Completionists Anonymous: I've Started So I'll Fini...

[aradia22]

Hi. My name is aradia22. And I am a completionist.

 

I hope this is alright but I decided to create a little topic here in Everything Else so we could vent about the things we can't quit (even if we probably should). In some ways I am an ideal audience member because even if something gets so horrible that I feel like my braincells are dying when I'm watching it or it just makes me too angry or depressed, I will come back week and week and take the punishment. For me, it's mainly TV shows and podcasts. For some reason I'm better about shutting off a movie I don't like and I don't go to the movies often enough to see something I wouldn't like. Call it optimism or masochism. 

 

I was thinking that we could vent about all the things we can't give up on and all the things that we did give up on. 

 

I'll start. I stuck with Super Fun Night (mistake), bailed on Once Upon a Time after season 1, Drop Dead Diva after S6E6, and Mistresses after season 1. I haven't kept up with the new album review version of the TFT podcast but I stuck with it for a long time even when it infuriated me. I had to bail on The Nerdist podcast because I just can't stand the hosts. I lasted through a heck of a lot of episodes though as they get some great guests. 

Edited June 6, 2014 by aradia22

[random chance]

That's funny, I have no trouble bailing on a movie either - I guess because I'm less invested in any given movie than a show I've been watching for years. 

 

But yeah, most of the time I'll watch a show to the bitter bloody end.  I've only given up on a handful of them, and if they had been streaming I might have still gone the distance.  Like Andromeda - Netflix had a little musical chairs game going on with the "long wait" notices to the point where I was watching it backwards, and then I hit a season that was never ever available so I said screw it.

[aradia22]

 

I've only given up on a handful of them, and if they had been streaming I might have still gone the distance.  Like Andromeda - Netflix had a little musical chairs game going on with the "long wait" notices to the point where I was watching it backwards, and then I hit a season that was never ever available so I said screw it.

That is an excellent point. I stick with a lot of terrible series because they're on hulu and my DVR is too full of TCM movies for me to record anything I can't watch live (which is most things). But if it drops off of hulu like Pretty Little Liars and I already feel like giving up on it, it's gone. It's like the fact that it's not streaming is a free pass for me to quit watching a show. If I'm really invested in something like Nashville or Glee though I will stick it out through the long hiatuses and the one-week wait if I missed an episode so I can stream it on hulu.

[random chance]

I think streaming also makes a show seem better because you can zip right through the lousy episodes/seasons, and things like acting tics don't have time to get on your nerves.  Offhand I can't think of a streamed show I gave up on, except when they were taken off streaming like you say. 

 

I confess that I stockpile some shows deliberately so that I can watch the entire season at once, because it's more fun that way. 

[stillshimpy]

I think streaming also makes a show seem better because you can zip right through the lousy episodes/seasons, and things like acting tics don't have time to get on your nerves.  Offhand I can't think of a streamed show I gave up on, except when they were taken off streaming like you say.

 

Or a bad story choice can just be there and gone fairly rapidly when streaming.  BSG had a few stinkers even when it was in the good years, they stood out a lot more when you had to wait a week, or two, or sometimes a hiatus for something to be over and done. 

 

I have to admit I'm not a completionist, or rather I've been in recovery ever since Buffy, when I realized, "Wow, this was a great series, except that season seven is genuinely terrible and ruins almost all the characters. I don't think I'll ever watch season seven again."  and I didn't. Since then, when something starts to suck on a regular basis, I let it suck without me.

 

Occasionally I will go back if I hear good things from friends. For instance, I just gave the hell up on Mad Men after a season I didn't enjoy at all, capped off by a speech about a Hershey Bar and a Whorehouse, but it's supposed to have gotten better since then.  So maybe!

 

If anything, I think I've become the anti-completionist.  After Exodus II in BSG, which was a great episode, almost as soon as the credits rolled it occurred to me "Wow, I don't think they can ever top that."  Sure enough, they never did.  If I'd stopped watching at Exodus II BSG would have been the best series I'd ever watched.  But no....I had hung in through every word.  Now I still love it, but rather apologetically.

 

Bones is a series I caught a couple of seasons of and then they did something so damned absurd, I just bailed.  So for me?  A good ,tight series that I see is lumbering on to this day.  Watched a couple of seasons of Supernatural which is darned near geriatric at this point, but for me?  A two season show that never exhausted its premise.  

 

So whereas I was a completionist I have become a "Just Walk Awayist".   

[aradia22]

 

I confess that I stockpile some shows deliberately so that I can watch the entire season at once, because it's more fun that way.

