TOO EASILY INFLUENCED

Different things bring different people comfort. Also, different things influence different people. Certain TV series have brought me unmeasurable comfort and have influenced my life probably a bit too much over the years.

The first TV series that really grabbed my every limb and pulled me right in was Gilmore Girls. I have watched every single episode of the seven series show at least three times, just ask my family! Even my dad is know familiar with Luke the diner owner,  Kirk the weird village handy man and he even became invested in the rocky relationship of Rory and Logan. I can't remember exactly when I came across the series and I certainly didn't watch it the first time round - I think I was 6 when it first aired in 2000. Wherever and whenever I discovered it I instantly pressed 'recored series' on the Sky+ remote and have never looked back.

Amy Sherman-Palladino and the rest of the series writers are incredible and managed to make me laugh and get super tense in almost every episode. I love comedy and I have a select few comedic actors that I think are insanely good. These include but are not limited to, Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy (who is Suki in GG by the way), Will Ferrel and Lorelai herself, Lauren Graham. Graham's comedic timing is brilliant and I think it was this that really got me interested in comedy and the writing side of it. I just think that comedians and comedy writers are the cleverest people in the world.

Rory has been a huge influence in my life - when I first started watching the show I basically just wanted to be her! Except for that time where she is seen reading Sylvia Plath on a bench - I REALLY do NOT like the works of Sylvia Plath. Depressing much? AM I RIGHTTTT?!!She certainly inspired me to work hard, get to a good university and become a journalist. Seeing Rory as Editor of the Yale daily news got me thinking about journalism and since then I have been gaining as much work experience as possible from different publications and TV channels. I know that the characters in Gilmore Girls are imaginary but I think what they stand for is real. I know I get too invested in made up people's lives but there is something about a comforting, amazing, intelligent TV show that just makes me so happy about life!

The Office is another series that I will always, always go back and watch again and again (the US version that is). It's strange but when exam season comes around, especially since I've been at university, I suddenly become invested in a variety of time consuming activities that will have a naught to zero percent positive effect on my exam results. The first two weeks of revision is fine, I get into it and all is well but by week three I will literally do anything to delay that dreaded time of day when I have to sit at a desk, read and re-read and re-read (you get the picture) pages and pages of notes, journals and books on the Tudor monarchy or the creation of Labour in post-war Britain. The first thing I do is turn to books and books that will most definitely not help me in my quest to graduate as a historian. In my first year of uni I read Miranda Hart's autobiography along with a gazillion other novels but not like in a "oh, I might read a few pages before going to bed" kind-of way but in a "I am a heroin addict, please inject me now or I will explode" kind of way.

This year, along with reading yet another tower of books which had nothing to do with my degree, I fell truly, madly, deeply in love with The Office. I watched all 9 seasons in just over a month. It was a way for me to forget about the five dreaded exams I would have to face and instead I would worry about when Jim would finally ask Pam out, if Dwight would ever face the facts and publicly announce his love for Angela and if Michael Scott's film Threat Level Midnight would ever be completed. The writing on the show is insanely good and so intelligently written that not only do I sit there invested in the lives of these wholly fictitious yet utterly relatable characters, I also sit in total awe of The Office's writing staff. My favourite ever scene from any TV show/movie ever made is from Stress Relief: Part 1  in Season 5 of the show. If you have never seen it just please youtube it.

While watching The Office I started to research the writers of the show to see whether they had written any other shows or written any books and this is when I discovered that Mindy Kaling and B.J. Novak were both writers on the show. I LOVE a show when there's a 'will they, won't they' story line - I become instantly hooked and want to skip right to the episode when the two characters get together because the suspense is just a little too much. I seriously watched the whole second series of New Girl in 2 days because I had no patience and wanted to know what was going to happen between Nick and Jess after years of secretly being in love with each other. I digress. What I am getting at is that while flicking through the channels one evening I came across The Mindy Project I think it might have been the last episode of the first series and I instantly picked up on the fact that Danny really did not want Mindy to go to Haiti with Casey (bare in mind that I had no idea who these characters were at this point). Also, I thought the show was fun. You can probably guess what happened next - I traversed the internet looking for a way to watch the show and by this point the majority of the second series had come out in the US so I just went straight for the second series and loved it.

Part of the appeal of watching The Mindy Project is the fact that Mindy (Kaling) created, writes, produces, casts, edits (and everything else) her own show. Girl power to the max. I even bough her book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me and loved it so much that I have been borrowing the book to my friends and urging them to read it. I really like the fact that she says her advice to people who want to do what she does or who want to be successful in any line of work is to work your arse off at school/university. There are no shortcuts. Amen sista' (what, did I really just say that. Apparently I have turned all ghetto all of a sudden).

I recently bought the first season on DVD since I never really watched it in its entirety and have watched all 24 episodes in 3 days. Last night I found myself ordering the Bridget Jones' Diary trilogy from Amazon and re-watching You've Got Mail for the gazillionth time. I told you, I get really easily influenced by TV, Films and music.

While I type this I have a shopping cart on Amazon filled with Nora Ephron movie posters that I am going to order to put on my wall in my new house at university. Gosh TV you've done it again.

I have only included three shows in this post as I could go on forever and ever - I might come back to this post and add to it one day but for now I will leave you pondering whether I am sane and thinking "wow, this Lisiloo lady needs to get a life".

p.s.,  The answer to your questions are - I am not too sure if I am fully sane, I mean who is, am I right! Also, yes I probably do need to 'get a life' but you know what, who gives a crap, a girl needs her relaxation time and mine just happens to be watching comedy shows (and getting too easily influenced by them).