Bring on the geeks

[itsallovernow]

Hee - I'd love to know at which point geek went from meaning "Eat anything Circus Freak" to person with excessive knowledge of things relating to a specific subject, often technology, science fiction or fantasy. I mean, maybe it's the whole consumption metaphor. Shrugs. Just glad I don't have to shave my head and tattoo a puzzle on my skull to be considered a geek.

However, with Serenity opening this weekend (M. and I have plans for Saturday. I buy the tickets, he'll buy the bourbon. He even made up a song about it, deciding it could be John Crichton's second greatest hit, after his #1 single, "I'm comin' home, you'd better hide keys, since no piece of chicken or girl's safe from me" Hee. Okay, so he was mildly chemically altered when he started making up the songs in the persona of a sci fi hero, but it amused the hell out of me).

I think we're gonna have to save MirrorMask for next weekend though as my cash will be gone since I'm also going to see The Frames tomorrow night with sorlklewis, assuming Captain Trips doesn't have her laid up in bed.

Since it's premiere month, and well, since I have an edit to do on my article before I send it to the fabulous lizlet, I'm stalling and looking for answers, pinpoints if you will.

sdwolfpup is currently running the farscape_weekly community, and every week includes a round up of those discovering Farscape or rewatching it and discussing it. I like to skim through these posts, either grinning to myself or geeking out, unable to keep from commenting. What I find particularly fascinating is that moment where the show, or a particular character, clicked for people. When it went from "something to do at night" to, "must find out what happens next". In some cases, the moment is easy to pinpoint. "A Human Reaction" often snags those who are watching start to finish, and more often than not, people are intrigued by Aeryn straight off, and scared that D'Argo is gonna be a Klingon ripoff, and that John is just "Not Their Type". This often changes, and that change is what fascinates me.

So, tell me when, with your favorite shows - past and present - when did it click for you, storywise, characterwise, arc wise. What made you sit up and take notice, decide to devote the time and mental energy to this medium. What made you stick around? Actually, I'd be interested in knowing this about books as well, but I have a feeling this is more amorphous.

Comments

[eve11]

Firefly got me as soon as they completely silently burned through the hold of the derelict ship. Then the dinosaurs cemented it :)

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

I have to admit to being a convert because of the DVD's, and yes, it was the dinosaurs that did it:)

[sorlklewis.livejournal.com]

If I was able to drag my ass into work today, I'm bloody well going to see The Frames with you. :)

(And I am feeling better... just fuzzy-headed and stuffy and so, so exhausted and drained that I could seriously take a nap right here at my desk, and my fear of falling asleep suddenly in the middle of working on a project is a legitimate one. Hee.)

As for MirrorMask, I'll totally go with you guys next weekend if you want, because I feel the need to support the little film and pimp it to kingdom come, which includes seeing it several times in theaters.

As for TV shows... with Farscape, it was the end of season 1. As to why... my brain won't let me elaborate at the moment.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Poor fuzzy headed munchkin!!

And dude, next weekend it is then for MirrorMask. I won't even grumble about the NuArt:)

[apathocles.livejournal.com]

I watched Farscape on and off from the beginning -- was taping it for a family member. It was probably AHR onwards that got me, although not really until I went back and watched them again a little later on in the gap between s2 and s3. My strongest memories from the first watch-through were from ABL, for some reason. I think it was the visuals of all the PKs in the cool uniforms, as well as the abundance of Australian accents. *g*

BtVS? Kind of the same, really. Started watching s3 eps that other people had taped, and they got me interested. Watched s4 as it screened. Was somewhat disappointed. *g*

There are a few shows that I've watched from day one, like Due South, NewsRadio, and Good Guys, Bad Guys, all of which I watched with the intent of watching, rather than just channel-surfing onto something that looked interesting.

Red Dwarf... started watching at the beginning of s6 (Psirens), went back and watched all the old stuff. Which, again, we had on tape. Living in a family of geeks has its upsides. *g*

I'm having trouble coming up with exact moments when I fell for different shows. I'm sure they happened in at least some of the cases, but I'm buggered if I can remember them. *g*

Justice League... I'd already fallen for it (oh, how I love Flash), but A Better World definitely hit my dystopic future kinks, and I hadn't seen a whole lot of eps before that; that ep was what really hooked me.

