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How do!

As I make another attempt to get into The Expanse, I figured my frustrating experience with this show might be the basis of an interesting topic. And the thread title is the question. Which popular shows can you, despite best and honest effort, just not get into.

The Expanse, as mentioned, is one of those for me. Not only have I only heard good things about it (indeed, very good things), it should be an instant hit for me. It sci-fi, albeit a bit harder than my normal preference, it looks the part, the acting is comfortably above par and the story sounds intriguing. Yet, here I am, for reasons I can’t adequately explain, struggling to get its hooks into my brain meat.

Which is a very frustrating experience. I’m normally quite capable of articulating why I do or don’t enjoy any given piece of media. And sometimes I can even do it without gratuitous swearing or hyperbole when it’s something I don’t like.

So to find a show which, by all rights, I should be loving, and feel solely ambivalence for no reason whatsoever gets right in my tits.

Anyone else have this experience with other shows? Not where you don’t like it, but where you’re appreciating what you’re seeing, but it’s just not grabbing you as it should. Like when you’re getting over a cold, and have your favourite dinner to lift your spirits, but can’t actually taste it due to said cold.

Nothing coming to mind right now, but then again with streaming I find I'm way behind on a LOT of shows just because they don't appear on the service I have or if they do the amazingly terrible Amazon Prime page hasn't shown it to me in big bold letters which means its buried somewhere in its jumble.


That said for something like the Expanse which I half got into I think part of it depends a LOT on what you're doing at the time. If you're in a mode where TV is "background noise" whilst you're doing something else then a series like The Expanse can be very tricky to get into because you can't pay half attention to it.
Meanwhile something like NCIS where you can imagine half of what happens just by the flow of repeat events and characters and so forth; its much easier to get into it without actually paying a lot of attention.


At least I find that can be an issue with me failing to get into some shows that I should otherwise really enjoy.





Another one that's common for me is having characters that look very similar and/or a very dark visual pallet. Ergo where its tricky to see who is who or where its very easy to mix up characters. Doubly so if there's a LOT of characters coming and going and changing. I Found this with Attack on Titan at times.

Think I’m just gonna have to commit to watching the first season.

I’m on episode 5, and I’m hoping I just need to let the story play out. Certainly that’s when I think you get the most out of Babylon 5, as it’s the arcing stories which sell that show.

True and that is one bonus of streaming series you can do just that and binge watch a whole chunk.

The Expanse has a slower first season that is a bit of a slog because it's mostly setup and world building. Season 2 onwards becomes one of my favorite sci fi shows.

Not sure i'd count these as popular but I started watching Lexx and couldn't get into it, had a much easier time with Farscape.

Breaking Bad. Boring as heck.

 Thargrim wrote:

Not sure i'd count these as popular but I started watching Lexx and couldn't get into it, had a much easier time with Farscape.

Farscape is actually a series where I got really into it and then kind of fell into a lull. For me the whole "Scorpio in the Brain" angle felt like it overstayed its welcome. A few too many episodes where Chriton is just running around being mad solving things for my liking. It just kind of felt like part of the writing there got stuck and I wonder if in part its because Scorpio was a fantastic character they wanted more of but weren't quite sure how to keep him around without stretching out that mechanic.

I do think that even though they had to compress the last season or so into a bumper movie/direct to DVD it still ended at a great point and is one of the few series that feels like it told its story and stopped when it was strong.

Twin Peaks. It insists upon itself.

We couldn’t get very far in Lexx. We made it into the third season of Farscape and needed a break, or rather an indefinite hiatus. We also only made it two seasons into Game of Thrones.

 Ahtman wrote:
Twin Peaks. It insists upon itself.

Wait. Coppola directed Twin Peaks??

Game of Thrones. It really is just a soap opera with dragons and incest. Everyone says how awesome the show is, but I just don't see it.

Lost.
At the time everyone was going on about how great it was. But due to my work schedule I was never able to see more than about 3 episodes. And not consecutive episodes either. So when season 1 came out on DVD I picked it up.
Yeah, I'm not seeing what the hype was about. After watching the entire 1st season I decided that I didn't particularly like any of the characters & really didn't care what they were doing.

Twin Peaks, Lost and Game of Thrones I think share a curious DNA. Specifically, each was, at the time, quite singular on our telly boxes. And being successful as a result of that groundbreaking, they’re understandably lauded.

But….watching after the fact? The sheer newness and “wait, what is this” reaction diminishes somewhat.

I still rate Twin Peaks as a gloriously kooky bit of TV, but Lost and Game of Thrones just bore me now.

Game of Thrones is particularly disappointing there. I loved every season when it was on. Yes. Every season. I’d watch each weekly episode, and at the end of the season, binge it.

But now I just can’t sit through it. And I think Littlefinger is a significant part of that. He gets no real character development. He’s just a moustache twirling little twerp, and I can’t understand why nobody just offed him. But they don’t, and he’s not even subtle about his plotting and scheming, despite coming into one person’s service having screwed over his last main ally.

