When has something been too mean-spirited or cruel for you to enjoy?

[Synigma]

snip

For me, it fell into the realm of movies in which I despised everyone I saw and everything that happened. With nothing to be for, against, or even curious about I was just adrift in an ocean of disgust. It wasn't a bad movie per se, it was just a bad movie to sit through.

I found Forrest Gump fell into the same category for me.

Yeah, it was the first time I really checked out of a movie completely. I couldn't even watch it in one go, and only went back because I had a friend that insisted it was great. Spoiler; it was not. And ya, I don't blame the movie or the actors... just bleh.

Yeah there was definitely parts of Forest Gump that got cringy... the scene with Lt.Dan and the prostitutes comes to mind. I give that one a pass because at least it's building character for Lt.Dan who eventually has a character arc. Maybe that's it though; you can't invest in these characters because they don't have an arc, they don't learn anything and you just feel sorry for them (if you feel anything).

 

[Wasted]

The later Comedy Central Roasts are cringe inducing, especially the Favor Flav and Mike Tyson ones. I feel that that was a common complaint since the roast of James Franco was greatly toned down in regards to mean-spirited and shock jokes. His real life actor friends did the roasting and it showed since it felt more like poking fun instead of attempting to make the roastee cry.

 

[pilouuuu]

I agree with everyone that mentioned Game of Thrones. Almost all of the characters are jerks and there's no hope. Despite all that I still enjoy the show.

Also, most things by Tarantino. While I find his style interesting I dislike the fact that he always need to include something which shocking or disgusting and that characters in his stories are also a bunch of basterds.

I was also considering watching Outlander, but then I spoiled myself with that disturbing ending to the first season and decided not to watch it. I think it's simply too much.

The Dark Knight Rises was also uncomfortable to watch with all the gritty cruelty.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Mean spirited?

I don't know... Big Bang Theory. Sheldon is not just irritable. He's psychopathic. Treats friends like garbage, treated his supposed girlfriend like a doormat, narcissidtic in the extreme.

I find the show genuinely distasteful if only because I was once in a relationship with someone like him, and I had to file a complaint with the police to create enough distance between us.

His antics aren't fun to me. He's a cancer that serves to inflict on any person his presence matastizes towards. Deeply unpleasant, with zero redeeming qualities. This isn't like Newman from Seinfeld (though arguably Newman is a better person than any of the main cast), it's merely a bad person hurting people.

 

[maninahat]

Yes. The movie Everly. Salma Hayek plays a former prostitute/sex slave who gets a bunch of guns and fortifies her brothel against waves of Yakuza attackers. Sounds like a cool action movie premise right? Well it isn't. It has a few cool scenes, but most of the movie is really unhealthy exploitation cinema - watching it, you get the impression the director just has a nasty kink for watching Hayek cry in pain for long periods of time.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Also, just because you mentioned Seinfeld, in shows like that and Always Sunny the characters are meant to be awful, we're never meant to like or admire them, and the only reason they have friends is because they surround themselves with the only people as bad as they are. Dick from 3rd Rock From The Sun and Abed from Community are like the versions of the Sheldon character that you can understand why people would actually be friends with.

Ahhh... but the difference is that Dick wasn't that bad. Insensitive, yes. But capable of ready sacrifice and affection. Dick wasn't a horrible individual, and whatever character failings were merely a way to assess where he fails to be human, but ultimately more often succeeding despite it. You cannot compare his relationship with Mary as you can Sheldon and Amy.

Also, haven't seen Community.... (yes, I know I should go watch it... I've heard this about a hundred times now...)

 

[default]

Happy Tree Friends was just stupid.

Fuck, I remember that stupid shit. All my dumbass highschool friends guffawing at it like dickheads. Made me sick.


I guess I don't mind cruelty so much as long as it's aesthetically consistent and earned. If your movie is just horrible it comes across as trite and worthless. Pointless torture or rape really upsets me. You need to have balance and contrast, and then the cruel parts of your work will be all the more impactful. Dark has no meaning without light, blah blah blah.

Take the ending of Taxi Driver. If the movie only consisted of scenes like that it would feel so pointless and exploitative, just violence for the sake of violence. But we see Travis' long, slow decline into neuroses and insanity, all his silly fantasies and plans culminating in this horribly bloody, clumsy scene. And it's brilliant.

