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The Golden Age Past

oldmangregoldmangreg198 Woodland Hills, CAPosts: 1,339Member
edited May 2014 in General Discussion #1
I have been noticing that lately with all these tv shows and movies, I don't remember as much about them like I did when I was a child. It is not that when I was a child that those tv shows and movies left an impression on me, but that most tv shows and movies don't leave the same impact as they did in the past. They feel empty and devoid of life. It seems that great stories and great acting has lost its way in the new pursuit of delivering that next blockbuster with great special effects. There are exceptions of course, but I feel like the golden age has died.

I want to know what you guys considered great tv shows and movies, ones that left an impression on you. It can be from the obvious (such as Star Trek) to lesser known ones. What makes them great? What stories made you wonder? Was there something that left an emotional 'scar' on you?
Post edited by oldmangreg on
Your right to an opinion does not make your opinion valid.

Posts

  • rojrenrojren2298 Louisville, Kentucky USAPosts: 1,970Member
    With TV shows, they used to give them time to find themselves. Now (unless they have someone big backing it) if it's not a hit in five (or fewer) episodes, it's toast.

    Lately, with movies, the current big-shot movie makers just take a bunch of action scenes they want to see, and wrap a half-witted story around it. Pacific Rim, the newest Superman movie, the new Star Treks, etc..

    And it doesn't help that they just keep remaking the same movies over and over...

    If you want a good story, you have to go to a Pixar movie. Even they have a couple of misses though.
  • evil_genius_180evil_genius_1804256 Posts: 11,034Member
    Yeah, rojren hit the nail on the head.

    I've about given up on network TV. It seems like, every time I actually like a new show, it does a season at best anymore. Meanwhile, things I think are absolute crap won't go away. They just don't even give a lot of shows a chance anymore. Take Almost Human, for example. That was a show on Fox this past season about a human and an android who were cops who worked together. That was the only show that premiered last fall that I thought was truly good, and I only found a few worth trying. And, what did Fox do? The same thing they did with Firefly. They basically set up the show to fail. They pushed back the premiere date to a dumb time and then they ran the episodes out of order. In the series, the main human (Karl Urban) hates androids, but he works with one that's different (played by Michael Ealy.) As they work together, he's supposed to like the android better and better. However, Fox ran them in a frakked up order so that it looked like Karl Urban's character was bipolar and liked the android one week but didn't the next. I've seen the list of "most promising" TV pilots in development for this fall and the show The Flash is the only one that even looks good to me. The rest look like absolute crap, as we usually get in the fall anymore. Most probably won't make it past October. :rolleyes:

    As for movies, meh. There are some good ones. Like rojren said, Pixar is mostly sticking to doing good stuff. Sure, they have duds or things that I just don't like personally, but they have mostly good films. I saw Frozen with my sister and niece around Christmas and really enjoyed that. Unfortunately, like rojren said, a lot of the films being made these days are remakes. It seems like Hollywood has ran out of fresh ideas. (or, more likely, isn't green lighting them because they think recycled crap is a sure money maker) And, even with stuff that's being "rebooted," they're going in frakked up directions. I though last year's summer blockbuster Man of Steel was a hot load of poop. I'm a Superman fan and I was bitterly disappointed in that film after looking forward to it a lot. I've been watching the film series starring Christopher Reeve since I was a kid and I've read some of the Superman comics, and that film seemed to follow none of it. Then, a lot of the movies these days like Total Recall and Robocop that are based on classic Science Fiction films seem to just settle with mediocrity. I caught the Total Recall remake on Starz one day and there was nothing to really make it stand out to me. It certainly didn't have the effect on me that the 1990 Paul Verhoeven film did.

    But, that's not to say every film being made these days is utter crap. With a few exceptions, Disney and Marvel seem to be doing all right. Iron Man 1 & 2, Thor 1 & 2, Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengers were all really good films. I didn't care for Iron Man 3, but that's OK. I'm really looking forward to seeing Captain America: The Winter Soldier when it comes out on Netflix. I've seen a lot of great reviews on that. I'm also a huge Planet of the Apes fan, and I thought the one they did a few years ago, Rise of the Planet of the Apes was really good. I'm looking forward to Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. For non-Sci-Fi, I like the Fast & Furious films and some other action films. Though, nobody seems to make as many just kewl action films like they used to back in the '80s and early '90s. Most comedy films these days are like modern sitcoms to me: utter crap.

