Not a game review for once

So I've been watching a lot of Buffy and Angel episodes lately, and I've decided that I am a total Whedon fanboy.

I came to know of the works of Mr. Whedon in a sequence quite opposite to their release dates. First, I saw Serenity with my family- they all hated it, and I didn't know what was wrong with them. It was stylistic, unpredictable, and had some absolutely awesome dialogue. Years later, I was sitting on a friend's couch, and flipping through the pithy offerings of basic cable. After Comedy Central and Spike failed me, I went to my old standby, the network-formerly-known-as-SciFi. I wasn't entirely sure what this show I was watching was, but it really reminded me of this one movie I'd seen a couple years ago. I also liked it, quite a bit. Fast forward a little less than a year, and a friend informs me that in fact that show was Firefly, and that apparently the movie was a continuation of the story. Holy crap.

So I borrowed this friend's DVD collection, never to return it. I have watched that series at least half a dozen times by now. I love the way it had all these actors I'd never heard of, and yet each of them were so well-suited to the role (or vice-versa) that it quite simply was not ever apparent that I was watching people pretending to be other people. The dialogue was witty and impacting, and yet so casual. The word I'm looking for here is "flow." The characters flow seamlessly through their conversations and adventures, and it all just seems so naturally. I buy into it in a way I don't buy into most stories.

Dr. Horrible was... different. It didn't have the same kind of awesomeness Firefly had; it had a different kind of awesomeness. It was silly. It made me laugh, and I've seen that movie about as many times as I've seen Firefly.

And now, finally, I'm watching Buffy and Angel. Seasons 1-3 of the former and the first season of the latter are on Hulu, and now I'm watching the DVDs (thank you, Netflix) of Buffy season 4. Now I'm back to the Firefly kind of awesomeness, with that incredible way that the actors, again, seem to have been created for the sole purpose of playing these roles (or, again, vice versa) and they do it perfectly. I crane my head and go "d'awww" every time Willow pouts. I get moody and depressed every time the show reminds us that Angel will never be happy and exists only to suffer. The show is one of three movie/TV things that have ever actually brought a physical tear to my eye, the other two being Star Trek and the Futurama episode with Fry's dog.

In other words, I am enjoying the works of Joss Whedon to an irrational degree. It makes no sense that a television show makes me this happy. It's weird. But you know what, it's a happy kind of weird, so I'm not going to worry about it.

Also, as much as I'm enjoying Buffy, I can't see myself rewatching it half a dozen times like I did Firefly. That would take a really long time.

On a side note: Windows media player really sucks at playing those DVDs. It is utterly random whether I will be able to use the rewind or chapter back/forward functions, and it is utterly random whether Media Player decides to use its "oh, I remember where you were the last time you put this disk inside me!" feature. Also, it sometimes the video doesn't kick in during the first couple minutes. When that last glitch happens, the rewind decides it's not going to work, and media player decides to use that "remember your place" feature all a once, that means it is impossible to see the first couple minutes of an episode. I tried Media classic, but the picture gets all vertically shaky.