I recently started rewatching
Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, easily one of the best shows to ever be produced for television. This makes the third time I will have seen every episode (I'm in the middle of season 5 at the moment.)
Aside: I've only ever seen the show on DVD. I didn't understand what all the fuss was about when it was on TV, but then again, I haven't watched TV since I was 18. Before TV shows became common on DVD and before I got a DVD player, I hadn't watched a full TV series since I left for college. Now, thanks to DVD, I have shows I regularly watch, but always on DVD. I
loathe commercials in a way that's probably unhealthy.
Anyway, it's a great show to watch while exercising. After I finish season 7, I'll rewatch
Angel. The last two times I alternated
Buffy and
Angel seasons, to keep them more in line with how they played out on TV.
I also started rereading
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and then I'll move on to rereading
The Half-Blood Prince. Obviously, this is in preparation of the movie and Book 7, but it got me thinking about why we like to rewatch or reread entertainment. It's not like I don't know what's going to happen to Buffy and her gang, or who's going to live and die in Harry Potter. I've heard of people who dislike repeating entertainment, but it seems the majority of us love to reread/rewatch our favorites.
Is it the familiar comfort of returning to beloved characters? The knowledge that we won't encounter anything unexpected and therefore scary? I honestly don't know the answer myself. I just know that I've reread almost everything I've ever bought, and I have movies and TV shows I've seen more times than I can count. (Don't even ask how many times I've seen every episode of
Futurama.)
Whatever it is, all I know is I'm looking forward to more Buffy in a little bit, and more Harry Potter tonight after a bit of
Oblivion. Spike is about to reveal to Buffy how he feels about her, and Harry's about to meet Dolores Umbridge.
In a later post, I'll talk about what it's been like to restart
Oblivion with one of the ultimate overhaul mods, Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul.