It wasn’t even two months ago that I considered vampires a stupid, pointless thing to read about or watch. Being that they don’t exist, and never have existed, and never will exist, the idea of wasting my precious reading and watching hours on vampires just didn’t appeal to me. And furthermore, two summers ago I had read Bram Stroker’s Dracula, and that was good enough, wasn’t it? How much more could vampires give? And then in strolls Joss Whedon, all cocky and comical and clever. Damn you, Whedon. Damn you and your unbelievable wit and ability to make me care about your characters.
I had completed Whedon’s Firefly series and Serenity movie years ago, and have wallowed like a pig in the mud of Joss’ brain. I’ve read about Firefly, watched the episodes over and over again, and had my close friend knit me a hat so I could further idolize Jayne’s character and ergo Whedon’s brain. I had many reliable sources tell me that I should watch Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. My aunt, my high school librarian, Craig, a regular at the video store I worked at. I respected there decisions, so somewhere in the last few years, in the back of my distracted brain, I knew that I was going to watch Buffy. As time went on, there was no thought about whether I should, it was just a question of when I should. And this last summer, I stopped denying the voices in the back of my brain and asked to borrow the first few seasons of the series from my aunt.
Now, my aunt, in her conniving ways, delivered to me a black trash bag filled with the entire seven seasons. That was three
months ago. Today, I have passed the seven seasons on to my brother, Jake, and have purchased for myself the complete, 44 DVD 6,000 plus hour boxed set of the entire freaking series. I am in the middle of the fifth season, and I pop episodes off like I used to pop pimples, compulsively, shamefully, and in private. My brother has surpassed me (in Buffy episodes, not pimple popping) for several reasons. First, he wasn’t also watching the entire seven season television series Trailer Park Boys, which he had already completed and had hooked me on this summer. He also wasn’t trying hard to watch one or two of Roger Ebert’s top 200 movies every week. And I think he doesn’t read as often as I do. And most importantly, he is open about his obsession and inability to control it, as he watches several episodes in a stretch.
If my Summer of Kurosawa has taught me anything, it’s that you can watch a long progression of movies, or I guess television shows, too quickly and miss them when they’re done. You can read my last post, and my inability to watch Kurosawa’s final film for a whopping two
months. So I have fought sorta-hard to limit my consumption of Buffy and her Scooby Gang. And this next series of blog entries in a continuation of that sorta-inner-battle I’m fighting. I want to savor the last two and a half seasons of Buffy that I have left. So I’m going to watch as many vampire movies as I can get my hands on before Halloween. And there are seven of them, plus a rereading of the original Dracula novel.
Now Buffy, don’t feel like I’m abandoning you. I LOVE YOU so much that I’m avoiding you. Don’t look at me like that! I swear I’m yours forever. Please don’t kill me…(and I promise I’ll explore why I am so obsessed with the show towards the end of this series of posts).
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