How many guilty pleasures are too many? Where is the line between guilty pleasure and the secret shame that means your TV taste isn’t quite as cool as you wish it was?
I think I’m coming to the conclusion that this may be the case for me. This week I have recorded episodes of the Gilmore Girls that I have seen already just so I don’t loose the plot (although clearly I have already) and gone from watching a couple of episodes of The Vampire Diaries, just to see how it compares to the many other vampire shows on at the moment, to downloading the rest of the series and watching it all. Now, does that sounds like an aberration in an otherwise worthy viewing schedule or just time to admit I have a problem?
Maybe I should elaborate first to let you decide:
Before January 2008, I had seen about 10 minutes of one Gilmour Girls episode and felt comfortable dismissing the show as girly fluff, only to be shown before 8.30pm so no fans were up past their bedtime. Skip forward, I am the size of a elephant, it’s about 35 degrees out and we are having our floors polished so I’m confined to the unrenovated section of the house with just a computer and a television for company. There are only so many times I can check my e-mail and update by Facebook status, so I settle down for some TV time. There were few options so an episode of the Gilmore Girls to waste an hour worked for me. Just one can’t hurt eh? The episode I watched was in the middle of the first series and not very intriguing. Nothing to worry about.
Roll on a few months – no. 1 has been born and I am now chained to the couch for several hours a day while he feeds and falls asleep in my arms – my TV watching has escalated tremendously. Again, I stumble across the Gilmore Girls which seems again to be the only option and decide I’ll watch just the one episode just to kill an hour. As it turns out it’s actually the first episode (fate perhaps?) – so I can see how it all began (so many questions answered) but still its just not my thing. 24 hours later and I find myself again feeding and stuck with only the Girls to watch and so on and so forth and you can imagine what happened. I am hooked. I have to see what happens next again and again– will Lorelei and Luke ever get it together, will Rory choose Jess or Dean and will Michel ever come out!?!
And now 2 years and another baby on, I’m still at it. Every morning I try NOT to miss it and I’ve already seen all these episodes!!! What happened to me? Do I need some therapy or for the plug to be taken off the TV. I admit I have a problem – that’s the first step to recovering isn’t it? But do I want to recover?
I have thought about this long and hard, and I have a theory. I like the Gilmours on two levels: firstly, I identify with Lorelei, the sassy yummy Mummy who has a dubious relationship with her overbearing and controlling mother and has thrown off the shackles of parental oppression to make her way in the world and raised her daughter to be fast talking, witty and like good music/movies/books. On the other hand I also identify with young Rory, a reserved, hardworking and ambitious girl with fabulous hair – the sort of girl I would have liked to be when I was a teen and the model for the way I would like my children to grow up (boy versions of course).
Did I convince anyone that this isn’t crazy, but in fact a completely normal and rational action for a grown woman? My LSOH doesn’t agree, although over time has absorbed enough of the plot subliminally to ask questions when ever it’s on (oh is she going out with him now? Didn’t they break up? Oh my god wasn’t that guy in Skid Row??)
So, guilty pleasure or secret shame? Well lets see how it pans out with the Vampire Diaries ...
Happy viewing - till next time.
Aishie
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