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I don't really find anything of today very interesting either - TV shows, movies, music, etc. Are there a couple of hidden gems in today's entertainment? Yes. But for me, they are few and far between.
For the most part I find myself watching and listening to stuff from the early 2000s back.
Beyond that..Just find entertainment by viewing from my porch. People watching.
I think three years ago I became aware of just how as humans..We sit,stand,run,walk. And that's about it. You betcha I'm blessed to do such with little discomfort..but in the day's events...It's rinse and repeat..Yawn.
Things are pretty grim at the movies these days unless you're a teenage boy. Pop music the same, for teenage girls. I too find most standup comedy boring and obvious.
There is, however, is a sort of golden age of TV going on these days. "Breaking Bad" was pretty good -- same for the prequel, "Better Call Saul." But also, the TV version of "Fargo." And then "Orphan Black," "Animal Kingdom," "Humans," "Turn," "Black Mirror," "Walking Dead" (off and on), "Louie," "Wolf Hall," "Young Pope," "Atlanta," "The Knick," "Vikings" ... YMMV.
It seems like a lot of talent has migrated from film to "cable TV." Network TV remains dreadful, however.
But how awesome was it to go the cineplex and just be wowed by a movie. I haven't felt that in years
No one needs to defend not liking, being bored by, and finding desperately uninteresting low common denominator offerings because one has an interest in more artistic, deeper works of art.
Hey now I doubt I'm too artsy or deep. I play basketball with a group of 15-20 people 25-35 years old - after playing we always talk and the topic of "entertainment" is a tough one for me because we have almost nothing in common. I just can't get into the whole CGI/comic book/sequel blockbusters or modern music/TV/entertainers.
I can't say ALL newer movies are bad, but enough are bad that's it's extremely annoying when you really want to watch a movie. I like stuff like Black Mass, Benjamin Button, The Departed, Gangs of New York, Cast Away, Spotlight, Wolf of Wallstreet, Nightcrawler, Dallas Buyers Club, etc. The great movies seem to come along at a rate of maybe 2 per year...everything else seems like incredibly hyped up blandness. Give me a good story instead of trying to trick me with special effects and tons of advertising.
But how awesome was it to go the cineplex and just be wowed by a movie. I haven't felt that in years
That's a bit like getting all nostalgic about flipping your LPs over or recording mix tapes. We all have these little things we grow to love but they don't last. That just isn't how young people consume film anymore.
In the midst of my overly healthy TV habit dying out, one of the things I saw in the TV shows was that it wasn't really there.
For example, "Burn Notice". It is like they took all the background, expanded it to the forefront, but left what makes a show behind. To illustrate this, look at the secondary people on Star Trek: TNG (or the extras in ST:TOS "Mirror, Mirror") such as the helmsmen, the engineers, security, and the like. Those are some incredibly beautiful people and there are fantasies about hanging out with them. So what would it be like if someone made a TV show about them?
The catch is, that is what they have done and more so, all the shows seem to be like that. Incredibly beautiful people (and wonderful photography) but not much else there to see.
So I never got interested, stopped watching network after network, essentially stop watching current TV by 2008, and really had no regrets when relocation stopped my cable this year.
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Originally Posted by eddiehaskell
Hey now I doubt I'm too artsy or deep. I play basketball with a group of 15-20 people 25-35 years old - after playing we always talk and the topic of "entertainment" is a tough one for me because we have almost nothing in common. I just can't get into the whole CGI/comic book/sequel blockbusters or modern music/TV/entertainers.
......
Reminds me when I was in Improv class, my class mates 18-22 and me in my 40s, where we were playing "Who Am I?". It's a listening game where one person knows who you are and is suppose to talk to,create the situation about who you are without telling you and you suppose to figure out who you are from that.
So as the person in the know (and the subject waiting in the hallway), the rest of the class came up with "Dr. Phil" until one of my classmates said, "The problem is, I don't think Tamara has a clue who Dr. Phil is.".......and he was right.
I was great when I played Joan of Arc's lawyer.
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Originally Posted by dizzybint
Those daft young teenage films.. over the top funny or supposed to be. films that shove in boobs and sex when its about something else entirely and not required... The Big Bang theory, gets me down as hubby seems to enjoy it,,, Adam Sandler very unfunny and his silly face annoys me.. over the top computerized stuff... nearly every film has it now.. zombie movies that just arent scary... weve seen it all... stretched out plots that could be undone in ten minutes.. The Saw type movies that are just horrible.. if thats entertainment they can keep it.
AH! So this is this "Adam Sandler"! Tall, skinny, white guy with short dark hair that makes it look like he is wearing a faceless winter cap?
I never watch the show myself (it's big with my previous shift co-worker, same age, though), have just seen it on the TV screen at this eatery or that.
As far as the Saw movies, too gruesome for my tastes. In my childhood, there were Roger Corman flicks and that did a lot to pervert a very young open mind. One thing I have come to recognize in fantasy vs reality and hence in imagery that produces the fantasy is that there is always a reset button in fantasy. One has everything that works up to that moment and in fantasy, they can always return to such.
