Friday open thread: rewatching

[dolorosa_12]

It's cold, it's rainy, and a flock of wood pigeons has descended on the back garden. Let's do this week's open thread.

Today's open thread concept came to me when I was thinking about how frequently I reread books (there are certain books within my line of sight right now that I'm pretty sure I have probably reread several hundred times), and how rarely in comparison I rewatch films or TV shows. I definitely rewatched stuff a lot more when I was a teenager — this was the 1990s, when video rental shops were still a thing, and my friends and I used to have sleepovers almost every weekend, where we'd borrow three or four movies and fall asleep in someone's living room while watching them. We had a rotating series of favourites that we'd watch again and again — the first Matrix film and The Fifth Element were firm favourites, as were a bunch of the classic 1990s slasher films, plus the usual suspects among 1990s teen romantic comedies, The Craft, etc. My sister and I also used to rent and watch the same films over and over again.

But other than a couple of Buffy and Angel rewatches at various points in the past twenty years, and Matthias and I occasionally rewatching previously viewed films as part of our New Year's Eve themed movie nights (e.g. all three LotR films), rewatching is definitely less common for me than rereading. I assume this is because it's much more of a timesuck — in general I read much more quickly than I can watch a film or a TV show, and I have more control over how much I read in a single sitting, whereas viewing is dictated by the lenghth of the film or the TV episode.

What about you? Do you return to longform audiovisual media for repeat viewings? Has this changed over time? Is this different to your approach to rereading books?

Comments

[ashelterofpages]

Before the days of streaming, I definitely used to rewatch things. Nowadays I'm much less likely to. I'm also not counting the TV shows I used to put on to sleep, in which case I definitely000 did that for a veeeery long time even after streaming because you were able to just put on an episode and let it run until you woke up. (Nowadays I sleep to a podcast.)

Clue was something I used to rewatch a lot, same with Velvet Goldmine, and the first Hellraiser movie. I also watched the show Slings and Arrows a lot, as well as Dead Like Me, the first season of Carnivale, and the movie Memento.

A show that I mean to rewatch at some point is Alien: Earth. I watched it with my partner, but I was sitting too far away from the screen to actually see what's going on (I'm blind and can only really watch things on my computer screen these days) and want to at least look at the different creatures a few times, even if I don't rewatch the whole show.

[trepkos]

I have watched some series multiple times - Star Trek, Red Dwarf, Buffy - there must be more. Currently rewatching the excellent Edge of Darkness, and re-reading all of the Discworld novels in order. I have read The Jungle Book many times, since I was about 6.

[kore]

Oh yeah there was that period when US cable stations just reran shows even when they were airing -- we didn't see Babylon 5 originally until season 2 but then we're able to catch up on season 1 reruns on I think a different cable channel. HBO reran movies all the time. On TBS and WGN they'd just run blocks of four-five or even six episodes to fill the air until morning, which was how I saw a ton of x-files episodes.

People binging on Friends etc during the pandemic reminfrd me of that, but the shows shuffle around so fast....and there's tons of uploads on YouTube, some in better quality than what's on streaming!

[laurenthemself]

I was about to say I also think I rewatched stuff more when I was younger, particularly Labyrinth, which I would put on a loop when I was unwell (which was not so easy on VHS as on DVD, of course), but then I remember I just did a full rewatch of Frasier not that long ago and am currently rewatching Never Stop Blowing Up on Dropout, and Danny and I went and watched all three LotR movies recently with friends for a friend's birthday.

I also reread things more than I rewatch them though, especially if it's something where I need a refresher on the series before I read the new book. I think I'm about at the point of doing that with Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children, before whenever the latest one actually gets to me (I'm on my second time ordering it from a shop because the first pre-order got cancelled on their end).

[kore]

I do so much rereading and rewatching i'm embarrassed to tell people. So does T -- he's seen 12 Monkeys all the way through probably half a dozen times. I do a lot of comfort rereading (picked up a lot since 2015 and then 2020! Fancy that!) and comfort rewatching, and I also use those to help get me out of depressive episodes.

This does mean I'm always way behind on keeping up with new releases. We used to go to the movies a lot, both first run and classics, but between autoimmune shit and T's cardiac issues I doubt we will again for quite some time. That did it for me and new movies.

One other thing is that I'm older, and grew up when all you had were box sets you bought, or library books, or just a finite number of books, CDs, dvds etc. So that led to a lot more rewatching and rereading, at least for me. Now you can snag mp3s and epubs and download films very easily. Ppl (including me) build up a giant dragon's hoard of Stuff To Read/Watch and it never happens.

[used_songs]

I rewatch Murder She Wrote (and by rewatch I mean I have it on as I work on something or even read) and every now and then I will rewatch a movie, but I've never been much of a TV/movies person. I can watch and love a show (like Lost or Mr. Robot) but I seldom go back and rewatch it.

I reread a lot of mysteries and sci fi books, Jane Austen, Moby Dick every few years, etc.