Chuck is one of those shows that I DVR each week but don’t actually watch. In fact, it wasn’t until I saw the headline on Marc Bernardin’s post yesterday about Monday night’s Chuck-Die Hard crossover that I actually pressed ‘play’ on an episode this season. Now, I’m back on-board for one simple reason: Buy More Assistant Manager Emmett Milbarge (Arrested Development‘s Tony Hale) insisting that he should be freed from a hostage situation because his mother is dying of a very rare disease–Leukoplakia. Perhaps the joke was that Leukoplakia, a real condition, isn’t exactly deadly (though it can show early signs of cancer in the mouth). But in my mind, it was that Emmett is a fan of the movie Lucas and remembered what "disease" the mean kids used to call Corey Haim. That’s all it took for me to plan on watching every episode of Chuck on my DVR.
Has a specific moment–big or Leukoplakia small–ever wooed you back to a show that you’d abandoned? You never can tell what will connect with people….
More on Chuck:
Ausiello’s Chuck scoop
Chuck hottie Yvonne Strahovski is actually TV’s most underrated actress
While I hadn’t actually stopped watching it, I was very disenchanted with Lost during mid-season 3, and it was slowly becoming a non-priority show. Then, I watched “Par Avion,” an episode that focused on my favorite character, Claire, and it was awesome. This started a string of episodes that finally redeemed the series, and by the time I got to “One of Us,” a Juliet-centric episode, I was hooked again. Today, it’s one of my absolute favorite shows.
I had stopped watching Gilmore Girls until the finale of the fourth season when they had Luke and Lorelai finally get together.
Of course, I stopped watching it again during sixth season, but they did manage to pull me back again for awhile there.
I stopped watching Dawson’s Creek during the 5th season…but was pulled back when I saw the preview for Castaways, Joey and Pacey were maybe getting back together, I had to be there!!!
As embarrassing as this is to admit, I was sure I was done with One Tree Hill until they actually had Dan kill Keith. I thought that was a really ballsy move and made things so interesting. Then they pulled me back in again with the whole fast forward through the college years bit.
Damn guilty pleasures.
Mandi, you totally read my mind! Just yesterday I was hoping a blog would be posted about shows you gave up on but came back to. My show, believe it or not, is Private Practice. When I saw Tim Daly on that oh so hot motorcycle in last week’s ep, I nearly passed out. (Kudos to the writers on that one!!!) I don’t care how bad the show gets, that man and his ever-growing hotness is enough to keep me coming back. Even though they hooked him up with Violet. (Why, God, WHY????????)
Lost- I gave up on it during the third season until the finale in which Jack said “We have to go back, Kate.” The minute I realized it was a jump to the FUTURE rather than a tired flashback, I was intrigued again.
Smallville. Seasons 3-5 had pretty much lost me. I still watched just with no enthusiasm for the story or characters. Season 6′s episode “Promise” completely pulled me back in. Lana finally hearing the truth, Clark willing to toss things aside for her, the look on his face when Lana and Lex ride away. It felt like an episode from season one or two. Plenty of action, emotion, mystery . . . The seventh season may have stumbled, but season six held me thru to the present great season eight.
I gave up on “True Blood” when I got bored after three episodes. Then a couple of weeks before the season finale, I ran across a marathon on HBO and came in at the moment Sookie sits down at the table to eat her dead grandmother’s last pecan pie. What a beautiful portrait of mourning that was. I was hooked.
I have to go with “Lost” as well. I watched it religiously during the first season, but wavered during the second and skipped all of the third. Came back about a third into season 4 and am so glad I stayed. I can’t wait for the new season!!!
That time on the “Mentalist” when Simon Baker wore that vest. Oh yeah.
I gave up on ER a few seasons ago but I did turn back in for Abby Lockhart leaving. Tina Fey brought me back to SNL
Was the vest see-thru?
Once I quit watching something I almost never go back. However, I quit watching Prison Break when (and because) they killed Sara Tancredi, and I started watching again when she returned.
I remember a time when watching Lost was the highlight of my TV-watching week. Then that third, and even the fourth season, kind of pissed me off. I didn’t care anymore. But “The Constant” was incredible, and I actually cared about the show again…until the months-long hiatus they insist on doing. I always manage to forget about the show, and now I’m just supremely annoyed it seems to be taking Pushing Daisies’ place on the docket.
My roommate DVR’d Desperate Housewives for years. I would watch it with her sometimes, but it never really held my interest – until this year. Fast-forward five years? Awesome. I now have my butt parked on the couch every Sunday night.