If the apocalypse comes, beep me

Well, I'm glad I embraced series in my last post because that is all I seem to be able to read these days. I don't quite know where comic books fall into this, but I've been reading a lot of them. 

This year, fans saw a 20th anniversary reunion of (most of) the Buffy the Vampire Slayer cast. After I cried (because there is NO WAY that Buffy is 20 years old), I decided it was time for a rewatch. I'm not even sure what number rewatch this is. Possibly five or six. I've lost count. The more I see season 1, the more I find it isn't as rough as I originally thought. It's been a few years since I watched it, so I was delighted when parts of the show were unfamiliar or flat out surprised me (Season 1, Episode 7--I'm looking at you!). The lines between the seasons are blurring, but I think the first four seasons are some of the best episodes. But of course, you can't forget about the season 6 gems: Once More, with Feeling and Tabula Rasa. OR the emotional drain that was almost the entirety of season 5. And for my Shonda fans out there, rewatch season 5 knowing that Ben grows up to be Frank Delfino from How to Get Away with Murder. 

Ahem. 

Yes, well, and then I picked up the Buffy comics and made my way through the Buffy Omnibus comic collections. All seven of them. 

Continuing with the series theme of my life right now, I recently finished the second book in the Evil Librarian series. This one was sillier and funnier than the first, I think. I'm not desperately waiting for the next book in this series (not like I am for the last Invisible Library book) but I'll read it when it comes out, for sure.
Speaking of desperately waiting, I am waiting for a different copy of Buffy season 6 to come into the library. I forgot to mention that halfway through season two, Netflix took the show down. So now I have to do things the old way: borrow it from the public library. So far, I've gotten very lucky...so I should have seen this coming. In the waiting, I've watched Pushing Daisies again and caught up on the last few episodes of Reign. I mean, what else am I supposed to do, laundry? 

I'm in a bit of an book drought. I'm rereading Possession, which of course I love, but that is going slowly. I have a book in at the library soon, so I'll let you know about that one if I ever get it.  

Are you re-reading anything amazing? I hope so. Share the last book you just couldn't put down. I'm always up for a good suggestion! 



(Oh. PS. I've been tweeting my Buffy rewatch, so if you really need to know all my thoughts, you can pick it up over at @laura_heffner under the #buffyslays20 and #buffyrewatch tags.)

In every generation, there is a Chosen One.

I don't have a movie review for you this week, but oh boy, do I have an incredible TV show to talk about! 

I finally convinced Rachel to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer!! And of course, like any good friend, I started watching it with her. Again. For the third or fourth time? It's a wonderful show.

I think I told the story of how I got into Buffy. It was one of those wonderful Gettysburg finds, recommended by a co-worker destined to change my life forever. I was warned, as was Rachel, that the first season was a little rough but to stick with it. I was a few episodes in and I still wasn't sold, but true to the warnings, by the end of the season I was hooked. 

Rachel and I were discussing this universal warning about season one and now we both have issue with it. Yes, it is a little rough. But aren't the first seasons of shows a little rough? (Barring Firefly, of course. That show was perfection. All 14 episodes.) Honestly, it isn't all that rough. What it is is PURELY 90s fashion goodness with cheesy witticisms. What more could you ask for?

Okay okay. I'll admit. Some things are rough. I mean, we are talking graphics from the 90s. Not perfect, but still pretty good. (They do tend to get better with each season, so there is that.)
The thing that makes it worth it? The same thing that made me hate/dislike Daredevil: dialogue. 
The writers for this show are amazing. For at least two weeks, Rachel and I were trading witty lines via text. The writers seem to understand that a show is only as good as its dialogue. With the Gilmore Girls reunion that happened this weekend, I've been thinking a lot about the importance of story and writing. They aren't the same thing, but when writing supports the story, you have television gold: dynamic characters, interesting plot, character development. When the story drives the writing, your show continues in a linear fashion, but it doesn't progress. Over the course of seven seasons, we see Buffy grow up, learn to be a college student and successful adult, suffer heart break and lots of life grief, make good choices and bad choices. Gilmore Girls works the same way; we see our girls grown and change through the show. Daredevil fights crime and beats people up every episode…and basically that is it. Right? 