It is not so in reality, obviously, and in that imagery of the present, usually not there, either. There is no anticipation, no build up of tension; the injury, the damage is there and it is permanent and perhaps even worse, one has to live with it. Even when it is permanent in the old movies, say being suspended above the fire to be burnt like in "Witchfinder General" (was that a Corman flick?), we are probably spared what that would really mean so our fantasies can continue. In such movies of today, it goes the other way.
Last edited by TamaraSavannah; 07-10-2017 at 08:23 AM..
history nerd - yes and no. I've always lived in cities where going to the movies is still a big deal - and I see lots of young "kids" at the revival and art house cinemas. But, I'm sure living in places like LA, NYC and Austin has something to do with it
There are still some good movies out there - you just have to search on cable. Read the descriptions. We subscribe to almost everything except Playboy etc. We have a Fire stick as well. If you belong to Amazon as a member you can download movies. They aren't making them like they use to but they are out there. Just have to look.
If we come across a good movie we enjoy - we will tape it. Having said that, if you pay for a movie to rent via cable you cannot tape it. Hope that made sense.
Comedians - a couple made me laugh in my teens, but now I find them all boring. There's something about attaching the "comedy" label that instantly makes me think "canned humor" (which I guess is what comedy is). I remember watching movies with friends or at school and it seemed like everyone instantly laughed during certain scenes, but I had absolutely no reaction. I would often fake a laugh to not seem too weird. Kevin Hart, Dane Cook, Will Ferrell, Louis C.K., Schumer, etc - hearing them makes me want to start clawing my eye out.
I also find about 90% movies and 95% of popular tv shows to be unentertaining. Most of my friends can talk non-stop about tons of tv shows and movies. In the last 10 years the only tv show I've watched was Breaking Bad (watched it all 4 months ago in about two weeks). After watching that I was craving more, but couldn't stand to watch more than 1 episode of anything else I tried. I have absolutely nothing on TV that I MUST watch - if I'm flipping through I'll typically stop at the news, Shark Tank, American Greed, Lockup, 600lb Life, Intervention or sports.
So are there any other people like me who aren't easily entertained like 99% of people seem to be? In some ways it's a blessing because you get more done, but in some ways it's a curse because you don't get the all the joy of being entertained.
BTW - I've never downloaded any music either. The only music I listen to is a little bit of country on the radio while driving. I know almost nothing about who sings what or who's in what band. This is another conversation killer when talking to people because everyone loves music.
Is an area of my brain not functioning?
There are a number of factors involved, some of them within you, some external.
Internally, the brain in a healthy person is constantly changing and growing and responding to the period of life of the individual. Generally, a child has a child's brain that has poor differentiation skills, a teen brain inputs information and goes nuts dealing with hormonal influences, and around 25 -30 an adult stage begins tossing out a lot of stuff as irrelevant. Adults that are much older and closer to death have more stages and changes.
Also internally, it is a good idea to check and rule out depression. Depression can be insidious, and it will take the color out of life even before other aspects of it start to manifest.
Social media is a vast unregulated and disruptive anthropological experiment. Tests are beginning to consistently show the attention span of people is shrinking to unprecedented levels, with most unable to concentrate for more than ten minutes, even if the material is important. Such changes make some literary art completely inaccessible. The chances of a person in the clutches of social media being able to read "War and Peace" or "Fathers and Sons" is nil. In worst case scenarios, some folks can't even get through a magazine article. Do not dismiss the effects of social media on the brain.
Externally, entertainment is very much linked to the environment around it, and can become dated or lose its punch if it isn't more focused on timeless human issues than technology or current meme.
Every decade has its greats and losers, and every decade has a few shows, movies, programs, and entertainers that stand the test of time. People typically relate best to the art that was extant and popular from their teen years to mid twenties.
I liked a lot of "adult" movies in the 90s when I was a kid, but the last 10-12 years have been pretty blah. The only TV shows I've watched in the last 10 years are Breaking Bad and the first 10 or so episodes of Walking Dead. I tried many others but was bored after 1-2 episodes. I don't like any of the currently popular comedians. The last comedian I really laughed at was probably Dave Chappell back in the early 2000s. I also thought movies like Road Trip (found Tom Green hilarious in the 90s) and The Hangover were funny at the time. Borat made me laugh for a few weeks when he came out.
Different strokes. What TV have you tried watching? We're in a golden age of TV right now with some of the best produced and most well written shows in history (think AMC, HBO, Starz, even Hulu and Netflix!) plus some decent offerings on cable (ABC primarily), but on the other hand, there's a lot of dreck in reality TV.
I'm your age and can't understand how anyone would put Tom Green and "hilarious" in the same sentence. :P He represented the worst of over the top comedy of the late 90s/early 2000s. I'd consider Road Trip, The Hangover, Borat, etc completely boring compared to the big names in today's standup scene. I've never been a huge movie fan, but there's some great stuff out now, especially in the sci-fi, superhero (which normally wouldn't be my thing but they've been so good lately), and arthouse genres.
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