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TV shows where the whole is less than the sum of the parts

post #1 of 36
6/18/09 at 12:41pm
Thread Starter 
I just finished up Chuck Season 2, and it got me thinking. I like Chuck quite a bit... in theory. I mean, I like lot of parts of Chuck. Pretty much everything at the Buy More is gold, from Big Mike and Buster Bluth to Jeffster. Awesome is awesome, Adam Baldwin is great, and Zachary Levi makes a fairly charming leading man. The geek pop culture references are fantastic, too, as are their choice of guest stars.

The parts are great, and I should love the show.

I like it.

It's okay, and it's entertaining, but I can't say I'm exactly hooked. I'm glad there will be a third season, and I'll DVR it, but if I don't get around to watching an episode for a week or two I can't say that I'll really notice. The whole just isn't as good to me as the sum of the parts.

That got me thinking about other shows that seem to fall into the same catagory. Alias really jumped out at me as another one. Chick spy in cool clothes? Interesting. Tne main villians are great characters played perfectly by good actors: Ron Rifkin, David Anders, and Lena Olin. Victor Garber's Jack Bristow makes Jack Bauer look like a pussy. Carl Lumbly and Kevin Weisman do some great character work as Marcus and Finkman, and I even rather liked Bradley Cooper during his run.

On the whole though, the show just wasn't that good, especially outside the first season and a half.

Frankly I'm feeling the same way about Parks and Rec. I love damn near everyone in it. I even love the theme song. But as a whole, I can't say I really love the show.

Anyone else have any other shows that seem to fall into this catagory, where the parts are better than the total package?
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post #2 of 36
6/18/09 at 12:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Louris View Post
Anyone else have any other shows that seem to fall into this catagory, where the parts are better than the total package?
Eureka.

Great cast, a charming funny lead, a terrific high concept....and yet the show just isn't that objectively 'good.' It's entertaining, it can be funny, but it's rarely if ever emotionally affecting, moving, thrilling, or scary.
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post #3 of 36
6/18/09 at 12:47pm
For me the #1 answer will always be the X-Files. Seasons 2-5 long with some MotW episodes were nothing short of brilliant, but the show just couldn't wrestle with the fact that it had no idea where it was going.
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post #4 of 36
6/18/09 at 1:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jesse Custer View Post
Eureka.

Great cast, a charming funny lead, a terrific high concept....and yet the show just isn't that objectively 'good.' It's entertaining, it can be funny, but it's rarely if ever emotionally affecting, moving, thrilling, or scary.
X's 2. I tell my wife (who loves the show) that it's just not that good even though parts of it are and she just rolls her eyes. The lead is pretty good as are a few supporting actors but it's just so..... meh. Nothing about it really ever moves me.
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post #5 of 36
6/18/09 at 1:28pm
Supernatural.
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post #6 of 36
6/18/09 at 1:29pm
Studio 60.
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post #7 of 36
6/18/09 at 1:35pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by FilmNerdJamie View Post
Studio 60.
I thought about Studio 60, but the reality is I actually didn't like the parts that much, either. I wanted to like it, but aside from Perry, Whitford, Busfield, and Webber, most of the rest of it fell flat. Even Whitford was probably just residual West Wing love.
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post #8 of 36
6/18/09 at 1:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Louris View Post
Frankly I'm feeling the same way about Parks and Rec. I love damn near everyone in it. I even love the theme song. But as a whole, I can't say I really love the show.
I came in here to post about that. There's just something that doesn't click for me with this. At all.
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post #9 of 36
6/18/09 at 1:40pm
Firefly. Sorry about slaughtering the sacred cow, but I like the actors, I love sci-fi and I'm a freak for westerns. I should love this and I just don't.
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post #10 of 36
6/18/09 at 1:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Louris View Post
I thought about Studio 60, but the reality is I actually didn't like the parts that much, either. I wanted to like it, but aside from Perry, Whitford, Busfield, and Webber, most of the rest of it fell flat. Even Whitford was probably just residual West Wing love.
Yeah, it's a big ass hurdle to over-come when your series has arguably peaked in the first 5 minutes of its pilot. That said and along with the spot-on casting from the above mentioned actors, there were a handful of solid episodes imo.

