Fun Size Episode 21 – The Nadir of Peak TV

Wherein Mike and Casey discuss the weird evolution of HBO’s Game of Thrones from an almost obsessively grounded fantasy show to a fist-pumping, crowd-pleasing action fantasy.

We react to what we’ve seen, read and heard of the upcoming Star Trek Discovery and Seth MacFarlane’s Trek spoof/homage, the Orville. And we talk about how many studios – mainly Marvel Studios – don’t take advantage of the format of Netflix and often saddle their seasons with too many episodes.

And Mike prays for death as his lungs are full of yuck and his voice sounds terrible. Ugh.

4 thoughts on “Fun Size Episode 21 – The Nadir of Peak TV

  1. Once upon a time, there existed a movie called “star trek: generations” who based itself on “too predictable.” It killed an icon with nothing more than a shrug, made its protagonist look like an idiot, and included a whole bunch of useless scenes in it Because doing the other thing would be “too predictable.” You can do the same sort of things over and over again, Because if the Audience in engaged in the story, then it won’t matter. and there is only so far you can do “original” before you have gotten into territory you should never wander in, to begin with. “Don’t try to be a great man. Be a man, let history make its own judgments.”

  2. Hate to be that guy, but if something’s passed its nadir, that would mean it’s starting to ascend, right? As opposed to passing its zenith…

    On the subject of ST: Generations, there would have been an easy fix to make that one of the better Trek movies instead of a so-so episode of TNG (it involves changing what both Kirk and Picard experienced in the Nexus, and would have entailed adding Joan Collins, and maybe Wil Wheaton, to the cast).

    • “Hate to be that guy, but if something’s passed its nadir, that would mean it’s starting to ascend, right?”

      One would hope so. Sometimes a franchise never seems to pull out of that nosedive. Maybe they can flatten the descent into a long plateau (flat valley) of badness? Gah… the mixed metaphors!

  3. Great discussion to listen to; I think I enjoy listening to you guys shoot the shit about topics almost more than the topic-driven episodes.

    I want to say, though, that I think you are selling The Orville short. Specifically in reference to the ‘toilet joke’ with Bartus, I think the joke is pretty clever, if you bear it out. He makes a shorty toilet joke, gets nothing, and tries to continue with a joke about peeing, which falls flat (purposefully) and makes the character feel self-conscious and embarrassed. To the larger point, I’ve been thinking that a lot of the first three episodes is trying to deconstruct the Family Guy vibe that Seth McFarlane brings simply by being himself so it can divorce itself from it and get on with being about Star Trek ideals. Or I could just be wanting to make it work, but I think that there are some clever things going on.

    Keep up the great work!

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