The SpoilerTV team have been asked to compile their opinions about television which they perceive to be unpopular amongst fans. Below are the thoughts of the team. Editor's note: the opinions reflect the views of the attributed writer and not that of SpoilerTV.
VARIOUS SHOWS
Angela - "Laugh tracks":
I think a lot of people still tend to confuse laugh tracks and live audiences and think they're one and the same. Yes, sometimes live audiences may be "sweetened" a little, but the laughter is still real and that doesn't make it a laugh track. I've also never understood the idea that the audience laughter is "telling people when to laugh". I see it as more people just sharing a laugh, the way people would at a theater production. If a show is awful and the audience is excessive, that's a problem, yes, but it's a problem with the show, one that that even a lack of an audience wouldn't be able to save or fix.
Angela - Multi-cam versus single-cam:
I really couldn't care less about the difference between multi-cam or single-cam shows. I don't think one is superior to the other, there's good and bad in both types of shows.
Dahne - Cancelled shows don't "deserve" another season:
I want my favorite shows to continue just like the next fan, but howling at networks for cancelling a show that doesn't make them money is ridiculous. TV is a business and sometimes favorite shows just don't make the cut. It sucks but it's life.
Dahne - Neither the word "reboot" nor "procedural" are bad words when it comes to TV:
There are so many people who won't even try a show if it is a procedural or a reboot. I love both. Procedurals do follow a similar format each episode but that makes them comfort food TV and it means they are far less likely to disappoint, go off the deep end, or leave gaping plotholes than serials. They also give you more time with the characters and tend to be renewed easier. Reboots can be a lot of fun, especially if they are from older shows like Hawaii 5-0 or MacGyver. (I do understand that some shows are sacred and some shows get rebooted too soon.) If there's a lot of distance between the reboot and the original, most of the audience wouldn't know it was a reboot anyway. I much prefer reboots to the umpteenth superhero show. At this point, it feels like we'll be getting a superhero show or movie about Spider-Man's cousin's barber next.
Dahne - When they hook up the leads in a show, it's usually the female characters that get screwed:
I hate when they take great female characters and then make them less awesome after they hook them up with their co-leads. Paige gained nothing but another child when they hooked her up with Walter on Scorpion. Felicity nosedived on Arrow. Beckett declined on Castle. Pairing characters up should lead to both of them being better, not the lopsided mess so many shows become.
Eve - I basically hate every show on the CW network (apart from maybe The 100 that I enjoyed for a bit):
Storylines are dull, focused on young pretty model-like people. No reference to reality. Teenager fluff stuff.
Luana Arturi - Superhero shows are procedurals with superpowers and crossovers are just a money grab:
Same as procedurals, most superhero shows can have a couple of interesting arcs but, in the end, they're always dealing with a different villain/criminal after some period of time, and most of them get boring and repetitive. Also, most crossovers only make it worse since you get two minutes with every character and, unless you watch every single show, you're forced to pay attention to stories you have no interest in and watch different shows in order to see what happens with your characters. They might work as a marketing tool but they can also backfire since, when you drop one show, you might be tempted to drop them all at once.
Prpleight - It is possible for men and women to work together without hooking up:
I understand that there are shows that are created with the intention to build a romance between two characters. I don't have a problem with that. When that relationship is part of the show's design it usually works. But every time the writers create a male/female friendship that really clicks, fans start screaming for them to become a couple. Every single time I've watched the showrunners "bow to the will of the people," a character is destroyed and, sadly, it's usually the female character.
Prpleight - None of NBC's biggest sitcoms (Friends/Seinfeld/Scrubs/The Office) were funny.
AGENTS OF SHIELD
klutzy_girl - AoS went downhill after season one:
Season one was the best season, and still my favorite to this day. It went off the rails during 2B and never recovered, although the Framework arc in season four is one of my favorite storylines. The show's progressively gotten worse and should have ended several seasons ago.
ANGEL/BUFFY
Folie-lex - Angel is the superior show of the Buffyverse:
Buffy is the classic. The pioneer. No denying that. But in terms of overall cohesiveness and consistency (yes, even S4 and S5. In the grand scheme of the show it all fits), Angel simply hit the mark better. It was more mature not only because of its setting, characters and the noir premise, but also because the people involved were by that time a lot more experienced. And it showed.
klutzy_girl - Cordelia/Angel is better than Buffy/Angel:
Cordelia/Angel is a far better pairing than Buffy/Angel (a ship I've never liked) and they deserved to have a real chance together. Cordy was the love of his life, and I'll forever be bitter about her ending.
