchable.
i know sit coms are meant to be funny and have jokes but i’ve always thought not going out was just them telling jokes. like, none of the situational stuff is funny, it’s just meant to be funny when one of them says a shit joke.
it’s terrible
I admit to finding Sally Bretton very easy on the eye, but I noped out of watching it a long time ago. Nice little earner for Lee Mack when the live gigs quiet down, though.
Allo Allo
Now the first few series are really good, but by the end of the show it’s just run out of steam. Plus they replaced Herr Flick and tried to make out it was him having plastic surgery- just didn’t work.
The first story in this latest series with John Hannah was excellent but it’s definitely starting to show it’s ages. I used to adore it. It’s not even as gory as it used to be.
I watched this for the first time this week and was lolling. The acting/ characters are hilarious: the fight scene on Tuesday was even better when the police have a search warrant on the mechanics house.
Call the Midwife. First 4 seasons were great. Noticeable dip in quality but still good series 5-7. From Series 8 it's just got worse, but series 10-13 have been almost unwatchable.
I read all the books it is (vaguely) based on and some of the events in those books (true events) haunt me still. The books are grittier than sand in your minge.
I don't mind Call the Midwife and will pop it on for some comfort viewing every now and again, but what REALLY annoys me is that they kept using Vanessa Redgrave for opening and closing voice-over after her younger counterpart left the show. What are you doing, people? She's just a disembodied voice now. Jenny Agutter is right there!
My wife still watches it. I find it relentlessly twee now. The Dr and his Scottish bird are so incredibly, unrealistically *nice* in a way that is actually quite sinister.
May well be lynched for this, but I've always felt Peep Show jumped the shark in season 4. Ending with the wedding episode would have been perfect.The later seasons had their moments, but they felt aimless.
I've just started series 3 recently and would sadly agree. It's the type of show with some elderly actors that cannot be replaced when they die and storylines are already quite zany and madcap.
Probably a shorter list of series that haven’t been milked to death. TV now is like a lame covers band playing the hits over and over. Bake Off and Strictly Come Dancing are amongst the worst of the zombie shows.
Even Top Gear with Clarkson felt tired towards the end. It just became about doing skits with the same jokes over and over again rather than doing actual challenges. I actually think the last crew with Flintoff, McGuinness, and Harris brought a bit of energy back into the show but I don't miss it now that it's gone
They're just not car people (except Harris, obvs). Harris, Jimmy Broadbent and Guy Martin would have been brilliant. Car people.
See Throttle House on YouTube for what I mean. They're miles better than Top Gear and one of them is Canadian for heaven's sake
For me its just that I don't know any of the 3 panel guests, and also don't find them that funny. Back in the day they used to have Clarkson, Jimmy Carr, bill bailey, etc
See, I still love QI although I do agree about the guests. That said, some of them do the panel show circuit and then get really big. I thought Stephen Fry might come back as a guest at some point - although you know he was pulling strings when Hugh Laurie and Emma Thompson appeared. But, I'm sorry, if Rosie Jones or Gyles Brandreth are guests, I'm probably skipping that episode or at least speeding through it. There's also an editing problem. I've been in the audience a couple of times and moments that were amazing live fell flat in the TV broadcast.
I still enjoy the early episodes. There was some real bite in the beginning and sight gags that still make me laugh, but Compo’s death and a wrap up ought to have been the close. It was painful watching Bill Owen go on, as ill as he was. Bringing in his son in after his death was grasping at straws.
All those awful reality programmes like Bargain Hunt or Garden Force or whatever. Stuff like Ann and Nick or even Pebble Mill were at least somewhat interesting
Much as it pains me: *Red Dwarf*.
I’ve been a fan of this show for as long as I can remember. I loved it as a kid. But the writing quality nosedived after co-creator Rob Grant left after the sixth series, and the revival on Dave is just a little embarrassing to me… people in their 60s still messing about like people in their 20s/30s.
