Television

ranbalam said:
I watched The Office S1 E1 (US version) and found Carrell so cringe. I mean, I've seen it before, and of course he's supposed to be...but it just didn't work for me. I don't think I'll do a full re-watch. I only casually once-in-awhile watched it anyway.
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He definitely lightens up after the first season. I did a covid rewatch and have been listening to the Office Ladies podcast weekly and will watch whatever show they talk about after.
 
tvham said:
He definitely lightens up after the first season. I did a covid rewatch and have been listening to the Office Ladies podcast weekly and will watch whatever show they talk about after.
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I do remember liking episodes throughout its run, so yeah, maybe he was just too much for me early on. And it does have a fantastic cast.
I ended up adoring Parks and Rec because it was....I don't know, nicer?
 
ranbalam said:
I watched The Office S1 E1 (US version) and found Carrell so cringe. I mean, I've seen it before, and of course he's supposed to be...but it just didn't work for me. I don't think I'll do a full re-watch. I only casually once-in-awhile watched it anyway.
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The first season’s tone is bizarre and more out-and-out mean than the rest of the show. I think the writers started out trying to mimic the acerbic acidity and uncomfortable irony of the UK show, then realized it’s better when the audience likes the characters.
 
Bull Shannon said:
The first season’s tone is bizarre and more out-and-out mean than the rest of the show. I think the writers started out trying to mimic the acerbic acidity and uncomfortable irony of the UK show, then realized it’s better when the audience likes the characters.
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This is exactly it. The first season is almost word for word the same at times but British humour doesn’t always translate very well. Plus mimicking rarely works without injecting characteristic of their own.

I think I read an article that essentially said just that, and once they moved on from the UK script they really started to develop the series.
 
Bull Shannon said:
The first season’s tone is bizarre and more out-and-out mean than the rest of the show. I think the writers started out trying to mimic the acerbic acidity and uncomfortable irony of the UK show, then realized it’s better when the audience likes the characters.
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The pilot is terrible and like a shot for shot remake of a UK episode. The best guide for those early episode was how thinned out Carrell’s hair is. The less they tried to make him look like he was balding the better he got. Also, fleshing out the side characters helped a great deal. Kelly Kapore registers completely different early on. The best thing about the first season is it’s only like 6 episodes long and they seem to have figured things out tone wise in the final couple episodes.

The same can be said for P&R first season too. They initially made Leslie Knope a Michael Scott clone, a socially inept buffoon type character but quickly allowed Poehler to flesh out the character and turn her into a Type-A altruistic public servant.

I think the improvised nature of these shows really allowed them to develop into highly watchable very funny television shows but allowing that to develop takes time.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
The pilot is terrible and like a shot for shot remake of a UK episode. The best guide for those early episode was how thinned out Carrell’s hair is. The less they tried to make him look like he was balding the better he got. Also, fleshing out the side characters helped a great deal. Kelly Kapore registers completely different early on. The best thing about the first season is it’s only like 6 episodes long and they seem to have figured things out tone wise in the final couple episodes.

The same can be said for P&R first season too. They initially made Leslie Knope a Michael Scott clone, a socially inept buffoon type character but quickly allowed Poehler to flesh out the character and turn her into a Type-A altruistic public servant.

I think the improvised nature of these shows really allowed them to develop into highly watchable very funny television shows but allowing that to develop takes time.
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Good call on Parks and Rec - I hated the first season and only went back to watch when friends insisted that I do so.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
The same can be said for P&R first season too. They initially made Leslie Knope a Michael Scott clone, a socially inept buffoon type character but quickly allowed Poehler to flesh out the character and turn her into a Type-A altruistic public servant.
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tvham said:
Good call on Parks and Rec - I hated the first season and only went back to watch when friends insisted that I do so.
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Agreed on that. Leslie Knope turned into one of my all time favorite TV characters. But season one, with Mark the Bore, was pretty skippable.

Ok, maybe I'll give The Office more time on a re-watch. Or just skip to S2!
 
Steve Carrell is the absolute best part of The Office. But yeah season one is rougher. As it goes on he gets better and better. But to me towards the end of his run it seemed like he was kind of bored. Or maybe it’s just not as good. When he leaves it’s terrible.

Parks And Rec stays consistent throughout and has a warmer, lighter tone than The Office. But I was completely obsessed with The Office when it was airing. I rewatched it constantly on dvd. So it’s the epitome of comfort for me. That said, Parks and Rec is probably the better show and even easier to rewatch. I rewatched both series during the early stages of the pandemic and had the most fun with Parks. It now gives me that same sort of comfort. But also just very very funny.
 
Speaking of Steve Carrell…I dipped out of The Morning Show a while ago and just did a full watch of both seasons. Well, I have two episodes left to go in season two. But man, there are some terrible writing / character choices in the second season. It’s still a fun show when it’s not especially great. But S2 feels like a sort of step down in what it was doing before.
 
Interesting. I just learned that the Horizon video game series is becoming a Netflix show. It's currently in early development.

The first season will split the timeline between Horizon Zero Dawn and before the end of the world around the year 2074.
 
Letterkenny is a really good fucking show


Also, RE: Office talk from the previous page. The Office is my favorite TV show. That show was comfort for me in high school. I burned through the DVDs I had of Seasons 1-5. But, it hasn't aged well. Every time I watch an episode nowadays I notice some slightly cringe things that I didn't notice those years ago. It hasn't aged well, which somewhat surprises me when people are just now getting into it and still loving it as much as I did/do. It probably wouldn't become my favorite TV show if I'd have only gotten into it recently.
 
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