Spoiled: Consuming media in the age of DVR, blogs, and wikipedia

I started really getting into television because of a combination of two things: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the internet. They came into my life at about the same time when I was in junior high and they really fed into each other. I had friends in real life that watched Buffy too but they weren't quite as obsessed as I was, so I turned to the internet. I became a regular at the official Buffy "posting board" (an early message board/chat room type thing) where fans from all around the world discussed and dissected the show and our obsession with it. In those days, I had a VCR that I could record episodes on but I generally watched the show live and got onto the PB immediately to see what everyone else thought.

Spoilers back then had a slightly different meaning to me...they were generally information about future episodes, gleaned from casting notices and people who were extras and stuff like that. I knew that reading spoilers in a lot of ways ruined the effect of the show, but I just wanted to know everything. I would occasionally go through these stages where I'd endeavor to remain "spoiler-free" and I'm pretty sure that I enjoyed the show more but eventually I'd go back to old habits because I so badly wanted to know what was going to happen next.

Then a few years ago, something else happened: I got a DVR. In many ways, this was one of the best things to ever happen to me (I'm not exaggerating). I wasn't tied to network airing schedules anymore, I could record two things at once, and I could fast-forward through commercials (and boring parts of shows like American Idol) among other things. I can't imagine my life without it.

But there's a side effect to the wonderfulness of the DVR: I now rarely watch shows "live" or right away. Depending on what day it is and how much I like the show, I watch most shows a day or two later, or in some cases, weeks later. Which means that spoilers now have a different definition: it's what happened on a show that's aired already but that I just haven't watched yet. And yes, I still read them!

It's especially bad with reality shows. For example, Top Chef airs on Wednesday nights at 10PM, which is past my bedtime (yes, I go to bed that early). So right when I wake up on Thursday morning, there are the recaps from various blogs in my Google Reader, which of course I have to read. I try to skim and just see who won and who was eliminated but I mean, what else is there? I then generally watch the show after work that evening and the suspense is completely gone.

Horrifyingly this behavior has now spread to movies and books, thanks to wikipedia. I've never been very timely with these...I rarely see movies in the theater and I generally wait for books to get to the library. I have been known to sneak a peek at the ending of a book before reading the whole thing (confession: I read the epilogue of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows because I was so afraid that someone important was going to die) but now I can go to wikipedia and read the entire summary of a book before I even have it in my hands. It's especially bad with books that are in a series, like the Hunger Games and Steig Larsson's Millenium trilogy. The same goes with movies. It's just too easy!

So I think I'm going to embark on another spoiler-free experiment. There is actually one TV show that I've already been spoiler-free on: The Vampire Diaries. I watch it pretty much live every Thursday night and because of the huge amount of twists and cliffhangers (VD has a cliffhanger practically before every commercial break), I'm always so glad that I didn't know what was going to happen beforehand. The few times I couldn't watch it live and read spoilers, my enjoyment was definitely diminished.

I'm not going to change my viewing habits...I'm just going to really restrain myself from reading recaps and avoid spoiler-y blogs and websites. A lot of scripted shows are on hiatus until April, so for now my two main challenges will be Top Chef and The Amazing Race. Wish me luck, and I'll report back in a month or so!

T^2: If you could be...

M: If you could pick a TV show & character whose life you would take (with all the good and bad storylines), whose TV show life would you choose? (Doesn't have to be a main character.)

Mira: After thinking long and hard about this question, and even contemplating changing the question to make it easier, I've decided I would want to be... Well, first here are some characters I considered:

• Buffy from BtVS (too much dealing with yucky bad guys for my taste)
• Rory Gilmore from GG (too annoying, plus her sleeping with Dean storyline still pisses me off); Joey Potter from DC (also annoyingly perfect and kinda boring)
  
• Sydney from Alias (exciting and cool life but she woke up to Vaughn married to the annoying lady!)
• Veronica Mars from VM (too much angst, if only she stayed with Logan...)
• Casey from Greek or Lizzie McGuire from LM (this was tempting and fun-sounding, but kinda superficial)
• Pam from The Office (just to be part of PB&J, but then she works with crazy people)

So I choose instead... Liz Lemon from 30 Rock. It's funny because I don't even watch this show (well, I'm a season and a half behind) but I really, really love Tina Fey and often think when watching her on this show or on anything else, "I want to grow up to be her." Except, I'm in my late 20's and I guess I'm maybe too old to grow up to be someone. ::sigh::

Jennifer: This is a tough question! It took me awhile to decide what about a character's life would make me want to take their life. Job/lifestyle? Boyfriend/husband/family? But then of course TV characters generally have quite a lot of drama/angst/trauma in their lives that I could probably do without...

In the end, though, I came up with two options that are maybe cop-outs because they're both in the sci-fi genre: Liz from Roswell and Jaye from Wonderfalls.

Ok yeah, Liz had a lot of ridiculous drama in her life but somehow I find the alien secret thing and becoming part alien(?!) to be pretty cool. And in the end she's with her soul mate (and if you want to count the post-season 3 book series ending, everything gets "reset" with everyone back in Roswell and the aliens no longer being "hunted").

As for Jaye, I think I more want to actually BE her rather than just take her life. I like her family, I like her one friend, I like her love interest, and I guess I kind of like her approach to life. As stated in one of the episodes, she's created this "stressless, expectation-free zone" around herself. Of course getting talked to by animal figurines and getting involved in all sorts of crazy hijinks is also kind of ridiculous but she kind of makes it seem fun...