BUFFY
Dahne - "Once More with Feeling" is highly overrated:
I get that it was an original idea before every other show started doing it, but this wasn't the best episode and in some places, the singing is downright cringe-worthy.
Ali D - Riley was as vanilla as they come, but he was Buffy’s only suitable love interest:
I know why people are irate over Buffy and Spike, but did not have issues with the 200+-year-old Angel having sex with 16-year-old Buffy? Not to mention the whole sex leads to murder and mayhem message? Why, friends?
CRIMINAL MINDS
Angela - Spread the character love:
I love Reid, but other characters exist on the show, too. And it'd be really nice if people would stop calling female characters, be they team members or the guys' girlfriends/wives, "bitches" who just don't understand them or are being "mean" to them or whatever other accusation people sometimes like to throw at the women on the show.
DOCTOR WHO
Milo - Doctor Who's Kill the Moon is an under-appreciated episode:
Series 8 of Doctor Who as a whole is incredibly underappreciated and I will defend it until the end, but Kill the Moon feels like it gets a lot of unnecessary flak. Yes, the moon birthing a new moon isn't the best concept ever, but I love the arc-based storyline in this episode, The Doctor abandoning Clara to make a crucial decision of her own and then Clara basically calling him out on it and even threatening to leave the TARDIS because of it is brilliant character development - the whole series builds up to the question of whether or not The Doctor is a good man and his cruelty to Clara shows his darker side coming out. It's important to take the ending into context especially as a culmination of everything that The Doctor has put Clara through in the past few weeks, shattering a relationship and friendship in the process. Both Jenna Coleman and Peter Capaldi completely sell this episode to make it work as well it does.
FIREFLY
Dahne - Firefly is overhyped:
Maybe you had to be there when it was airing, I binged it several years later and found it to be decent but nothing special and definitely not up to the overwhelming praise it still gets. I'd also add that Nathan Fillion's best role is Captain Hammer (Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog), not Captain Reynolds... or Castle.
FRIENDS
Jamie Coudeville - Rachel should not have ended up with Ross:
There have been articles and Tumblr posts that have explained the many reasons much better than I will attempt to do, but here I go anyway. And, FYI, this is not about wanting Rachel to end up with someone else. Yes, I liked her with Joey but I would've been perfectly happy if the show had ended with Rachel single. The relationship between Rachel and Ross just wasn't healthy. He was extremely jealous when she worked with another man, to the point where he started harassing her at work. He lied to her about them still being married (seriously, who does that?). I hated how he reacted to Joey having feelings for Rachel when he hadn't been with her in years and Joey even said he wouldn't act on it for Ross' sake (he was being too nice here). I still can't believe Rachel walked away from her dream job for Ross. Honey, no guy is worth that.
Julia Krassnik - Monica and Chandler were the real main couple of the show:
Monica and Chandler had so much better chemistry than Ross and Rachel. To me they are the main couple of Friends and nothing you say can change my mind.
GAME OF THRONES
Bradley Adams - Of all the battle episodes, "The Battle of the Bastards" is only better than "The Long Night":
"The Long Night" is an abysmal hour, devoid of plot and shot so that it's impossible to see anything anyway. It's the worst battle in Game of Thrones. That's a fairly universal opinion. But the second-worst is season six's climax between Jon Snow and Ramsay Bolton, which succeeds in looking good and not a whole lot else. Ramsay is cartoonish in his villainy by this point, having far outlived his usefulness to the series and existing solely to be sadistic - he is the shining example of criticisms over the show's fetish for unnecessary violence. He needed to go, but the battle was wholly unsatisfying in the series' larger context. Future episodes paint Jon as the great leader of men - yet here, he's reckless at the first sign of emotional involvement, gets half his army killed and only topples Ramsay's army because Sansa went against his wishes and involved Littlefinger. The battle itself is boring - albeit well constructed by Miguel Sapochnik - and a slog until the inevitable victory. Sansa killing Ramsay is satisfying, sure, but I had pretty much stopped caring by that point.
Ali D - They should have waited for George R. R. Martin to finish the series before attempting a show:
It never seemed to know where it was going, so what the audience got was nothing more than sex and violence solely intended to serve the male gaze. There was nothing nuanced there.
Darthlocke/LauraB - Why Dany needed to die in Game of Thrones' final season:
Despite that books are unfinished and that the TV series would probably always to struggle to fully realize their intentions, the subtext relating to the debate of predeterminism and fate or the concept of a cosmology cycle still shines through as many wonder about who was the possible reincarnate of Azor Ahai? The show told us with the choice of Jon being put into a position where he had to kill someone he truly loved for the sake of the greater good and thus Dany had to fulfil the role of Nisa Nisa to make this point about repeated manifestations of history and fate in the SOIAF universe. It's also why the Starks' endings are what they are from Bran the Broken (or the latest incarnate of the three-eyed raven) ruling the Iron Throne, to The North becoming its own separate entity, to Arya adventuring, to Jon going to live in the melting North with the Freefolk, and Drogon mysteriously returning east with Dany's body, as this all reflects the Westeros just prior to the first The Long Night, which may be when The Night King (TV series version) was created. The cycle was broken in bittersweet fashion. The story was never about owning your identity, quite the opposite.
