Day 28 - First TV show obsession.
Day 28 - First TV show obsession.
I attempted to have an obsession with Star Trek TOS when I was twelve (specifically, with Spock), but my attempt was cut cruelly short when the school year began, because the reruns were on at ten so I couldn’t stay up to watch them anymore. Alas!
So probably the first show I had a full-blown obsession with was The West Wing, which I watched with my friend Caitlin all through high school - I swear she rationed out the episodes to make sure the show would last us all through high school. I wrote my very first fanfic for this show, as a present to Caitlin: it was a Josh/Donna fic which, if I recall correctly, involved alien robots invading the White House or something like that. Naturally the invasion pushed Josh and Donna into each other’s arms. Sadly, I no longer have a copy of the fic and (probably mercifully) I didn’t post it anywhere, so I can’t check.
(The fact that it took alien robots to get Josh and Donna together may indicate that I never found the pairing quite as compelling as Caitlin did. I did love Josh a lot, though. I made Caitlin a booklet of Josh photos as another present, like a picspam in physical form. We were sort of a tiny little fandom of two.)
Oh, and Toby Ziegler! Who doesn’t love Toby Ziegler? He’s so sardonic and snippy and secretly idealistic, but actually kind of secretly, not like Josh who puts up a snarky facade that is totally transparent because he actually bleeds idealism from his pores.
I love “20 Hours in America,” not least because of all the Indiana jokes (our time zones are actually that crazy, it’s kind of embarrassing), and “Noel” (the episode where Josh gets treatment for PTSD after getting shot, otherwise known as the episode that launched a thousand fics), and “Big Block of Cheese Day,” and - I forget the name - but the episode where Ainsley Hayes starts working for the White House, and the episode ends when they all sing Gilbert and Sullivan songs to her.
Man, I am so sorry that Ainsley didn’t have more episodes. I always enjoyed watching her smack Sam Seabourn down. Admittedly, I liked watching anyone smack Sam Seabourn down, because even as a teenager I thought Sam was kind of full of himself, but Ainsley did it the very very best.
I sometimes think about rewatching the show, but I have immensely mixed feelings about doing it, not least because the sporadic episodes I’ve rewatched over the years have convinced me that Sam Seabourn is merely the tip of the egotistical iceberg that is the West Wing characters. I think the amount of self-congratulatory self-righteousness in the show flew over my head in high school; I’m not sure I could stomach it now, and I’m not sure I want to taint my memories of my beloved Toby and Ainsley and President Bartlet (and the whole lovely Bartlet clan) and really everyone else in that show by rewatching it.
I attempted to have an obsession with Star Trek TOS when I was twelve (specifically, with Spock), but my attempt was cut cruelly short when the school year began, because the reruns were on at ten so I couldn’t stay up to watch them anymore. Alas!
So probably the first show I had a full-blown obsession with was The West Wing, which I watched with my friend Caitlin all through high school - I swear she rationed out the episodes to make sure the show would last us all through high school. I wrote my very first fanfic for this show, as a present to Caitlin: it was a Josh/Donna fic which, if I recall correctly, involved alien robots invading the White House or something like that. Naturally the invasion pushed Josh and Donna into each other’s arms. Sadly, I no longer have a copy of the fic and (probably mercifully) I didn’t post it anywhere, so I can’t check.
(The fact that it took alien robots to get Josh and Donna together may indicate that I never found the pairing quite as compelling as Caitlin did. I did love Josh a lot, though. I made Caitlin a booklet of Josh photos as another present, like a picspam in physical form. We were sort of a tiny little fandom of two.)
Oh, and Toby Ziegler! Who doesn’t love Toby Ziegler? He’s so sardonic and snippy and secretly idealistic, but actually kind of secretly, not like Josh who puts up a snarky facade that is totally transparent because he actually bleeds idealism from his pores.
I love “20 Hours in America,” not least because of all the Indiana jokes (our time zones are actually that crazy, it’s kind of embarrassing), and “Noel” (the episode where Josh gets treatment for PTSD after getting shot, otherwise known as the episode that launched a thousand fics), and “Big Block of Cheese Day,” and - I forget the name - but the episode where Ainsley Hayes starts working for the White House, and the episode ends when they all sing Gilbert and Sullivan songs to her.
Man, I am so sorry that Ainsley didn’t have more episodes. I always enjoyed watching her smack Sam Seabourn down. Admittedly, I liked watching anyone smack Sam Seabourn down, because even as a teenager I thought Sam was kind of full of himself, but Ainsley did it the very very best.
I sometimes think about rewatching the show, but I have immensely mixed feelings about doing it, not least because the sporadic episodes I’ve rewatched over the years have convinced me that Sam Seabourn is merely the tip of the egotistical iceberg that is the West Wing characters. I think the amount of self-congratulatory self-righteousness in the show flew over my head in high school; I’m not sure I could stomach it now, and I’m not sure I want to taint my memories of my beloved Toby and Ainsley and President Bartlet (and the whole lovely Bartlet clan) and really everyone else in that show by rewatching it.