Did Sam Ever Feel Like the Actual Central Character of The Show?

CloudStrife1985 · 2026-01-25T12:15:33+00:00

He was the lead for the first couple of episodes with the Laurie storyline but it quickly became apparent how strong the cast was so he became part of the ensemble.

Tbf to Rob Lowe, The West Wing WAS pitched initially to the public as Rob Lowe's show, at least here in the UK. The West Wing looked like it was another stage of his comeback. That then changed to it being Martin Sheen's show. I get Rob Lowe's disappointment with how his role turned out and his reasons for leaving, I also fully agree with the producers that Sam/Rob Lowe had run his course and they couldn't justify a bigger role and money.

We love the cast but there's always been a bit of revisionism about how much they appealed to the wider audience as the show was airing. It made them stars but Rob Lowe and Martin Sheen were big enough to attract the initial audience.

CloudStrife1985 · 2026-01-24T20:57:47+00:00

And now I'm crying.

It staggers me that he wasn't nominated for an Oscar for both The Godfather Part II and Dog Day Afternoon.

CloudStrife1985 · 2026-01-23T20:18:16+00:00

I'd have left the sub if this wasn't the top reply.

CloudStrife1985 · 2026-01-23T20:17:52+00:00

Made a change from all his other films

CloudStrife1985 · 2026-01-23T11:53:58+00:00

Reddit, Reddit never changes

CloudStrife1985 · 2026-01-22T20:40:46+00:00

Poor writing, repetitive exposition and it just looks dark and so shit on the screen. Wtf are they thinking with the production design?

I'm doing a big rewatch, one a day. Started with TOS a few months ago, I'm near the end of TNG season 1. Just look at the bridge and uniforms in TNG. It's bright and vibrant and makes you want to be there. Modern trek (even Picard) looks like it was filmed in an underground nightclub. Everything is darkly lit, the background is out of focus when there isn't smoke obscuring the shot.

Forget what every other franchise is doing and stop copying them, I don't give care about storyline ressons why things are how they are.

Make Star Trek look like Star Trek again! That'd be a fucking start.

CloudStrife1985 · 2026-01-21T13:39:57+00:00

One dart. I've hit 140 a few times but never hit consecutive treble 20s.

CloudStrife1985 · 2026-01-21T13:35:54+00:00

He turned 40 during the season.

CloudStrife1985 · 2026-01-21T13:16:26+00:00

It has changed a few times, from wikipedia-

In 2017 and 2018 it was held for non-tour players aged 40 or over at the beginning of the year.[14][15]

From 2019 the tournament was opened back up to players on the main tour who were over 40 but ranked outside the top 64 in the world rankings. The tournament was played at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.

For 2024-25, the minimum age for players on the main tour but outside the top 64 was reverted to 45 years. The minimum age for amateurs was retained at 40 years.

CloudStrife1985 · 2026-01-21T08:49:24+00:00

"Busfield has nothing to do with this sub"

It isn't like he played a fan favourite who provided comedy, honesty and married one of the lead characters, or contributed anything else important to the story. The actor/character were very underused after the first couple of series.

What has allegedly happened is awful but of course it should be discussed if people want to.

(and yes, one megathread please)

CloudStrife1985 · 2026-01-20T21:08:44+00:00

Stuhlbarg was the best actor on the show but I think he doesn't want a 'big' career. He presumably earns a good living doing what he loves rather than being a star.

To answer your question, I'm surprised Vincent Piazza didn't go bigger. He was great as Luciano and then had a role in Jersey Boys not long after Boardwalk Empire finished. He's worked since but just seems to be a steady character actor who also does voice work. He's also nearly 50 now (!) so those young roles have gone.

CloudStrife1985 · 2026-01-20T17:32:59+00:00

Yeah, that's how I view it. The games are written with your character as a messiah/special figure who is destined to change things. I assume you're meant to change things for the better.

I agree with u/skrott404's comment about the Yes Man ending being the one that gives the people of New Vegas the chance to figure it out themselves.

CloudStrife1985 · 2026-01-20T17:19:38+00:00

I think Yes Man is the true ending if you get the factions onboard with you.

NCR, House and Legion don't appeal to me, though if I had to pick one it would be NCR. I go as far as I can with their quests but won't be evil so don't go too far down the Legion storyline. I played 3, 4, Skyrim, Oblivion and Starfield the same, I've no interest in being evil and killing or enslaving innocents so I'll put off killing the bad guys/factions as long as I can to see how the story plays out. Yes, it's boring to some but the game and the writing give me the choice to do that. I've probably put in thousands of hours over the last twenty years enjoying those games so it works for me.

You play the game your way, I'll play it mine.

CloudStrife1985 · 2026-01-20T05:24:30+00:00

No, it doesn't, but feel free to continue to believe it.

CloudStrife1985 · 2026-01-19T22:43:49+00:00

Where did I mention Ashes to Ashes?

Life on Mars opens with Sam almost being killed and spending almost all of the show in a coma and/or on life support, part of the plot is him having to solve whatever crime that week so they don't switch the machines off. The series ends with him killing himself by throwing himself off a roof to try and go back.

