Let's talk about acting: television without pity

[Anyanka Bunny Slayer]

Obviously, many of us have spent countless hours watching different television shows and films that we love. Which makes us the perfect critics, naturally. 😛

(You'll remember that the Television Without Pity site closed in 2014. There's a revamped one now...yet, it doesn't appear to be fully operational at the moment)

There's a lot of good acting...and a lot that sucks. Believability vs "Are you kidding me?!" Such as:

1. Jared Padalecki as Sam Winchester in Supernatural:

After all these years, he still has roughly four facial expressions. He's a mediocre actor at best; if Jensen Ackles and Misha Collins weren't so extraordinarily talented, I think this show would've bitten the dust YEARS ago.

2. Rose McGowan as Paige Matthews in Charmed:

No! Just...stop. You have even FEWER facial expressions than Sam Winchester. If only Cole had killed you... *wistful sigh*

3. Almost everybody in True Blood and Once Upon A Time after season 2:

Basically, yeah...though Pam, Eric, and Rumpelstiltskin get a pass because they're freaking AWESOME!!

There's more, of course. But it's your turn now. 😎

 

[HowiMetdaSlayer]

A new TWoP? *goes to look...*

 

[Mylie]

Agreed about the OUAT cast... It amazes me how this show is still on the air and people are still watching it. Even the actress playing Regina isn't all that great, in my opinion, and the actors are definitely not good enough to save this show for being the ridiculous mess that it is.

Another show with very poor actors... Reign! But it got cancelled this year.

 

[Anyanka Bunny Slayer]

Agreed about the OUAT cast... It amazes me how this show is still on the air and people are still watching it. Even the actress playing Regina isn't all that great, in my opinion, and the actors are definitely not good enough to save this show for being the ridiculous mess that it is.

Another show with very poor actors... Reign! But it got cancelled this year.

Regina was far too over the top; she was like a really bad soap opera character.

I only stuck with the show for as long as I did because of Robert Carlyle. He's AMAZING. 😀

 

[Taake]

I might get crucified for these but...

Eliza Dushku as anyone other than Faith
Very pretty. One of the pretties celebrities ever in my opinion. But also... doesn't make a lot of expressions, doesn't have a lot of presence... she's amazing as Faith, but beyond that I've never seen her in anything that didn't make me think - oh that's a pretty girl reading lines rather awkwardly.
She's great at the physical stuff though, like fight scenes and what not. Stunt woman, a career to consider!

Charisma Carpenter
Another one who's great as one character... and not even that consistently.
Season 3-4 of Angel are cringeworthy whenever she's on screen. She can play Cordy literally one way (bitchy girl), when she had to try to stretch to be more sensitive Cordy and then evil Cordy, it was like watching a fish out of water, struggling for breath.
Two seasons of this would have been more merciful


David Boreanaz was terrible in season 1 but then got better as he went along, these ladies did the exact opposite in my opinion.

 

[GwenRaiden]

Eliza Dushku as anyone other than Faith
Very pretty. One of the pretties celebrities ever in my opinion. But also... doesn't make a lot of expressions, doesn't have a lot of presence... she's amazing as Faith, but beyond that I've never seen her in anything that didn't make me think - oh that's a pretty girl reading lines rather awkwardly.
She's great at the physical stuff though, like fight scenes and what not. Stunt woman, a career to consider!

Couldn't agree more. I love her as Faith, but that's as far as her range goes tbh. Dollhouse was pretty cringe at points because of it. Like, I'd totally shag Faith, then kill her for being Eliza Dushku. In that order.

Emilia Clarke as Daenerys on Game of Thrones is also pretty unwatchable. She has the same three expressions in every scene, and she's garbage at all of them. I'd say she's gotten worse as the show has went on. Which is actually pretty impressive.

 

[Athena]

Have to agree with Eliza, not because I hate her (although obviously I wish I looked remotely like her - she's a frickin' goddess!) but apart from Faith I've never been that impressed with her skills. I felt that other people in Dollhouse wiped the floor with her acting-wise and to be honest I've not seen Tru Calling or anything else with her in.

