Stumbling into Supernatural

I stumbled into Supernatural -- or rather Supernatural fandom. It's difficult to separate them once you've been lured in. Certain shows do this to you; only a few have done it for me. The first show that drew me in like this was Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff, Angel. Honestly, it's been so long now that it's hard to articulate all the reasons I connected with those shows. In broad strokes, I'm a big fan of strong female characters, fantasy, and quirky but strong writing. (I'd say I define this kind of writing as the ability to blend drama and humor while maintaining interesting characters and good storylines).

 TWD Daryl's Role Model

But the hot guys helped, too
.

Buffy's men - following her lead, never the other way around

With Supernatural, it began with the implied recommendation of a certain fellow instructor in the Writing Center. (By implied, I mean that there are Supernatural posters on the wall, and when I arrived there was a life-sized stand-up of Dean in the main lobby, which I now have a MUCH greater appreciation for!) It's impossible to be a hard-core Supernatural fan without having it spill out into your life. If you've been in the Writing Center, you know that it's filled with relics of fandom. And all of my colleagues have good taste, so when people keep talking about a show you haven't seen, you get curious. After staring at a poster of Walter White on our walls for a month, I flew through Breaking Bad. I finally caved in to Supernatural one night over summer break. I was bored, all of the shows I watched were over, and I decided, Hey, I'll just watch the first episode and see what all the fuss is about.

Then this happened:

*sigh*

Beautiful men driving a cool car fighting monsters? It reminded me of a lot of Buffy, without being derivative, and the writing was really good. (Early seasons.)

Fangirls gonna fangirl.

The rest is history.

Well, okay, that's leaving a lot out along the way from episode one to this mid-season break while we all eagerly await the return of the second part of season 11. But I'll save the finer discussions for our weekly episode/season breakdowns.

I began with the notion of a show and its fandom. I continue to wonder, particularly considering my own experiences with Buffy and Supernatural, what the differences are between being a viewer (an avid viewer?) and a fan (a super-fan?) of a show? I've watched plenty of shows over the years since Buffy and Angel - but the vanity plate on my car is a reference to Buffy.

You have to have watched Buffy a lot to get "Grr Argh" as a Buffy reference! 

Lessons from Jane: Never underestimate the power of a well-written letter.

No other show has come close to making that kind of impact on my personal life. Prior to Buffy and Supernatural, my other major "fandom" was all things Jane Austen. Her novels have been made into movies and television series, she has national societies in several countries that hold conventions, and those who participate in this fandom are referred to as "Janeites." It's just as much a fandom as any television show or movie franchise is - and there are some very interesting comparisons between the serial novel in the 18th/19th centuries and serial television.

By comparison, I was blown away by Breaking Bad, and am still of the opinion that Walking Dead is possibly the best thing on television right now, but those experiences aren't quite the same for me as Buffy or Supernatural. They each have their own personal impact, engagement level, and emotional involvement when compared to one another.

Men of TWD (re: Daryl, see Buffy above)

Lessons from Breaking Bad: Don't f*ck with your teachers

I have some ideas about what these might be. I'm curious to hear more about others' experiences and to consider this question from various perspectives.

On that note, let the discussions begin!