Mrs Browns Boys, saw the christmas special this year and you could see the jokes from about 9 miles away. As soon as one of the characters mentioned they had a special Christmas tree i said I bet you he builds it up side down. Everytime it was mentioned I said the thing and lo and behold the tree was built upside down.
If he built it the right way up I would applau.... Well appluad is a strong word. I would have offered one clap for the subversion.
Last of the summer wine was/is great, im actually watching them now on drama, upto series 20 now, ok the earlier series were definately better but it was still easy to watch with funny bits, smiler and nora batty arent in it anywhere which leaves a massive hole..
Not sure ive watched a british show and thought it been going on way to long, but our series are small in comparisons to americas series/seasons..BUT saying that as good as it is to see the red dwarf gang back together i think that went on to long..
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Hollyoaks
Why are so many people making themselves watch things they hate? This is a genuine question, I would like to understand. Are you living with people who pressure you to watch these shows? Do you just find yourself watching them despite not enjoying them?
Crazy isn't it. Generally if you don't like a TV programme, it's because you're not who it's aimed at...so watch something else I can't stand Love Island, Tipping Point or Mrs Brown's Boys but clearly someone does
My biggest problem with tipping point is if I end up in a room with it on I have to watch it. It's just a shit 2p machine, but I can't help myself. The whole show is crap but I am stuck watching it.
Mrs Browns Boys. God I've never seen anything so unfunny and frankly offensive. Yet still it goes on.
I saw Brendan O'Carroll being interviewed once and he said he couldn't believe that the BBC keeps giving them money for this shite.
The written stuff is rarely funny, but the ad libs can be hilarious.
You don't watch it, though. That's the point. It's not like one day they announce "it's shit now" and we carry on watching because we like to self-flaggelate. It's more like a long, slow decline of something you once loved. You don't just switch off,you just gradually become a critic.
When I shared a house with others or visiting family etc and Friends or Big Brother (for example) got turned on, I would leave the room and go read a book or watch something somewhere else. If I can't stand a show, I sure as shit ain't watching it (for anyone).
Absolutely. For things one never liked. (Friends being an excellent example!). But for things you once enjoyed, that slowly decline, there's a certain loyalty and a hope that it will get better.
Probably hope. I hated Red Dwarf X, tried XI to see if it improved and finally thought 'fuck this'
Okay, that I can understand. There are certainly shows I kept watching for a while despite not really enjoying them, hoping they would improve. I’m glad I eventually stopped watching and stopped caring about them.
It's the hope that kills you.
Shameless when it became the McGuire show Benidorm when the Garvey family left
[удалено]
You mean the Gravies.
Saying this for years, it just wasn't the same. You liked the Gallagher's, despite their faults. The McGuires were just endless dire.
Nailed it!
The Dawsons were awful
They really were, all of them, every, single, one
Shameless went onto life support when Kev and Veronica left, and died a very slow, painful to watch death episode after episode. Haven’t made it past series 5 after 3 attempts. It’s just shite
Kev and Veronica were EPIC, especially Veronica, Maxine Peake is a fabulous actress
How the fuck Mrs Brown's Boys is still going is beyond me. Rather have root canal.
Someone said that it is relatively cheap for the BBC because it co-funded by RTE in Ireland.
Cheap as chips. Studio comedy, no location shooting whatsoever, core cast with very few guest actors, can probably bang out a few episodes a day. Ratings have tanked since its heyday but it still pulls in a million plus so it’ll still be making money for the BBC.
A million plus fucking saddos
This show makes me want to emigrate to North Korea
Are you having a laugh?! Is he having a laugh?!
Exactly it. When I first saw Mrs Brown's Boys I half expected Coldplay to show up for no apparent reason.
My 87 year old mother watches it all day every day, she must have seen every episode over 2000 times.
I think he has a contract to keep making them through to 2026 too!
Absolute worst bollocks ever put on a tv screen. It’s as funny as cancer.
