RECAPS. If you're fretting or frazzled, or suffering from ennuie or garden-variety existential nausea, you just might need a good diverting dose of Television Without Pity (TWoP as the cognoscenti call it). Its motto: 'Spare the snark, spoil the networks.' Guests have available to them 'recaps' of literally hundreds of shows and members have access to the forums.
There are loads of message-boards for discussing TV, but for me, the big draw for TWoP was the recaps. I didn’t start posting in the forums for about a year after I discovered the site; I just read the recaps. That may sound strange, but TWoP recaps can be independently entertaining, in the same way a 75 year old review of a play or a book by Dorothy Parker is entertaining, whether or not you’ve ever seen or even heard of the book or play.
Enjoy your television with a side of snide. TWoP can change your TV-show watching from a guilty pleasure to something you feel quite smug about. It's so meta.
TWoP is definitely the website I recommend if you’re someone who secretly watches America’s Next Top Model, The Apprentice, or American Idol but can’t admit it to anyone you know without losing all of your hard-won credibility. It’s good if you really used to love E.R. or The West Wing and still watch it because it’s your show, but with a growing sense of irritation and rage. Finally, it’s a great site if you watch Deadwood and Six Feet Under because it’s not TV but HBO and they are quality productions, but end up afterward nervously pacing the floor and tearing at your cuticles or lying limply in bed staring sightlessly at the ceiling.
TWoP recaps are excellent value for money, and are free! They're a good read even---or perhaps especially---if you have never watched even one episode of the show. (If you really loved the show, identified heavily with the characters, have set up a fan site, have made it your life's ambition to meet/marry one of the cast, and are really, really heavily invested, it's actually probably best to stay away). The recaps are heavily infused with the particular recapper's view of the show generally, the particular episode, the plot and the characters.
Even if you've never seen a single episode of the show, I recommend for beginners the recaps of the following shows:
[1] American Idol, Seasons 1-3 by Shack.
[2] The Amazing Race, Seasons 1-3 by Miss Alli.
[3] The Apprentice, season 1, by Miss Alli.
[4] Joe Millionaire, Season 1, by Kim (remember: the dumber the premise, the more ready to hand the "snark").
[5] America’s Next Top Model, by Potes (seriously, you do NOT need to have watched it.)
[6] Desperate Housewives by Jessica and Evany.
[7] Deadwood by Al Lowe.
[8] Project Runway by Jeff.
But if those don't appeal, you can find lots more to choose from on the Shows Page.
Every recapper has his or her own voice and every long-time TWoPper has his or her favorites. My own favorite recappers are Shack (formerly the American Idol recapper), Jacob (currently recapping American Idol and responsible for two excellent recaps of ‘Dr. Phil’ specials under the Mondo Extras section ) and Djb (who has recapped a lot of things).. I recommend starting with the easier ones and working up to theirs. It’s probably a little difficult for anyone who has never tried the TWoP recaps to swallow the notion of a recap as 'mordant' (Shack), 'insightful and compassionate' (Jacob), or 'surreal' (Djb), but…you’ll see what I mean when you look at them. All are very, very funny writers. (I've actually only seen American Idol two or three times, not just because I'm a TV snob but because I just don't like the premise.. But I have read every TWoP recap because I love Shack and Jacob).
TWoP recaps can be long. You can’t download and print them out and you have to click each page to see the next one. I never mind this as I really enjoy the recaps for themselves. If you’re in a hurry or just want to know what happened on the damn show, check the episode thread on the network and save your TWoP recaps for later when you can relish them.
DISCUSSION FORUMS. As noted, TWoP has a huge number of forums, both from the recapped shows and for shows they don't recap but that the members have chosen to discuss. If you're feeling brave, you might give them a try. They are heavily moderated and they are not kidding when they tell you to lurk a bit and READ THE RULES (in the FAQs) before you barge in. Go ahead, see how long you can go without deserving a moderator smackdown for being rude, for 'tone,' or for some other violation of the rules (at TWoP, you've got to walk a pretty fine line between 'snark' and between being rude to a poster or a mod). Right now, during the summer, the pace has slowed down, so it's a good time to get your forum legs.
I’ve been posting there for years and have never had any trouble, but you do need to get the feel for a forum and a sense of the moderator’s style. (Recommendation: before you start posting, make sure you have read the FAQS and the moderator’s thread; I also recommend using the search function to check out the moderator’s recent posts so you know whether he or she has made any announcements.) The TWoP administrators’ objective is to have the threads be like conversations, so there is a rule that you must read the posts from the last 15 days or the last 15 pages, whichever is less. (Whatever you do, don’t start your post off with the statement, “Haven’t got time to read 30 pages of posts, so….”)
The up side of the strict moderation is that standards of civility between posters are enforced and that posters who can't write standard English don't tend to last very long. You get a real discussion, written in real English, using real words and sentences. Is there a downside? You be the judge.
The show recappers moderate the show forums, which is nice if you enjoy the person’s recaps. As noted, there are forums for types of television shows---even cartoons and commercials, even shows that have been cancelled, even British shows---that aren’t recapped on TWoP. Traffic is slower on these threads and some people might prefer it that way.
If you're an HBO user, I especially recommend the forums for 'Six Feet Under,' 'Deadwood,' and the 'Sopranos.' Unlike shows that attract a larger audience, forum traffic on these threads even during the seasons isn't so frantic, the posters are usually passionate about the show, and the moderators tend to be a bit more laid back.
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