# What have you hate-watched and why?



## Deset Gled (Jul 30, 2020)

What shows and movies have you hate-watched, and why?  This started as a response to this thread, but I felt it warranted it's own discussion.

I would define hate-watching as being something you went in to knowing you weren't going to enjoy it.  MST3K and Rifftracks style screenings don't really count, because you're being entertained by the commentary instead of the movie.  In general I try not to hate-watch, mostly because there simply isn't enough time in my life for it.  There's enough good media in the world, it feels like a waste to spend time on something I know I don't like.  But there are some circumstances where it still happens.  Here are a few of my personal experiences and reasons:

- Being semi-forced to watch by a significant other, family member or friend group.  My spouse watched Gray's Anatomy for too many seasons.  It was painful for me, but we shared it.  Also, for unknown reasons my father would watch The Pretender any time it was on in syndication.  I experienced far to much of that show as a result.

- Completion.  I had a college roommate that was obsessed with Friends.  I hated it.  A few years later, I watched the last episode of Friends when it aired just to see how it ended.

- Giving it a (long) chance.  The Witcher never really clicked for me, but I felt it was worth at least the first 4-5 episodes to try it.  By that point, it was worth watching through the end of the first season.

- Wanting to understand cultural norms (or: know your enemy).  When Twilight came out, it was huge.  I knew it would suck.  But me and my spouse wanted to at least experience some of it to have a reference point.  We made it through the first two movies with a lot of rum.  I've also watched movies like Birth of a Nation purely for educational/historical purposes.


----------



## Warpiglet-7 (Jul 30, 2020)

Not a damn thing.  With career and kids I can barely love-watch or indifferent-watch.

I am working through Clone Wars series with my kiddo who loves it.  That might be the closest I can get—-I was just watching to make her happy.  Now into season 5, I am enjoying it a lot...


----------



## billd91 (Jul 30, 2020)

I usually ditch out of something if I'm not liking it. Though, there are some exceptions, particularly if they're relatively short. For example, watching a movie that's not very good is a bit different from hate-watching a TV show. It's only a couple of hours of your time compared to anywhere between 10 and 25 hours.

I did, however, force myself to finish reading *Lord Foul's Bane* because so many people rave about the Thomas Covenant series. I thoroughly hated the experience but I thought I had give it a try to see if it got better. It didn't.

As far as TV goes, I can't say I liked the last parts of *The Ranch* on Netflix. I think it started OK, but got the point where it just wasn't funny any more. There were still comedic moments and there was a nice element to the ending, but I spent much more time on it that it was worth.

For movies, my wife finally got me to watch the last two installments of the *Back to the Future* trilogy. I had only ever watched the first one, which was highly enjoyable. The latter two were eminently skippable. I wouldn't call it hate-watching because I was checking out the experience. But I wouldn't say they were good.

Oh, I nearly forgot. *The Hobbit* trilogy. Going to the first one was expected because we had to see it, right? But it was terrible and rest of the trilogy even worse. For me, it was mostly me taking the rest of the family to the movie and then sitting there hating it and eating popcorn. I think we bought the first DVD kind of our of habit, but I don't believe we've gotten the second or third.


----------



## Deset Gled (Jul 30, 2020)

billd91 said:


> Oh, I nearly forgot. *The Hobbit* trilogy. Going to the first one was expected because we had to see it, right? But it was terrible and rest of the trilogy even worse. For me, it was mostly me taking the rest of the family to the movie and then sitting there hating it and eating popcorn. I think we bought the first DVD kind of our of habit, but I don't believe we've gotten the second or third.




I had repressed that until you reminded me.  The Battle of Five Armies definitely felt like a dreaded homework assignment for nerd class.  But I forced myself to get through the extended cut.


----------



## Gladius Legis (Jul 30, 2020)

You could really call my viewing of Game of Thrones from Season 5-8 a hate watch. The sharp decline that show underwent after its first 4 seasons was a train wreck, and I just couldn't look away.


----------



## RogueRonin (Jul 30, 2020)

The last season of Game of Thrones. I had stopped watching during season 5 because I thought it was getting kinda crappy, but during the season 7 hype, my friends convinced me to start watching again. Well that was a mistake! Season 7 was honestly pretty bad, but the final season was just so naughty word it was hilarious. At first I felt like a curmudgeon for ripping on it while my friends were enjoying it, but after the Night King battle they came over to my side and we spent the rest of the season drinking and staring at the screen in disbelief over how such a great show could end up so terrible.


----------



## billd91 (Jul 30, 2020)

Deset Gled said:


> I had repressed that until you reminded me.  The Battle of Five Armies definitely felt like a dreaded homework assignment for nerd class.  But I forced myself to get through the extended cut.




I have not been interested in the extended cut versions - at all. Not even really curious. Usually, curiosity gets the better of me.


