The Escapist Film Festival 2010: Opinionated Reviews: Burn Notice

[Dan E]

Ok first would like that link for your other videos. Second I love burn notice, yet i have never noticed the color palette that pops up in alot of the episodes. Third the yogurt was amusing to see when watching the video and gave away exactly what I was going to watch. Fourth I believe the escapist needs a female voice cause right now its mostly all guys. Loved the review, valid points, still going to watch burn notice though.

 

[my_ledge_ends]

Public Service Announcement: this is what happens when you fail high school logic.

I LOVE Burn Notice. It's not the best show ever, and I wouldn't try to talk it up too much either, but this review makes it sound like a show that wouldn't be worth watching more than 5 minutes.

Maybe because she actually said it wasn't worth watching?

The whole review reeked of a product hitting some one who wasn't part of the target audience.

The target audience is everyone.

Hell, I never even paid enough attention to the joiners to see all the bikinis, and yet we use that as an example of why the show was "atrocious." Criticizing that just makes you sound girl who is probably jealous of others in a swim suit and finding it borderline offensive.

This is called an ad hominem and it's a logical fallacy. It's also further proof you're borderline deaf, because she actually gave a couple reasons why it detracted from the show (pointless establishment, anti-feminist).

The only REAL criticism I could take in the whole video was the blue-orange bit, and I don't understand why that destroys the show.

Because it was an overused substitute for actually engaging situations.

MAYBE it could be a better show, but there is plenty of comedy, snarky comments and entertaining espionage to keep me watching and enjoying.

Which is basically the antithesis of what she argued, meaning you're either just trolling or indelibly stupid. Or both.

 

[LavenderExtract]

Public Service Announcement: this is what happens when you fail high school logic.

I've been avoiding posting to this thread since I'm very biased toward this video being that I sat and watched all 3 seasons of this awful show with the reviewer. However... I just had to say that I love you my_ledge_ends... I fucking love you.

 

[Savant Crime]

I would love to see a review of the walking dead by you.

Well, it's on my list now, though probably not for awhile, since it did JUST start, and I can't really judge a series accurately on a single episode.

Loved the review, valid points, still going to watch burn notice though.

I'm actually thrilled that you take that view. After all, it can be the worst show in the world with no redeeming qualities, and if YOU enjoy it, then that's all that matters.

Thanks for the comments and the support, guys!

 

[Signa]

Public Service Announcement: this is what happens when you fail high school logic.

I LOVE Burn Notice. It's not the best show ever, and I wouldn't try to talk it up too much either, but this review makes it sound like a show that wouldn't be worth watching more than 5 minutes.

Maybe because she actually said it wasn't worth watching?

The whole review reeked of a product hitting some one who wasn't part of the target audience.

The target audience is everyone.

Hell, I never even paid enough attention to the joiners to see all the bikinis, and yet we use that as an example of why the show was "atrocious." Criticizing that just makes you sound girl who is probably jealous of others in a swim suit and finding it borderline offensive.

This is called an ad hominem and it's a logical fallacy. It's also further proof you're borderline deaf, because she actually gave a couple reasons why it detracted from the show (pointless establishment, anti-feminist).

The only REAL criticism I could take in the whole video was the blue-orange bit, and I don't understand why that destroys the show.

Because it was an overused substitute for actually engaging situations.

MAYBE it could be a better show, but there is plenty of comedy, snarky comments and entertaining espionage to keep me watching and enjoying.

Which is basically the antithesis of what she argued, meaning you're either just trolling or indelibly stupid. Or both.

WOOOOOW, nice way to be insulting instead of just providing examples of why I was wrong. I suppose you realize the moment most arguments devolve into insults is the moment some one is out of rational ways to win an argument.

Have you even watched the show? I've seen all 3 seasons and I'm awaiting the 4th. As I said before, it's not the best show, and there are plenty of others that I'm look forward to more when out of season (Venture Brothers, Dexter, Always Sunny in Philadelphia), but that doesn't discount this one as being watchable. Just because some one took the time and effort to watch a show, hate it, and then post a video on a reputable site doesn't make their opinion any more right than some one who hasn't gone through that effort but enjoyed the show.

You know what? Reading your response again, I see why you liked the video. Instead of actually pointing out what's wrong with my post, you just dissected it, and merely called each part idiotic. That's what this reviewer practically did by breaking down each character and putting an "idiot" stamp on each of their faces and calling it good. I want to know WHY Michael is a shallow character, I want to see why his girl friend was the most believable, show me WHERE Bruce Campbell rolled his eyes at the camera because he knew the show was shit. NONE of that made any sense to me because I never saw any of it while I was watching it.

The video just reeked of some one who didn't like the show and made an effort to attach themselves to the most feminine aspects of the show while there was almost none. That's what bugs me about this review. To say that EVERYONE is the target audience for the show is completely false. I suppose if I did a review of Golden Girls or Murder She Wrote and hated it, you should take my word for it because I'm part of it's target audience? Now, I've never watched those shows, but they've reeked to me of being targets for older, stay-at-home folk. Should my grandma listen to me if I hated the show? HELL NO!

@Savant Crime Ok, I know I'm being a HUGE dickbag to you, and I'm sorry. You put a lot of effort into your review and you seem like a nice enough person. I just didn't agree with much of what you said in the review, and I didn't like much of how you presented it. Hopefully you can pick apart my rage and find the nuggets of constructive criticism in there to make your videos awesome.

 

[Signa]

Ok, I'm having a forum refresh issue again, so I'm going to double-post my edit, just it case it isn't going through:


@Savant Crime Ok, I know I'm being a HUGE dickbag to you, and I'm sorry. You put a lot of effort into your review and you seem like a nice enough person. I just didn't agree with much of what you said in the review, and I didn't like much of how you presented it. Hopefully you can pick apart my rage and find the nuggets of constructive criticism in there to make your videos awesome.

 

[my_ledge_ends]

WOOOOOW, nice way to be insulting instead of just providing examples of why I was wrong. I suppose you realize the moment most arguments devolve into insults is the moment some one is out of rational ways to win an argument.

Let me quote you here:

"Criticizing that just makes you sound girl who is probably jealous of others in a swim suit and finding it borderline offensive."

What I find funny about this - aside from the atrocious grammar - is that you can say that and still try to claim you're the one being rational. I mean, as I said before, that's not an argument; it's an attack on her person, and it is NOT valid logic. Actually, come to think of it, you did mention something about never noticing the "joiners", which is really only further proof that they're pointless.

Oh yeah, and let me quote myself here:

"...he actually gave a couple reasons why it detracted from the show (pointless establishment, anti-feminist)."

There's two reasons why she disliked the bikini shots, though based on the what you've written so far I don't really expect you to have read past me calling your grammar atrocious.

Have you even watched the show?

Yes, and I actually enjoyed it.

Just because some one took the time and effort to watch a show, hate it, and then post a video on a reputable site doesn't make their opinion any more right than some one who hasn't gone through that effort but enjoyed the show.

So just because your opinion is, by your admission, less informed does not mean you should be taken any less seriously? Alrighty. I can see why you would think that.

I want to know WHY Michael is a shallow character

Poorly written and poorly acted (I'm reminded of the "Times Michael Has Pulled A Massively Out-Of-Proportion Dick Move" screen).

I want to see why his girl friend was the most believable

She's actually been vulnerable (emotionally and physically) on more than a handful of occasions, and in a variety of interesting ways. Michael on the other hand has just been captured a whole bunch, and as many times as he escapes or gets free the show's producers might as well just put a countdown on the screen every time he gets thrown into a cell/dark room/nasty orifice.

Sam Axe is a freaking phantom for all we know about him.

Show me WHERE Bruce Campbell rolled his eyes at the camera because he knew the show was shit. NONE of that made any sense to me because I never saw any of it while I was watching it.

I'd ask Savant that herself, maybe in a PM or something.

The video just reeked of some one who didn't like the show and made an effort to attach themselves to the most feminine aspects of the show while there was almost none. That's what bugs me about this review.

