Do You Ever Rewatch Television Shows Anymore?

Sounds Good!

There I was walking home, a routine podcast-stroll, listening to Marc Maron – one of my forever go-to podcasts; it’s a habit. And he’s talking to A.O. Scott – the film critic. So I was leaning in on this one. Because I loved A.O. Scott’s book – which is the book that Marc is now reading, which is the reason he’s got around to having Scott on the show. Also A.O. Scott is a good critic. I like his take. I don’t have the same opinion as him for each film – that would be weird – but I can see how he’s arrived at his view, and I often feel like it illuminates on some level.

The bit that I thought was really interesting in this chat – and actually the whole thing is pretty good, pretty interesting – was when Scott talks about his then-teenaged son watching sitcoms like Scrubs over and again. This is going back – I’m guessing – 10-15 years ago. DVDs are still very much a thing. Streaming isn’t – really. And before things like Scrubs and Friends go into rerun circulation, they’re available on DVD. So, you get the box-set and you watch some of the extra-features, or you tell yourself that it’s worth having the commentaries and featurettes…but after a quick skim you settle into just watching and rewatching your favourite episodes…

But you see, I never really did that. I absolutely bought DVDs. Loads of them. I watched them and often moved them on straight out of the house after – and my massive collection halved in size pretty quickly, and then again – and again – when I worked out I could trade them in for records. And when I worked out that I didn’t need to have evidence of everything I’d ever watched. I could just, you know, remember it…

A.O. Scott says that he was perplexed by his son watching these Scrubs episodes over and again. Not because Scrubs wasn’t worthy (my god though, I bet it has not aged well) but because he just didn’t see the point. What he worked out about his son’s habit was that the people on the show were like the friends he wished he had. Rewatching them was like hanging out with the. To place himself in – or near – their world was to find a comfort. To watch the same jokes, the same storyline was a comfort. Particularly because it meant he was “hanging out” with people he liked.  The characters in the show weren’t taking the place of real people he wanted to hang out with – but they were good placeholders. Watching them on a loop was, in some way, the chance to keep them close.

And I could – kinda – identify with that. Or at least almost understand it. It’s not for me. Not now. But it probably was back in the day.

I’m far more likely to rewatch movies, over a TV series. I mean, sure, in my childhood and adolescence I watched Taxi and Blackadder and The Young Ones and Family Ties and M*A*S*H and Happy Days and a few other things over and again. But then that just stopped.

Nowadays I’m all about watching new series’ – and if it’s something I’ve missed from a few years back I might try catch up. I binged Breaking Bad late last year and earlier this year because I only watched season one at the time it was screening. And, in all honesty, I kinda wish I had never watched it. It didn’t do anything for me. And my father still doesn’t believe me when I tell him that I really didn’t think the show was up to much. He protests. And tells me I’m wrong. And that it’s up there with The Sopranos. And I say that it isn’t. And he says that it is. And I say, ‘Oh no it isn’t!’ And then my mum shouts, ‘He’s behind you!’ And I duck, just in time. And the big comedy frying pan goes over my head and smashes into the wall…well, okay, not that last bit. (Because if that really was what happened I’d be watching that on a loop).

This conversation about rewatching TV shows was interesting to me. Because just last week I wrote about The White Lotus – a show that is still unfolding, week to week. And we have just two weeks to go before it finishes and later on that same week after writing about it I had a conversation with someone about how I was ready to start watching it again already. I could imagine there’d be so much to pick up on, dialogue and just little glances and reactions. There is so much good acting in that show! But who am I actually kidding? When The White Lotus finishes I’ll have just a day or two to kill and then I’ll be watching Nine Perfect Strangers. Plus, I’ll be watching whatever else I haven’t yet seen. And planning, haphazardly, for whatever else it just about to air. I mean we’re finally about to get season three of Succession after what seems like an agonising eternity. But in the pandemic-era of time-stretch wasn’t actually ever that long.

We really are spoiled for choice. And spoiled by that choice too.

Outside the world burns. In so many ways. And it always will since profit margins are the measurement – the only one that matters.

And my square eyes are just another part of the problem, and a bonus fraction of a hit for someone else’s bottom line. A little tick in a tiny column on a vast spreadsheet somewhere.

So who has time anymore to get to know characters through several rewatches and to hang out with them, or feel like that’s what’s happening?

Besides, the characters in the shows I like to watch these days (Enlightened, White Lotus, Succession, Mare of Easttown, The Morning Show…) aren’t fun or funny or friendly or nice. They’re flawed. And complicated. And often downright fucking awful.

Which is great. I love them for that. And when they’re done so am I.

Then bring on whatever is next!