Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in TWoP Criticism and Commentary's LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, June 25th, 2008
12:52 pm [isaiddietpepsi]	Gosselins Without Pity Anybody else familiar with the Jon & Kate Plus 8 thread? Somehow it evoked a lot of passion and anger from some TWOP posters, and was shut down temporarily a million times. Finally, the mods got fed up and shut it permanently. Which led to some bitching in this thread. A sample comment: I just wanted to voice my opinion on the closing of the Jon & Kate Plus 8 thread and then I'll shut up about it from now on. IMO closing it down forever you're letting the fans of Jon and Kate win. How do you know they weren't the ones trying to get the thread shut down cause they hated the constant bashing of them? I keep picturing in my head those people jumping up and down with glee about that. I know that the mods are infamous for being heavyhanded on TWOP, but I don't know if the permanent shutdown of the Jon & Kate thread is an example of this. The people who come out really looking crazy are the other posters. Maybe I'm biased, because I've never watched the show (well…one episode) and can't understand the outrage the Gosselins inspire -- several posters keep talking about contacting CPS to take away the children. If you miss your fill of Jon & Kate -- never fear! Gosselins Without Pity is here! (a blog started by the same TWOPers.) (219 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 24th, 2008
10:47 pm [alwaysday]	Call The Waaaambulance, I Have A Boo-Boo. I've been a member of TWOP since 2004. I tend to agree with the rules and have never had a problem with the way things have been handled. I've never really posted in the super-active threads that are always being shut down. I stay on topic. I type in English. I stay away from 'boards on boards' and the word 'um' even though some posters are ridiculously stupid. I like reading the commentary on episodes and discussion of characters and motives. I've noticed since the Bravo acquisition that the general level of discussion in the threads I read have started dipping from 'interesting and academic' (or at least as academic as discussion of television gets) to 'fans squealing or complaining loudly'. They also started sneaking ads past my Adblocker Plus which drives me crazy. And the new site design is crazy ugly. But I just figured, well, a dip doesn't mean a downward spiral, you know? Lately, I keep having my posts deleted by a particular mod. The one thread in particular is about a certain super-huge ultra-religious television family. So you would think that, as the family is religious and discusses their religion, it would be cool to discuss their religion. Not religion in general, since that would be off-topic, but this particular family's religion and how it affects the children. Apparently, a post about how they are religion X and forbid A, B, and C which will likely cause psychological issues for the children is not allowed. It's about an issue that is discussed ON THE SHOW and therefore is ABOUT THE SHOW, right? A post about how they are religion X and believe in "traditional" gender roles and do not allow women to pursue education is not allowed and what that will mean for the daughters in the family: not allowed. Never mind that it's discussed on the show, therefore posts about the issue are about the show, therefore not breaking any rules. Rules. I guess they make 'em and break 'em as they go. I know, I know, I should get some cheese for my whine, blah blah, the Internet isn't serious business. But it's incredibly annoying to completely support the rules and to follow the rules and still have your posts deleted indiscriminately. So I guess I'm done with TWOP. I'm packing up my toys and going home! (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, March 17th, 2008
6:44 pm [deeablo]	Linda has left the building Thanks to an anonymouse who pointed me to the last page of the most recent Survivor recap. And with that (only partly because I cannot go on without Jonathan), the time has come for me to say goodbye to TWoP after almost seven life-altering years. To say it's been a blast would be a preposterous understatement, but when it comes to making life decisions, I defer to Kenny Rogers as far as holding 'em and folding 'em (unless we are talking about folding your face via plastic surgery, in which case, respectfully, I believe I will keep my own counsel). With that in mind, I've decided that it's time to move on and do some new things. While I'll miss all of you terribly, I'm excited about everything I hope will come next. You can find me at my new digs here, if you like, or drop me a note and keep in touch. Be good to Sara M, in whose brilliantly funny hands I leave both all of you and all the turkeys on this show. Thank you all, more than I can say, for everything. From her new blog: I guess I should say something about…you know, quitting my job. Which I did. My last day is Thursday, March 20, so if you hang out over there, you’ll see me kicking around until then. It’s not so much that I have much to say about quitting my job, but for people who have wondered what’s next: writing is next. Lots and lots and lots of writing, and lots of trying different projects to see what I want to do and what works out. Unfortunately, one of the things that happens when you leave a unique job is that you have to figure out what comes after it, and you kind of have to be free to work on projects at different places to see where you should settle. Oddly, I’m not worried about myself. I have choices; I won’t be a bag lady. I wouldn’t have decided to leave if I didn’t think it would work out fine. In truth, I have been attached to this one project for such a long time now, and it has been so consuming in some ways both creatively and socially, that I’m really looking forward to just trying out other things. There are lots of kinds of writers, and I will wind up as one of them. Until then, I will, I hope, be writing all over the place and seeing what’s out there. Writing is…I used to not understand about people who said that musicians or writers played music or wrote because they couldn’t not do it, but that’s sort of how I feel about myself now. Something will work out, because this is me now, and forward is the only direction to go in. The thing that I’m taking away from TWoP that means the most to me is all the people that I met and worked with, and fortunately, I get to keep them. Dinner with Tara soon, Sarah’s birthday, movies with Joe…and that’s not even counting the fact that many of my closest friends came to me through this job, because they’re writers, or they were readers, or they wrote me emails that said, “I love your writing, but you don’t know the difference between ‘comprised’ and ‘composed.’” I used to take pictures. I used to write fiction sometimes and screw around with writing a novel. I used to write about movies, I used to think about lots and lots of things. Don’t get me wrong — I love writing about TV, too, and there’s every possibility I’ll keep doing that. But I like that it’s open at the moment. As one of my friends often says, “Come on, something! Happen!” Thoughts? (11 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, March 10th, 2008
9:08 pm [deeablo]	"I could care less [sic!] about the forums, it was always about the writing and editing for me." There's another post at Gawker about The Big Three leaving TWOP. (The initial post is here if any of you missed it.) Some of the new comments: What everyone said about it just getting too big is right. Unless you read the small threads for less popular shows, it just got to be too much. You couldn't keep track of the threads and with the byzantine rules, it just got to be too much hassle to keep up with. There's always been a lengthy list of rules commenters are not to break on TWoP (formerly Mighty Big TV -- nice reference to that, Richard), and the creators are to blame for that. It's all about Survivor Sucks anyway. The TWoP people are total Nazis. They don't like snark and you can't talk about David Archuleta's penis in disparaging terms. Is his name Jacob? Jacob is the guy I was talking about. He kills all the fun. But now the site is too hard to keep up with. I don't even look at the recaps, unless I've missed an episode (the quality of recaps has declined in a particularly noticeable way since they started including sitcoms, which the original TWOP avoided recapping). And the major show forums are just too much. I do spend time in "other shows," because the discussions are more manageable and retain more of the community feel--but in general I have more and more trouble maintaining my interest in TWOP. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, March 6th, 2008
1:17 pm [jrs1980]	Smell ya later! Special icon just for deeablo. So TWOP was bought by Bravo on March 13, 2007. A Tuesday. The deal was announced the next day. This Tuesday, March 11th, the founders will be leaving TWOP. ( Post text. ) Is it a conspiracy? Were they pushed out? Was it muuuurder??? Okay, it probably wasn't murder. EDIT 3/8/08: The TWOP forum accounts of Sars, Glark, and WC have been purged. Current Mood: Caffeinated (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, November 1st, 2007
7:05 pm [deeablo]	I would make some sort of T-WOP joke here, but.. Found via starkeymonster. This week's Supernatural recap features the following gem: The just-appearing slimeball of a patron Dean instantly recognizes as "Richie" from Brooklyn, of course, and a bigger, more stereotypical goombah you're not likely to see on this show, mainly because Supernatural 's supposed to be about terrorized Middle-American white trash, not greasy-haired, chain-wearing, beater-clad dagos from Bensonhurst, which is what we're getting with Richie, here. In any case, after Richie The Wop dispatches the fake-tittied hooker with whom he'd been spending the last four minutes or so, Dean invites him into the boys' room to reminisce. Seems El Deano and The Wop first met up battling a succubus in Canarsie while Darling Sammy was still in school somewhere doing Our Town, and because Richie The Wop is FUCKING UNBEARABLE . . . Demian continues to repeat these slurs for several pages. ( In this case, WOP doesn't stand for 'WithOut Pity.'  ) winterlive is not amused. She writes Sarah an e-mail. If you hadn't been notified, Demian's latest recap of Supernatural repeatedly uses the words "wop" and "dago" to refer to one of the guest characters. There's a certain degree to which criticism of the character's portrayal can be read into it, but the context certainly doesn't support all the instances of Demian using offensive ethnic slurs. You're an NBC-owned company - I would strongly suggest you look into this matter as soon as possible. Sarah's reply? The terms were used ironically, in order to point up the extremely stereotypical nature of the character -- Demian was drawing attention to negative stereotyping, not perpetrating it. Please reread the recap. winterlive: Again, there is a degree to which that context applies, but even read at that angle it reads more as excuse to say "Richie the Wop" a dozen times than actual social commentary. I understand what Demian was going for, but he's not a good enough writer to pull it off. If you'd kindly add this to your surely-increasing pile of angry emails on this topic, that'd be super. Sarah: Okay then. Good to know that their people skills remain the same even after getting bought out by the very evil they were "above." Others who are unamused include musesfool, liz-marcs, coffeeandink, and the aforementioned starkeymonster . (11 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 8th, 2007
7:24 pm [vidalizer]	article on twop Did you know you're a drone? I didn't know I was drone. http://backofthebook.ca/media/2007/09/televisionwithoutanoffbutton.html "Televisionwithoutpity.com is like a gathering of medieval theology students (the less-bright ones) cantilevered in the 21st-century and discussing, not how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, but what the shooting of Santos at the end of last season portends for the upcoming season of "Ugly Betty." The article has some good things to say about the decline of the boards, though. (12 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, September 29th, 2007
1:39 am [grapefruitzzz]	Biaswatch! As you know, TWoP is now owned by Bravo, who are owned by NBC... keep an eye out for any excessive kindness towards NBC shows ;) That yellow strip across the top of all the pages looks silly and the site doesn't scale properly for larger screen resolutions. Worst of all - they got rid of the cute little pictures at the top of pages! Recapping is srs bzness now, it seems. I quite like the idea of recapping sitcoms, but seems a bit pointless with reality tv. (23 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, September 14th, 2007
10:27 pm [grapefruitzzz]	some blather Why are there now recaps for old episodes of "The Office" but they felt "Doctor Who" was being watched out of sequence and consequently not worth it? And also, it's a personal complaint but I can't really make it over There so here it goes. I like the "Motivations" thread (here) and flick through it while other tabs are loading, but it's entirely too full of 'Supernatural' and 'Heroes'. If I see another picture of Sylar or the tossing Wincest Brothers anywhere ever again I will go axe-happy. They are not awse. Maybe it's annoying because there are hardly any decent Fun threads around and it bugs me to see one of them turned into a Jensen Ackles fanclub. (nb: this is naturally OT and for my Own Blog but eh, I'm all hopped up on ice-cream and also Your Mod, maybe have an Any Opinions On Anything On TV Or TV Blogging week?) (13 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 4th, 2007
10:22 pm [jrs1980]	Classy interview, woo! Mr. Stupidhead (whom I best know as "Sars' brother") landed a phone interview with Dexter's Julie Benz. Starting out the interview: Mr. S: Also, congratulations on your Golden Satellite Award. That's pretty exciting. Benz: Oh, thank you! Mr. S: I'm sorry I didn't get to congratulate you until now, but you know...maybe if you returned some of my messages... Benz: Yeah, my number changed. Mr. S: Yeah, okay. Whatever. Which, personally, is when I'd consider hanging up. Then, to wrap up the interview: Mr. S: And also, you know you don't have to commit to anything right now, but I'm in a band, and the guyz[sic] wanted to know if you'd be in one of our videos. I'm just floating that out there, obviously I'm sort of partially kidding, but, uh...yeah. You don't have to answer right now, I totally understand if you need time to think about it. Benz: ...Yeah...sounds cool! I think we all know what kind of "videos" he's referring to, no? I also like the part where he's asking her about plot points in Darkly Dreaming Dexter instead of having read it himself because "I've got about five other things I need to read first." It's...not really that long of a read, about 300 pages. Or listen to the audiobook. Or get Sars to read it to you. Or for you, and give you the highlights, since it's for work and all. It's a bummer, because I've really been enjoying his Dexter recaps, and liked his SevHev recaps well enough. Current Mood: Amazed (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, July 27th, 2007
9:31 am [j_crew_guy]	Say hello to the new mods, same as the old mods. Yes, Jacob has outed himself as TWoP Bayliss. This is Moderator Bayliss officially saying hello. You may recognize me as Jacob. Anyhow, I'm the mod for this section and a few others. Keep up the good work! A poster says they're confused by this and Jacob replies I do apologize for the confusion -- contractual stuff makes me itchy. ...I don't get it. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, July 19th, 2007
11:15 am [j_crew_guy]	Posters promoted to mods? Apparently TPTB at TWoP have promoted a few posters to mods. Which... WTF? A search done by sloo over at Snarkfest found: TWoP Barnes TWoP Bayliss TWoP Mod 7 TWoP Sun TWoP Nikita TWoP Pembleton TWoP Mars And already TWoP Barnes is throwing her power around in the Supernatural forums. According to Actonbell at SF: She just seems a wee bit too overinvested in the show -- she's made a ton of posts already, and has come up with some rather arbitrary rules (such as the "No boards on boards" also applying to other websites -- so if there's speculation on the reliability of a certain spoiler site it would be a warnable/bannable offense). TWOP does not need another powertripping gasbag like Miss Alli. I never thought I'd see the day when TWoP actually promoted a bunch of posters to mods. Did TPTB run out of friends to turn into mods or something? (50 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, July 9th, 2007
8:15 pm [deeablo]	"I am truly horrified by that show. Personally, I think it's a failure on every level." Hello, strangers. Is this thing on? So in a Mondo extra, TWoP once again goes to the djb well to supply "new" content. (Nevermind that they interviewed him last year about his reality television experiences.) The front page trumpets: "The first piece in TWoP's 'Ask A...' series features reality-TV producer (and recapper emeritus) Djb talking to Sars about manipulated footage, audience perceptions, and challenges faced in the editing bay." Join the convo already in progress; we're talking about a currently-airing reality program that isn't working for us… DJB: "Well, that was weird/boring/nonsensical/confusing" is not a good review for someone with my job. SARS: That is the review I would give [Anonymous Show], but I don't think I'm the majority opinion on that. I am truly horrified by that show. Personally, I think it's a failure on every level. They couldn't get the footage they wanted because of an uncooperative star, and then they failed to turn it into anything new. We usually hang up index cards on the wall of the editing bay to put scenes in order, and I said when I watched that show, "I just can't see the cards on the wall." I did wonder why the plug wasn't pulled. If this is the footage you're ending up with, and this is the picture you'll have to paint with it...I'm sure commitments were made, but it just didn't seem worth proceeding with, to me. The network had already written the check, and it would have cost them money not to air it. They're talking about Hey, Paula, right? The first two episodes aired June 28. Jacob tackled TWoP's first weecap (grade: F), and Sars recapped the second ep (Grade: D). Both were posted June 29. Then on July 2, Hey, Paula is moved to permanent hiatus. Promise of a new day, or a study of the chemistry between ennui and childish tantrums? Take one faded pop star-turned-personality, stir in a couple shots of no alcohol at all, down it with a handful of absolutely no prescription or recreational drugs, and a zero-tolerance policy toward cougar pedophilia. Add a bevy of cold-hearted entourage, a whole lot of rush rush rush, a refusal to shut up and dance, and you're blowin' kisses in the wind. She's forever our girl, but straight up: this was zero steps forward and an infinity back, both for Abdul's career and the reality genre at large. Let all the essentially nice, violently uninteresting pop divas of the '90s take note: when it comes to crazy, you're better off bringing the cartoon cat. For those of you keeping track, that's FOUR DAYS after the first airings. Four days. That's got to be one of the fastest PH's ever. The weecap links are still on the front page of the site. I'm sure it neither of these had anything to do with Hey, Paula airing on Bravo, the owner of all copyrighted material on TWoP. Nothing at all. Remember, "TWoP will still be TWoP -- that is to say, we'll be offering the same no-holds-barred commentary and critique we always have. Our new bosses dig what we do." (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, July 7th, 2007
11:08 pm [grapefruitzzz]	More on, Whocapping. Careful detectoring brings up another statement about the lack of Whocaps: Glark Head of Programming Jul 5, 2007 @ 4:02 am Doctor Who is off to PH land and the forums are moving wholesale to the Sci-Fi area. If you want to know what Bit Torrent is, ask a Doctor Who fan. The swine! They're watching it on forrin time! here (taken from the "Oncoming Recaps" LJ comm). (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, July 2nd, 2007
8:57 pm [grapefruitzzz]	Informative I know he's a tad divisive, but Jacob's 'Doctor Who' recaps have a good following, and the forum is pretty busy. There will be no recaps for next season and this is the announcement: Wing Chun Head of Programming Today @ 5:19 pm Report · Post#1 So that everyone's prepared: we know the show starts airing Season 3 on Sci Fi this week, but TWoP won't be covering it editorially anymore. However, the full forum will stay up on the site for you to discuss the show in multiple threads. --- This is the sort of thing that really annoys me about TWoP. They never explain anything. Could you not. Just. Explain. WHY. you do something. For Once? (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, June 14th, 2007
12:26 am [grapefruitzzz]	End-of-season Mouse Party The year hath rolled round to its summer course and all the recaps are tucked away for another season. Before the next one starts in a few weeks' time, here's a chance to post any critiques, including bitching about the shows themselves. I will then come along and randomly delete anything that doesn't follow my 918 unwritten rules ;) Current Mood: snaky Current Music: This Was My Then (12 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007
12:46 pm [jrs1980]	Fametracker diluted. FT was purchased by NBC as a twofer when TWOP got picked up but went on indefinite hiatus shortly after the Oscars. (It hadn't been updated since then, but the banner announcement went up after the deal went through.) Apparently WC couldn't let the clever(?) features go, though, so now the Mondo Extras has been turned into FT Lite, with focus on the upcoming MTV Movie Awards. Plus(?), now we get FT features written by Miss Alli, which is a first. Makes no sense to me, but I'm just waiting for the Imperioli Vs Hairnets Extra. Because I feel that will truly encapsulate what TWOP is for... (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007
12:21 am [herongale]	Why was Jacob, JACOB, allowed to be the one to do the American Idol Gives Back recaps? What terrible imp of fate put him on the firing line for this week instead of Joe R? WHY???? Note. I am aware that Jacob has a fulsome, almost unreadably digressive side in many of his TWOP recaps, but at least with American Idol he was given an assignment so inherently shallow that there was little for him to do other than snark and actually deliver the funny. But noooo.... American Idol had to have a serious episode, and he had to be the one to recap it, and.... OMG.... Five dollars, twenty dollars, five million, ten million: Band-Aid on a cancer victim. Your life and mine are built on this blood, and you can't take down the whole system, you can't rebuild from scratch without things getting worse than they already are. So the revolution's off the playlist. But this is the opposite of that: words, not action, applied to the wrong wound. They're giving the right answer but it's to the wrong question. The question is not "How can I help?" The question is, "Why is it happening?" It's a question nobody ever wants to ask, because it's too scary: there's nobody driving the bus. We're living on Craphole Island, with the moss growing up and around us, and the hopeful dreams and socialism of the sixties fading out into the hedonism and selfishness of the seventies and the sudden onset of responsibility and emotional lobotomy of the eighties, gears whirling all around us in a machine that lost its central guidance system a long time ago. I think something broke during World War II, or before that, and now it's just the game playing us. Enough bad press and even ExxonMobil can cough up a Band-Aid or two. There's nothing inherently wrong with capitalism, but extended out into infinity, the game of wealth accumulation will crush you between those gears, and what will you do then? Sing a fucking song? Pray for rescue? Maybe there's no room for hope in that story any more. And if that's true, then we need a new story, and if that's true, the most powerful thing you can do is reach across the divide and say, "You're not alone." And that's the story you continue to tell, until we all believe it. *cries* Worst. Recap. Ever. (12 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 10th, 2007
6:29 pm [deeablo]	New boss same as the old boss? *dusts off hatred halo* Here's a link from Radar about Bravo's new deal with TWOP. Big media companies are often prepared to pay a lot of money to prove that they "get" the Internet. But the generosity ends the moment the deal goes through, as the employees of Television Without Pity, a TV-lovers' site acquired by Bravo last month, are now learning. On March 14—the morning after the sale was announced—TWoP's "recappers" (writers who summarize show episodes), received new contracts via FedEx. The contracts sought to lock them in at the rate they had been earning, $100 per write-up (with minor relief from moderating the online discussion boards). The offer was greeted with indignation by the recappers, who typically spend five to 10 hours on each summary. "It's one thing to make very little money when you're working for a startup," says one writer. "But there's no reason we should be paid these rates when we're at-will employees of a big corporation." (Bravo is part of media giant NBC Universal.) To avert a mutiny, TWoP's founders, Sarah Bunting and Tara Ariano, went back to Bravo to seek more money for the writers. Bunting and Ariano declined to comment, but a source says Bravo refused, telling them any raises would have to come out of the existing budget. Finally, the recappers were offered a compromise deal last week: $250 per recap—or $100 less than the group agreed it would settle for. All that now remains to be seen is how many of them will opt out. "A lot of us had happily done this for years because we knew the founder personally or we liked having the outlet for writing," says the writer. "But now we'd like our money." Note: $250 may sound like a lot of money, but the recappers aren't paid for their moderating duties. (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 13th, 2007
7:56 pm [zyna_kat]	Bravo ??? Just got this message: "We are emailing you this special blast to let you know that as we prepare to hand over the keys to the server to Bravo (see the homepage announcement)" The homepage announcement is a small blurb under latest news. "TWoP will still be TWoP -- that is to say, we'll be offering the same no-holds-barred commentary and critique we always have. Our new bosses dig what we do" Er... ok! (6 Comments |Comment on this)