I have a slew of shows that I refuse to watch on the grounds that I may someday want to watch them from the beginning. Mad Men. Game of Thrones. The Wire. Good Wife. Justified. Scandal. I actually started watching Scandal but it stressed me out too much so I stopped. Rome. Friday Night Lights. Also started watching that, got almost all the way through the first season, but Lyla Garrity just killed me in a combination where I hated her and felt so sad every time I saw her pretty, sad face. 90210. My So-Called Life. Lost. Seinfeld.
Haha just kidding.
Some of these shows I really want to watch but won’t let myself because then they’ll be over. Some of them I want to watch but I can’t because they’re super stressful and they’re still on the air and so there is no end in sight, no clear point of closure, and I just can’t enter into it without an idea of how long I’ll be tortured. This is actually why Joss Whedon is great for me, because all his shows get cancelled.
But for real, the good news is, I don’t care if you accidentally say spoilers in front of me, because a) that’d be ridiculous, some of those shows have been over for like 30 years, b) if I haven’t been watching, those character names mean nothing to me, c) I read way too much celebrity gossip to not find out when actors enter/exit shows, d) the joy of most tv shows is not actually finding out what happens—but in becoming way too invested in fictional characters for years on end in a shared cultural delusion where these people exist and their lives affect yours in an intimate way.
(I can never figure out whether to use affect or effect and then I remember if you can substitute a verb—their lives eat yours—then it’s affect. But their lives eat yours is probably an even better statement. I still think about the finale of Dawson’s Creek. I mean, seriously, Pacey.)