At what point do you decide to stick with a tv show?

Richard Dower

You'll hear people say...."stick with it, it gets better!" etc., how do you make the decision to give a tv show a shot?

Do you give it until the end of the pilot?, 2/3 eps?...moreso, what makes you watch a particuar genre of show?

I can only go by my own personal experience, some shows just appeal to me more then others, some shows i simply won't watch without giving them a chance, simply because of anecdotal evidence, or none at all.

For me it's a "gut" feeling, but....i conceed i've been wrong a few times, i said Chuck sucked without ever seeing an ep. - that's the judgemental asshole in me

I heard everyone saying....give it a shot man!, once i did i embraced it's Chucktastic premise and characters , Fringe is another show i never watched but can now happily say i'm addicted.

But you have shows like The Wire or Sopranos....i still won't give them a shot no matter what, why?...because Chuck and Fringe had elements that appeal to me in what i like in a tv show, whereas The Wire, even without seeing it, won't....and sometimes you don't need to see something to know it won't appeal to you.

Getting back to what point you give a show a chance or tune out, i'll give an example....Lost Girl on paper is NOT my type of show, it's Wheadonesque and somewhat Buffy like which dosen't appeal to me.

with Lost Girl i watched the pilot, i said ok...i'm not sold but gave me enough to watch another, as each ep. went by i took it episode by episode, by episode 4 it kicked into gear, the clever scripting and whitty banter made me laugh.

So i stuck with it and now i'm an avid fan, i guess there is no "rule" here, sometimes you can watch a pilot and say it's crap, not watch it again, but without you knowing it could have got alot better.

Others shows you just KNOW will appeal to you no matter what, i'm pretty confident shows on ABC Family (bar one or two turkeys) will appeal to me, because i guess they program to my tastes.

Choosing what shows to watch is a very individual thing, i guess that's why lots of shows get cancelled, tv networks are always trying to figure out what we wanna watch

Irish Guitarist

I think things like science fiction can take a while to get going. Sometimes it can take six or seven episodes for me to get engrossed. If I'm going to like a comedy though I'll usually get into it from the first episode.

I'll stick with a science fiction series a lot longer than I will with a comedy series. I might watch maybe two episodes of a comedy before I give up whereas I'll stick with science fiction for maybe ten or twelve episodes (unless it's really bad). I think comedy is usually immediate but drama or science fiction should be given a chance for the story to get going.

ashyle

Usually from the get-go. I have an inner voice that tells me whether a book/film/telly programme is worth my while, and 90% of the time I'm right!

Something full of plot I will give more of a chance to - I watched the first series of Heroes and two series of Prison Break, then gave up, mostly out of boredom.

pegasus1

Richard Dower wrote: »

But you have shows like The Wire or Sopranos....i still won't give them a shot no matter what, why?...because Chuck and Fringe had elements that appeal to me in what i like in a tv show, whereas The Wire, even without seeing it, won't....and sometimes you don't need to see something to know it won't appeal to you.

so Richard , re- The Wire.. so you don't like cop shows or anything that shows both sides of the story because thats what the wire shows..

maybe it's too complicated for you to follow...who knows...i was addicted after around episode 4....
i have a very good friend who gave up after the third...he is very stubborn and won't rewatch it....idiot!!

my advise watch it when it runs on sky atlantic... i think it will be on that channel...have to look again!

oh Fringe is the best scifi out there!! well done for getting hooked!

Saint_Mel

Usually its 1 or 2 episodes.
I stuck with Lost in the misguided belief that it wouldnt finish up a total crock of shizzle. How wrong I was! Since then I have reverted to my 2 episode judgement call.

matrim

It depends on if I like the premise / idea of the show or not, but I'll generally try to give them a few episodes, unless it's really bad.

For example, the first couple of episodes of True Blood and Dollhouse weren't very good but I like the idea of the shows so gave them a longer chance and it was worth it.

And on the other hand I tried the first episode of Haven and thought it was only ok but as I wasn't that interested anyway I stopped watching.

I also think it depends on when the breaks in broadcasting are. I was watching V until about episode 4 and it wasn't great but I was still willing to give it a chance. But then there was a break in broadcasting for a month (I think) and I never bothered to watch it when it came back.
A similar thing happened with Stargate Universe but around episode 10, which was when I was just starting to really get into it, but then never got back to watching it after the mid season break.

phasers

I can usually tell from episode 1 if a series has potential, and if I feel it does I give it about four episodes to get going.

Elmo

It really depends, but on your (Rich) note I have to rant on "Secret Life" prob today.

Hype is good but can be detrimental e.g. The Event, V, Heroes, Flash Forward etc all really disappointing don't know why I stuck so long with them.

Hearing about them on boards from others how have similar tastes or from work colleges, friends and family. (Rich I try with your recommendations I last 10 mins at least until the first ad break )

pickarooney

For a comedy show I can tell after 5 minutes if it's going to be terrible but I often need to giv it 5-6 episodes to see if it's good. Most science fiction I won't watch as I just don't like the genre. Drama depends. Sometimes I'll watch a pilot and not really enjoy it bu ta few days later I ahve an urge to see where one strand of it is going. Generally there's about a five episode window for it to snare me.

Then there are the hot recommendations that I either suspect I won't like or don't enjoy the first episodes of. I'm inclined to give them a reasonable run just to make sure I'm not missing out. I hated The West Wing's pilot but gave it another three episodes by which time I despised it. With The Wire, I watch it out of sheer bloody-mindedness, both to make sure I'm not missing something really good but just as much so I can say with complete confidence to legion of supercilious arseholes who bang the drum that yes, I have watched it all an frankly no, it's not really all that good.

DeWitt

I'll usually give a show 5episodes to reel me in, and if after that I still feel absolutley nothing for the characters I'm watching, then I quit.

Carl Sagan

I usually don't watch a show unless it has good reviews and sounds appealing to me. Even then, I find it hard to watch a full season of something.