I don't binge watch that often. It's more a case of "ah! This is expiring from hulu!" instead of, let me sit down and watch Netflix for 8 hours. I find that watching a bunch of episodes consecutively, it helps the story because it's easier to notice patterns and follow the story but something annoying or inconsistent will stick out more sharply if you don't have downtime in between episodes.

 

So whereas I was a completionist I have become a "Just Walk Awayist".

I think that's why I fashioned this more as a completionist support group. I've been walking away from things more and more lately... books, movies, television shows. You just get to a point where you're not enjoying something anymore and you realize, I'm not being paid to do this and I'm not going to get quizzed on it. I need to walk away. It's not even like I end up spending my time in a better way. But there's something exceptionally freeing sometimes about letting go of things... even if they're not toxic. Even if a TV show is just boring and doesn't make you angry or depressed, there's something liberating about saying, I'm not going to watch this anymore.

[Bort]

I'm not much of a completionist myself. I don't even care if it's ALMOST done, I will bail if I wanna. Case in point: Angel. Two episodes left to go and I just didn't feel like finishing it out. You'd think that with only two dinky little episodes, I'd go ahead and watch them but nope. To this day, I don't even know what happened. I never read a recap either.

Obviously, I'll complete a show if I love it but I will also do it if I'm indifferent. Smallville for instance. I never loved it to begin with, I found it entertaining enough to watch but was never so invested that its idiotic plotting, pacing and characterizations ever really pissed me off. So I hung on to the bitter end on that one. My only exasperation was that it took SO LONG to get there. I would sigh with resignation every year it kept getting renewed for the last several seasons it was on. You should've seen how happy I was at season 10 when I realized I'd finally be free.

[Jellybeans]

I really annoy my b/f. He sticks it out to the bitter end "in case it gets better" and I show no mercy. I thought "Once Upon a Time" was going to be great but pffft. Got hooked on "lie to me", then pffft.

I am the same way with books.

[random chance]

Well one of the last things I hung in there for was How I Met Your Mother and I severely regretted that.  (Although in my defense, I was only watching season 8 because it was supposed to be the last and then SURPRISE they pulled a ninth out of their ass.  Almost literally.)  But that was a lesson learned, so if this is a help-me-kick-the-habit group then count me in.  As my first pledge I swear I will not watch Parenthood's last season, unless I hear rumors that they're going to set Max on fire and shoot him out of a cannon.

Edited June 5, 2014 by random chance

[stillshimpy]

You know, one of the things that sort of helped turn me from "Must.Finish.Everything!" was also the Dead Like Me direct to DVD follow-up movie.  It was almost indescribably bad.  So bad that it was incredibly easy to just say, "Well, that never happened."  and I have long since thrown it away.  

 

Also, Syfy, in their infinite...quest for money, really...kept releasing the weirdest stuff for BSG.  "The Plan"  "Razor" , Razor was pretty good, but The Plan was embarrassing.  Really embarrassing. A lot of it was just reused footage too.  

 

So in the case of Dead Like Me, it took a fairly satisfying 2 season show and then made Herculean efforts to just ruin it via an almost entirely senseless movie with the worst recasting job in the history of the TV.  Or films.  Or acting.  Dreadful as a descriptor?  Woefully inadequate.  

 

Also, just personally, for me?  It's a very rare series that can actually sustain anything resembling quality past the fifth season.  Fun fluff does well with that.  I watched all ten seasons of Stargate SG1 and I liked all of them.  But that had to do with what I was looking for in that show.  Scifi adventure escapism! Wheeee!  It was like the Law and Order of Scifi.  Not a ton of character development. Just "defeat the baddies, travel the universe and eat pie" .  The emphasis wasn't on character driven dramatic arcs, but more action driven.  It worked for that series, for me. 

 

So sometimes it depends on genre too.   

[aradia22]

 

I thought "Once Upon a Time" was going to be great but pffft.

Let's be besties! I should love that show. I am a Disney fanatic and I love fairytale adaptations but to me OUAT Is like bad fanfiction with terrible acting. Emma is our Mary Sue OC who just happens to be the daughter of Snow White ("the one who started it all as far" as Disney is concerned) and Prince Charming. There are like a billion crossovers because apparently everything is public domain from Frankenstein to Oz. And I get it, Disney has made movies about a lot of these things. But just because there's a Mulan movie, it doesn't mean Mulan is a fairytale character. Pocahontas isn't a fairytale character. Everything is underdeveloped because they just keep chucking things at the screen to distract you from the fact that nothing is happening. Ugh. I could go on and on about OUAT. I think it infuriates me so much because it could have been good. There's a world where this show could have been easily well-written and well-acted. The only thing I like about it is the costumes which I can't watch because all the terrible acting and dialogue gets in the way of my enjoyment of the pretty clothes.

