Wondered if anyone else is interested in discussing the different degrees of attention different folk seem to direct towards certain TV shows.
I guess I’m in the superficial camp. Back in high school in the 70s, I and my friends could quote Monty Python pretty much word for word. We’d watch the eps over and over, and bought and traded books and albums. Think I saw Holy Grail something like 17 times in a couple of years. But since then, even tho I’ve thought I was a pretty big fan of some shows (Star Trek, Buffy), I’ve been surprised at how much more in depth other fans’ knowledge is.
I perceive that this phenomena has progressively increased with the VCR and then computers. These days, I sometimes feel as though I can’t even consider myself a “fan” of some of my favorite shows, like Better Call Saul or The Americans. I watch the episodes, enjoy them, and then forget a lot of the specifics. If a show takes a long break between seasons, I will forget a lot of the specific storylines before being reminded. And I certainly don’t recall even significant developments from 2 or more seasons back.
There are very few shows I wish to re-watch. Maybe Buffy. Or a couple of old comedies like Andy Griffith and the Honeymooners. Recently made it through Next Gen, and wondered what I liked so much about the show in the first place! And I’ll go to threads here to see what folk say about a couple of my favorite shows - mainly to fill out my superficial knowledge/recollections.
I’m not for a second criticizing folk who really get into shows they like - merely observing about an apparent difference in the ways different folk consume TV. For folk who consider themselves really into certain shows, how do you engage with the show? How often do you watch it? In what ways do you participate in social media regarding it? Are there certain shows that folk tend to really get into, and others that more folk watch superficially like me?
Anyone else watch TV superficially like me? Do you feel that shows are expecting more in-depth engagement?
When I was in High School I watched shows like that. I can recite lines and verses of songs from the late 1960s and early 1970s verbatim. Now, I will pick up on a catchphrase or a particularly well written line, but otherwise, nah. I’m 63, and the TV doesn’t captivate me any more, even though the shows are better produced.
In my teens and 20s and some 30s I watched TV obsessively and watched episodes over and over and could tell you all the details of everything (Especially Star Trek and Buffy which were shows I loved). As time went on I watched less TV and cared less about it. Nowadays I find myself messing with my phone a lot while watching most TV. I’m not proud of it. I should have a better attention span than that but I still do it.
I’m one of those that uses the tv as background noise for the most part and I think that was the hardest part about giving up cable channels. Between my Roku and Kodi I can get tons of stuff but I only go to the trouble of finding something to watch if I really want to watch it. Then I’m totally engaged and I love to analyze and discuss it but since everyone watches different things at different times - not to mention people who whine about spoilers- there’s not too much discussion these days. I miss IMDB.
I’ve never been the type to rewatch unless it’s been a long time. I don’t get where I can quote anything, really.
But I do engage at the level where I’m automatically fanwanking things. And I get into discussions about shows, pretending that they are describing a real universe. I really, really like YouTubers who will analyze this stuff.
I don’t memorize or rewatch, but I do engage pretty heavily, I think. Well, in some shows. Some shows really are just fluff to me–usually simple comedies. And, in fact, when South Park got continuity for a while, it actually made me not want to watch as much.
When I was younger, I was pretty obsessive about the details of TV shows. Particularly genre shows, like Star Trek (as should be obvious from my username) and Doctor Who. I was definitely the annoying nerdy kid who could bore you to tears pontificating about how Spock’s dialogue in episode 22 flatly contradicted what we saw in episode 5, and why didn’t anybody notice this vitally important discontinuity, and didn’t anybody but me care about the purity of the fictional universe?!
Interestingly, it wasn’t just SF shows. I could do similar stuff with shows like Happy Days, MASH*, or The Dick Van Dyke Show. My mind just seemed to be geared that way.
As I’ve gotten older (I just turned 50), it’s changed. Either I’ve become less able to remember all the details, or I’ve stopped caring about it as much. I had a somewhat shocking moment not long ago, when my stepson made a reference to a Doctor Who episode, and my response was “What are you talking about?” After he explained, I remembered that I had in fact seen that episode. I just hadn’t bothered to memorize the relatively obscure bit of dialogue that he was referencing. Such a thing would have been unthinkable for me when I was his age. Now, I just think, “Eh, life’s too short.”
As far as continuity errors go, as I’ve gotten older I’ve also become less fond of the “Let’s pretend this really happened” school of analysis. So I don’t care quite so much about contradictions between various episodes. I just don’t find that a useful way of examining television anymore. These days, I find it much more interesting to consider a television series as a constructed artifact, complete with inevitable compromises and budget constraints and writer turnover, rather than as a “universe” that must be completely self-consistent if it is to have any worth. No offense to those who do, but it just doesn’t work for me anymore.
