Giving Up

No - not on this blog.  Yet.  Although I totally understand why you're thinking that...

Either way, I thought I would re-visit this blog and post on a different, but related, subject - giving up on a TV show.  I don't really do this readily (as evidenced by my continued viewing of all facets of "The Bachelor" franchise), but sometimes, man, things just get too hard to watch. Now I'm not really talking about shows you sort of end up sliding in and out of, with no real thought as to why you started or stopped in the first place, but shows where you make a conscious decision to quit.  For good. 

The first show I purposely quit watching was "Nip/Tuck."  My husband (boyfriend at the time) and I devoured the first season.  It was excessive, silly, over-the-top, icky, and just fun to watch.  Once we got our hands on the second season our interest and tolerance waned quickly.  I lost my patience for the epic rounds of bad decisions and the terrible way the characters treated each other.  Were there no redeeming people left on this show after 1.5 seasons?  Apparently not. As we were slogging through this second season, the final season of "Six Feet Under" came out on DVD.  We watched the whole thing in one weekend and never picked up "Nip/Tuck" again - I felt like that action kind of said it all.  And to be honest, I haven't even thought much about the show since.

More recently, though, we made the decision to stop watching "Glee."  I know a lot of people thought "Glee" became unwatchable during the second season (or that it wasn't watchable in the first place), but I didn't have that problem.  I even continued to enjoy it even through the third season (thanks, in large part, to Brittany S. Pierce).  But Rachel Berry just got to be such a laborious character and especially once she and Kurt moved to NYC in the fourth season, I realized I could not CARE LESS about her or most of the storylines (involving new or old characters).  The episodes were either too heavy-handed or too saccharine and I hated the high production value of the musical numbers.  They were too over-produced and the kids just can't act and lip sync well enough to make it all believable.  Some of them can sing very well, but I felt like it was hidden with auto-tune and instrumentation. But more than anything, it wasn't fun to watch the show any more. I didn't look forward to the next episodes. It felt like a chore, like an hour I had to get through once a week.  I don't think that's what television is about, folks.

A few weeks ago I realized that I had stopped watching "Grey's Anatomy."  I used to DVR it, but since I'm the only one in my household that watches it, I started cancelling it to free up that precious Thursday night space.  No worries, I could just watch it on demand.  I kept up with that pretty well until a 2 or 3 month spot when I didn't have time to watch anything on my own and then all of a sudden I had missed episodes that were no longer on demand.  I quickly came to the realization that I hadn't really missed it at all.  It was a fun time-waster to watch on my own, but I didn't care about it that much and again, some times the plots were just too labored.  Just like that - I don't watch any Shonda Rhimes shows any more.  Who knew it was possible?!

What about you?  Have you quit any shows?  Have you quit any of these shows?  Do you think I should make up with one of these shows?  I would love to know!