----------



## Snarf Zagyg (Jul 30, 2020)

I don't normally "hate-watch" because something is bad; there are a lot of "bad things" that I get a kick (genuine or ironic) out of watching, but that's not hate.

Everything I've ever hate-watched has been to complete something. I am a completionist. If something starts great, and hooks me, I have a terrible habit of watching it until the bitter end. As such, here are some memorable completion hate watches:

1. Earth: Final Conflict. A great first season (for the time), then the main character left, the show was completely re-tooled, and total suckitude. This may be one of the only examples of a show getting so bad I couldn't keep watching it.

2. Dexter. Lumberjack.

3. Heroes. Great first season ... and that's it.

4. True Blood. Ugh.

5. X-Files. The reboot has been fine, but the last few seasons really tailed off.

6. Law & Order: Criminal Intent. All Law & Orders start to show their age after a while, but for a show that started so great, it began to suck.


....and, of course, the Walking Dead.


----------



## Morrus (Jul 30, 2020)

Nothing. I can’t imagine doing that. What a waste of time!

I also don’t hate much. Maybe some reality TV. But mainly if I’m not interested in something it doesn’t rise to hate.


----------



## Retreater (Jul 30, 2020)

The news.


----------



## Dioltach (Jul 30, 2020)

Three out of England's four RWC finals.


----------



## Ryujin (Jul 30, 2020)

"Starship Troopers" - Trying not to hate it.


----------



## Worrgrendel (Jul 30, 2020)

If you watch something and hate it, but continue to watch it, can you really, honestly, say you hate it?

Maybe people need to refamiliarize themselves with the definition of the word "hate".

For example: I *HATE* cockroaches and there is nothing on this planet that will make me share time with them that doesn't result in their total, immediate annihilation. That is "hate".

My gods I don't have time to watch what I like, let alone what I hate! I see this as more of a "I have way too much free time on my hands and maybe I should get a job/go to school/socialize/have some 'alone time'" issue.


----------



## Worrgrendel (Jul 30, 2020)

Retreater said:


> The news.




The news isn't hate watching. It's suffering. It's along the lines of self-flagellation.


----------



## Dire Bare (Jul 30, 2020)

"Hate-watch". What an odd term, what an odd practice. If you "hate" a TV show (or strongly dislike it), why would you continue to watch it?

There are shows I really wanted to like, but didn't, and they remain unfinished. "12 Monkeys" (TV show, not the movie) comes to mind.

I am struggling with "Legion" right now. I don't hate it or even dislike it, in fact I enjoy every episode in isolation. But I find it hard to finish the series, the episodes are so disjointed and the show is so strange and surreal that I am not being "pulled" into finishing out the last 2 seasons.

There are shows that I like, but only mildly, and sometimes struggle to finish . . . Most of the classic Trek shows beyond TNG fall into that category for me (I love neu-Trek though).


----------



## Worrgrendel (Jul 30, 2020)

Morrus said:


> I also don’t hate much. Maybe some reality TV.




Reality TV will be the downfall of society. You heard it here first.


----------



## Dire Bare (Jul 30, 2020)

Worrgrendel said:


> Reality TV will be the downfall of society. You heard it here first.



Without getting too political, in the US, that ship has sailed.


----------



## Worrgrendel (Jul 30, 2020)

Dire Bare said:


> Without getting too political, in the US, that ship has sailed.



Don't worry. The rest of the world will soon catch up to us.


----------



## Deset Gled (Jul 30, 2020)

Worrgrendel said:


> If you watch something and hate it, but continue to watch it, can you really, honestly, say you hate it?
> ...
> My gods I don't have time to watch what I like, let alone what I hate! I see this as more of a "I have way too much free time on my hands and maybe I should get a job/go to school/socialize/have some 'alone time'" issue.






Dire Bare said:


> "Hate-watch". What an odd term, what an odd practice. If you "hate" a TV show (or strongly dislike it), why would you continue to watch it?




"Hate" may be too strong a word for most cases.  But "hate-watch" is a pretty useful way to condense "Watching something that you know you don't actually take pleasure in but end up sitting through the whole way for some other reason" down to 9 letters.  If you have a better term, I'm happy to hear it.  As to the "why?", I think I gave four pretty reasonable answers in the opening post.

On the original topic, I'll add a couple to my list: Caillou and the middle "3D" seasons of Thomas the Tank Engine.  Both shows that I watched with my kids that were sometimes tortuously bad.


----------



## Levistus's_Leviathan (Jul 30, 2020)

The last few seasons of Community. The first few were good, but they eventually just became sort of a chore to watch.

The news, especially during the pandemic.

Edit: Yeah, the new Star Wars movies. Also, the prequels.


