For the last two days I’ve been talking about go-to movies. I mean the kind of movie you enjoy so much that you have watched it over and over, to the point where you no longer have any idea how many times you have seen it.
TV series are different, because they are longer. In the U.S., a successful television series lasts about seven seasons — enough time for the network to accumulate enough episodes for syndication. After that the show lives on in a sort of perpetual twilight afterlife of reruns and rentals.
Which leads me to today’s topic.
I am now in my seventeenth year of watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That is, I have viewed the entire series, all seven seasons, twice through, and am now on my third time around.
So at the moment I am once again in season three — for the third time.
I suppose you could say that for me Buffy is a go-to TV series. At what point, I wonder, does that become true. Is it after the first time you’ve seen the entire series through, and are now jumping in for your second time around? Or do you need to be watching for at least the third time?
I’ve been watching sort of mindless tv programming from the 60’s and 70’s as quick breaks from finishing up the dissertation.
Here’s what I learn after watching them enough:
Dr. Bellows from I Dream of Jeannie lived in The Stevens’ house from Bewitched.
Major Nelson from I Dream of Jeannie, seemed to have lived in the Partridge Family house, or next door to it and his dining table chairs were in the first season of Bewitched. he also drove a convertible that Darren Stevens from Bewitched used as well.
Things like that.
There are shows that have a story arc — ones that should be watched in order. I presume _Buffy_ is like this. And there are other shows (typically sitcoms) which are just collections of episodes that can be watched in any order. For shows in the second group, I’m not sure what the cutoff is for “go-to show.” I’ll happily watch any episode of _Frasier_ at any time. I consider it a go-to show. But I doubt I’ve seen every episode twice.
Arc shows require more commitment, and I find I’d almost always prefer to watch something new (or, at least, new-to-me) than revisit even a beloved series. Then again, I’m wrapping up season three of the original Star Trek series, even though I probably have seen every episode at least three or four times.