How far

[mrissa]

We were talking at lunch about Buffy fans, into which category none of us falls. And some of them quite reasonably recognize that Buffy is a matter of individual taste, that some people like it and some do not, but others insist on knowing which episodes one watched and then protesting (no matter what episodes are up for discussion) that that wasn't one of the really good ones.

So it makes me wonder: how far would you go to get at a good show or a good book or even a good fragment of stuff?

I think that most of us will read past a bad first sentence, paragraph, or even chapter if someone we trust has given us reason to believe that the book will be a good one and worth our time. I think, on the other hand, that anyone who wants me to read the ninth Robert Jordan book, on the theory that it will get "really good" very soon and I just read the first bad eight, is smoking crack.

But where's your personal middle ground? A mediocre episode of a television show your friends swear is great? A boring first book of a trilogy that's supposed to be really fascinating in books two and three? How far will you go to get to "the good stuff" before your internal critic decides that the payoff can't possibly be worthwhile? Say for a TV show or a book: when does the off switch get used or the book get sent back to the library? And is it different if you paid to rent a movie/buy a book/get into a movie in the theatre? Is it different for music? How much of your time is worth waiting for the big payoff without little payoffs in the middle?

Well?

Comments

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

Aw. My Julie loves me. :)

Likewise--it depends on who's doing the rec. I have dear friends, who I love dearly, and did I mention they are dear? --who just have tastes that are impossible to reconcile with my own. I learned, albeit slowly, that they can't be relied upon.

So, initially, I read through Book 4 of Robert Jordan's series before quitting in disgust, but now, I doubt I would get that far based on the same person's rec.

I've less patience with TV shows. I adore Buffy, I really do, but if I hand you the Season 1 DVD set (and I've done that to at least 5 or 6 different people, and they've all gotten hooked, so I don't feel like I'm crazy in doing so), and you don't make it through Episode 1, then I'm not going to argue with you. I know there are so many things on TV I just don't like that everyone else does, and I never really will. Monty Python? Oops. I'm a humorless freak. Oh, well. Survivor? Uhm... ew. Etc. I can probably get everyone on your friends list up in arms with trashing the TV landscape.

Dare I ask who these rampant Buffy-down-your-throat people are? I mean, generically. Why are they insisting, and not listening to your reluctance?

Anyway. I like Buffy on the same level as I liked Babylon 5. There's an arc beyond the monster(alien)-of-the-week. There are some good one-liners. There are some brilliant episodes. There is foreshadowing to die for. And neither show takes or advocates the easy way out. And while I appreciate all these things, some of them are subtle, and don't always make up for the sucky parts. It took me a long time to learn to enjoy both shows to the point that they became appointment television. I resisted my affection for both of them for entire seasons at a time. I can certainly understand not enjoying either of them after seeing 1, 6 or even 10 episodes, even if they aren't "bad" episodes. (And if they *are*... Gaugh! "Gray 17 Is Missing"... Imagine if that were the first ep of Bab-5 I'd seen...)

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

Oh, and the actual answer to your question: I've watched 3 Monty Python movies and about 6 eps of the Flying Circus thingie, and I still don't like it. I had a boyfriend who loved it, and that's all I could do for him. I would do the same for most good friends. And have. And that's how I learned to like a lot of the things I have enjoyed.

For the good friends, I think it comes down to "hours out of my life." The equivalent to a week's worth of leisure time. Now that I think about it, that's crazy. But the pay-off has *usually* been worth it in the end.

For people I'm not close with... I give about an hour. One ep of "True Calling." One chapter in this stupid book someone at work handed to me, I don't even remember its name.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure, but this may be similar to dd_b's comment that it depended on the company. I can have more fun watching a mediocre TV show or movie with loved ones than with near-strangers, and either is more fun than watching by myself. Sitting through three movies with a boyfriend can feel to some people like "time together" rather than "entertainment time" in their mental scheme of things.

There is a short list of movies, mostly "girly movies," that I haven't seen because the boys don't want to watch them with me and I don't want to watch them enough to bother, especially without a snarking partner. Good snarking partners are key. And we don't tend to be friends in gender groups. Of my closest girl friends, I'd say Heathah is the only one I sometimes see by myself and by herself, without any of the rest of our families.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Okay, so sometimes is an overstatement. But regularly, certainly.