To Rewatch or Not To Rewatch: The Pros and Cons

To rewatch or not rewatch: A question as old as Dramaland. With an ever-growing PTW (plan to watch list) as new titles are released every day, one may wonder: Why spend time on watching something you have seen before when there are endless titles to explore?

At the moment I started writing this editorial, my PTW consisted of 275 titles while my completed list had the beautiful number 532. Add the 20 titles on hold and I have more than 800 choices to watch at this given moment if I go by my lists. I could also just go crazy and pick something out from the feeds or search engines. I think I made my point: The choices are endless and there is plenty to choose from, making it at times hard to choose. So here are some thoughts about the very valid choice of rewatching a title instead of tackling that ever growing PTW.

It Gets Better The Second Time Around - Pros

I've got the Power!

You know something they do not know. Watching the leads be oblivious while you are all-knowing can be very fun, can give you a sense of superiority, and may just tickle your laughing muscles a little bit extra as you know what lies ahead.

Safe bet!

When in a certain mood, in a hurry, a slump, or while having full fridge syndrome (plenty of food, nothing to eat; in dramaland: plenty of titles on the PTW, nothing to watch), starting something that is a safe bet may just loosen you up and help you figure out what you want to watch next.

Only the Good Stuff...

You will probably choose to rewatch something  you gave a high rating (but I may be wrong).  So when you rewatch, you are probably watching something you at least think you like. Since you know the plot, you can skip the boring/annoying elements and just go straight to the stuff you loved seeing the first time. If you love gore, you can skip to the bloody stuff, if you need fluff, you can just go straight to feel good stuff, and so on. Me, I am all about the fluff.

It's all about the details!

You may notice what you thought was a minor detail that actually was really significant for the plot or just notice other details than the ones you noticed the first time. This, too, has the potential to make you laugh.

Excitement!

And while you may not get to feel that feeling of suspense from the first time, you may find yourself all excited right before your favourite scene: Here it comes... he punched him, he finally punched him... or kissed, killed, confessed, went to Subway, that guest actress showed up, whatever floats your boat. While knowing all the twists may not keep me on my toes, the anticipation may be the same if not stronger.

Does It Really Get Better The Second Time Around?

Sad is still sad...

While you feel anticipation about that scene that you loved and made you feel happy, the scenes that broke your heart the first time around will most certainly still be there the second time around. As much as you may dread that break up, death, betrayal or whatnot that happened the first time, it will happen again no matter how many times you rewatch. The ending will not change.

But here is for those still hoping!

What was I thinking? 

You may not like it as much the second time as the first time you watched it, making you rethink your score and lose an oh so  precious memory. It has not happened to me yet but I am dreading that day.

Time is...

You will not have enough time to watch all those other dramas, what if spending time on this rewatch will mean you end up missing a masterpiece! But then again, spending time reading/writing this editorial also takes up time, and so does eating, sleeping, studying, working.

What is wrong with my memory?

But the scariest part of it is that you may find out that your memory is not as good as you thought it was… creepy!

Time To Wrap This Up!

Rewatching can be a lot of fun and bring about a whole bunch of laughter. But it does have its risks so you may want to proceed with caution. I have for a long time wanted to write a two scroll article, and though I could probably say more and go into lots and lots of details about the titles I have chosen to rewatch:

I am going to leave it to you to tell me what titles you have rewatched the most here or on this voting list:

Thank you for reading my thoughts. I am looking forward to reading yours, too!