Very much agreeing on needing an "entry character"! B5, for example, moved from "Not bad, like the plot" to "I MUST WATCH ALL OF THIS" once Londo and G'Kar emerged into the tragic heroes they evolved into. Shippiness is delicious icing on the cake and will seal my love for all time. Boston Legal, for example--fell in love with Alan Shore very quickly, but it wasn't until I saw him and Denny really clicking that I went to find the whole thing and consume it.
Generally I don't care about plot speediness--character interaction is all. However, I will drop a show if I hear that it goes radically downhill or if it ends terribly. Huh, I hadn't quite made this connection--actually I did not go to find all of Boston legal until I was spoiled on the ending and thus reassured that Denny and Alan weren't going to end up not speaking to each other or something. A lot of my love for Star Trek: the Next Generation stems from the fact that it begins and ends with Picard and Q. And even though I was spoiled on the hideously depressing end of Blakes 7, the fact that it ended "shippily" (albeit in depressing ways) meant I was still hooked. Heroes, on the other hand, deliberately kept breaking up and re-shuffling the cast so no two characters interacted very often, and thus I could never seal the deal.
So the more I examine my viewing practices, the more I have to conclude it's a character that gets me interested, but a ship and the knowledge that the ship doesn't get ditched that seals my love. This actually contradicts some of my poll answers, lol. For example, I don't mind being spoiled as long as the spoilers tell me my ship stays afloat. And I don't mind an unbearable ending as long as my ship is part of it. I'm apparently an unreformed shipper when it comes right down to it. :P I find this oddly shameful, I have to admit. It just seems kind of...crass, somehow.
no subject
Generally I don't care about plot speediness--character interaction is all. However, I will drop a show if I hear that it goes radically downhill or if it ends terribly. Huh, I hadn't quite made this connection--actually I did not go to find all of Boston legal until I was spoiled on the ending and thus reassured that Denny and Alan weren't going to end up not speaking to each other or something. A lot of my love for Star Trek: the Next Generation stems from the fact that it begins and ends with Picard and Q. And even though I was spoiled on the hideously depressing end of Blakes 7, the fact that it ended "shippily" (albeit in depressing ways) meant I was still hooked. Heroes, on the other hand, deliberately kept breaking up and re-shuffling the cast so no two characters interacted very often, and thus I could never seal the deal.
So the more I examine my viewing practices, the more I have to conclude it's a character that gets me interested, but a ship and the knowledge that the ship doesn't get ditched that seals my love. This actually contradicts some of my poll answers, lol. For example, I don't mind being spoiled as long as the spoilers tell me my ship stays afloat. And I don't mind an unbearable ending as long as my ship is part of it. I'm apparently an unreformed shipper when it comes right down to it. :P I find this oddly shameful, I have to admit. It just seems kind of...crass, somehow.