[FnG]magnolia;20094568 said:
I haven't seen it since season 2 finished. I read that it was a bit ... laboured now. Anyone confirm/deny?
Very, everything Marshall/lilly is painful pretty much, Barney was good for 3-4 seasons at least, Ted has turned into a bit of a pussy boy, and whatever series heavily featured Sarah Chalke sucked, she forgot how to act and lost her comedy timing halfway through Scrubs.
Theres still some very funny bits, but few and far between, I'd say theres really only 4-5 great episodes in the past 4-5 seasons. Its watchable, its certainly better than a lot of the other crap out there but likewise there are FAR better things to watch first.
The Centurian, I agree its not even slightly unique to this show but its suffered more than most. I don't think its as much writing, as it is acting, way too often the original characters which can be great, end up being blurred into character plus actor playing them. I think its probably a mix of two things, take Lilly, at first it feels like she's playing a new character, 3 years later it feels like the actress just reading her lines, badly, it doesn't seem like "lilly" anymore, actors get really lazy and don't really "act" anymore.
I can't rewatch friends anymore, at the time you don't notice it as much but watching back, its pretty average past season 3-4, and its flat out bad from season 6-7 onwards. Pheobe isn't really Pheobe anymore, she's not a quirky character anymore, from half way through it was just Lisa Kudrow reading out lines and forcing the odd ridiculous quirky thing in for the sake of the character, it didn't work.
I'm sure writers also get to know the actors a bit too well and add too much of them in.
I think very few series maintain a strong character start to finish, especially comedies and most only last a few years actually being great. insomnia + migraine + codeine + being up all night = long post
If you look at Ross in friends, he was basically the same character start to finish, which is why he's about the only bearable character by the end of the series.
Two and a half men is by no means a classic, it fills time but does have some genuinely very funny jokes and some very good eps, but the characters have been maintained start to finish, the kid despite changing completely is still the same dopey kid. I mean, it helps that in particular the character matched Sheen perfectly, so the blur between character/actor was irrelevant.
