TV Guide’s Website’s Strangely Popular Gimmick

While I haven’t been to this site in a while (not really needing to at the moment), there has been this weird thing that they do that I find dumb. I haven’t actually read any of the articles as I don’t find them worthy of my time. It is called 8 shows like x you should watch if you like x. X, in this case, refers to any show that they can think of. They started doing this and it even gets a whole section of pages at the website meaning that people like this.

Why would people like this? This is baffling. I don’t understand why one would write articles about shows that are like another show that you should watch. People can gather that on their own if they cared without people needing some person to tell them on their behalf. That is why I describe it as a gimmick as there really isn’t much point to it.

Now you might be thinking, wait, Adam, don’t you do something like this? Well, kind of, but not really. When I review shows that have ended, be it old ones or somewhat recently cancelled, I include a short section in the review where I mention similar shows. All I do is mention them. I don’t say that you should watch them or go into reasons why they are similar. And I certainly don’t do these posts all the time. It tends to be only a few times that I even write posts that mention similar shows.

I doubt that I will read one of these TV Guide articles in question even just to understand them. I once read a book and the writer of it was wondering why someone would buy a different book called The South Beach Diet. The book, The South Beach Diet, has sold lots of copies and proved to be a success. So I guess that I won’t understand why people would like this and leave it at that.

My Planned Fall Viewing Habits: 2021

I thought that I would do this post now before too long had past and I wanted to get this out of the way since it is time sensitive. I want to get all of these ones done, but am unsure of just how much time I will have in the future. Note as usual that plans can change and so can the schedule. I doubt it will change as much as it did last season. One of the most notable changes is that Law and Order: For the Defense is not moving forward as a series before they even casted the show, much less started filming it or doing more with it.

 

Another factor in this is that CW’s summer schedule is airing very late. They always, typically, outside of last year, tend to have something going on a bit late while other networks have started their fall shows typically. They changed things a lot and with delays going on with a lot of their shows, too much of what they did was on late. Maybe they should have cut the episode order or not rely on too many shows that use special effects in the end.

 

The most notable change that you will notice in this blog is that I’m no longer watching all new CBS shows, but will watch some new ones as usual. This is due to CBS allowing shows to be on streaming and not the network anymore. I’ll miss Clarice and Evil. Also, fuck you.

 

One of the things to note is that there is stuff not on at fall that I want to see if it is on. I will only say shows here that I know for a fact are coming back for future seasons. Blood and Treasure, if it even gets made at all with a season 2 after years off the air by now, is one of those shows. That’s a CBS show. I plan to keep watching the CW shows of Charmed, Superman and Lois, Dynasty, Kung Fu, Stargirl, and Roswell, New Mexico. I will wait to see more of 9-1-1: Lone Star on FOX and the NBC show of Mr. Mayor when both of them are back on.

 

As usual, there are wildcards of sorts where lots of different things could change over time. I do not know offhand when I’ll see Whose Line is it Anyways? ABC, NBC, and now even FOX have reception problems for me that could make it harder for me to see things on them. I may only see Killer Camp if there is something notable about the host or one of the players. I can get what I like of that out of seeing The Hustler instead.

 

While I still like Dancing with the Stars now, I doubt that I’ll have the time for it this time around. I’m unsure yet if I’ll get back into Tough as Nails. After seeing all of the first season, I ignored all of the second. Legends of Tomorrow will probably still be watched by me as I adapt to seeing something that’s up against Survivor by putting it on my laptop. Otherwise, I’d have to watch it online as I can’t miss any of an Arrowverse show ever. Also, while La Brea looks interesting, I might not watch it due to wanting to see other shows at the same time and needing an open slot for it to work. I may not watch much of Penn and Teller: Fool Us if it competes with anything that I like. I do like Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, but do not know if that will be too much or not.

 

The returning shows I’m still into on the various networks and plan to watch are the CW shows of Nancy Drew, Batwoman, The Flash, and Riverdale. I’ll stay into the ABC shows of The Rookie, The Good Doctor, Home Economics, Big Sky, Station 19, and Grey’s Anatomy. I’m still into the CBS shows of S.W.A.T., Magnum P.I., Blue Bloods, Young Sheldon, B Positive, Survivor, FBI, FBI: Most Wanted, NCIS, 60 Minutes, The Equalizer, and NCIS: Los Angeles. I’m sticking with the FOX shows of The Simpsons, The Great North, Family Guy, Bob’s Burgers, 9-1-1, and The Resident. And I’ll stay with the NBC shows of Law and Order: Organized Crime, SVU, and New Amsterdam.

