alg | TV Show Meme! Day 10! (Reply)

Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving

Oh, gosh. There are a lot of shows I thought I wouldn't like but ended up really enjoying. The one that stands out the most is Arrested Development -- I started out really loathing it because it was so weird and depressing and pissed me off all the time. But after a while, I switched my perspective and ended up really liking it. Even now I think some of the arcs and episodes are terrible (like the arcs with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who I find painfully unfunny at the best of times, and actively offensive in those episodes), but I do like enough episodes so much that I sometimes rewatch the show -- skipping the really terrible episodes, though.

Another show I thought I wouldn't like is Fringe. I even talked about that a few weeks ago! I didn't like it at all the first time I watched the first two episodes, but enough people I know thought the second season finale was amazing that I decided to give it another shot. It took a while -- it, in fact, took until at least halfway through the first season! But I did eventually start to really like Fringe. Then, during episode 15 of season 2, I suddenly fell in love with Fringe.

The things that piss me off about Fringe now are the exact same things that pissed me off at the beginning. The worldbuilding is kind of crappy; it's definitely getting stronger, but it's still crappy. When people are intolerant of Walter's disability. The fact that the characters of color are much less developed than the white characters. (For example, Nina has much less screen time than Broyles, yet she is a much more developed and rounded character. As much as I do love all of the strong female characters, it nevertheless makes me really irritated! Ah, the kyriarchy in action!) The way Astrid is treated is infuriating 99% of the time (I was shocked as hell when Olivia asked her to babysit. That is not part of Astrid's job description as a BAMF FBI agent!).

But there are a ton of things about the show that I really like -- and sometimes that makes it a lot easier for me to deal with the fail, although sometimes it makes the fail so much more painful.

Things I like, an incomplete list in no particular order:

The bizarre double-world thing

Leonard Nimoy. Nom nom nom.

Olivia doesn't take anyone's bullshit; no one gets to call her "sweetheart" without being called out on it!

Olivia is a really strong female character -- not strong in an unrealistic way, but strong like a real person. She makes mistakes and then endeavors to correct them. She screws up and owns up to it. She wants things she can't have and doesn't take them anyway. She prioritizes her job above her family and feels shitty about it, but knows that sometimes it's not something she can avoid -- especially since she wants to keep her family safe. And her family, for what it's worth, is frustrated sometimes but definitely understanding.

Everything about Joshua Jackson's character. He's awesome! Even though I hate the way he talks to Walter (see the above about the way people deal with Walter's disability), I do think it's actually pretty realistic. It's really rough to deal with people who have mental disabilities like Walter's, and it must be especially rough for (oh crap I forgot his name!!) Charlie from The Mighty Ducks, who remembers him as being completely different, and for a long time is trying to interact with his father the way he was sixteen years ago, not the way he is now. So I ended up with a lot of sympathy for him.

The scene in the fifteenth episode of season two with the almost-kissing!

Broyles. Om nom nom hel-lo. Yes, I'm shallow, but he's hot. So is Astrid. So is Joshua Jackson! I think Olivia always looks like she's smelling something really disgusting, but that actually totally worked for her in the episode in which Walter is telling that noir story.

That noir episode! How freaking great! I know, everyone said that when it aired and I didn't pay any attention. But what the actual heck?! That was amazing.

I am not going to keep going. Basically, I find that I really love the show. To the point where I am putting off watching the last three episodes of season two -- once I watch them, it'll be over! And I'll have to wait until September (or whenever) to see the next season! Argh!

I was also really skeptical of Better Off Ted; I don't tend to like half-hour sitcoms, mostly because I find them racist and anti-female and awful, etc. But