What do you find overrated?

Lisa the Goatgirl

She's less of an enigma now
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#1
Forgive the story, but i wanted to give the context that led to this question, since it was a fun little story for me. If you want to skip to the question, just jump to the last 2 paragraphs.
TL;DR Have you ever experienced a film, book, tv show, artwork, etc, that everyone tells you is amazing, but you thought it didn't really manage to live up to the hype?

There's a game called Pathologic i'd been considering buying for a while, then this Youtuber i really like made a video called "Pathologic is Genius", so that gave me the push that made me decide to buy it, then play it myself before watching that video.

Well, i gave the game a go, and good lord i found it arduous. The movement was slow, the dialogue was baffling, the mechanics seemed nightmarish. Overall it was just an irritating mess. And i kept trying to play it, playing for up to an hour at a time, and giving up again. So i'd been worrying for the last couple of weeks that i just had an awful attention span or zero taste or something. I really did start to feel like i was just being apocalyptically dense in not being able to get my head around the game or what anyone within it was saying. So today i decided to give up and watch the video to see why he loved this game so much.

And he literally confirmed that all of the things i hated were in fact problems as well as that the game was a genuinely unpleasant experience. He actually went so far as to say "Most people can't even make it through the first day, and i honestly cannot blame them. I can't even really recommend people go try it. So i made this video so that people can enjoy the purpose of the game without having to actually play it." Ultimately he concluded that the purpose of the game is literally to make players feel disempowered, and to beat them into submission to the point they quit the game. I'm paraphrasing a bit, but yeah, that was actually kind of a relief to hear tbh. Glad i'm not just being uncultured.

But this led me to wondering a question: What pieces of media have my fellow SFers heard people going on about like it was the best thing since sliced bread, only to try it and feel kinda let down? Is there anything that you would say gets way more praise than it deserves? What in particular about this media would you say ruins the experience for you, or is it just a general gripe?

All comments and opinions are welcome here, i just ask that nobody respond too negatively or judgmentally to any of the replies, i want this to be a thread where people can feel free to voice their dissenting opinions, regardless of what the subject of their opinion is.
 
Last edited:

Walker

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#2
TL;DR Have you ever experienced something that everyone tells you is amazing, but you thought it didn't really manage to live up to the hype?
My first thought here was... never mind.. let's go to step 2...

What pieces of media have my fellow SFers heard people going on about like it was the best thing since sliced bread, only to try it and feel kinda let down?
(italics mine)
Media! Oh, we're talking about media here. Okay okay. No, I don't have an answer for this at all. lol
 

Lisa the Goatgirl

She's less of an enigma now
Staff Alumni
SF Supporter
#3
My first thought here was... never mind.. let's go to step 2...

(italics mine)
Media! Oh, we're talking about media here. Okay okay. No, I don't have an answer for this at all. lol
TL;DR Have you ever experienced a film, book, tv show, artwork, etc, that everyone tells you is amazing, but you thought it didn't really manage to live up to the hype?
There, better? :D
 

C4RL4

Well-Known Member
#6
Oof, I'm sure I had one of those once, but I'm not really sure now, because normally I just look for something when I'm almost certain I'm gonna like it, but I did try some things with low expectations and finding them surprisingly good.

Oh, now I remember, I read this manga called Oyasumi Punpun, for the good reviews it had everywhere, I have no doubt it must be great, but that surreal genre is just not of my taste and that ruined it for me, so yeah, when something is just not of your liking it would never be, no matter how hard you try.
 

britishbloke

Staff Alumni
SF Supporter
#11
most of them *rofl
so many films I hear being hyped about, I watch them, and I'm like what... *confused what was all the fuss about! I'm trying to think of some examples, annihilation, IT, black swan, a quiet place, gravity..... but then there's films people said are rubbish that I thought there better *rofl*dunno2
I saw IT 2 in the cinema... Now usually if a film is good, I'll be able to stand not going for a cigarette. I went for a cigarette half way through *rofl
 

britishbloke

Staff Alumni
SF Supporter
#13
tbf that was a lonnnnngg film too *rofl
I preferred the sequel to the first one, but people make out these films are mind-blowing and I don't get it *rofl
Sometimes people just blindly follow what critics rate as a good film... Same goes with music really, I've listened to some right shit just from when you see what people put in their top albums of the year lists too.. :D I like to have my own opinion on things bud *rofl
 
