# Movies, TV shows, books, or plays that grew on you \[original title: Movies that grew on you\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [December 8, 2021, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-books-or-plays-that-grew-on-you-original-title-movies-that-grew-on-you/955737 "2021-12-08T21:50:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2021, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-books-or-plays-that-grew-on-you-original-title-movies-that-grew-on-you/955737/21 "2021-12-09T06:10:08Z")
The IMDb lists the following five movies: _I Am Curious (Yellow)_ (1967) _I Am Curious (Blue)_ (1968) _I Am Curious Tahiti_ (1970) _I Am Curious Gay_ (1970) _I Am Curious, Film_ (1995) ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2021, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-books-or-plays-that-grew-on-you-original-title-movies-that-grew-on-you/955737/22 "2021-12-09T15:23:29Z")
Yup, The Big Labowski for sure. Now one of my favorites. I know this is about movies, but now that my Wife can stream TV (better satellite) we are getting into ‘The X-Files’. Next I think maybe we will try ‘Grimm’. Both my wife and I like this type of stuff. Should be right up our alley. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2021, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-books-or-plays-that-grew-on-you-original-title-movies-that-grew-on-you/955737/23 "2021-12-09T15:34:04Z")
If books and films both count, I assume stage plays aren’t too far a departure. “Our Town”. I found it stultifyingly boring as a high school student. “Bleah, I don’t like a single character in this thing, or their trivial little lives. I could never bring myself to care about anything that’s happening to any of them”. I do remember being vaguely roused from my sullen boredom towards the end where someone’s a ghost, but it was only on seeing the whole thing years later that the piece registered with me. ---
**Author:** ![Chad\_Sudan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chad_sudan/32/4509_2.png) [@Chad\_Sudan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chad_Sudan)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2021, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-books-or-plays-that-grew-on-you-original-title-movies-that-grew-on-you/955737/24 "2021-12-09T15:36:12Z")
[**Repo Man**](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087995/) (1984). I can’t think of any other movie quite like this one! On first viewing, I couldn’t make heads or tails of it. Subsequent viewings – the second through the 15th – were far more rewarding. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2021, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-books-or-plays-that-grew-on-you-original-title-movies-that-grew-on-you/955737/25 "2021-12-09T15:41:46Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > There are a number of different movies called something like _I Am Curious_ , and I don’t know which one or ones you’re talking about. These: > [@DesertDog](#): > > Two Sewdish movies, [_Yellow_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Curious_(Yellow)) and [_Blue_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Curious_(Blue)). The litigation that allowed these films to be shown in the U.S. is an important landmark in the history of the First Amendment. Arguably more important than the films themselves. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2021, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-books-or-plays-that-grew-on-you-original-title-movies-that-grew-on-you/955737/26 "2021-12-09T16:42:03Z")
Yeah, I saw _Yellow_, the more famous one, when it came out. Never saw _Blue_ until I rented both of them on Netflix. @mbh’s analysis is right, they are more fun to talk about than to watch. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2021, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-books-or-plays-that-grew-on-you-original-title-movies-that-grew-on-you/955737/27 "2021-12-09T17:02:33Z")
I guess this list is entirely made up of films that I thought I liked but didn’t really understand/couldn’t really take in the first time that I saw them. Blade Runner - I knew there was something special about it the first time I saw it, but I didn’t know what. Every subsequent time you watch it, it gives you more. (Every subsequent time you watch it, it’s been re-edited as well!) Harold And Maude - funnier with every watching Apocalypse Now - just too big to take in at first MASH - very difficult to follow on a first watch And then there’s … _Banzai!_ That’s the British TV show, the spoof Japanese gambling show which must have aired in the UK around about 1990 (the dates in Wiki are wrong). Back in the days of 4 TV channels you ended up watching some woeful things - I sat through episode 1 and absolutely hated it. God knows why I watched episode 2, but I did, finally realizing it was a spoof, and I laughed til I cried. All that was thirty-odd years ago, when cultural steroetyping was passed off as just a bit of fun - I’m not going to post any samples. But if you can look past the cultural steroetyping, the sheer joyful stupidity of it still stands up pretty well. j ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2021, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-books-or-plays-that-grew-on-you-original-title-movies-that-grew-on-you/955737/28 "2021-12-09T17:21:23Z")
I think that Coen brothers movies are generally that way. I mean, _Raising Arizona_ was superficially funny the first time or two that I saw it, but it’s deeper than that and funnier than that after watching it a few more times. Same thing with _O Brother Where Art Thou_, _The Big Lebowski_ and several of their other movies. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@salinqmind1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind1)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2021, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-books-or-plays-that-grew-on-you-original-title-movies-that-grew-on-you/955737/29 "2021-12-09T17:34:10Z")
I had to watch The Matrix two or three times, back in the day, before I understood anything that was going on. Now one of my all-time favorites, even if only to marvel at the special effects. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2021, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-books-or-plays-that-grew-on-you-original-title-movies-that-grew-on-you/955737/30 "2021-12-09T17:52:18Z")
