A Question on Fandom

PraetorCorvinus

PraetorCorvinus

Moderator
Moderator
Greetings.

I have a question that I have been longing to ask for awhile. How has being a member of an online fandom changed your viewing of the show? In other words, prior to joining sites like this one, did you watch the show(s) with different expectations?

For example: Before joining Talk CSI (and reading fanfiction before that), I held an entirely different view of CSI. I didn't care about who was getting more screen time than someone else, I wasn't interested in ships, and a thirst for spoilers didn't exist. I watched it for the ensemble cast equally and it was the cases that held my focus.

Since becoming a member of the online fandom, that has changed. I had to choose a favorite character, ships that I was partial to, and an unhealthy addiction to spoilers. :lol: I now watch episodes looking for things that I wouldn't have before. I'm now more focused on characters than cases. I'm not saying this is negative or positive. It just is.

Has this happened to anyone else? Have your perceptions of CSI and it's spin-offs altered?

I know this is kind of a weird question. Any responses would be greatly appreciated. :)
 
I absolutely understand what you're saying. Right now I'm pretty new to Criminal Minds, and I'm enjoying it. But the few times I've ventured into the discussion thread here...I've kind of decided to stay out of it. I want that to remain just an entertaining show for me. I don't want it to turn into what CSI has become for me, if that makes any sense. :)

I do love CSI in a whole new way now which is mostly good. But it's hard to deal with the disappointment of a spoiler not panning out, to worry about what might or might not happen, to care too much if a certain actor decides to leave, to think all the time that TPTB are not sending the show in a direction it should go.

I think I'll stay a Criminal Minds virgin, and yeah...there are many (many!) times I wish I was still a CSI virgin.
 
I agree with both of you. CSI is on a whole different level than any other show I've watched or am watching right now. I think this board broadened my horizons so to speak.
We can find out spoilers, see pics and talk about what we think should or shouldn't happen.

I haven't been keeping up with the spoilers for CSI NY this season. I used to be pretty on top of them. But I wanted to keep this season more of a surprise. I sort of do that with Vegas, sort of. :p

With Miami, I've watch a couple episodes from this season. To me they were good, but I'm not as vested in either Miami or NY as I am in Vegas.
 
I sometimes wonder how much of an effect fandom has had on the way I watch TV, and how much of it is just longterm exposure. Am I more critical of TV shows in general because of fandom, or because I've seen so much of the same sort of thing over the years?

I do know that I didn't even remember some of the characters' names before I forced myself to pay attention. There was a time that I couldn't tell you the name of the Miami characters, and that was the first show I watched. I had to make myself remember who was who. It's kind of funny.

I also know that fandom did influence my opinion of characters, mostly because we'd talk about someone or share our squee with each other, so it strengthened my love for some of them. :p

I don't think it ever would have occurred to me to ship Danny/Flack if not for the ladies in the NY forum who mentioned it. They certainly opened my eyes to pairings that I wouldn't have noticed otherwise. Now the slash goggles are glued firmly to my face, though. :p
 
Except for a hatred for tptb that burns brighter each passing day, no, participating in online discussions, fanfiction etc.hasn't really changed my perspective of the show. I was thinking up different scenarios to put the characters in way before I had discovered fanfiction, so that was just an outlet more than anything else, and as for the many discussion boards...well, I still remain more obsessed with Numb3rs, Heroes and Flashforward than CSI (strange how all my favourite shows are the cancelled ones :p) and I've never set foot in any of their online fandom.

I do suppose I've been a bit more harsh when reviewing any of the episodes...I used to be pretty lax about anything I saw as negative, but nowadays...then again, that's probably me just growing up :lol:

So overall...no, hasn't really impacted by view of the show. Great way to talk about it and make new friends, but not exactly enough to change my whole view of the show.
 
It has changed me a lot.I have watched all episode to Vegas to date but until joining this site,I never considered getting the DVDs.There are so many fans that know so many details about episodes that I wanted to keep up.

Spoilers is something else.I was spoiler free to Warrick being shot in the head and that scene with Grissom and Sara where they became canon.Now I have even the spoiler pictures for future episodes!!:lol:


But I like it.Fans have helped me a lot to understand this show.
 
As I'm a newb, I can't speak of this particular forum changing my perception of CSI, but having lurked for a bit and read the knowledge of other members, I can see this changing - I seem to have phases with CSI, for instance I was utterly hooked in 2004-2006, and then when real life threw me a curve ball I kind of just drifted in and out. I was totally into Season 7 and 8 until the middle, and missed the death of Warwick and the season start of 9 because for some reason, I hated the thought of him being dead - I had read the spoilers and just didn't want to see it. When I finally saw it, I watched until Grissom left and my interest kind of disappeared, until I got sick again and thought I'd look at S10, then got hooked and have downloaded S11 as I need my fix!
 
CSI is the only show I really follow to the extent of joining any board. I do like both NCIS's but I stay away for the threads here.

I joined the board after watching Grave Danger. For season 6 I did go into the spoiler threads but I quickly became disappointed when something that was being discussed didn't happen. I now stay away from the spoiler discussion thread. I will go into the picture thread as I don't consider that spoilerish.