Giulia Del Buono - I never really understood why Game Of Thrones was so popular:
I respect its fanbase, the actors and the people who worked on it. I just never quite understood why it was so popular. I tried to watch it, believe me. It just never caught my attention.
GOSSIP GIRL
Alejandra M. - Blair should have ended up with Dan in Gossip Girl:
The relationship between Dan and Blair felt more real and healthy than Chuck and Blair. There were several things that Chuck did to Blair that just made it impossible for me to like or support, he treated Blair awfully and tried to make up for it with expensive gifts, and Dan was always there to support Blair through thick and thin, when she needed him the most. Dan's love for Blair was stronger than his love for Serena ever was, because it grew from common interests, whereas with Serena it was just because Dan was obsessed with her.
LEGEND OF KORRA
Ali D - Not only was this show no Avatar: The Last Airbender, it was actually awful:
It had a promising start with the villain, Amon, and the looming question of equity in a world where some can bend and others cannot, but the conclusion to his storyline was a huge letdown. It felt like every season was written by a new team. A team that hadn’t bothered watching the previous season. Even the writing within seasons was a mess. The lone exception being Season 3.
LOST
Folie-lex - Lost is overrated:
Not saying that Lost is a bad show... It is not. But it's hardly the be-all and end-all where quality TV is concerned. It's just that when it came on it was the brand new shiny thing and I think too many people (audience and critics and the show itself) drank the kool-aid way too fast and easily, which ended up with the show mostly coasting on that. Because in the end it had too many plot holes, and way too many questions specifically asked throughout the run which it left obtusely unanswered, and too many "twists" for the sake of the twist and the drama. What it is, is fine. Highly imperfect and just... fine. Nothing more.
Prpleight - The Lost finale made sense to me. I liked it:
I'm not really sure how to explain this one except to say that most of the people I have spoken to directly, not online, about this episode immediately complain about the episode breaking the promise made in the pilot. I heard dialogue stating the opposite. Ah well. I liked it. I'm good with being in the minority.
NCIS
Dahne - Jethro Gibbs is an abusive boss:
I have come to terms with the Gibbs character, but the fact remains that hitting any co-worker, especially those underneath you, is abusive, no matter where or how you hit them. The Navy version of HR must find him a nightmare.
PARKS AND RECREATION
Bradley Adams - "The Johnny Karate Super Awesome Musical Explosion Show" is the best episode of Parks and Recreation season 7, and definitely better than "Leslie and Ron":
The episode everyone tends to fixate on from Parks and Rec's final season is "Leslie and Ron", which is a marvellously entertaining, sublimely heartwarming half-hour. But I've always felt that, as an episode, "Johnny Karate" is superior. It's a complete departure from anything you'd expect Parks and Rec to do, setting the entire episode on the set of Andy's children's show, with much of the time spent as if we're watching his show. It's joyful throughout; seeing Andy do this thing which he loves so much is wonderful, and Parks manages to shoehorn in all of its main characters in unusual ways - Ben as Professor Smartbrain, for instance. Throw in some Rick and Morty 'Interdimensional Cable' style commercials and you have hilarity in every way. But I really adore the emotional side of April and Andy's relationship - they remain the purest couple on the show, and to see the typically stonefaced April struggle with having effectively forced Andy to leave this thing he loves works so well. It's a complete curveball episode, but it's also brilliant.
RIVERDALE
Jamie Coudeville - Riverdale should've stuck with the 13 episode format they had in season 1:
I have not made it a secret that lately I prefer shows to have a smaller episode order. But I feel like Riverdale is the perfect example of why. To this day, season 1 is my favorite of this show. 13 episodes were just enough to solve the mystery while keeping the filler episodes to a minimum. The lower episode count also meant that the writers didn't have enough time to make things too crazy, which is what I feel like they did with every season after that. When you have to fill 22 episodes, often writers will start to create drama just to fill the season. Imagine if season 4 had only been 13 episodes. No dragging out the storyline of "did they really kill Jughead". No ridiculous episode of how they would kill their principal and then cover it up (and then turn on each other). Also, no time for a musical episode. See, it's just win-win.
