I call it “My Struggle”
as part of the first day of classes, i asked my students (18/19yo first year uni) on a quiz what show they would recommend.
the results shocked me to my core.
lol ok not really but,
6 people recommended You
5 people recommended Friends (zero people recommended Seinfeld, literally shocking me to my core)
grey’s anatomy had 4 mentions
with 2 each: criminal minds, the good place, how to get away with murder, and game of thrones
and a bunch of one-offs:
quantico
lucifer
the vampire diaries
patriot act (my new favorite student)
truth be told
demon slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba
power
that 70’s show
mandalorian
the simpsons
csi
spongebob
breaking bad
wild n’ out for laughs
firefly
family guy
rick and morty
the 100
shameless!!! (emphasis in original)
the fosters
ellen
big mouth
the twilight zone
the bachelor
peaky blinders
the good doctor
naruto
roman empire
flash
Friends is basically unwatchable in 2020 wtf
Also, Comcast announced a new streaming service called Peacock
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Friends is bad, but the reason people are watching it over Seinfeld etc is because it is on Netflix. Seinfeld is not. There is a reason Friends/The Office are probably the two most popular shows for the u25 crowd, and it’s being above average comedies with many seasons available on Netflix.
lol Friends is just so bad
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It takes a lot for me to enjoy watching a comedy with a laugh track.
When I taught in China, a ton of my students loved The Big Bang Theory. I can’t stand it at all. I like watching the YT version where they take the laugh track out. You can’t even tell where the jokes are.
As for liking Friends:
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People I’ve met from China have always told me that they think American culture is super cool and sexy and shit. In grad school I had a housemate from China and Elvis was always his go-to touchstone for what America is like.
I can totally see Chinese hipsters watching Friends and Big Bang Theory and thinking it’s cool kitschy American pop culture. It’s like how kids today watch Japanese anime from the 90’s like Evangelion and shit. I’m sure Japanese people in 2020 think that stuff is goofy is and kitschy. Western nerds have always been fascinated with Asian culture, I can see the reverse being true.
I remember when I came back from the theater from my second watching of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and I was raving about how cool it was and my housemate was like “whatever, it was okay.” There’s a cultural gulf there.
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I’m with you gb
Did you just call Friends both bad and an above average comedy?
I like Friends. I can’t rewatch Seinfeld because I find the characters unlikeable and unrelatable.
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I appreciate your perspective on this. I had the opposite reaction at the end. Just enough WTF? at the end.
Maybe it is because I come from a near cult-like small city, a father very much like the preacher, and a brother like al-Masih. People willing to sacrifice everything to be perceived as righteous leaders. They have no real identity, only the false self given substance by a shared global belief.
Are you a fan of the movie Being There? An old Peter Sellers movie with an equally ambiguous ending and a similar (though sardonic) theme.
I am with you though in wishing this had been a limited series with a definitive finale.
Looks like Mindhunter is going away
Damn that sucks
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It’s bad, but the average network sitcom is worse.
When it comes to cartoons, I can usually appreciate how clever they are and find some of them quite funny, but I rarely watch them save on flights or something. I just never feel the need to keep going back episode after episode.
For whatever reason I decided to check out Bigmouth on Netflix, and am now midway through season 2. It’s hella good. There’s an episode from the first season that I saw about a month ago, and it’s still popping into my head on a near-daily basis because I can’t believe they “went there”.
I’m talking about the episode with Garrison Keillor…and a particular scene therein.
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Good points.
It’s possible the show resonates with me to a degree that biases me toward the content.
I felt like the ambiguity at the end was the payoff for me. I also enjoyed the ending of Inception.
I’ll assume spoilers are still in effect for now…
I would have loved an ending that reveals him to be a remarkable illusionist using his powers to grow terror networks. Or, I mean for most of the show I felt certain we’d discover he was actually a CIA plant himself. Blackbriar stuff.
Because some of the stuff that happens later, I was like wut? What you’re claiming to discredit him isn’t even what happened onscreen and wouldn’t be a problem if it was. A known opponent of capitalism? Lol?!
Now if you want something that will really blow your mind. Just finished watching this and wtffffffffffff
It’s on Hulu. Dont think it’s free anywhere… There’s a follow-up thats free on YouTube, but I wouldn’t watch that until you’ve seen the doc.
Wow I’m in. Only got a Hulu account through my paid Spotify account. So it’ll be annoying to have this documentary interrupted every 10 minutes with commercials but it looks great.
Wonder what got Stephen Fry interested in producing it.
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This is really good but super insane. It’s the definition of truth is stranger than fiction.