----------



## aco175 (Jul 30, 2020)

My wife and I try to have a show or two we watch, which is mostly her shows but she is starting to like History Channel.  She did get me to like *Friends *and I found *Gray's Anatomy* ok at this point.  Strange she leaves and not gives *Walking Dead* or *GOT *a chance though.  She does watch *General Hospital* upstairs away from me since I keep asking questions about who is who and the affliction known as SORAS (soap opera rapid aging syndrome) that affects the children on these shows.  She never let me down with wasting 90 minutes of her life with *Monty Python *over 10 years ago.


----------



## GreyLord (Jul 30, 2020)

If I don't enjoy something I normally stop doing it.  

With video game RPGs I DO keep playing even if I dislike it.  I normally have what I call the 24 hour rule.  I play the game for a total of 24 hours.  Thus, I've given it a chance.  If I am still not having fun at that point, I drop it and never look back.  There have been times when I was hating the game at the 4-6 hour mark, but ended up loving it by the 24 hour mark.  Other times, it's just as dreadful.

TV shows have less leniency.  If I don't enjoy it after anywhere from 1-3 episodes, I drop it.  I don't want to waste time watching TV shows I really don't enjoy.


----------



## Worrgrendel (Jul 30, 2020)

Deset Gled said:


> "Hate" may be too strong a word for most cases.  But "hate-watch" is a pretty useful way to condense "Watching something that you know you don't actually take pleasure in but end up sitting through the whole way for some other reason" down to 9 letters.  If you have a better term, I'm happy to hear it.  As to the "why?", I think I gave four pretty reasonable answers in the opening post.




No. I do not have another term that fits the bill but I think "hate watch" overshoots the mark by a mile. So let's go through the "why's?"



Deset Gled said:


> - Being semi-forced to watch by a significant other, family member or friend group.




I love my wife and vise versa and we have a lot of interests in common. That being said I have shows I like that she does not and she has shows that she likes that I do not. We do not force the other to watch shows we do not have interest in. That's leading down the road to therapy and marriage issues. 



Deset Gled said:


> - Completion.




I have done this one time for as long as I can remember and I have regretted it for every day since. When the live action movie The Last Airbender came out my wife and I and a large group of friends all went to see it. My wife, bless her heart was the only one of us smart enough to leave the movie 5 minutes into it and get her money back. She had to sit and listen to us Nerd Rage about it for hours. Again, if it's *that bad* why continue to watch it?

Edit: damn it. I did do it again. Curse you Rise of Skywalker! Man what a dumpster fire. Why did I do that?!? To my credit it had been about 15 years in between screw ups.



Deset Gled said:


> - Giving it a (long) chance.




See, this to me does not fall even remotely close into the category of "hate". I have given many shows a (long) chance and have been rewarded on some (Legends of Tomorrow) and not so much on others (The Cape). Some shows start out slow. On all of them that I have gone past an episode I never really felt like I hated them. They just never scratched my itch. I have ended several shows only part way through the first episode or movies only a little bit into them. Basically, I hit the "I hate it point" and that was the end of it. No need to go any further. Life's too short.



Deset Gled said:


> - Wanting to understand cultural norms (or: know your enemy).  When Twilight came out, it was huge.  I knew it would suck.  But me and my spouse wanted to at least experience some of it to have a reference point.  We made it through the first two movies with a lot of rum.  I've also watched movies like Birth of a Nation purely for educational/historical purposes.




If you are using movies as reference for educational/historical purposes I think you can find a better (more accurate, less biased, not Hollywooded up) source for that. 
To the understanding of cultural norms: I would hardly classify Twilight as a "cultural norm". Those books/movies turned back teenage social skills by decades by normalizing abuse (both physical and emotional) because its portrayal is deliberately apologetic for it. It exploits behaviors that most people would consider unethical and wrong as romantic and sexual, and she accepts all of those horrible behaviors because she thinks shes in love and that makes it all okay. Oh and suicide is okay too kids, look Bella tried it. She just wasn't that good at it. Unfortunately for the rest of the world. But, hey kids! You can do it better! Just don't be a loser like her!
Sorry for the rant. Basically if I am close enough on a daily basis to need to "know my enemy" I should be rethinking who I am hanging out with.


----------



## Ryujin (Jul 30, 2020)

Worrgrendel said:


> Don't worry. The rest of the world will soon catch up to us.




When something with the quality of "Ripper Street" gets cancelled and replaced with "I'm a Celebrity; Get Me Out of Here" (IIRC), the UK isn't far behind.

_Political comment removed_


----------



## Tonguez (Jul 30, 2020)

Season 8 GoT

The great thing about digital TV though is that I can watch when I’m othwerwise bored, fast forward the terrible bits Or leave it in the background while I distract myself with ENWorld


----------



## billd91 (Jul 30, 2020)

Ryujin said:


> When something with the quality of "Ripper Street" gets cancelled and replaced with "I'm a Celebrity; Get Me Out of Here" (IIRC), the UK isn't far behind.




