*Another wall-o-text warning here. This is a debate about a popular subject, so things are inevitably going to get fleshed out. If this isn't your cup of tea, I'll certainly understand.By the same token, someone who likewise has watched regularly for years might well be quite happy with things now, more so than perhaps the years before the current regime. It doesn't fall into designated "hard core/long time" vs "casual/short time" categories.
Oh, yes, you're right. Those categories very much can be mixed together. Some of the members here (I would assume including you as a regular [nearly] everyday viewer) prove that very point. I'll get onto the point I was trying to make here later, but to underscore something I said at the front of my post just to avoid this type of assumption or confusion: "I can't say for sure how regularly or how long they've watched." The commentators are probably a mixed bag of the two, and, yes, there's certainly some watching for the specials. I'm not, by any means, going to say that everyone in that link or everyone that likes Drew is a casual fan. That would be degrading both to people that like Drew ("You like Drew. You're just a
casual fan!"--I cringe at the thought of it) and to casual fans themselves.
I think it's wrong to assume that people commenting that they like Drew are casual viewers who only tune in once in a while. Just like it's wrong to assume that people who don't like Drew are long-time viewers, etc.
Maybe that wasn't what you wanted or intended to get across, but that was just something I noticed.
You're also right. I wouldn't assume that everyone in that link are once-in-a-while viewers. It can go in any direction.
Oh no, Manny, please don't get me wrong. I'm very much in agreement with you. I notice every minutiae as well, but my point is...we, here on our little island in the middle of the internet, are more than likely in the minority than we may like to believe.
I have, previously in this thread, acknowledged myself in the minority. Being "hardcore" fans puts us in the minority.
To illustrate part of what I was saying: This is how a casual fan might look at an episode (as one-half of the ""hard core/long time" vs "casual/short time" categories):
"Good show today! Drew was funny this episode with those things he said. That Rat Race game they placed today was real fun to watch, and I liked those prizes at the showcase showdown [more common a mistake, even among actual contestants, than I'm sure some of us would like to believe] in the end, and how close those bids were! Real tense!"
A fan that watches every day, and has so for years, might notice this:
"Drew used some of his old lines again today. I'm sure Drew thinks, "New rule: Whoever bids closes to the retail price of the items plays a pricing game. We just put that in," is very amusing, but it gets tiring and repetitive when it's done a couple or so times a week. Like caressing the grocery items. The line-up [Who else but us could even spot a bad, repetitive pricing game line-up from a good one? Would even most regular viewers know how to differentiate between the two?] was also very lazy and hashed together. That's Too Much doesn't make a good lead-in as a quick car game that's typically lost, and we played Squeeze Play just two taped episodes ago [something else even regular viewers that watch every day might not know about--the taping schedule is so scrambled these days that you can't be sure yesterday's episode or the one two days ago even came from the same week or even month]. Also, must we constantly deal with these cookie-cutter showcases and Drew ignoring the winners after the overbid?"
Just some examples of how differently things may be viewed. Neither one is 'correct' per se--it's a matter of perspective and opinion. And lest I mention it not enough, and to give mention to the other half of the "hard core/long time" vs "casual/short time" equation, there's every chance in the world that a hardcore fan can find Drew and Mike to be the bee's knees, and similarly, even casual watchers that don't know much about backstage production or more easily missed details can still catch on to odd things, like a certain Bonus Game incident (I tried to find the referred to post, to no avail), just to name one among many.
It comes down to this, and to finish the equation: The biggest, most supportive fans of a show, like TPIR, can be its biggest critics. They simply know more about what goes on behind the scenes of the show, know more history, notice more differences on a show-to-show basis, notice more details, and know more about show precedent and how something may have been better handled on X occasion than Y. We, as the "hardcore" LFATs, tend to be more critical than others because we've seen more and know what things to look for in a good show or performance. That doesn't make us better than casual viewers, or our perspective the correct one. It just means that all viewers see things through different lenses.