 

[Kajin]

The fact that I don't have to accidentally catch a glimpse of Big Bang Theory while channel surfing on the off chance I decide I want to go channel surfing in an era of digital channel guides is the biggest saving grace of not having cable television anymore. I absolutely despise Sheldon. He's such a prick that it ruins what might otherwise be a good television show.

 

[Ryallen]

As for real life, I reached the peak of my standards for humanity when some idiot that I have on Facebook for whatever reason though that it would be a good idea to post a video of some teenage girls throwing puppies from a bucket into a river. I barely made it five seconds before my entire day was ruined.

Bloody hell. I didn't even see the video and reading that sentence makes me sad. :c

It may interest you both that the video in question was being plastered all over the Internet with the intention of identifying the girl. It paid off, and she was eventually prosecuted for animal abuse.

WHOO DOGGY!

no pun intended

 

[Megalodon]

You should really check out extra histories videos on the first crusade - one element of the Peoples Crusade couldn't wait to get to the holy land before killing people, so began slaughtering Jews along the way and looting their belongings.

Oh please, that series was just garbage. It was just as 'Crusaders suck, poor Muslims' as Kingdom of Heaven (if not more so). According to extra credits the Turks were pure innocents, invaded by that nasty Pope and his Crusader barbarians. Completely glossing over the previous centuries of Islamic aggression and expansion. Now I'm not saying the People's Crusade was a good idea, or that the Crusaders were angels. They weren't. They were 11th Century Warlords, and acted like it. But so did their Saracen enemies. It was a brutal age for everyone, Cross or Crescent.

They do the a similar thing with their more recent Suleimann series. In which they present him as this enlightened, wise figure. While glossing (to varying extents) over the fact that we was an aggressive expansionist conqueror, utilising slave child soldiers in his wars (the Janissaries) and murdered his children and advisors out of rampant paranoia, yet they're still trying for a sympathetic portrayal. Now was he a positive influence/"good" Sultan? In some ways yes, there's a reason he's remembered amongst the Turks for his legal reforms, not expansionist conquest. But he performed deeds similarly morally reprehensible by modern standards as the Crusaders, yet the EC crew aren't interested in telling that story.

 

[WindKnight]

You should really check out extra histories videos on the first crusade - one element of the Peoples Crusade couldn't wait to get to the holy land before killing people, so began slaughtering Jews along the way and looting their belongings.

Oh please, that series was just garbage. It was just as 'Crusaders suck, poor Muslims' as Kingdom of Heaven (if not more so). According to extra credits the Turks were pure innocents, invaded by that nasty Pope and his Crusader barbarians. Completely glossing over the previous centuries of Islamic aggression and expansion. Now I'm not saying the People's Crusade was a good idea, or that the Crusaders were angels. They weren't. They were 11th Century Warlords, and acted like it. But so did their Saracen enemies. It was a brutal age for everyone, Cross or Crescent.

They do the a similar thing with their more recent Suleimann series. In which they present him as this enlightened, wise figure. While glossing (to varying extents) over the fact that we was an aggressive expansionist conqueror, utilising slave child soldiers in his wars (the Janissaries) and murdered his children and advisors out of rampant paranoia, yet they're still trying for a sympathetic portrayal. Now was he a positive influence/"good" Sultan? In some ways yes, there's a reason he's remembered amongst the Turks for his legal reforms, not expansionist conquest. But he performed deeds similarly morally reprehensible by modern standards as the Crusaders, yet the EC crew aren't interested in telling that story.

Um, you really should watch the latest episode before you accuse them of 'glossing things over'. They address the whole paranoia aspect and its results.

 

[pilouuuu]

I also forgot to mention Penny Dreadful. I watched the first episode, but it was so dark, gory and gloomy that I couldn't continue. Shame, because I love Eva Green!

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

There's a little anime called Geno Cyber that no doubt tried to capitalize on the popularity of the then popular Akira, by just throwing acts of cruelty at the screen in a cyberpunk setting. There wasn't even any rhyme or reason what was happening. It was just nasty for the sake of being nasty.

I looked that up, and then I saw that the same crew that did the OVA of Geno Cyber also did M.D. Geist. In fact that was also something that was just too damn mean spirited to enjoy, and I would not be shocked if Geist was in some small way one of the inspirations for Kratos.

Hah, hah, haaaahhhh.... Such my dick and swallow, Seth. Don't waste a drop.

I think I laughed harder at that zinger of yours than I have at any episode of Family Guy ever.

