I’ve been watching the Xena episodes from the beginning. I get teased a lot for watching certain shows over and over again. But the way I see it is that it’s not as long as a movie and I can get my story fix and have a mental break without it taking two hours – because I’m the kind of person that has to watch from start to finish.
Which brings me to the shows I watch repeatedly. Why start from the beginning on a tv show, right?
Because I want to fall in love again. Fall in love with the characters, the story and the arc.
Why watch Xena from the start? Because it’s been ten years since I saw the first shows, but also because – the thing that made that show so endearing to me it the gradual and natural progression of the characters and their relationship. It’s not something you can jump in the middle of and get the same emotional response as you can if you start from where they are learning about each other, because it’s as if you are learning them all over again too.
X-files. You can be entertained by an episode you catch at random, but if you start from the beginning and watch Mulder and Scully develop individually and co-dependently at the same time – the entertainment value of the show and the emotional catharsis skyrockets. You can’t tell me that half the female viewer-ship of the X-files were not religiously glued to Tivo because they didn’t hope Mulder would just pin Scully against the wall and kiss her hard enough to make her forget her own name.
We fall in love with their lives, their journeys and their dreams and somewhere in there we remember to have our own.
Firefly. Supernatural. Buffy. Angel. (Interesting that Joss Whedon is the creator of so many of the really powerful human tales on television) So many shows that were endearing because they took us with them as they evolved into flesh and blood characters.
This is why I start over at the beginning. I want to remember what it was like to get snagged and pulled into the adventures of Xena and Gabrielle as they discover what it is to find themselves and find each other. Adventure, grief, empowerment, love, loss, comedy and evolution.
What shows can you watch over? Is there a movie that does it for you? A book? What story do you consistently need to start from the beginning so that you can fall in love with the tale all over again? Why?
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