Self Pimp: A Journey of Discovery, Not a 50 Cent Song

So - I can't seem to remember to watch my shows in real time anymore. I'm considering various reasons and while I do think the easy availability of downloads does contribute significantly to this, I also think that I am ignoring a very key issue about me and TV: I need a well-warmed show in order to really go nutzo. These things take time -- not so much a timed investment from me, but from the show to hit its stride and most just won't do that until they are in their second season (with many, many notable exceptions such as Deadwood). Wait - let me qualify that - I need them to hit their Liz-Stride, which is something that I can say quite honestly, is a very personal thing in that they've had to have done that one thing that will *guarantee* I am hooked.

Because I have a hard time getting into a show starting at the Pilot. I tried watching "The Magnificent Seven" pilot a few weeks ago and I just... I could not concentrate - I didn't care and really the only thing I remember at all is that Marita looked really pretty. Except she wasn't Marita here, or Fraser's PT. She was someone who was unlikely pretty running a newspaper. In the Old West. I fell asleep.

But this does not mean I won't really enjoy the show. I just... I am not going to enjoy the Pilot unless it is in retrospect. I don't know these people, they do not know each other, no one is experiencing anything too relevatory so where is there anything for me to latch onto? Premises will only take me so far and after that I am gonna need some death or pain or A Shining Personal Moment or boy kissage.

And this might explain the speed that Deadwood grabbed me because once we were past the pilot, the race was on and I was hooked. Shit went down fast and I got attached to Jane, and Al scared us both. Then it was "Reconnoitering the Rim" and "Here Was a Man" and I was well and utterly taken. But until a scene at the end of the pilot, I was kinda just marking time waiting for something to happen.

Take SGA -- it took me *forever* to watch the pilot, which is, granted, reeeeaally long and actually quite an exciting ep, but I just... I warm up to characters extremely quickly, but I don't warm up to them in introductory moments. I warm up to them when we hit the Big Character Developing stuff. Like - if I had *started* watching Atlantis at "The Defiant One" and *then* had that huge character investment, "The Rising" would have been a different story. Right now? I can watch the pilot with all of my attention, but is is because I care about the crew, and before - I just didn't.

But what about spoilage? What about missing out on an important *build* and yeah - I can appreciate that. The Invisible Man episode "Flowers for Hobbes" means more when you realize they have been working toward this *huge* moment for 15 episodes. Of course, my experience with I-man was not week to week and uninformed because nothing motivates me more to watch a show beginning to end than becoming obsessed with a video. That and tzikeh and her living room. Yeah - I can point to a really disproportionate number of shows that I feel fannishly about and a lot of them involve the one-two punch of a vid and tzikeh. And watching a show in a group is a different experience - beyond a chat room or anything. Hell - just the silence that descends on a room after the closing credits of due South's "Victoria's Secret" when there is a roomful of people who just watched that for the first time - that is worth a seven hour drive on its own. You can't get that in cyber-land.

But on my own? The first episode of Buffy I ever saw was "What's My Line Part II" and... dude, it was the second of a two-parter, talk about midstream! But it also had Spike and Angel glowering at each other, Buffy being depressed, pissed off, and then determined and just... I immediately got into the show and started watching the repeats of Season 1 that aired on Monday nights.

Angel, I watched from the beginning, but I wasn't frantic about it until "The Trial." The first episode of Farscape that I remember watching (I always intended to watch it and then would forget or would catch bits and pieces) was "Die Me Dichotomy" and yeah, there is a school of thought that would say I missed out on a lot, by using that episode as an entry into the series. But - I don't feel like I did. I could figure out what was going on for the most part and by the time the thing that happpened, happened - I cried. It was amazing and I sure as hell never forgot to watch that show again, and I caught up on the canon via repeats and marathons.

I don't have faith in my patience that I would have sat on my own, week by week, waiting for the season 2 Crichton Arc to pay off otherwise. I mean, I like to think that I would have, but I also know me and I am easily distracted and I tend to fall asleep when there are not Huge Emotional Stakes at play. And watching the S2 arc in reverse gave me that - I was solving a puzzle where I knew the outcome. Kinda like when I used to read the last chapter of Nancy Drew first in an effort to sustain myself through the book. Didn't really work but I had a lot of Nancy Drew books and not much else to read, so I tried different strategies.

And while I do hate spoilage with a passion -- I don't mind it if I am spoiling myself. That is kinda fun - like a game of piecing together what is going on and who has done what and OMG, that happened to John?? I *have* to see that. Also, I am gratified every time merryish posts about her memory like a sieve because then I feel better because Merry is Very Smart and she forgets things as well, and the hards honest truth is that I really am not as spoiled jumping ahead as I look because, dammit - I won't be able to remember everything (except for Die Me Dichotomy. You watch that ep of Farscape and you are just spoiled - it isn't even like losing your virginity cause you can always join one of those Twu Wub Waits clubs and get your revirginized card. I had a cousin who had one that she could just get stamped. There is no card to let you undo "Die Me Dichotomy"). My first ep of Battlestar Galactica was "Colonial Day" which hooked me with Laura Roslin. I was interested enough in her to go and buy the mini the next day. I honestly did not remember (or possibly) make sense of a lot of the other stuff as the next time I watched that ep, I was constantly surprised.

So, while watching "The Invisible Man" and "due South" from the beginning was absolutely the right choice for me (and again - big thanks to tzikeh and merryish), having support to do so did make a difference. Left to my own devices, I am more of a forager, looking for my own entry point and I don't think that is a bad thing. It is just how I do this.

And I also need to think about the fact that every single show I have watched from start to finish (except for Atlantis), I did so because I was obsessed with a single or multiple vids in that particular fandom.