yes, please cry for my sense of humour
Oct. 12th, 2012 08:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spottoAnd now a rant about something completely unexpected!
NICKELODEON SITCOMS!
I remember as a kid I'd watch shows like The Amanda Show and All That (I also watched Saturday Night Live and Mad TV, so...yeah....) but then those two shows ended and I kind of never really bothered with anything Nickelodeon again. (I have ranted before, as you all know, about Nick cartoons and how Disney and Cartoon Network were superior) It still baffles me today how Spongebob Squarepants repeats seem to rake in a bazillion viewers no matter what. And while I didn't care all too much about The Fairly Odd Parents I did find that Live Action they made kind of silly (but I guess I've yet to watch it >_>) [Then there's Avatar, but that's just my stubborn Hype Aversion]
Anyway...
I recently marathoned all of iCarly and Victorious.
You're probably wondering.... "why?" "Spotto, WHY?"
It does seem awfully out of the blue, doesn't it?
You know I can't really pin down an appropriate reason or moment as to why this happened. I probably don't remember, but whenever I feel sick or simply off, or just need to get off the computer because I've been sitting still for too long I hit the 'tube and figure out if traditional television is still decent. I was one of those people who often went, "wow, what happened to these kids channels that used to have cartoons? WHERE ARE THE CARTOONS!? WHY ARE THEY REPLACED BY THIS LIVE-ACTION CRAP!?" And therefore replaced all instances of "television" with every instance of "internet" like an amusing PV with drunk!Keine stripping to memeworthy over-played Japanese music on Youtube. (There is no difference in quality anyway!)
The only thing I still watched on the TV though...was hockey (aaaaand there's a lockout) and crime documentaries. Because it is surely fascinating to delve into the mind of a sick, twisted, unsympathetic killer or view the lives of prison inmates as they try to escape their temperament or watch cops do their job for once and not get myself thrown into the corrupt cops crowd...well, I'm rambling. Unfortunately crime documentaries and crime dramas sadly do not play 24/7, so there will be times when that TV is on and one of those shows aren't...how to quell my desire for entertainment!? I switched to the YTV channel to see if any cartoons are decent nowadays (and only YTV because I lack Teletoon or the actual Nick channel or the Disney channel... >_>) because when I grew up with my brother, besides the crime drama I always watched with him, he also viewed some sitcoms. (My favourite of which, was Everybody Loves Raymond...) so I figure...I guess certain sitcoms would be amusing?
Because none of the cartoons on were any good anyway. No seriously, as a former absolutely hardcore Beyblade fan who wasn't part of the target demographic and liked it for all the wrong reasons, BEYWHEELZ!? WHAT IS THIS!? They aired a marathon and I turned it off halfway-through the first episode, turned the TV back on hours later and it was showing some other later episode with absurd hairstyles galore. It's the same recycled plot with the same recycled characters in a terrible, recycled shounen. How do these toys they're trying to sell even stay upright when kids are battling with them!?
Oh, I am digressing. That isn't even a Nick cartoon.
So I caught an episode of iCarly. Don't remember which, but I did like the idea that it was about random supposedly normal children hosting a webshow. The webshow itself reminded me if the ridiculous skits on All That and The Amanda Show (well, it is created by the same guy) so...it worked. Quite liked it. On another random day of boredom (this all happened over the span of like a year, not like I saw one episode and then immediately marathoned the rest >_>) I saw a Victorious episode. I didn't actually know it was Victorious, was just flipping channels during a commercial and saw the second half of a particularly amusing episode. I didn't try to figure out what show it was because it wasn't as memorable as the iCarly one.
So, I ended up catching iCarly on TV whenever I was bored, especially if nothing else was on, weeks or perhaps months later, in a particularly uneventful day...I thought "well, I sometimes catch that iCarly show, might as well just watch EVERYTHING!" I figure, perhaps there is a new fandom I can join! Maybe they can discuss the deep psychological problems certain characters most definitely have! Unfortunately 99% of the iCarly fanbase is too preoccupied with shipping to care about any of that rabble. While that aspect of the fandom annoyed me greatly, I recall again, back to my Beyblade days where I was too preoccupied with shipping to care about any rabble. After all, it is a teen sitcom so its fans will be younger viewers who are drawn to the romantic aspects of the show...I just wish they would realize that the show isn't meant to be a romantic drama and to like the show for other aspects besides THAT CHARACTER SHOULD MARRY THAT OTHER ONE! NOW LET US WRITE ENDLESS AMOUNTS OF FANFICTION AND WHINE TO THE CREATOR FOR NOT PANDERING TO US!!
