(no subject)

[tiggz]

i'm having a severe urge to run straight home and have a season one VM marathon. specifically? memorable Logan/Veronica scenes. zimshan just made a post about the Logan/Veronica dynamic that just about did me in. we have a lot of the same hot buttons. Weapons of Class Destruction and Plan B not withstanding. some classic L/V would do me good right about now.

there's also some discussion in cindywrites lj about whether or not we've put off some potential viewers by saying this is a show that needs to be watched from the beginning. i definitely think it's possible, but i also don't think there's any way around it. it's a character-driven show. if you don't know the history between the characters you're missing a lot of what makes this show brilliant. i definitely think newbies can find merit in the drama and humour that the episodes bring, but the casual viewer misses so much. agree? disagree?

damn. lunch is over. better get to it. only two hours to go. feel free to spam me with your opinions about the merits of watching from the beginning, pics of your favorite scenes, favorite quotes, WHATEVER!

Comments

[foundserenity.livejournal.com]

definitely think newbies can find merit in the drama and humour that the episodes bring, but the casual viewer misses so much. agree? disagree?

Frankly, I don't know how a casual viewer could possibly get much of anything out of an episode this season. There's the character stuff, but also the fact that the show is so heavily arc-driven, even moreso this year than last. I frequently find myself having to watch each new episode twice just to understand everything that's happened.

[dachelle.livejournal.com]

I agree. I watch the show every week and I'm lost on about half the things that are going on. I have no idea how a new viewer would be able to jump in and enjoy it right now.

[inlipstickred.livejournal.com]

i kind of agree that people need to watch from the beginning. i mean...the whole thing is a story, dammit. it's not like a sitcom or l&o or whatever, where you can drift in and out because things are all contained within one ep. you don't buy a novel and start reading at chapter 6, skip ahead to 11, etc. it's way too intricate of a story.

i'd imagine it could be entertaining to the casual viewer, because it's funny and pretty and stuff, but i can't imagine it'd be very satisfying viewing to start midway through the season. between the mystery stuff and the relationship stuff, there's so much history that has an effect on EVERYTHING.

i'm going to do a little l/v picspam thing later, so stay tuned!

[bluegreensmoke.livejournal.com]

The #1 thing that puts off potential viewers is the fact that it's a show about a teen detective that airs on UPN in a difficult timeslot. That's what impacts the show's ratings & viewership. While pimping to friends is a good way to get the word out, ultimately it's not the fault of the show's current viewers if ratings dive and viewership decreases in a significant way. The network and producers have the responsibility of growing the show's fanbase and VM's nutshell description just isn't a catchy one.

With that being said, I can't imagine jumping in mid-stream with this show and understanding/liking it enough to become the type of a fan athat I am now. That might've worked with S1 but I think S2 is too far along to jump in and appeciate it the same way. Much of the beauty of the show is the way the plot evolves over the course of the season and I think this season's plot is extra-difficult to follow.

[bluegreensmoke.livejournal.com]

ETA - Paragraph one is really in response to the idea that the fans telling people to start from the first episode has some kind of major effect on the American public's desire to watch the show. I don't think I made that clear in the comment.

[cindywrites.livejournal.com]

Well, I didn't say it had a major effect on the American public. My first points were that the high-concept (Nancy Drew meets [whatever]) and the fact that it airs on UPN are clearly the biggest factors in its poor ratings.

But, I think we (I mean me as part of that "we") didn't pimp it right to everyone. We pimped it as if everyone is an obsessive. We put unintended pressure on potential converts, like they had to study for a final exam to catch onto a TV show, and now that there are nearly two full seasons worth of episodes to catch up on, it's almost too much. Lots of people aren't as obsessive about TV as the Veronica Mars fans on LJ.

The fact is, the A Plot mostly dangled for the good middle of this season. People could have started watching up to the middle of this season, and still gotten about as much of the A plot as the dedicated have.

Next season if there is one, I'm going to tell people to jump right in. I think we could have done that at the beginning of season 2, as well. I didn't see it then, because I'm an obsessive, too. I was grateful for a shot to watch all of season 1 in one bang, and I have TV, so I could store up the s2 episodes, until I was caught up on season 1.

[bluegreensmoke.livejournal.com]

I'm referring to tiggz comment about potential viewers being turned off because fans told them to watch from the beginning. I haven't read the post/comment you're referring to.

I suppose that's possible but my point is that I don't think it's something that people should beat themselves up over, because at the end of the day, I don't think something like that would have made a difference.

People are nervous about the show possibly being cancelled and are wondering if there's anything they could have done to avert it. I don't think the methods they used to pimp to their friends was a factor.

The problem is the fact that people don't know the show exists or have the opportunity to view it at all. I think we're debating two different points.

[cindywrites.livejournal.com]

Well, I do think potential viewers didn't have to watch season 1 to understand season 2. I'm glad I did, but that's because that's how I am. I can also see why fans-less-rabid-than-me wouldn't bother with all that catching up until they fell for the show, or would get discouraged trying to catch up.

[kibarika.livejournal.com]

Agree.

[catmint.livejournal.com]

I just turned my 70 year-old mother on to VM. I lent her the S1 DVDs, and watched them with her whenever I was at her house. She really enjoyed them and can't wait to watch S2.

[cashmerepett.livejournal.com]

I'm tv obsessive and I was getting discouraged about catching up. I think the two eps I've seen from Season 2 strike me as enjoyable, even though I'm only through the first 8 eps from season 1.

Catching up has been a sloooooow process for me. I don't have the time/money/energy that I had and I feel awful about that. I should just plunk the $23 down for season 1 DVD's--but we're saving money to go to Puerto Rico in less than a week and I felt like that was a craxy purchase--especially considering I still want Buffy DVD's--of which I only own one season. *shrug*

I did feel like a failure for not trying harder to catch up and was startin gto question whether the show was worth it if I couldn't just jump in. I did the same with Buffy and look how well that turned out.

I've been trying not to spoil myself for the BIG stuff from season 1 and just doing what feels right.

I do think that insisting on watching from start to finish might put some folks off--but it really depends on the person you're pimping to. I'm not big on not being spoiled and I think the characters, even without all the backstory can stand alone.