What do you hate to love?

[sqbr]

I'm on a webcomics discussion community snarkoleptics. Every now and then you get someone posting about how much the latest storyline of PvP totally pissed them off, and they just can't stand it any more, and there'll be a chorus of people going "God, me too" and "I gave it up years ago"... but also "I know, I don't know why I keep reading it but I Just Can't Stop!" (plus of course people who think PvP is awesome and everyone else should shut up about it). I was in the "Why can't I stop reading this?" camp myself for ages, I only managed to stop reading it a few days ago.

So I was wondering: what are the continuing series (whether books/comics/shows etc) that you just can't let go? Not the ones you know are bad but enjoy anyway, or mostly enjoy but are occasionally pissed off at. I mean the ones that you don't enjoy, that pretty much always make you wish you hadn't read/watched it, but somehow make you come back for more. (I realise the line between "Mostly good but sometimes really annoying" and "Mostly annoying but sometimes really good" is pretty blurry)

And: what is it that draws you back? With PvP I think it's the fact that while I find the characters and plots really annoying, and am not generally that amused by the humour, Scott Kurtz has honed his craft to such a degree that everything else (the flow, the expressions etc) is just really well done and draws you in. Also webcomics are so convenient and free it's easy to stick to them out of inertia.

Would people agree that people often get disproportionately angry at the authors of these sorts of irresistibly-crap works, since they cause more extended pain than repulsively-crap stuff? In my experience you get a lot of fannish entitlement: "You are a bad person for not writing the sort of story I would enjoy more".

One of my achilles heels is hating not knowing how something ends. I've gotten pretty ruthless about just skipping to the ends of annoying books, and am refusing to even look at the new Obernewtyn book, but it still pains me.

And then of course there's movie adaptations of beloved books/comics. I tend to refuse to watch them unless I've heard they're good, but I know a lot of people are drawn like a moth to a flame and then are inevitably, painfully burned.

Important note: I realise that by it's nature this sort of question calls for a lot of negativity, but please try to avoid any "This sucks and so does the author and everyone who likes it" "No, it's awesome, and YOU suck!" "No, YOU SUCK" etc. Enjoyability is not an objective measure that makes any sense to argue about.

EDIT: Also, this is what you hate to love, try to avoid assigning motives to other people you've seen criticising something you like, since from the outside it's hard to tell the difference between genuine hate and "I criticise because I love". That said, I am reminded of Star Wars Fans Hate Star Wars :)

(n.b. This is the only post I wrote while sick which I think is up to being posted without serious revision, so I'm posting it to make myself feel better about not posting the others)

Comments

[edible-hat.livejournal.com]

I see similar stuff on the site I snag new Doctor Who from. The same 5 people keep complaining about how crap it is and it's even worse than last week and they hope next week will be better.

(Incidentally, the same 5 people seem to love every episode of Torchwood, which I didn't bother watching the second season of).

[nico-wolfwood.livejournal.com]

Alan Moore for me is the penultimate example of this phenomenon, or perhaps it's more accurate to say that he could be the penultimate example. I've read/watched enough to recognise the impending symptoms and exercise ruthless discarding practices. I've read, in chronological order, League book 1 (interesting), V for Vendetta (loved it), League book 2 (OMG, what images have I imported into my brain) and the first few chapters of Watchman (too repulsive to continue). Despite swearing off Alan Moore after LXG volume 2, I got persuaded to start Watchman against my better judgment - only to sit shivering in a corner of the couch for half an hour after I pried my fingers our of the cover. Perhaps I need to be more ruthless...