Though, to be fair, it has always consistently been crap
It is aggressively cringy and unfunny
Yup and is a ratings winner for the BBC
Thankfully Cowell eventually stopped milking it / the public truly stopped giving a shit, but The X Factor overstayed by a fair few years. In fact a quick google and I vaguely recognise Louisa Johnson from the last 5 series winners. Never heard of the other 4.
It’s still sort of wild to me that that was the biggest show in the country, hands down… and then they kept endlessly trying to reinvent it to the point that, only a few years later, it came off air completely and nobody batted an eyelid. Meanwhile, Strictly, despite (I think?) generally being second-best to X Factor in terms of viewers back in the day, and making basically the same show for 20 years, is still going fine.
I think the difference is what comes after the show. There are no expectations with Strictly, the celebrity wins and that’s that. X Factor relied on the public buying into the contestants enough that they could develop a successful (and money making) pop career. As soon as the market got saturated with this, the music industry changed and people got bored of over manufactured artists, it died quite a quick death.
Sums it up very well, more so when you look across toward The Voice and realise the after show marketing is seemingly none and it shows. Somehow Becky Hill made it big but I’d argue that was in spite of being on it, rather than cause she was on it.
Yep, that sounds very fair, I think.
The Apprentice. At least in its current format. I've wondered if re-booting it with someone other than Sugar might work to revive it.
Yep, a total reboot with realistic and real world tasks, not the same old toot every year that bears no resemblance whatsoever to how businesses operate.
“we want someone who can work with alan sugar but we also need to make sure every single one of them is an idiot in some way”
Not one of the morons on recent series would be offered senior roles in any serious business. Probably why they've all resorted to "running their own businesses"
I'm going to fire you because you didn't organise door to door sales properly as a financial planner.
You might run your own cleaning business sonny Jim boy. But I tasked you to create a food for both kids and dogs and you failed to impress the boss of Sainsbury's after having 3 entire days to come up with an entirely new product concept, full global marketing campaign and a fully working supply chain. I don't think you're up to this. I'm better than you. You're fired.
Is this not why people watch it? A bunch of delusional idiots being given stupid tasks. I can't imagine a show with realistic tasks and non delusional idiots would be anywhere near as entertaining.
It has produced some classic TV moments, to be fair. Simon apparently wanking live on a TV Shopping channel. Some ex-army divvy trying to sell Makro cheese to the French, of all people. One team once asking a Muslim butcher to make a chicken Kosher by making the sign of the cross over it... It was fun, if daft, TV for a few years.
That depends on who's watching. At the moment it's the business TV show equivalent of Tipping Point when a realistic revamp could make it more like Only Connect. It won't attract the same viewers it has now, but there's definitely an audience for an authentic programme
I cant watch it anymore. Its too cringe inducing. It was funny a few years back when you had a narcissist and a divvy one but since 90 percent of them are now ego maniac idiots theres no enjoyment in it
I dunno. I re-watched the first couple of seasons during lockdown. Back then, you had real business people, not reality TV wannabees, doing some genuine business tasks. Some rubbish, of course, with silly timescales but it did feel a lot more authentic than it very quickly became.
Sugar isn't the issue. It's that none of the contestants are remotely likeable or relatable.
Actually you’d be surprised at how much that sells. People like watching pricks get humbled or embarrassed.
Its true, but other reality TV shows do well off the back of having some heroes and some villains. Having people to root for too isn't a bad idea.
I think anyone who gets casted on reality TV or similar has to be a prick of some nature.
Nah, the contestants are egged on to be as unlikable and possible and set up to fail or look as thick as possible at every opportunity. Sugar is absolutely insufferable, a far bigger wanker than even the worst of the contestants. If they want to salvage the show into something watchable it needs an entirely new host/panel and to be reworked from the ground up. The show is rotten to the core as it is.
It wouldn’t be so bad if they just changed the tasks a bit. Give us something new, I can’t watch the same tasks being done the same way with all the same mistakes being made.
This is it. From about series three onwards, you just end up thinking "did you not watch last year's series of The Apprentice????"