Anyway, that's my two cents…

I just finished my Gilmore Girls season 1-6 rewatch. I am so in love with the show that I might break my rule and watch season 7. Jury is still out on that one though. I also started the new season of House of Cards and oh my goodness. Dirty politicians and D.C. never looked so good! I love the first episode hook that they do this season (and by love I mean "find totally repulsive but fits in characters so much that I have to accept it") and so far, have no major problems with the show. I'm only a few episodes but I doubt that my opinion there will change. I love everything about this show, even if it makes me angry with the state of the world. 

I've promised a co-worker that I will start Death Note at some point…he promises that I'll like it. What do you think? Have you seen it? Have another anime to recommend? Let me know in the comments! 

First Loves

San Diego ComiCon was this weekend. I was not there, but I watched my Twitter stream update every second with pictures and panel updates that made the geek girl in my just about cry with joy. (And, of course, a bit of pain was mixed in there as well. Come on! 10 year anniversary panel for Firefly? Why could I not be there?? Geek girl flail!!!)

But it got me thinking about what first got me into the things I love now. I first started watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer because it was such an iconic show that practically everyone had seen. That was my entry drug to the Joss Whedon universe. I think what I love most about Joss and his work is his ability to create characters that feel real, put them in real life situations and then kill them off without mercy. BUT he does it all for the good of the show. It is something I've noticed other directors and writers shy away from, and I have since learned to love the fact that Joss does not. From Buffy, I turned to Angel, Firefly, Serenity, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog, and Dollhouse. 

You can also trace my Felicia Day love back to Joss. And, thanks to my exposure to Geek & Sundry, I am now in love with Eureka and Colin Ferguson...right before the series finale. I have perfect timing. 

And of course, all of that love got me thinking: what was the first book that really got me into reading? To start with, when I was in kindergarten I was  anti-reading. I gave my mother so much stress about that! Oddly enough, I remember nothing of that experience. However, I do have early childhood memories of asking my mother, after being told I could take a couple of books to bed, "Is a "couple" one or two books? Or is it two or more books?" I've always had problems with math...

But what I think of when I remember the book that made me love reading is something that happened when I was in 6th or 7th grade. By 4th grade, I was checking out books above my reading level and hiding them in my desk. And reading during class. Oops. By 6th grade, I was reading Gone with the Wind (a book of almost a thousand pages), when others were still reading chapter books that didn't go over 100 pages. But somewhere in there, I discovered a book called Beauty. 

I read it. 

I loved it. 

And promptly forgot about it. Until a year later, when I found it again and fell in love with the magic of it all over again. Beauty is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast by Robin McKinley. I found it to be ten times more magical than the Disney movie. There was something about how blatant but mysterious the magic was, almost as if it could have happened exactly that way. 

It is the story of a father with three daughters who all move out of the city to a small village on the edge of an ancient wood. While her older sisters get married and start having babies, Beauty continues to find more pleasure in books and nature than she does in men. As it happens in every story, a dark and stormy night finds Beauty's father far from home, relying on the mysterious stranger in a dark castle. However, the stranger's help comes with a price--Beauty's father must come and live with him. Unattached to anyone except her father, Beauty volunteers to take her father's place. She finds herself treated like a princess and forced into beautiful gowns, which she tries to tear off her body. She struggles, at first, as she finds that living in a magical castle is more difficult than she ever imagined. Eventually, of course and as all the stories go, she learns to live at peace with herself and the Beast, even counting him a friend. It ends the way you hope it ends, full of magic and love. 

There are some complaints my friends have launched against this book, and to an extent, I agree with them. For instance, some say Beauty whines a lot and is selfish. Eh, sorta. Sure, to the whine. But I think she needs some of the selfishness to surface because without it she would be too perfect a protagonist. 

This book has another special place in my heart. It got my little sister into reading, too! My sister will never be the reader I am; she doesn't crave it or care for it quite the way I do. And that is totally fine. But we share a love for this book and I honestly love the book a little bit more for bringing us together in that way.

What about you? Can you pinpoint a book, movie, TV show or video game or a specific event that was your "entry drug" into something you absolutely love doing today?