MovieChat Forums > Thirtysomething (1987) Discussion > How can anyone stand this drivel?

How can anyone stand this drivel?

posted 15 years ago by aciolino
12 replies | jump to latest

What is it? Drugs? Alchohol? What allows someone to actually sit through an episode of "ThirtySomething"? It was unwatchable in the '80's--now it is postively toxic.

Notice the same people who LUV this dreck just LUV that other piece of pretentious tripe, "The Big Chill," winner of the all-time movie for the SELF-ABSORBED.

Vapid, contrived, and childish. Three words that are harsh but do not do justice to the offensively poor quality of this "show," and I use the term loosely.

Blecch.

[–] silvertron 15 years ago

Actually, the truth is anybody who says they like the show is lying. In fact, anyone who claims to like anything you don't is lying as well. They're just trying to annoy you and mess with your head!

[–] josephinemuscat 15 years ago

Oh please just shut up.
I am so sick of people, I'm assuming mostly men, cracking on this show. This show gave me permission to be a stay at home mother if I wanted. It helped to make it acceptable once again without betraying some feminist ideal of doing it all. Some of us didn't want to do it all, or at least do it all at once. This show started to swing the pendulum back to the middle where women actually had a choice of what and who they wanted to be and not to just succumb to the pressure of having a career.

A book was written accusing the character of Hope (the stay at home mother) of creating a "backlash" in feminism. Ridiculous. Women want to make their own choice for themselves, not to be dictated by men or feminist extremists. Thirty Something helped women be comfortable with dropping out of the rat race for a while to raise their own children if they wanted, by showing what Hope went through and how she handled it.

[–] jtj909 15 years ago

as a woman, Im not surprised you liked the show... all the men were weak punching bags for the women who emotionally abused them. If a man treated a woman the way Elliot, in particular, was treated, she'd be able to kill him in his sleep and get away with, like Mary Winkler did with her husband.

as for getting "permission to be a stay at home mom" did you thank your husband for that opportunity? I bet he had to work a lot of overtime, and sacrafise time away from his kids, to allow for that.

funny, you never hear about men being able to make the "choice" to work or not to work ... we have no choice. So, you want to talk about sexism and feminism now?

[–] josephinemuscat 15 years ago

I don't need to get permission from husband, because we are team and work together. We BOTH thought that our children should be looked after by one of us, it just so happened that because I had supported him while he was in college and then again while he was getting his career underway he felt it was better and fair that I be the one to stay with them. It was my friends, my female friends that gave me grief about it. "I was educated, intelligent and worked for a great company etc, I'm not supposed to want to raise my own kids. That is what daycare is for" they told me in one form another. They made me feel left behind, and I think I made them feel uncomfortable. It never occured to them that my husband and I had children so we could raise them, not someone we paid. We sold one of our vehicles, and I took on 2 additional children of friends in order assist with paying the bills. It wasn't until I saw the very first episode of thirtysomething that I felt like I wasn't alone, and that some writer on tv saw this as a real issue.

As for the men on this program being punching bags, I think that they most of the time acted like little boys. Elliot, for which you seem to have great empathy for, cheated on his wife, abused her emotionally for not being as available to him anymore and then promptly left her. It wasn't until he almost died in an airplane crash that he took some stock in his life and wanted to go back to her. When Nancy got cancer, he finally grew up and I actually started to think he was a pretty cool guy. But ya I see what you mean poor Eliott.

[–] archer1267 15 years ago

I'm a woman and find Hope's ongoing kvetching about Michael and work really irritating, to the point where I agree with the other poster. As part of making choices, you have to accept the trade-offs. And if you even HAVE choices, to begin with, you're in a much better choice than many other people.

I got tired pretty quickly of Hope whining about being a stay-at-home mom. It's good that she found a way to become more fulfilled professionally, since that's what she wanted. But as long as someone's a primary or sole breadwinner, there are times when work has to come first. That's just the way it is. Hope had no problem with Michael's job when his pay doubled, but he has to field work-related calls at home and he's ignoring her, she doesn't "know who he is anymore," to the point where she thinks about having an affair?

I'm married to someone who was a dot.com casualty and spent years (literally) being in jobs I didn't like, just to maintain a certain level of income while my husband was out of work. You do what you have to do, you suck it up and deal. I would have loved to be in Hope's position, of being able to be a SAHM while my husband worked, and to take assignments when I want and to work from home. It's really hard to empathize with her, when she has choices most women would love to have.

[–] sawyertom 15 years ago

Quite frankly I thought the guys were wussies and the the women whiney.

[–] Louisifer 14 years ago

Quite frankly I thought the guys were wussies and the the women whiney.

This show was truly ahead of it's time then.

Try not to take life too seriously, no one gets out alive.

[–] jejozi 13 years ago

Men have a choice, too; we can work or we can work.

This will be the high point of my day; it's all downhill from here.

[–] sugarandcheese 13 years ago

I'll admit, I did not miss an episode when this first came out on TV. I loved it. Fast forward to now and re-watching it on DVD. Umm, why did I like it?
I actually cringed at some of it. Hope is so whiny and bitchy about little things. I mean, she has a great life, a good husband...what was to cry about?

It was the "me" decade, after all. Self-absorbed, whiny yuppies.

Another thing...the clothes were horrible. Sneakers with business attire? And why were any of the men on this show considered a sex symbol?
I guess I thought "Michael" was cute back then, but, none of it has stood the test of time.

[–] etodd-4 11 years ago

I am making no apologies! I STLL LOVE this show. Good writing about people examining themselves. At least they are living mindfully about their lives.

[–] Xerces88 13 years ago

Brilliant show. Seems like you guys have a problem with character-driven television.

[–] admin-339 13 years ago

I just got the S1 DVD at Dollartree. The writing holds up. But Michael and Hope represent everything bad about the Baby Boom Generation of which I am a member. They're combined sense of entitlement was/is irritating. And Mel Harris can't act (which is why we don't see her anymore, I suppose).