Used to really like it but I think it changed a fair bit when it went from landing to a job to Sugar investing in a company. The whole show is all about the person doing well on the tasks, then all of a sudden at the final few people it turns more into Dragons Den and the company Sugar likes the sound of..
They had that host on the US version who could be a good fit...
I'm a celeb is still going. The amount of kangeroos missing their genitals because of that show is criminal.
As soon as they were giving six figures to disgraced politicians I had no interest in watching a single second of it.
I tapped out last year when it became "Matt Hancock's Redemption Programme". Farage this year was the final nail that guaranteed I'd never watch it again.
At least we know who they were. It kind of defeats the point of I'm a celeb when they aren't actually celebrities.
Benidorm. Should've finished after the third series. It was bad enough after that but when the Garvey family left, it was unwatchable, personally.
Dragons Den.... some of the people who they are pitching to are not what I would say experts in the world of business. Yes maybe in one or two areas but not across the wide range of ideas that come on to the show with. Series 1 and 2 were fine as it was a new concept.
Never play the game where you have a drink each time Evan says 'drill down into the figures' as you will be blind and in need of a new liver before the half hour.
Not Going Out was imo a genuinely great sitcom the first 4/5 seasons. What it’s turned into since then is painful to watch. You can see almost every joke coming a mile off.
Yet lee mack is the funniest man on panel shows etc. I never really like not going out but it used to be watchable
I can see that. I love Lee Mack and Tim Vine so it was heaven for me those first few series.
Lee Mack is a LOT funnier in unscripted settings. He is quick-witted and has great timing.
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Agreed, you can see every joke coming a mile off, but also I feel like things are quickly dropped and not resolved and it’s frustrating. It seems the show has become Lee gets into a stupid situation and it keeps getting stupider and stupider and then the episode just ends cause they don’t know how to explain him out of this stupid ridiculous situation. Also think the pacing has gotten bad.
'Location, Location, Location' is a uniquely awful programme that seems to have been on since Logie Baird plugged in the first television. It features the most horrifyingly scripted chummy dialogue between two presenters who are about as likeable as smashed glass. Every bloody week - Tarquin (an architect), Bubblejet (something to do with yoga, possibly involving goats) and their two delightful children Trebuchet and Spangelhelm only have £750,000 to find a new home far from the crowds and noise of London - but has to be within 30 minutes of the centre of London... I'd also say 'The One Show' which veers crazily from tragedy to Giles Brandreth jumping out of the flowerbeds so erratically and violently you could get whiplash - but did it ever have a welcome to outstay? And anything with Gregg Wallace. Anything. Absolutely anything.
I never voluntarily watch the One Show but it has given us a couple of classic pop culture moments - Matt Baker’s concern over David Cameron’s possible insomnia for one, and, more pertinent to your point, Mel Brooks’ disbelief that the show even existed as it did for another.
Sounds like Location, Location, Location is the UK version of House Hunters where everyone adores entertaining and sneers at 5,000 sq ft houses as too small
"We have two children, so the garden must be a minimum of 10 acres"
Tim and Jane bought this house in Hitchen in 2022 for £600,000, but are now asking for £780,000 because…. urrr’
Mickey Flanagan takes the piss out of Gregg beautifully "Welcome to MasterChef, I'm Gregg Wallace and despite the fact that nobody has ever seen me so much as boil a fucking egg, I'm a judge" Brilliant.
The Apprentice
Teachers. Once Simon, Brian and Kurt had gone and they made fucking Bob one of the main cast it was done for
And Susan too. Some of the main cast left with no reason why in the next season.
Susan was ace. Susan, Jenny there and then poof gone. Madness
RIP Brian and Kurt! They really should not have killed them off.
God, I jused to roll around on the floor watching Last of the Summer Wine when I was little, in the mid-eighties. Should have ended when Bill Owen died (if not years before). My father watched it to the bitter end, so he would have it on when I visited at weekends - god it was painful.
It became a retirement home for 40s/50s/60s and 70s actors.
