'Good' Movies, TV Shows, Books Etc. You Dislike

[AndersonsBiographer]

I've been trying to make my way through the wildly-popular and endlessly-copied "Quaranteam" series, and it's honestly a struggle. I'll admit that most of them seem to be professionally-done and reasonably well-written, but in a lot of ways it feels like an attempt to refute something that an ex-girlfriend of mine once said, that the one good thing about an apocalypse is when it kills off all the boring people.

What are good or popular movies, books, etc which you personally didn't enjoy? Perhaps even if you did see why they would appeal to others?

As said in the other thread, I hated what little I saw of the History Channel's Vikings series. It felt like Games of Thrones with a bit less sex, and I wasn't a big fan of GoT/ASoIaF either. That's fine if that's the case, but then what's it doing on the History Channel?

I never saw the point in American Graffiti. I've been told that it's a generational thing, that the movie was an homage to the 60's and I would have just had to have "been alive at the time" to really appreciate it. Maybe that's true, maybe not. My dad was about the same age as George Lucas, and he hates AG even more than I do.

I don't think I've ever seen a "critically-acclaimed" Vietnam film that I enjoyed, and maybe that is generational. But then, I've never liked contemporary war films anyway.

 

[AchtungNight]

Twilight series stunk. 50 Shades made me want to vomit by its very concept. I find Game of Thrones very predictable and boring. Original Star Wars was awesome, prequel and sequel films not so much.

 

[StillStunned]

I couldn't get into either Breaking Bad or Mad Men.

 

[THBGato]

"The Iliad" and "The Odyssey"

"And they did beg for mercy, but Achilles laughed and slew them all until the river ran red. Then he enslaved their daughters..."
"And then, because they had lain with the suitors, Odysseus did hang Penelope's slave girls."

What a bunch of misogynistic, uber-violent tosh. Scary when you think that this stuff is held up as examples of Classic literature that writers, for centuries, aspiring to imitate and were used to teach generations of political leaders. No wonder the world celebrates feckless, violent bullies and allows them to gain positions of power.

 

[StillStunned]

"The Iliad" and "The Odyssey"

"And they did beg for mercy, but Achilles laughed and slew them all until the river ran red. Then he enslaved their daughters..."
"And then, because they had lain with the suitors, Odysseus did hang Penelope's slave girls."

What a bunch of misogynistic, uber-violent tosh. Scary when you think that this stuff is held up as examples of Classic literature that writers, for centuries, aspiring to imitate and were used to teach generations of political leaders. No wonder the world celebrates feckless, violent bullies and allows them to gain positions of power.

But then you get Andromache's farewell to Hector, and that shows an entirely different side.

 

[AndersonsBiographer]

"The Iliad" and "The Odyssey"

"And they did beg for mercy, but Achilles laughed and slew them all until the river ran red. Then he enslaved their daughters..."
"And then, because they had lain with the suitors, Odysseus did hang Penelope's slave girls."

What a bunch of misogynistic, uber-violent tosh. Scary when you think that this stuff is held up as examples of Classic literature that writers, for centuries, aspiring to imitate and were used to teach generations of political leaders. No wonder the world celebrates feckless, violent bullies and allows them to gain positions of power.

If you think Homer is bad, wait until you make it to Virgil.

Yeah, if you're going to let a bit of rape and slavery and mass-murder put you off on classical literature, then you probably shouldn't be reading classical literature.

 

[THBGato]

If you think Homer is bad, wait until you make it to Virgil.

Yeah, if you're going to let a bit of rape and slavery and mass-murder put you off on classical literature, then you probably shouldn't be reading classical literature.

I studied the Aenaid at school.

My objection is less to the content, but the way it is celebrated. And not all classical literature is like that: Antigone, for example. Sappho. Lysistrata. Catallus.

 

[Plathfan]

Fellini

 

[yowser]

Fellini

Isn't that the name of the protagonist's cat in 'Breaking Away'?

 

[Bramblethorn]

I wouldn't say that I "dislike Shakespeare"; that's too blunt a judgement. He has some excellent points as a writer, in particular a fantastic turn of phrase. But after doing table reads of almost all his plays - I think the only extant one I've missed is Titus - I find a fair bit to dislike in his work. I'm happy to acknowledge him as an important and talented writer, I just can't get behind his elevation to the status of Literary God and the performative thing where we have to read genius into his every line.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

I think the only extant one I've missed is Titus

You should try Titus. It has one of the best puns I've ever read, roughly,

- Villain, what hast thou done?
- Thy mother!

The time I saw it staged the actor accompanied that line with a hip thrusting motion just to make sure we all got it.

 

[Bramblethorn]

You should try Titus. It has one of the best puns I've ever read, roughly,

- Villain, what hast thou done?
- Thy mother!

The time I saw it staged the actor accompanied that line with a hip thrusting motion just to make sure we all got it.

Oh, I've read it, I just haven't done a table read of that one, because some of the content was a deal-breaker for some folk in our group.

 

[MythMaker]

The Godfather comes to mind when I think of films. I do enjoy the second one a little bit more, though it's still not something I am aching to revisit anytime soon.
Although I have only experienced some films from the MCU, the ones that I've seen I think are okay at best, and horribly mediocre at worst. I really don't get how such middling films received such critical praise, and it seems only in recent years that the popularity of that franchise is starting to wane with the criticisms I've had about them since the beginning! Maybe the original fans are just growing up to be as jaded as I am...

The original Star Trek series is also something that I find myself having trouble getting into, although I went on to watch Next Generation and Deep Space 9 which have become two of my favourite series since.
Courage the Cowardly Dog is a cartoon from my youth that still has a strong following in the present, though revisiting again as an adult, I found it to be extremely flawed despite how iconic it is, but I may revisit it again for another go around.
Cowboy Bebop is an anime that I found to be aggressively mediocre for the most part. There are one or two episodes I like from it, but I could not shake the impression that it's only remembered as fondly as it is for its animation (which is admittedly excellent) and the memories its fans have attached to it, since I do know it was a lot of people in the western world's introduction to anime.
I watched the Yu Yu Hakusho anime and then read the manga after being recommended to it by a friend, and I know that's another series that has a strong fanbase, but I really did not understand the acclaim around it in either of the mediums. It seemed like just about everything it did I'd seen done better in other anime/manga before or since. Hunter x Hunter by the same author, while I do enjoy much more than YYH, I still have a lot of criticisms about to the point where it makes me wonder why it's as highly acclaimed as it is.
Attack on Titan is another manga that was (is?) a massive phenomenon that I only just experienced myself recently, and I have to wonder how it became as huge as it did as early on as it did when the story is at its absolute least interesting, but I do admit I think this was something that did become better as it went on. The art certainly did improve in any case.

Although I think this has also fell off a lot in popularity, I remember quite a few folk highly praising the novel Ready Player One (before the film came out). Then I read it myself, and by the end I was left wondering i I had really read the same book that those folk were talking about. Might be my least favourite thing I've read. I also read It by Stephen King, but it didn't do much for me.

Well, those are just the ones off the top of my head. There are no doubt many more that aren't coming to mind right now.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I enjoyed Titus when I saw it at the Globe, but it is violent - it was the production that generally had three to six people fainting by the interval and about 10% not returning (so I upgraded myself from groundling to a seat; result).

I love a lot of Shakespeare, particularly the Tempest, but some of it is distinctly meh. And other authors were as good, but focused more on the current political jokes and sexist/xenophobic/religious views, which makes them harder to play for a modern audience.

Stuff people have loved recently that I've hated - Loki was plodding and ridiculous, and most of the Marvel films are pretty tedious. Star Trek: Discovery - pompous with terrible script.

 

[AllenWoody]

Succession (HBO). So many people rave about that show but I can't stand it. ALL of the characters apart from one weak one are AWFUL.

All of the recent Marvel movies suck, but they're widely loathed, so they aren't even supposedly good.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I couldn't get into either Breaking Bad or Mad Men.

Mad Men went on for at least one season too many. The advertising agency material was good; the personal lives stuff, especially of Don Draper, was weaker. I didn't like the identity switch during the Korean War scenario; that seemed to add nothing. Still, an entertaining show with some flaws.

Breaking Bad was a pretty well-plotted show. A bit implausible at times, but that was okay.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I've been trying to make my way through the wildly-popular and endlessly-copied "Quaranteam" series, and it's honestly a struggle. I'll admit that most of them seem to be professionally-done and reasonably well-written, but in a lot of ways it feels like an attempt to refute something that an ex-girlfriend of mine once said, that the one good thing about an apocalypse is when it kills off all the boring people.

What are good or popular movies, books, etc which you personally didn't enjoy? Perhaps even if you did see why they would appeal to others?

As said in the other thread, I hated what little I saw of the History Channel's Vikings series. It felt like Games of Thrones with a bit less sex, and I wasn't a big fan of GoT/ASoIaF either. That's fine if that's the case, but then what's it doing on the History Channel?

I never saw the point in American Graffiti. I've been told that it's a generational thing, that the movie was an homage to the 60's and I would have just had to have "been alive at the time" to really appreciate it. Maybe that's true, maybe not. My dad was about the same age as George Lucas, and he hates AG even more than I do.

I don't think I've ever seen a "critically-acclaimed" Vietnam film that I enjoyed, and maybe that is generational. But then, I've never liked contemporary war films anyway.

American Graffiti was mostly just a goofy road movie going on the same roads (streets) all of the time. They do, of did, cruising like that in California and elsewhere. I don't think it was intended to be more than that. I didn't identify with it because high schoolers in New York generally didn't own cars.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Rebel Without a Cause: I just don't get James Dean. Maybe had he lived longer he would have done better work eventually. Generally a poorly plotted movie. But wow, Natalie Wood was cute at seventeen.