Since a lot of our "reality TV content" is an Americanized version of UK programming, I'm not really sure anyone can say the UK is behind us at all. We seem to be in the same handbasket.


----------



## Eltab (Aug 1, 2020)

I liked The Pretender until they were given the "your final season" notice and they decided to triple-complicate their existing plot threads, plus torment the main characters into lashing out at each other.

Given the premises of the show, the best ending would have been Jared (a super-genius who can do any job for a week even though he is untrained and inexperienced) working as a Congressional staffer and arranging a hearing into how The Centre has embezzled and bamboozled $Millions of Government money.  At the end of the hearings, the existing leadership is exposed as frauds / crooks and forced to resign (or get sued into oblivion) and self-"exile to Siberia".  Sydney (Jared's father figure and the only sympathetic Centre employee) becomes the new Head of the Centre, with instructions to clean it up.  Those instructions are written by and hand-delivered - with a mutual knowing wink - by Jared.

Of course the scriptwriters actually did nothing of the sort, and watching what they did conceive was a form of self-torture.


----------



## MarkB (Aug 2, 2020)

The only one that comes to mind for me is Lost. I watched most of the first season, but once I realised that most of the show's central mysteries were just as mysterious to the writers as they were to the rest of us, I wrote it off.

However, I had a flatmate at the time who loved it, and since both the TV and my PC were in the living room, I wound up basically watching it by proxy from about season 3 onwards. I never did come round to liking it.


----------



## Levistus's_Leviathan (Aug 2, 2020)

MarkB said:


> The only one that comes to mind for me is Lost. I watched most of the first season, but once I realised that most of the show's central mysteries were just as mysterious to the writers as they were to the rest of us, I wrote it off.
> 
> However, I had a flatmate at the time who loved it, and since both the TV and my PC were in the living room, I wound up basically watching it by proxy from about season 3 onwards. I never did come round to liking it.



I recently watched Lost. I liked it, but it was very slow paced.


----------



## Ulfgeir (Aug 2, 2020)

My answer is nothing. I don't even watch all the stuff I WANT to see...

That said, I will have to continue watching Spiderman Homecoming. I do not care for the cringeworthy Peter Parker in the beginning.


----------



## Imaculata (Aug 2, 2020)

*The last season of Game of Thrones*, but that was mostly because I had been watching the show since the beginning, so I felt I had to see how it ends. Who knows if George ever finishes the Winds of Winter, let alone the book that is supposed to come after it. But I wanted to know the ending, and now I don't think this is how the books are intended to end at all. What a mess.

*Prometheus*. I heard the movie was bad. But I realized pretty quickly just how bad, and yet I watched it in its entirely and hated almost every minute of it. I skipped on Covenant though. This is one of the most stupid blockbuster movies I have ever seen.

*The Last of Us 2*. I had never been a big fan of the original, but I was curious after all the negative backlash and wanted to form my own honest opinion about it. I watched a friend (who is a big fan) play through the entire game, and it was just terrible. I think she was a little bit more forgiving to the game than I was, but we both strongly disliked it.


----------



## Ryujin (Aug 2, 2020)

billd91 said:


> Since a lot of our "reality TV content" is an Americanized version of UK programming, I'm not really sure anyone can say the UK is behind us at all. We seem to be in the same handbasket.




Somehow the Americanized versions manage to step up the awful to levels above the originals.


----------



## Campbell (Aug 2, 2020)

Mostly for me this comes from shows that I initially loved, but that got worse or fell into repetitive patterns over time. Examples include Game of Thrones, Sons of Anarchy, Bleach, Arrow, Flash, and Smallville.


----------



## Deset Gled (Aug 3, 2020)

Campbell said:


> Arrow, Flash, and Smallville.




That's a rough review for DC TV.  I have to admit, I dropped all those shows pretty early (Smallville around season 4 or 5, Arrow after 1, Flash and Gotham after 1 or two episodes).



Imaculata said:


> *The Last of Us 2*.




I intentionally didn't mention video games in the beginning because I believe it's a very different media for this kind of thing (e.g. Everybody has played against a boss that they hate.  Everybody who plays a traditional CRPG has hated the grind at some point or another).  But that seems like a hate-play all the way through.  Impressive.


----------



## Imaculata (Aug 3, 2020)

Deset Gled said:


> I intentionally didn't mention video games in the beginning because I believe it's a very different media for this kind of thing (e.g. Everybody has played against a boss that they hate.  Everybody who plays a traditional CRPG has hated the grind at some point or another).  But that seems like a hate-play all the way through.  Impressive.




Oh yeah, I mention it specifically because the game relies so much on its story, and its exactly the story and all its characters that are so awful (its fine if anyone reading it does like it). I read all the hate online, and I never hate a thing just because everyone else does. However, I didn't feel like buying it either, but was still curious to see if the hate was justified. And in my opinion, a lot of it was. It is a curious thing when a sequel is made (whether that be a game, book or movie) that takes all the stuff you know and love, and then puts it through a blender and ruins it. It was both interesting from a game design and narrative point of view to watch this trainwreck (to be fair, it wasn't all bad of course, but I won't get into all that again).