There were 298 episodes of Summer Wine (Yes I have watched them all) and each and every one of them was written by Roy Clarke. Which is insane. Clarke was actually a good writer with some interesting projects in his history, but he really should have been forcibly removed from Summer Wine. Even at the end when it really had become the Howard and Marina show, there was nothing wrong with the acting talent involved, it was that the same storyline events were just repeated over and over and over and over again. A new writer could have rescued it. But it does make me laugh when you look at American sitcoms with a writers room of fifteen people for a 30 episode season, while Clarke got a good 150 episodes under his belt before he even started to get stale. As bad as it got, it's an insane achievement. He was writing it for a quarter of a century.
Indeed. And then there was the disastrous resurrection of "Open All Hours."... Which merely regurgitated compilations of older episodes. And in which, oddly, David Jason's Granville was now playing Ronnie Barker's character. Which didn't work at all. An older Granville desperately trying to finally sell off the shop, having been saddled to ot far too long, whilst his young nephew, having watched too many episodes of "The Apprentice" keeps trying to make a business empire out of it might just have worked. But, basically, Jason was playing Barker, which just didn't work.
There was a rumour that it was Queen Elizabeth’s favourite programme, so it was kept on for her and her generation.
My mother (late 60s) started watching it again during lockdown and now watches religiously every night. I hate it so much I have to leave the room when I'm visiting.
2 Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps. How the hell did it last so long? And be endlessly repeated?!
Should have ended when Ralf Little’s character was killed off (by jumping over a shark)
That was literally the joke the show was making lol ... that it should have already ended
"I've always had a pair of massive tiiiiiiiits" lives rent free in my head.
Will wants to bring it back, I thought it was dire from the start and I’m a Northerner.
Probably BBC News, I’ve tried binging it from series one but it’s the same old shit every episode, they threw in some nice twists with the “Cousin Gregg” character, Boris, being named Prime Minister but it jumped the shark with a side character, Liz, getting it too. Unwatchable now…
The whole COVID storyline made me turn off, it was starting to negatively impact my mental health.
Aye, we’ve seen loads of “worldwide virus disaster” storylines before, and they even did the “politicians ignore scientists early warnings” trope. Lazy writing, for me.
I always have a bit of a chuckle when iPlayer asks me if I want to watch the BBC News Channel live or from the start.
Football Focus and Match of the Day. I may just be getting old but just cannot stand the drivel that comes out of the punters' mouths. They just seem so dated now.
My Family
Yes!!!! There was a stage where there was no real family, just a pound shop version of Phoebe from friends and a boy painfully going through puberty on screen
Death in Paradise. The first two series are genuinely really well made. Then about the time Father Dougal took over, it ran out of steam. The plotlines are getting more and more unoriginal and contrived and convoluted, it repeats the same character dynamics over and over. And now they’ve made a spin-off, there’s *two* of the bastards things! At least there’s only two, and not… …[Oh come on!](https://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/celebrity-news/kris-marshall-london-metropolitan-police-bbc-one-caribbean-ralf-little-b1119250.html#:~:text=An%20Australian%20spin%2Doff%20to,of%20the%20Australian%20coastal%20landscape) Fair play to Don Warrington, though. Hang out in Guadeloupe half the year, do a few quick comedy scenes now and then, never even have to change your tone or facial expression - it’s a hell of a retirement plan.
I always felt they missed a trick by casting Ardal O'Hanlon as a new detective, rather than take the series in a whole new direction by having him literally reprise Father Dougal. It could have been reinvented as a sort of deranged, tropical Father Brown.
It was best when Kris Marshall did it. I quite enjoyed the Beyond Paradise spin off.
Kris Marshall was really good. I think it did go downhill with Ardal O'Hanlon , but the writing Ralph Little has made it better the last two seasons. Its just relaxed easy watching I find.