But I do enjoy iCarly...not every episode was a gem unfortunately. In fact, the later seasons haven't been up to par at all, and that ridiculous five-episode plot between Sam and Freddie? I can see why the show tanked in ratings after that because for some reason the creator actually threw romance in the show for longer than a single episode. I don't know if he was attempting to pander to the vocal minority to get better ratings or just felt like devoting A THIRD OF A SEASON to a fan-preferred couple or whatever, but...yeah. My favourite aspect of the show is ultimately the friendship between the title character, Carly, and Sam. I like two girl friendships...have you noticed? I think the episode that drove me to actually marathoning the entire thing was the iQuit iCarly special... though now that I think about it it didn't need to be an hour-long special since a lot of it was padding. (Those two male guest stars played rather unnecessary and irritating characters) But still, the climax was pretty good.
Now Victorious I did not plan to marathon...or even watch! The only thing I knew of it was from the crossover between it and iCarly, but I was not interested in it or its premise. I thought it had too many characters as well (as you know from my previous Negima rant) When I did catch an episode (it was the Bird Scene one) I thought it wasn't very good, so I tried to avoid it...
Until I was mindlessly browsing TV Tropes for crime tropes in preparation for a story rewrite (don't do this) and found that there was a Victorious episode where they were all locked up, which actually surprised me. A kids sitcom throwing its characters into the slammer? Seems kind of a dark plot, so I decided to take a look (I actually do tons of research for all my stories that are crime-related @_@) And the episode was actually sufficiently amusing...the fact that not only did they get locked up, but get locked up in a third-world country in the middle of war is certainly a level of darkness I did not except any kid show to ever reach! So I had some resemblance of interest in the show now, but still didn't want to marathon it.
I was still somewhat bitter that Victorious was getting all the attention from its creator and might be partially the reason why iCarly was doing terribly and about to end, but then I heard there was a new Nick sitcom that stars the Sam character from the ICarly show with the Cat character from Victorious, cleverly titled Sam and Cat. I was overjoyed that Sam's character was sticking around, so all of my undeserved bias against Victorious was lifted.
....until I found out Victorious was being cancelled as well.
Now that just felt unfair, it was one thing to continue the Sam character in her own show, but to rip out the Cat character and then dump the rest like they were nothing wasn't what I wanted either. So I decided to watch all of Victorious to get a feel of this Cat (and lo and behold, I loved her) and to see if the show was really getting cancelled for its quality or not. I enjoyed the first half or so of season one, found season two especially lacking, but felt it picked up nicely in season three give or take a few strange episodes. The bias for the main character was a bit much, but I guess both these Nick Shows' ultimate point is to promote the main character (or rather, their actresses) anyway, though Victorious seemed to be a lot more obnoxious about it. (Victorious is partly a musical, so they tend to sing at the end of the episodes a lot, showcasing the obvious talents of the characters, but also because there is a larger main cast so it feels a lot worse when they give the spotlight to Tori and leave so many others out) And I'm not a big pop music fan, so I couldn't care less about the music. Again, I am probably not the target demographic anyway. (Maybe I'd care more about the music if the other characters sang more and not just the main character... she's not a bad singer, but there's nothing especially incredible or unique about her singing...she sounds kind of generic compared to the other two girls)
So I actually can see the show being cancelled due to that mediocre season two, perhaps it lost too much steam during season two for season three to save it at all. At least with iCarly it started getting worse near the end, as opposed to during the meat of its run. (Season Two iCarly was quite amazing, actually) so...despite watching all of Victorious and liking some episodes and some plots...I actually can see it being cancelled for its quality. Season three is decent, but not amazing enough to make up for that lackluster season two. But even so I'm pretty sure the existence of Sam and Cat ended its run, even if that season was bad.
