I can't see the whole thing as anything other than "well, if I can't have it, no one will!" sort of petty.

Well, yeah. People are petty. Especially when they feel (logically or not) that they were sold a chocolate ice cream but down at the bottom it's become black raspberry, and they hate black raspberry.

What does "emotional investment has been hurt" mean?

Eh, bad writing on my part. I mean the feeling that you've thrown bad money after good, that you're clinging to something that you dislike because of the emotional attachment you built up when you did like it, and the hope that this is just a temporary thing and soon it will return to what it was before and you'll like it again. Or like it more than you dislike it, anyway.

And if we're going to possibly harm a metaphor, why can't you close your account before the bank goes belly up?

Because you can't know. There are probably fans who can go from being really emotionally attached to a show to being casual about it, but they're not that common. The whole point of fannishness is that emotional connection, which is why it's so hard to let go when the pain begins to outweigh the pleasure. Especially if you don't know if it's just temporary, and soon it'll be something you like again. So instead of going from completely invested to casual, they go from completely invested to totally pissed off, because they hung in so long that the pain completely overwhelmed the pleasure.

I'm sort of struggling with this right now--last season's Fringe took a story about Olivia and turned it into a story about Peter and how much Olivia loved him, which was for me, definitely not the show I became attached to. And now I have to decide whether the new premise this season promises is going to be enough to bring me back, or do I walk away, as I planned to? Will it be better? Will the parts I dislike outweigh the parts I like? If I make a lot of noise about the parts I dislike, will that magically make the showrunners change the story? [Answer to that last: NO. But people keep trying, anyway.]

How do I get the pleasure of the show while protecting myself from being pissed off by the parts I don't like? ::shrugs::

But Consuela - you know that this upcoming season is it's last.

(Mmmmm, love chocolate ice cream AND black raspberry.)

But you do know, in that when you're not having fun, you're not having fun.

If you've reached the point where you want the show cancelled for everyone, why not just take a breath, step back, and just cancel it for yourself by deleting the season pass? Everyone seems to know when they want the show to end, but not when to stop watching it. Why is that?

And the thing is, if you're wrong about your decision to stop watching, unlike when you cancelled the show for everyone, you can take it back. Five years from now, you can add it to your Instant Watch queue on Netflix and catch up on a long weekend. And it won't be as good as when you were young and silly and in love with the show, but it was nice to see them again, and it didn't hurt so badly that they were kinda stupid, but at least you got to see for yourself how it ended, and now that one fanfic makes more sense, yeah?

If it is being petty, that you want it stopped for everyone because you've stopped enjoying it, isn't that too embarrassing to say out loud?

I think people who say those things are saying them as a way to indicate how extremely disappointed they are in the show. . . and of course, to illicit lots of comments.

If it is being petty, that you want it stopped for everyone because you've stopped enjoying it, isn't that too embarrassing to say out loud?

t cackles

How long have you been talking about media on the internet? There is nothing that is too embarrassing for someone, somewhere, to say out loud.

I'm not disagreeing with you in this argument, for the most part--I'm just pointing out that rational decision-making appears to play little part in the risk-reward evaluation of the truly committed fan.

Five years from now, you can add it to your Instant Watch queue on Netflix and catch up on a long weekend

Right, but that means they can't participate in the fandom now, while the conversation is going. And while that's certainly sometimes preferable, it also means missing out on the community aspects of the whole thing. Which are, for many people, as significant as the actual show in bringing meaning to the fannish experience.

Okay, I bitch about a lot of shows--I am not going to be hypocritical about that for one hot second. I watch a lot of stuff I don't actually like, because I'm a miserable daughter of a bitch. But...I don't like to sound like an idiot. I'm not saying I win that little battle, but at least I like to think I'm in the game.

The premise that I'm helpless at the mercy of my cable box which is forcing me to watch season 8 of Supernatural, and if the CW doesn't save me by cancelling it, little baby ducklings will die--how have we not ganged up as adults and not heaped derision upon the people who keep spewing that viewpoint? Why is it even indulged for a second? And, yeah, I know you just had it a few posts up, but that's how much I don't get it.

I do hunt down discussions of shows I don't like, and participate in them. But I don't pretend I don't have any choice in watching them, or imply that I need to be protected from them...the fuck? I do do my best not to deride the people who do make the choice to watch them because they enjoy them, but that's the bit that I think's hard (god, Twilight, seriously, sitting on my hands again...or at least trying to ask questions and not lob stink bombs...).

Over and over again, people who have garnered respect, in level-headed arenas, and boom! Out pops the "helpless maiden entrapt by Fox" thing and..it gets momentum and supporters, and all I can see is people volunteering to wear a dunce hat.

I suspect you're under-rating the power of habit, and fannish self-identification. I watched XF almost to the bitter end, and loud was the wailing and gnashing of teeth in my household. Because I was an X-Files fan, and I wrote XF fic, and participated in dense XF conversations on several mailing lists. That self-identification and involvement in the community was really strong, and it took a lot for me to stop watching, and even more for me to stop kvetching about it.

I suspect that if I hadn't fallen into Farscape when I did, I would have hung around XF bitching and moaning even longer.

It's not rational. It's not. And I can point and laugh all I like now, but I know I'm not above it, because I've done it. And there's always someone else around in the same position, who will commiserate.

So John has said that thing, about Leverage ending? Cool.

Yes, he said it in front of a bunch of fans, too, at the last Portland gathering. He said he didn't think Leverage had more than 100 (or maybe it was 120) episodes in the concept. Basically, 5 seasons, though this season is only 15, so maybe he'll want to keep going for another. Me, I'm zen about it. I love the show; if he makes more, that's great, but if he says the story's over, then so be it.

I've flipped channels and found X Files episodes I've never seen. I loved that show with a passion, and I joined people who flew in from Canada to watch the series finale, aided by tequila and toy aliens. But I did skip the painful bit with the crap episodes, because complaining about it wasn't any fun.

I guess someone was having some fun, though, because their ratings were larger than zero. I hope those people were very happy, for what they got.

It would be really cool if I liked every season of Supernatural no less than I've liked the weakest season so far (3). That would make me feel like I had some sort of bragging rights. It would make me feel really sad if I ended up falling out of love with it while it was still on the air and thinking of episodes broadcasting and me not breathlessly watching appointment TV. I'm getting a sad right now. And no one tell Amy I even floated the idea, will you?

But...insist it be cancelled? So there doesn't have to be an active fandom without me in it anymore? So there's no new canon for fics? So the bits of my pairing can't do anything new?

Seriously?

I can't believe anyone thinks that's marginally defensible, but it's not just that, it's the way you're supposed to think unless the other option happens--cancelled-by-the-fucker-networks-too-soon.

Which--don't even get me started on the stupidity of that.

I'm so glad John has already said he's ending Leverage on his terms so I won't have to bite my tongue when that wraps up because somehow everyone thinks there's one and only one way a show ends "early" and that's because a hostile network pulls the plug.

For fuck's sake, will martyr's weeds ever go out of fashion? I guess grey is a sophisticated look, right?

I was very lucky as an X-Files fan to not have a television for seasons six or seven, and in those days there was no Hulu or Netflix for getting caught up. By the time it was possible for me to jump back in, they'd changed the whole cast and I was confused and just stopped. But that period of enforced absence helped to sever the emotional ties.

I have felt "Oh god someone please put this show out of its misery!" at times when something really good gets really bad, but I'm not sure "insist" or "demand" is the right word.