West Side Story - the 1961 version. Not a believable depiction of gangs or New York in general. Rita Moreno was the best cast member by far.

 

[gunhilltrain]

This Side of Paradise: Fitzgerald's publishers were initially skeptical about his first novel. They had the right idea.

On the Road: good start, then loses all focus about halfway through.

 

[SimonDoom]

"Dislike" is too strong a word, but I think Alfred Hitchcock's films are highly overrated. North by Northwest is highly overrated. It's a collection of set pieces that were technically impressive for their time, but the story makes no sense, is way too improbable, and is way too stylized. To me, nothing in his films seems real. I always feel I'm watching movie people in contrived situations. The fakeness ruins the "suspense" for me.

The single most overrated film, IMO, is Citizen Kane. The cinematography is superb, but I find it a cold and uninvolving film. The most important element of a great film is its story, and I think the story of that film is way, way down the list of great film stories.

I think MASH was somewhat overrated as a TV show. It worked for a while as a dark comedy but over the years it evolved into more of a melodrama, and it never made sense that while it was supposed to be set in Korea in a war that lasted only a couple of years in the early 1950s it went on for 10 years and everybody in it looked like 70s people.

I have a hard time thinking of a book that generally wins critical acclaim but that I dislike. Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land didn't do much for me. I thought the message, such as it was, was shallow, and there's not much "science" to call it "science fiction." It's the only novel of his that I've read.

 

[Cuckwannabe111]

The Walking Dead. The first few seasons were great. Then the next few were good. I can't remember when I stopped watching it, but it got so I completely lost interest in a show I had previously been all in on.

 

[SimonDoom]

I wouldn't say that I "dislike Shakespeare"; that's too blunt a judgement. He has some excellent points as a writer, in particular a fantastic turn of phrase. But after doing table reads of almost all his plays - I think the only extant one I've missed is Titus - I find a fair bit to dislike in his work. I'm happy to acknowledge him as an important and talented writer, I just can't get behind his elevation to the status of Literary God and the performative thing where we have to read genius into his every line.

I recall you saying something like this in another thread several years ago. I was struck by it because almost nobody is willing to say they dislike Shakespeare.

I think you have to look at Shakespeare in the context of his time and his job. He was the Steven Spielberg of his time, with a knack for writing great entertainment, but he just so happened to be an extraordinary poet and wordsmith at the same time. Nobody turned more great phrases than Shakespeare. His inventiveness with the language was unsurpassed. I can imagine that if one's main experience with him is table-reading--I'm not entirely sure what that means--his work might not seem as impressive. I've seen a number of his plays performed on an Elizabethan-style stage and it all makes sense when you see it that way. If you look at him as somebody who was writing for the crowd rather than as a "great man" I think it does him more justice. He would have been baffled by the conversations we have here in this forum about whether you should write for yourself or your audience. He was scrambling to make a living and wrote for an audience but happened to make great art along the way. I think if asked he would have said, "Well, of course that's the way you do it."

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Rebel Without a Cause: I just don't get James Dean. Maybe had he lived longer he would have done better work eventually. Generally a poorly plotted movie. But wow, Natalie Wood was cute at seventeen.

West Side Story - the 1961 version. Not a believable depiction of gangs or New York in general. Rita Moreno was the best cast member by far.

Problem with West Side Story is that there is ZERO chance you could run through Spanish Harlem yelling "Maria" and only one woman comes to the window.


On a more serious note, I really don't understand why anyone likes Easy Rider. The ending is such a bailout.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

What are good or popular movies, books, etc which you personally didn't enjoy?

"Where The Crawdads Sing"
I contend that this was in no way a good book, though I admit it was very popular, and I have friends (whose taste in reading I otherwise respect) who enjoyed it.
To me, it featured a pointlessly convoluted plot, written by a supposed naturalist who clearly understands wild fauna far, FAR, better than she understands humans. Its main character is endlessly, repetitively described as having a very particular way of interacting with the world, but the plot hinges entirely on her acting completely contrary to that personality. And a bunch of supporting characters who are barely more than a collection of stereotypes. And, apparently the only city in North Carolina that the author had ever heard of was Asheville, until someone clued her in to the presence of Raleigh and Chapel Hill in the last two or three chapters.

It's one of maybe two books that I felt the urge to throw away when I finished (the only reason I didn't being that I was reading a borrowed copy).

For TV Shows: probably the two most popular shows I never watched (because one episode told me I wouldn't enjoy them) were Seinfeld and Friends. But sitcoms in general don't appeal to me (The Big Bang Theory is a notable exception to that generalization).

Movies: honestly, I've tried to watch Star Wars (the original trilogy) and always get bored and/or annoyed with the editing.

**puts on flame retardant jammies**

 

[alohadave]

Breaking Bad was a pretty well-plotted show. A bit implausible at times, but that was okay.

If you like Breaking Bad, check out Better Call Saul. It may be even better, though I didn't love the ending.