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This isn't necessarily about your favorite work of fiction or the one you most like to revisit, but rather, the one that gives a first-time viewer, reader or player a wonderful and unforgettable experience. (Although, of course, this can easily overlap with your favorite work of fiction.)

Is there a show or movie you really want to watch in the company of a friend, a partner or kids who have never seen it before, just to delight in their reactions? That's the one I'm talking about.

The one which, when someone says "I heard it was good, but I've never seen it", makes you envious of that person.



I'll open the thread with Avatar: The Last Airbender. I wish I could erase it from my memory only to watch it again, without foreknowledge of where the story and characters are headed.

.

Original Star award trilogy or Princess Bride. Nothing else matters.

Nothing i wanna experiance again.
But I would love my cultural memory of certain movies/franchises to be erased so I can see some movies with fresh eyes.
Movies like Predator, Alien, Aliens, Friday the 13th.
I never really got to experiance these because just knowing about the monsters changes much of the movies.

Blair Witch Project....


.... also the 80's Flash Gordon, Original Highlander, and the Mad Max movies.


Just did this with Indiana Jones with my daughter and it was a blast.

 Easy E wrote:
Blair Witch Project....


.... also the 80's Flash Gordon, Original Highlander, and the Mad Max movies.


Just did this with Indiana Jones with my daughter and it was a blast.

I found Blair Witch project to be kinda lame, tbh.

For me it would be Stephen King's book It or The Plague

Books:
David Webber - Honor Harrington series.
Alastair Reynolds - Revelation Space series
Terry Pratchett - Discworld

TV Series:
Firefly
Altered Carbon
The Umbrella Academy
Good Omens
Westworld

A lot of mysteries and movies with actual suprise twists are better without spoilers the first time through. I don’t watch a whole lot of those, but acknowledge it’s a thing. If I had to pick one, I’d go with The Usual Suspects.

Book: The Stand, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (and Lila, the sequel).

TV show: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Archer

Movie: Fight Club

Video Game: Bioshock, Final Fantasy 3 (6, outside of NA)

Book: Jurassic Park

(backstory: bored middle-schooler visiting grandparents for a week with nothing to do....they had it on the shelf, I read it...discovered proper novels for the first time, ended up reading the whole thing and then subsequently read all of Michael Crichton's books, etc. - basically the book that broke through to me that wasn't an assigned-reading book from school...)

TV Show: Stranger Things (Season 1)

No real backstory here. Stranger Things is the most wonderful and enjoyable filmed thing I've ever seen. Mirrored my childhood (literally grew up precisely in that time frame, etc.) Spoke to me on many levels, brought me sheer joy...perfect.

Movie: Saving Private Ryan

This was the most shocking movie I've ever seen. Was in high school when it came out, saw it three times in maybe two weeks. Had never seen (and more or less haven't since) combat portrayed so brutally/realistically. As a kid who grew up on black and white movies from the 50's about WW2 (Longest Day, Night of the Generals, etc. etc.) this was just mind-blowing. It set the standard for war movies going forward.

Video Game: ARMA II

First time ever experiencing a realistically scaled wargame/sandbox. Randomly ran a mission with my brother and it blew both of our minds. We were expecting something like an Xbox/Playstation game. Watching vehicles and soldiers fighting over a kilometer wide front with helicopters dropping off soldiers, tracers skipping off into the distance etc...was a pretty crazy moment.

Book: Neuromancer

Video Game: Skyrim

RPG: D&D Basic

I was able to read the Ultraverse series of comics from Malibu at the start. I was in on the ground floor of a pretty good continuity, and got to sit through its evisceration at the hands of Marvel.

I'd love to have a ground floor sort of start with something like that again.

 Nevelon wrote:
If I had to pick one, I’d go with The Usual Suspects.

Seconded, just for the ending. Likewise, I'd love to re-read Ender's Game without knowing ahead of time how it turned out.

My earliest memories playing EverQuest were pretty special, too.

 godardc wrote:

 Easy E wrote:
Blair Witch Project....


.... also the 80's Flash Gordon, Original Highlander, and the Mad Max movies.


Just did this with Indiana Jones with my daughter and it was a blast.

I found Blair Witch project to be kinda lame, tbh.

For me it would be Stephen King's book It or The Plague

Yes, it is totally lame.... but the hype that was around it at the time..... WOW. It is hard to recapture all the hype, rumors, and myths circulating around it at the time before the gimmick was widely know.

It kind of reminds me of the hype around The Crying Game and its secret twist! I could probably add that to this list.....

I was spoiled on Black Mirror's San Junipero and absolutely loved it. Would love to know how differently the early scenes would feel if I didn't know what was really going on.

I don't mind spoilers normally, just something about that episode really got under my skin.

Discworld.

Just as I discovered it in no particular order, I want a mindscrub to let me enjoy it in a slightly different no particular order.

Spesh if it stops me realising Sir Terry Pratchett sadly passed away.

Games-wise I'd like the wonder of being a complete newbie in World of Warcraft back in TBC back.

Since the Honor Harrington series has already been mentioned, I'll give a shout-out to Eric Flint's 1632-series. Wish I could read through all of it fresh again.

Fight Club - The Movie

Was amazed and floored by the twist.
Walked out of the cinema and bought another ticket to watch again immediately, the only movie I have ever done that for.
Completely different experience watching it the second time, knowing the twist.

Tyler Durden.

 Easy E wrote:

 godardc wrote:

 Easy E wrote:
Blair Witch Project....


.... also the 80's Flash Gordon, Original Highlander, and the Mad Max movies.


Just did this with Indiana Jones with my daughter and it was a blast.

I found Blair Witch project to be kinda lame, tbh.

For me it would be Stephen King's book It or The Plague

Yes, it is totally lame.... but the hype that was around it at the time..... WOW. It is hard to recapture all the hype, rumors, and myths circulating around it at the time before the gimmick was widely know.

It kind of reminds me of the hype around The Crying Game and its secret twist! I could probably add that to this list.....

TBWP is a really good choice. Because people now don't understand *anything* about the context. It wasn't that the movie itself was brilliant when viewed in a vacuum. It was something new and special because it paired an ultralow budget with a viral marketing campaign (well, that and an expensive TV special) that created a hoax around the movie. I saw it opening night and can guarantee you that there were people in the audience thinking it wasn't fiction. Made for a fun crowd. Overheard: "This isn't real...is it?" Said nervously.

And that isn't something you can't duplicate now, at least not in the same way. Heck, even a week after opening everyone knew it was a hoax.

On that note...Orson Welles' War of the Worlds broadcast gets my vote.

 gorgon wrote:

 Easy E wrote:

 godardc wrote:

 Easy E wrote:
Blair Witch Project....


.... also the 80's Flash Gordon, Original Highlander, and the Mad Max movies.


Just did this with Indiana Jones with my daughter and it was a blast.

I found Blair Witch project to be kinda lame, tbh.

For me it would be Stephen King's book It or The Plague

Yes, it is totally lame.... but the hype that was around it at the time..... WOW. It is hard to recapture all the hype, rumors, and myths circulating around it at the time before the gimmick was widely know.

It kind of reminds me of the hype around The Crying Game and its secret twist! I could probably add that to this list.....

TBWP is a really good choice. Because people now don't understand *anything* about the context. It wasn't that the movie itself was brilliant when viewed in a vacuum. It was something new and special because it paired an ultralow budget with a viral marketing campaign (well, that and an expensive TV special) that created a hoax around the movie. I saw it opening night and can guarantee you that there were people in the audience thinking it wasn't fiction. Made for a fun crowd. Overheard: "This isn't real...is it?" Said nervously.

And that isn't something you can't duplicate now, at least not in the same way. Heck, even a week after opening everyone knew it was a hoax.

On that note...Orson Welles' War of the Worlds broadcast gets my vote.

Great choice. I always wondered how much of the "hysteria" is true and how much itself is hype......

Books - Piers Anthony - Xanth series
Edgar Rice Burroughs - A Princess of Mars

Movies - Raiders of the Lost Ark

Absolutely Witcher 3. No contest, nothing comes close. I am a HUGE witcher fanboy and I adore that game, number one favorite game. Playing it right now in fact and after about... I don't know, I guess 40 hours in I did not have a single second of boredom. To experience this game again, with all the ups and downs regarding the story would be absolutely amazing, awesome, grand, insert any positive adjective you can think of.

 MDSW wrote:
Books - Piers Anthony - Xanth series

This brought something to mind. Wanting to experience something again, not necessarily because of the content, but the context. I read a lot of Piers Anthony when I was younger, I forget exactly when, but early teens-ish. Thinking back on it, I wonder why I enjoyed it. But I was (I think) at the target age range at the time. I would never go back and re-read it now that I’m older.

A lot of rose colored nostalgia covers the 80s for me. I don’t want to go back and visit it again with more experienced eyes. I’ll keep my memories, and the time-washed flaws can remain on the background.

I would love to rewatch the Lord of the Rings Trilogy for the first time. The casting, the effects, the sheer epicness of the films. I was in awe.

Ork-en Man wrote:
I would love to rewatch the Lord of the Rings Trilogy for the first time. The casting, the effects, the sheer epicness of the films. I was in awe.

Nice not to have to wait a year between episodes, too!

 Lum wrote:
Absolutely Witcher 3. No contest, nothing comes close. I am a HUGE witcher fanboy and I adore that game, number one favorite game. Playing it right now in fact and after about... I don't know, I guess 40 hours in I did not have a single second of boredom. To experience this game again, with all the ups and downs regarding the story would be absolutely amazing, awesome, grand, insert any positive adjective you can think of.

Yes, for video games, that would be the one for me too. Did you do the two expansions?

Also, Roald Dahl.

Granted, the mindscrub would have to put me back to being around 5 years old....but what wonderful books.

I remember watching "Delta Force" with my father when I was young, wish I could do that again.

Battlestar Gallactica! I've gone back and tried to rewatch it, and the second that Gaeta comes on screen I just get sad.

Love to go back and watch Big Trouble in little China with fresh eyes. One of my favs of all time.

I find I rarely ever feel like I want this. Because in general I find that when I saw something can be as much an important element as what I saw. As we grow older we change and sometimes something that holds fantastic charm and interest for us at one stage in life could, if we never saw it before and saw it at a different time, appear far less interesting.


Instead I more wish that there were a few things I'd experienced/seen/read when I was much younger and in the right time to be exposed to them. One of them is the Redwall books. It's chock full of stuff that I've liked for years and years; but by the time I was really aware of it existing my childhood was far far behind me and trying to read the books now the style and structure feel too basic and plain to me. Without that injection of nostalgia to connect me to them I find I can't enjoy reading them. Of course who knows give it another 10 years and I might change to a point where I do connect with them



But for me that's one thing that I'd want to go back to experience