David Boreanaz was awful in BtVS S1, but he did get better (god-awful Irish accent aside)

James Van Der Beek in Dawson's Creek. He's the main, and eponymous character, and yet he's pretty terrible compared to the rest of the cast. I'm actually glad Joey ended up with Pacey!

Ted from How I Met Your Mother - again, main character - he married the mother, but everyone else on the cast is so much better than he is! And don't even get me started on the "it was Robin all along" balony!

Any child actor - if the lead character has a small child, they're almost always terrible. Examples include the kid from The Walking Dead and the kid from The Strain. Seriously, just kill them. Put them out of their (and our) misery. 😛

 

[Blaze]

Any child actor - if the lead character has a small child, they're almost always terrible. Examples include the kid from The Walking Dead and the kid from The Strain. Seriously, just kill them. Put them out of their (and our) misery. 😛

This! So often child actors just plainly suck! There are some exceptions, like the kids from Stranger Things, but overall child actor usually = bad.

 

[Athena]

This! So often child actors just plainly suck! There are some exceptions, like the kids from Stranger Things, but overall child actor usually = bad.

I was racking my brains thinking of good examples of child actors! Yes, the Stranger Things kids are brilliant, but they're definitely the exception! 99% of child actors suck. 😀

 

[Bop]

I never liked Kristen Stewart's acting, particularly in Twilight it seemed too dramatic 😎

I'd never call Eliza a bad actor because how could a bad actor have given me Faith, who is my all time favourite character ever.
But I agree that in certain roles, Eliza showed the bad side of her acting talents, I think she honestly made some bad choices in the roles she took, but I'll always be thankful to her for playing Faith. Faith wouldn't have been the same without her. 😀

 

[Puppet]

I never liked Kristen Stewart's acting, particularly in Twilight it seemed too dramatic 😎

I find that I enjoy her more as a child actor. It's as if becoming an adult took away her talent...super with the weird.
 
@Athene she played Jodi Foster's daughter in Panic Room, a decent movie with great acting. I mostly remember Stewart fondly from that.

 

[Bop]

@Athene she played Jodi Foster's daughter in Panic Room, a decent movie with great acting. I mostly remember Stewart fondly from that.

I've heard of that movie, I'll watch it if I ever come across it 🙂

 

[DeadlyDuo]

Regina was far too over the top; she was like a really bad soap opera character.

I only stuck with the show for as long as I did because of Robert Carlyle. He's AMAZING. 😀

Same here. I reckon Season 7 will be the last. It was only the die hard fans that were still watching Season 6 and even some of them have gone "that's the end for me". New viewers won't tune in for Season 7 if they've not seen the previous seasons so ratings will be low. OUAT needs to end.

Ted from How I Met Your Mother - again, main character - he married the mother, but everyone else on the cast is so much better than he is! And don't even get me started on the "it was Robin all along" balony!

The alternate ending is much better and should've been the one they used. It cut out the Robin crap and literally ended with the line "And kids, that's how I met your mother!"

Any child actor - if the lead character has a small child, they're almost always terrible. Examples include the kid from The Walking Dead and the kid from The Strain. Seriously, just kill them. Put them out of their (and our) misery. 😛

There are some good child actors out there but when you get a bad one, it can ruin the whole thing.

 

[Ethan Reigns]

Alyson Hannigan was 11 when she did "Impure Thoughts" and was 14 when she did "Your Stepmother Is an Alien" and she was good in that. Seth Green started acting when he was 10 years old. Sarah Michelle Gellar was 6 when she did "An Invasion of Privacy". The favourite child actress in US history was Shirley Temple who started acting when she was 4.

The biggest problem with child actors is bad writing that does not sound like a child. That can be added to repeating a sentence twice. It worked for "The Russians are Coming. The Russians are Coming" but nowhere else. And bad direction that does not allow for a child's understanding. But I would agree with others who have said that a bad child actor drags everything down.

 

[Fuffy Baith]

Its funny because I've heard fans say that Jared Padelecki was terrible on Gilmore Girls but is better on Supernatural. Lol.

to be honest I've not seen Tru Calling or anything else with her in

While I do like Tru Calling, it's not because of Eliza's acting. I think she's good in Bring It On, Wrong Turn, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and is the only good part about Soul Survivors but those roles were basically a variation of Faith. I did think she was good in Jane Wants A Boyfriend. I also think she would do better at comedies cause she's really funny.