SHONDA RHIMES
Julia Krassnik - Shonda Rhimes shows are so overly dramatic they get extremely unrealistic and annoying over time:
How many times can someone almost die? If one character constantly experiences bad luck I might buy it but if every single person on the show is continuously followed by extreme misfortune it just gets old over time. Several shows have a similar issue but Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder are the only shows I ever stopped watching because I felt there was too much (exaggerated) drama going on.
SCREAM
Shirleena - Scream without Sidney? No!:
The "Scream" movies are a pop culture icon and when MTV tried to make it into a series without the three main characters it just fell flat.
SMALLVILLE
Ali D - Clark and Lois never lived up to Clark and Lana:
A relationship between Lois and Clark is an obligatory one, but the chemistry just wasn't there. Clark and Lana had chemistry and a more interesting storyline since his arrival killed her parents and changed the entire course of her life.
SUPERGIRL
Abby - Season four is not very good:
A few entertaining episodes at the end masked a bad season. The Red Daughter storyline had awful pacing and left too many dangling threads, the Elite's potential was wasted, Manchester Black's death was abrupt and had no closure, the dismantling of Jimmy Olsen's character continued and the ridiculous grass scene made me embarrassed for the actresses involved. But worst of all was the ham-fisted, amateurish, tone-deaf and frankly offensive efforts to humanize Nazi stand-ins and use similarities to real-life historical events but not understanding those events and ending up with half baked ideas that failed.
SUPERNATURAL
Dahne - Bringing in angels ruined Supernatural:
Bringing in angels made the show too "epic" for the brothers to handle alone. It changed the "brothers against the world" vibe of the show to its detriment. Supernatural needed to stop thinking that it had to go bigger and bigger (God - really?) and instead focus on what made it special in the early years.
TEEN WOLF
Alejandra M. - Teen Wolf should have ended with season 6 episode 10:
The finale of season 6A felt more like a finale to the series overall than the actual finale did. Season 6B was quite boring, aside from the interesting dynamic between Theo and Liam, the plot was quite boring and season 6A felt like a better ending point.
Dahne - Liam is the Cousin Oliver/Dawn of Teen Wolf:
Liam and the whole JV Squad of season 4 and later were totally superfluous and often annoying. Why bring on a whole set of characters that are generally just lesser replacements of the originals? Liam is an annoying, even more superpowered Scott. Mason is an unfunny Stiles. Hayden is the poor man's Allison.
Dahne - Redeeming psychopaths is not romantic or good storytelling:
What is up with TV's need to redeem psychopaths? I'm not talking about "bad boys" and "bad girls," but genuine, stone-cold killers. Did they really need to redeem Peter, Theo, or Deucalion? Sometimes killers can stay killers. They're often more interesting that way. The only time redeeming a psychopath worked for me was King Richard in Galavant.
THE BIG BANG THEORY
Julia Krassnik - Amy and Sheldon as a couple were not all that interesting:
Don't get me wrong, they are cute together. However, I would have found it a lot more interesting if Sheldon had fallen for someone who is not a scientist and who sees the world differently than him. Could it have worked out between him and that person? Not sure, but I would have liked to see it.
THE FLASH
Ali D - Every season since Season 1 has gotten incrementally worse:
The problem is simple: no villain has ever lived up to Dr. Wells/Reverse Flash. The plotting and pacing of that first season was incredible. Now it just feels like your less than average superhero show.
THE GOOD DOCTOR
Ali D - Claire is totally unappealing as a character:
The writers only give her the struggle story or the victim story or the tragic story. Claire has to be exhausted. I’m tired on her behalf.
THE NIGHT SHIFT
Shirleena - ER rip off:
It had some great stories but every time they said "welcome to the night shift" it annoyed me.
THE OC
klutzy_girl - Season four is the best season:
Season four's my absolute favorite and I love that it's a lighter season. This season has some of my favorite storylines - Kirsten's pregnancy, Ryan's biological father, Ryan/Taylor (which I prefer over Ryan/Marissa), etc.
THE VAMPIRE DIARIES/THE ORIGINALS
Beth - Caroline and Klaus on The Vampire Diaries were not hot together, and she never should have been in The Originals' final season:
Their whole dynamic brought out the worst in both characters and I despised that they brought Caroline onto the final season of The Originals and make it seem like he needed her to 'straighten him out'. Klaus had grown plenty without her influence, she wasn't needed.
THIS IS US
Beth - This is Us is an emotionally manipulative show:
I am all for emotional moments in shows, but when a show's entire 'thing' is making the viewers cry, there is something wrong and bland about the writing. The show is full of talent, don't get me wrong, but they deserve more than just being conduits to make an audience's kleenex budget go up.