The middle of the series got excruciatingly bad. Not to mention, the constant smugness/preaching from Sorkin, the laughably bad sketches from "the show within the show" being praised as "cutting edge comedy" (didn't know that making fun of Nicolas Cage and Juliette Lewis was considered relevant in 2006's pop-culture) and just Paulson & Peet in general as those characters.
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post #11 of 36
6/18/09 at 1:43pm
Firefly, like Chuck, has a bunch of actors I'd happily watch just chatting all day and their charisma and charm sort of manages to compensate for Whedon's unwieldy mythos and really identikit writing for the crew. I respect Whedon as a creator, but his voice is far too prominent at times and it leaves characters like Jayne and in Angel Gunn in the lurch at times.
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post #12 of 36
6/18/09 at 1:44pm
Studio 60 has some moments that are really good, but some that feel really off. Those last four episodes about the hostage situation are really well done, but also incredibly ridiculous and makes no fucking sense. It's a bad show, but it's got some good things about it.
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post #13 of 36
6/18/09 at 1:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by A-Pathetic View Post
Firefly. Sorry about slaughtering the sacred cow, but I like the actors, I love sci-fi and I'm a freak for westerns. I should love this and I just don't.
It's your personal opinion, I respect it, and I won't argue with it. But I don't get it. Yet another example of the subjectivity of creativity.
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post #14 of 36
6/18/09 at 1:52pm
Thread Starter 
In thinking some more, there's also a couple of shows that are the opposite of this, where I don't particularly like the individual parts, but one element is so strong is carries the others and makes me like the whole.

House would be a great example in that I don't particularly give a shit about damn near anyone on the show, nor find them interesting, except that House is such a great character played so perfectly that he makes me enjoy watching.

If feel the same way about Dexter; I don't really like anyone in it at all aside from Michael C. Hall, but he and his character are so damn interesting that it makes the whole show enjoyable.
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post #15 of 36
6/18/09 at 1:58pm
'Millennium'. Lance Henriksen is awesome in this, but the show itself is such a grim-faced downer that it's hard to really enjoy the show.

'24'. The actors and the characters are great, but the writers continually shoot themselves in their collective feet by coming up with stupid plot contrivances that ruin all credibility.
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post #16 of 36
6/18/09 at 2:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Louris View Post
If feel the same way about Dexter; I don't really like anyone in it at all aside from Michael C. Hall, but he and his character are so damn interesting that it makes the whole show enjoyable.
This. I actually can't stand any of the regulars, reserving special contempt for Doakes and the woman who looks exactly like a grownup Tootie from The Facts of Life, but Michael C. Hall is so riveting he carries the rest of the cast in his back pocket.

I'll add what I've seen of Reaper to the topic of the thread. Ray Wise as Satan? How perfect is that? I specifically watched an ep with a couple of guys from The State, and the whole thing just kind of felt flat, even though the premise had a lot going for it and the cast was likable enough.
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post #17 of 36
6/18/09 at 2:54pm
What about Lost? Diva said this in the rewatch thread:

Quote:
I fear, at the end of Season 6, this thread will be better than the actual show.
My biggest concern with the show is how the answers presented in the final season will put a damper on what's come before.
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post #18 of 36
6/18/09 at 2:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RathBandu View Post
Supernatural.
I disagree, but care to elaborate?
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post #19 of 36
6/18/09 at 3:11pm
I'll slaughter another sacred cow with a show that I should love but only kind of like: Futurama. I've seen maybe 2/3 of the entire run and have enjoyed almost all of them (but fuck that dog episode), but I've never been compelled to seek it out the episodes I've missed on reruns or buy the DVDs. It just doesn't click enough with me to be a classic in the way that Seinfeld or 90's-era The Simpsons is.
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post #20 of 36
6/18/09 at 3:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ratty View Post
I'll slaughter another sacred cow with a show that I should love but only kind of like: Futurama. I've seen maybe 2/3 of the entire run and have enjoyed almost all of them (but fuck that dog episode), but I've never been compelled to seek it out the episodes I've missed on reruns or buy the DVDs. It just doesn't click enough with me to be a classic in the way that Seinfeld or 90's-era The Simpsons is.
I agree. I should love it, but the smugness the Simpsons carries off well translates in that show too shrilly. Extremely clever jokes that are paced so rapid-fire that they aren't allowed to breathe. I completely see why people love it; it's just not my style.
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post #21 of 36
6/18/09 at 4:12pm
Quote:
Firefly. Sorry about slaughtering the sacred cow, but I like the actors, I love sci-fi and I'm a freak for westerns. I should love this and I just don't.
I agree. Firefly's OK, but I was never completely sold on it. I enjoyed the characters, but the sci-fi/western aspects never once felt organic. And I especially hated that in a universe that supposedly descended from a half-American/half-Chinese superpower, there was not one prominent Asian character in the regular crew or guest cast, as if some poorly delivered Chinese phrases shows just how diverse the universe is.
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post #22 of 36
6/18/09 at 4:54pm
This is how I feel about Scrubs.
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post #23 of 36
6/18/09 at 5:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick Ripoll View Post
This is how I feel about Scrubs.
Save for John C. McGinley, I don't even like the parts of that show.
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post #24 of 36
6/18/09 at 7:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mangy View Post
Save for John C. McGinley, I don't even like the parts of that show.
Ken Jenkins and the Janitor's blunt insanity are always good for a few laughs. Then there's the constant parade of impossibly hot guest trim.

But McGinley alone is much, much more than most sitcoms have going for them.
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post #25 of 36
6/18/09 at 7:55pm
God, I could talk about what went wrong with Studio 60 all day.

Weber, prior to his deballing was great and Perry was very good. Whitford cruises on his West Wing cred, but looking back, his performance was nothing to write home about.
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post #26 of 36
6/18/09 at 8:03pm
Entourage. Ari Gold is often terrifically entertaining and when the story focuses on him, I like the show a lot. Similarly, I often like the problems Vince runs into on his movies, but they always end badly. I dread the coming season where they promise (threaten?) that it'll be the good old days where Vince was a superstar. Dammit, I liked Vince struggling and facing the idea that he got this far with just looks and charisma and little talent.

At this point, I want the focus of the show to be E's comedian client played by Lil' Bow-Wow.
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post #27 of 36
6/22/09 at 11:35am
You are spot on with Entourage. I watch every episode when they air, loving the scenery, and situations of the first two seasons, but I never bother to watch them again. This is the only HBO show that I watch that I have absolutly no desire to watch on dvd, on demand, or reruns.
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post #28 of 36
6/22/09 at 12:01pm
Entourage is something that I keep watching because the potential is there but it always ends up disappointing. Ari Gold is amazing but at this point Piven could do it in his sleep. Drama was great in the first couple seasons but in the last one they made him borderline retarded. It just seems like it can never live up to its potential and probably never will. I would rather have the show be about the Miller-Gold Agency/Ari and Lloyd at this point.
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post #29 of 36
6/22/09 at 12:13pm
Weeds.
The first two seasons were ok but the show has pretty much gone off the rails, but I watch it once a week while I'm folding my laundry. Nancy is hot, and if you kind of look at it more like the Doug and Andy show it's not quite as punch-worthy. Still some gold hidden amongst the shitfulness, enough to keep me from turning away from it, at any rate.
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post #30 of 36
6/22/09 at 12:21pm
Weeds is puzzling. The first season was alright, just barely enough to keep me around for the next. Then the 2nd season was fantastic. 3 or 4 episodes into the 3rd season I quit. Maybe it was just me but it seemed like there was a drastic dip in quality and I just couldn't keep up with it.

