Have you ever, out of boredom or general disinterest, given up on a tv or book series before it ended? Why did you give up? Did you have any interest in finding out what happened?
I tried reading Tamar Myers’ Pennsylvania Dutch mystery series but ended up hating the main character’s little quirks so much that I quit reading. Unfortunately, I still kind of want to know what happens in the storyline. Plus, the recipes look pretty tasty. My husband gave up on the Wheel of Time series because the endless descriptions were driving him mad, so I know I’m not alone in my feelings. Here’s the thing, though: Do I torture myself into reading the rest or hunt online for summaries of the novels I skipped? (Or can any Dopers fill me in?)
I watched The Break Up with Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn on PPV. But when I started it, about ten minutes into it my cable when out. The next night, I started it again. The movie was almost over, less than 10 minutes, but by then the 24 hour rental had expired.
I thought about call the cable company but I just didn’t care. I never started a thread to ask how ended either, because I just don’t care. I’m not asking now because…
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I’ve heard so many good things about the show Misfits and it does look like a fairly interesting concept, but I’ll probably never watch it again because I can’t stand one of the characters.
I’m kinda interested in the resolution to Game Of Thrones, and some theories I had about the final conflict. But the characters are mostly so repellent and annoying it makes it a slog, to be fair GRRM seems to make a point of killing them off.
In browsing through my old threads, I found on I started several years ago asking whether it was worth it to keep going with Nip/Tuck, since I hated all the characters. The consensus was no.
Agreeing with this. After the books are done, I’ll read Arya’s and Dany’s entries at the Westeros wiki. I don’t care about what happens to any of the other characters.
There’s a certain degree of that with Downton Abbey. I admire Carson and Bates extravagantly, and have warm feelings for some of the middle cast and the Earl, but the rest of them are whiny, spoiled, irritating schmucks. Some episodes with too many lines delivered in Cora’s descending-tone whine make me grit my teeth.
I’ve been known to use the Movie Pooper and Movie Spoiler sites to find out what happened if I’m not interested in seeing/finishing a movie. I’ve also been known to hang out on Television without Pity to learn about what happened on a T.V. show I quit watching, or don’t watch regularly enough to keep track. I think once or twice I’ve even posted to the Dope to ask about a storyline. One of the many things I enjoy about the Internet is that with a little effort, you can usually find out how a story in almost any medium turns out.
I read some threads on the SDMB to find out how The Sopranos ended. I stopped following it after the first season because I couldn’t bring myself to like any of the characters. They were all gangsters who deserved to die violent deaths. Still, when I heard about the contrversial ending, I was curious enough to find out what had happened.
I read the first 2.5 Left Behind books before giving up in disgust. Worst dreck I’ve ever read.
I eagerly devoured all of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan novels until he killed off most of the government to elevate Ryan to the presidency. That’s when I quit.
Having read the first 3 books over winter break I’m getting to the same point. I’m just not sure if I can slog through another thousand pages of characters I either don’t care about or actively hate.Hell, Catelyn didn’t even have the decency to stay dead!
I’ll second Downton Abbey as well. Just kind of over it, but I wouldn’t mind hearing a “he lived, she died, they got married” summary when it’s all over.
I can’t bloody stand Cumberbatch’s Sherlock. However, I don’t really need to ask what happens, because it’s all anyone online ever talks about. Because I don’t avoid spoilers, I probably know more about what happens then people actually watching the friggin’ thing.
I read the first book of Sara Douglass’ Axis Trilogy but threw it across the room by the end of it because I hated Azhure with a passion, but I caught some spoilers online later on about some of the characters I actually liked so I went back and read the Wayfarer Redemption trilogy after about 10 years.
The thing is, if I stopped reading/watching something because of the main character, I’d never finish anything because I hate most protag archetypes. I always find a side character to make it through for.
I’ve given up on Glee on account of it being awful and the characters almost unanimously assholes, but still would like to know how Finn died. Stuck around for the memorial episode hoping they would say, but no, instead we got a bullshit sanctimonious annoying copout “who cares how he died?” I care, that’s who, dipshit.
If they ever brought it up again and gave an answer in subsequent episodes, maybe one of the poor souls still watching could let the rest of us know.
As a kid, I was a remarkably patient reader. Heck, I read War and Peace in Junior High. I very rarely put a book down without finishing it. I even read 2001 A Space Odyssey, not having seen the movie (couldn’t talk my folks into it … and they’d have hated it.)
Oddly, though, I just couldn’t stomach Michener’s Hawaii, because I loathed Abner, and I just couldn’t force myself to make it to the part where he gets sidelined. Silly me. I did enjoy it decades later (after having spent 7 weeks there, which no doubt helped!)
