Leaving fandoms...

[fajrdrako]

From fannish5: Five canon events that would cause you to leave a fandom (or at least think seriously about it).

Only one thing causes me to leave a fandom: lack of enjoyment of it. Things that have dimmed my enjoyment in the past:

1. Boring or badly written stories, especially when the fandom started out with good writing. (Example: X-Files.)
   
2. The introduction of characters I strongly dislike. (Example: Lois Lane in Smallville.)
   
3. Personality changes in the characters I loved. (Example: Lex Luthor or Martha Kent in Smallville.)
   
4. Too much similarity in stories or plotlines, or a lack of story development. (Example: House.)
   
5. Lack of depth in storylines.

Comments

[cionaudha.livejournal.com]

Oh thank God someone else knows that about House. It was blatant to me because I got the DVD and watched one ep after another like potato chips. If I'd had a proper week between it would have taken longer to see it, but every episode has the same story arc.

Mystery ailment!
Solution!
Patient worsens or dies!
Diagnostic frenzy!
Radical treatment!
Argue with Cuddy!
Angst with team!
End up alone but right!

I really wanted to love it, too. It's got so much potential. (And curse Hugh Laurie: his American accent is better than mine, I swear.)

House

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I agree: House had a lot going for it, and interesting scripts, but story after story seemed identical not just detail by detail (as you list) but in the timing of each detail. "It's eleven minutes into the show, time for the diagnostic frenzy. Okay, minute fourteen, time for their best sure-fire idea to fail."

Though, seriously, I had another problem with the show. Wonderful though House himself was, all the other characters seemed to me to be there only to support his role and his characterization, and much as I like strong lead roles, I found myself wishing they had more to their personalities, lives, and storylines than to just be in House's orbit.

I might have persevered with the show with either of these things, but both aspects together were too much to handle.

Which is not to say I'd be averse to watching it again. Just... not as a steady diet, and the fandom doesn't call to me.

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's my big problem with House LOL. It's a real formula. I watched it mostly for Laurie; I don't honestly like medical shows. I think the formula allowed me to watch it: no surprises, HA.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Quite right, 'no surprises' is sometimes a good thing. And episodes of House are so much better when I only watch them once every six months or so.

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

I think I like watching the opener then the last few eps. Like season three (I think?) you only need watch the first ep. and then the last two to get the main drama of the entire season. :p

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That must simplify things!

[filkferengi]

Word[s]. Lois Lane was grating, but I finally gave up on _Smallville_ after Jonathan died. And I'm the fan who stuck with _Andromeda_ well into the 3rd season, long after the epic "restore the Empire" arc had become courier duty [& not in a happy, classified Miles way, either!].

I'd add to the list, when watching a show feels more like an obligation than a thrill. [Why, yes, _Voyager_ & _Enterprise_, I am looking at y'all.]

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'd add to the list, when watching a show feels more like an obligation than a thrill.

Yup. When I find I'm not looking forward to watching a show, what's the point? There's always something else, something better, to watch or read or think about.

It's sad, though, when a fandom goes downhill and the good becomes bad. I still feel betrayed over X-Files, which broke my heart. I cared too much. I wanted to believe, and then the people making the show stopped believing in it.

[filkferengi]

I felt the same way over Andromeda & Earth: Final Conflict. Unfortunately, shark-jumping is far too popular a sport among tv shows.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to just be thankful for the good ones when they exist, while they exist.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Gad. What happened to Martha Kent's personality in Smallville? She was so wonderful!

And -- regarding House. I regret that I didn't get to the store to gt you a copy, but several weeks ago he and his main male buddy were on the cover of the US TV Guide, and there was pretty open reference to their slash potential. I grinned. But, being at work, I could not grab one and read it... nor even photocopy the cover for you. Maybe you could find a story of it online?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

What happened to Martha Kent's personality in Smallville? She was so wonderful!

She was. Then she got boring.

but several weeks ago he and his main male buddy were on the cover of the US TV Guide, and there was pretty open reference to their slash potential. I grinned.

Yup, slash has reached the mainstream media. Who'd have guessed?

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Too bad about Martha. Then again, what can we expect from producers who think the actress playing Lana is wonderful? Alas!

Slash has reached mainstream media... at least as far as House is concerned, yep!

Saw an article today about Neil Gaiman getting ready to write the last Batman story. And i knew the artist but now cannot recall, sorry. Should be magnificent.

Now: go to bed, panda!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

The "last" Batman story? What's that supposed to be? Surely Batman stories are infinite?

Remember when no one even knew what slash was except a tiny core of secretive fans? Oh, how times change!

Bed. Yes. Going to bed now. [g]

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Well, meaning that the cover shows Alfred with the cape and cowl, sadly, in the process of putting it away one final time: Batman dies a real death.

But you are right: this is comics!

Having slash be something known about by common, everyday people is kinda odd... but interesting. An evolution of mental attitude. Or aomething.

Hope you got enough rest!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well, meaning that the cover shows Alfred with the cape and cowl, sadly, in the process of putting it away one final time: Batman dies a real death.

Sort of like the 'death of Superman' a decade ago, then?

But you are right: this is comics!

Every respectable superhero has died many times.

Having slash be something known about by common, everyday people is kinda odd... but interesting. An evolution of mental attitude. Or something.

I think it indicates that we have less of a climate of fear than we used to have, at least in that regard. Slash is now seen as a genre, not a perversion. Which is as it ought to be.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

The Death of Superman was mentioned in the article, but not by name (which I found a little odd).

And, speaking of the formerly-fringe becoming mainstream, there was a cover blurb about a Neil Gaiman interview on a magazine that came by me one day recently at work -- ah, and his picture, too. Imagine that! Everyday people finding out about Neil Gaiman for the first time. "What? He writes comic books? Which ones, Archie or Little Lulu?"

You sound a note of hope for me, there, with the idea that the climate of fear may be lifting. Someday it will be that people no longer spend time trying to call total strangers perverts or sinners, maybe? We're a little far from that right now. Just after the California Supreme Court reinstated same-sex marriage, on Election Day the state narrowly passed Proposition 8 on the ballot to once again make it non-legal. And the way it got passed was this: record numbers of people who usually don't vote actually did go vote this time, many of them people of color, and this is the margin by which the homophobic, bigoted Proposition 8 was passed. Let's hear it for internalized bigotry! sheez.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Neil Gaiman is getting more and more famous... Which is rather nice. I like it when writers (or people) whom I admire are appreciated.

Re Proposition 8: the story I hear is that the Mormons were behing that. Does that make sense? well, none of it makes sense, and such a blatant denial of human rights I have seldom seen. Or is it that by 'people of colour', they mean Hispanic people who are also Catholic?

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

When I said "people of color," I meant black folks. The articles I read actually did say "African-Americans." Because of cultural factors, this ethnic group is markedly more homophobic than the average. I hear.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I wonder how they determine that. I wish I could disbelieve it. I still suspect that religion is behind it.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Exit polls.

I also wish I could disbelieve it. But black people in my acquaintance do tend to be strongly, even stridently, homophobic. I don't understand why.

I also think that that closed-minded exclusionary mean-spirited crap that is lately masquerading as "Christianity in its truest form" is behind it, yes. People seem to feel the need to have a "free zone" for bigotry, and if it isn't fat people, or those crazy & violent postal workers, it's Middle Easterners/Muslims who are all terrorists, or gay people who molest children and earn a lot more money than normal people do. I don't understand this need to make a "them" to the "us" of the in-group; is it something needed in order to feel a group safety thing? Is it part of (forgive me) herding instinct? I'm who I am, you're who you are, it takes all kinds to make a world... no problem, right?

sigh.

Anyway. People are saying that Obama getting elected may "open a discussion on racism." Nay, I don't think so. I think it needs to be seen as opening a window of discussion on bigotry, period. Because no matter who the Us is saying who the Them is, I think bigotry works by the same mechanisms in all of us, and if we were to make those mechanisms visible and known, it would be easier for people to catch themselves in their own bigotries. Which I do believe a lot of folks would be happy to do (then again, I have always believed that most people are essentially good).

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

black people in my acquaintance do tend to be strongly, even stridently, homophobic.

I wonder if that's situational, geographical - ? Doesn't seem to be true here.

Why should racism need to be discussed? Seems to me it should be eradicated, not discussed. Certainly not tolerated.