 

You know, one of the things that sort of helped turn me from "Must.Finish.Everything!" was also the Dead Like Me direct to DVD follow-up movie.  It was almost indescribably bad.  So bad that it was incredibly easy to just say, "Well, that never happened."  and I have long since thrown it away.

I marathoned through the two seasons of Dead Like Me when it was on hulu. I can't help but wonder what the Brian Fuller show in the first episodes would have been like. I enjoyed the show after that point but there was a magic in the first few episodes. I feel like there was a real sense of a mythology behind the world and that faded fairly quickly after those first few episodes. Apparently he didn't leave a bible for them. I think there were a lot of weak parts in the second season but it was easier to get through knowing there were only 2 seasons. That whole Ray mess. What was going on? I never tracked down the movie.

[random chance]

I stopped watching OUaT in the second season, but I never thought of it as "quitting" because I figured I'd watch it on Netflix someday.  That's the new "quitting" for me, I just shove it to the back of the Netflix line in my head.

[Bort]

So in the case of Dead Like Me, it took a fairly satisfying 2 season show and then made Herculean efforts to just ruin it via an almost entirely senseless movie with the worst recasting job in the history of the TV.  Or films.  Or acting.

Ha. Hilariously, Sarah Wynter and Laura Harris played sisters in season 2 of 24 so I understand the logic behind the recast but... I also SAW them on 24 and Harris is leaps and bounds better than Wynter, who also has a Renee Zelleweger scrunchy-face expression that I find off-putting.

I finished Dead Like Me, the series but I didn't even attempt to FIND the movie. The recast and press release alone was enough to ward me off.

I get the Once Upon a Time dislike. I don't share it but I get it, because I had the same problem with Lost (ironically by the same showrunners). I SHOULD have liked it, that crazy shit is usually right up my alley but I abandoned it after the first year. And after hearing the massive internet uproar over the finale, I see I made the right choice.

[Gudzilla]

The interesting question this topic (great idea by the way) brings up to me is why I stick with certain shows. For instance, I stopped watching The Sopranos, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad, but I've stuck with The Following, Under The Dome, and watched all of Charmed.

[stillshimpy]

You know, just as an observation, Gudzilla, it sounds like you stick with the light, soapy or over-the-top stuff, maybe because when your expectations are running to "Eh, it won't be art, but it'll be fun...." you stick with it?  Whereas all the ones you listed that your dropped are considered high quality, award-winners.  Are they two heavy for what you are looking for TV to do in your life?  Or did they reach a point where quality dropped off in your opinion?  Or did you think they just didn't live up to the hype?  

 

Also, all the ones you listed as bailing on feature dark anti-heroes.  

 

Ha. Hilariously, Sarah Wynter and Laura Harris played sisters in season 2 of 24 so I understand the logic behind the recast but... I also SAW them on 24 and Harris is leaps and bounds better than Wynter, who also has a Renee Zelleweger scrunchy-face expression that I find off-putting.

 

I liked Harris in the Daisy role, but the way Sarah Wynter approached it was very broad and slapstick and....NOTHING like Daisy.  So they look similar, but it was as if Wynter thought Daisy was there for comic relief.  

 

I was honestly mortified on her behalf.  I don't know if she just can't act, or if she wanted to go in a different direction and face-planted, but it was embarrassing as hell to witness.  I seriously wondered if she took a pass on actually watching Harris's work as Daisy to try and do her own thing.  It was that bad.  

[pennben]

What a great thread!

 

 

Well one of the last things I hung in there for was How I Met Your Mother and I severely regretted that.  (Although in my defense, I was only watching season 8 because it was supposed to be the last and then SURPRISE they pulled a ninth out of their ass.  Almost literally.)  But that was a lesson learned, so if this is a help-me-kick-the-habit group then count me in. 

 

Hello random chance, how did you write the post I was going to write?  HIMYM kicked my completionist tendencies right out of my life.  Honestly, watching 2-3 years that I didn't really like waiting for an ending to make it all better.  Yep, I was the fool.  I dumped several shows that I was becoming ambivalent about other than sticking with them, and I don't miss them. My new rule is that if more than 5 episodes pile up on my DVR, the show is purged.  It is working pretty well for me.

 

P.S.  Even completionist me dumped Parenthood with the launch of Kristina's run for mayor last year.  Sometimes you don't need a blue french horn to the head to know when to get out!!

 

ETA: 

 

 

I don't even care if it's ALMOST done, I will bail if I wanna. Case in point: Angel. Two episodes left to go and I just didn't feel like finishing it out. You'd think that with only two dinky little episodes, I'd go ahead and watch them but nope. To this day, I don't even know what happened. I never read a recap either.

