Pop Culture Blind Spots

I do think that a certain fetishization of childhood accounts for some of the raving about Harry Potter that adults do - particularly adults that didn't grow up with it or have children who grew up with it. That's not the case for everyone. But I truly believe some wear their love of Harry Potter as some sort of affectation, like a Powder Puff Girls back pack.

 

At some point I'll have the time to sit down and really watch "The Wire" but I'm so far behind that the task seems pretty daunting... I only got through the first season and a half of Mad Men, I really like the show, but I don't have the kind of free time where I can sit down and watch 30 episodes of any show to catch up...

I was able to do this with Breaking Bad, but I was only two seasons behind at the time and I think I watched 3-4 epidodes a week for six or seven weeks...

 

I find it easier to convince myself to start watching a show that's several seasons deep once it's finished. At that point, I know the general critical consensus of it (for instance, I don't plan to watch Prison Break because everyone I know who loved the first season or two hated everything after) and know exactly how much there is to catch up on. I am watching The Wire right now. I know I have five seasons totaling 60 episodes to watch. That's all there is to it. I can plan around that.

 

Lots, it's just more difficult to find.

 

I think I liked The Wire better because I watched it all at once, and I think that accounts for a lot of its continued popularity. Scratch that -- I actually watched Season 5 live because it was in the newsroom. Then I watched it through again at the end of the series and I understood it about 674 percent more.

 

The shows that I have the hardest time watching when I get more than a season behind are the ones where you really have to pay attention... Lost was like that. 24 was like that. The Following is like that. Breaking Bad, Mad Men fall into that category...

 

How quickly did you watch the first four seasons?

 

I think I was done with the whole thing, Seasons 1-5, in 10 days. But that involved a lot of staying up till 2 a.m. because it was too good to put the iPad down.

 

Looking at this thread, I really do believe I have not seen one second of any of the shows/movies mentioned.

The Wire? Mad Men? Sopranos? Harry Potter? Twilight? How I Met Your Mother? Big Bang Theory? Lost? Breaking Bad? American Idol? 30 Rock?

Nope to all.

OK, looking back at the posts, there are a few exceptions. I saw all the Bond movies up to and including Live and Let Die. And my son dragged me with him to see Skyfall a couple months ago. And I sat through one epsiode of the first season of Survivor because Da Woman got into (she gave up after that season). I'm aware of some of the characters and story of Lord of the Rings because the books were huge when I was in college (didn't read any of them, though). Someone mentioned Citizen Kane and Star Trek earlier. But I think that's it.

 

Oh, and I have seen Saturday Night Live. But not for at least 10 years.

 

I put on Season 1 episode "The Cost" at 4 a.m. one night, planning to go to bed afterward at 5, which is about normal for me. I ended up watching the next two episodes that night and going to bed at 7 a.m. I seriously considered watching the season finale, running my errands, then going to bed.

 

I am feeling more and more ignorant. I've never even heard of half the stuff that's been mentioned here, let alone watched any of it.

Exceptions: Mad Men, Harry Potter, LOTR, Weeds.

Heck, I don't even have personal Facebook account.

I do know that there's such a thing as K-pop, so Korea, at least, also has pop culture.