    So, yeah, as far as movies and TV these days, I just don't look forward to stuff like I used to. I think I look forward to fan films and other stuff on the web more than I do big studio stuff these days. It's the only way you can guarantee seeing something where the people making it actually care about and pay respect to the source material.
  • oldmangregoldmangreg198 Woodland Hills, CAPosts: 1,339Member
    I didn't mind Pacific Rim much because its generally aimed towards kids and sort of homage to old school films like Godzilla (whose stories are lacking lol). I liked it. I'm sad they took down Almost Human. I actually liked that show.

    I saw Man of Steel with my company commander after we got back from Leavenworth. It was rather boring. It seemed they were just stringing together a bunch of scenes and calling it a movie. I haven't seen Winter Soldier or Robocop yet. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes looks good; I did enjoy the first one. I stopped paying attention to Fast and Furious. And don't get me started on Resident Evil, which should of died (pun intended) after Apocalypse. I enjoy a majority of the Marvel films, with the first Hulk film and the Toby Spider-Man films being crap.

    And of course the JJ Star Trek films suck worse than a virgin hooker. Very few things that I actually like in those films. The writing is sloppy mess of ****. There is dumbing down, and then there is just ****in stupid. Guess which do they fall under? :D

    I actually try to watch stuff from outside Hollycrap. Independent films seem the way to go. Then there is fan films like Phase II or Axanar which deliver quality (or in the case of Axanar will eventually).
    Your right to an opinion does not make your opinion valid.
  • IRMLIRML253 Posts: 1,993Member
    oldmangreg wrote: »
    I saw Man of Steel with my company commander after we got back from Leavenworth...
    escaped from prison?

    hehe
  • evil_genius_180evil_genius_1804256 Posts: 11,034Member
    oldmangreg wrote: »
    I didn't mind Pacific Rim much because its generally aimed towards kids and sort of homage to old school films like Godzilla (whose stories are lacking lol). I liked it.

    Oh yeah, I forgot about Pacific Rim. I just saw that last weekend. Great flick. It definitely has an old school Godzilla feel to it. Big monster fight films are usually about the only kind of film where I just shut down the analytical part of my brain and enjoy them, because the plots are often ludicrous and/or weak. Though, Pacific Rim actually has a decent plot. Plus, the actors really did a good job of selling it. And the CGI is absolutely stunning.
  • D-JotaD-Jota390 Posts: 47Member
    oldmangreg wrote: »
    ...There are exceptions of course, but I feel like the golden age has died.

    I totally agree!
    For me personally the nineties is the sweet spot. I was bringing to a close my teenage years and commencing with adulthood. I had discovered the original Star Trek in about 87/88 so that set me up just in the nick of time for the last of the original movies, Next Gen, DS9 & Voyager. And of course thanks to Trek's massive contribution to science fiction television around that time it helped pave the way for a number of cult based series (yes some more successful or better remembered than others): Babylon 5, The X-Files, Space: Above and Beyond, Sliders, The New Outer Limits, Dark Skies, American Gothic...
    I also went cult TV magazine crazy as well, most of which I still have: Star Trek Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, TV Zone, Starburst etc.
    Then came the Star Trek coffee table books... I had to have them all: The Art of Star Trek, STTNG: The Continuing Mission, ST: Encyclopedia, ST: Chronlogy, STTNG: Technical Manual for the Enterprise-D, more and more were released; I must have spent upwards of Aï¿¡500 on these things! I was (err... am!) a total addict for Trek!! Oh and the Star Trek Fact Files? - Yep collected all of that! The irony is, I don't even read!!

