Oddbean new post about login | logout @bb1a99d2 <LAUGH TRACK>
@683562c3 The houses and apartments and bars that are shown in the preview are the size of mansions and country estates.
@bb1a99d2 Add to that Frasier always being an entitled and stupidly rich prick we are supposed to sympathise with and I can skip it. Not least given the lead’s own worldviews.
@683562c3 Oh, I thought the show was largely about comeuppances: he was nearly always the goat. Except Niles, where Niles was rewarded for several years of lying and manipulation.
@683562c3 But you’re also not wrong! I semi-hate-watched it. Frasier was the show that got the “squick” moment of sitcom discomfort faster than any other and then maintained it longer. It was sometimes in the first minute! I kind of despise the whole sitcom mechanism now, despite having loved many shows.
@683562c3 Nearly all sitcoms are based on people lying and trying to not get caught and then having a humorous outcome. The best reversal was a long ago Diff’rent Strokes where the racist father of a white girl that Arnold had befriended supposedly “learned his lesson” from Mr. Drummond at the end. What do you learn, Mr. D. asked: “to keep my opinions to myself.” (Bigot not rewarded, btw.) That was amazing. Overturned the convention. Sadly rare.
@bb1a99d2 It doesn’t help with many US sitcoms that they go on forever. They have big writing teams, but it’s just too much. Like a soap with laughs. We have the other problem in the UK, but at least sometimes you get that swig of rocket fuel. Although even with my favourites, I’m scared to go back and watch. (Might eg Spaced now be awful‽)
@683562c3 I watched Spaced a few years ago and it was still not awful! There was a great joke on the Good Place when Tehani is showing Eleanor a British sitcom: “It's Deirdre and Margaret. It ran for 16 years on the BBC. They did nearly 30 episodes.”
@bb1a99d2 Sounds about right. Check out the episode count and dates for Detectorists. That’s very British in its cadence. (Also, despite one or two wobbles, really lovely. Highly recommended if you’ve not seen it.)
@683562c3 I tried desparately to watch the first episode and was squicked out repeatedly. Too intentionally awkward. And I love Toby!