Well, fine, you can believe that, but there's no proof of that. The thirty-second long rant about blue/orange tinting alone disproves your hypothesis.

To say that EVERYONE is the target audience for the show is completely false.

No it isn't. That's the reason why it's set in Miami, why the trio is made up the way it is, and why it's on the USA network. It's designed to appeal to as wide an audience as possible.

Anyways, I'm not going to continue arguing with you because I don't want either of us to receive infractions for derailing Savant's thread. Go ahead and get in the last word if you want, I don't care. I wish you a long and interesting life.

 

[Savant Crime]

@Savant Crime Ok, I know I'm being a HUGE dickbag to you, and I'm sorry. You put a lot of effort into your review and you seem like a nice enough person. I just didn't agree with much of what you said in the review, and I didn't like much of how you presented it. Hopefully you can pick apart my rage and find the nuggets of constructive criticism in there to make your videos awesome.

You do have legitimate complains, most of which would be fixed by more time and the longer script, and I do appreciate the comments.

However, you could, perhaps, have phrased your complaints better. Or at least, less belligerently.

Then, you WOULDN'T be "being a HUGE dickbag".

I'll keep your comments in mind when I'm writing my next scripts, thanks for the input!

 

[Signa]

@Savant Crime Ok, I know I'm being a HUGE dickbag to you, and I'm sorry. You put a lot of effort into your review and you seem like a nice enough person. I just didn't agree with much of what you said in the review, and I didn't like much of how you presented it. Hopefully you can pick apart my rage and find the nuggets of constructive criticism in there to make your videos awesome.

You do have legitimate complains, most of which would be fixed by more time and the longer script, and I do appreciate the comments.

However, you could, perhaps, have phrased your complaints better. Or at least, less belligerently.

Then, you WOULDN'T be "being a HUGE dickbag".

I'll keep your comments in mind when I'm writing my next scripts, thanks for the input!

usually I'm pretty good about not being a dickbag. I kinda flew off the handle because of the whole "some one is wrong on the internet" reactionary/troll thing. I didn't stop to consider that the person who made the video would be watching and so I was far more impolite than I should have been. Not that I've needed to, but I could see myself pulling the same shit in a Zero Punctuation thread because I know Yahtzee doesn't read the comments on his own videos.

Yeah, while I'm calmly pointing things out, the "thumbs down" in the video got to me quickly because it felt excessive. Maybe offset them with a thumbs up every now and then if you can point out a positive part of the show you're watching? Like I said before, I liked the show quite a bit. Your review pretty much said there was nothing redeeming about it, and so it almost became personally insulting that you hated something I enjoy (stupid, I know, I know...). I just don't want some one to watch your review and think the show is that awful without trying it. To each their own, but I'd like to think that the time I was watching an episode from the first season and my brother joined me, then continued to watch the show on his own represents some of the positive things the show offers. I wasn't even telling him to "hey! this show is great, you NEED to watch it." He just liked what he saw and gave it a chance.

And believe me, I have my nitpicks about it too. The show got damn repetitive between season 1 and 2 where it almost seemed like they forgot that Michael was burnt spy and not a private fix-it man for hire. Season 3 managed to redeem that for me by directing the focus on getting Michael reinstated, but constantly getting interrupted by some one pleading for his help. It was still the same sub-plots to the overarching plot, but the tone had changed greatly.

Another show that did this and failed was Monk (Also on the USA network, surprise, surprise). Unlike Burn Notice, they kept hitting the reset button at the end of each episode until you almost forgot that he was searching for his wife's killer. I swear there was about 2-3 seasons where Monk just screwed around with NO character development and no progression to the story. I found other ways to enjoy the show, but the premise wore thin around the end of season 2. It's almost like they told a joke until it wasn't funny, and kept trying to tell it until it was funny again. It kinda worked, but you have to evolve your expectations for the show as it progressed, because the show wasn't doing any evolution of its own.

Damn, I just started typing and rambling, and I ended up writing my own review. LOL. Maybe you can take something from all that because I'm sure as hell not deleting it now.