Samurai Jack... three awesome episodes in a row. The first one was the one where he met the Scotsman (who is so totally the bastard lovechild of D'Argo and Groundskeeper Willie, and he and Jack have a total John-D'Argo buddy relationship). Introduction of a character who had more of a definite personality than most seen thus far, and a lot of fun. Ep after that -- Samurai Jack as a pinstriped gangster, with an awesome jazzy soundtrack. SO MUCH LOVE. Ep after that -- Aku (the bad guy) attempts to sway a group of children (who hero-worship Jack) to his side, by re-telling a bunch of fairy tales with Jack re-cast as the bad guy. So much meta and silliness, including Ugly Stepsister!Jack. Between those three eps, I had no chance. *g*

Comics? Generally go on people's recs (and random, out-of-sequence scans read online), so it's hard to pick any particular points in most titles.

I really don't think I have too many moments when something clicks. Either I love it from the start, or it grows on me slowly as the friendships build/are revealed, to the point where I can't pick exactly where the love began. If I don't have any huge amount of interest from the start, then I don't keep watching/reading.

[scrubschick.livejournal.com]

Oh dear! I'm clearly surfing your brainwaves as I was too lazy to post this very question last night and too involved in catching up on Lost to bother thinking it through.

I promise I'll put your brainwaves right back where I found 'em.

Farscape: the fastest fall for me ever. I was hooked by the 'previously on Farscape' scenes at the beginning of SOD. John screaming as Aeryn drowns. And what a great ep to be rewarded with! The Best TV Kiss Ever. Went out the next day and started to by dvds. Astounding performances, gut-wrenching emotion, good dialog interspersed with a fair amount of humor. "Freeze or fry!" "Do NOT make me tongue you!" Scorpy's mind control device. Grunshlk. Undead!Aeryn. "Have you come to reassign me?" "I've come to take you back."

Scrubs: I saw the promos and caught the very first ep on its first airing. So true to what really goes on in hospitals and during residency -- but with a delightful skew to the bizarre. I haven't been religious about watching it since the first season but I was hooked that first ep.

West Wing: I caught a rerun on Bravo one evening. It was the ep where Josh, Toby, and Donna missed the campaign bus and were caught in the Midwest trying to get back to Washington. It was the ep where domestic terrorists set off pipe bombs at a college swim meet, killing dozens. It was the ep where Tori Amos sang "I Don't Like Mondays" over the shot of Donna, Josh, and Toby soaking wet in a hotel lobby and horrified by the news of the bombing. It was Bartlet's speech that night, written by Sam, "The streets of Heaven are filled with too many angels tonight." God. Hook. Line. Sinker.

XF: I was late to that party, too. I saw Firewalker first, in a hotel room with hubby and small children. N1S then proceeded to startle awake and sleepwalk all night long. (He had insisted on watching. Said he watched it at his friend's house regularly. I guess 'asparagus shooting out of people' was more than he could tolerate.) Didn't watch again for years. I think the next ep I saw was Lida and Maurice and 'paramasturbatory'. BWAHAHAHA!

Firefly: My brother loaned me the dvds and they sat there for almost a year before I popped one in. I knew I would like it, just from friends' comments, but I really didn't want to get involved with another cancelled show just then. Hooked right away. Smart, funny, sexy. Great dialog.

Gilmore Girls: I don't remember a single moment or even the first ep I saw, but it came highly recommended by cretkid and since we share many of the same tastes when it comes to tv, I gave it a whirl. Smart and funny with dialog that gives me whiplash.

BSG: In contrast, although I'll watch, I don't love it and am not really hooked. As you said, 'unrelenting dark'. I need more humor in my loves.

Probably enough of a ramble. In short: smarts, humor, and sexual tension in varying amounts will draw me in. Lost hooked me quickly despite the stupid premise that anyone could survive the breakup of a plane from that height. Once I started looking at it as 'fantasy' or 'fable' rather than 'RL', I loved it.

[boofadil.livejournal.com]

Farscape -- I watched this show bass ackwards so, I'll probably go with LatP when John hugs his daughter. That just killed me and I didn't even know these characters.

Firefly -- Wash playing with toys grabbed me, but River with the gun that kept me.

SGA -- I have no clue what grabbed me for this show. I think it was that it managed to feel deaper than SG-1, darker, while still being silly and funny and amusing. Joe Flannigan didn't hurt, either. Actually, it was in The Storm/The Eye when Sheppard thinks they killed Weir. His reaction was so strong and striking and totally real to me, even if a little scary. *shrug* I definitely like them better broken.