Same here. I reckon Season 7 will be the last. It was only the die hard fans that were still watching Season 6 and even some of them have gone "that's the end for me". New viewers won't tune in for Season 7 if they've not seen the previous seasons so ratings will be low. OUAT needs to end.

Yea I gave up in season 6. I won't be watching season 7 until it goes on Netflix. Lol. The show had been going downhill since season 4, but then it just fell off a cliff. And no the acting is not great outside of Robert Carlyle. Which is a shame because I've seen some of them be better in other things. But their characters are so one note.

 

[RomanticSoul]

Awww TWoP, how I miss thee. Best recaps ever, and I do miss Spike and his twin Brad. *snickers*

I was racking my brains thinking of good examples of child actors! Yes, the Stranger Things kids are brilliant, but they're definitely the exception! 99% of child actors suck. 😀

The kid in Looper was freaking amazing.

 

[Anyanka Bunny Slayer]

Its funny because I've heard fans say that Jared Padelecki was terrible on Gilmore Girls but is better on Supernatural.

I'll say this as delicately as I can; the majority of hardcore Supernatural fans are utterly and completely mental. Especially the American ones. 😛

 

[Living Dead Boy]

I also might be crucified for saying this, but I've always had some gripes with our main girl, Sarah Michelle Gellar. I think many fans tend not to criticize her because she's the main character, but yet here's the thing. I believe Sarah has definitely evolved over the course of seven seasons as an actress. I find some of her performances, especially in seasons 2, 5 and 6, to be truly affecting. Yet, there's also been times where I felt like she phoned in her performance, or sometimes it felt pretty forced.

I believe that SMG peaked with Buffy, and I think a large part of that has to do with Joss Whedon's writing abilities, and the fact that Sarah is so much like the character of Buffy. Outside of Buffy, all I saw was SMG "acting" her part, rather than embodying her role or transforming herself into a different character. Don't get me wrong, when it comes to professionalism and knowing her lines down to a science, Sarah's that girl, and I'm not in any way saying she's a horrible actress. I just feel like she has the same line delivery and same facial expressions outside of the series. Then there's the voice. Maybe it's an acquired taste, but she has a very high pitched, nasal sound that works sometimes, and other times it can be a little hard listening to her. (In the same way that the Smashing Pumpkins are one of my favorite bands, yet Billy Corgan's voice can only be listened to in small doses.) I always see Buffy whenever she does another role. Yet, her character has been such an influence in my life that it's honestly a little difficult critiquing her acting abilities. I believe she needs more nuance, more depth. Sure, she won an Emmy award, but it was for a soap opera. Soap operas require you to know your lines perfectly, yet it also requires forced and over the top emotion, which is how Sarah first got schooled in the world of acting. So she's always be a favorite of mine for Buffy alone, that doesn't mean she's the greatest actor I've seen. The same can be said about Eliza, Charisma, maybe even Alyson. They play their particular brand of characters perfectly, and that's not a bad thing at all. 🙂

 

[Taake]

The same can be said about Eliza, Charisma, maybe even Alyson. They play their particular brand of characters perfectly, and that's not a bad thing at all. 🙂

I more or less agree with what you said (but I would firmly put Alyson on that list really, I've mentioned my feelings on her acting post-Buffy before but it always gets me in a heap of trouble). And it's why I think they should embrace their brand and stop being afraid of getting typecast. Work is work, not everyone can be Meryl Streep, there's no shame in that. Look at David Boreanaz, he's no Al Pacino, but he's been on tv for like two decades straight, that's not a bad feat.

 

[Athena]

We need to talk about Keanu. 😛

I love the man, but he's not the most incredible actor on the planet. Still, his body of work is pretty great (and his body of work, if you know what I mean 😉) I just listened to a podcast about Speed, and I remember how much I loved that movie (and apparently Joss rewrote like 90% of it! I didn't know that!)

I think most jobbing actors would kill to have the (let's be honest) limited range and ability of Keanu Reeves, but still be as popular, loved and respected as he is. He's apparently a very nice man in real life too.

And still so damn hot. 😀