Why I Get So Emotionally Attached to TV Show Characters

Why do I get attached to my TV show characters? Well, let me start with this.

I am a TV show addict. I fall in love with shows, become emotionally attached to the characters and their lives. I myself fall into the show, leaving my world behind and become engulfed in their world. Their feelings are my feelings. What happens to them happens to me. Most of you would be like "ew go outside, talk to real people, blah blah blah" ... all I have to say to you is 'bye'. If you don't get emotionally attached to TV characters like I do, just stop reading this post because this is a waste of your time. (This doesn't mean I'm some hermit who doesn't go outside and just sits in her room by herself just watching tv shows 24/7... I have friends, I swear.)

TV shows are a beautiful distraction for me. They are how I distract myself from whatever is going on in my life, and I really don't see that as a bad thing. I have learned so much from different shows. Life lessons... love lessons... friendship lessons... you name it. Believe it or not, some are educational. 

The beautiful thing about television is that it lets you live vicariously through these characters lives. I have had a strong relationship with a mother figure through Rory & Lorelai from Gilmore Girls, had awkward teenage love triangles through Jenna from Awkward., fallen in love with TWO sexy vampire brothers and had to protect my town from the supernatural through Elena from Vampire Diaries, re-inhabited earth only to find the dangers lurking on ground through Clarke from The 100, and become a fantastic surgeon through all of my fav characters (I can't choose just one are you kidding) from Greys Anatomy. I could go on forever referring to different shows but i'll stop now.

The thing is, it sucks when people die. If you watch supernatural shows like The Vampire Diaries, Teen Wolf, The 100 etc... you know they aren't afraid to kill off main characters. In more teenager-y shows like Awkward. or Gossip Girl for instance, they don't usually kill off characters, which is super nice cause you can count on your heart not being broken.

Watching shows like Greys Anatomy also makes me want to do what they are doing (I know the show is more unrealistic and isn't really what it is like to work in a hospital environment, but its nice to dream). I actually really wish I could be a surgeon and save lives, but I can't because I can't even look at blood let alone cut someone open and touch their insides.  So television shows (and movies) just let us dream for a little bit, even though they are unrealistic most of the time, its nice to be able to dive into a world that would be kinda nice to be apart of. Hot doctors and on-call rooms? Like come onnnnn.

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Recently I have become obsessed with Greys and The 100, so I would like to discuss them both.

(*SPOILERS TO COME*) 

 

See, heres the thing. I have been binge watching Greys Anatomy right, and I just finished Season 10 and I feel like all I have done the last few seasons is cry. Like from George, to the shooting at Seattle Grace Mercy West, then the place crash, Lexie and Mark, Christina leaving... I just can't take any more death in that show. After the plane crash anytime Lexie or Mark were ever mentioned I would burst out into tears. Good thing I only watch these shows with my cat, cause he can't make fun of me to other people. But seriously, I can't be the only one. I hated Lexie at first to be honest, but that quickly changed. The writers really know how to get the viewers attached to EVERY CHARACTER, so kudos to them. Any other Greys fan knows that since season 1 we have been on an emotional roller coaster that, by the looks of the season 11 premiere, doesn't look like it will ever stop. And I am super okay with that.

Now to The 100. It has only been half of the second season and so much has happened already its unbelievable. I just finished watching the episode "Spacewalker", I am in shock that the Mountain Men are the people who are creating the Reapers, but after seeing the cages of Grounders they have I am not surprised and it kind of all makes sense. Mount Weather seemed too good to be true, so obviously something bad was going to happen but I never expected them to go as far as human blood bags. Second of all, Pretty sure if someone said to me when I first started watching the show that they would kill Finn off, I would laugh and say "Yaaaaa oookkaaay" in my classic sarcastic tone. But when that season 2 mid-season finale came around and the leader of the Grounders made it clear that to stop a war they had to give Finn over to them I got a bad feeling. It was such a 'Finn' thing to do to surrender himself, and it was actually not surprised he did that seeing as how guilty he was feeling after the massacre. The part that killed me was Clarke killing Finn herself so that he would not be tortured by the Grounders. I literally rewinded that part so many times back because I couldn't believe my eyes. I probably don't have to tell you how much I was crying either. 

