So I’m channel surfing and happen to click onto an episode of Gilmore Girls. Without conscious volition, I squeal, “Oh my God, Gilmore Girls!” I put the remote to one side, away from my viewing partner, away from any chance that the channel might be changed. Because for the next twenty minutes, or however long the episode lasts, I’m watching it.
It’s like finding the last few squares of a family block of Cadbury and deciding their mine. Completely selfish, but I’m not sharing. And when the teev hits Gilmore Girls I’m not sharing the remote either.
When asked to explain why, I’m at a loss. It’s a crap episode. Not much is happening, and some of the acting is off. But I love the characters. Time spent with them is such a joy, I don’t care if they’re off their game. It’s Lorelai flirting with Luke. It’s Rory arguing with Kirk. It’s Richard and Emily scheming to manipulate. I just want to hang with them. To be honest, I don’t care what they do. I just want to spend time in their world.
When the episode is over and I come back to the real world, I feel embarrassed. It doesn’t make sense to be obsessed about a show that I haven’t even seen all the episodes of. But that was deliberate. Like not seeing Michelangelo’s David in Florence, I want a reason to come back (not that I need one for Gilmore Girls) but it feels good to know that I can be surprised by episodes I haven’t seen. I haven’t allowed myself to glut on it. I’ve had some restraint, and as a result of that, I don’t know everything about the show. There are still things to learn in my lifetime – yet another reason to stay on the planet!
The Terminator franchise is another irrational addiction of mine. Sure, that epic romance between Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor – I came across time for you Sarah – is worth watching again and again, but the subsequent movies with all their shoot-em-up gore and mind-numbing chases? Last week a trailer came on tv for the new movie Terminator Genysis and I just about wet my pants.
Seriously. My movie buddy said, “You’re a Cinderella girl. Why on earth would you want to see a blood-thirsty movie like that?”
I had no ready answer, but can only assume that the first Terminator movie imprinted me. I’m locked into the franchise now, perhaps in the vain hope that I’ll see Kyle and Sarah together again (and in Genysis I will). There’s something about truly great characters that inspire you, and make you watch the most dreadful things in hope that they’ll be better than they are: In 2002 I saw Star Wars II Attack of the Clones three days in a row, telling myself each time that it wasn’t that bad, but I was wrong. It was appalling. I adored Han and Leia and Luke so much, I simply couldn’t believe that Padme and Anakin could have such a lame romance.
But I digress.
The topic of this blog is the adoration of unlikely franchises. So fess up. What do you love and why? What do you tolerate when you know damn well it’s an hour (or two) you’ll never get back? Is their some vain hope for a lost romance (there has to be some reason we kept watching Moonlighting back in the eighties). Or were you hooked on House, waiting for the patient he couldn’t cure.
Don’t leave me hanging here in Lame-O Land all alone. Surely I can’t be the only one…