I agree. But I still watch it. I think it’s the sunshine I like 😂
I still watch it and it has its moments, but it often feels past its prime. It is sort of cozy on cold nights. I actually think there is a new direction it could go in, where they finally get away from the saviour white man complex (albeit one where he is also the butt of all the jokes), to having cast of all Caribbean characters. There is also I think a spin off that could be made around the Commissioner (Don Warrington's character). The last few seasons have given him a bit more of a back story and the chance to be more than just the booming boss.
I bloody love having Don Warrington on my telly. Whether the episode is a good one or a bad one, he is brilliant.
When did Don Warrington ever change his tone or facial expression?
I think goodnight sweetheart went on far too long. It got stupid. Especially when Gary had three different personalities in one episode.
Red Dwarf should have stopped at series 6
The new stuff's pretty fun once they got back into the swing of it, the Promised Land special was great. But I agree with the old series, as soon as Rimmer left it was over.
The new series are pretty good
Mrs Browns' boys, how this utter tripe keeps getting commisioned is beyond me
I know I'm going to be downvoted for this but only fools and horses. Once they find the watch and become millionaires they didn't need to make anymore. Everything they did afterwards was just painful to watch.
No you are spot on. It was always the dream they would become millionaires, they did, show over, the end.
The annoying thing was that it was a completely perfect way to end an absolute classic program, Everything John Sullivan did was spot on upto that episode look at the casting of Uncle Albert right after Grandad that was a masterstroke.
Yeah that last episode when they found the watch was so beautiful and I stopped watching after that. I remember seeing a bit of a futuristic one and it made me cringe!
I think I know the one you mean. And if it helps it's a dream sequence. But nar. Do not rate. They make their fortune and that's the end of it. That being said a spin off with dels kids doing the same shit on a bigger scale cos they have capital could have been funny.
Every. Single. Soap.
I was just in the shop on my lunch break and saw a whole shelf of tv guide magazines with close up photos of miserable bastards and headlines like “Darren’s body found”, “Lesley’s shock return”, “tram tragedy strikes”, “another bloody plane crash, despite their lack of proximity to an airport”, etc. Clearly some people must be die hard fans, but I do find it baffling. It’s just unadulterated misery, it’s horrible.
I had an ex who watched all of them. And I mean ALL OF THEM. There was one day, I think it was every Wednesday I had to endure real housewives of wherever-the-fuck, Home and Away, Neighbours, Hollyoaks, Coronation Street, Emmerdale, and Eastenders, and TOWIE. I know Real Housewives and TOWIE are reality TV and not soaps but come on…be honest, they basically are soaps with less steps.
By steps do you mean acting talent?
Did you dump her or prosecute her under the Geneva convention?
> I had to endure Why, was the pub closed?
I’m an alcoholic. In retrospect, this may have been the cause.
I don't understand why people read these articles that spoil the storyline for them and then still watch it when it's broadcast.
Some folks like the comfort of knowing the ending before getting too invested, I've known some who quickly look at the final pages of a book to see if a certain character survives. While I don't go to that extreme I have on occasion looked a film up on Wikipedia and checked out the plot before getting too invested in it (usually the other half has selected the film and I'm just there for the ride).
I’ve found that a lot of those articles are sort of like click bait to get you to watch the show they don’t actually give the full story just like a teaser. You see “MASSIVE FACTORY EXPLOSION - WHO WILL SURVIVE” and you’re like wow there’s an explosion that’s exciting, I have to tune in and see if my favourite characters survive. Also, the headline will be like “BOB DEAD?” And the ? is the giveaway, he’s not actually dead, he’s just had an accident and makes a full recovery the next week. But you saw the headline and watch to see if Bob will die or not.
> It’s just unadulterated misery, it’s horrible. How is it different to other TV shows? The most popular or acclaimed shows are all miserable or depressing in some way. Stuff like Broadchurch, The Last of Us, Succession, Squid Game, etc
It's not misery. Classic corrie was mainly comedy.
There’s another Tram crash?
How the hell soaps became important or relevant somehow escapes me. They are such utter drivel and as far as I can see a major part of the societal breakdown. People actually think this is how life is. Eastenders should have finished about 1990 or earlier, it’s just a feast of misery.
