Grind is in the eye of the beholder (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Wednesday, June 26, 2019, 12:26 (1995 days ago) @ Harmanimus

And for many people it is not “never had” and more breaking away from everyday life. Sometimes the familiar is stronger for that end goal. It’s like how many people will order the same dish at different restaurants because they want something they don’t have everyday but still want something that is overall a known quantity.

I would be curious how that relates to the supposition that people frequently have a greater degree of enjoyment in media when they have the ending spoiled (it’s an interesting data point, albeit it is tied more to relief of anxiety as I recall) over when they are seeing things entirely unspoiled.

And for many people it is not “never had” and more breaking away from everyday life. Sometimes the familiar is stronger for that end goal. It’s like how many people will order the same dish at different restaurants because they want something they don’t have everyday but still want something that is overall a known quantity.

I would be curious how that relates to the supposition that people frequently have a greater degree of enjoyment in media when they have the ending spoiled (it’s an interesting data point, albeit it is tied more to relief of anxiety as I recall) over when they are seeing things entirely unspoiled.

I'm one of those people who prefers to have things spoiled for me in advance. It's a combination of a few things. I find that it allows me to focus my attention in different places. If I'm watching a movie and I already know the basic plot, then I'm more tuned into details like the subtleties of the actors' performances, visual and audio cues, or high-level thematic points that I might have missed if I were busy focusing on the moment to moment plot.

There have been rare cases where I see a movie without knowing the plot in advance, and I'm glad for it. But I can probably count those occurrences on 1 hand. The 6th Sense, parts of Lost... Actually, those are the only examples I can come up with off the top of my head. I'm sure there are a few more. At any rate, I find the vast majority of books/tv shows/movies/games don't achieve enough through the element of surprise to justify me remaining unspoiled (and missing the kinds of details that I mentioned above). More often than not, surprise is cheap. You get the "bet you didn't expect that!" moment, but that feeling is usually gone in a flash.
I also find that stories that really bank on the power of the "surprise reveal" are usually crappy stories. Take away the elements of suspense and surprise, and there's almost nothing there (I'm looking at you, Walking Dead). On the flip side, a truly great and well told story will hit me in the gut time and time again, no matter how many times I've seen it.

Lost is actually a great example of both sides of that coin. At its best, it was a show wrapped up in mystery and suspense, but at its core it was telling powerful stories about compelling characters. But at its worst, the characters were just being thrown down a plinko-wall of surprise events all designed to keep the audience guessing about "what is going to happen next!", but none of it meant anything or went anywhere. I can go back and re-watch seasons 1 and 2, and I still love them. But trying to rewatch seasons 5 or 6 is just painful, because once the element of surprise is removed you can plainly see how dumb and thoughtless they are.