I came into the semester not having had very much experience with British television, and it seemed that experience was what I needed to grow in my appreciation of television from our friends across the pond. The more I watched the series we screened, the more I grew to like them and be interested in watching them even more. I found it really interesting how returning to a show made me want to watch it more than I had initially. Particularly when we watched comedies, I found myself going back to watch more of them.
Perhaps the best example of this for me was with The Mighty Boosh. The first time we screened it in class, I enjoyed the episode, but I didn’t find myself falling in love with the series. However, when I went to do my blog post I wanted to find The Mighty Boosh on radio to compare the television series to its predecessor. What ended up happening was that I found other television episodes on Youtube and I began to watch them. I watched one, then another, and another, and each time I enjoyed the series more and more. The other interesting part was how I would start watching an episode and then no matter what I found I had to finish it. This was the case for a good number of the programs we watched, including One Night. In my post I expressed that I didn’t like it much after the first episode, but like so many other programs, it grew on me the more I watched it.
I think the fact that I enjoyed many of the shows the more episodes I watched is a testament to a particularly good writing style. The writing makes for a need to soak in what you’re watching and really sit back to appreciate any jokes or style being presented. Maybe it has something to do with not being familiar with British television because I’m coming from an American perspective, but nevertheless, I think the appreciation through repetition is really a result of understanding and learning what a show’s writing style is all about. I can say that I now love a number of British television shows and I’ll be sure to go back and watch more of them – growing to like them more and more along the way.
