Surprise TV shows...

[DitchPanda]

Have you ever had a TV show sneak up on you and sink its hooks in? You know maybe you gave a show a try without much expectation or stuck to it with mixed feelings a few episodes in and ended up loving it? For me a show that sticks out like that is Frasier. Had a buddy watch it last winter all the way thru on Hulu and he ranted and raved about how funny it was. So me and the old lady usually pick a new show to watch during winter since I fish constantly the rest of the year and lets be honest there isn't much else to do here in winter. She was all for trying Frasier based on his recommendation and for the fact that we had watched Cheers all the way thru the winter prior. Well I reminded her that Frasier was my least favorite character in Cheers but she insisted so I gave in. A few episodes in I was feeling exactly like I thought I would...the characters seemed stuffy and snyde and I was not enjoying it to say the least. Well I told her I would stick with it and at some point I got sucked in by the humor and character dynamic. Before I knew it we were 4 or 5 seasons deep and I realized I liked it more than Cheers. Anything like this ever happen to you?

[TnRiver46]

My neighbors watch Frazier every night til about midnight haha. I think I saw every episode of it at my grandparents house back in the 3 channels days so I don’t watch it anymore but I bet I would still laugh at Niles and his tomfoolery 

[NorcalBassin]

1 hour ago, DitchPanda said:

... and I realized I liked it more than Cheers. Anything like this ever happen to you?

Blasphemy! 

 

Cheers turned me into a lifelong Sox fan, so it's gotta be my GOAT show (when watching in its day, if started watching for the first time now that probably wouldn't be the case). Frasier was a good show and I liked how it had carry over (and appearances) from Cheers but was unique in its own right. Only issue with the show was the dad always used his cane in the wrong hand despite having a PT there to help him 24/7. Smh.

 

We just experienced what you described with Cobra Kai... didn't know much about it and had low expectations, but it sucked us right in with the continued story line from the Karate Kid movies and our family binged all 3 seasons in a couple weeks. 

[JohnFromLisbon]

7 hours ago, NorcalBassin said:

Cheers turned me into a lifelong Sox fan, so it's gotta be my GOAT show

 

This, 1000x this. I grew up watching Cheers reruns during the late 90s, early 2000s and if not for that, I sure wouldn't stay up till 2 AM watching a Sox game played thousands of miles away.

 

Another one I watched reruns of during my teens in the early 2000s was Seinfeld, and occasionally watch it again on streaming. It holds up very well. Around the same time I watched Star Trek (TOS), and that show is still the GOAT of sci-fi TV. Sorry, TNG fans ?

 

One I was avoiding because of all the hype at the time and ended up loving was True Detective - the first season. Man, that show was good. The second one I had to power through, but the third season was good too, though not as much as the first.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sam]

Back in the stone age when I was a teenager, I stayed at my aunt and uncle's home in New Orleans from time to time.

 

I had a set of weights in the third floor finished attic area so I could life weights. There was a TV in the attic and I would watch TV while doing my routine.

 

One evening while working out I saw the Beverly Hillbillies on TV. I never laughed so hard in my short life. But being a dumb teenager, I forgot to remember the day, time and TV station the show came on, plus I did not know the show's name.

 

I told my friends about the show but they had never seen or heard of it. No one in my family had any idea the show existed.

 

Finally, after two weeks had gone by and I was once again doing my weight routine, the show came on. I wrote down the name, TV station, day, and time and I tried never to miss an episode.

 

The Beverly Hillbillies became one of my favorite shows, especially since Donna Douglass who played Eli Mae Clampert was from Zachery, Louisiana.

 

Still like to watch the reruns on TV.

[MN Fisher]

Grade school - 3 friends. One day we went to Danny's house after school let out - we were about 7 or 8 - and just for laughs, turned on the TV...60s, mid-afternoon - soap operas, right....we all got hooked.

 

From then on, we'd race to one of our houses so we were in time to watch this unique soap opera called Dark Shadows.

[Jigfishn10]

Well I have to admit, I don't watch much TV unless the hometown team is on. This year with the pandemic, I found it hard to watch sporting events. 

This past summer (2020) i was working at my house in Maine. I found myself going without lunch so by dinner time I was ready to eat my arm. Got a sandwich and turned on the television. Nothing on. Channel surf, channel surf and landed on Chicago PD.

I ended up watching like 4 episodes in a row. 

By the time fall ended I was caught up in all 7?, I think, seasons...?

 

Yes, I just admitted that.

