Why I love the shows I love.

[deird_lj]

I was just thinking about my favourite tv shows and the moment I first realised I was going to love them.

Surprisingly, they were actually all quite similar. Although... not.


The List

Firefly: when Mal kicked the evil guy through the ship's engine.

Frasier: the "flashback episode"... that turned out not to be a standard flashback episode, because modern-day Frasier and Niles were inside it, looking at early-years Frasier and Niles, and commenting on them.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: the moment Spike appeared and started talking about Woodstock.

NCIS: when they kidnapped a body from the FBI (by bluffing really well) so that they'd have jurisdiction over it.

Farscape: when the episode's teaser ended with "I demand... one of your Pilot's arms!" *dramatic music* - and I was sure the episode was going to be about the moral dilemma of do-we-cut-off-the-Pilot's-arm-or-not-hmm-we-must-think-about-this-deeply-and-moralise... but, two minutes later, they CUT HIS ARM OFF, and the rest of the episode was about something else.



I like many shows. For many reasons. But the thing that makes me grin and love them is when they start surprising me. When I can see the standard tv moment that's about to happen - and then something else happens instead. When a show about gothic, dramatic vampires turns out to be more interested in punk vampires who roll their eyes at the rules. When it's suddenly not what I thought it was, and I suddenly don't know everything.

I love that.

Comments

[eilowyn.livejournal.com]

I feel like such a sheep. I watch what smart people on my f-list tell me to watch. So, simply by cutting off a guy's arm, Farscape is officially on my "what I need to watch" list. I've almost got Supernatural down, next up is Who, and I've been given permission by various friends to start with the eleventh Doctor. Then Being Human, and Farscape.

[rebcake.livejournal.com]

Your list is giving you excellent advice. I might add Veronica Mars to the list. Although it's not science fiction, her preternatural intelligence makes up for it.

[eilowyn.livejournal.com]

Done and done. VM was last summer's big discovery, where I jumped up and down whenever a Whedonverse alum (or Whedon himself) had a cameo, and I decided I wanted to be Veronica Mars when I grow up.

[immer-am-lesen.livejournal.com]

...of course, I'll tell you now that Pilot is not human.
Which actually makes it worse, really.
Poor Pilot. :-(