How do you choose your TV?

sidewinderVX

There are so many factors to a shows now a days, I was wondering what grabs you.

Like there are Animated/Anime shows (I'd consider the two a different genres), there is Sci-Fi, Drama, Comedy, Action and Reality and any combination of those.
I was thinking, what grabs your attention, is it the cast, the premise or the genre (maybe genre and premise are the same?!)

But I consider story to be my mine grab, I'd hear about a show and I'd be interested in the story and I'd make a note to check it out, whether it be live action, animated or reality.

Next would be the cast, I think the cast has a bigger pull then it ever has before, like Nathan Fillion in Castle or Alyson Hannigan in How I met your mother, I would have waited allot longer before giving either of their shows a chance before I'd known that the actors from Buffy/Firefly were involved.

I think the cast has so much pull since Twitter has shot to fame, the main example I can think of is Nathan Fillion/Castle, he grew pretty quickly on Twitter and you only have to follow him on Twitter to know that most of the people that attend comic con do to (from the Double Rainbow shout-outs), a show like Castle wouldn't have gotten a panel at Comic-Con, where it not for Fillion.

Same with writers, I've started following comics, but I don't think without Whedonds run on X-Men and Runaways (although not a fan of his ) Runaways stories, I would not be a Comic book fan without him, I think he was a nice bridge to another world were allot of TV fans could find intrest, but not exactly fit into, or not know where to start.)
He was definitely the hook that grabbed me, and allowed me to explore so many other mediums that I would not have looked at had it not been for him guest writing on Astonishing X-Men, and had it not been the combination of TV and comics, I would not have looked back on Animated TV shows or the new animated Movies for their equal or not yet more advanced stories that I've enjoyed.

Especially now when looking for new shows, I go on what I enjoy last season, like I only recently started watching Mad Men so knew I'd be giving the more grown up looking Pan Am or Playboy shows a look, since all my Adult attention has been geared to the American Cable Channels, and for my reality fix I know I have The Apprentice US/UK to keep me over summer and Jersey Shore for crappy TV fix, and comedies of Cougar Town/30Rock to keep me laughing!
But I was wondering how you pick your TV shows, whether they be new, old, animated or a web series?

Mr E

Word of mouth, to be honest. This forum is a good place to start!

If there is a good new show on the air (or a past show that I've missed), there is a good chance that I'll hear about it here.

don ramo

tbh ive missed a lot of great shows down the years, probably due to my age, but i was delighted when i eventually got to watch the likes of the sopranos, the west wing, and the wire, back to back to back:D,

more recently i watched dexter (nearly finnised season 5) i remember watching the first 3 or 4 episodes when they first aired and just not getting dragged in then, now i love it:)

im more of a sci-fi/fantasy person so shows like stargate, star trek, spartacus, game of thrones will automatically appeal to me, but not all sci-fi fantasy shows will be to my genre liking, like firefly seemed like a western in space, i dont like westerns, or westeresque type shows, so i didnt like it,

but maybe it was more the creators i didnt really like, like joss whedon i dont think i loved any of his shows, buffy and angel never appealed to me, and dollhouse kinda kept my attention long enough that i wanted to see what happened, in film its the coen brothers, i never seen a film by them i really loved,

so i think it could be a combination of thing like premise+show runner+genre+writers+cast=like or dislike, its never gonna be one thing, maybe an actor will draw you in, but a bad premise will kick you right back out, or maybe the premise will be sound but executed poorly (looking at heroes here), maybe the showrunner will draw you in, jj abrams drew me to undercovers this year, it was dead from the start, bad writing, terrible casting, it had a good showrunner, a good premise and the genre was ok to, spies that are married going on missions together, 3 outta 5, even if the writing was good the cast seemed wrong from the start, and vise versa a cast can only carry the writer so much,

so hit and miss is my conclusion:D

DeWitt

First thing that tunes me into a show is the Cast, then premise followed by production.