i would if i could but i can't so i won't.

pretty sure i made that saying up, contrary to the million other people on the internet who believe they did. as if.

here's something that's weird: hearing an advertisement for the season finale of a show you never heard of. so, like, enough people were watching that show to keep it going for a season, maybe two?, and here they are wrapping up all those loose ends into one neat cliff-hanger of a season finale. all those people, all that time, actors, plots, makeup, lights, camera, action - all of it merrily going on over THERE while you're busy being oblivious over HERE until you notice the season finale ad, and there it is, over before you even knew it existed.

you can't experience it from the beginning because that time has passed. i mean, unless you can reverse time. which you most likely can not. however, you can watch all the episodes and simulate the experience of watching it from the beginning. basically, you can catch up on the plot and whatnot, but you can't have the same literal experience as watching it for real, from the beginning.

what's the difference? well, since you can't do both, you will never know. you can't both experience the show and not experience the show. you can compare yourself, not having experienced the show, to others who have experienced it, but unless you think you are 100% purely exactly like some other person... it's not a true comparison.

would watching the show in real time have changed your life in some way? would you have noticed some cultural reference, made some connection to the wider world or your fellow man? could you have joined in some office convo that without the show you would not have understood and maybe not even have heard or noticed?

you can deny it if you want, but watching television shows changes you. you learn something or you are entertained or you do nothing more than lose some brain cells, but the simple act of spending time watching a show changes you. i mean, you could spend time reading a book or throwing a football, and that would change you as well, in different ways. you could spend time sleeping or spend time staring at the wall or spend time writing in a blog. all of it changes you.

the mere passage of time changes you, no doubt, but plusly-wise, how you choose to spend that time changes you. so - watching the television show during the natural course of its life will change you in some way, and watching the television show after the fact will change you in some other way, and not watching it at all will change you in some OTHER way, and having it on the background while you are sitting there doing something else will change you in yet ANOTHER way, and... well... you get the idea.




thoughts?