----------



## payn (Aug 3, 2020)

There are a number of series that start out great, but end up terrible. Somehow living well beyond their expiration dates; much to my chagrin. At some point, you feel invested enough to keep going to see it all end. On a few occasions, I manged to avoid the trap. Though, there were several I didnt.

Sons of Anarchy
The Walking Dead
Game of Thrones
True Blood
Heroes
Battlestar Galactica
Ray Donovan
Shameless
The Sopranos

Sometimes, these shows fall victim of their own success. Walking Dead for instance, at some point felt less like a story and more like fan service. Other shows, like Heroes, launch perfectly and then falls victim of inconsistent writing and constant rest button smashing. (Yes, to be fair Heroes suffered the writers strike). Game of Thrones was an interesting outlier in that they had excellent material that ran out, and along with it the quality. There are numerous reasons it happens, but when it does, love turns to hate...


----------



## cbwjm (Aug 4, 2020)

I don't think I've ever hate watched anything. Normally if a series doesn't grab me I stop watching. There are a few movies that I've never finished for the same reason.


----------



## ccs (Aug 4, 2020)

I guess the last thing that'd qualify would be Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

After seeing garbage that was _The Last Jedi, _& only having liked 1/2 of_ Force Awakens, _I vowed that the only way I'd be seeing IX in a theater was if:
A) I pirated it for some unfathomable reason,
B) Someone else paid for my ticket.  My $s not going to support this crap.

*Now once it hit D+ it's just on the list of incidental bonus content & is costing me a fraction of a fraction of a cent/month.  That doesn't bother me as I consider that I'm PAYING for the Mandolorian & Marvel stuff.  I get more than I can ever watch the as a bonus.  Wether I ever watch 90% of it.... 

Well, about a week after it launched a group of friends & I were going out to dinner & then a movie.  I was out voted.
So I stated that if they wanted me along one of them would have to buy my tkt as I'm not paying for that.  I did buy the person their popcorn.  But that's supporting the theater, not rewarding Disney for a steaming pile of Bantha poop.

Yeah.  SW:epIX - a complete waste of my friends $ & my time.  Sitting there with good company was the only positive that movie night.


----------



## Deset Gled (Aug 4, 2020)

payn said:


> The Walking Dead
> Game of Thrones




GoT seems to be the most common answer here, with WD not far behind.

My spouse and I actually took turns doing WD duty.  One would watch, and tell the other if it was one of the episodes where anything actually happens.  With GoT, my experience is the more you liked the beginning, the more you hated the end.  I only kinda enjoyed the beginning, and I didn't really mind the end.


----------



## GreyLord (Aug 4, 2020)

Imaculata said:


> *The last season of Game of Thrones*, but that was mostly because I had been watching the show since the beginning, so I felt I had to see how it ends. Who knows if George ever finishes the Winds of Winter, let alone the book that is supposed to come after it. But I wanted to know the ending, and now I don't think this is how the books are intended to end at all. What a mess.
> 
> *Prometheus*. I heard the movie was bad. But I realized pretty quickly just how bad, and yet I watched it in its entirely and hated almost every minute of it. I skipped on Covenant though. This is one of the most stupid blockbuster movies I have ever seen.
> 
> *The Last of Us 2*. I had never been a big fan of the original, but I was curious after all the negative backlash and wanted to form my own honest opinion about it. I watched a friend (who is a big fan) play through the entire game, and it was just terrible. I think she was a little bit more forgiving to the game than I was, but we both strongly disliked it.




I'm not sure how the events will transpire, but I think it ends in how Martin told them it must end.  That means the fates of the characters in the final episode of season 8 is exactly where they will be at the end of his series, IF he ends it how he instructed D&D to end it.

Of course, HOW they get there may be completely different, as I don't think he went into that much of detail and they were left largely on their own to come up with the in between ideas.

Seeing fan reactions to the series might also make Martin reconsider the direction he is intending on ending the series in (though, remember, the entire series is sort of dour with the worst of the worst being the ones who decide how the world turns), or he may decide with such reactions that writing toward that is pointless and simply never finish the series.

PS: I think he should change how he saw it ending and make the white walkers end.  It's an apocalyptic end of the world and the living are all killed off because their machinations caused such travesty their weakened state allowed them to either kill each other, or die by the oncoming cold.


----------



## Retreater (Aug 5, 2020)

The Big Bang Theory
The Witcher (as much of it as I could stand, anyway)


----------



## Imaculata (Aug 5, 2020)

GreyLord said:


> I'm not sure how the events will transpire, but I think it ends in how Martin told them it must end.  That means the fates of the characters in the final episode of season 8 is exactly where they will be at the end of his series, IF he ends it how he instructed D&D to end it.




I have a slightly different opinion on this. When the final episode of Game of Thrones came out, Emilia Clarke seemed genuinely shocked with what the episode had become. This has lead some fans to theorize that large things were changed at the last minute (possibly in post), without informing the actors.

Its possible that the books will roughly steer towards the ending that we got, but I think that Dany was not meant to be cast as such a villain as she was in the final product. It seemed very out of character for her. I think the show runners did her wrong, and I don't trust their treatment of the story.


----------



## GreyLord (Aug 5, 2020)

Imaculata said:


> I have a slightly different opinion on this. When the final episode of Game of Thrones came out, Emilia Clarke seemed genuinely shocked with what the episode had become. This has lead some fans to theorize that large things were changed at the last minute (possibly in post), without informing the actors.
> 
> Its possible that the books will roughly steer towards the ending that we got, but I think that Dany was not meant to be cast as such a villain as she was in the final product. It seemed very out of character for her. I think the show runners did her wrong, and I don't trust their treatment of the story.




If I remember correctly on the interviews they gave, Martin specified WHO would end up on the throne and who probably would survive.  Other than that, it isn't specified what else he told them about the ending.  Other than what he told them, they were left up to their own devices.  So, the events leading up to the end, including Dany, may not be exactly what he has in mind.  It's only the END that Martin told them how it will be...not necessarily everything that happens in getting to that endpoint.


----------



## Gladius Legis (Aug 6, 2020)

Retreater said:


> The Big Bang Theory



This show is so repulsive to me that I can't even hate-watch it.


----------



## Levistus's_Leviathan (Aug 6, 2020)

Gladius Legis said:


> This show is so repulsive to me that I can't even hate-watch it.



I've never heard much about it or seen it. Can you explain why?


----------



## Ryujin (Aug 6, 2020)

AcererakTriple6 said:


> I've never heard much about it or seen it. Can you explain why?




I Can't speak for Gladius Legis but, from my point of view, the show laughs AT geeks/nerd, rather than laughing WITH geeks/nerds. I find that repellent, being a lifelong nerdy type, myself.

Also, it's a sitcom, so...


----------



## Imaculata (Aug 6, 2020)

Ryujin said:


> I Can't speak for Gladius Legis but, from my point of view, the show laughs AT geeks/nerd, rather than laughing WITH geeks/nerds. I find that repellent, being a lifelong nerdy type, myself.




That is pretty much the impression I always got from it, which is why I've avoided it.


----------



## Gladius Legis (Aug 6, 2020)

Ryujin said:


> I Can't speak for Gladius Legis but, from my point of view, the show laughs AT geeks/nerd, rather than laughing WITH geeks/nerds. I find that repellent, being a lifelong nerdy type, myself.
> 
> Also, it's a sitcom, so...



Prety much this, and also much of the jokes came from rather, uh, backwards sensibilities ...


----------



## payn (Aug 6, 2020)

Imaculata said:


> I have a slightly different opinion on this. When the final episode of Game of Thrones came out, Emilia Clarke seemed genuinely shocked with what the episode had become. This has lead some fans to theorize that large things were changed at the last minute (possibly in post), without informing the actors.
> 
> Its possible that the books will roughly steer towards the ending that we got, but I think that Dany was not meant to be cast as such a villain as she was in the final product. It seemed very out of character for her. I think the show runners did her wrong, and I don't trust their treatment of the story.




I certainly didnt trust the showrunners with the story. It was pretty evident once Martin's writing ran out the quality suffered. Pretty much a downward spiral from the end of season 5 with outright plummet in season 8. 

As for Dany, I was in full support of her out come on the show. Madness runs in the family after all, and this turn of events was very poetic. The problem was the showrunners decided 1.5 episodes was enough time to develop all of that.


----------



## Ryujin (Aug 6, 2020)

payn said:


> I certainly didnt trust the showrunners with the story. It was pretty evident once Martin's writing ran out the quality suffered. Pretty much a downward spiral from the end of season 5 with outright plummet in season 8.
> 
> As for Dany, I was in full support of her out come on the show. Madness runs in the family after all, and this turn of events was very poetic. The problem was the showrunners decided 1.5 episodes was enough time to develop all of that.




Given that Benioff and Weiss pretty much admitted to being out of their depth and their comments in Austin about the art of storytelling, in general, it's pretty clear that they weren't the right choices. When they ran out of the original material, they were screwed.

I stopped watching both GoT and TWD for pretty much the same reasons; I was tired of my favourite characters being used for "murder porn" and grew tired of the grind in both. it was like going to play my favourite RPG, every week, and finding that the best that the DM could muster was an avalanche of Orcs to kill. Every. Single. Time. There's no even "hate watching" that sort of thing.


