Insert Obligatory Brokeback Mountain Reference Here

[spectralbovine]

Last night, while washing dishes, I came to the following conclusion:

Come this fall, I really have to quit Prison Break and Smallville.

The reasons for this are numerous:

1. They are the two worst shows I continue to watch. Why am I wasting hours of my life watching shows that aren't even that good? What am I really getting out of them? I've watched

Comments

[wee_warrior]

I've been watching these shows for years, and I'm such an anal completist that it will niggle at me that I'm missing the rest of the story. That it's out there and I'm not getting it. I mean, it's for that reason that I at least have to watch Smallville until the end of the season just to give it a nice close-out point (except they'll probably have some awesome cliffhanger that will reel me back in). I managed to skip most of the last season of The X-Files back in the day, but I've become far more obsessive about my television-viewing habits since then. I don't know how to let go of TV shows! They're long stories! You can't just put a book down in the middle and never come back to it! How do you people do it? I need a support group.

You could try a DVD player first. I'm sure all of PB and SV will inevitably get put on DVD.

Either way, good luck with quitting them, they're worth it... ;)

[punzerel]

You can just watch them on DVD when they come out - or download them and watch a few episodes at a time when you have a free afternoon.

ALSO, you definitely should be watching HIMYM. Yay!

[spectralbovine]

You can just watch them on DVD when they come out - or download them and watch a few episodes at a time when you have a free afternoon.
Yeah, I feel like this might be a good compromise. Just so I can stop being so...tied to them. I could always mainline the season afterward if I hear it's worth it, or I just can't take Not Knowing anymore. And if I don't have anything else I'm in the mood to mainline at the time.

[sneaker328]

There are very few shows I have ever watched through to the end. Even my all-time favorite old sitcoms like Murphy Brown, Designing Women, and The Nanny (shut up- it was so underrated) eventually had to be cut off, and it was a quick, clean cut. I've always held that most shows- unless they're so episodic they're almost anthologies, like Law and Order, can't maintain quality past 4-5 seasons. The only shows I forced myself to keep watching despite terrible quality in the later seasons were Buffy and Angel, and that was more to do with an addiction to TWoP than anything else. Part of me really regrets it, because my memories have been tainted, whereas I still hold on to pure, happy memories of X-Files and The West Wing, etc. The only other shows I saw in their entirety were the ones that were cut off during their prime.

Oh, and I'm still watching Scrubs because I zoomed through that entire show in one month and it got bad, but not offensively so. This season so far is better than the previous two had been.

[ikcelaks]

TV-land would be a much better place if there was a five year term limit for serial dramas. Shows would get closure that was actually meaningful, fans wouldn't be dragged along by a sense of hopeless loyalty, and the talented people who make shows good enough to survive past their due date would be freed to work on something exciting, new, and interesting.

Hopefully the play-hard-and-die-young formula of Battlestar Galactica will work out well enough that others are inspired to try something similar, but I doubt it. Not enough people watch BSG and way too many people continue to watch old stale shows.

[sneaker328]

Yup. Having an endgame planned certainly seems to have re-infused Lost with a lot of life and creativity. At the very least it's watchable again, which is more than I can say for the vast majority of the previous season.

[spectralbovine]

Yeah, as much as I love having More Show, I think television is often better served in the British model of shorter seasons, too. You get more concentrated awesome that way.

[raelee]

You can do it, P-C!! (But I feel your pain... why do you think I'm still watching One Tree Hill despite hating pretty much all of the current storylines?) Even when you don't really care about the characters, it's hard to just walk away from them. Plus, I suffer from the paranoia that I'll give up and two or three more episodes down the line the show will suddenly get GREAT again.

[spectralbovine]

EXACTLY. I mean, look at Lost. It's a perfect example of a show that many people were getting frustrated with and dropping...and then in the second half of the third season, it came back with a vengeance, and now it's awesome again. (Lost, however, is part of the cultural zeitgeist.)

(Hell, even Jericho is a good example. Halfway through the first season, it suddenly turned into a good, interesting show I might have liked.)

[raelee]

Ahh but then Jericho turned back into a big ole pile of steaming crapola again at the beginning of the second season. I know the theory is that, if a show turned the corner, you could catch up on the few episodes you missed but that's not always easy and I know you, like me, don't like to jump back in without seeing those missing episodes. Even now I feel like I'm missing information because I did lose faith in Lost and wasn't watching as closely as I could have been.

HOWEVER, I think you probably have to look at how long a show has stunk and how long you've just been holding on hoping that it'll get back to the show you once loved. If it's been longer than two seasons, don't you have to wonder if it'll ever be able to come back?

[spectralbovine]

Ahh but then Jericho turned back into a big ole pile of steaming crapola again at the beginning of the second season.
You think? I've heard it's been awesome.

I know the theory is that, if a show turned the corner, you could catch up on the few episodes you missed but that's not always easy and I know you, like me, don't like to jump back in without seeing those missing episodes.
Yep!

Even now I feel like I'm missing information because I did lose faith in Lost and wasn't watching as closely as I could have been.
Well, now you know it's worth your time to catch up. You have a month! Get all the information and come back invigorated and theory-happy!

[amadyce]

I don't watch Prison Break but I think I know how you feel about Smallville. I don't really like the show much these days though I still have character favorites (i.e, Chloe, Lois, bad!Lana). Seriously, the only reason I'm hanging on is to see the end. What I mean by that is I really want to see the end of the Clark Kent story, as in his transition into the Superman role. I want to see that last season where he gets the job at the Daily Planet, starts to get confused about his feelings for Lois, and makes that change where he decides to take on the supehero role. I know that'll mean the end of the show but at this point I kind of want it to end. And the possible ending sounds more interesting than anything I've seen in the past few seasons.

[spectralbovine]

Good God, yes, I've just been wanting it to END forever. And even if I break away from it, I would definitely tune in for the last few episodes, just like I did for XF. Got to see how it ends!

(Chloeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.)

[amadyce]

Yeah I did the same for XF. Though Smallville keeps seeming to be getting close to the end . . . and then not. I'm guessing it's on for another season? I haven't really paid attention to that.

And yes, Chloeeeeeeeeee! I think she's the main reason I keep tuning in.

[spectralbovine]

I think she's basically everyone's reason for still tuning in. Even Lex sucks now, for God's sake.

It's inexplicably on for another season, but Lex and Lana will only be recurring characters. And it's sort of exciting to think about Smallville without ALL LANA ALL THE TIME, but...