 

Okay, even trying-to-reform me chafes at the notion of leaving two left unfinished without at least finding out how the show ended.  I can see me never watching the finale to HIMYM if it was on my DVR unwatched after I had read about the ending.  I can't see me ever not wanting to know how it ended.  I see I still have more work to do in completionist therapy. 

Edited June 6, 2014 by pennben

[random chance]

Sometimes you don't need a blue french horn to the head to know when to get out!!

Ha! Great quote. I got suckered back into Parenthood when I watched a season on Netflix, and the Netflix Effect fooled me into thinking I might have ditched it too soon.

[Gel]

I'll see you a Charmed and raise you an SGU. Sadly, my list also includes sitting through the entirety of Lost. I think I get suckered in by the faintest promise of a mytharc, even though after Billie the SuperWitch and the White Light of Unenlightment, I really should know better. I completed The Event, too, although I blame the utterly hilarious TWoP thread for that.

Edited June 7, 2014 by Gel

[pennben]

 

I completed The Event, too,

 

I feel like there should be professionals in this thread.  I'm not sure we with the issues are equipped to bring us all to safety.  The Event?  Really??!!:)......I mean, I hear you, I understand, and I want to help. Please tell me more about how this happened.

 

My deep, dark secret, is that NCIS is my brother's favorite show.  Thus he sent me the first six or so seasons for a birthday present (I asked for a gift card for books).  Hmmm.  I got hooked, I felt the completionist in me coming out, but then, this year...new character, and I saw the shadow of myself that I had become, and I realized I could walk away.  So many lessons this year, so many strides forward, and yet, I feel itchy, because I know tomorrow, a new season of OITNB is out.  Am I a completionist or a binger?  Or both?  I don't know. 

 

Godspeed to us all!

Edited June 6, 2014 by pennben

[ramble]

FlashForward, Terra Nova, Revolution, V, Last Resort: I completed them all. Granted they all were short lived so it wasn't too much of a struggle to make it & some of them I enjoyed all the way to the end no matter how stupid & crazy they got.

I think Friends qualifies for me. I didn't enjoy it much towards the end, but I couldn't seem to quit. I was determined to see it through. Heroes probably fits in this category as well.

I did bail on Lost. It took a few years but it hit my limit of hating it versus caring about finishing. I also bailed on Prison Break, but eventually went back & saw it through.

[random chance]

I wish I had bailed on Lost - my whole life might be different. I'm not even kidding.

I saw Terra Nova through to the end too, because the thread was so damn much fun. Ditto S1 of Revolution, but I did bail once it moved to a different night.  That is the one sure way for a show to force a breakup - move to another night. Apparently I'm too lazy and stupid to hunt them down.  Unless it's a life-ruining show like Lost - I'll make the effort for that.

[aradia22]

 

The interesting question this topic (great idea by the way)

 

What a great thread!

 

Aw, thanks, guys. I'm glad you're enjoying it. I was worried no one else would be interested in this.

 

My version of Angel is Super Fun Night. Well there's a sentence you don't type every day. Anyway, I still haven't seen the finale. It's on my hulu queue and it'll probably expire soon but I'm in no rush. That show was already a massive time suck that didn't pay off. I don't really want to give it another hour of my life.

 

I already wrote a whole long thing about Charmed as one of those shows that starts off great and then goes off the deep end. I won't repeat it all here, but suffice it to say, *cyber hug* I feel your pain. The show started off as just a monster-of-the-week show with questionable feminism and girl power and heavy-handed metaphors about abusive, predatory men and vulnerable single women. And then it somehow got great (in spite of a lot of silliness), and then it got sillier (Greek gods and goddesses anyone?), and more convoluted, and then there was magic school, and then Elders, and Avatars, and the Triad, and Billie and her sister, and stop, stop, stop! *breaks down crying*

 

As for prestige TV (Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, Rome, Downton Abbey, etc.) I'm saving it all up for when I'm finally in the mood for it. Maybe things would be different if I started watching in the first season but now those shows do feel like homework. I feel like I would need to pay super close attention and take things very seriously. I would feel that completionist urge the same way I would if I were reading a classic novel. Even if it's not that entertaining, it seems like there's a value to finishing it.

[random chance]

As for prestige TV (Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, Rome, Downton Abbey, etc.) I'm saving it all up for when I'm finally in the mood for it. Maybe things would be different if I started watching in the first season but now those shows do feel like homework. I feel like I would need to pay super close attention and take things very seriously.