I tend to watch shows that reward close viewing. My favorite shows that are on right now are Fargo, the Americans and Archer. They all reward close viewing.
I think TV shows are just more complicated now, they’re also HEAVILY influenced by social media/the internet.
Discounting Soaps, even the most dramatic of dramas didn’t require too much secured viewing back in the day. But now? TV shows are much more nuanced and complicated. Easter eggs, through-lines and layers upon layers upon layers define the “best” programs.
Showrunners also know the best way to get people to watch your show is to get them talking about it themselves. This isn’t a new concept, but it’s taken a whole new form with the internet. Message boards, social media, podcasts…all of them can make or break a TV show. So how do you get their attention? Make a crazy-complicated show with subtle hints and let your audience go wild.
Take Westworld for instance. That wasn’t just a show…it was a living being practically. Plot layers, hints, call backs and complicated setups to plot points created an industry of speculation. I lived for Sundays on that show…and pretty much lived for the week afterward when the podcasts would go live.
I wouldn’t say I’m too particularly skilled at knowing the small details, but if I can have other people do it for me, I’m all for it.
In my teens, 20s, and 30s, I was a television — and, when HBO et al. came along, movie — superfan. I watched everything carefully, with few or no distractions. If I got to the movie theater 2 minutes after the feature started, I would wait for the next showing. This shit was important to me. It was (some of it anyway) art, created by artists, and deserving of a viewer’s respect. And yes, I would easily recall characters, plot points, and dialogue months or years later.
Now I’m 58. I still feel the same way, and I still watch the same way. I’m just not so good at the remembering part any more.
I watch a shitton of tv every week. But a lot of it is stuff I can “watch with one eye” as it were. The other eye on my phone
I love TV. But I also love how I can pay “enough” attention to a show then read a review or two, and catch a discussion on the SDMB and know more stuff than I would have known if I had bothered to watch it closely.
There’s not much stuff I’ve watched multiple times. Newsradio, 30 Rock, Flying Circus, The Young Ones, Peep Show, Spaced and then I watch a lot of *Seinfeld *reruns at my parents’ house.
The problem for me at least is that there is so queued up on my DVR that there’s precious little time for watching anything more than once. And even if there’s free time once I’ve caught up with what’s been recorded on the DVR, there are so many shows I could be binging.
I love shows that make me think, and I loathe tv as background noise. If I’m watching, I’m really watching.
I don’t memorize or rewatch*, really, but I love to analyze and discuss the shows I love. I really miss the days of Television Without Pity, both for the recaps and for the discussion boards.
*I will sometimes rewatch the last episode or two before a season premiere, if it’s been a really long time since the previous season ended.
It depends on the show.
There are some shows that I watch as background and am kind of aware of what’s going on. There are some that are more “laundry shows.” I’m watching, but I’m also doing something that might take some of my attention away, and that’s ok. Then there are shows that get my full attention. In many of those, the showrunner/creator is usually doing things with the dialog/design/visuals/sound/etc. that are all adding, if not essential, to the story that they’re telling. (For example, I have no idea how someone could only half pay attention to “Legion” and have the slightest clue what was going on.)
I rarely rewatch things, I don’t have time. I have a DVR full of shows that I haven’t been able to get to because I haven’t had those uninterrupted hours to get through them. I don’t feel like I’m watching ridiculously closely (I used to do recaps for a few shows, which required watching the whole show at least twice and some scenes multiple times just to make sure that I knew what happened. I’ve not done that recently). But I am more aware of things on the screen; because of the “Tom and Lorenzo - Mad Style” reviews, I recognize things with clothing and set design that I wouldn’t have consciously noted before.
I do read online recaps, reviews, and discussions on shows. There are times when people say things that make me think they weren’t paying attention at all during the show.
I’m 44, and I still have my favorite shows and my ‘casual viewing’ shows.
When it comes to my favorite shows, like Better Call Saul, Fargo, The Leftovers, The Walking Dead and The Americans, I love to check the forums here and the AV Club. I’ll also listen to ‘watercooler’ type podcasts that discuss the details and stuff I may have overlooked or didn’t quite pick up on. These are shows I watch for the art of the medium as much as entertainment.
As for more casual fare, it’s more just for entertainment (shows like The Flash, Timeless or iZombie). I might still read or participate in MB discussions, but not nearly to the level I dissect, or might even re-watch, my favorite shows.
