What TV series are you watching?

[Thief]

I've been re-watching My So-Called Life lately. One of my favorites -- up there with 3rd Rock From the Sun and Dead Like Me.

[south carmain]

Currently on season 2 of the wire. So far it's not as exciting as the first

[beedle]

season 2 is one of the best I think. But loads of people don't like it. Because they're stupid.

[Kenny]

Including Edward Snowden, I guess: http://www.nowthisnews.com/news/edward- ... that-good/

[Kenny]

Orange is the New Black. Season 2 premiere.

Awesome aweseome aweseome aweseome

[OL]

I was flipping through the channel guide and saw that Girl Meets World -- the sort of updated version of Boy Meets World -- was just about to come on. I didn't have high hopes for it or anything, but I was at least hoping for something relatively akin to the original show.
I never thought so when it first came on, but having seen reruns of the first couple seasons of Boy Meets World more recently on tv, I was surprised to find that it was actually really good. Despite being aimed at a family audience, it actually had some genuinely good writing, not to mention that the cast all had an incredible sense of likability to them. Compared to other family sitcoms of the mid-90s (Family Matters, Step By Step, Full House), Boy Meets World was really, really good. And I say that with almost no nostalgic attachment, since I kind of avoided it back in the day.
So anyway, back to Girl Meets World... I was surprised and immediately a bit dismayed to see that it was on the Disney Channel; never a good sign for a sitcom. Disney's tv division tends to specialize in a certain kind of cringy, dumbed-down style of comedy that often feels too stupid even for ten-year-olds. But hey, in this particular case, the show is being handled by Michael Jacobs, who created the original show, and also features the characters of Cory and Topanga as the parents this time.
Inspired idea, right?
It actually sounded kind of cool to me when I first heard about the show a while back. So it can't be that bad, right?

Nope... no, it's just as bad as all the other made-for-retarded-monkeys programming that Disney produces these days. It was nice to see Ben Savage as Cory again; the guy serious speaks just like he did when he was a kid, so he's still got the same kind of charisma that used to hold the other show up so well.
But the actual main characters? Cory and Topanga's daughter and her "cool" best friend?
Not a shred of charm between them. And the writing doesn't help things a bit. I honestly could not watch more than ten minutes of it. I face-palmed so many times I started to get a headache.
Are children really so dumb nowadays that this is the kind of crap that gets made to appeal to them? If you've ever seen anything related to Hannah Montana, iCarly, Victorious, or any of those other awful Disney shows, this is exactly like them. Except with an uglier cast.
This shit is harder to watch than Schindler's List.
And the name doesn't even make sense. "Boy Meets World" was a play on the term "boy meets girl." So if your show is called "Girl Meets World"...
...hell, I dunno, maybe she's a lesbian.

Anyway, it's not like I was hoping to find a new show to follow or anything; I knew it would basically be for kids, so I knew it wasn't going to "grab" me or anything. I don't generally follow sitcoms these days anyway. But I was at least hoping it would have the same kind of humor of the original, that type where the kids can watch and enjoy the silliness of it all, but the parents can watch as well and still get a laugh or two. The 90s had a surprising amount of stuff like that.
Nowadays? Not quite so much.
It's an incredibly weird paradox. I mean, kids are clearly getting smarter in general, thanks to the internet and all that. But then you see that this is the kind of entertainment they watch... and you can't help but think that we must be raising the single dumbest generation the world has ever seen. I can't figure out which one is the truth.

Ha, look at that... didn't expect to type such a wall of text off of eight minutes of a tv show. Joy.

[AnimeGamer183]

A few years back I lived with some people that watched icarly all the time (there were kids in the house). I caught alot of episodes, but its not something I would ever purposely watch. Alot of the cartoons on cartoon network and nickelodeon now a days are similar in intelligence level, dumbed down garbage that better occupies the mind than stimulates it. The characters and stories in these shows are just stupid. Imagine Family Guy but a childrens version, and thats basically what many cartoons of today are. Programming in the 90s and late 2000s was so much better than this. If I were a parent ( and thank god im not) I would be very VERY careful about what I allowed my child to watch. I really hope they get reading rainbow back on the air. And this might sound nasty of me, but there is no way im having a child with this much crap capable of filling their heads, and its not just cartoons im worried about on that front. Lets hope to god they actually get Reading Rainbow back on television.

[Calshot]

I think a big part of the problem is that although kids are getting smarter, parents are a lot more protective of their kids. Parents expected a certain level of maturity out of kids in the past, but nowadays they seem to coddle them as much as possible.

Take this clip from "The Great Mouse Detective".

phpBB [video]

If this was shown for the first time today, a whole bunch of people would complain about the smoking, drinking and "sexual objectification" of the female mice.

Boy Meets World covered a lot of serious topics: alcoholism, domestic violence, underage sex, cults, etc. The vast majority of those kids/teen shows wouldn't even touch those topics. At best, they might tiptoe around the issue and allude to it in the subtlest way possible because think of the children.

[AnimeGamer183]

And when they run into these situation later in life, they have no idea whats going on, and much less what to do. and more robberies and rapes and assaults etc. end up happening because of it. Alot of people growing up even find subjects like those as jokes, except they dont know understand how painful and hurtful it can be to someone it has actually happened to.

[Wong Chai]

Hi,
I have been watching Breaking Bad lately (for the 2nd time) which is an awesome show in my opinion
I would recommend it to everyone!

[Sonikku]

Watching the first episode of the rebooted Sailor Moon show.

Because that's what real men do on a Saturday afternoon.

[AnimeGamer183]

I finished watching Game of Thrones season 3 the other week. Damn that show is a ride. Its really strange how engaging it is yet there is so little action, and its mainly just dialogue and situational conflicts, but when it does get going, it doesnt disappoint. I'll watch season 4 when those blu rays come out, just as I have with the season 2 and 3.

[Sonikku]

Boooooooo. Watch it now!

Watching the first episode of the rebooted Sailor Moon show.

Because that's what real men do on a Saturday afternoon.

Ha! I don't have to feel guilty anymore.

It seemed a bit too similar to the original to be worth the effort as near as I can tell so far.

[Kenny]

I felt it was a bit too dissimilar. But mostly because it has way more CG in it this time around which I didn't really enjoy.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/635231#i0,p0,d0

Had to watch the original again just to be sure, but unsurprisingly the old cel an' ink job looks more attractive to me. Probably because it was the one I grew up with, but also maybe it's because I'm more impressed with the artistry that went into it as opposed to being rendered on a computer.

I noticed the original has more charm to it as well. That's what sorely lacking in this new installment so far.

[Calshot]

It's an incredibly weird paradox. I mean, kids are clearly getting smarter in general, thanks to the internet and all that. But then you see that this is the kind of entertainment they watch... and you can't help but think that we must be raising the single dumbest generation the world has ever seen. I can't figure out which one is the truth.

I was watching a rerun of Boy Meets World and Feeny was just as pissed about this as us.

phpBB [video]

I also caught 10 minutes of Girl Meets World while flipping through the channels. Wow, you weren't kidding. It really is that bad.