This one is sort of hard for me to admit, because it’s totally irrational and I’m not sure it’s not also a bit elitist, and generally I despise elitism.
I won’t watch shows that get too popular. I don’t watch enough TV to get in on shows from the very first episode, and if the next thing I know everyone around me is talking about a show, then, perversely, I won’t watch it. Lost, Desperate Housewives – never seen 'em. Never seen Survivor. Just started watching American Idol for the first time (after five seasons), and I’m finding it rough going as so far it seems to be mostly encouraging untalented people to make fools of themselves and then making fun of them for it. It’s completely irrational, but if people are talking a show to death and making it sound like the whole world is watching it, then I won’t watch it. I think it’s because I really don’t want to be that caught up in a TV show.
I irrationally won’t watch shows that “everybody” watches–especially comedies about hip young city-dwellers who live in apartments they should never be able to afford. I hate Friends and Seinfeld, and never even watched Sex in the City or Desperate Housewives. There’s something about the “everybody watches it! It must be good!” thing that turns me right off.
The exceptions are “House” (which I discovered at the pilot so I was a fan long before it became a hit), CSI (first season, ditto), and “American Idol” (guilty pleasure that I avoided for a long time but ended up enjoying).
I won’t watch a typical formulaic sitcom wherein the actors exchange insults from the living room sofa. It has been done to death. If a sitcom has been on for awhile and the buzz is that it’s different and imaginative, I might give it a whirl.
I’m the same way, but more nuanced than that. When shows have cultlike viewers who feel it’s their mission in life to evangelize you and make you sit in front of the TV, I’m usually turned off. Hence, no Lost, Desperate Housewives, 24, or Gray’s Anatomy for me. I used to work with a woman that was so annoying and she always talked about West Wing. Therefore I never watch the show.
I know some of the shows I watch have similar cults (AI, Survivor, The Sopranos) but I guess I’m not as exposed to the crazies or zealots. Plus I discovered these shows on my own, finding reviews or discussions that indicated to me there would be a compelling reason for me to watch.
Are you referring to the movie, or an actual series in which a man recites the endless digits of pi, continuing each week where he left off? Because I’d watch the latter.
I never tuned into The Practice because the slogan of their big national ad campaign, right when the series started, was “They hate lawyers, too.” I don’t hate lawyers, and I’m annoyed by the constant lawyer-bashing that goes on in American society today. They’ve got a right to say what they want to, of course, but I’ve got a right not to watch their damned show. So I never did.
I don’t watch Lost after I was watching an episode with my wife. I asked, “Are they going to resolve this, or just drag it out?” She said, “Probably drag it out” and the show’s title immediately became “Lost Interest.”
I don’t watch staged reality shows – those that are set up as contests of any form. However, I don’t mind documentary reality shows (e.g., Airline) that show people doing what they’d be doing if there weren’t any cameras.
I didn’t even have to ask my wife. It’s so obvious to me that this is what TV does that I’ve had no interest whatsoever in shows like Invasion, Lost, and that ilk. It all started with Twin Peaks, which started out great and dwindled to insignificance.
I never watched Six Feet Under when it originally aired because I didn’t have showtime. But since then, I’ve been resistant to watching it on DVD or on Bravo because I was always annoyed at how a few of my friends, who were rabid fans of the show, would get carried away in lengthy in-depth discussions & critiques about character motivations and plot-twists, and theories about whether or not so & so is having hallucinations, or if the show has gone into a parrallel dimension, and how my friends were in tears during the episode when the gay character got raped, etc., etc., etc. It’s a freakin’ TV show, fer chrissake!
The same reason partially explains my aversion to Desperate Housewives, although that show I have at least seen a few episodes of. I just couldn’t see what the fuss was all about.
I used to watch, and like, My Name is Earl. But once I found out Jason Lee is a Scientologist, I just can’t bring myself to watch it any more. Same thing with Tom Cruise movies.
I don’t watch any of the ‘reality’ shows. I just know that they are completely scripted and the nothing ever gets on the air during prime time that is not exactingly engineering.
I refused to watch Scrubs for a long time because one time I was staying home sick and I watched the made for tv movie (or miniseries, I can’t remember) Intensity, and John C. McGinley disturbed me so much that I never wanted to see him in anything else again.
I started watching Scrubs a couple of months ago on Comedy Central, and now I ty to catch it every day. I even like Dr. Cox quite a bit.
How’s this for irrational: I have not tuned in the new program “What About Brian” because I hated the movie What About Bob? so much that I can’t even be bothered to come in close enough contact with anything related to the film again to discover if the TV series is related to it in any way whatsoever.