 

As for the new shows that I plan on watching on the various networks, they will be all of the new CW shows of Legends of the Hidden Temple and 4400, all the new FOX shows of Alter Ego, Our Kind of People, and The Big Leap, the ABC show of Queens, the NBC show of Ordinary Joe, and the CBS shows of Ghost, CSI: Vegas, The Activist, FBI: International, and NCIS: Hawaii. Note that both Ghost and The Activist might be cut as I don’t have to watch every new CBS show anymore, but it might work out best for me to check them all out at least once anyways.

 

I’ll be bidding farewell to The Goldbergs and The Masked Singer, both shows that were only on being watched in the absent Survivor timeslot. I can still watch The Goldbergs in syndication, but don’t, and my only interest in The Masked Singer is seeing who the performers are, something that I can keep track of without having to watch the show itself.

 

That’s about it for this post. It turns out that I will be busier than I like over the upcoming weeks and weekends making me think that I could have incomplete blog posts as usual. But I plan to fix that and not have that as an issue as much anymore. There’s not much else to say so I’ll end the post here.

An Apology to All Blog Readers

This largely applies to this blog the most so I’m posting this here. This won’t be so much about TV as it will about my blogging. As you can see, I am behind in this blog on some of the themed posts that I do over and over again. Some of them are time sensitive and don’t happen as a result, although it is just the fantasy schedule that is more like this. I might have to spend the time doing these in the future.

As you can imagine, it takes a lot of time to do various things such as living life, working, and doing tons of other things other than just blogging. I’ve done my best to ensure that some content is here when I feel that it should be here. But I do not always get quality content. Whether you can tell it or not, I do a lot of these posts entirely the day of it getting published. This is one of them. I should never write entire posts the day of them getting published. But it keeps happening over and over again.

Thus, I’m sorry that I’m not doing as well as I could be with my blogs. I’m doing all of them now out of an obligation to fulfill what I feel needs done. They are just whatever I can do quickly often or just not that big a thing that it could be. Some of the recurring yearly posts aren’t getting done at all or at logical points in time. I should have gotten a series of posts on the best and worst shows of the decade done last year and might not be able to get done this year. I plan to get more done as soon as possible, but am not sure that I’m getting what I should have more done. 

In conclusion, be glad that you keep seeing posts in my blogs still after all these years doing this. I have done way better with this blog than I have in the earlier days of this blog when it was highly irregular. I had only five random posts in one year of this blog. I’m doing better in making sure that there is something posted in all of my blogs when I want them to. But the quality is bad and could be better.

Summer Shows 2021 Part 2

I have very little time to write the rest of the posts for this blog for the rest of this month as there are some time sensitive posts that I’ll need to get done over time. There are some that I might not get done at all and others that are coming very late. I even plan to do a special apology post that would appear in this blog and apply to all of them.

 

Fantasy Island: Show Description- A woman brings people to an island with supernatural powers where they learn a life lesson under the guise of living a fantasy of theirs. Behind the Scenes- This is a remake of a show of the same name and might be set in the same universe as the new main character is said to be a descendent of the original one. My Thoughts- It seems like a pretty decent show. It is good in enough ways, although maybe not as interesting as I would like. I give it three out of five stars. Long Term Prospects- I don’t know if this will last, although it might. Where to Find- On Tuesdays at 9/8 Central on FOX

 

Family Game Fight: Show Description- Two families compete against each other in various games for the most points and a shot at $100,000. Behind the Scenes- Married couple Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard are the co-hosts of this show that also compete in it with the families. Ellen DeGeneres also created this and is inspired by some of her talk show’s games and her game show, Ellen’s Game of Games. My Thoughts- It seems pretty good and fair. I can’t think of much wrong with it other than the weirdness of some of the games. Long Term Prospects- This will probably last, but just as easily might not. Where to Find- On Wednesdays at 9/8 Central on NBC

 

Here, we switch to returning shows as I get to the later ones that I believe are on. You may notice that there is at least one new CBS show that I’m not including in the reviews and I’ll explain pretty soon why I’m not going to see every new CBS show which isn’t what I used to do. It won’t get its own post like some other subjects do.

