Cheating

I find it occasionally disconcerting the things that I’m known for. Among these numerous peculiarities (which I should probably blame myself for sprouting around the internet) I am That Chick Who Waits a Whole Week to Watch Doctor Who.

I’ve explained numerous times (once on a panel with Lawrence Leung and Dominic Knight in front of a room full of people) why this is something I swear by and why I think that its important. Most of you know my reasons and respect them, even if hardly anyone seems to understand them. This isn’t the time to rehash all that.
This is a time to tell you about the exceptions.

Don’t get me wrong. I remain a firm believer in the Proper Viewing of Quality Television. I’m not about the hang up my hat and become a pirate.
In forty years time when everyone is watching TV-on-demand streamed straight to their inbuilt brain computers, I’ll be That Woman Who Still Owns a Television. As in days gone by, neighbourhood children will cluster into my lounge room to marvel at the technology. And I can make them all coconut ice and lemonade and they’ll gather around to hear tell of the Marvellous Television back in The Good Old Days. I’m obviously assuming the role of Liz Lemon style crazy spinster in this scenario. We all may as well get used to the idea.

But there will always be exceptions, loopholes in my own code of conduct which occasionally allow the bending of rules. To give you an example, I watched Closing Time four days early. I can hear your gasps and cries of “hypocrite!” from here. But let me take you through the reasoning. That weekend was This is Not Art, a festival which readers of my main blog will be more than familiar with. I knew I’d be talking to people who love the show but who I rarely get to talk to. I knew a lot of them would have seen it. I knew I’d be out having a good time on the night it actually aired.  I thought long and hard about it. And then I watched it early.
I didn’t enjoy it. Honestly. It just wasn’t the same and I rather regretted the decision (at least until my DVR decided only to tape the first 15 minutes of it, the bastard). Its not an experience I think I want to repeat.

Let me present you with a rather more taxing problem- Sherlock.
Here are the factors at play.
1- Channel Nine are showing no signs of putting Sherlock on soon. The first series rated extremely well and, as I feared, it looks like they might be holding it back for rantings season. Which is ages away. At least a month after it airs in the UK.
2- Channel Nine will show it with ads. If the ABC had acquired Sherlock this whole thing would be a rather different matter. But I’m not sure I can stand to watch it with ads. Not if I have to wait as well.
3- The areas of the internet I frequent are rather in love with Sherlock. The longer I wait the more Spoiler Danger I’m going to find myself in. Not to mention the amount of people IRL who I’ve introduced to it and who will want to talk about the new series, having promptly downloaded it.
4- I’ve just finished working my way through the original stories (yes, ALL OF THEM) and I love them. I’m absolutely DYING to see how Moffat will do Adler, if Gatisis can do justice to Hound and whether That Other Guy will pull off Reichenbarch. Spoilers are a big deal here. A BIG DEAL. Even little ones.
5- We’ve waited far too long already.

Having said that I still WANT to watch it properly. I want to see that frankly spectacular cinematography (and those MOORS) in full high definition and I want to wait a WHOLE week between episodes. But those aren’t trump cards. When the first series aired I watched it on a TV so grainy I couldn’t read the onscreen texts and, in all their infinite wisdom, Channel Nine showed the episodes on Sunday, Monday and then the following Sunday. A frankly ludicrous thing to do.
So I’m left with rather a conundrum. To Cheat or not to Cheat?

So (SPOILERS!) I'm Cheating. I've weighed up all the factors and, for once, the side of evil has won. I've taken into account the fact that I'll probably never live this down. I'm prepared for that. There will probably be blogs because- Sherlock. If you haven't seen the episode in question DON'T READ THE BLOG. I will lynch you for ruining such majesty.

I suppose this just goes to show that, given the right amount of chiselled jaw bone, sensational writing and homoerotic subtext, even I can be persuaded to betray the things I believe in.