I feel the same way about those kinds of shows. I couldn't get into Breaking Bad but it was all anyone talked about and I felt left out, so I finally watched the first and last episode of every season and the series finale. (You'd be amazed how "complete" that felt.) Mad Men - I'm in awe of the in-depth commentary on it and scrutiny of it but I don't want to put in that kind of work. I don't even put in that kind of work on things in real life that actually require work. If I had been as serious about my math classes as Mad Men fans are about their TV show, I might be working for NASA right now.

[aradia22]

I've seen a few episodes of Breaking Bad because my dad was watching it and I wasn't that impressed. Maybe it's seeing bits of the show out of context but the acting is what I call "play acting" heightened and unrealistic (also lots of pauses and dramatically not doing anything). The dialogue didn't help. Also, the little I saw of Skylar was enough to make me hate her. It gave me the sense that it would be a show I wouldn't really enjoy or be emotionally invested in but that I'd feel obligated to get through so yeah, it's low on my list of shows to binge watch.

[stillshimpy]

I saw Terra Nova through to the end too, because the thread was so damn much fun.

 

That was such a fun thread.  Yes, we all made wild fun of the show, but it didn't have the same "let's savage this mercilessly, particularly the appearance of every woman on it!" vibe that so many shows can spin into.  Instead, almost from the second episode, the show sucked so much it wasn't a case of "we're all hate-watching, furious that this isn't any better" it was a case of "Wow, they blew such a fun premise...but man, they went for broke in how bad they decided to make it!  I half expect to see a Sleestack at any moment! This is bloody marvelous!" 

 

What made it marvelous was that after the pilot, when it went from "this could be dark, and troubling" they tried to Disney it up and the results were so, so bad they made for MST3K heaven.  

 

But mostly stuff starts to suck and I get out.  You know, thinking it over, part of what led to the whole "And then I stopped being a completionist" was a) overstuffed Sunday nights b) HBO's tendency toward grotesque excess.    Boardwalk Empire was a show I liked in the first season, in the second season, I think they took too many complaints about Nucky not being violent enough for a mobster to mean "the entire show needs to go berserk with very graphic violence!"  and they scalped someone onscreen.  

 

I managed to not see it because I just had a really bad feeling in the scene and looked away, but it gave my husband nightmares.  I'm being literal.  That was after far too much violence as it was and I was gone-baby-gone. Must have been my moment of clarity in the "never again will I allow a show to actually traumatize me..." because on top of everything else, it was just something we were watching to watch.  Not chomping at the bit to watch.  Weeks of nightmares for my husband over something that was more of a "Eh...we might as well..." on a pay channel no less.  

 

I think that's like the addict's version of "I woke up in Topeka, wearing someone else's pants and my car was missing, along with my wallet and I knew...this has gotta stop."  

 

Then in one of the last desperate attempts for Networks to fight off the DVR nation, everything in the damned world that might be worth watching was slammed onto Sunday night.  So that all the way into the next Saturday, we'd still be trying to get through the recorded Sunday night shows.  It was so bad that despite having four DVR recording slots...and having OnDemand available, we were having to decide which show to record, because there were so many we had to plan on watching certain shows OnDemand.  Every night was Sunday night.  It was maddening and it happened in the year after the Writer's Strike.  In the year of the writer's strike, there were several shows that had aired over the summer (Breaking Bad, Mad Men also started out as a summer show).  

 

They finally seemingly cleared that issue up, but part of what fueled the "I'm done, bye!" walk away thing was that everything was getting canceled because they were trying to cram everything onto one night so everything got shit ratings and died.  

 

Except for Boardwalk Empire, which is probably even grosser by now.  

Edited June 6, 2014 by stillshimpy

[random chance]

That was such a fun thread.  Yes, we all made wild fun of the show, but it didn't have the same "let's savage this mercilessly, particularly the appearance of every woman on it!" vibe that so many shows can spin into.  Instead, almost from the second episode, the show sucked so much it wasn't a case of "we're all hate-watching, furious that this isn't any better" it was a case of "Wow, they blew such a fun premise...but man, they went for broke in how bad they decided to make it!  I half expect to see a Sleestack at any moment! This is bloody marvelous!"

 

Yes, exactly - there was no bitter sneering, it was all lighthearted making fun of the show. Revolution started out like that too. Those kinds of threads make it worth watching a bad show, because you're still getting entertainment value out of it.  

 

it gave my husband nightmares.  I'm being literal.

 

I can relate, I have a lot of trouble with graphic violence - there are a lot of shows people rave about that I can't handle.  Like Game of Thrones.

[Bort]

Oh, Terra Nova. I hadn't had such a good time watching bad tv since Tarzan. It's a rare show that's a certain type of bad that makes chain sawing it apart fun, rather than simply being painful to watch. Last Resort was kind of like that too but just not QUITE as bad. I was sad to see Terra Nova go, I missed the fun.

