Why I love the shows I love.
May. 2nd, 2010 07:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deird_ljI 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.
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.
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Date: 2010-05-07 12:01 pm (UTC)With NCIS, there's no one character who's like that, but that's because, to a certain extent, the entire cast is like that. They're all unorthodox, and quirky, and surprisingly sweet, and capable of some extremely entertaining arguments. I get the same stuff out of watching NCIS and House - and tend to like them both for the same reasons.
You seem to have several that don't fit your requirements for getting HOOKED. Like Monty Python, or NCIS. Why do you like them?
Well, I put in Monty Python because I was a bit mental about it at one point there. It has everything going for it as far as humour and actors are concerned - I just didn't quite fixate on one particular actor. I flirted with the idea of Michael Palin quite a lot though - I tended to rewatch his scenes over and over. There's one where he's being seduced by Terry Jones, for instance...
As for NCIS, I was all excited about Tony/Kate, and then she left and I didn't warm to Ziva when she started, and I'd been watching just long enough to feel bored with it.
And I feel like it was about the same time I got into Boston Legal - at stage I was watching a LOT of tv. I used to watch CSI and CSI Miami and Law and Order at that time and all sorts of other stuff...
And then I got into House and all that went out the window.
And now I just can't be bothered with any of it.
I've gotten back into it a bit now. I agree with your assessment of NCIS. I'm attached to them all. I like the show. Same as I like Burn Notice. But somehow I can't be bothered watching *properly* these days. Because Stephen Colbert clips are RIGHT THERE, online, whenever I want them... so I sort of sit there with the computer on my knee and have the show on but don't really involve my brain in the plots so much.
Here's the thing - House got stuffed by changing in Season 4 from a 4-act structure to a 6-act structure. As a result, each episode is much more bitsy and you don't get to care about the storylines so much. As a result, I stopped caring about individual patients each week and only really watching for the character stuff.
I just feel like I can't be bothered engaging with plots any more. Heck, I can't even concentrate for HOUSE, unless it's a special enough episode (i.e. major character stuff) that I'm watching it completely unspoiled, in which case I'll sit there AGOG.
Whereas I could probably concentrate for a whole episode of Hustle, partly because I haven't seen enough episodes for the plots to feel... too familiar? And it's all about con jobs, so you know you HAVE to watch carefully. That's the whole reason I like that show.