Why, may I ask, is it so embarrassing to enjoy teenage shows, or even kids shows, that are dramas? Has no one ever heard of a guilty pleasure? And for that matter, why be guilty about it, why not just like what you like and get over what everyone else thinks? Why are we constantly worrying that are friends will laugh at us for liking shows like Pretty Little Liars, or Switched at Birth or really any other show that airs on ABC Family?
Okay, so I'm probably ranting a little and, in reality, a lot of teenage girls watch these shows and they never feel guilty about it, so why is there still a sort of stigma to shows like this? I didn't have a childhood that anyone would call normal, and I'm definitely not the posterchild for popularity or even social adequacy, if anything I'm the posterchild for the exact opposite. So maybe I just don't understand the ways in which teenagers aren't guilty for loving shows like Dawson's Creek or Teen Mom for that matter. But I have always felt that to admit my enjoyment, okay fine I'll cope to it being obsession, for shows that I like, even if they may not be popular when I watch them. It is true that I have watched very few shows from the beginning when they originally aired, usually I just watch full series back to back to back on Netflix, but really, many of the shows I've watched, and felt guilty for obsessing over, were very popular in one point in time, yet I still feel like it is awkward for me to talk about them in front of people. Though this is, I know, mostly due to my lack of any social coordination, I also feel that on some level I am scared that people will judge me for what I watch, and how religiously I watch it.
Sometimes I like to brag that I can, and have several times, sit for ten plus hours a day in front of my computer and watch, from pilot to series finale, an entire tv show in a month and a half. This is borderline insane, I know that and that is probably why I feel that I can't talk to people about any of it because I know how insane I sound because I'm very much aware of how insane I actually am, but I guess my question is whether or not anyone feels the same way I do. I have seen many circumstances where there have been crazed fans that have watched all sorts of shows and know every part of each character down to the missing button on a shirt in a thirty-second scene, but I have never actually come across someone like me, who moves from show to show, soaking up all the drama I can find and, once I've exhausted it all, falling into a type of mourning period until I find a new show and start the process all over again.
If you're observant and now One Tree Hill, you'll see that my profile picture is a picture that was painted on Peyton's wall for a long time in the show. These are the types of things I do, I emulate and mimic a character in each of the shows I obsess over, and when I find a new one, I find a new vocabulary, personality, fashion sense, even hairstyle. It's crazy, I know, but somehow I think it helps me find a personality at all. I am who I am, but for all intents and purposes, I'm a mixture of all the characters I've ever come across.
Now, I've gotten pretty far off my original point, but what I want to say is that even though I'm a freak, I have a suspicion that I'm not the only one out there with a tendency toward overly dramatic teenage shows, and I just want to make sure that, if you're one of those out there, you're probably not as crazy as me, so don't feel guilty about what you find meaning in.
Comments welcome, bash me if you want, I'm game for any feedback.