Although for completionist sake (and to attempt staying on topic), I would have liked to know if Skye had sex with crazyass Lucas to keep him from killing Josh. They left it heavily implied and it was the one thing I wanted closure on.

Edited June 6, 2014 by kariyaki

[FormerMod-a1]

For me, I think I am a completionist if I've invested a certain amount of time in it.  Some shows I can give up easy, early on, or early-ish.  But when it comes near then end, I need to see it, gosh-darned it.  Charmed falls into this category for me.  It was a steady decline, but by the time Bille and her sister came along I knew the end was near so I just had to watch it until the end.  Same with House.  I was about to give up on it totally, but then I heard it was the final season and I watched until the end.  However, Bones, I gave up on after a few seasons (or more) - it was when Booth and Brennan got together.  It wasn't that I hated that development (I was mostly apathetic) it just had run it's course for me.  I was bored more often than not and with time changes and new shows conflicting I realized at some point I had a few episodes on DVR and I didn't care if I watched them.  So I deleted and haven't watched since.  

 

When it comes to movies I am definitely a completionist.  Even for boring movies, even for bad movies, even for movies I'm streaming.  I don't know what it is.  I can't tell you how many subpar movies I've sat through via Netflix that I couldn't turn off because I just had to see how it ended.  Or, if it was predictable, to see how right I was or how they got there.  I don't know what's wrong with me.

[Athena]

I think streaming also makes a show seem better because you can zip right through the lousy episodes/seasons, and things like acting tics don't have time to get on your nerves.  Offhand I can't think of a streamed show I gave up on, except when they were taken off streaming like you say. 

 

I confess that I stockpile some shows deliberately so that I can watch the entire season at once, because it's more fun that way. 

 

I stockpile as well and I prefer to marathon shows. I've bailed on a lot of shows and no longer feel any guilt or disloyalty when I skip out on episodes or the show altogether. I realized after awhile that if I got attached to some shows or characters, I could be irrevocably disappointed in them too. So I just hedge my bets if it seems the show is starting to become boring, convoluted or they are ruining my favourite characters.

 

I love the streaming age because I almost always FFwed through something on a show whether because I dislike a storyline/character, graphic depictions I am uncomfortable with, or really, short on time. I'm an impatient kind of consumer. My friends don't really get this, but I find more satisfaction watching the things I do want to see.

 

Sometimes, I will stop watching a show regularly but keep up with it through recaps and the boards. I've done this with Doctor Who (which use to be must see TV for me in the pre-Moffat days). I'll drop in to see interesting episodes. Same with OUAT except I tried to do that a couple months ago and just got more confused.

 

 

When it comes to movies I am definitely a completionist.  Even for boring movies, even for bad movies, even for movies I'm streaming.  I don't know what it is.  I can't tell you how many subpar movies I've sat through via Netflix that I couldn't turn off because I just had to see how it ended.  Or, if it was predictable, to see how right I was or how they got there.  I don't know what's wrong with me.

Once again, I FFwed through a bad or boring movie, but like you, I want to know how it ends. Rarely do I just stop watching a movie midway through. I don't remember the last time I did that.

 

I'm the same with books. I can count the number of times on my one hand that I've stopped reading a book midway through with the intention of never picking it up again. I was a book completionist long before a TV/movie one though, and only as an adult did I stop reading series until the very end.

 

Life is too short to keep consuming things you're not enjoying especially since these are entertainment products.

[FormerMod-a1]

To add to the streaming movies - when they are bad, boring, whatever, I do multi-task while finishing them.  So at least it's not totally wasted time.  I don't ffwd but I will at least get laundry folded or bills paid or some organizing done.

[aradia22]

Oh, aquarian1, you're speaking my language. I'm right there with you when it comes to Charmed, House, and Bones. I stuck it out a little longer with Bones as it made for good procrastination viewing on hulu, but yeah, it was rough. 

 

I just watched Wreck It Ralph today. It was a good example of a movie I was determined to stick through. It's the same feeling I got watching ParaNorman which is funny since they came out the same year. I enjoyed the movie but I feel like the beginning was a little dry. I was mainly admiring the animation and the voice acting and not really invested in the story or the characters. I don't think the movie came to life until Ralph and Vanellope started to become friends but I wanted to be able to say I'd seen the movie and to talk about it so I powered through the slow parts (and I generally do not fast-forward if I've decided to sit through a movie). I think it ended up being very well plotted and they really got me at the end. I had to pull out the tissues. But I standby the fact that the beginning is a bit lifeless and workman-like and that I wouldn't have stuck with it if I didn't have such a thing for animation and if I didn't want to add it to the list of movies I've seen and can discuss. Also, a real waste of Mindy Kaling. I didn't know it was her until the credits.