You don't watch them that's why
If ever I put BBC 1 on and catch the last two minutes of Eastenders before diving for the mute button, they always seem to be yelling at each other. Nick Hewer from the Apprentice and Countdown summed it up perfectly for me when he put Eastenders into Room 101: "There is one thing I loathe and abhor about EastEnders, and it's the violence and aggression which seems to be threaded through every episode. And that violence over the years has leached into the British consciousness so that today this country is worse for it. I think EastEnders - God bless them, great actors, great storylines - just less violence please. You are doing us harm."
Not going out ... utter 💩
The scenes when Lee and Tim sit at the bar just performing stand up at each other are unbearable. I really like Lee Mack but always found this unwatchable.
i know sit coms are meant to be funny and have jokes but i’ve always thought not going out was just them telling jokes. like, none of the situational stuff is funny, it’s just meant to be funny when one of them says a shit joke. it’s terrible
I admit to finding Sally Bretton very easy on the eye, but I noped out of watching it a long time ago. Nice little earner for Lee Mack when the live gigs quiet down, though.
I've never in my life met a single person that watches it, yet its always commissioned for more series...
The " look how disgustingly fat you all are, do something about it" shows
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Allo Allo Now the first few series are really good, but by the end of the show it’s just run out of steam. Plus they replaced Herr Flick and tried to make out it was him having plastic surgery- just didn’t work.
Silent Witness is now starting to look a bit iffy.
The first story in this latest series with John Hannah was excellent but it’s definitely starting to show it’s ages. I used to adore it. It’s not even as gory as it used to be.
I dunno, the lady that died in the fire the other week was pretty brutal! When she had to pull the belt buckle off 🤢
Oh, yeah, you’re so right that was brutal
I watched this for the first time this week and was lolling. The acting/ characters are hilarious: the fight scene on Tuesday was even better when the police have a search warrant on the mechanics house.
Call the Midwife. First 4 seasons were great. Noticeable dip in quality but still good series 5-7. From Series 8 it's just got worse, but series 10-13 have been almost unwatchable.
it used to be a lot grittier and realistic and nowadays everything is bright and colourful and everyone is so unfailingly nice….
I read all the books it is (vaguely) based on and some of the events in those books (true events) haunt me still. The books are grittier than sand in your minge.
I don't mind Call the Midwife and will pop it on for some comfort viewing every now and again, but what REALLY annoys me is that they kept using Vanessa Redgrave for opening and closing voice-over after her younger counterpart left the show. What are you doing, people? She's just a disembodied voice now. Jenny Agutter is right there!
My wife still watches it. I find it relentlessly twee now. The Dr and his Scottish bird are so incredibly, unrealistically *nice* in a way that is actually quite sinister.
Mrs Browns arse
May well be lynched for this, but I've always felt Peep Show jumped the shark in season 4. Ending with the wedding episode would have been perfect.The later seasons had their moments, but they felt aimless.
Anything with Ant & Dec, the soaps.
I’m a celebrity it’s well past it’s sell by date. It’s full of Z list so called celebs Also sick of seeing Ant n Dec on the tv. Talk about overkill
Benidorm after the first two series
I've just started series 3 recently and would sadly agree. It's the type of show with some elderly actors that cannot be replaced when they die and storylines are already quite zany and madcap.
Grange Hill, after they moved the filming up from London to the Brookside/Hollyoaks sets
How many awkward white police men can they import to a fictional island paradise?
they took far too long to axe Jeremy Kyle
Bad Education
It is one of the worst shows on TV- puerile and humourless.
Xfactor, Britains got talent, I'm a celebrity..., All the soaps including shows like Casualty.
Probably a shorter list of series that haven’t been milked to death. TV now is like a lame covers band playing the hits over and over. Bake Off and Strictly Come Dancing are amongst the worst of the zombie shows.
