There are TV shows you enjoy. At some point you had to begin watching it, and in doing so, you saw something that “got” you and impelled you to keep coming back. Sometimes it’s a whole episode, sometimes it’s a character, sometimes it’s one scene, or even just one line.
Examples:
Scrubs - it was amusing at first, and the first few episodes had their moments, but the one that hooked me was “My Two Dads” (season 1, episode 5). There was the “ass box,” Elliot’s magic breasts, and of course, the cast dressed up as Star Wars characters.
Dead Like Me - “A Cook” (season 1, episode 8): I really didn’t like this show through the whole “learning to be a reaper” part of the first season (though I like those episodes now), but this is the episode that I connected with for some reason. I think it’s because it’s the first episode that features Rube as more than just the authority/father figure.
The Office - “Health Care” (season 1, episode 3): the whole episode is really just Jim fucking with Dwight. That was always the best part of the show.
So what are shows you’ve enjoyed and what is the episode/scene/line that hooked you?
Buffy the Vampire Slayer - “The Harvest” (Season 1, Episode 2):
Giles: We’re at the center of a mystical convergence here. We may, in fact, stand between the Earth and its total destruction. Buffy Summers: Well, I gotta look on the bright side. Maybe I can still get kicked out of school. Xander: Oh, yeah, that’s a plan. 'Cause lots of schools aren’t on Hellmouths. Willow Rosenberg: Maybe you could blow something up. They’re really strict about that. Buffy Summers: I was thinking of a more subtle approach, y’know, like excessive not studying. Giles: The Earth is doomed.
TNG: I was in college and wasn’t really watching that much TV, and wasn’t sold on the “new” Star Trek to begin with. Then I saw the episode with the Dowd and was hooked. The plot completely blew me away, especially his line “You don’t understand the scope of my crime. I didn’t kill just one Husnock, or a hundred, or a thousand. I killed them all. All Husnock. Everywhere.”
I came to find out after watching them all through the years that that was a perfect place for me to pick up the series - the ones before it were still finding their bearings IMO.
A few months ago, I had a medical procedure done early in the morning, and was home alone the rest of the day. While channel surfing, I hit a rerun of the first two episodes of Supernatural, and I was hooked. As a kid, I was a huge fan of the short-lived ***Kolchak: the Night Stalker, ***and this show had the same feel (but better production values and smarter scripts).
I was channel surfing and came onto a scene with a white guy and a black guy talking. I stopped dead in my tracks. My thoughts were:
What is this?
You do not see acting this good on TV.
What is this?
Whatever it is, I wish someone had broken into my apartment right before the first episode, put a gun to my head, and forced me to watch it.
WHAT IS THIS???
I checked the TV Guide during the commercial, and that’s how I found House.
Tyrion Lannister hooked me on Game of Thrones. A wine swilling, debauched dwarf with a sarcastic wit who is always the smartest guy in the room. What’s not to like?
Raylan sits down with gun thug Tommy Bucks and reminds him that he had been given 24 hours to leave town or be shot on sight. And that he had 2 minutes left.
There was some banter back and forth, tough guy guy posturing…AND THEN RAYLAN SHOT HIM!! Twice in the chest! Poolside at a hotel with dozens of witnesses!
Granted, when the time had expired, Tommy did reach for his gun, and Raylan was faster. But would Raylan have actually shot Tommy if he didn’t pull? It was made clear later that he probably would have.
Favorite quote: *I shot people I like more for less. *
I just learned that my most favorite singer James Otto is going to be on a show that I have never seen before this Sunday night! Therefore, this will be the first time that I give My Classic Car on the Speed network a whirl and if anyone else that I love is on the show later on, I will watch then too!
God bless you and James and my other favorites always!!!
Holly
With Buffy, it was the 4th season episode “Something Blue.” We didn’t have cable until then, but I had heard good things about the show, so I watched.
At the end Willow comes face to face with D’Hoffryn (I didn’t know the name until now), who tried to make her join him. She refused. Instead of the usual trope of the villain then trying to force her to join him, D’Hoffryn sighs, hands her a stone and say, “Here’s my token. If you change your mind, give me a summons.” I was hooked: it was perfectly logical, but totally unexpected.
My entry? I can’t believe it’s still on the board!
“Darn.”
If you don’t know the reference without looking at the spoiler, you’ve got some catching up to do. Lucky you.
Malcolm Reynolds, “Firefly”, who attempted to be reasonable with a bad guy. Said bad guy gives a nasty speech ending with, “It doesn’t matter where you go, or how far you fly. I will hunt you down, and the last thing you see will be my blade!” Mal’s response was, “Darn.” followed by him kicking the bad guy though a spacecraft engine.
Instant fan for life.
The opening scene of Deadwood, with condemned prisoner Clell Watson trying to bargain with Sheriff Seth Bullock for his life. A lynch mob shows up.
Seth won’t give Clell to the mob. He doesn’t want gunplay, and he sure doesn’t want to die protecting a man scheduled for execution. So he decides to hang Clell from the front porch of the jail, “under color of law”.
My favorite bit is when Clell says “That’s not enough of a drop.” Seth says “I’ll help you with the drop.” Clell gives Seth some last words for his sister, ending with “You help me with my fuckin’ fall!” Seth grabs him around the waist and pulls down.
I watched Firefly in the intended order, not broadcast, so what hooked me ended up being Kaylee and the strawberry. Not that myriad other scenes couldn’t have done it too, had I seen them first.
o