The expanse is indeed an odd one. Its my show for saying 'after the first few episodes you will love it' which is said of many a poor show that fans try and push on others. Normally by ep 5 most people are into it if they are going to like it however, so maybe the style isn't something you gel with?

I also can't get into The Expanse, but for a rather silly reason. Basically there's a very minor change between the book and the show near the start that I really didn't like and it just killed all interest I had in the show.

As for others, at the height of it's popularity it seemed like I was the only person in the world that didn't like Game Of Thrones. Not even sure why I didn't like it, I thought the books were okay, but could never make it more than a few episodes into the show.

Also The Walking Dead, it just took itself too seriously while I prefer my zombie stuff to be a bit ridiculous. I much preferred the low budget, knock-off version that was running at the same time (Z Nation I think it was called) until that went too far in the other direction.

Honestly I struggle with almost all shows now. The last one that drew me in was Stranger Things season one but by the third season I had given up on it.

I tried Breaking Bad and the first episode depressed me so much I stopped.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
We couldn’t get very far in Lexx. We made it into the third season of Farscape and needed a break, or rather an indefinite hiatus. We also only made it two seasons into Game of Thrones.

 Ahtman wrote:
Twin Peaks. It insists upon itself.

Wait. Coppola directed Twin Peaks??

Coppala doesn't own having one's head up their own ass.

Seriously though, I appreciate Lynch from a technical standpoint but I have never really enjoyed most of his work.

Loki- I think it is vastly over-rated.

Shogun- By right's this is my jam. I love me some samurai flicks. Won a ton of awards.
However, I just never got past the first episode.

I find my tolerance for TV is very low at the moment though. I much prefer movies.

The last TV show I really got into was Mythbusters. Everything since has just been 'meh' and not kept my interest.

Before that, it might have been Babylon 5.

I think I just have far too different expectations and interests than the average TV viewer.

Average TV viewers liked Mythbusters. Show ran seventeen seasons and made the people involved relatively famous. They were even in an Epic Rap Battle.

I watched the first couple of seasons of the Expanse, and it’s amazing, but it’s just unrelentingly harsh which makes it hard to stick with. I am at a phase in my life where I need somewhat lighter fare.

I tried Only Murders in the Building, and while I really like Steve Martin, it didn’t click for me.

Yeah way too much sci fi is dystopian these days. And fantasy is all grim and gritty. No optimism or even likeable heroes.

I do rather dislike how a lot of modern fantasy has gone for insanely grim-dark colour pallets and everything. The sense that everything in the past was just mud-coloured everywhere.

You see it in video games as well, Skyrim being a very prime example of it.



It seems any serious fantasy has to be dark and honestly I'd welcome a series but vibrant knights and dragon style bit of fantasy

Game of Thrones is the big one for me too. All my friends were raving over it but I just found it unlikable.

 Overread wrote:
I do rather dislike how a lot of modern fantasy has gone for insanely grim-dark colour pallets and everything. The sense that everything in the past was just mud-coloured everywhere.

You see it in video games as well, Skyrim being a very prime example of it.



It seems any serious fantasy has to be dark and honestly I'd welcome a series but vibrant knights and dragon style bit of fantasy

Skyrim is an interesting one. A lot of the outfits and locations are quite colourful and bright, but everything has a dreary filter over it making it all dull. Ochre or blue or crimson uniforms shouldn't be dull, but the general filter makes them so.

Essentially everything looks like it is permanently an overcast January Monday in the UK. Which... obviously happens, but they should have included sunny days too where everything brightens up a lot and goes more vivid.

I don't mind a dreary or dark world but I want heroes to root for that aren't secret bastards.

The Office, Parks and Recreation, Seinfeld immediately come to mind.

I pretty much struggle to get into anything I have to watch as a binge. I'll happily keep up with something week to week for ages, but if I've got a whole season or three to get through I really struggle to commit. Even a show that just has hour long episodes is kind of a turn off. I've seen too many that slog through 35 minutes of B-plot side character nonsense before giving me a few minutes of real content each episode. Definitely hit a wall around the 4th season of a show even if I've been following it as well.

I just really like short episodes and new concepts and ideas. Sitting and watching a show for any real length of time has never been my style.

The Office and Survivor I could never get into. I mean, I didn't need to see it on T I could just go to work and experience it first hand.

* Breaking bad - just could not get interested - and I like a variety of crime dramas - Ozark, Sons of Anarchy, Kin, Sopranos....

* Last of Us... I just found it incredibly tedious and stupid, did not like the characters of the pacing.

* Witcher - the Bard, the fething annoying, stupid fething bard...

* Lost - tedious and stupid.

I’ll second the Bard.

I’m told by those who know better he’s meant to be annoying, but he just feels like a self-insert type ego stroking, whether that was the case or intention or not.

I really like Joey Batey and think he fits the role perfectly. His stuff with The Amazing Devil is really complex and interesting.