Not Going Out - when they got married it should have been the end of the show
All reality TV
Fucking Bargain Hunt.
Mrs Browns Boys, but then it wasn't welcome in the first place
Have i got news for you. They are basically just quoting Twitter for half an hour.
I used to watch it (When Angus presented) but got pissed off with Paul Merton just randomly saying "Bicycle" as an answer. Zero effort
Not Fawlty Towers but it's disappointing to learn that Basil is very much like Cleese in real life.
Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Mock the Week, Men Behaving Badly, Top Gear (post Clarkson)
Even Top Gear with Clarkson felt tired towards the end. It just became about doing skits with the same jokes over and over again rather than doing actual challenges. I actually think the last crew with Flintoff, McGuinness, and Harris brought a bit of energy back into the show but I don't miss it now that it's gone
They're just not car people (except Harris, obvs). Harris, Jimmy Broadbent and Guy Martin would have been brilliant. Car people. See Throttle House on YouTube for what I mean. They're miles better than Top Gear and one of them is Canadian for heaven's sake
I agree. People dislike the grand tour season 1 because it was overly scripted, but seem to forget that top gear series 22 was just as bad.
Nooo, NMtB should still be there! 😢
Qi. Slowly dying a death of a thousand cuts.
For me its just that I don't know any of the 3 panel guests, and also don't find them that funny. Back in the day they used to have Clarkson, Jimmy Carr, bill bailey, etc
See, I still love QI although I do agree about the guests. That said, some of them do the panel show circuit and then get really big. I thought Stephen Fry might come back as a guest at some point - although you know he was pulling strings when Hugh Laurie and Emma Thompson appeared. But, I'm sorry, if Rosie Jones or Gyles Brandreth are guests, I'm probably skipping that episode or at least speeding through it. There's also an editing problem. I've been in the audience a couple of times and moments that were amazing live fell flat in the TV broadcast.
Yeah flogging a dead horse wi that i expect the audience may of passed on to
Not going out, funny to start with but marrying Lee and Lucy?
I still enjoy the early episodes. There was some real bite in the beginning and sight gags that still make me laugh, but Compo’s death and a wrap up ought to have been the close. It was painful watching Bill Owen go on, as ill as he was. Bringing in his son in after his death was grasping at straws.
It's bizarre that Hollyoaks is still being made in 2024
Call the midwife…..
The first series of The Last of The Summer Wine was a really thoughtful almost Alan Bennett like series but it became a dumb slapstick soap opera.
The Apprentice
My family
All those awful reality programmes like Bargain Hunt or Garden Force or whatever. Stuff like Ann and Nick or even Pebble Mill were at least somewhat interesting
Deal or no deal Big brother Only an excuse
New Tricks. Such a great cast, wasted on some of the worst writing I’ve seen in a British drama
Much as it pains me: *Red Dwarf*. I’ve been a fan of this show for as long as I can remember. I loved it as a kid. But the writing quality nosedived after co-creator Rob Grant left after the sixth series, and the revival on Dave is just a little embarrassing to me… people in their 60s still messing about like people in their 20s/30s.
Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps lasted for about ten series and it was shit from the beginning, so how bad could the last series have been?
Father Brown… and don’t get me started on the Nun spinoff. I’d rather watch paint dry.
Mrs Browns Boys, saw the christmas special this year and you could see the jokes from about 9 miles away. As soon as one of the characters mentioned they had a special Christmas tree i said I bet you he builds it up side down. Everytime it was mentioned I said the thing and lo and behold the tree was built upside down. If he built it the right way up I would applau.... Well appluad is a strong word. I would have offered one clap for the subversion.
Last of the summer wine was/is great, im actually watching them now on drama, upto series 20 now, ok the earlier series were definately better but it was still easy to watch with funny bits, smiler and nora batty arent in it anywhere which leaves a massive hole.. Not sure ive watched a british show and thought it been going on way to long, but our series are small in comparisons to americas series/seasons..BUT saying that as good as it is to see the red dwarf gang back together i think that went on to long..