BSG -- 1.05 when Adama tells Lee that if it was him on that moon he'd never leave. The almost shocked look on Lee's face made me cry and that relationship took on a whole new light. It was that point where I virtually grabbed Red, wg and Jul and asked them to watch it just to let me know if I was crazy for loving this show this much. I have so much love for this show, but then I don't see it as unrelentingly dark, either. *g*

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

I don't find all of BSG unrelentingly dark, but this season has been pretty dour and as such, has failed to capture me in the same way the first season did. I can value and appreciate it, be very glad it's on, but well, I need it to find some dark levity, or at least some hope.

[boofadil.livejournal.com]

It's odd because I totally see the hope in it. I see the light and beauty in it, even if it's horridly dark so much of the time. I find it strange how differently this show is viewed by so many people. You got that some with Farscape, but mostly it was a love it like OMG! or hate it. BSG has this weird vibe for so many of you where it seems like everything is in place for you to fall in love and then...nothing.

It's hard for me to see anything less than OMG!LOVE! because I'm so in love with all these characters, but then I don't get the VM squee. And that seems to be an odd reaction to that show.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Mostly, I think I'm just not in a position to be fannish about anything these days that isn't preprogrammed. No extra energy for it.

And truthfully, while I know this sounds odd, some of the darkness that turns me off in BSG is the literal darkness, the color palette, the matte and muted tones. It makes things that aren't actually dour feel much more... weighted I guess.

Actually, the second to last episode did strike a niggling spark for me, made me joyful in a way that none of this seasons eps have done, but then Pegasus was so... heavy, fraught, that I didn't have time to revel in the lightness, and that ep didn't offer me any ironies, any black humor to counteract the trauma and I was stuck again.


I very much enjoy the show, haven't missed any of the episodes, but nor do I feel a desire to rewatch them immediately. I'll watch them in reruns, but don't have any interest in sifting through them for character bits. I think the characters are great (although Apollo bores me. I know, I know, it's blasphemy), the stories intense, topical and compelling, but that's where it ends for me. If it helps, I'm the same way about Veronica Mars. I think it's great TV, but the screen time is enough for me.

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

ahh, farscape. that would be the first shot of moya as john approaches her and responds to what he sees. *happy sigh* the most beautiful space ship *ever*.

and by the time d'argo tongued john in the first episode i was absolutely mesmerized.

um, star trek: next generation: first shot of captain picard. i was *toast*.

babylon 5...i don't remember...might have been something about the whole thing that just drew me in.

the new dr. who....by the end of the first episode i was giggling and jumping up and down. i was thinking: this is what this show was always suppposed to be. :)

firefly: finally borrowing the whole series from a friend and watching from beginning to end in one weekend. it was jayne that did me in. hee!

ps. love the john song m. made up. *g*
enjoy firefly! *hugs*

[umbo.livejournal.com]

A lot of the shows I love I got into after they'd already been on the air awhile. I can't actually remember specific episodes of Farscape or Homicide for that reason, mostly. I do remember what it was for Buffy, though--it was watching The Body. And for Angel, I caught the one from season 4 with the memory spell (I'm terrible at remembering episode titles and too lazy to go look at the dvds), when Angel went into the room and the radio was playing and Cordelia turned it off and he said something like, "You stopped the tiny men from singing."

With The Shield it was the pilot, when Vic shot Reed Diamond's character at the end. With Firefly it probably wasn't until Shindig. With SGA it was about halfway through the first season, I think, although that recollection's a little fuzzy, too, because I was in the middle of a move.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Now that's interesting, and contrary to the impression I'm getting from other people. It's a more organic response to the medium, maybe for certain shows, and then moments in others.

I started watching Buffy when it first aired, as a fluke, home from work on a Saturday and it was showing in the late afternoon. The first season ender, and the whole of it just made me keep watching - Buffy wanting to be a regular girl, the unexpected violence - the death of those boys and the cartoons playing in the background, Angel as her love interest, but Xander saving her. I just wanted to know what happened next, who they were and how this show with the ridiculous name got to be what it was.

I came into Farscape early in the second season (well, actually late second season but SciFi was doing their weird ass programming and was showing THe Way We Weren't. We watched it because our parents loved it and watching was a concession for them, and I was confused and shocked and absolutely taken. I'm not sure any other episode in either of the first two seasons could have done that to me.

[fourteenlines.livejournal.com]

Eeeeee! The Frames! I bought my ticket today!!!!!

And in the spirit of your question, I will tell you what sold me on The Frames, as well: the crowd was loud and rude, but right before they did "What Happens When the Heart Just Stops" Glen asked for a little quiet, and for some reason (early in the evening, not quite as drunk?) they actually did, and then wow.