    What amplifies this fondness I maintain for nineties TV even more is the fact that it represents a time when nobody had even heard of 'reality TV'! Phone-vote shows simply didn't saturate the schedules like they do now. X-Factor, Britain's Got Talent, Come Dancing, Dancing on Ice - What's that? - I call it fast food television and the mentality of the viewing audience now demands shows like The Only Way is Essex and Made In Chelsea and calls for the cancellation of veteran shows like Star Trek Enterprise. I've said this before and I'll say it again: THANK GOD Star Trek The Next Generation was commissioned in 1987; it really wouldn't stand a chance now!
    Yep, television has become something else now; except for a small handful of shows I can't say that the number of hours of television I watch a week (less than an hour a day - No, really!) justifies my licence fee nor my monthly subscription to Sky; yet I still keep paying it! - Silly me...
  • MartocticvsMartocticvs444 Posts: 524Member
    Most TV today is utter monkey balls. A lot was back then too, of course - we tend to focus on the good things in the past an inflate them so they dominate and seem more than they were at the time (ie the rose-tinted specs phenomenon).

    You're right - most of Trek would simply not be possible today. The reality TV sector now dominates everything. The TV companies must love it, as it's relatively cheap to make *and* they get extra cash coming in from the voting. Sad thing is its all mindless drivel. Even a lot of the scientific programming has been severely watered down in recent years.

    But remember that everything goes in cycles... this reality fad I think is starting to show signs of people losing interest, so maybe in another 5 years time there will be a better feel to things generally. It's going to take a lot to get people hungry for more intelligent scifi again though... the blow stuff up every episode mentality is strong today.
  • evil_genius_180evil_genius_1804256 Posts: 11,034Member
    Yeah, there have always been crappy shows. However, I remember even 5-10 years ago having at least a few shows to watch each night on network TV. Now, I watch very little and next season looks to be even worse.
  • MartocticvsMartocticvs444 Posts: 524Member
    Yeah well I watch bugger all now. There are long stretches through the year when pretty much all I watch is Formula One. I'd watch other racing series if I could spot them in the listings but they are buried! Would watch IndyCar but not really wanting to pay for ESPN... and they could do with sorting their ****ty safety standards out a bit too.
  • evil_genius_180evil_genius_1804256 Posts: 11,034Member
    I'm a Nascar fan. However, for the past few years, you have to pay for ESPN to get half of the races over here. (f***ing Disney anyway) Since I have a TV package that includes ESPN, I have other stations like History and whatnot. I watch more of that than I do network TV these days.
  • MartocticvsMartocticvs444 Posts: 524Member
    I don't really get the attraction of NASCAR (fair to say that it doesn't attract much attention in Europe), but I would probably be willing to pay for DTM.
  • spacefighterspacefighter2 Posts: 0Member
    i haven't watched tv in ages, i just use online catchup on the few occasions there is something i want to see. that way i'm never tied to shedules. you're right about "reality" TV being dominant, it's quite disgusting how the most popular things for people to watch are talent shows, soaps and other pieces of HD widescreen drivel that make superstars out of dull individuals. i cannot stand all this obsession with celebrities that people have these days, look at stats for the most popular programmes in any given week and it always the same story which makes one wonder if mankind has any hope left. i will say however regarding movies and the general concept of a "golden age" that i don't think modern movies are worse than older ones (for the types of films i like atleast) and i really think the idea of a golden age is simply a consequence of faulty memeories, it's natural only to remember things that stand out. we've all forgotten anything on tv/in the cinema in whatever era each of us calls a golden age that didn't stand out so we perceive there being a higher concentration of memorable stuff back then simply because we have forgotten all the rot that was circulating back whenever we "back in my day..." about. but i agree there is some worsening in the general culture of what people find entertaining, somehow one of channel 4's most popular shows was film clips of people in their living rooms watching programmes from the previous week, how desperate have people become!
  • evil_genius_180evil_genius_1804256 Posts: 11,034Member
    Don't even get me started on (un)reality TV. I hate that garbage. I remember when Survivor started, I thought, "This won't last." (I even had a couple discussions about that) But, unfortunately, that crap is still on and has sprouted many more shows. They're cheaper to produce than other shows, that's why there's so much of it.
    I don't really get the attraction of NASCAR (fair to say that it doesn't attract much attention in Europe), but I would probably be willing to pay for DTM.

    It's the only kind of auto racing I watch. Though, now that I have a host of ESPN and other sport stations, I should get into some other auto racing.
  • D-JotaD-Jota390 Posts: 47Member
    Most TV today is utter monkey balls. A lot was back then too, of course - we tend to focus on the good things in the past an inflate them so they dominate and seem more than they were at the time (ie the rose-tinted specs phenomenon).