----------



## Ryujin (Aug 6, 2020)

Gladius Legis said:


> Prety much this, and also much of the jokes came from rather, uh, backwards sensibilities ...




The few episodes that I did watch, usually while waiting for the half hour to pass so that I could watch what was on next, had me convinced that the writers were gleaned from the jocks who used to beat me up as a kid.


----------



## Alzrius (Aug 6, 2020)

I'm currently watching the third season of _The Seven Deadly Sins_, and while it's not a hate-watch per se, I'm already groaning and wishing I was through with it.

The reason I'm watching it is because I have a policy of trying to finish a show once I start it, simply because I prefer to know what I'm talking about if and when I badmouth something. Having watched the first two seasons a couple of years ago on Netflix, I therefore feel committed to finishing the next two now. And while there are a lot of _seinen _anime that I enjoy, this is decidedly not one of them.


----------



## Nebulous (Aug 6, 2020)

I guess I finished the Hobbit trilogy, but I hated it after the first one.  I felt obligated to watch them. I had already lost faith in Peter Jackson by then, even though he was one of my favorite directors even before LotR came out.  But then came King Kong which was overstuffed CGI junk and he never made a good movie after that.


----------



## Richards (Aug 6, 2020)

Not really hate-watched (more like sad-watched), but when I was stationed up in North Dakota in the late 1980s there was a cool show called _Crossbow_, about the fictional exploits of William Tell.  It was a half-hour show but it kind of reminded me a bit of _Kung Fu_, where instead of Kwai Chang Caine wandering into a new town in the American Old West and helping someone each episode, it was William Tell in Switzerland doing the same thing.  And the guy who was after him, Gessler, was the Sheriff of Nottingham to Tell's Robin Hood, and that actor was great - it was fun to watch him get his comeuppance at Tell's hand nearly every episode.

Anyway, I found the complete series on-line for only $10.00 last year and snapped it up, especially since it included the third (and final) season which had never been broadcast in the US.  So I watched it with my son and nephew, four episodes every Sunday while we ate take-home pizza - we made a weekly event of it.

The first two seasons were fine; my son was too young at the time I'd first seen the show to remember much of it and my nephew had never seen it at all, so we were having a good time and I was basking in fond memories.  ("Oh, I remember this one - it's the one where he uses a flute to escape a locked room full of poison gas!")  And then we began season three.

Holy cow - what a difference!  I immediately understood why the third season hadn't ever been shown in the US - it was pure and utter crap.  The story lines suddenly didn't make any sense at all.  (Had you been aware there was a "Mad Max" type wasteland parked right next door to Switzerland, filled with dangerous mutants?  Neither had I.)  Also, magic was suddenly a thing; before, what had made the show so cool was it was a historical drama, and everything that had happened in the first two seasons was at least plausible; now we had fairy tale level wizards and an enormously large wind goddess who they - no kidding - once spent an entire half-hour episode convincing to blow this land-ship some crazy guy in the wasteland had invented across a desert.  The acting took on the level of a junior high drama department and every episode we watched, we spent reminiscing how big a difference this third season was from the other two.  It was so bad the lead actor, who played William Tell and had done a fine job of it for two seasons (well three, really - he did what he could with the material he was being given for that third season), apparently didn't even bother showing up for the two-hour series finale; it ended up being a rambling reminiscence by Gessler, basically putting on a one-man clip show.

But we forced our way through the third season nonetheless, part of it out of sheer cussedness and a determination to see if any of the four episodes we'd lined up for that particular Sunday could possibly sink any lower in quality than the ones we'd watched the weekend before.  So that's about as close as I've ever gotten to "hate-watching" anything.  Shows I know I'm going to hate I avoid; shows I think might be good and then turn out to be crap (looking at you, _Preacher_) I generally drop immediately rather than waste my time on.  This was an exception; the series had done such a good job entertaining us for two whole seasons we felt it our duty to watch it until the end.

And even that craptastic third season kept the kick-ass opening title sequence that the other two seasons shared.

Johnathan


----------



## MarkB (Aug 6, 2020)

GreyLord said:


> If I remember correctly on the interviews they gave, Martin specified WHO would end up on the throne and who probably would survive.  Other than that, it isn't specified what else he told them about the ending.  Other than what he told them, they were left up to their own devices.  So, the events leading up to the end, including Dany, may not be exactly what he has in mind.  It's only the END that Martin told them how it will be...not necessarily everything that happens in getting to that endpoint.



He certainly has good motivation to not tell them exactly how he intends to end the series. It would be kind-of silly for him to spoil the ending, after all.


----------



## Orius (Aug 10, 2020)

Ryujin said:


> I Can't speak for Gladius Legis but, from my point of view, the show laughs AT geeks/nerd, rather than laughing WITH geeks/nerds. I find that repellent, being a lifelong nerdy type, myself.
> 
> Also, it's a sitcom, so...