I now cap my pics so as a show airs I will look at certain scenes and go yup that'll be a good cap. I've also learned that you don't need loads of pics of one scene or character. So I guess you could say I've become more selective about what I cap and what I keep.

Until joining the board I never heard of fanfiction . I enjoy reading some of the stories. Most of the stories I read are about Nick and Greg. I will also read Nick stories. Like any book I read I can be picky about what I read. If I don't like the outline I won't read it.

I don't go into the Miami or New York Forums so being on the board hasn't change my perspective on those shows.
 
Yes of course. The online fandom takes you to new levels, shows you some new perspectives.

When i joined here first i saw so many people who think like me. When you see people thinking like you, you feel more connected to your ideas. If i was just a Greg and CSI lover in the begining, now i feel as a total Greg fan after joining here. I hope that's a good thing :p
Sometimes it happens the other way. Reading other peoples posts make me think different . For example i see someone made a comment about a scene and it gives me a new perspective.

Also personaly i never really paid attention for the terms like canon, slash, ships in the show before . Now i see it while watching an episode even sometime when i don't really mind who is doing what with whom...
 
I mainly look on the Miami threads, and I have to agree that since participating on here my viewing of the show has changed alot.
As has been mentioned above, before I started looking on this site I didnt read any spoilers, never even thought about it. Now I try to avoid them but I am far too tempted and give in easily! Then I am disappointed that a story doesnt work out the way I wanted it or if certain things dont happen.
For that reason I have avoided going on discussion boards for any other show.But on the other hand, I do enjoy discussing the possibilities with like minded people and it certainly gets my imagination going. So I suppose its a double edged sword.
I also notice screentime differences much much more. I never considered shipping, but that is something I enjoy doing now, and I think adds to the experience. And I have become much more focused on certain charaters and there actions. Where-as before I mainly watched for the story.
 
The big difference is that now I have become a spoiler fanatic!!!Before I joined the forum I had no idea what does spoiler means.
 
Hello, just to expand slightly on this subject area of fandom...

What do you think makes people make that jump from a general viewer, enjoying everything there is to enjoy about CSI on a purely superficial level; regarding the acting, cinematography and storylines, to becoming a fullly immersed fan of the show; reading and posting on forums, and viewing and writing fan fiction, and following spoilers and so on?

For me it was definately a need to expand what I already was thinking and wanted to try and see the shows from a different angle. I now think compared to just sporadic viewing of the show, I can appreciate the ships and the nuances of all of the characters a lot more spanning across full series.

Just curious what everyone elses reasons were? :)
 
Davito said:
Hello, just to expand slightly on this subject area of fandom...

What do you think makes people make that jump from a general viewer, enjoying everything there is to enjoy about CSI on a purely superficial level; regarding the acting, cinematography and storylines, to becoming a fullly immersed fan of the show; reading and posting on forums, and viewing and writing fan fiction, and following spoilers and so on?

For me it was definately a need to expand what I already was thinking and wanted to try and see the shows from a different angle. I now think compared to just sporadic viewing of the show, I can appreciate the ships and the nuances of all of the characters a lot more spanning across full series.

Just curious what everyone elses reasons were? :)
Click to expand...

I think mostly for me it was just that I got so into it that I wanted to know what was coming up, but also I just wanted to find a place where I could discuss the episodes with like-minded people. :)

So of course, once I started doing that, everything else just snowballed and I became more and more invested in the show and wanting to know everything about it. :)
 
Davito said:
Hello, just to expand slightly on this subject area of fandom...

What do you think makes people make that jump from a general viewer, enjoying everything there is to enjoy about CSI on a purely superficial level; regarding the acting, cinematography and storylines, to becoming a fullly immersed fan of the show; reading and posting on forums, and viewing and writing fan fiction, and following spoilers and so on?

For me it was definately a need to expand what I already was thinking and wanted to try and see the shows from a different angle. I now think compared to just sporadic viewing of the show, I can appreciate the ships and the nuances of all of the characters a lot more spanning across full series.

Just curious what everyone elses reasons were? :)
Click to expand...

For me, joining discussion forums and the like was for the need to discuss the show with others who watched it. None of my friends really watch it as I do. The only ones who did were my brother and his wife and then they had to go and move across the country. Bastards... :lol:

We're not going to discuss me and fanfiction though. That's a whole other problem right there. :lol:
 
I found TalkCSI when I was looking for a chatroom after CBS.com closed the one on the CSI board. I'm not even sure how I ended up on the chatroom over there in the first place, but I enjoyed talking to CSI fans and being dorky. At first I was like, 'Ugh, this message board system thing is way too slow. I want a chat room!' :lol: But it didn't take long for me to get into the swing of things (although wow, I was a total idiot at first *embarrassed*). I basically found myself thrust into fandom, and when I started talking about the show and hearing other people's thoughts and opinions, it affected how I watched the show. I also started speculating about things and wondering what would happen - something that I didn't think about as much before joining fandom. I used to be more of the 'wait and see what happens' mindset - now I think about what could happen (or what I'd like to happen).

I dunno, I guess I'm saying that getting into fandom is what got me into fandom. :lol: Accidentally coming across a fandom message board introduced me to all of this, and now I have been converted. ;)
 
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