Romeo and Juliet

Time for me to climb back up on my soapbox..

Here's the deal. I've been criticized by COUNTLESS people for not being a "Grey's Anatomy" fan. Not just criticized - ridiculed, too. For some reason, it really irritates people that I refuse to watch this show. I think it's funny. But I also thought I should take a moment to defend myself to all of those people who don't read my blog. ;)

My sister, Gina, refuses to watch new shows because she's this total tv junkie. Every time she starts to watch a new show and likes it, they cancel it. Drives her freaking batty. So she waits until it's been around for a couple of seasons and then she downloads all of them. She did this with Grey's and she's totally, ridiculously addicted. It's comical to me.

This is the part where everyone will start rolling their eyes, but you have to hear me out, ok? I was/am/will always be a colossal Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan. It was cancelled in 2002 and I still - to this day - record the re-runs every single day on FX. And yes, I have the DVD's, too.

If you know me at all, you know I have a thing for fantasy - fairies and dragons cover my living room and dining room walls and my book shelves are filled with titles like, "Dragons of Autumn Twilight," and "Forgotten Realms: The Dark Elf Trilogy." My side of our DVD shelf has, "Legend," "The Princess Bride," "The Lord of the Rings Boxed Set," and "Willow." Didja read vampires in any of that? No. Not a big vampire fan. Didn't start out as a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan. Seriously, people - that movie was AWFUL. One of the worst movies I've ever had the misfortune to see. I felt like I had WASTED two hours of my life after watching it. Needless to say, when they came out with a show called, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," I was definitely not jumping on that bandwagon.

I'm not going to go into how I ended up becoming a Buffy fan, because it's long and complicated and involves yet ANOTHER story about my ex-fiance, but we'll just say that I fought it long and hard. That show became the bane of my existence.

"Buffy and friends" were a year younger than me. As such, she seemed to go through just about everything I went through around the same time (give or take a year or so..). Yes, this show was about Buffy fighting monsters, but it was also about Buffy finding love, making extremely tough decisions, making and breaking friendships, losing loved ones.. it was gloriously complicated, and I loved every single second of it.

This girl was the "chosen one," and believe me, she didn't want to be. She wanted to be a cheerleader. She wanted to date boys. She wanted to go to high school (and then college) dances. Instead, it was her job to wander the streets of Sunnydale every single night and protect its citizens. She fell in love with a 200-year-old vampire who lost his soul when he experienced a moment of true happiness. How's that for luck? He left town because being around her made him turn evil. Now if we haven't all been there at some point in time or another...

She loses her mom to a BRAIN HEMHORRAGE of all things when she's 19 years old and ends up having to raise her bratty little sister. All of this magic and chosen one crap and she can't even manage to keep her mom alive.

Then, the poor girl dies trying to save the universe, goes to heaven, and her well-intentioned friends bring her back from the dead to fight more vampires! I can SO relate to that!

So what does she do? Falls in love with another freaking vampire. Tell me you haven't had this exact thing happen!

I know this sounds silly to anyone who didn't watch this show, but you have to understand where I'm coming from here. Something about this show hit a lot of people hard. One lady said, "We're worse than trekkies!" The only reason the show was cancelled after 7 (8?) seasons is because the title character was bored and refused to sign another contract!

Good versus evil, the grey line in the middle, the question of redemption, and love mixed in. This show made you *think*.

I cry when I watch this show. I think it's because there are so many of my own memories mingled with memories of the show, but I still get really emotional about it.

Ok, so the whole point of this rambly is mess is to explain why I don't watch Greys Anatomy. They cancelled Buffy, and then all I had left was the spin-off, Angel. I loved Angel and watched IT religiously, too. Joss Whedon (the head Buffy honcho) was just starting to get things right on this show, and halfway through the season I said, "If they cancel this show I'm finished with television." Low and behold, poof. Angel's gone. The finale was horrible - it left Angel & Co. cornered in an alley with a demon army coming for them. I think he said something silly like, "We'll fight to the end." I have never been that pissed off about a show in my life.

That was it for me. I watch a couple of things each week if I have time, but it's not necessary for me.. I refuse to watch anything that seems even remotely emotional or engaging. It's kind of my personal protest against the networks.

So the next time you yell at me for not being a Grey's fan, please remember that it's because I had my heart broken once. Yes, I'm sure I'm missing out, but it's easier this way. Trust me. ;)