Like a TV Show, Watched For the Very First Time

Are you familiar with that phenomenon where one person says they’re about to start watching a movie or TV show, or reading a book series, and someone else exclaims, “I’m SO envious you get to experience it for the first time!” It’s a weird thing to say, but the sentiment isn’t that odd. There IS a feeling of joy and excitement that comes from consuming some media for the first time and experiencing the twists and shocks and excitement - and you can’t really recreate that ever again. Unless…

Like most of you, if I had access to “Eternal Sunshine” memory-erasing tech, I’d choose to forget the song “In The Air Tonight” having told a friend beforehand “Hey after I have my memory erased, play ‘In The Air Tonight’ for me” so when the drum part happens I can just go NUTS

— Paul F. Tompkins (@PFTompkins) May 23, 2020

Anyway, now that so many people are at home and looking for TV to binge, and I have a LOT of experience with being stuck at home and binging TV… Here are some shows that give me that, “OMG I wish I could watch it again for the first time” shows (I’m saving books and movies and any other media for later).

Alias

I was just talking with a friend about how I have tried to rewatch Alias, but I get a little bit bored and quit, but hear me out: Alias, the first time around, was the first show I watched where I was desperate for each new episode, and the season two finale was the first time I LOST SLEEP over and episode of TV. It was also the beginning, at least for me, of having a great Sunday night drama to look forward to. It’s much easier to face high school Sunday scaries when you’ve got Sydney Bristow helping you though it. Plus, if you watch Alias, you can understand why I can only think of Bradley Cooper as Will Tippin, and why anytime I read/hear the words coffee ice cream, I compulsively respond, “Francie hates coffee ice cream.”

The Americans

I binged multiple seasons of The Americans before I caught up to real time, and OH MAN imagine if you could just binge the entire series. Well, it’s over, so now you can. I already wrote about The Americans, and now that I’ve seen the whole thing I know that my (kinda out there) prediction didn’t come true (I thought Henry would be killed - probably by the Russians, framing the Americans - and that would radicalize Paige and she’d become a Russian agent). My main way of summarizing The Americans, in terms of what kind of spy show it is, is to reference Alias. There’s a trope in Alias where Sydney gets dressed up in some sexy outfit and flirts with some bad guys and before anything racy can happen, she knocks them out and moves on with her mission. The Americans is the exact opposite of that, where they use sex for literally every bit of spy work they do. Sometimes unnecessarily!

Black Sails

A lot of people slept on Black Sails, and that’s too bad for them. It is so, so good. Also, if you watch Black Sails and Outlander, you will recognize some ships, which were reused for Outlander once Black Sails ended. They didn’t change them… at all. I already wrote about Black Sails here, and everything I said still holds true. And now that I’ve seen the entire series, let me just say that it’s a gay pirate fairy tale and if that even slightly piques your interests it is THE SHOW FOR YOU.

Fringe

This isn’t a spoiler unless you already know, but when Olivia comes back to her apartment after… time away, and there’s wet laundry in her washing machine? I THINK ABOUT THAT ALL THE TIME. I don’t know who’s idea that was, but it has stuck with me for a decade. Also Joshua Jackson! Also parallel universes and time travel! And a contentious final season that I think is perfectly fine! If you haven’t watched Fringe ever, or got all huffy about the last season and didn’t finish, pick it up! Give it a shot! It’s fun and twisty and maybe it will change your relationship to laundry forever!

The Haunting of Hill House

I loved The Haunting of Hill House so much I dedicated a whole post to it. I’m considering a rewatch soon, but it’s such a dark show I’ll have to wait till it’s dark to actually see it, which in Seattle in the summer is like, 10pm, and I'm usually asleep by then! ANYWAY, The Haunting of Hill House is 1) The perfect length, episode wise, 2) Has one twist I didn’t see coming, and I ALWAYS see the twist coming, 3) Is great for folks like me who compulsively watch the background of movies and TV (pay attention, at least, to every statue), and most of all, 4) Carla Gugino wearing nude wedge heels while in her pajamas.

Lost

People hate on Lost, but at its absolute worst, Lost was better than 95% of TV at the time. Also did NOT expect to have THREE JJ Abrams shows on this list, but what can I say, he has a good TV track record (again, think about everything else on TV and tell me JJ hasn’t done some standout work). The season two finale of Alias that kept me up at night? Multiply that by ten and you have the season one finale of Lost, which I thought about ALL SUMMER. When I went to college, there was no easy TV streaming, and I had to give up all my shows - it was just too difficult to keep up with them. But every week I would go to some other dorm’s common room and watch Lost with two guys straight out of nerd central casting, and we all agreed that there should be NO TALKING, a rule we stuck to that so rigidly I don’t think I ever knew their names.

Orphan Black

I’ve mentioned Orphan Black before, but only to gloat about how I watched it from episode one. But real talk, I don’t know how people didn’t want to watch Orphan Black, particularly in LA where there was Orphan Black advertising EVERYWHERE. I think part of why I set up my DVR to record it weeks in advance is because I assumed we all were? Did no one else notice the INCESSANT ads all over town? Anyway, Orphan Black is smart and funny and an absolute blast, may the lord bless and keep Alison, the clone I hold most dear.

Six Feet Under

I started watching Six Feet Under in high school, and get this: I would wait til the latest season was released on DVD, then I’d go to the VIDEO STORE and rent the season, then watch it one time, then wait a year till I could repeat the whole process. WHAT. I have been considering a Six Feet Under rewatch for awhile now, but I’m worried it may be too depressing. What I love about Six Feet Under is that it’s highly soapy while also being prestige-y and HBO-y, which makes for an incredibly watchable, binge-able show. It’s not outright suspenseful and filled with twists, but the twists that ARE there are good, and in a way, because each episode starts with a death, it’s always a bit thrilling to see the wild ways they’re going to kill someone.

Veronica Mars

I’ve mentioned my love for Veronica Mars many times. My initial binge of seasons one and two was during a particularly difficult time in my life, and this show was a LIFELINE. And amazingly, I don’t associate this show with being at my lowest low, I think of it as the thing that successfully distracted, comforted, and kept me company. I revisit the original series every few years for a rewatch, and while it was a bit controversial, I loved the new season on Hulu. Also there’s a movie, which is more fan-service but still very run. Watch it all! You’ve got time.