Well-written, brilliantly cast shows are hard to come by. So when I find them, it’s a rare treat that I try to hang onto, not to mention mainline when possible (thank you TV on DVD and online streaming). However, some shows just don’t grab me. I like the stories and care about the characters…but not enough to continue watching.
Being Human is a prime example—the story of a vampire, werewolf, and ghost trying to make a go of it in the “real” world. I fell in love with the pilot and grew to accept and like the recasting when the show was picked up. But unless it was a conscious, active decision to watch an episode, I never really developed a desire to watch more than what I already had. Sure I wanted to know what happened next, but was fine checking up on online reviews and Wikipedia to find out.
The same is true for Caprica. I cared about the characters before the end of the first half of the pilot and was fascinated by the world and how it was starting on the path that brings it to the world of Battlestar Galactica. Again, I’m interested in where things go, but not enough to want to watch it over something else. Of course with BSG, I went back and forth. Sometimes I had to absolutely see the next episode, but others I was fine never watching it again.
Then there’s Mad Men, a period show with a number of elements that should make it a show I’d fall for. Unlike Being Human and Caprica, Mad Men left me mostly cold. Well acted with good stories, but this time I didn’t care what happened to anyone. While with the other shows I was able to form an emotional connection of sorts, I couldn’t here. Maybe it’s because I didn’t really like any of the characters. I’ve fallen for bastards and villains, but here there just wasn’t enough to make me like anyone despite who they were or love to hate them.
Of course I’ve found it difficult to be a casual viewer anymore. If I can’t fall head-over-heels for a show, it kind boils down to why bother to watch at all? There’s too much else out there and going on in my life to waste time on something that just doesn’t click.
Which brings me around to my writing. I have a number of WIPs just languishing for attention. It’s not for lack of love for the characters or the worlds or even for story. For some reason, I get to a point, stop, and no matter how many times I revisit the piece, I can never see it through to the end. Occasionally, it boils down to a matter of timing. The right moment hasn’t come for me to finish them. Which has happened. The Tender Trap took me about two years to write from conception to completion. What’s worse is that it was maybe only a chapter or two done for about a year and a half of that time. Then a submission call spurred me onto finish it, even though the story went to another house entirely.
Maybe that’s what it comes down to in the end: timing. I absolutely hated The English Patient when I saw it in the theater, but years later I did a complete one eighty and fell for it, hard. Of course, I was also at a very different point in my life. When it first came out, I was, what, fifteen? When I saw it again, I was near the end of college, I think. Very different mindsets. So, with the aforementioned shows and my languishing stories, it could very well be a case of not being at the right point in my life to connect with those things. The time may come, or it may not. Which is a somewhat exciting prospect.
