Was watching season 6/7 in real time, and like you, will never forgot how insane things became. The memory of the day the wildfeed for SR broke is branded on my brain (to give the whole thing far more importance than it deserves). In short, it was horribly traumatic and I know, looking back, I let myself get sucked way too far into the craziness (which is one of the reasons why I handle the insane nutters from the Haven so badly to this day. It brings it all back). I remember the hiatus between seasons 6 & 7 as being particularly tough - seizing on every little hint that we got that that Spike should not come back evil etc etc.
I'm sure that experience coloured my view of watching season 7 too and made the disappointments that bit more disappointing.
However, since then, I've rewatched both seasons, if not one-sitting marathons, at least in a fairly short space of time, and I ended up feeling very differently about both of them and found them a great deal more satisfying in every respect (though the AR is still horrible to watch).
I know it's not quite the same as watching them like that for the first time, and that distance from the craziness has also allowed me to get things into perspective, but I still think that watching the episodes in a big block probably does make the angst easier to cope with.
Having said all which, I think your chocolate analogy works pretty well, and I would say that if the comics are anything to go by, my taste in chocolate and Joss's are now poles apart.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2009-01-14 09:25 pm (UTC)Was watching season 6/7 in real time, and like you, will never forgot how insane things became. The memory of the day the wildfeed for SR broke is branded on my brain (to give the whole thing far more importance than it deserves). In short, it was horribly traumatic and I know, looking back, I let myself get sucked way too far into the craziness (which is one of the reasons why I handle the insane nutters from the Haven so badly to this day. It brings it all back). I remember the hiatus between seasons 6 & 7 as being particularly tough - seizing on every little hint that we got that that Spike should not come back evil etc etc.
I'm sure that experience coloured my view of watching season 7 too and made the disappointments that bit more disappointing.
However, since then, I've rewatched both seasons, if not one-sitting marathons, at least in a fairly short space of time, and I ended up feeling very differently about both of them and found them a great deal more satisfying in every respect (though the AR is still horrible to watch).
I know it's not quite the same as watching them like that for the first time, and that distance from the craziness has also allowed me to get things into perspective, but I still think that watching the episodes in a big block probably does make the angst easier to cope with.
Having said all which, I think your chocolate analogy works pretty well, and I would say that if the comics are anything to go by, my taste in chocolate and Joss's are now poles apart.