"Chelsea Peretti: One Of The Greats" Stand-Up Review

I love when people make me laugh, therefore, I love stand-up comedy. I am the type of person who thinks I am really funny but no one else really thinks I am. Ha. 

So I am a big fan of the show Brooklyn-Nine-Nine with Andy Samburg. I originally started watching it after someone showed it to me, and then when I realized it was on netflix I was all "YESSSSSS" and became quickly obsessed. In the show, there is a character named Gina, who is a very sarcastic type (like myself) so I instantly related with her character. 

Normally when I begin to like a TV show or movie, I like to google the characters to see what other stuff they have been in so I can be like, heyyyy I didn't know *such & such* was in this! It's a real eye-opener, you should try it out sometime. 

From this celebrity google stalking experience I found out that my fav character Gina otherwise known as comedian Chelsea Peretti had a Netflix special comedy show titled "Chelsea Peretti: One Of The Greats". I decided to give it a try.

I watched it.

Then I watched it two more times.

Then I made my parents watch it with me.

Then I watched it again, alone.

Then I told people to watch it.

Then I watched it with a friend.

All in all, I've watched it eight times now and I've laughed throughout it each time, by now even mouthing the words to the parts I have memorized. I really think she is brilliant. 

Now there were some parts I didn't like though... such as the audience cuts where it shows dogs sitting in seats or someone basically having a picnic. 

I also didn't like the parts where she is mocking herself in the clown outfit, where her school picture is talking to her from a chair in the audience, or where the guy starts leaf blowing inside the venue, etc., but I guess she was trying to do something different and to each their own. 

But other then those parts her actual stand-up performance was super funny and the way her jokes transitioned into each other worked together nicely. 

Jimmy Fallon Dropped The Ball with Nicole Kidman

I am never the type of person who watches TV on actual TV... I always watch it online. Whenever I'm having kind of an off day, I will usually go on YouTube and watch clips of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. It is one of my favourite talk shows, partly because I have a huge crush on him. To me, he is definitely up there on my list of funniest guys, next to Kevin Hart. He always has interesting interviews with celebs, and the small segments that are apart of the show are always so funny and this stuff just, you know, keeps me wanting more and more. 

Today I came across a video clip of Nicole Kidman on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where both her and Jimmy tell both sides of their sides of the story of the day they first met. The whole clip was a hoot - I was dying of laughter the whole way through. Half way through they try to get on with the interview but both keep giggling about the memory of Nicole being interested in him, and Jimmy being completely oblivious and not finding out until now!

Check out the video below for a 9 minute laugh you will not regret :)

"Sia - Elastic Heart" Video Review

I just finished watching Sia's new music video for her song Elastic Heart, which featured dancer Maddie Ziegler from the show Dance Moms and Sia's last music video Chandelier, and... Shia LaBeouf.

(No one saw that one coming)

In Elastic Heart Ziegler is smeared with dirt, wears the same leotard she wore in the Chandelier video with it just more tattered and dirty, the signature blonde wig inspired by Sia's hairdo, and LaBeouf wears only a tattered pair of beige shorts to match the leotard - his shorts and himself also smeared with dirt. Both are trapped under a life-size bird cage, and interact in a interpretive dance number that you think is going to be a dance off at first, but turns out to be a beautiful dance between the two of them with the mood switching from anger to playfulness faster than a PMS-ing teenage girl.

A lot of people are going to look at this video and automatically think of how weird it is and be reminded of LaBeoufs' dramatic last few years and assume he's still gone off the rail... When they really should be appreciating the beauty and raw emotion of this video, not to mention the phenomenal dancing executed by the both of them. They should also be appreciating the sight of his hot bod. Just sayin'.

