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

[sholio]

I'm very much that way -- although, like octoberdreaming, a lot of it is because I don't often try shows until they have a season or two. It's too disappointing to get into a show that's cancelled six episodes later. But I also have a history of trying shows and abandoning them after the first episode or two, then getting into them later, when there was a bigger chunk of show to watch. (I did that with both SGA and White Collar, as it happens ...) I think that I just need more than one or two episodes to know if I'm going to like a show. Plus, the first episodes in a series are usually the shakiest; the actors haven't quite settled into their roles, and the character relationships haven't really gelled yet. Most of the good stuff is yet to come.

Usually it takes me at least half a season to get hooked on something, if not longer. The only show I can think of off the top of my head that hooked me from the first episode was Lost, but it also happened to come along at EXACTLY the right time for me -- I hadn't really watched TV in years, and I'd just moved halfway across the country and was really lonely, so being able to lose myself in a twisty mystery show with a ton of characters once a week was perfect. (But Lost never really hooked me in a fannish way, and I later drifted in and out of love with the show over the years.)

[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.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I think that I just need more than one or two episodes to know if I'm going to like a show.

I wonder if this is my deal, that the show needs time to simmer a little and get to that point where its potential finally hits me. Thing is, though, I usually avoid the shows I have no interest in, certain that I'm never going to watch them because I don't want to, then suddenly - out of the blue - I want to watch them. Sometimes it's an episode that grabs me, sometimes a character, or like with WC sometimes a concept. But it's the abruptness of it that boggles be, because I will go from absolute dislike to absolute like in the blink of an eye.

[sholio]

Oh, that's interesting, because it's not usually that much of a switch-flip for me. Usually it's a slow progression from "hmm, this show is kinda interesting" to "NEXT EPISODE NOW!"

Though now that I'm thinking about it, I'd initially dismissed WC on the basis of the pilot, then it grabbed me immediately when I started watching in season three, so perhaps I do change that quickly too. :D But it still took me awhile to get actually fannish about it.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's really weird because once I find that little "something" it's like that's it, the show has me. Merlin, for example. I was watching an episode of Merlin because I was bored and nothing else was on. For some reason, this one unremarkable and brief scene made me intrigued in the friendship between the two main characters. So I started watching more and now I'm currently working my way through season one. One iddy-biddy scene and now I have a whole new show I'm into. It seriously amazes me the things that get me drawn into a show.

Getting fannish definitely comes episodes later, though, and I think there's always a bit of a fight before I finally give in. I don't like really fanning over something (to the point of writing fic, that is) since I have so much on my plate already. But, sometimes, it's nice to have another sandbox to play in, even if I only have one or two stories in me.