When You Lose Interest In A Series You Once Liked

FIRST - are you OK? Sleeping OK - mood OK? I know we've had our disagreements on climate stuff - but if rewatching shows is something you normally enjoy and now it's "Meh" - the old social worker version of myself hears a red flag.

BUT on the other hand - how many times can we really rewatch a show and get that original buzz?

YET - on the 'gripping hand' (phrase from Mote in God's Eye) - my son turned out to love TOS more than I did! He's watched it 4 times now!

People do change. Societies change. Cultures change. I'm sorry to hear that. Maybe what was once an edgy, thought-provoking Sci-Fi has become tame compared to the speed and pacing of shows today?

When I watched TOS as a kid, I was pretty scared a lot of the time. Part of the appeal! I was even scared of Spock - as he was so strong and had that Vulcan neck-pinch. I was always afraid something was going to mess with his logical self-control and activate his rage - like that planet that had a certain pollen?

Hey - did you like the satire "Galaxy Quest"?

I think it’s normal to some degree. We evolve and our interests shift and that’s natural. I loved Bridgerton in the beginning but the last season was okay and I’m not inclined to stick it out. I’ve read the books and I’m ready to move on. But I love Stranger Things and that hasn’t changed. Seeing old clips is just as exciting as it was when I watched them. I still enjoy Tolkien and Harry Potter. We’re looking forward to the tv show and new audiobook releases. I feel the same about Downton Abbey, John Wick and numerous period films.

When I consider the examples shared the common denominator are the characters. They resonate in ways others don’t which supports longevity. Oftentimes there’s a lot of depth and development that kept my attention and became sources of instruction in their own way. That’s a credit to the writers and producers too. Some people are better at storytelling than others. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Maybe the shift is an opportunity for new experiences.

~bella

I think you can only watch something so many times before it gets bland, no matter how much you liked it originally. Getting older is a factor too. I don't think there's much I like as much as I used to. Often when it comes to favorite episodes I'd rather watch clips rather than the whole thing.

Tuur said:

Not new episodes of series you like, but when you revisit an episode you once did. I was a Star Trek fan from when the original episodes first aired. Tonight I found one of my favorite TOS episodes on, The Trouble with Tribbles. I watched it and didn't enjoy it that much. There were mildly amusing moments, such as Spock declaring himself immune to the trilling effect of tribbles, all while he was stroking one (and this was noticed by his shipmates), and Kirk's dressing down of Scotty for the brawl. But...I didn't enjoy it. This is was an episode that never failed to delight, until now. Obviously it's myself that changed, not the episode.

Has this happened to you? Have you gone back to an episode of a series or a film that you once liked, but now find it kind of "meh?"

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McCoy: They're nice, soft, furry and they make a pleasant sound.
Spock: So would an ermine violin, Doctor, but I see no advantage in having one.

One thing I like about watching TOS is when I watched reruns with my older brother, he liked doing Mystery Science Theater 3000 style quips, which tuned it into a comedy. (Yes I also saw the episodes when they first aired too).

eclipsenow said:

from Mote in God's Eye

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Funnily enough I tried to re read that recently. I really enjoyed it back in the day. Couldn’t get on with it now.

I call it 'growing up'

I don't know if the internet is the cause, but I find it almost impossible to watch more than 10 or 15 minutes of a movie or tv show before I have to find something else to do. Yet I'd watch YouTube! shorts for hours if I'd let me. I've got the attention span of a three year old.

Yes! This is happening. We scan the internet - waiting for the next dopamine rush - paranoid that if we spend to long on one thing we'll miss out on the other. Our reading these days is minimal - it's all YouTube shorts. If we read, we read the top 3 paragraphs only. Books? What's that? Some of us used to scuba-dive down deep into a book - now with the internet it's like we're a world of jet skiers zipping across the top of dozens of very deep subjects.

partinobodycular said:

I don't know if the internet is the cause, but I find it almost impossible to watch more than 10 or 15 minutes of a movie or tv show before I have to find something else to do. Yet I'd watch YouTube! shorts for hours if I'd let me. I've got the attention span of a three year old.

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Yeah that might have ruined us. But then again it seems to me that flipping through yt shorts isn't much different than channel surfing. A little while ago I saw that Roku has Law & Order. But it's live streaming and I didn't want to be tied down to sitting through a whole episode without being able to pause it.

Tuur said:

Not new episodes of series you like, but when you revisit an episode you once did. I was a Star Trek fan from when the original episodes first aired. Tonight I found one of my favorite TOS episodes on, The Trouble with Tribbles. I watched it and didn't enjoy it that much. There were mildly amusing moments, such as Spock declaring himself immune to the trilling effect of tribbles, all while he was stroking one (and this was noticed by his shipmates), and Kirk's dressing down of Scotty for the brawl. But...I didn't enjoy it. This is was an episode that never failed to delight, until now. Obviously it's myself that changed, not the episode.

Has this happened to you? Have you gone back to an episode of a series or a film that you once liked, but now find it kind of "meh?"

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I still enjoy all classic Star Trek episodes and those from TNG, DS9, and Voyager, as much as always, but since I have watched many of them repeatedly, particularly in the case of TOS, its important to cycle through them. I mean, I love The Doomsday Machine, The Immunity Syndrome, Balance of Terror, City on the Edge of Forever, A Taste of Armageddon, The Tholian Web, Space Seed and The Cage / The Menagerie to the point where those are easily my favorite episodes, but the paradox is, I know what happens, and likewise with Star Trek: The Motion Picture through to The Undiscovered Country (frequently I find myself watching my favorite parts of those); the beauty of the TV series is variety.

eclipsenow said:

When I watched TOS as a kid, I was pretty scared a lot of the time. Part of the appeal!

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There are still some episodes that scare me. And for that matter, the Rura Penthe sequence of Star Trek VI, which I first saw in theaters in 1992, has always scared the living daylights out of me. Of course The Original Series television episodes had some genuinely nightmarish imagery, especially with the original special effects: giant hands moving through space, multiple episodes depicting frightening means of torture (Dagger of The Mind, Mirror Mirror, The Gamesters of Triskelion, The Empath), and a litany of terrifying monsters, only some of which (like the Horta in the Devil in the Dark) turned out to be non-malevolent. “I’m a doctor, not a bricklayer!” In one episode McCoy said “I’m a doctor, not an escalator!” which still cracks me up as being the most improbable McCoy gripe. We also have Khan trying to suffocate the crew, first collectively, then individually, in Space Seed, which was genuinely creepy.

eclipsenow said:

FIRST - are you OK? Sleeping OK - mood OK? I know we've had our disagreements on climate stuff - but if rewatching shows is something you normally enjoy and now it's "Meh" - the old social worker version of myself hears a red flag.

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When I’m in pain, specifically arthritis and tendonitis, which appeared in my 30s due to the hereditary illness I have, my normally epic attention span (at age 14 I sat through the Soviet SF film Solaris, watching both reels on our VCR, during the day, and thoroughly enjoyed it, and found myself never looking at water the same way again) becomes shorter, to a frustrating degree. Indeed I use my attention span as a key metric in determing how much pain I’m in.