    Obviously I appreciate that rose tinted specs can paint your opinions of the present. I think most of us can recount a time when we dared to revisit a show or a movie that we remembered as being really cool but when all was said and done the refresher informed us that we'd spent most of our lives bigging up something that was pretty awful!
    In the case of my golden era TV choices however I can quite happily sit through ANY Star Trek episode (even the clunkers) today; same goes for The X-Files and I'm in the middle of running through Babylon 5 (yet again) in 2... 3... and on some weekends 4 episode hits; honestly, hand on heart I am still having a good time with all that.
    Also the special something about those shows is that not only would I watch them religiously (back in the day) but I would enjoy them enough to want to create art based on them. I adore the artistry in the Star Trek and B5 universes, indeed I couldn't say for sure whether I'd have even been interested in taking up 3D modelling had it not been for my pre-existing love of Star Trek and B5. Seeing what the 3D community were creating all those years back, expressing their interest, even love for those shows made me want to be a part of it. My god, I spent the best part of six years writing a reference book on Babylon 5 that will never likely see a date of publication and you know what, I'm not even all that bothered; I was happy to spend all those evenings playing around with that because I love the show. -- Couldn't say there's much on TV at the moment that catches me in quite the same way.

    One influence I never thought about mentioning was the Internet: It has a way of focusing your interests in a way that television is less clever at. As a member of an audience that has started to leave TV behind I get all the entertainment I need from YouTube and the like; there are sooo many clips or even full shows both televised or internet based, endless video interviews with artists, actors, musicians and other noteworthy characters of influence and inspiration that BBC 1 just doesn't think to offer people.

    Oh one more gem... Stargate SG-1! My Dad got hooked on that show in the mid to late naughties before 'pushing' a couple of seasons on me - It's an amazing show with some awesome characters - I couldn't recommend that one enough... I saw them all for the first time about three or four years ago; what a treat that was. So yeah, yet another show that has it's roots in the nineties that boasts the magic something!
  • MartocticvsMartocticvs444 Posts: 524Member
    Keep meaning to watch Stargate... I have finally seen the film now, thanks to C5... series coming up hopefully :)
  • SanderleeSanderlee1 Posts: 0Member
    Stargate: SG-1 was based on the film, but really ran in a different direction (better, really) than you'd expect. They also really locked down the mix of action and humor, heavy on the humor. Arguably, the episodes had some low points, but most of it was solid.

    And, hey, the dialogue.

    "It's amazing," says Daniel Jackson, spooning food from a tin cup. "They make everything taste just like chicken."
    "What's the problem," asks Captain Samantha Carter, one rock over.
    "It's macaroni and cheese."

    :D
  • homerpalooza67homerpalooza67228 Posts: 1,891Member
    My current fav's are Silicon Valley and House of Cards. HoC is a bit corny and really stretches suspension of disbelief, but it is very well written and acted. SV is simply...hilarious. It's very well written but not particularly believable. Still funny as hell.
    Sanderlee wrote: »
    Stargate: SG-1 was based on the film, but really ran in a different direction (better, really) than you'd expect. They also really locked down the mix of action and humor, heavy on the humor. Arguably, the episodes had some low points, but most of it was solid.

    And, hey, the dialogue.

    "It's amazing," says Daniel Jackson, spooning food from a tin cup. "They make everything taste just like chicken."
    "What's the problem," asks Captain Samantha Carter, one rock over.
    "It's macaroni and cheese."

    :D
    If SG1 had run in the early 2000's instead of mid 90's, it wouldnt have lasted more than 2 seasons. The earlier shows were extremely cheesy. I did enjoy Atlantis (for the most part) but even that had its fair share of tropes, cliches and poorly written episodes.
  • rojrenrojren2298 Louisville, Kentucky USAPosts: 1,970Member
    Whenever I try to watch anything, it gets cancelled. The only things I even try to watch regularly anymore are "Game of Thrones" and "Top Gear UK".

    Oh, and Doctor Who.
  • homerpalooza67homerpalooza67228 Posts: 1,891Member
    rojren wrote: »
    Oh, and Doctor Who.
    Unfortunately, i've been handily unimpressed with the Matt Smith era - not to say there weren't a few spectacular episodes, but overall his portrayal of the Doctor leaves me with much to be desired.
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