New Amsterdam

Initially when I heard about this show last year I wasn't too excited. I mean, in terms of shows about immortal beings, Buffy kinda set the bar. And in truth Angel was pretty alright, too. So really, another show revolving that? Yeah, I wasn't too excited. In any case, apparently the initial reviews of it weren't all that great either because the show had gotten revamped. Re-reading reviews about New Amsterdam and all the previews during American Idol (yeah, I still watch it!), I decided to give it a chance. In fact, I was rather excited to watch it!

Yeah... not so much. I just can't get into the characters all that much. I'm glad they lightened up the character of the main actor dude, but just... their witty banter isn't natural and it doesn't flow. It just sounds like they're trying to be witty and well, not really succeeding. I have to admit I was quite surprised by the CSI-ness of the show. I wasn't expecting that. The twist of him being immortal until he meets the love of his life is interesting, but so far it hasn't sucked me in. Being a major "shipper," and I seriously am, without a compelling "ship" to root for, this show just isn't doing it for me.

Our DVR has caught the 2nd and 3rd episodes of this show, so I'll give it a few more tries but I doubt I'll keep it on my lineup for much longer. Besides, the writer's strike is over -- new episodes just around the corner!!!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8!

Buffy aired its last episode back in May 2003, which is way before I even started this blog, so even though I still reference it relatively often, I've never really blogged much about it. And up until early this year, there wasn't really a reason to. But then the Buffy Season 8 comics started to come out!

The series is split into mini-arcs, and the first 4-issue arc was written by Joss Whedon himself. And I have to say that it's really been a pleasure. I hadn't realized how much I missed the show and its unique blend of humor and action and angst and gore until I picked up that first issue. The TV series ended at the right time, I think, some might say it even went too long, but that didn't mean the story was over. There's still plenty more to tell and a comic book is a really great medium. Each issue is pretty short...I imagine it would amount to maybe half an episode, or maybe even less. But all the characters and dialogue are there, just as I remember them.

There are now a massive amount of Slayers in the world now, all having been activated during the proper TV finale, and Buffy is a de-facto leader of sorts, having rounded up nearly 500 of them and splitting them into squads around the world. Buffy and Dawn are stationed in Scotland, with Xander heading up a sort of Command Central connectd to the rest of the squads, including ones led by Giles and Andrew. Willow is as powerful as ever, and appears in the first arc to battle some old enemies. One thing that's great about comic books is that you don't to negotiate actors to have characters return so really anyone is game. Issue #5 is a standalone, but the season's second arc will feature Faith. And many of the show's old writers as well as writers from the comic book world are slated for their own arcs. Each issue has really gorgeous cover art, and the artwork inside renders the characters quite well too.

I have to admit that I've never been a big comic book reader. I've read a few here and there that I liked but I never got that into any one series. I find the sheer volume of comic books to be a bit overwhelming actually. And without really any friends who are into them I never properly got into it. I've also never read any of the previous Buffy comics. But maybe this is like my gateway drug? I now stop by my local comic book store every month for the new issues, so I could check out some other things too...

And on a related note, Joss Whedon has also recently announced that he'll be doing something similar for Angel, set after its own series finale. I wasn't really as big a fan of Angel, and bizarrely I haven't even watched all the episodes yet although I have the whole series on DVD (I've watched all of the first and last seasons, but I'm missing pretty big chunks in between). Some new Firefly comics may also be on the way, and there have been rumblings of a possible Ripper TV movie featuring Giles. Check out all the scoop from Comic-Con here. I have been a bit disappointed that Joss Whedon hasn't had any new TV shows since Firefly got cancelled so it's good to see that he's really been keeping himself busy with lots of other things.

Buffy Sing-A-Long??

So remember the brilliant musical episode of Buffy? Apparently someone out there came up with the idea of having Rocky Horror Picture Show-like screenings of the episode with a live cast acting out the roles on stage and with subtitles turned on so the entire audience can sing along. Apparently this goes on every month at the IFC in New York and has traveling shows throughout the country!

Um...I don't really enjoy singing but I kind of want to go to this, if only to be in the company of other crazy Buffy fans!

More info here.

Buffy's 10th anniversary!

Today is the 10th anniversary of the premiere of Buffy the Vampire Slayer! "Welcome to the Hellmouth" first aired on March 10, 1997 on the WB as a midseason replacement. Can you believe it was that long ago?

For those of you who don't know, Buffy was and probably still is my favorite show of all-time. I started this blog well after the series ended so I haven't had much opportunity to talk about it, but I was a huge HUGE fan, right from the very beginning right up until the very end. It was my first and biggest TV obsession, and I also think that it's what really got me into the Internet and fandom and all that in the first place. I was a regular at the official posting board, the Bronze (which actually still exists in slightly altered form here...my handle was/is WinterRain) where I analyzed the show, started writing my first TV reviews, and got to know Buffy fans from around the country and the world. It was an interesting period in my life, and one that I have a lot of fond memories of.

But you know, even three years after the series finale, Buffy still lives on: Joss Whedon is writing a "Season 8" comic book series and the first issue comes out next week! I always felt like the show ended with a lot more story to tell and I'm really glad that we get the chance to hear more of it. I probably watch more TV now than I did back then, but I've yet to find a show that I love nearly as much as I loved Buffy. I probably never will.