Yup, from what little I've seen, that's what the show is, mockery, so it will never pollute my TV.  Sitcoms eh, some are funny, but even then they're usually only funny once.  They often tend to be the same sort of crap too, and if they depend on the insipid laugh track, they're even less funny than the writers and producers mistakenly think they are. 

And I don't hate watch.  If a show sucks, I drop it.  There were a few shows here and there that I liked early on but eventually they got to the point where I couldn't stomach them any more.  The two shows that come to my mind that did this were Xena and Legends of Tomorrow.  The only show that I remember hate watching was Smallville, and only because it was so much fun to snark on how stupid things got with that show.  Just look at some of the old Smallville threads here to see me having malicious fun.    And I have to admit, even that show managed to end on a high note.


----------



## Imaculata (Aug 10, 2020)

I still have to catch up on West World, but it seems I may have to hate-watch my way through season 2, to get to season 3. I've been told that season 2 is pretty bad, but that season 3 is a lot better.


----------



## ccs (Aug 11, 2020)

Imaculata said:


> I still have to catch up on West World, but it seems I may have to hate-watch my way through season 2, to get to season 3. I've been told that season 2 is pretty bad, but that season 3 is a lot better.




Yeah, season two ain't great.  It got worse & worse & worse.....  By the time I got to the end of it I was seriously wondering if I'd even watch S:3.
I haven't gotten around to it yet.
Hopefully they got alot of feedback that S2 sucked ass & were able to improve things.


----------



## payn (Aug 12, 2020)

Imaculata said:


> I still have to catch up on West World, but it seems I may have to hate-watch my way through season 2, to get to season 3. I've been told that season 2 is pretty bad, but that season 3 is a lot better.



I absolutely loved the second season of Westworld. It's puzzlebox of the mind storytelling did not do well with most folks, so I get it was a specific taste. The showrunners must have gotten it too, because season 3 is the Bob Seger to the Bruce Springsteen of season 2.

I didnt hate season 3, but it does feel like an entirely different show. Its like Westworld; the James Bond edition.


----------



## Zardnaar (Aug 22, 2020)

Dumped Westworld season 2.

 Stuff I suppose I hate watched. More of a slow decline so you hang around to the end. 

Dexter
How I Met Your Mother
Tru Blood
Sons of Anarchy (good ending though). 

 Game of thrones after season 7 I lowered my expectations. Season 8 was even worse than those lowered expectations.

 The date of most of the characters made sense, execution was off.


----------



## Alzrius (Aug 22, 2020)

Alzrius said:


> I'm currently watching the third season of _The Seven Deadly Sins_, and while it's not a hate-watch per se, I'm already groaning and wishing I was through with it.
> 
> The reason I'm watching it is because I have a policy of trying to finish a show once I start it, simply because I prefer to know what I'm talking about if and when I badmouth something. Having watched the first two seasons a couple of years ago on Netflix, I therefore feel committed to finishing the next two now. And while there are a lot of _seinen _anime that I enjoy, this is decidedly not one of them.




An update here: to my complete shock, I found myself actually _liking_ season three of _The Seven Deadly Sins_, to the point where I eagerly moved on to season four. _This_ is the main reason why I like to partake of media before I talk about it, because every so often something like this happens, and I'd have missed something I enjoy otherwise.

I attribute this to the characters in the show facing actual opposition and setbacks that phase them, rather than enemies who are barely strong enough to make them roll their eyes. The good guys still have trump cards galore and snappy one-liners aplenty, but now the enemies have their own, and there are genuine struggles going on. This is something I liked, since I prefer heroes to actually be underdogs rather than shooting fish in a barrel. You _can_ have overpowered protagonists who are fun to watch (_Overlord_ springs to mind here), but it's a careful balancing act. This show wasn't able to pull it off, so it's nice to see it move into a storytelling mode that suits it better.


----------



## tragicThaumaturge (Aug 22, 2020)

The only times I can think of when I watch something I already know I'm not going to like, it's because a friend or loved one adores it and insists on me giving it a chance. I usually end up doing it as a favor, and try to be as polite as possible when I inform them that I in fact did not enjoy it.


----------



## Herschel (Aug 27, 2020)

billd91 said:


> I did, however, force myself to finish reading *Lord Foul's Bane* because so many people rave about the Thomas Covenant series. I thoroughly hated the experience but I thought I had give it a try to see if it got better. It didn't.




Lord Foul's Bane is great in hindsight because it makes you hate Covenant amidst a hodge-podge of events and seeing how people taking things to extremes tends to bite them hard. There's little payoff in it. The Illearth War is brilliant because it shows the outcomes and interactions, but it is a long time to get any payoff from the first book. The series is a chain of cause-and-effect, but Lord Foul's Bane is pretty much cause and background information.


----------

