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

[sisabet]

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.

Comments

[luminosity]

Hells yeah! A vid idea will pull me in faster than STAG.* I wanted to vid Farscape before I ever saw an ep, and if I hadn't had tzikeh (mostly) egging me through the first part of S1, I don't know if I would have had the stamina to stand fast (and then there was A Human Reaction).

Interestingly, while I was at Ellen's, she showed me all of BSG, and a vid idea *had* to come from that, or I wouldn't be worth my salt as a vidder, but it was hard to come by. And Dr Who? Which I would have to put at #1 with a bullet on my fannish Billboard? Not a single vid idea has gelled. And I still love it passionately. I think, though, that Dr Who is the exception that proves the rule.

I not only have trouble maintaining interest from the pilot on, I seem to be hardwired now into only really enjoying a show when I have a gigantic, six-eps-at-a-time *chunk* available for watching. The exception that proves that rule is Buffy; however, I started watching it in S5, and there were syndicated eps on the horizon, so I caught up at the rate of four eps a day, and that destroys Buffy as my exception, doesn't it? Same with Angel. Hmmm. Farscape? I mainlined. I'm still mainlining it in my heart while I wait for my new replacement DVD player, which should be here on Friday. But *in my heart* I'm watching Unrealized Realities/Kansas/Terra Firma and slapping John in the face and then hugging him. And stuff.

I loved I-Man, but no vid ideas. Why? Hell, you *did* the best I-Man vid ever. I have DIVX's of Carnivale--and one vid idea--and even though I loved it when it was on, it wasn't that all-consuming passion I feel for Angel or Farscape or Dr Who. Probably the different take on the redemption issue?

And I'm running off at the keyboard!

*shit thru a goose

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Carnivale I watched all the way through and I liked it a lot but I haven't had one single vid idea other than a kind of loose association with an old June Carter song. And I watched Carnivale in order but only because I bought season 1 and then had S2 on OnDemand and so it took me what, 4 days total?

Even mainlining Farscape - I don't know that I would have made it to Die Me Dichotomy on my own. I really have my doubts - and none of those doubts have anything to do with the quality of the show or the stories it was telling up to that point (I love season 2!) but are just... this is unfortunately how I form attachments.

[barkley.livejournal.com]

I am so with you on this. I false started TXF a couple of times, but the time it truly took was when I plopped down in the middle of Tunguska and had no idea what was going on, but there were FBI agents and horses and dirt and prison and I was pretty much a goner.

I will watch from beginning to end if I know there's a payoff, or if I feel invested, but until that happens, it's best to start me with the most confusing, adventurous episode and let my imagination run wild as to how they all got to that place in the first place.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Right on! The first ep of TXF I watched was "Squeeze" and I was so taken with the entire "He COMES IN THROUGH YOUR TOILET" theme that I made a point to try to watch the show if it was on and I was home... but I was young and it was Friday and events in Season 2 caused me to delay my going out until *after* the show, usually, I still wasn't actively thinking about it. Season three caught my imagination and I made sure *not* to miss and no one was allowed to talk to me until *afterwards* but I didn't really get *fannish* until "Never Again" and that was the end for me.

TXF was a long slow fall and then a bitter prolonged break-up. Some people have relationships - I have TV Shows.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

*nods* For BtVS it was "Consequences" and for XF it was "Orison" and for Farscape it was "Fractures." Give me something with miles of history and years of backstory in a glance and I'm happy. I don't want speed, I want depth.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Yeah - I remember a discussion a *long* time ago on (I think) thebratqueen's LJ about pimping episodes and while several people agreed that "Fool for Love" is the episode that pulled them in, it isn't a good pimping ep because you need to really know who Spike is to get the big revelations. Which - I don't agree with that because to me that is one of the *big* fandom creating eps and regardless of how I feel about that, it is pretty self-contained. You meet Spike as he is now and get that really set up and then you see the creation. It is a great ep and it can (and has, boy howdy) be an entry point to the series.

Granted, you will then watch a different show than I watched, but you know - these things are really for the best. I think.

Give me Firefly's "Out of Gas" and I am a hap-hap-happy girl.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I think you're right about "Fool for Love" (and if there's a problem, it's not the Spike backstory, it's that the Riley and Scooby parts may not work well without context). I'm not as sure about "Out of Gas," because I'm not as sure we get as much present-day establishing stuff as we need--and we need it for more characters. I mean, I think "Out of Gas" is a better episode, but I think it may be more reliant on context.

But I saw both episodes with context, so how can I judge?

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

I think - I think I would figure Out of Gas out just fine -- and Mal being shot, almost dying, and flashing back would get to me. That and the adrenaline shot. But this is me. These are things that intrigue me.

[sdwolfpup.livejournal.com]

In an apparently freak circumstance, I love starting shows from the pilot. I love the uncertainty of where everything is going and not knowing at all what to expect. But nowadays I only give shows a try if other people I know are enjoying it so that may be cheating on my part. Once I get some sense that it's not a waste of my time, then I prefer to start from the beginning. This re-watching of Numb3rs out of order has tilted my world on its side. Hee. I think too linearly! Although I did come into Buffy in Season 6, mid-season 7, and Angel was Season 5, so I guess that sort of blows that theory out of the water. Hm.

It also helps when the show is quality, too. Deadwood had me from the opening credits. And Killa's vid. Never discount the power of a good vid. Like "S.O.S."! Which theoretically should have totally spoiled me for Farscape and yet I had no idea what those images really met and didn't even really remember them when re-watching the show.

Also, nothing should ever attack you out of your toilet. That is the worst thing ever. I read about someone who got bit by a snake when they were sitting on the toilet seat and to this day I still check before I sit down.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Also, nothing should ever attack you out of your toilet. That is the worst thing ever. I read about someone who got bit by a snake when they were sitting on the toilet seat and to this day I still check before I sit down.


My grandmother used to tell me a story about a sewer rat coming up through her toilet when she lived in Chicago and I just... nightmares all through my childhood about *that* and when Tooms came in thru the toilet it was the scariest thing I had ever seen on TV. Man.