Okay so remember last week when I casually mentioned that I had started watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer which I somehow missed out on in the late 90's due to my intense X-Files obsession (that or my devotion to being a high school overachiever)? Well this weekend I certainly made up for lost time.
In addition to going out to dinner twice, running some errands, cleaning my room, playing Monopoly with roommates, going out to the Topanga Roadhouse for some awesome tunes Saturday night, poking around vintage stores in Topgana Canyon on Sunday, visiting with a friend from the East Coast, among other things, I somehow find myself 17 episodes into Season 3 of Buffy today. Yes, Season 3. Which means since my last Buffy mention I have burned through Seasons 1 and 2, and most of Season 3.
Oh my God.
I'm not going to get into the exact episode count that was maybe a record high for me on Sunday--but I will say that I somehow managed to watch a lot of BtVS and do all these other things, which makes me think I must not have gotten enough sleep this weekend. (Although to be honest, I feel okay right now--so maybe I've discovered the elusive equilibrium to obsessive TV watching and sleep?)
In any case, I am in full-fledged obsession mode, and am honestly not all that suprised. I mean I know so many people who were obsessed with Buffy back in the day, so I imagine it was only a matter of time before I jumped on that bandwagon--actually it was just that--time, which I never seemed to have enough of, which is necessary for devoting the hours to the show that it deserves. Suffice it to say, this weekend was time and a half--because I managed to somehow have a life and geek out over what I would now agree is one of the best television shows ever produced.
And now here it is a lovely, rainy Tuesday morning and I'm finding it difficult to get work done because I really want to keep watching more Buffy. Yes, this is a problem.
However, the obsessive TV watching has once again reminded me why I sometimes prefer TV to movies--I mean I even skipped out on watching two Academy screeners yesterday to watch Buffy, and I haven't seen nearly as many of the nominated films this year as I did last year. Sure I go through phases where I get obsessed with good movies, although I think right now my phase is just feeling burned out from Hollywood, and therefore less interested in all the films and the accolades.
I'd rather get attached to good characters and good stories--things you find in TV shows, things you can follow week after week, episode after episode, for multiple seasons. Some TV shows remind me of all the fantasy series I used to read when I was little, like David Eddings' Belgariad, or the Susan Cooper books, His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman, and of course, more recently--Harry Potter and George R.R. Martin's amazing A Song of Fire and Ice series. Certain TV shows tap into this, and I will say that sometimes watching a string of episodes ranks right up there with reading a good book series. I could do without the all-consuming obsession I seem unable to separate myself from, but that seems to transcend both mediums--I couldn't put Twilight down when I was reading that, and here I am this morning incapable of having much intelligble thought beyond the action of the Buffyverse. And you know, I still haven't seen Slumdog Millionaire. Which is weird... I guess. I wonder if I will watch the Oscars this Sunday... and to be honest, at the moment I am undecided. Maybe I'll just be watching more Buffy...
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