 

[throttleplate]

not a fan of new tv shows for the past 5 years, i get all my tv watching of of pirate sites. But when i workout and do yoga every morning i do watch the 1960s Tombstone Territory, Bat Masterson, Hazel, I dream of Genie and Bewitched.

[FishTank]

The Queens Gambit....  I started watching it with my wife and it was about chess.  I thought this will help me get to sleep.  It only took about 2 episodes for me to get sucked in.   It was actually quite good. 

[TnRiver46]

7 hours ago, FishTank said:

The Queens Gambit....  I started watching it with my wife and it was about chess.  I thought this will help me get to sleep.  It only took about 2 episodes for me to get sucked in.   It was actually quite good. 

Yeah I think we sat down and watched that whole thing and barely moved 

[J._Bricker]

An interesting topic @DitchPanda and one the Mrs and I have had while we look for something to binge watch as we shelter in place. Some series have run their coarse, others we’re waiting on the next season to be released. A couple of shows in the former, “The Man in the High Castle”, “Game of Thrones” and the later, “Yellowstone” and “Bosch”. 
Hey, IMHO that’s why you get a hi-def television...
 

[Choporoz]

A nice surprise appears to have returned to Netflix: "Intelligence".  Canadian show that only lasted a couple seasons for some reason.  Watched it on Netflix years ago and then it disappeared for many years.   Catch it now before it vanishes again. 

 

One other Netflix show that caught me by surprise...and didn't last too many seasons, is a British comedy called 'Detectorists'.  Dry humor that not everyone appreciates,  but I loved it.

[deaknh03]

The Rockford Files. 

[fishwizzard]

I was shocked how well Frasier held up when I rewatched it a year or so ago.  I don't know what happened to bring attention back to it, but it seems like a lot of people are watching it again, the r/Frasier subreddit has like 40k members a like a dozen posts a day.

 

I also think Magnum PI holds up very very well.  It's a lot darker (Magnum kills a dude in cold blood) and more serious (the underplayed and respectful way they deal with PTSD) then I remember it being.  

[throttleplate]

Breaking Bad is a great show in my opinion, i never watched it when it ran on tv but heard so much about it that i binged watched it for the first time in 2016 after the series ended its run in 2013.

[.ghoti.]

Lucifer

[Scott F]

I got hooked on the ancient Perry Mason show. The original episodes were on when I was only a few years old and the reruns have been on ever since. I was never interested when my parents watched it or at any other time, but it wasn’t until I was home with a back injury and watched a lot of daytime tv when I was already over 60 that I really began to appreciate how well written the show became as it matured as a series.

[Bankbeater]

Kolchak The Night Stalker.  Started watching it about a month ago one Saturday night when I couldn't sleep.  It's your standard monster of the week, but it's very well written.

[MN Fisher]

11 minutes ago, Bankbeater said:

Kolchak The Night Stalker.  Started watching it about a month ago one Saturday night when I couldn't sleep.  It's your standard monster of the week, but it's very well written.

Watched that first run as a teenager - loved it.

[BassinCNY]

Just started watching Travelers on Netflix. We are half way through the first season and it is excellent. There are 3 seasons to watch. Hopefully it holds up.

[NHBull]

Boston Legal.....there was just something about it

China Beach....the same....or it could have been Dana Delanhy (sp)

[Chowderhead]

Don’t watch a lot of daily tv but have a few shows I’ve “binged” on: Doc Martin, Psych, and Merlin. 

[N Florida Mike]

When I was a kid and teen, I loved Hogans heroes, Gilligans Island, Gomer pyle, Andy Griffith , Beverly Hillbillies , I love Lucy , I dream of Jeanne ,Sanford and son, all in the family and several westerns, with Gunsmoke leading the pack.

As I got older I lost interest in newer sit coms. They just weren’t that funny to me , compared to the old shows. I tried watching Big bang theory a few times and don’t remember laughing once.

Somehow I watched a rerun of king of Queens and thought it was funny- I ended up watching a lot of episodes.

I watched Blue bloods and got sucked in. Probably the best cop show ever imo.

My wife’s favorite show is heartland. I started watching it with her and liked it, got partly sucked in .

Alone had me for awhile too...

I watch Mountain men and Swamp people but I keep falling asleep while watching the latter... I love their new snake show in the everglades...

[DitchPanda]

36 minutes ago, NHBull said:

Boston Legal.....there was just something about it

China Beach....the same....or it could have been Dana Delanhy (sp)

China beach sounds familiar...think my mom.watched it when I was a kid

 

[J._Bricker]

The last series that was surprising interesting, “Vikings” from the History Channel (2013-2020). I know there’s at least one other BR member who has watched it....