Thursday, May 17, 2012

LXB | True Geek Confessions



This week's League assignment:

What is something you absolutely hate or love or just don’t get, or maybe it’s something you have never even seen or read. What is your deepest, darkest geek confession?

I came up with something that fits each of those categories.
  • Something I Hate That Everyone Else Loves: The first season of Heroes. I knew after two or three episodes that the show wasn't for me. I'm not saying that I'm cooler than anyone else because of that; just that whatever qualities the show had early on that everyone liked and that it eventually lost: I wasn't able to see them.
  • Something I Love That Everyone Else Hates: Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. I explained why at the time.
  • Something I Don't Get That Everyone Else Seems To: Transformers. The cartoons, the movies, the toys. All of it. I probably understand most why the toys are cool, but I was just older than the target audience when the cartoon came out and was never able to get into it. Michael Bay did nothing to help me out with that.
  • Something I've Never Seen That Everyone Else Has: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I saw the Kristy Swanson movie in the theater and - while I liked it okay - it wasn't anything that I thought I should watch on a weekly basis. By the time everyone was saying how great it was, it was far enough along that I wanted to start from the beginning and have just never gotten around to it. 

Do you have a pop culture secret? Share below!

11 comments:

Erik Johnson Illustrator said...

I hear you about "Buffy". While I loved that show, I know how difficult it is to try and get into a cult classic show from scratch, especially if its a long runner. For example I really enjoyed the visual aesthetics of "Farscape" and the moody atmosphere of "The X-Files", but its been difficult to get beyond the first season of either show because they're both over.

If I want to catch up then I have to watch them on DVD or online streaming at my own pace. Its great that we have that available, but I think its much easier to break into a show while its still on. That way it can be a part of the background and warm itself up to you and get comfortable with it in weekly installments that you start to crave after a while.

Really I only got caught up with Buffy because I reserved the DVDs from the library, but you could only get them in the 6-disc full season boxed sets and you could only have them out for a week at most, then had to wait about 5-6 months for the next season to come in on hold.

So I was getting quite the crash course in the series until I reached Season 7 when I realized I could find the episodes online and was able to slow down and watch at my own pace. Not that it did much good since by then I was severely hooked and was gobbling day about two episodes a day.

I've had similar experiences with archive bingeing on other cult shows like "Gargoyles" and "Arrested Development". Getting pulled in real fast but feeling let down when it was finally over. Then again all these shows have had numerous running plots, story arcs and so many call backs that one could argue that they are better suited to DVD viewing, just not in as short amount of time as I watched them.

Ken O said...

I hate Big Bang Theory.

I think the Back the to Future series is just okay. I don't get the love for it. I've seen all three movies once, it was enough for me.

I like Ewoks. And Sci-Fi's original monster movies. And movies staring Luchadors.

Michael May said...

Erik, I know what you mean about feeling let down after marathoning a series. Even when I'm just catching up to the live schedule, it's tough to adjust from an episode a night to one per week.

Ken, I'm with you on Back to the Future. I love the first movie, but have no time for the other two.

Michael said...

I feel you with Transformers...I had alot of the toys but only played em in robot form.If the can fly why would I go through the trouble of transforming them into a car.....so I can drive around the mountain? My wife and I came up with better conepts for the movie than that Bay abomination!

Kelly Sedinger said...

That's exactly what happened to me with Buffy...it was season three or so by the time I heard how wonderful it is, and even though I watched a couple episodes and was favorably impressed, I just didn't want to play catchup from that point. So there it sits, on my Eternal List Of Stuff To Watch. (I need to answer these questions though!)

Erik Johnson Illustrator said...

A geek sacred cow that I have never watched: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Its popularity was waning when I was growing up so I didn't live amongst the hype that might have otherwise driven my curiosity.

While theres no shortage of ways for me to watch the older episodes, I fear that this is one of those "you just had to be there" phenomenons, where even if I do start at the pilot episode and work up that'll still be too weird to really stick with me.

Michael May said...

I was in college by the time TMNT was huge and have good memories of watching it with a buddy every day after classes. I remember it as a pretty wacky, anything-can-happen show, but don't know if my fondness for it was as much about the show as it was just hanging out with my friend.

That's a long way of saying that I liked it, but don't know that I'd necessarily recommend it.

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

I prefer Angel to Buffy because I started fresh with Angel and Charisma Carpenter can do no wrong as far as I am concerned.

I love the Resident Evil more than anyone should having never played the games.

Transformer's Prime is a great animated series that rewards someone like me who has sorta liked the Transformers even though I have seen all the shows and movies. The portrayal of Megatron is just brilliant. He is the dickhead he was always meant to be to me. As you know the heroes are only as good as the villain.

Babylon Five never caught my interest for one second though I will watch Star Trek - DS9 over and over again.

Michael May said...

Right there with you on Resident Evil. I love those movies, but have never picked up the game.

I keep thinking I need to go back and watch Babylon 5 and Farscape. I ignored them when they were on, but now I'm curious. I was a huge DS9 fan too.

Erik Johnson Illustrator said...

Well I finally got around to crossing a new nerd threshold and have finally watched the original Ninja Turtles cartoon.

I had expected it to be one of those "You just had to be there at that particular time" kind of franchises, but surprised at how unashamedly goofy it was. Thats probably its saving grace, the wink and nudge to the camera to know that they're not taking it seriously. The clever writing really made up for the bloated pacing and stiff animation of the early episodes. I could see myself getting hooked on this very easily, especially since the local video rental store offers them as "Free Kids Movies".

Since my last post on this subject I have come up with a sacred cow that isn't my cup of tea...

I don't much care for "Ghostbusters".

Upon a recent re-viewing the only chuckle I got was at the beginning when Ray said "Listen... Do you smell something?"

I think my biggest hurdle is Peter Venkman. He's a con artist amongst true believers, and yet he isn't at all phased whenever they see something supernatural.

I also didn't like that he was their de facto leader. I understand that Ray and Egon aren't going to be much of a public face since they're so wrapped up in the science side of things but Peter insults everyone he meets. It seems like he would be someone that they'd want to keep in the back as often as possible when dealing with customers so as not to screw things up. Personally I think Winston Zeddmore is far more charming and would have been a great spokesman for the team.

Michael May said...

It's been decades since I last saw Ghostbusters, but I think I agree with you. I don't remember it as fondly as as a lot of other people. I enjoyed the heck out of it (not so much the sequel), but it's not something I feel like I need to see again or even really think about.

Frankly, the most memorable thing from it for me is "In the Name of Love" by The Thompson Twins.

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