Enjoying Shows Again and Again
We’re watching Sherlock with the twins, and we’ve moved into the fourth (and final?) season. Before we started the first episode, the Wolvog asked me a question about it, and I shrugged saying, “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” he asked, looking back at the screen. “But you’ve already seen this.”
I have but I don’t remember any of it, so it feels like I’m seeing it for the first time. Or… it’s actually more enjoyable, like seeing a puzzle come together again. As each piece moves into place, you see the picture emerge that you remember liking once upon a time. I only re-watch shows and re-read books that I enjoyed the first time around.
In the explore/exploit continuum, I am far on the exploit side. It doesn’t feel like a waste of time because I’ll always find things I missed the first time encountering the show or book, AND I know I’ll like it because I liked it before. I just don’t remember it.
There was an Atlantic piece last week on how the way we consume television or books or movies actually leads us to forget more of it. Knowing you can see it again (or read it again) makes our brain less likely to hold onto it:
Research has shown that the internet functions as a sort of externalized memory. “When people expect to have future access to information, they have lower rates of recall of the information itself,” as one study puts it … You don’t need to remember a quote from a book if you can just look it up. Once videotapes came along, you could review a movie or TV show fairly easily.
So my brain doesn’t retain the facts of Sherlock (or even basic stuff like who is still alive in the fourth season) because it knows it can rewatch Sherlock as many times as I wish. Even stuff that is a one-time-only viewing (such as a Fathom Event) isn’t retained because we’ve told our brains that they don’t have to remember the details, it just needs to remember where to find it again.
It’s a really cool article on memory and what you can do if you want to retain more facts about Sherlock. Which, clearly, I don’t because it makes for a more enjoyable second (or third or fourth) viewing experience.
8 comments
So I am kind of a snob when it comes to TV and movies…because I have such little time to spend watching things, I want them to be things I know I will enjoy. I don’t turn something on for just the heck of it. If nothing looks good, I watch nothing. Which means that if we are watching a movie or show I haven’t chosen as something I want to see, I just don’t tune in as closely, so I don’t retain the information. For example, my husband is a huge Star Wars geek, and I saw the movies as a kid and enjoyed them, and he has shown me all the new ones, but I just don’t retain the information about the movies to have a clear understanding of the storyline and weaving the movies together. Same for all the superhero stuff…my brain just doesn’t have the will to compute. So my attention and memory is very selective.
I also have a selective memory. It drives my husband crazy because he’ll say but you WATCHED it with me. Uh, yeah, but I wasn’t interested. LOL. This applies to 99.9% of movies. I am not a movie person. I like something in which I can get invested in the characters, which for me makes television superior because I know I get the characters back week after week, so I’ll get invested in them. Movies? Nope, it’s 2 hours of my life (an exception would be like the Marvel movies because there are so many). I don’t WANT to care. And, I also want them to be things I care about and know I’ll enjoy so coming back to shows I’ve seen before is like coming back to an old friend.
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who takes joy from my lousy memory for books and shows because it means I can read them repeatedly and enjoy each time!
My undergrad research was actually on memory, and the main conclusion that came from it was: we think our memories are much more accurate than they really are! Keep enjoying Sherlock and know that you’re probably ahead of the crowd with your awareness that you don’t recall all the details!
I definitely fall into the exploit category with movies, shows, books.. even restaurants. I’ll explore a bit but I often return to ones I love. And I love how each time, I get a little something new from the experience.
I rewatch things I know I will enjoy because it’s relaxing and makes me happy. I find details I missed and know that I won’t end the episode disturbed by what I saw.
I consume like this, as well. I could see/read a second time as though it were the first time. My mind is a sieve.
My husband, OTOH, captures it all. He can quote movies we saw 10 years ago. He’s mystified by my inability to recollect.
I’ve just rewatched all the seasons of Game of Thrones. It was great, because I learned new things, or were reminded of things that I’d forgotten, or maybe had never picked up on first time around. Bingeing is great for that!
I do forget things – but I generally have a good memory if it is something I engaged with and enjoyed. That’s the key for me – paying attention, and letting it sink in.
This is interesting… I grew up in a world where you watched your favourite TV shows at a set time… or else (unless you managed to catch it in summer reruns later) you missed it. No VCRs, no Netflix, only a limited number of (mostly older) programs in syndication. And yet — people would still come to school the next day reciting dialogue from the show they’d watched the night before. (I remember the CBC showed “Monty Python & the Holy Grail” on TV — no doubt at least somewhat censored…! — on a Saturday night and everyone was spouting all the most famous lines on Monday morning at school.)
I have a pretty good memory, but I don’t always remember all the details of a TV show or movie I’ve seen before. And sometimes the plot is so complex you almost need to see it again to fully absorb everything…!