 

[Erttheking]

Seriously, screw The Departed. I don't care what anyone says, that was one of the most abrupt and crappy endings I ever had the displeasure of viewing. I mean what the hell was even the point of it then?

A-fucking-men. That damn thing came out like a punch to my dick. Hey, if you want to have an everyone dies ending, what's wrong with with building up to it? Having it make sense! That's freaking MORE depressing because when you're sitting there, reeling from the shock, a tiny voice in your head says "There was no other way this could've gone is there..."

OT: Any dark fantasy that thinks dark fantasy means "Have there be lots of gore, swearing and rape, and shoehorn in racism any have everything be miserable and everyone's an asshole because we're SO DARK!". I think part of the reason I love Dark Souls so much is that it sidesteps those pits. I just couldn't get into the Witcher because I asked myself "If every single person died, would I care?" The answer I came up with was only for Siegfried. I loved him. You know why? Because he wasn't a miserable asshole, he was a decent person who wanted to do the right thing, and in a world where 95% of the people were assholes, I freaking adored him. You can write nice characters dark fantasy authors! From Software put Solaire of Astora in Dark Souls and that worked out wonderfully! People fucking love him!

Also I could never really get into House because House was a twat. I know he's supposed to be a twat and that it ruins his life, but I still don't want to be stuck with him for sixty minutes minus commercials.

 

[Megalodon]

You should really check out extra histories videos on the first crusade - one element of the Peoples Crusade couldn't wait to get to the holy land before killing people, so began slaughtering Jews along the way and looting their belongings.

Oh please, that series was just garbage. It was just as 'Crusaders suck, poor Muslims' as Kingdom of Heaven (if not more so). According to extra credits the Turks were pure innocents, invaded by that nasty Pope and his Crusader barbarians. Completely glossing over the previous centuries of Islamic aggression and expansion. Now I'm not saying the People's Crusade was a good idea, or that the Crusaders were angels. They weren't. They were 11th Century Warlords, and acted like it. But so did their Saracen enemies. It was a brutal age for everyone, Cross or Crescent.

They do the a similar thing with their more recent Suleimann series. In which they present him as this enlightened, wise figure. While glossing (to varying extents) over the fact that we was an aggressive expansionist conqueror, utilising slave child soldiers in his wars (the Janissaries) and murdered his children and advisors out of rampant paranoia, yet they're still trying for a sympathetic portrayal. Now was he a positive influence/"good" Sultan? In some ways yes, there's a reason he's remembered amongst the Turks for his legal reforms, not expansionist conquest. But he performed deeds similarly morally reprehensible by modern standards as the Crusaders, yet the EC crew aren't interested in telling that story.

Um, you really should watch the latest episode before you accuse them of 'glossing things over'. They address the whole paranoia aspect and its results.

Oh I did, and I stand by my previous comments. Despite the paranoia and filicide, they still present him as a sympathetic character. Especially with the framing device 'look at this poor, regretful old man', while still essentially overlooking the nature of the things he regrets, ie. killing his own children and not conquering enough new land for empire and Allah. Do you really think they'd be so charitable if a Crusader like Bohemond had killed is kids out of dynastic paranoia? No way, he's be presented as the devil incarnate.

 

[The Raw Shark]

Any dark fantasy that thinks dark fantasy means "Have there be lots of gore, swearing and rape, and shoehorn in racism any have everything be miserable and everyone's an asshole because we're SO DARK!". I think part of the reason I love Dark Souls so much is that it sidesteps those pits. I just couldn't get into the Witcher because I asked myself "If every single person died, would I care?" The answer I came up with was only for Siegfried. I loved him. You know why? Because he wasn't a miserable asshole, he was a decent person who wanted to do the right thing, and in a world where 95% of the people were assholes, I freaking adored him. You can write nice characters dark fantasy authors! From Software put Solaire of Astora in Dark Souls and that worked out wonderfully! People fucking love him!

This so much.
I can only mildly tolerate The Witcher's world mainly because of how you and your companions are usually just some carefree jackasses that get tasked with solving problems you really don't care about.

Otherwise these tropes are getting so overused it's tiring.

 

[FirstNameLastName]

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, specifically Vader becoming a mass child murderer. I knew things were going to be grim, but Christ that's fucked up. Even worse, this was the SECOND time he's personally sliced up kids (I refer you to the Tusken Raider camp in AotC).

