An interesting article in the Sunday NYT magazine, recounted the story of the author's lifetime obsession with John McClane (Die Hard).
But I have my own secret vices. There are a few sitcoms which I will watch repeatedly. And I am talking about watching certain episodes a dozen times. Not sure why except that sitcoms are like a tranquilizer for me. If I need to relax....
I never watch an episode of a drama a second time, just sitcoms.
The list would include FRASIER, CHEERS, SEINFELD, THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW and THE BIG BANG THEORY. You like what you like.I don't watch any of these consistently but when I need comfort TV, I come back to them. Doesn't matter that I've seen the episode before.
What is your enduring obsession? What interests you as much as it did the first time you stumbled on it.What can you read, watch, search for, do over and over?
My review of HOLY MOTORS, a most unusual movie, is up on CRIMESPREE MAGAZINE.
23 comments:
I have watched JAWS close to fifty times...maybe more.
That's a more mature choice than my example would have been. I would watch movies more if they showed them at theaters. Although we bought a big tv this week so maybe that will change.
I'm with you on Frazier and Big Bang Theory. I could never get through a single episode of Seinfeld. Did like Cheers quite a bit, though I don't watch reruns of it much.
Third attempt at the captcha
We do occasionally watch dramas but definitely watch more old sitcoms - certain episodes of certain series (Seinfeld is one) but almost anything of certain others (I Love Lucy comes to mind, as well as certain Britcoms).
But there are movies we (or at least Jackie) will watch repeatedly, putting it on at any point in the story - for her it is Independence Day or Love Actually while I'd go with Animal House or Groundhog Day. We actually watched an hour of My Big Fat Greek Wedding a week or two ago when we were channel surfing.
Opa!
Jeff M.
I'm definitely a re-watcher of things I like, movies primarily. My wife isn't, which means I have to sneak opportunities to do so when she's not around.
Probably my favorite, though, which goes all the way back to when I was just a kid, is fantasy art. It's on my mind because just this morning I was stumbled across a tumblr blog called "Sword and Sorcery Art" while still in bed, perusing all my updates on my phone (never fails; mornings I don't have to get up early, I wide up earlier than I do when I DO have to get up). I scrolled through image after image of that stuff for almost 90 minutes. Frazetta images, book covers, movie art . . . I love it. Many of the images I've seen countless of times before, but I still love them as much as the first time. Some are true art, but others are pretty cheesy . . . and I don't even care.
I'm glad as I've gotten older I've grown to appreciate so many other kinds of art instead of the one-dimensional stuff from my youth. But it's still my go-to escape option.
Phil will never rewatch a movie so we rarely see one twice.
Chris-Outside of art museums, I seldom look at artbooks. I started to collect them and then realized I never looked at them.
My six year old grandson asked me to draw a hunk of cheese for a game he was making up--and then gently took the pencil away from me and drew it himself. And much better I might add.
I'll watch an old DOCTOR WHO, or STAR TREK (and all of the spinoffs), or old TWILIGHT ZONE/NIGHT GALLERY episodes. Most of the TV comedies aren't funny.
I will watch Jaws, Close Encounters, Animal House, or Moonstruck whenever and wherever I find them and no matter at what point in the story the movie happens to be. I love the BritComs like As Time Goes By and all of the Blackadder series. I watch those again and again. I used to read books (Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Gone with the Wind) over and over. I find I can't do that much anymore, although with some of the Agatha Christie mysteries, I'll read them again because I tend to forget the solutions.
I will watch GROUNDHOG DAY, which is kind of ironic that I would rewatch a film (like Jeff) that is so repetitive.
This comment from anonymous did not appear.
I've watched The Big Lebowski over 20 times. Also Bladerunner, Goodfellas and The Good,The Bad and The Ugly many times. Seinfield to me is very rewatchable.
Posted by Anonymous to pattinase at 1:39 PM
Most of the sitcoms mentioned I'll rewatch if they happen to be running and I'm otherwise brain dead. I'd add Roseanne to the list. Fawlty Towers and As Time goes By are some Britcoms I've returned to. Frazier got me through some lonesome nights in Montana motels a few years ago.
For movies, it's gotta be the original LADYKILLERS. I saw this for the first time in 1979, and I could probably watch it every day for the rest of my life.
For reading it's the Donald Duck comics by Carl Barks. I know basically all of it inside out, and yet I never get tired of rereading them.
Ron, I was going to mention Roseanne. Certain episodes (like the Mothers Day barbecue) are good. Yes to Fawlty Towers.
The Britcoms we have on DVD and rewatch:
The Good Life (aka Good Neighbors)
Fawlty Towers
Waiting for God (a favorite of Jackie's)
One Foot in the Grave
Black Adder
Gavin & Stacey
Other favorites:
As Time Goes By
Yes, Minister (we watched a couple in Florida and enjoyed them again)
Men Behaving Badly (especially the Star Trek episode)
Red Dwarf
If we're talking movies in general I'd have Casablanca at the top of my list. We watch Two for the Road & When Harry Met Sally... every New Years Eve and The Ten Commandments (what a hoot!) every spring.
Jeff M.
God, I love ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE and also GAVIN AND STACEY. We don't get them here-or I don't think so. I like ROSEANNE but the husband can't stand it. Go figure. FAULTY TOWERS has too few episodes sadly.
The beauty of having a DVD player that can play British discs is shows like these. We got them in England or ordered them from amazonuk.
Jeff M.
My obsessions change over the years. The original Star Trek I stopped counting the number of times I saw most episodes. Haven't seen it in years. None of the other series captured me to that extent, though I liked all with the exception of Voyagers(they got stale and never seemed to get out of it). No other dramas have I ever watched more than once.\
On the comedy front, I will watch M*A*S*H anytime I run across it. SEINFELD was one I watched repeatedly for years. Not anymore. No other comedies do I watch more than a couple of times and then exit gracefully from the scene.
John Wayne and Clint Eastwood westerns bear repeated viewings quite nicely.
Fawlty Towers!
I can also watch the Bourne and the Men in Black movies again and again. I can pick them up at any point and watch for the time I have available.
I watched TNG over and over the year we were in England. For some reason, it reminded me of home.
I can only watch a movie from the first scene. I don't know why. Even ones I have seen many times. It must be a rule somewhere.
It was Woody Allen's rule as he explained it to Diane Keaton in "Annie Hall" (another movie I have watched innumerable times): They couldn't go in to see "The Sorrow and the Pity" (which they'd seen many times) because the credits had started. He said he had to see a movie from start to finish, that he was "anal that way."
Deb
Yes, ANNIE HALL is on my list too of course, and I've quoted that 'anal' line ("That's one word for what you are") many times.
I can still remember seeing it for the first time. The minute he started talking to the camera at the beginning of the movie I started smiling and never stopped.
Jeff M.
Dragnet, Leave it to Beaver, Seinfeld, Frasier, Mary Tyler Moore, Adam 12, and any of the old Westerns like The Lone Ranger, Hoppy, and Rin Tin Tin.
For movies: Casablanca, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (and most John Wayne oaters), Battleground, Gunga Din, and The Three Stooges short subjects.
Was there ever a better written family comedy than LEAVE IT TO BEAVER?
I can watch THE SEARCHERS and RIO BRAVO pretty near any time I see them.
Post a Comment