But for me? I'm not too bummed about it, when I found out about Sam and Cat my first reaction was "that is amazing!!" so...yeah. Pandering to the fanbase? Well, he already did it once and it didn't work, and I am highly speculative on how these two characters will even interact, but look, two-girl friendship!! Hopefully the writers will scale back on any exaggerations forced upon these two characters that they may have suffered through in their original shows for the purpose of cheap laughter.
The Gibby spinoff on the other hand... what? I do not see how you can create an entire show for such a gimmicky character.
.... I cannot believe I just ranted about Nickelodeon sitcoms. I guess it's my guilty pleasure if my brother's is One Direction. Still, the fans are too adolescent and young for my tastes..oddly enough Victorious fans don't seem quite as obsessed with ships as the iCarly ones were...for whatever reason. They still are, just not to that concentrated extent. Oh and both these shows (and I can extend it to Disney too) have WAY TOO MANY DOUBLE STANDARDS for me to enjoy it completely. The double standards are quite saddening actually, like the constant torment and ridicule of any character deemed strange and abnormal, not because they're jackasses who deserve it, simply because they're a bit more quirky or odd than normal.
The other complaint is the main character is probably a bit too perfect and...generic for my tastes. This is a common complaint, but I can forgive iCarly more since Carly is surrounded by eccentric people, but the Victorious crew have like three or four straight men which is kind of way too many and makes the main character's role a little more redundant. (Having her commit poor decisions from time-to-time doesn't help, she still feels ordinary and generic...except can be a jerk sometimes! Wow that is so interesting. In fact my favourite Tori episode was the Ponnie one because she wasn't acting normal, but instead absolutely paranoid and generally freaked out. That was some goooood acting) But well, what else can you expect from an American sitcom? Something different? HA!
Ah well, to the Cowboy with a Moustache and the Idiot Farmgirl who thought the Moustache was a Squirrel...and broken glass! Hopefully the newest Nick show won't bomb.
As a sidenote, I took a look at the MLP sneak previews...I heard from one of the voice actors (uh, was it Sweetie Belle's?) that they sang practically EVERY episode in season three, and the sneak previews are both songs! This is after the debut of season one and two had no singing whatsoever. Nothing against music, but there is always the happy medium and if they sing constantly they are going to overstay their musical welcome, I'm just saying. Oh well, we'll see when we see! This has been Spotto.
NICKELODEON SITCOMS!
I remember as a kid I'd watch shows like The Amanda Show and All That (I also watched Saturday Night Live and Mad TV, so...yeah....) but then those two shows ended and I kind of never really bothered with anything Nickelodeon again. (I have ranted before, as you all know, about Nick cartoons and how Disney and Cartoon Network were superior) It still baffles me today how Spongebob Squarepants repeats seem to rake in a bazillion viewers no matter what. And while I didn't care all too much about The Fairly Odd Parents I did find that Live Action they made kind of silly (but I guess I've yet to watch it >_>) [Then there's Avatar, but that's just my stubborn Hype Aversion]
Anyway...
I recently marathoned all of iCarly and Victorious.
You're probably wondering.... "why?" "Spotto, WHY?"
It does seem awfully out of the blue, doesn't it?
You know I can't really pin down an appropriate reason or moment as to why this happened. I probably don't remember, but whenever I feel sick or simply off, or just need to get off the computer because I've been sitting still for too long I hit the 'tube and figure out if traditional television is still decent. I was one of those people who often went, "wow, what happened to these kids channels that used to have cartoons? WHERE ARE THE CARTOONS!? WHY ARE THEY REPLACED BY THIS LIVE-ACTION CRAP!?" And therefore replaced all instances of "television" with every instance of "internet" like an amusing PV with drunk!Keine stripping to memeworthy over-played Japanese music on Youtube. (There is no difference in quality anyway!)
The only thing I still watched on the TV though...was hockey (aaaaand there's a lockout) and crime documentaries. Because it is surely fascinating to delve into the mind of a sick, twisted, unsympathetic killer or view the lives of prison inmates as they try to escape their temperament or watch cops do their job for once and not get myself thrown into the corrupt cops crowd...well, I'm rambling. Unfortunately crime documentaries and crime dramas sadly do not play 24/7, so there will be times when that TV is on and one of those shows aren't...how to quell my desire for entertainment!? I switched to the YTV channel to see if any cartoons are decent nowadays (and only YTV because I lack Teletoon or the actual Nick channel or the Disney channel... >_>) because when I grew up with my brother, besides the crime drama I always watched with him, he also viewed some sitcoms. (My favourite of which, was Everybody Loves Raymond...) so I figure...I guess certain sitcoms would be amusing?
