First, it was Full
House. Then came 90210, Dawson’s Creek
and Sex and the City. Most recently,
Grey’s Anatomy but I’ve lost interest in that – couldn’t handle all of the
surgery scenes once I went through it myself.
Not only have I seen every episode of these shows, but I can recite most
of them too. Maybe not something to brag
about. I haven’t had much time to watch
a TV series in the past two years. With
Aiden’s sleep habits, I’m usually in bed with him early and naps are
inconsistent. This means little time for
consistent show watching. With my
surgery and accompanying down time, I’ve needed things to keep me busy. I had a list of ideas, but the list did not
include Downton Abbey. A friend
suggested I utilize my Amazon Prime membership and start from the
beginning. Five minutes in (the
Titanic!) and I was hooked.
I wish I had started watching
the show right after surgery. My new
obsession was timed with starting to feel better and being able to take care of
the kids again. This means I’ve had to
be creative with my watching. It also
means I haven’t gotten much sleep. Who
knew there was an Amazon Prime App and that ear buds worked so well with an
iPhone while lying in bed? Now I will say, I promise I haven’t traded quality
time with the kids for watching. I would
MUCH rather spend my time playing with Aiden and Audrey than watching a TV
show. Most of the time. No, really, all of my watching has been at
night or during naps. I tried to watch
once when Aiden was playing, but when I mentioned Abbey, he thought I meant the
Abby on Sesame Street, so we ended up watching Elmo instead.
I know I need to take a bit
of a break before diving into season 4.
I’ve started to use phrases like, “very well” and “I’m afraid
I’ve…”. And between Downton and Thomas
the Train, I’m pretty sure I’ve developed a bit of a British accent. While I do find British accents appealing
(okay, that even sounded British), mine would be more like bad acting so it
needs to stop.
As I’ve been enjoying this
show, and know millions of others do too, I’ve been thinking about its
appeal. What draws me to a family who is
from another era and is totally the opposite of everything I know? I think it’s just that. With all of the “reality” TV out there today,
I think most people still yearn for a departure from real life as their
entertainment. That’s always been the
point of TV and movies, hasn’t it? Why
else would we love E.T. or The Notebook or even Billy Madison? Because aliens don’t really live in our
closets, summer romances don’t usually last and rich immature adults don’t get
to go back through school while winning the heart of a beautiful girl. We love watching these things happen,
though. Of course “based on true events”
stories have their place in our hearts too, but I tend to lean toward the
stories that take us far away. It makes
the hard, lonely, boring, sad times more bearable. And sometimes it just helps us to forget that
we were puked all over by a two year old earlier that day, while the baby was
screaming bloody murder.
So I look forward to
returning to Downton and seeing how the Crawley family “gets on.” But I’ll save it for when I need to escape
everyday life. The Tanners, Brenda and
Dylan, Dawson and Joey and even Meredith and Dr. McDreamy will always be there
for me too, when life gets a little rough.
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