Television Meme Picking Up the Pace

[rabid1st]

It has probably dawned on all of you by now that I don't watch much television. So, this meme is getting rather repetitive. And boring! So, I've decided to just do a handful of days at a time to get this over with quicker. Yes, I am rather impatient. Also, at the rate I'm writing this will take forever.

Day 08 - A show everyone should watch
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving

Okay, at first I thought Day 08 was the same as an earlier day. A show I wish more people were watching. But then I realized that it wasn't quite. This could be any show at any time that I just think everyone should watch. I would say that show is Buffy the Vampire Slayer...S1-S5. Buffy broke so much ground in television. Nearly ever modern show has some BtVS influence. If only the really annoying song that tells us how we are supposed to feel that plays over a montage of character scenes at the end of an episode. Yes, you can thank Buffy and Joss Whedon for that.

Day 09 -- And again we are with Buffy. Another reason everyone should watch Buffy is the game changing scene was a standard in the show. Case in point, my favorite all time scene is the one at the end of Out of My Mind...when we learned that Spike is in love with Buffy. It caused me to shiver all over and jump out of my seat to cheer. I never expected the show to go there. And they would do that time and time again...take the episode right before The Body. Or New Moon. Or Oz making that phone call to his aunt about his baby cousin biting his finger. Earshot elevating Jonathan. So many great scenes.

Day 10 -- Easily Supernatural. That show surprised the heck out of me. I tried to watch it from the beginning about four times before I finally forced myself to get beyond episode 7. I had no idea it would have one of the best runs of any show on television. Of course, like the X-Files and Buffy it is going to go on beyond what should be the proper end. I don't know how it will turn out in the end.

Rae

Comments

[asahifirsa.livejournal.com]

I'm not yet at the point you are with Supernatural, but you're giving me hope :)

And that scene with Spike realizing he is in love. That really was amazing. I think one of the best episodes ever is the musical one (Once more with feeling?). I think that one was ground-breaking. And I do so love the duet at the end. But also the point where everyone realizes that they did not "rescue" Buffy, actually quite the opposite.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

There you go, that's another game-changing moment on Buffy. Buffy was full of those moments. Buffy gets a sister and we think "What is this load of crap?" and it turns out we are right to think that. Or Buffy dies. Or Oz turns out to be the werewolf. Or Willow goes gay. Or Buffy and Spike suddenly have sex. There's an old Buffy vid to "The End of the World" which highlights how often that happened on that show. No other show had quite the record for groundbreaking plotting. And that made it very ironic when they started resetting the characters to default point in S6. The show lost the very essence of what made it great when it stopped following through on shocking events.

Supernatural is a great show for the complete storyline from S1-S5. Every bit of it is relevant and that is amazing. I think there are lots of episodes that are a trial in S1 and in S5. But S2, 3 and 4 just build on one another until you can't wait for the next week. And I loved the finale of S5. The last three episodes were so very good. I only wish we didn't have those few in the middle there. I particularly liked Death and Dean sharing a pizza. Wait for it... :grin:

Rae

[xlostangelx.livejournal.com]

The end of Out of My Mind saved Buffy for me. Before that happened I was really drifting away from the show but that scene pulled me right back in, more obsessive and passionate about the show than ever.

Hmmm, I might have to reconsider Supernatural. I've never been able to get past the first few episodes of season 1 (I've tried twice I think), but maybe I just have to force myself.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Technically you could start mid season one with an episode called HOME! It pretty much starts you into the journey with the boys, but you don't really start getting the entire picture until the S2 episode Croatoan. Still, looking back over the episodes having seen the finale...I'm not sure that you could really skip much after Home airs in S1. Supernatural really did make everything in the entire 5 seasons relevant in some way. And the journey actually WAS very important. Writers and directors are always going on about "The Hero's Journey" but it was never as well executed as it was in Supernatural.

All I can tell you as you set out to watch it...if you do...is don't fall in love with any one person...allow yourself to love them all equally. I saw so many people fall in love with Sam or Dean or Bobby or Ruby or Meg and then learn that their hero wasn't the "True Hero" of the piece. Supernatural doesn't have heroes, just really battered people and you have to get to know them over the course of a long road of semi-crappy episodes. Though once you figure out about Sam...then things become quite interesting in my opinion...S4 is fantastic.

Rae

[xlostangelx.livejournal.com]

Well I definitely have to watch now seeing as how this might be the only show to ever have a successful multi-season arc. Shows usually crash and burn when they try to do this. Also, I dislike shows with designated heroes so no character being the hero will make me happy. I'll give it a go later this summer. I actually bought season 1 for like 12 bucks once so I can start by just watching DVDs I've already purchased.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Good! Just allow it to be really crappy. I must say that when I began to get very excited about the show...at the end of S2...I kept going, "How can this be happening? Am I crazy? This show can't possibly deliver when all of the "genius" shows failed."

But I really do think that Supernatural S5 finale...which is for all intents and purposes the finale Kripke designed when he started writing...works.

[auntiesuze.livejournal.com]

Buffy did break some serious ground. One of my first TV obsessions was Beauty and the Beast, back in the day when the leads weren't allowed to kiss because it smacked of "beastiality". Fifteen years later and you got vampires and werewolves and witches and ghosts and everybody is shagging everybody else and no one bats an eye. And they went SO far beyond the show premise. I know so many people who poo-pooed the show as being silly and juvenile. But they tackled some really tough issues and did it with aplomb. They just tackled it with monsters. ;)

I'm trying to remember if I've watched Supernatural from the beginning or if I was a little late to the party. That's probably because the early episodes weren't exactly stellar. But, boy, has it only gotten better over the years. It's not often you can say that about a series. I, too, am a tad worried about where they're going from here, but I think these show runners really have a good handle on their audience (as evidenced from the crazy meta stuff they've included). I doubt that they would drag it out just to make a few bucks off a crappy remnant of a once-great show (*caff*X-Files*caff*).

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Well, you do know that it isn't really the SHOW RUNNERS that are dragging out Supernatural, right? It is the network. The cast has a six year contract and the network is carrying their option, like it or not. Kripke, the man with the plan...saw the plan through at the end of S5 and he's gone. So different head writer and producer this new season. Also probably a completely different crew, because they are moving the entire production to Florida...from Vancouver. That's about as far away as you can get from those watery grey tone the show is famous for at this time.

So I don't know that we won't live to regret what is about to happen on Supernatural...but that said...it was one hell of a three year ride to the S5 finale. I still remember the day I figured out that Sam was the Antichrist...and I was all..."NO??" And then I thought, "Man, this is so cool." I mean, that show was so sacrilegious while taking a straight line through the ideas behind the rapture and fundamentalist religions. I am surprised there wasn't lines of protest about it. But because it was tucked away on the CW...nobody seemed to notice how positively perverse it was.

I too really enjoyed Beauty and the Beast. There's some fantastic work on that show. Of course, it is marred for me by the attempt they made to go on without Catherine. That was a mistake on their part, I think.

Rae

[auntiesuze.livejournal.com]

Well, shoot, no I didn't know that. Now I'm worried again. Eep. And, wait, FLORIDA??? o_0

And we don't talk about the third season of BATB. Totally didn't happen. Nope. ;)