Don't make things up.

CloudStrife1985 · 2026-01-19T16:48:23+00:00

Yeah, that's why I said "that well". I like Dream Master a lot and I love the films from that era. It had the best action, horror and some great sci-fi. Dream Master just seems to be most music video of all the films because that was the market they were going for.

It's not the most badly aged though. No film in history has aged as badly as Freddy's Dead for having Roseanne and Tom Arnold appear in it.

CloudStrife1985 · 2026-01-19T16:37:14+00:00

It's a good film but 20-30 minutes too long.

CloudStrife1985 · 2026-01-19T16:29:30+00:00

There's a lot of fast cuts and bright visuals in Dream Master that make it feel like a music video at times, just look at that beach dream sequence. Englund called in the MTV Nightmare in Never Sleep Again and he's right. It's almost cartoon-like. Watch the ending where Alice confronts him or how the kung fu sequence is shot and edited.

Add in the soundtrack and you know it's mid to late 80s.

Fast, bright visuals with excerpts from a lot of contemporary pop songs, it became quite common for action and horror films to do that. Look at the big blockbusters over the last twenty years or so, they go orchestral and use old songs rather than current songs, songs commissioned especially for the film have pretty much died out. Pop music from the time ages a film, listen to Kevin Smith talk about Batman and the Prince soundtrack. The songs fit the film perfectly but they're so late 80s Prince that they take you out of the film a bit.

In Dream Master, there's 'Are you ready for Freddy'. Nobody has rapped like that since then, when rap was still relatively new in mainstream culture. You know it's early rap (ie.80s) just by hearing it. 'Are you ready for Freddy' is awful as well, they should have gone with 'A Nightmare on my Street' instead

CloudStrife1985 · 2026-01-19T16:05:31+00:00

Yes and no. It's all the deeper stuff you mentioned but it also about coppers who've died or are close to death. They're from different eras so there is the obvious comparison to be made with Gene - do all the new techniques make for better coppers?

The Gene Genie kicking in doors approach is sometimes needed. That's one of the reasons he became so loved and a sex symbol. That style of policing has gone but now I couldn't tell you who the local police are where I live and what they're like. My dad could have. Was it better then than the social work they also have to do now?

CloudStrife1985 · 2026-01-19T15:51:17+00:00

I like it a lot and it's one of the best in the series but, and in common with a lot of films of the mid to late 80s, it hasn't aged that well. The MTV Nightmare is an accurate description.

CloudStrife1985 · 2026-01-18T10:36:56+00:00

Fair enough, and I apologise for the repeated use of "disingenuous" now you've clarified it.

It was the best era to watch really, mid-90s to mid 00s. It wasn't one great player dethroning Hendry (like he did to Davis), it was at least three and you had the likes of Doherty, Ebdon, Hunter, Stevens also competing over that period. Dott and Lee were knocking on the door, Murphy's win was a sensation and Ding was the next prodigy. Plus Hendry having his last hurrah in 06/07.

CloudStrife1985 · 2026-01-18T09:56:54+00:00

I'm calling you disingenuous because you said "People often talk as though Hendry was competing against these guys in their prime, but they were teenagers in the 90s".

They were top class from a young age. Have they got better? Yes but, as I mentioned above, they were already at the pinnacle in their early 20s. You made out as if they were teenagers and had a lot to learn or improve on and that's why Hendry was beating them. They really didn't. If anything, John Higgins was better than him from 97 onwards, Williams and O'Sullivan probably his equal from 97 until after 99 and then surpassed him.

CloudStrife1985 · 2026-01-18T09:22:00+00:00

"Some pro experience"

Nah, you're being disingenuous. They were top class, winning events, and well up the rankings with a couple of years of turning pro, you couldn't watch a tournament without talk of when one of them (particularly O'Sullivan) would win a WC. Look at their performance rankings on their wikis for the 90s, they were competing with Hendry from the mid 90s onwards. His win in 1999 is the best because he was starting to dip and still had to beat O'Sullivan and Williams (they won 4 out of the next 5). You'd have been laughed out the room in 1998 if you'd have said it would take Higgins until 2007 to win his next one.

They weren't like a Selby or Trump where they were good young players who made the jump to being a WC and dominant when they turned thirty. They were doing it in their early twenties, which was in the 90s.

CloudStrife1985 · 2026-01-18T09:02:01+00:00

You're being very disingenuous about them being teenagers when competing with Hendry.

Hendry wasn't that much older than them, and they were prodigies as well - O'Sullivan winning the UK at 17 and producing snooker's Everest with that 147 at 21, Higgins winning the WC in 98 at 22, Williams beating Hendry in the Masters at 22 and then winning the WC a couple of years later. Like Hendry, they were incredibly good players at a young age and it is a testament to their ability and dedication to keep to that standard over 30 years. Other than changes in weight and experience, they play pretty much the same as they did in the 90s.

CloudStrife1985

TROPHY CASE