In the order they come to me...

Farscape: the end of "Family Ties." I sat there staring at the TV screen going, "They can't do that. They can't do that!" How little then I knew.

X-Files: the movie intrigued me, but what really got me was the tape I saw not long after of "Pusher," with Mulder and Scully saying so much in the silence between them as Mulder fought against shooting either Scully or himself.

BTVS: the first epsisode I saw was "The Zeppo," and Xander's totally selfless moment at the end did me in - after all that self-deprecating humor I couldn't help it.

Veronica Mars: Keith Mars, in the pilot, saying "Break out the hibachi, tonight we eat like the lower-middle class to which we aspire!" and then doing that idiotic dance made me love him and Veronica and the whole show forever and ever amen.

Battlestar Galactica: I'm trying to remember the moment that reeled me in on this one. It may have actually been the moment where Roslin realizes she's the president, which is funny because she's not my favorite character now, not by a long shot. But that was beautifully done, and subtly. That moment probably got me to keep watching, but what made me fall in utterly and unabashed love was the look on Apollo's face - and the noise he makes - when he realizes that the Cylon raider is piloted by Starbuck, and then the slow pan to reveal her name spelled out in yellow tape.

Firefly: I wasn't terribly impressed until maybe "Our Mrs. Reynolds" - which is more FOX's fault than the show's. But though I liked "Our Mrs. Reynolds" and "Jaynestown," I was blown away by "Out of Gas." If it wasn't the pan to Mal laying on the floor bleeding to death, it was the shot of Zoe pushing River out of the way, when you knew she wasn't overly-attached in the first place.

Wonderfalls: "I told her you were servicing me sexually. I hope that wasn't inappropriate."


Books - hm. That is harder. I am much, much, much more inclined to continue reading a book that doesn't blow me away than I am continue watching a tv show that I find uninspired. (That's why so many of these were first-episode moments.) So I don't think I collect these first "WOW!" moments for books the way I do for TV, because A) I'm more interested in the story as a whole, and B) I expect to be wowed by books more than TV. That doesn't always happen, but it's what I expect.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

I have to agree, and I find that mostly, there's been a moment in an episode - usually one of the first few I've watched - that pulls me in. Books, I like for them to take some time, for me to get swayed by the whole of it. Although the older I get, the less likely I am to finish a book that doesn't compell me. There are too many of them out there that do for me to waste my time, and frankly I've become the same way about TV.

And I'm not sure exactly what sold me on Firefly because I didn't really enjoy it on broadcast. And, contrary to popular opinion, I strongly dislike "Our Mrs. Reynolds" but then the actress bugs me like crazy for some reason. However, when I watched them all at once, they felt like a whole story, and I adored it.

Having access to a whole run of episodes really makes a huge difference.

And yeah for getting your tickets!!

[sugargroupie.livejournal.com]

Farscape: First episode was Die Me, Dichotomy, and honestly, I was stunned by how visually stunning it looked onscreen. And then I recognized Claudia Black and I was smitten. After watching SOD and not being able to take my eyes off of John and Aeryn as they kissed, I went out and bought the S2 box set to catch up on what I missed.

Firefly: I didn't fall until the dvds came out, and I heard Zoe say "Big Damn Heroes, sir." and I was like, hell yes.

Buffy: hands down the Buffy/Angel arc, specifically from S3, because that's when I started watching Buffy in syndication. It's dark and beautifully fucked up and hopeful. And yes, I am a big sap who believes that they will be together one day. :)

Xena: Didn't become aware of this show until syndication as well (pattern?) and I became fanatical about this show when I saw The Debt I & II, and it represented how ruthless and honorable Xena could be, how she epitomizes shades of grey, and how it was her journey and her decisions and mistakes to make. And her past is one of the most colorful I've seen on television.

Stargate Atlantis: I like this show because it isn't deep, and there's subtext everywhere. It's not close to my heart, but I do write fanfic because I am inexplicably drawn to Elizabeth Weir. She's the least developed character there, and yet I love filling in the blanks.

BSG: I honestly can't pinpoint when I started to love this show. Sometimes it's overwhelming and I go, "that's my show", and other times it's all very meh. But my love for Dualla knows no bounds. She precipitated the attachment.

Wonderfalls: Jaye and Mahandra's friendship, and the fast, witty dialogue. "Poor Bitch."

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Dualla is turning out to be one of the most interesting, complex characters on the show. I'm so glad they're developing her.