 

Stargirl: Status- Currently on the CW at 8/7 Central on the CW. Why I’ve seen it- It looked good and interesting. Noteworthiness- This is adapted from the Stargirl comics by DC comics. Description- A teenage girl gets a cosmic staff believed to be from her father that turns her into a mystic superhero called Stargirl. Notable People- Amy Smart, from movies, is a character on the show. Pros- Very well done in terms of being character driven among nearly all of its stars both big and small, it is hard to think of much that’s bad about it. Cons- I do worry that it has the problems of having to see every episode to understand it. Note to Parents- There are some issues with this, but also good life lessons as well. I suggest that preteens and older can watch, but not too much else. Recommendation- I think that you should watch it and as long as it isn’t a part of Arrowverse, you don’t have too much to worry about regarding it. Prediction- This is renewed for a third season while airing its second. I hope that it lasts long enough, but we’ll see. Reception: positive. Grade: A. New review

 

The Greatest #AtHome Videos: Status- Currently on CBS at 9/8 Central on Fridays. Why I’ve seen it- I used to watch every new CBS show at least once. Description- Various internet videos that have happened since the start of the pandemic are shown. Notable People- Cedric the Entertainer, who also stars in The Neighborhood and has started in Cedric’s Barber Battle, is the host of this show. Pros- What I saw wasn’t bad at all. Cons- I don’t really like TV shows showing us what we can just see on the internet instead. This isn’t something that I care about. Note to Parents- This might be fine. I can’t remember anything too bad. Recommendation- This isn’t worth keeping up with. Prediction- This will probably keep lasting. Reception: average. Grade: D. New review

 

Big Brother: Status- This CBS show airs in three hours of primetime during the summer and on live internet feeds at www.cbs.com. The three primetime hours are basically split into the mostly live show where people are voted out, the show where people get nominated to get voted out, and the show where people compete to possibly change the nominations on the show. Why I’ve seen it- A parody of it on the Talk interested me in watching the real thing. Noteworthiness- There are many versions of it in other countries, most of which work very differently than ours. In case you were wondering, we were not the first country to do this show, although we were the first country to use the format that it has in almost no other country’s version of it. Description- A group of people, normally strangers, but sometimes not, are put into a house where they are recorded 24/7 and competing for a money prize. Notable People- Julie Chen, formally of CBS’s Early Show and The Talk, is the host of this show. Pros- While it may seem similar to other reality TV shows, it is very different to the usual. You can see whatever you want to online since CBS has live feeds of what goes on inside the house. Cons- The live internet feed gets cuts a lot making it seem like the people that air the show is hiding something. Tons of controversies have arisen on the show. The contestants often aren’t nice people. Note to Parents- I’d say that teenagers can watch this. I wouldn’t go with much younger than that as the typical episode can have enough objectionable things in it. You can watch it with them and decide for yourself what it is like and if you want to comment on it a lot to explain some of it, that would work. Recommendation- This show is a pretty good show to watch. My viewing habits- I got into this late and for varying reasons don’t know yet if I’ll watch it again. I might not see it again as it is too much of a time commitment. Prediction- It will probably last a long time, although it just as easily might not. Reception: mixed. Grade: B-.

Big Brother: A Lesson in How Not to Behave

With a lot of reality shows on, most of them teach you how you shouldn’t behave as most of them are about people who they want to cause conflict to make for great TV. I believe that this is a part of every reality show and not just the competition ones. Today, I am talking about just the show Big Brother specifically since the others are not relevant. I could do a post on Survivor in my Survivor blog, but I won’t this time yet.

 

There has been a lot of controversy caused by Big Brother over the years and contestants’ treatment of other contestants has been one of the consistent problems. They’ve even had to expel some players from the game because of that at times in very serious issues with how others are treated. This does not account for all of the expulsions thus far, but maybe around half if not three out of four.