Not only did it irrevocably destroy any possibility of Anakin being even a tiny bit likeable, but it also cast a pall over the far better portrayal of his character in the Clone Wars series and even his redemption in RotJ. They could have skirted around the whole issue by simply having Vader order his troops to "kill everyone" and leave it at that.[footnote]Or better yet, not have Jedi "younglings" in the first place. The very concept's messed up if you ask me; the Jedi Order essentially kidnaps toddlers and brainwashes them not to feel emotion. Who's supposed to be the bad guys again?[/footnote] But no, they had to have him personally cut children to pieces with a lightsaber. It's a big reason why I refuse to regard Episodes II and III as canon, official continuity be damned.

Does it reflect badly on me as a person if I find that scene funny? The prequels contained ridiculous scenes of juvenile comedy (seriously, fart and poop jokes in Star Wars, seriously) then all of a sudden they get all grim-dark and expect me to take it seriously when Anikin "I'll try spinning, that's a good trick" Skywalker with his frowny face and cliche monster eyes (what the hell is up with that?) murders a bunch of twerps off screen. Doesn't work for me. Not that I'm expecting or asking for it to be all serious and grim from the beginning, but the extreme childishness of much of the prequels doesn't provide effective juxtaposition, it just makes it funny when it suddenly tries to be serious. It's like trying to watch Shadow the Hedgehog and not laugh your arse off at the adorable edginess.

As for the subject matter itself, I don't really care if he kills children. He kills plenty of other people, and I don't see the murder of children as any worse than the murder of any other innocent person, no matter how many times people talk about how they can't defend themself (as it's any more noble to murder an someone who can).

 

[McElroy]

I have gone past the point of a single thing not being entertaining in one way or another, if it's in a work of art. Though I still enjoy (or draw enjoyment out of) lots of horrible real stuff that happens, I do draw a line or two.

 

[FirstNameLastName]

...

Here's one: Game of Thrones

I stopped reading the books for just this reason, it's just too relentlessly cruel and violent. Any time anything even remotely good happens to a character it just makes you feel dreadful because you just know it's building towards something far more terrible down the road. There's no hope, no optimism, it's pure unhappy angry and often foul people being angry and foul to each other.

If I want unending cruelty and unhappiness I can examine facets of real life, so no thank you to having that in my fantasy as well. There was just this point mid-way through one of the books where I realized I was just miserable reading it as it was making me feel sad, after realizing that I put the book down and have never touched it since. Haven't seen the show either. Why bother? I already know how it's going to end: Miserably.

It hit a low point for me when they did the rape of Sansa Stark and Theon was made to watch. I just got to the point of thinking "Jesus George, what's with all the rape?" - its like its the only way he knows to make his characters reprehensible.

...

To be fair, a lot of the rape in the show isn't there in the books, or is handled differently. The scene where Jamie rapes Cersei in the temple, next to the body of Joffery (seriously, what the fuck) wasn't in the book, nor was Sansa's rape (Sansa wasn't even at Winterfell during that storyline). For some reason they even depicted that scene of Daenerys and Drogo with weird, rapey undertones on the show.

While I have no problem with sex and violence, it really feels like they're using it for shock value. While the books did (I'm pretty sure) imply that Ramsay Bolton had done basically the same thing to Jeyne Poole (the person in the books who Ramsay weds at Winterfell), it seems to be handled with a bit more tact.

 

[Hades]

A similar complaint can be made at the Kingdom of Heaven. That movie just HATES the Christians. If a crusader isn't a time traveling atheist then he's going to be depicted as a terrible person who just can't wait to kill all Muslims and flaunts all the laws of god when not doing that. When the movie runs out of Templars to bully it just mutates a Bishop who offered to ransom himself for the common men into someone who wants to flee Jerusalem at the first sign of trouble and just abandon all the citizens to their fate.

You should really check out extra histories videos on the first crusade - one element of the Peoples Crusade couldn't wait to get to the holy land before killing people, so began slaughtering Jews along the way and looting their belongings.

I did watch that extra credit series. Kingdom of heaven takes place quite a long time after the first Crusade. Medieval times were awful times and at war everyone was awful. Both Christians and Muslims sacked citiesof their enemies that did not surrender in time and Saladin not doing so in Jeruzalem was the exception, and even that only because it got him for favorable terms.

I don't mind the Christians being depicted as the worse side, there are legit reasons for going that way but you can get that across without making them cartoon villains and making the Muslims so much better then them.