[Gel]

The Event? Really??!!:)...

They promised teleporting aliens! Plus, TWoP enabled. I have no idea what it means, but somehow the geographical traveling impossibilities in the show generated the phrase "I have Murmansk in my pansks!" when whatshisname purportedly took a train from Murmansk to Siberia in under 24 hours. A thread like that is hard to give up on, you know?

Now would probably be a good time to own up to the fact I am still recording Bones, yeah? Admittedly, I don't actually watch it so much as have it on in the background, but I think It stays on the DVR because nothing else looks interesting. I guess a familiar train wreck is preferable to having to attend to a new train that will probably wreck.

I did bail on Crisis, though. By episode three I suddenly realized I was watching an entire flock of teens. While not entirely of the bratty, whiney variety, there were a lot of them. Add to that the descent into tears, screaming and predictability, that was enough.

Edited June 7, 2014 by Gel

[Bort]

Does it count as bailing if you try a new show, decide it's not for you and ditch it? Because that pretty much happens to me all the time. I've taken to trying lots of shows in sheer volume because it gives better likelihood that something will stick. My most memorable tried-and-bailed as of late was Sleepy Hollow. I really liked the pilot, it was well-paced, the directing was excellent, so I was all yay, a new show! Three episodes later I was like WHERE'S THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN?!? It turned into a procedural on me and I was bored.

Edited June 7, 2014 by kariyaki

[aradia22]

I tried Sleepy Hollow and I was weirdly into how stupid it was for the first few episodes. Also, the lead actor was doing an excellent job of carrying the show. Then they started to do things that really annoyed me when it came to history and the Washington Irving story... and I was like, did you think this through at all? I'm starting to lose faith in your control over all this crazy. Then around the time they got stuck in that house I was losing interest quickly and the show seemed to be morphing and putting Abby more in the background (literally when Ichabod went to face the tree thing by himself for manly protagonist reasons). And now I have the last three episodes of the season on my hulu queue (saved from when they first aired) and I haven't revisited them. I may go back and watch only in case I want to be caught up for the next season in case the show gets better. Ah, I'm such an addict.

[stillshimpy]

Sleepy Hollow might be yet another show that helped dismantle the completionist monkey on my back (but did nothing for my tendency to both mix and muddle metaphors) .  I didn't start watching it until after it began and I did so because I heard positive things about it.  It had been almost immediately renewed.  TWoP had front page piece about what other Freshman shows should learn from the success of Sleepy Hollow.  

 

So I managed to catch some OnDemand and start recording, basically compiling the first seven or so episodes and started watching.  Cute pilot.  Appealing leads.  Well, BtVS had a goofy first season too, so I was dealing with the camp factor and waiting for it to get good.  Six or so episodes in I finally asked in the "Shows you want to love, but can't..."  thread, "I'm hanging in there with all my might, but can someone tell me the episode where it takes off and really starts to get good?"  

 

Some kind soul told me "Uh...yeah, that would be from the pilot onwards.  If you haven't clicked with it by now, you're not going to..." 

 

So yet another lesson learned.  I had been anticipating the "there will be an episode where everything gels and from that point forward, must.see.tv."  because years earlier I had bailed on The Wire in the third episode, because of pacing brought to you by Turtle Glaciers Crossed with Wagner.  Turned out I gave up exactly one episode too soon and had gone back to it, because so many people kept talking about it as THE BEST series ever.  It really takes off in the fourth episode.  

 

I'm so glad I asked and the question was answered, because whereas the leads are endearing and appealing, something about the show just wasn't clicking with me.  

[Bort]

I had been anticipating the "there will be an episode where everything gels and from that point forward, must.see.tv."

That happened with The Vampire Diaries. I bailed too quickly (it starts out sooooooo boring) and it's about 5 episodes in before it really takes off. I had to play catch-up once I heard it got good. And I really liked it all the way through the third season. Season 4 was meh, season 5 was better, but they seem to have lost the magic. I'm still sticking with it though, because it goes back to my low expectations thing I'd mentioned before. Vampire Diaries isn't exactly Shakespeare, so I really don't get all that ticked about plot and character developments. Just don't bore me, is all I ask.

Edited June 7, 2014 by kariyaki

[ramble]

Add me to the Sleepy Hollow bail list. It began to go off the rails for me the more it relied on the demon side of things. I don't watch horror & it seemed to be veering that way. Also the more they talked about the end times the less I could take the show. The odd historical misses bugged me at times, but I was trying to stay the course until they started throwing in their Revelation ramblings without much research either. It was just more than I cared to ignore.