 

What exactly are the issues? Well, people aren’t always nice, which is to be expected in most of the reality shows as stated already. But it is more than simply not being nice that causes issues. They can be bullies or have too many conflicts with other, specific players. There have been racial slurs used and some sexist ones as well. Basically, any type of discrimination has probably come up at least once on the show at some point in time.

 

I don’t want to go as far as repeating what some of the truly egregious things on the show are since that would give these people the infamy they so desperately want for some reason. Just know that there are even issues that the players do with bad behavior even without some of the absolute worse stuff.

 

People may have to lie a lot on the show in order to get what they want. They use other players as pawns, puppets, or however horrible they want to. Some have started relationships on the show even though they were in one before they started the game. Not being nice doesn’t have to be part of the game in the end. Players can be good people without having to sacrifice their chance of making it far or even winning the game in the end.

 

The point is, people who have done Big Brother have acted badly a lot throughout the game. The show will always deal with issues like this, even when they aren’t too controversial in the end. It is a lesson in how not to behave most of the time. And I would hope that people know this.

The Ineffectiveness of Explosions

Only in television and some movies do explosions do nothing more than show destruction but not actually harm people. You see this so many times that it is annoying. Pretty much any time an explosion happens, anyone caught up in them is almost certain to survive them. What’s up with that? Why would there be something as horrific as an explosion going on but people survive them?

It seems like the most common show to use the meaningless explosion trope is Power Rangers. They use explosions a lot and they are always for show. These don’t often even do damage. Often they are shown behind the rangers when they morph the first time and often some other times. We see them so many times that we know that not much is going to happen with them other than seeing something in the background going on that looks cool but means nothing in the end.

Sadly, many other shows have followed that some trope. King of the Hill put some characters in a building that exploded and only one of them died. Of course, that was undermined by having one of them be the main character that wasn’t likely to die at all.

NCIS had the very headquarters that the show took place at blow up, an ending picked with all of the main character’s lives in balance due to all of their contract’s being up for renewal, with all of them surviving and the headquarters being shown as the same later in the future.

Arrow had another season finale cliffhanger where a lot of people were on an island that blew up and most of them were all fine. They even show a point of view where it seems like they were just fucking with the audience by showing what all went on that might have been a flashback after the characters were already revealed to be okay.

The Pretender did this season finale cliffhanger not once but twice. They showed people caught up in an explosion and they are completely fine without the need to even be hospitalized. In fact, they skipped what even happened most of the time and just went to the next thing.

Honestly, if I wanted to see fireworks, I would watch that. If explosions are to be done on TV, they should mean something and not just be a showy thing that ultimately means nothing in the end. Why would explosions be ineffective if they are supposed to mean something?

On Accents

You might be watching a show at times and then start to wonder when you watch the special features or see the actors and actresses from it on talk shows why they sound different. This happens a lot. I am specifically referring to accents. A lot of the time, an actor or actress is forced to do an American accent even when they are not American and don’t normally sound like that.

Ironically, the first show that might have made someone use an American accent when they don’t have that voice normally was the British show Doctor Who. One of the characters on that show was Peri. She was an American on the show, although played by a British actress. Not only did she have to use an American accent on the show throughout her whole filming of it, but even in interviews, they wanted her to keep up appearances so people wouldn’t know this long term.

At first, this was an outlier. But it started to become more common decades later. You see, the people who did the show House wanted an American to be the lead of the show. Hugh Lorie, a British man, learned about the role and auditioned using an American accent. He was hired for the lead. I don’t know at what point they learned that he wasn’t American. It might have been too late for them to change the casting decision, but they did learn at some point. Still, he might have been the best person for that role in the end, even if it wasn’t that nice a person. 

The concept of someone having to change their accent is still quite common today. I didn’t even know for sure what Rowan Atkinson actually sounded like for quite a while as he had at least two different voices in roles that I heard him do. Some may even have different accents for the same character on the same show that they play. It would all depend on what’s going on.

But is this a problem? Should people be forced to do different accents than the one that they naturally have? Why can’t a character simply be British? The show Dollhouse was weird with this since they had one British actress always using her real accent and a different actress that was not American using one unless she was being her true self and not her programmed self. You’d think that it would be simple just to say that a character isn’t American and that would be okay. But this is something that just keeps happening and I am not sure if it is an issue, but that’s what just keeps going on.