Ain't no "good parts" version.

I've been thinking about TV lately.

A comment has been leveled at me that I don't like shows that take "a long time to develop". To a point, this is true. Just off the top of my head, I can think of several shows where I attempted to get into them, and failed:

[-]Neon Genesis Evangelion: Craig lent me his big honking box set, and before Christmas, when Tanja was in the mountains visiting her Mom, I cracked the box and a beer and gave it a shot. I hated it. I found the storyline silly, the voice acting over-the-top, and it all seemed like the average Giant Mecha show, but with added wierd phychological undertones. After the first disc, I stopped watching.

[-]Heroes: I had heard big things about this series when it had started, but missed the pilot due to work. I did, however, catch the second episode, which I later learned was the direct continuation of the pilot. I was so confused (although, since it was a two-parter, it was partially my fault). I didn't know why Ali LArter was running away and looking worried/pensive/hungry into the camera, I kind of like Hiro, but then didn't know what he was about, apparently, this Mohinder guy is important and intelligent, but not very bright on a practical level, the chick's dad is acting sacary for no reason... I didn't finish the episode.

[-]Dead Like Me/Arrested Development: both things I got the first disc of from Bigpond movies and both comedies where I barely laughed. I thought Arrested Development had a bit of potential, but I found it tried too hard to be zany and wacky, and though David Cross is a funny, funny, man, I hated his character (no, not in an "I'm supposed to not-like-him" way, but in that "I-don't-want-him-onscreen-anymore" way). Dead Like Me seemed to be trying to be deep, but missing the point and just being depressing.

Now, that being said, there have also been shows I've watched that grabbed me, sucked me in and took a major break to get me out:

[-]Lost
[-]The Sopranos
[-]30 Rock
[-]The Wire
[-]Band of Brothers
[-]Family Guy
[-]and one for Tanja, Nip/Tuck

With all of these shows except 30 Rock, I was hooked in good and tightly because I started watching them on DVD. By watching three or four 1-hour episodes per evening, I really got a chance to follow the big story of the characters and their arcs. However, these DVD darlings had their break moments too (except the Wire, and Band of Brothers). For Lost and Sopranos, it was when I caught up with what they were showing on TV and started to watch one show per week. Suddenly, the characters were acting in unexplainable ways, everything seemed obtuse and confusing and I stopped caring. The Sopranos remedied this once I got the last season on DVD and could watch it together in one go. Lost still hasn't won me back. With Nip/Tuck, which originally got Tanja's attention due to the focus on hard topics and not shying away from having their characters do horrible things, the show/characters eventually got so horrible that we didn't give two fucks about what happened. We've had the last two episodes to go of Season 3 (in which a big reveal is meant to happen) for nearly two years now. We couldn't care less. I read the Wiki for the reveal and boy was it stupid. Family Guy, well, when you get Season 5 as a gift, watch 5 episodes and don't get one laugh? It's time to quit.

Recently, Craig has been twittering that he started watching Buffy and that it sucked. I felt for him, because yes, those early episodes can be a real slog. Then a lightbulb went off. How come I slogged through Stone Age Buffy and didn't give up? Why was I able to coach Tanja through the first two seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation without one of us throwing tomatoes at the screen? How can I watch the first series of the Muppet Show, with celebrities I've never heard of, except in jokes on Pinky & the Brain (Ben Vereen, Ethyl Merman, Paul Williams, Connie Stevens, Avery Schreiber, etc)? What's the difference?

I've thought a little and I think the answer is that I came to all three of those shows on TV myself (Buffy, with one or two Season 1 eps, then the most of Season 2; Star Trek, through reruns when I was 10 or so, ditto the Muppet Show) and so had made the decision to like them before I watched them in order. That way I know it'll be good once I get through the bad stuff. Maybe I've just grown to expect more from shows that people tell me are great and then lend/encourage me to rent.

In any case, I currently have waiting for me on the living room shelf:

[-]Half of Frasier, season 10
[-]the last half of Season 3 Seinfeld (having watched the seasons in reverse order)
[-]Season 5 of the Wire (just ordered from Amazon)
[-]Season 2 of 30 Rock (which Tanja was unhappy to discover consisted entirely of episodes we'd already seen because I'd downloaded them)
[-]the tail-end last episode of Season 5, then Season 6 & 7 of Star Trek: Deep Space 9.
[-]Seasons 2 & 3 of the Muppet Show
[-]Season 1 of Heroes, which Tim lent to me.
[-]The rest of Craig's Neon Genesis box.

So I think I've got enough to watch for now.