5 Shows I Didn’t Want to Watch and Now Can’t Miss
I admit it. I’m a TV snob. I never just sit down and watch whatever’s on; my DVR is way too full for that. I research shows, record ones that sound good, watch them, and if I like them, keep recording and watching them. I guess I’ve always been a little obsessed with TV, even when I was a kid and understood what terms like network, syndicated, prime time, and independent meant when most adults didn’t. The list of shows I started watching not only before they were popular, but before most people had heard of them, includes The Simpsons, Seinfeld, South Park, The Sopranos, The Daily Show, Battlestar Galactica, and Lost. But sometimes I still get it wrong. There are a few shows that I either never had any desire to watch (or watched one or two and decided to give up on), only to come back later and become obsessed with going back and seeing them from the beginning.
Here are my top five (in no particular order):
(1) Big Bang Theory – Sitcoms have to be really good for me to bother with them. Most are predictable, lame, and boring. And one of the most predictable, lame, and boring sitcoms out there is Two and a Half Men. So when I heard that a new show about some nerds living across the hall from a hot waitress was coming from the same creator, I decided there was no way it could be any good. Boy, was I wrong. Maybe it’s because I’m a comic and sci-fi geek who gets all the “in” jokes. Maybe it’s because the actors are a billion (maybe ten billion) times better than the excrutiatingly horrible Charlie Sheen. Or maybe I’m just delusional. But I laugh my ass off at this show every week.
(2) Human Target – Most of the first season of this show sat on my DVR unwatched for a couple of months because I give most comics-based shows a shot, but never got around to watching it. Then I decided to watch the pilot and fell in love with this show. Yeah, it’s cheesy action fluff, but I can’t get enough of it. All the characters are likable, but Guerrero (played by Jack Earl Haley-Rorschach in Watchmen) is one of the best characters on TV, up there with BSG‘s Baltar. Oddly enough, I still have a hard time getting myself to be in the mood to watch it, but I never regret it when I do.
(3) Stargate Universe – Stargate SG-1 was not a show I was into while it was on the air because it started on Showtime, which I didn’t have, and I never wanted to go back and get caught up. But I started watching Stargate Atlantis when it came out, and enjoyed it enough that I eventually did start watching SG-1 also, even to the point of eventually catching every episode almost in order (not an easy task). Despite that, I was very hesitant about Stargate Universe because it was such an obvious rip-off of Battlestar Galactica‘s style and tone (they can deny it all they want, I’m not buyin’ it), mashed up with Star Trek: Voyager‘s concept. In fact, the show’s relation to the other Stargate shows is almost non-existent, with the exception of the occasional guest appearance and, y’know, the stargates themselves. But I have to admit, this show has really grown on me, and some of the actors do a great job, especially Robert Carlyle as Balt–sorry, Dr. Rush.
(4) Fringe – I watched the first couple of episodes of this show and thought it was okay, but it was a little too derivative of X-Files for me at first, and there are only so many hours in the day (and so many gigabytes on my DVR), so I ended up dropping it from my list. Then I heard about the alternate universe storyline (which I’m a total sucker for, along with time travel) and Leonard Nimoy’s appearances, and decided to give it another shot. Man, was that a good choice. Now I’m on the edge of my seat waiting for the new episode each week.
(5) Chuck – Like Human Target, the first several episodes of this series sat on my DVR for awhile waiting to be watched, but in this case I went almost the entire first season before I got around to it, and I even missed recording some of the episodes because other things were on at the same time. Again, I was thrilled whent I finally got around to watching them, and found myself having to find the ones I missed online to get caught up. This show has just the right blend of action, humor, and geek cred to keep me watching.
Author Christopher J. Valin 
All of those shows are on my TiVO. Chuck and Fringe I watch in big half-season chunks. BBT I watch within a day and laugh frequently during that half hour. I watch and like Human Target (not so sure about the female cast additions this season, which gives me conflicting principles), and generally am only a couple episodes behind. I agree about Guerrero. I’ve also loved Mark Valley since his Keen Eddie days.
I gave up on SGU and deleted the queued episodes. That one was hard for me because I’m a real big fan of John Scalzi and he’s a consultant on the show. Maybe I’ll Netflix this down the line.
Other shows I like are Bones, Criminal Minds, The Universe, Morgan Freeman’s Through the Wormhole, Known Universe, and recently Sci Fi Science (only a couple of episodes in that one).
SG-U took me a while to get used to, but it really did grow on me. My son is going to appear on the January 20 episode of Bones, playing one of the children of the murder victim.