 

[binvjoh]

She's trying pretty hard to be Yahtzee.

Then again I love Burn Notice, so I guess I'm biased.

 

[mykalwane]

I do agree with you fully, though I enjoy the show fully. Yes I know it has its problems, but I have so few shows that I like that keep on. For example "The Middle Man" which failed because it was a good show on ABCFamily. ABCFamily audience does not care for quality. See any show that has more then one season on the channel as proof of this.

There were very minor problems. For example Black would of probably worked better in contrast to the white chalk outline. Would help it stand out a a bit easier. Pacing did have trouble, many times the sentence seem longer then what you could breath. Something I think would be fixed if more practice and more breaks(stop the recording after a sentence then start recording the next sentence rinse and repeat) when recording.

Like the idea, and would like to see more. It looked as though you didn't enjoy Burn Notice. Though I would want to see the same approach on a show that you do like next. Its easy to see the problems in what we hate, it is often harder to do so in something we enjoy.

 

[Moon_Called]

Very well done. The yogurt had me confused until I read the explanation in this thread, and while there are obvious similarities to Yahtzee, honestly, any review wherein the reviewer does not like like what he's reviewing could easily be stamped with a "Like Zero Punctuation but..." label. (My god, I read that in his voice as I wrote it. ._.) Unlike others, I found your voice enjoyable to listen to, and the animation style was appealing. Great work. =3

My videos usually run about seven and a half minutes. I've done others and they're on YouTube. If you're interested, I'll PM you a link.

I am indeed interested. Link please?

 

[ewhac]

I dug around briefly on YouTube until I found your other reviews (wasn't hard). Hope I was able to kick up your view counts a bit.

Too bad you didn't submit your Heroes 1 review; I burst out laughing at that one (".....................Next week: Pacing").

 

[Savant Crime]

Too bad you didn't submit your Heroes 1 review; I burst out laughing at that one (".....................Next week: Pacing").

Wish I could've, it would've been less work for me!

Sadly, that would have gotten me disqualified. :/

 

[RheynbowDash]

God, I'm so glad this didnt get picked up. Shes trying so hard to be ZP by deliberately nitpicking apart a wildly popular show. YOUR personality seems bland and uninspired. So please, whatever your name is. DO NOT I repeat, DO NOT QUIT YOUR DAY JOB. But you probably suck at that too.

 

[Savant Crime]

DO NOT I repeat, DO NOT QUIT YOUR DAY JOB. But you probably suck at that too.

I was okay with the negative comments. I put up with the comparisons. I waded through the shallowness and mire that is the general public to put something I cared about up for inspection by the unpleasable peanut gallery. Well and good, but now, dude, you've crossed the line.

You can insult me, you can insult my critiques, fine. When you ascribe to me petty motivations, and a general ineptitude, though, I take some offense.

As for my day job? I own a gaming store. I balance the professional and the geeky and handle people and companies regularly. I manage hard feelings and embarrassment, the shy, the outcast, and the forlorn. I run a nexus of asocial people at an intrinsically social activity. THAT is what I do with most of my time, and I wouldn't stop for the world.

I make these videos in my spare time. _I_ make them. I put my heart and my time and my skills into something that I actually care about. I didn't make this video for the contest. I didn't do it for the contract. I did it to express an opinion, to lend some credence to the idea that what is popular is not always good, and that a good concept does not good entertainment make. I did it because television is something that gets sidelined in terms of quality and effort, and I object to that.

My name is Sharon. I'm the Opinionated Critic.

Tell me, who are you?

 

[my_ledge_ends]

My name is Sharon. I'm the Opinionated Critic.

Tell me, who are you?

He's ToonLink, silly!

 

[RheynbowDash]

SNIP

It's funny that you call yourself the "Opinionated Critic", yet you can't handle when someone else has a difference in opinion than your own?

Hypocrisy, thy name is Sharon.

P.S. I'm Vince and I work as a Sales Associate at a Best Buy in Mississippi. Nice to meet you.

 

[Savant Crime]

Silly me! I though you were a worthy opponent. My mistake.

Lovely to meet you, though.