Media confessions

[grammarwoman]

My husband has given up being surprised when I know all about a movie or TV show despite having never seen it, because being fandom adjacent is a sort of omniscience.

However, I feel compelled to confess the gaps in my fannish experience, ie the things I haven't finished or never got around to seeing that it seems EVERYONE else has:

Leverage
Due South
Fringe (though this one is less my fault, as I was specifically asked to not watch it so my TV killing curse would spare it, and then never got back to it)
Orphan Black, season 3ish and onward
The Librarians, season 2 and onward
Avatar: TLA, season 1sh and onward
Legend of Korra
The Clone Wars
Star Wars Rebels
Slings and Arrows
Person of Interest
Supernatural
Parks & Rec
Community


At some point, I would love to get around to working my way through this list. It'll probably mean watching less HGTV, for starters.

So which do you think I should start with? And what fannishly popular media have you missed yourselves?

Comments

[heresluck]

Personally, I would vote for Slings & Arrows; it's delightful, there are only three seasons, and the seasons are only 6 eps. Also it is one of my favorite shows ever ever ever -- though parts of it, especially the parts that are supposed to be ~funny!~, are not entirely to my taste and I do a fair amount of fast-forwarding when I rewatch.

Leverage was a mixed bag for me. I can whole-heartedly recommend the first season; the second season was also fun, and then I got bored -- though I did go back for parts of the final season, and that was happy-making. Part of the issue, for me, was that the show could not make up its mind whether it wanted to be episodic or arc-driven. Normally I go for arc-driven, but this was a show where I just wanted Shenanigans of the Week, especially because the writers' choices about arc material did not highlight what I found interesting about the characters.

Orphan Black is worth watching just for the tour de force that is Tatiana Maslany. Again, it's been a bit of a mixed bag; S1 is good, S2 is better, S3 is... less good, and S4 was better than S3 but kind of bewildering.

I liked Fringe all the way to the end -- the latter seasons have some hiccups but are still worth watching, imo. S2 and S3 are some of the most thrilling SF I've ever seen, honestly.

Avatar: TLA is charming. I found it fairly forgettable, ultimately, but YMMV, and it was certainly enjoyable.

Due South... ahahahaha. So many people love this show. I vidded this show because of some of them. And I do genuinely like the characters. But I cannot really recommend the show itself, not least because it hit my embarassment squick with a HAMMER. If this is not an issue for you, and if you are willing to be quizzed about which Ray you like best, then godspeed, my friend. Alternatively, you could just watch the pilot episode and the first episode of S3 and then read all the fic.

...and the rest I haven't seen (or I saw a few eps and they didn't ping for me).

[misbegotten]

Alternatively, you could just watch the pilot episode and the first episode of S3 and then read all the fic.

Heh. This is so true.

[grammarwoman]

I am definitely taking this under advisement. :)

[princessofgeeks]

You are I were watching the same version of Leverage!

[heresluck]

Our version of Leverage was an excellent show! Heh.

[grammarwoman]

Oh my - I would have never guessed that you'd have opinions on all these. ;)

It's looking like S&A is a clear favorite for the responders. Let's see how fast my library can process my hold request!

I am already anticipating that I'll be watching Leverage for the wrong reasons, mainly the shenanigans and the delicious development of the Hardison/Parker/Elliott OT3.

I'm glad to hear that my wandering away from Orphan Black was a season 3 thing, and not all on me. In any case, Maslany is a masterpiece.

It's ridiculous that I haven't watched Fringe yet, because I have it all on DVD! I guess I really am that lazy, because I love a tasty SF story.

I'm hoping to coerce my son into watching A:TLA with me again. He bailed and I shrugged and forgot to keep watching.

My embarrassment squick is continental-sized, so if I do get around to Due South, I may just take your advice.

Thank you for the detailed reply! :)

[heresluck]

I am nothing if not a fount of strong opinions about TV!

FWIW, I think Leverage might be well served by marathon watching, which could make it easier to handwave its attempts to construct a narrative arc. I will also say that I was fond of the show pretty much any time Hardison and/or Parker and/or Eliot were onscreen -- and I say that as someone who was not especially OT3ish about them, I just *liked* them all.

S3 of Orphan Black -- that was not just you, my friend. I mean, I still liked it, but there was quite a bit of WTF even among those of us who stuck it out.

I think you will like Fringe a lot, I have to say. I understand why a lot of people were disappointed in the last couple of seasons, and I do think that Olivia -- who is the show's biggest draw, and for good reasons -- becomes somewhat less central in some ways, and that was legitimately a bummer. But what I liked about the show, all the way to the end, was that it was not afraid to GO THERE -- to do some truly batshit crazy stuff. Those risks did not all pay off equally well, but I really respect the show for NOT treading water, for not simply reprising itself, and for following through on some of its weirdest ideas. I was occasionally bewildered, but I was NEVER bored.

DS telegraphs the embarrassment humor pretty well, so if you watch the pilot and fall hard for the characters, it might be well worth watching -- possibly with your finger on the mute button. It is a very charming show, and I do not regret watching it! But for me, the charm-to-squick ratio was not high enough to get me through a rewatch with the sound on.

[umadoshi]

When Fringe is on the ball, it is INCREDIBLY good. I'm in the "disappointed in S5 (and late S4)" camp, but ohmyheart, that show. Olivia Dunham is a glory on this earth.

I pass on this warning, which I was given too late: ep. 1x02 is astoundingly awful. Like, one of the worst episodes of TV I have ever seen in my life. It is not representative.

[grammarwoman]

Hee! Very duly noted. Farscape comes with a similar caveat: the first half of season 1 is a bumpy ride, but after that it will sweep you away.