Because none of the cartoons on were any good anyway. No seriously, as a former absolutely hardcore Beyblade fan who wasn't part of the target demographic and liked it for all the wrong reasons, BEYWHEELZ!? WHAT IS THIS!? They aired a marathon and I turned it off halfway-through the first episode, turned the TV back on hours later and it was showing some other later episode with absurd hairstyles galore. It's the same recycled plot with the same recycled characters in a terrible, recycled shounen. How do these toys they're trying to sell even stay upright when kids are battling with them!?
Oh, I am digressing. That isn't even a Nick cartoon.
So I caught an episode of iCarly. Don't remember which, but I did like the idea that it was about random supposedly normal children hosting a webshow. The webshow itself reminded me if the ridiculous skits on All That and The Amanda Show (well, it is created by the same guy) so...it worked. Quite liked it. On another random day of boredom (this all happened over the span of like a year, not like I saw one episode and then immediately marathoned the rest >_>) I saw a Victorious episode. I didn't actually know it was Victorious, was just flipping channels during a commercial and saw the second half of a particularly amusing episode. I didn't try to figure out what show it was because it wasn't as memorable as the iCarly one.
So, I ended up catching iCarly on TV whenever I was bored, especially if nothing else was on, weeks or perhaps months later, in a particularly uneventful day...I thought "well, I sometimes catch that iCarly show, might as well just watch EVERYTHING!" I figure, perhaps there is a new fandom I can join! Maybe they can discuss the deep psychological problems certain characters most definitely have! Unfortunately 99% of the iCarly fanbase is too preoccupied with shipping to care about any of that rabble. While that aspect of the fandom annoyed me greatly, I recall again, back to my Beyblade days where I was too preoccupied with shipping to care about any rabble. After all, it is a teen sitcom so its fans will be younger viewers who are drawn to the romantic aspects of the show...I just wish they would realize that the show isn't meant to be a romantic drama and to like the show for other aspects besides THAT CHARACTER SHOULD MARRY THAT OTHER ONE! NOW LET US WRITE ENDLESS AMOUNTS OF FANFICTION AND WHINE TO THE CREATOR FOR NOT PANDERING TO US!!
But I do enjoy iCarly...not every episode was a gem unfortunately. In fact, the later seasons haven't been up to par at all, and that ridiculous five-episode plot between Sam and Freddie? I can see why the show tanked in ratings after that because for some reason the creator actually threw romance in the show for longer than a single episode. I don't know if he was attempting to pander to the vocal minority to get better ratings or just felt like devoting A THIRD OF A SEASON to a fan-preferred couple or whatever, but...yeah. My favourite aspect of the show is ultimately the friendship between the title character, Carly, and Sam. I like two girl friendships...have you noticed? I think the episode that drove me to actually marathoning the entire thing was the iQuit iCarly special... though now that I think about it it didn't need to be an hour-long special since a lot of it was padding. (Those two male guest stars played rather unnecessary and irritating characters) But still, the climax was pretty good.
Now Victorious I did not plan to marathon...or even watch! The only thing I knew of it was from the crossover between it and iCarly, but I was not interested in it or its premise. I thought it had too many characters as well (as you know from my previous Negima rant) When I did catch an episode (it was the Bird Scene one) I thought it wasn't very good, so I tried to avoid it...
Until I was mindlessly browsing TV Tropes for crime tropes in preparation for a story rewrite (don't do this) and found that there was a Victorious episode where they were all locked up, which actually surprised me. A kids sitcom throwing its characters into the slammer? Seems kind of a dark plot, so I decided to take a look (I actually do tons of research for all my stories that are crime-related @_@) And the episode was actually sufficiently amusing...the fact that not only did they get locked up, but get locked up in a third-world country in the middle of war is certainly a level of darkness I did not except any kid show to ever reach! So I had some resemblance of interest in the show now, but still didn't want to marathon it.
I was still somewhat bitter that Victorious was getting all the attention from its creator and might be partially the reason why iCarly was doing terribly and about to end, but then I heard there was a new Nick sitcom that stars the Sam character from the ICarly show with the Cat character from Victorious, cleverly titled Sam and Cat. I was overjoyed that Sam's character was sticking around, so all of my undeserved bias against Victorious was lifted.
....until I found out Victorious was being cancelled as well.
Now that just felt unfair, it was one thing to continue the Sam character in her own show, but to rip out the Cat character and then dump the rest like they were nothing wasn't what I wanted either. So I decided to watch all of Victorious to get a feel of this Cat (and lo and behold, I loved her) and to see if the show was really getting cancelled for its quality or not. I enjoyed the first half or so of season one, found season two especially lacking, but felt it picked up nicely in season three give or take a few strange episodes. The bias for the main character was a bit much, but I guess both these Nick Shows' ultimate point is to promote the main character (or rather, their actresses) anyway, though Victorious seemed to be a lot more obnoxious about it. (Victorious is partly a musical, so they tend to sing at the end of the episodes a lot, showcasing the obvious talents of the characters, but also because there is a larger main cast so it feels a lot worse when they give the spotlight to Tori and leave so many others out) And I'm not a big pop music fan, so I couldn't care less about the music. Again, I am probably not the target demographic anyway. (Maybe I'd care more about the music if the other characters sang more and not just the main character... she's not a bad singer, but there's nothing especially incredible or unique about her singing...she sounds kind of generic compared to the other two girls)
So I actually can see the show being cancelled due to that mediocre season two, perhaps it lost too much steam during season two for season three to save it at all. At least with iCarly it started getting worse near the end, as opposed to during the meat of its run. (Season Two iCarly was quite amazing, actually) so...despite watching all of Victorious and liking some episodes and some plots...I actually can see it being cancelled for its quality. Season three is decent, but not amazing enough to make up for that lackluster season two. But even so I'm pretty sure the existence of Sam and Cat ended its run, even if that season was bad.
But for me? I'm not too bummed about it, when I found out about Sam and Cat my first reaction was "that is amazing!!" so...yeah. Pandering to the fanbase? Well, he already did it once and it didn't work, and I am highly speculative on how these two characters will even interact, but look, two-girl friendship!! Hopefully the writers will scale back on any exaggerations forced upon these two characters that they may have suffered through in their original shows for the purpose of cheap laughter.
The Gibby spinoff on the other hand... what? I do not see how you can create an entire show for such a gimmicky character.
.... I cannot believe I just ranted about Nickelodeon sitcoms. I guess it's my guilty pleasure if my brother's is One Direction. Still, the fans are too adolescent and young for my tastes..oddly enough Victorious fans don't seem quite as obsessed with ships as the iCarly ones were...for whatever reason. They still are, just not to that concentrated extent. Oh and both these shows (and I can extend it to Disney too) have WAY TOO MANY DOUBLE STANDARDS for me to enjoy it completely. The double standards are quite saddening actually, like the constant torment and ridicule of any character deemed strange and abnormal, not because they're jackasses who deserve it, simply because they're a bit more quirky or odd than normal.
The other complaint is the main character is probably a bit too perfect and...generic for my tastes. This is a common complaint, but I can forgive iCarly more since Carly is surrounded by eccentric people, but the Victorious crew have like three or four straight men which is kind of way too many and makes the main character's role a little more redundant. (Having her commit poor decisions from time-to-time doesn't help, she still feels ordinary and generic...except can be a jerk sometimes! Wow that is so interesting. In fact my favourite Tori episode was the Ponnie one because she wasn't acting normal, but instead absolutely paranoid and generally freaked out. That was some goooood acting) But well, what else can you expect from an American sitcom? Something different? HA!
Ah well, to the Cowboy with a Moustache and the Idiot Farmgirl who thought the Moustache was a Squirrel...and broken glass! Hopefully the newest Nick show won't bomb.
As a sidenote, I took a look at the MLP sneak previews...I heard from one of the voice actors (uh, was it Sweetie Belle's?) that they sang practically EVERY episode in season three, and the sneak previews are both songs! This is after the debut of season one and two had no singing whatsoever. Nothing against music, but there is always the happy medium and if they sing constantly they are going to overstay their musical welcome, I'm just saying. Oh well, we'll see when we see! This has been Spotto.