#14
Sometimes people just blindly follow what critics rate as a good film... Same goes with music really, I've listened to some right shit just from when you see what people put in their top albums of the year lists too.. :D I like to have my own opinion on things bud *rofl
It made me laugh, me and my dad watched Gravity at his house, we both enjoy sci-fi, and cause all the reviews were like 5 STARS PANTS DROPPING MIND BLOWING NEVER BREATHE THE SAME AGAIN LIFE CHANGED AMAZING ART THROW YOURSELF INTO THE TRASH THIS IS ALL YOU NEED IN LIFE we were looking forward to it. When the end credits came on me and my dad both turned to each other with a blank face and said "was that it?" *hysterical*hysterical
 

MisterBGone

SF Supporter
#16
Hmmm 🤔 @lost_in_a_fairytale ! How could you not have liked Black Swan?! ; ) Shall I dance 💃 it for you. . & don’t think I won’t—whether or not I can, is another matter: I always thought 💭 that they were making a documentary about me. That Mr Aronofsky (the directory) had somehow inhabited my mind , in the middle of the night, on the River of Dreams (accompanied of course by one Bully Joel!) ; or that he stumbled onto my notepad in the library at NYU (where the seeds of this script took root). . : ) merrily merrily merrily merrily : Life! is but a_.( ;
 

Auri

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#18
Disney movies (and songs!) in general. Frozen comes to mind, I saw it later than everyone and was very hyped, but I don't see anything special about it.
I agree on Black Swan, but I couldn't finish it so I cannot fully judge. :p
The Notebook, although I was not impressed either, I can see why it's adored.

Jane Austen books.
Rupi Kaur - Milk and Honey, which keeps showing up first in the bestselling poetry books. I'm sorry, it's bad, not even decent.

Stranger Things, Peaky Blinders, Westworld, although I don't think any of them are bad, but overrated imo. I love SF, btw, so perhaps I'm too harsh with those, Idk.
 
#19
Hmmm 🤔 @lost_in_a_fairytale ! How could you not have liked Black Swan?! ; ) Shall I dance 💃 it for you. . & don’t think I won’t—whether or not I can, is another matter: I always thought 💭 that they were making a documentary about me. That Mr Aronofsky (the directory) had somehow inhabited my mind , in the middle of the night, on the River of Dreams (accompanied of course by one Bully Joel!) ; or that he stumbled onto my notepad in the library at NYU (where the seeds of this script took root). . : ) merrily merrily merrily merrily : Life! is but a_.( ;
haha it just seemed so boring and too samey! like the whole thing being mostly set in the dance studio, barely anything happened, just dance lessons and some tense moments, I felt like there was no proper plot, idk.... it worked at being kinda creepy but it felt dull to me! I guess it's more of a -appreciate the tone and filmy art- kinda film
 

Lisa the Goatgirl

She's less of an enigma now
Staff Alumni
SF Supporter
#20
I'm really pleased to see people engaging with this thread, i had hoped it would spark some interesting conversation, and i've got to say, i find myself agreeing with quite a few of the titles mentioned here. *grouphug2

Anyway, i'll give a few of my own here too now, if that's all right. :)
  • Game of Thrones.
  • The Walking Dead.
  • The Avengers.
  • Musicals in general - i really don't get how people stay immersed with all of the characters bursting into song every 5 minutes.
  • The Truman Show - don't get me wrong, it's a great film, but people have become obsessed with this movie like it's some grand cultural landmark.
  • Star Wars - again, a great set of films (the original three at least). I really do love me some Star Wars at times. I even acknowledge that those are landmark films. But by now our culture is so saturated with Star Wars movies, shows, games, books, posters, costumes, etc. It's absolutely everywhere. Every time one of the latest three films would come out, the entire internet would be full of people yelling at each other about the "integrity of Star Wars", for months. And if anyone ever says they never watched any of the movies, people respond like that person just said they've never drunk water.
 

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