If you think about it though, it is kind of ironic how Sia is known for dancing with her back facing the audience when she performs because she doesn't want to be famous, and how she wrote an article for Billboard calling it "My Anti-Fame Manifesto", and at the beginning of the article has a photo of her with a paper bag over her head. 

And of course everyone has heard of the time when LaBeouf headed onto the red carpet at the Nymphomanic Berlin premiere, sporting a paper bag over his head with "I Am Not Famous Anymore" written on it in black sharpie. This event occurred 4 months after Sia's paper bag photo. BUT, before the movie premiere Shia had tweeted those same words off of the paper bag on his twitter after he had written about retiring from show business and being in the public eye. So him going to the movie premiere, provoked him to do the paper bag stunt saying... he wasn't famous anymore because he had 'retired'.

 

With these nice little similarities of personal feelings toward the public eye and being famous, I can see why Sia chose Shia to be the male subject in her music video, because they can relate to one another. 

The song is supposedly about her relationship with her father growing up. Her father had multiple personalities, one being a great dad, and the other made her scared of him. The emotion shown through the interpretive dance is captivating to watch, having the mood between LaBeouf and Ziegler go from playful and loving one second, to anger and hatefulness the next. At the end of the day, everyone just needs to appreciate Maddie Ziegler and Shia LaBeouf's beautifully done interpretive dance that compliments Sia's songwriting talents and her voice, wrapping it all up in a little bow and delivering it to the world. 

Music Mondays

I am obsessed with YouTube covers and finding new artists I haven't heard of yet. I find that sometimes I like the cover better than the original song, or in some situations I never liked the original song, but the cover made me find an appreciation for the song. Anyways, you get the gist of it, so here are some of my favourite artists that I have discovered recently or over the years that I would like to share with you this week. To check out the video, just click the title of each song!

Alex G - Stay With Me (Sam Smith)

I have been following Alex G throughout her YouTube musical journey since the beginning and she never seems to fail me. She is extremely talented. I love this female version of the song, and the raw emotion she sings behind it.

Kina Grannis & Imaginary Future - Riptide (Vance Joy)

This one is a double whammy! But both artists are amazing and do a duet cover of this song so pleasantly, it feels like butterflies are dancing around in my ears.

Julia Sheer & Landon Austin - Everything Has Changed (Taylor Swift)

This one is another duo of talented YouTube Artists and it is perfection. Tell me they don't sing this song beautifully with a straight face. I'll never believe you. 

Alex Goot - Story Of My Life (One Direction)

In this cover, the talented Alex Goot plays the drums, electric guitar, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, maracas, tambourine, and uses his hands to make certain beats. Need I say more? Seriously?

Louisa Wendorff - Blank Space // Style (Taylor Swift)

Louisa performs this mashup of a couple of Tay Swifts new songs with her friend Devin, and it is exactly the mashup you didn't know you wanted. It is perfection and I cannot... stop... listening...

Seasons

Playing hide and seek in your house,

Getting lost on the way to Vaughn

Fingers intertwined while you're steering

These interuptions make it hard to move on

Your lips touched mine with no feeling

Your back covered in my marks

Your hands strong and willing

Your eyes empty and dark

Your heart was yearning for another

Snowflakes drown each sobbing breath

Losing my first lover

A feeling I can never forget

As I walk down the steps I turned

Just in time to catch once last glance

It's funny now to think

That we ever had a chance

Our footsteps fell out of rhythm

You're now ten steps behind

Your heart ran out of love

When you decided to change your mind

Maybe i'll feel this forever

This silent but deadly pain

Maybe you feel nothing of the nature

For you it became too mundane

Maybe I loved you too much I forgot to love myself

Maybe that was my downfall in the end

All I know is it was nothing we could fix

It was nothing we could mend

Winter turned to spring

Spring turned to summer

Autumn came around

Winter reminding me all over

By S. Cyr