I first saw _The Nightmare Before Chrustmas_ in pan-and-scan in mono on VHS and didn’t think much of it. Later tried it again in widescreen DVD and 5.1 Dolby Digital, appreciated it much more. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2021, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-books-or-plays-that-grew-on-you-original-title-movies-that-grew-on-you/955737/31 "2021-12-09T17:53:36Z")
Hulk (2003). First time I watched it, I thought it was horrible. I watched it again a couple of years ago. Watching it again with different expectations, I thought it was a pretty good flick. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2021, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-books-or-plays-that-grew-on-you-original-title-movies-that-grew-on-you/955737/32 "2021-12-09T18:32:12Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > _Banzai!_ That’s the British TV show, the spoof Japanese gambling show which must have aired in the UK around about 1990 (the dates in Wiki are wrong). No, 2001-2003 is about right. I didn’t move to the UK until 1996 and it was definitely a few years after that. That and the longer-running _Eurotrash_ were in much the same vein of “foreigners being ridiculous in OTT ways”. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2021, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-books-or-plays-that-grew-on-you-original-title-movies-that-grew-on-you/955737/33 "2021-12-09T18:32:51Z")
My dad took me to see _2001: A Space Odyssey_ in reserved seats on Broadway (NYC) a few weeks after it was released. I was very excited to see it, having been a lifelong sci-fi fan at the old age of 15. I walked out of the theater mad and angry - perhaps crying - at how the story just didn’t make sense. But, as we went home, it dawned on me that perhaps the problem was not in the movie, but in me. So I resolved to read the book, which clarified so many things! A couple of months later I saw the movie again, and it was an entirely new experience. So I read the book a second time, and saw the movie a third time. Wash and repeat a couple more times over the next two years. (Popular movies had lots of reruns in the days before VCRs.) Each time, getting more and more out of it. I had a similar feeling of “there must be more here that went over my head” when I saw _Apocalypse Now_, but I was too busy with other stuff to follow up on it. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2021, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-books-or-plays-that-grew-on-you-original-title-movies-that-grew-on-you/955737/34 "2021-12-09T18:38:57Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > No, 2001-2003 is about right. I didn’t move to the UK until 1996 and it was definitely a few years after that. Here’s the thing: remember the days of discussing last night’s TV at work the next day? “Did you see that absolute pile of crap Banzai last night?” - Ep 1 made such bad impression, I can remember where I was standing and who I was talking to - and that was a job I left in 1995. j ETA - shit, I just checked on All4, and they say 2001. I must be losing it. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2021, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-books-or-plays-that-grew-on-you-original-title-movies-that-grew-on-you/955737/35 "2021-12-09T18:59:58Z")
My dad bought me this book. At the time, I was like: “Why would I want to read this? I’ve already seen the movie… with you!”. My dad responded: “Just read it and you can thank me later”. And I did indeed thanked him later. What a great book! ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2021, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-books-or-plays-that-grew-on-you-original-title-movies-that-grew-on-you/955737/36 "2021-12-09T19:44:24Z")
I’ve loved nearly all of the Coen Brothers’ films at first viewing, but **Barton Fink** was a pointless bore. Every so often I’d watch it again, and the fourth viewing did the trick- I suddenly “got” it. FWIW, _Llewellyn Jones_ is the only Coen film I’ve flat out hated. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2021, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-books-or-plays-that-grew-on-you-original-title-movies-that-grew-on-you/955737/37 "2021-12-09T20:26:49Z")
**Moderator Note** Thread title changed at OP’s request. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2021, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-books-or-plays-that-grew-on-you-original-title-movies-that-grew-on-you/955737/38 "2021-12-10T15:16:38Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > I’ve loved nearly all of the Coen Brothers’ films at first viewing, but **Barton Fink** was a pointless bore. I had a similar conversation experience with BF. I was quite surprised that I could feel a Coen Bro film could disappoint me so. I’m glad there is hope because I loved the feel and the acting. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2021, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-books-or-plays-that-grew-on-you-original-title-movies-that-grew-on-you/955737/39 "2021-12-10T16:16:01Z")
A couple of other Coen brothers films were boring, like _[A Serious Man](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Serious_Man)_. And others weren’t as much fun as their best work. (Like I was hoping for more from _[Hail, Caesar!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hail,_Caesar!)_.) ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2021, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-books-or-plays-that-grew-on-you-original-title-movies-that-grew-on-you/955737/40 "2021-12-10T16:51:25Z")
> [@Chad\_Sudan](#): > > [**Repo Man**](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087995/) (1984). > > I can’t think of any other movie quite like this one! > > On first viewing, I couldn’t make heads or tails of it. > > Subsequent viewings – the second through the 15th – were far more rewarding. My father rented this from the video store circa 1985. I watched it with him. To this day my father maintains it’s the worst movie he’s ever seen, and being just 7 at the time it didn’t make any more sense to me than it did to him. Having re-watched it as an adult that knows, appreciates, and understands punk rock, I _loved_ it. My father was never, ever going to “get” references like when Emilio Estevez started singing from Black Flag’s “TV Party”; it was just complete nonsense to him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-books-or-plays-that-grew-on-you-original-title-movies-that-grew-on-you/955737.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-books-or-plays-that-grew-on-you-original-title-movies-that-grew-on-you/955737.md?page=3)