Everyone's been telling me the last season was great though.
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post #31 of 36
6/22/09 at 12:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by KidNtheHelmet View Post
Entourage is something that I keep watching because the potential is there but it always ends up disappointing. Ari Gold is amazing but at this point Piven could do it in his sleep. Drama was great in the first couple seasons but in the last one they made him borderline retarded.

I'm a sucker for Entourage. Ari, Turtle, and Eric keep me coming back. They're guaranteed to make me laugh every time. You're dead on about Drama though. He's become a parody of himself. At the beginning he was like that friend you had that was a dickhead to people, but since he's your friend you just kinda see it as humorous. Now he's just a completely unfunny asshole.
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post #32 of 36
6/22/09 at 12:48pm
Burn Notice. When the show focuses more on Michael trying to get to the bottom of why he was burned, and then having to deal with these individuals, it's golden. Having the three leads have to tackle a new case EVERY SINGLE EPISODE was tedious half-way through Season 1. Now, it's just getting unbearable and boring.

The mother and brother characters are also a big problem on the show. Maybe it's simply the way they are written, but I have yet to see what sort of positive impact they have on the show...or the characters within the show.

Burn Notice seems to be struggling with itself. On one hand you have the "main" storyline which is Michael trying to find out why he was burned, who burned him, how he can get un-burned, and dealing with all of the ramifications. But then again, the show also has this insistence of doing the "plot of the week" whether it seems needed or not. I'm sure the latter was at the insistence of the USA Network.

So far Burn Notice has kept me hooked, but I keep thinking the end might be near for me. The episodic nature of Psych finally drove me to drop it so I hope the same doesn't happen here.
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post #33 of 36
6/22/09 at 12:58pm
That's some crazy talk about Burn Notice. I think that it really gets better as it goes along, though Season 1 is a little uneven, it doesn't really pick up until the end.

As for Psych, yes it's episodic, but it does what it does very very well. Psych is just pure entertainment and doesn't aspire to be anything more.

I agree on Entourage though. The show is about them but they're by far the most boring characters. Only Drama and sometimes Turtle provided entertainment. Chase is just bland but fucking Eric is an atrocity. He's one of the worst characters in any show ever.

I think the show would've been better had it been about Ari Gold and his various clients. There's a reason why the show gravitates more and more toward Piven anyway, and that really shows where the writers heads are at. For the record I stopped watching about the time Eric sacked Ari. Though I did see the next few episodes up until Ari gets them back. But giving it up wasn't a hard choice.
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post #34 of 36
6/22/09 at 1:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DrVenkman View Post
That's some crazy talk about Burn Notice. I think that it really gets better as it goes along, though Season 1 is a little uneven, it doesn't really pick up until the end.
There's still more to enjoy about Burn Notice than not, but I still can't help but cringe every time Michael's mother thrusts someone in his face telling him they need his help. The scenario is the same whether it be his mother, Fiona, Sam, his brother or anyone who just happens to wander up to him on the street.
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post #35 of 36
6/22/09 at 8:14pm
I can see the argument for Lost.

The Unit. Mamet, Ryan, Haysbert - but it always felt strangely calculated, and avoiding mention of Iraq or Afghanistan didn't help its attempts at realism.

It's doing better now, but for several seasons (or more like a decade) Law and Order. Adrian McKinty's blog has an interesting post about how the show completely misses the boat on New York crime.
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post #36 of 36
6/22/09 at 8:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Louris View Post
House would be a great example in that I don't particularly give a shit about damn near anyone on the show, nor find them interesting, except that House is such a great character played so perfectly that he makes me enjoy watching.
I'm kind of the same way, but I actually think the show would be a lot better if it was just a straight up dark comedy.
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