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

[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.