Original AVQ&A Q*: Do you have a well-known film/album/show that you've specifically resisted from viewing, etc. for whatever reason? For example, a friend of mine has refuses to watch any of the remade Mummy films, since as he puts it, "There can't possibly be anything in there for me."
SPCHQ A: A sure way to get me NOT to watch a television show or movie is to over-hype it.
Therefore, there's a few television programs I've avoided watching from their inception (but later caught up with on DVD) because the massive hype surrounding them completely turned me off, such as The O.C., Veronica Mars, Smallville, 30 Rock, Firefly, and Sex and the City (although that last one was also due to HBO limitations). Maybe it's a natural extension of my cautious consumer nature and need to question authority, but just as I don't believe that the shampoo in a commercial will completely change my life, I find it difficult to accept that any piece of entertainment can be THAT GOOD that it's worth stopping the world to watch.
I have never seen an episode of Lost.
I initially resisted watching Lost not due to the hype surrounding its 2004 debut, but because it opened with an absolutely realistic and terrifying plane crash. Just as I always close my eyes when there's about to be a car crash on television or in a movie, I just can't stomach watching plane crashes either. It's probably a combination of disliking air travel and watching those planes hit the WTC back in 2001. Whatever the case, I had no interest in Lost when it began.
Of course, Lost is structured so you can't just "pick it up in the middle" or sit down and watch an episode out of boredom, because you will have even less idea what the hell is going on than the regular viewers. So, I never even bothered to try catching up during the first season, even after the DVD set came out.
My disinterest in ever watching Lost grew as its hype did. Maybe I'm missing out on the greatest smart show ever, but at this point, I still have absolutely no interest in watching it, even though it can easily be done with a combination of DVD, streaming video, and BitTorrent. There's many other series on my Netflix queue that have priority: The Wire, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, the rest of The O.C., Dead Like Me. I can't even fake any enthusiasm for Lost.
* This feature is cribbed from the AV Club, AVQ&A, where staffers answer a pop culture related question. Read their answers to Art We've Resisted.
1 comments:
I love Lost and it is one of the few shows that I actually try to keep up with instead of half-assedly Netflixing it three years after the fact. I missed the first two seasons when it was on TV but caught up with it on DVD. Definitely not one that you can just pick up in the middle!
I was all up to date on The Wire, but then we ditched cable midway through season 5 after Comcast revealed themselves to be evil bastards. Still haven't gotten around to watching the rest of it.
I have never seen an episode of Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia, even though people keep raving about it. I just can't be bothered, so I know where you're coming from!
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