Annoying Habits and Browncoats

This week I finally managed to get Sunny to sit still long enough to introduce her to ‘Firefly’.

The original reason I wanted to write this post was because, with only 2 episodes and the movie left to watch, I wanted to brag that my wife is officially a Browncoat.

Then, the whole experience made me think about one of Sunny’s really annoying habits…sorry, I mean one of her ‘cute little quirks’.

Since moving to the US four years ago, I’ve introduced Sunny to a ton of British TV shows and movies. Everything from the classics I grew up with such as Red Dwarf and Black Adder, to more ‘modern classics’ like Little Britain and The Office.

I should point out here that introducing these shows to Sunny is something that’s really important to me. When we sit down together to watch a show she’s never seen before, it really is a big deal.

You see, when I get my hands on a new DVD, getting to watch that show again is only about 2% of the experience for me. The part I love… the part that really gives me a lot of joy… is getting to be there when Sunny experiences that show for the first time.

Seriously. One of my favorite memories from the past four years was sitting next to Sunny when she watched ‘Peter Kay: Live at the Top of the Tower’ for the first time. I’d seen that stand-up show so many times I pretty much knew it by heart…but sharing it with Sunny for the first time and watching her laugh so hard she couldn’t even sit up was an absolute joy.

Have you ever read a book that was so good that you wished you could somehow erase it from your memory so you could experience it for the first time all over again? Well, I get a little bit of that every time I share one of my favorite shows with Sunny.

For me, watching TV is a social form of entertainment. Watching a great show is fun, but watching a great show with Sunny or a even a bunch of other people makes it about a billion times better for me. If it’s a show I’ve loved for years and I’m introducing it to people who’ve never seen it before, that’s just about as good as it gets.

Now we come to that ‘cute little quirk’.

99% of the time, introducing Sunny to a new show is like pulling teeth.

I’ll tell her I’ve got a new DVD for us to watch and she’ll ask what the show is about. I’ll explain the concept, and I always get the same reaction. She looks at me with her best ‘that sounds stupid’ expression, and says maybe she’ll watch it with me at some unspecified future date…maybe.

About a week later I’ll manage to corner her… waiting for that moment when we’re watching TV and Sunny says she’s bored, that there’s nothing on and asks if we have any movies to watch

“I have that TV show I was telling you about.” I’ll say.

Then before she has a chance to make any excuses the DVD goes in the player.

She’ll then watch the first episode or two with the same amount of enthusiasm and interest that the average ten year old would show for a crossword puzzle in a theme park. It’s particularly annoying when she picks up a book or starts to crochet five minutes in. I feel like screaming at her:

This is important to me! I really want you to love this as much as I do! Give it a chance! You’re five minutes in and already acting like you’re bored to tears!

Then, after watching a couple episodes, she’ll pointedly ask if we can watch something else. Feeling really disappointed, I’ll pluck the DVD from the player and put it back in the case.

This isn’t the annoying habit. If this was all that happened I could just accept that Sunny and I have different tastes when it comes to TV.

No, the annoying part happens a few weeks later.

Sunny will walk into the living room and I’ll be watching the same show she showed zero interest in. Ten minutes later, Sunny is either watching in rapt attention if it’s a drama, or cracking up like a lunatic if it’s a comedy. Then we’ll sit there and watch an entire season in a single sitting.

“That was awesome! What is it?” She’ll say.

“It’s (Insert Show Here)…you know, the one I told you about last week?”

“Do you have any more, or is that it?”

“I have season two and three as well.”

“Awesome! Wanna watch them now?”

So that’s the thing that’s really annoying. When I purposefully sit Sunny down in front of a show, tell her what it’s about, that I’ve loved it since I was twelve, and that I think she’ll really enjoy it too…she’s totally bored by it within ten minutes.

If she just walks in on me watching that same show halfway through, it’s one of her favorite shows of all time within hours.

Then we come to the last, and probably the most annoying part. This happens with a least three out of five shows:

I’d tried and failed to get Sunny hooked on Black Adder despite trying five or six times. Every time I got her to watch an episode she’d say it was ‘boring and stupid’...and could we please watch something else?

Then she followed the usual pattern and ended up loving it. She liked it so much, in fact, that at her insistence we ended up sitting through three whole seasons in a single day.

Then, six months later I ask if she wants to watch it again:

“I’m bored.” She says.

“Me too. Wanna watch Black Adder? We’ve not watched that in ages.”

“Black Adder? Which one is that?”

“You know, Back Adder, the one with Rowan Atkinson, you know, the guy from Mr. Bean?”

“Oh, that. No, that was just stupid and boring.”

ARRRRRRGHHHHHH!!!!