Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Not An Early Adopter

So a few minutes ago, I finished watching Firefly.

For the first time.

Yes, I know, the show went off the air over a decade ago. Yes, my friends and colleagues and editor had been bugging me to watch it for almost that long. Yes, I loved it as much as they all insisted I would.

But that's me. I'm not, generally speaking, an early adopter.

Sometimes, I wish I was more in tune with current pop culture, and caught up on stuff like this as it happens. There's something a little sad about watching something so awesome when no one else is watching at the same time. (I do so love Twitter for that reason - the few shows I do watch in first run are a blast to chat about in real time with other fans!)

But yes, Firefly. I'm outraged in retrospect by the untimely cancellation of this amazing show, I'm a little bit in love with pretty much every single character, and my not-so-secret crush on Nathan Fillion continues unabated.

So how about you? Do you watch stuff in the first flush of popularity, or do you catch on after the fact? And what other decade-old shows do you recommend I catch up on next?

5 comments:

  1. Since we don't have cable (by choice) I watch everything on DVD or streaming. So yeah, I'm usually a least a season behind, if not longer. I mean, I just watched The Avengers a month or so ago.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I hate being behind. OTOH, I take periodic multi-year breaks from TV and occasionally end up tuning into a show that's been going strong for several seasons. I rarely go back and catch up on what went on before. But that's TV. With books, if I love a series, I always want to read EVERYTHING.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Since we don't have a TV, we're always behind. But that gives us a chance to decide if we really really want to watch something. Like Game of Thrones -- after seeing the reaction at the end of last season, I'm pretty confident that we can skip that series. But yes. Firefly. LOVE!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. YAY FIREFLY <333333333333

    It varies - like you said, being part of the fandom as an amazing show airs is a pretty awesome experience, BUT - and this is a big but - I HATE WAITING. Really really hate it. And even if a show is great, as little as a week between episodes can totally bugger up the momentum for me. I don't know how it would've affected some of my favourite shows if I'd had to watch them week to week - for example, I got into Buffy about a year after it finished and I was SO SO GRATEFUL that I could just grab the next DVD and didn't have to wait. Unless it's really powerful stuff (and Buffy is, so it might not have mattered), I tend to feel it dilutes my immersion experience.

    So I tend to marathon by season (or if it's a mini-series, after it's finished). I can just about deal with the between-seasons wait, that's more like waiting for the next book in a series. But the drip-feed of a weekly watch - nah, can't be bothered usually. Not unless I am really really massively obsessed.

    So yes, generally I tend to be behind - depends on the show, sometimes it's not FAR behind, just until the season's done airing, or if it's a show that came recommended but that I don't feel a strong urge to OMG MUST SEE RIGHT AWAY, I may just wait until the whole thing's done. Avoiding spoilers can be a pain but most of my friends are pretty good about it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete