Like you just jumped in at a random point in the series? That feels like something you can usually only do with comedy.

No, like I started at season 1, episode 1 and watched 2-3 episodes and thought... meh... and then never bothered watching it again.

Gotcha. The wording of "got in quite late" threw me. If a series doesn't work for you then it doesn't work for you. I've got several acclaimed shows that I tried and couldn't really get into (The Wire, The Sopranos, to a lesser extent GOT though I did like that more than the first two).

It's probably not a massive mistake to give up after three episodes of a drama when it doesn't interest you, since dramas tend to come out of the gates full throttle and don't require the same development that comedy often does (any number of great comedies start with a season 1 that kind of sucks).

Yes, I see how that could be interpreted that way - by "got in quite late" I just meant years after it first aired and I had therefore been subjected to years of praise of the show which may have given me too high expectations.

I also never got into The Wire - did watch a full season (maybe 2?) of that though. Never watched Sopranos.

I'm mostly a sci-fi/fantasy/supernatural-fan though. I really liked GOT (except for the final season ldo) though I got into that really late too. Binged all of that during a couple of weeks of corona-lockdown.

I think I got two full seasons into The Wire, so it wasn't a quick give-up, but I just couldn't find the will to continue at some point. I was liking it well enough, but not loving it. Sopranos was a quick give-up. I'm fanatical about The Godfather I and II, but crime movies/TV can generally be pretty hit-or-miss for me.

I would be seeing GOT through if it weren't for the fact that everyone craps so hard on the last season. It's hard to push myself through when I know I'm likely in for an ending that I'm not going to like.

FWIW I do think Mad Men gets better after the start, but I was in love with it from the first episode. It's not like Parks and Rec, where if a person drops out after three episodes I feel duty-bound to push them to stick with it, or The Office, where I usually just encourage people to start from S02E01 and then fill in season 1 later after they know they like the show.

I think I might give Mad Men a shot later on - I feel like I was expecting something different than what it was and that threw me off as well. It does seem like the kind of show I would enjoy.

As for GOT, before watching it, I kinda figured the criticism for the final season was just standard fanboy-drama so I didn't really give it much thought.

It is really terrible though - still a second place to Battlestar Galactica when it comes to shitty ways to end an otherwise fantastic series, but a pretty close second place, if only because they could've fairly easily done it so much better with GOT.

BG, like Lost, built up stuff that the writers clearly had no clue about how to resolve in the end - which isn't really an excuse, but at least it's an explanation. Ending GOT well was not an impossible task though - they clearly just didn't bother to do so.

I'm always proud that I quit LOST mid-series after making the realization that there was no coherent long-term plan, rather than declaring myself pot-committed and seeing the damn thing through. Season one was some amazing TV though.

Yeah I think I stopped Lost in Season 4. I did like it though.


And for some reason have never watched Parks and Rec. Maybe not one whole episode.

Since you've indicated that you've watched and rewatched The Office, it's a leak to not also watch Parks and Rec. I know people who think that Parks is the better show, and they're definitely definitely wrong, but it really gets great once it hits its stride.

By the way, speaking of Mad Men, I recently caught up on the most recent season of Curb, and Jon Hamm as Larry 2.0 was pretty great.

Did you watch any of it?

That's because on the surface it looks like a really shitty edgy romcom and I suppose at heart it is but with the most beautifully developed characters with such a genuine realness to certain bits. I quite literally don't know how sell it to people to get them to watch it but it really is amazing. It's also quite hard to find season 1-3 online to stream, may be easier in the US.

Curb and arrested development are my two comedies that people rave about that which I don't get. Both are ok, perfectly watchable but so much better out there.

It is. Hulu has all seasons.

I spoke previously of The Americans and specifically how strongly it ended. I see that the world agrees. I wonder how many shows have a rating graph over the seasons that looks like this, just a massive spike in the final season.

I'm in season 4 now and it's continuing on as a pretty underwhelming show compared to its extremely strong start.

The fact that I'm only 20 episodes from a finale that notches a 9.9/10 on IMDb is probably going to convince me to keep going. If this show were on now, I think I'd have lost interest and quit on it.

I don't remember 6FU having that much of a lul. The ending is overhyped.

Homeland was pretty great. Season 2 and 3 were a little weak, but 1 and 4 through finale were just excellent.

Rewatching Curb again. Love everything about it. Probably still think that The Car Pool Lane is maybe my favourite episode, but man there's just so many good ones.

Strong finale (and overall final story arc in the back half of the last season) for Six Feet Under. Obviously I had my points where it was struggling to keep my interest along the way, but I'm glad I put the time into it. Good series.

Way to go!

On the off chance that someone doesn't want to be spoiled,

Funny, I don't even recall the guy at all.

That kind of illustrates the point. He was the last love interest of hers and he showed up at some point during the last season, their relationship wasn't well-developed nor was there any real reason that they needed to shoehorn another love story in for her (though, to be clear, I certainly wouldn't have wanted her to circle back with any of the others she was with along the way), and then for some reason they felt the need to include him during the extended montage that wrapped the show.

But again, I'm just picking at the weak spots in a really strong close to the series.

I just finished The Last Ride last night. What a great series!

Undertaker is like a guy that has to have his last shot of each day be a swish from 3, only he gets one shot a year (Wrestlemania).

That's a lot of days without swishes now.