I'm having a completionist crisis at the moment. My youngest is now old enough to watch some things she previously wasn't allowed to & fortunately for me she enjoys sci-fi. Yea! I told her she needed to see Farscape & this week we watched 3 episodes. She mildly liked it but said it felt a little cheesy & the CGI felt old, like it was "from the 80s". Piglet made me feel ancient & only mildly liking it? Straight in the feels. The kiddos are at their dad's this weekend & I can't stop watching Farscape. I stayed up last night far too long watching & I have a long list of errands & chores for today but I'm fighting the urge to just sit down & at least finish off the first season. I've seen the entire series twice & watched odd episodes more than that. Laundry? Grocery shopping? Work I brought home? Or Farscape? I may have a serious problem.

[aradia22]

 

I may have a serious problem.

It's OK, ramble. We love and accept you here. Maybe we should come up with a Wreck It Ralph/AA style affirmation that we say to each other.  

[ramble]

Thank you @aradia22! I like the affirmation idea. Hi I'm ramble & I'm a completionist.

Guess what I'm doing? Watching Farscape. I decided to give myself an out since I've been sick most of this week. It's contributing to my rest & recuperation right?

[Gel]

Farscape trumps Laundry, Grocery Shopping and work you brought home, easily. (Oh wait, is that enabling?)

I don't know where one draws the line between trying something out, and when something counts as bailing, and where that tendency to see things through to their bitter, bitter ends kicks in. Like, should I really spend my time on another season of Falling Skies?

[Crim]

Does it count as bailing if you try a new show, decide it's not for you and ditch it? Because that pretty much happens to me all the time. I've taken to trying lots of shows in sheer volume because it gives better likelihood that something will stick.

I'm the same. I ditch multiple shows after 1-2 episodes every season and never think twice about it. I tend to watch bad movies till their miserable end, but that's a time commitment comparable with 2 episodes, not 20+.

 

If you have a hard time letting go of a show, pick up 3 new ones. Since time is a limited resource, prioritizing will kick in. :D

[Blinkoshuman]

I sort of get guilty feelings when I bail on a tv show...like, the actors are gonna know somehow, and confront me about it, and I'm gonna have to stammer out some excuses.  "I was busy...my tv broke...the dog ate my remote!"  I did, however, stick it out until the bitter end on Desperate Housewives and HIMYM. Oy.  I bailed on Revolution and Revenge. 

[aradia22]

I went to see After Midnight yesterday which reminded me that I sort of bailed on Psych. It's complicated. I love it in season 1 and in spite of the changes along the way, I stuck with it for a long time. I think maybe around season 5 or 6 I started to watch less frequently (I used it watch it live every week). I vaguely remember catching up on episodes on hulu. And then maybe for the last season or two I stopped watching entirely but I caught up on some of the last season in marathons and on hulu. So I sort of completed the series but there are some episodes I haven't seen.

[backformore]

Great thread!  

I watched Revenge waaay longer than I should have.  I still have 4 episodes on my DVR, and I feel an obligation to watch them at some point.  But each time I try, I get distracted and can't follow the plot  - too many characters were added each season, with storylines twisting all over the place.   I can't even figure out if there are any good guys left on the show. 

[aradia22]

Are any of you into youtube? That's a massive time suck for me. I am subscribed to a ton of people and I watch most of their videos (or else I store the videos away on playlists for when I think I'll have time to watch them). I have managed to free myself by unsubscribing to some people but it's a tough decision and there are definitely some people I follow whose ratio of good videos to mediocre ones is not good enough that I should still be subscribed.

[aradia22]

I have 3 episodes of Sleepy Hollow in my hulu queue that are about to expire in a day. I can't decide whether or not to watch them.

[Bort]

I would say 'no,' but I'm biased because I find Sleepy Hollow boring.

[ebk57]

I'd say yes.  It was one of those shows that I thought would be really bad, but found that, while it's kinda silly, it's still really fun.  

 

 

So, this didn't help, did it :-)

[aradia22]

So I have to report that I did not end up watching those 3 episodes of Sleepy Hollow. It was less about me confronting my addiction and more general laziness. I watched a movie today (Pillow Talk) which generally decreases my enthusiasm for binge-watching TV.

[Gudzilla]

Ha finally! I couldn't remember where this thread was.

 

Are any of you into youtube?

 I call it the rabbit hole. I just spent 2 1/2 hours just clicking on various "worst band ever" videos yesterday, and if I get into any kind of top 10 list loop I'm done for the night.