One Has to Wonder

[kriadydragon]

What is it with me and taking forever to get interested in a show? Every single show I've ever loved I always got into about a season or two or many later. The only shows I got into from the start were Numbers and CSI New York and both shows I ended up losing interest in seasons later. I got into season one of Suits but, though I like the show, I have to admit it also pushes a lot of do-not-want buttons along with my like buttons, so it remains to be seen if it's the exception. But with the shows I absolutely love it's always been the opposite. SGA - got into it around season two. White Collar - the same. Dr. Who - the same. Even shows I like instead of love, like the Mentalist, I got into seasons down the line. Now I find myself getting pulled into Merlin after watching the most recent season (which was, what, season four, five? Yeesh! Took me long enough :P)

And I really don't get why this is. Anyone else find themselves getting into shows only after the fact that they've been airing for at least a season? Any theories as to why this is?

Comments

[swanpride.livejournal.com]

Well, most shows need half a season to set up the world in which it plays - the characters, the rules (if it's a fantasy show) aso. So when I start to watch a show, three things might happen:
1. The pilot is so convincing, I'm hooked - only happened with White Collar so far, though.
2. The pilot is okayish, so I give the show a chance and stick to it for at least half a season, in order to give the writers time to set everything up.
3. I don't even manage to watch the pilot until the end - that happend with "person of interest" and "hustler" (though there I watched, my attention was just slipping). The reason was in both cases the same: I found none of the characters even remotely compelling. With Leverage for example, there were some bumbs along the ways the first two season, but from the very beginning, I liked Parker.

I think that's a general theme for me - I need to like the character. White Collar didn't had me because of the premise, it had me because I saw Matt Bomer und was impressed by his acting abilities (did I mention that I'm a prood owner of a White Collar Neal Caffrey Shirt since yesterday?). With Psych, I mostly liked Juliet. Suits, I still stick around because I like Mike Ross and most of the female characters. With Merlin, my favorite characters were Merlin and Morgana (they certainly have the most compelling stories). ASo.

[sholio]

Yes, although for me, it's not characters but the relationships between them that catches my eye (usually). So it's almost inevitable with most shows that it's going to take a few episodes to build those relationships to the point where they really snag my interest. And a half-season to a season is usually long enough for me to get a good idea whether the show is going to "grow" the relationships in a way that is appealing to me.

The shows that have hooked me in the first few episodes have usually done so on the basis of catchy, compelling plots and intriguing mysteries more than characters -- Fringe and Lost come to mind as examples. (Or humor ... I kept watching Community, for example, because it was funny. Even in a drama, a little humor is a big mark in its favor; all serious all the time will usually lose me too.) In Fringe's case, I liked the writing enough to keep watching even though I didn't really warm up to most of the characters 'til the second season.