I just looked at how I titled this post and realized it could be seen as a Hannah Baker like thing.
But no.
What's on my mind is TV shows.
And speaking of Hannah Baker and TV shows, 13 Reasons Why might be a good counter example to what I want to talk about in this post.
I watched 13 Reasons Why a few weeks ago, and I was hooked from the first episode—maybe even the first scene. I was never bored. I loved the whole thing.
But often it doesn't work that way.
Sometimes it's like at first sight, and the like stays at like, or it grows to love.
And sometimes it's dislike at first sight, and then I'm torn about what I should do next.
Actually, now that I think of it, it's really a conflict I have only when I watch shows with Tim.
For the shows I watch myself, I force myself to at least finish off the season.
I guess with Tim, I'm more open to quitting?
Anyway, so this week we watched the Indian horror miniseries Ghoul. I thought the first episode was okay, kind of boring. I wasn't really into it. The second episode was slightly better but not by much. I would have considered quitting, but we had only one episode left. I figured we might as well get through it.
Well, guess what?
The third episode was fantastic...very clever. I'm glad we watched it.
You know...I'm just going to name some examples of times where there was a temptation to quit and the outcome.
Dark-The German science fiction miniseries. In the first few episodes we were confused and pretty bored. Then around...maybe the fourth episode? Things suddenly got crazy and awesome.
A Series of Unfortunate Events-I didn't mind the first episode that much, but Tim asked if we could quit, because he didn't like it. I was fine quitting. Then later Tim, for some reason, ended up watching it and liked it a lot. He offered to re-watch it with me. I did consider it but never really got in the mood.
The Path-I was bored with the first couple of episodes and didn't like seeing Hugh Dancy having pathetic, disturbed, desperate sex. If I remember correctly, I was leaning towards quitting. I think Tim suggested we give it a chance.
We got through the first season. I sort of liked it but was thinking it might be best to just say good-bye here. From what I saw on IMDb, season 2 had a drop in user ratings.
For some reason, we decided to stick through it.
I liked season 2 more than season 1, and I LOVED season 3. The Path is now one of my favorite TV shows.
Fargo-Tim likes this show more than me, but I do like it. For the first two seasons, I was bored in the beginning episodes but liked the episodes towards the end.
Then recently we watched season 3.
I was not getting into it.
And even Tim didn't like it as much as previous seasons.
We got to the second to last episode and I was STILL bored.
I think I questioned whether we should quit. Though it seemed kind of dumb to quit when there were only two episodes left.
And guess what. I ended up liking the second to last episode and the last episode. It took to the end for me to get into the show! And it made me kind of feel guilty. It's like when you go to camp...or maybe go on a cruise? You're not having fun. You're not into the atmosphere. You just want to go home. Then the last day you meet a friend, suddenly you're having fun, and you regret that you didn't appreciate the cruise/camp beforehand.
The Fall-We expected to like this but quit after the first episode. For some reason, I don't think I've ever felt very conflicted over quitting.
Or maybe I did...for a short while. I'm not sure.
Sharp Objects-This was another one I expected to like. I was bored. We tried two episodes. We had planned to return to it when more episodes were added. Then we changed our mind and decided to move onto other things.
Castle Rock-I think we watched two or three episodes of this. I found it disappointing. All I cared about really was seeing Pennywise not being Pennywise.
But maybe I do feel slightly conflicted about this one.
What if it suddenly turns awesome, and we're depriving ourselves?
I think with making the choice to quit or not quit, there is the question of whether a show is starting out slow or whether it's simply not your kind of thing. Or maybe you're just not in the mood and if you wait it out a bit, later you will be in the mood.
Life is too short to sit there watching shows that don't fulfill us. But then what if I had given up on Dark, Fargo, Ghoul, and The Path? I feel I would have deprived myself of something.
