We Read To Know We're Not Alone

Seven years ago, I fell in love with my first television fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  A year later, I fell into a second: Veronica Mars.

Other shows have come and gone around them.  Firefly preceeded Buffy, but I fell for the film, rather than the show or fandom (though I do love the show).  Castle had my heart for a while (up to the middle of season 3 - well - it was also cheap and easy when I was bored).  Burn Notice has me coming back, but it's almost out of duty right now - I'm not sure if the show has a direction anymore, and it's shedding interesting side-characters way too quickly, without giving the central cast arcs.  I watch a few sitcoms - How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang Theory, mostly - and those only when I'm really, really bored and want to binge on silliness for a while.  Alias and its not-quite-as-hilariously-awfully-unbelievable baby sister Covert Affair entertain me off and on.  Monk is funny in tiny doses.

And now, having watched the first, a middle, and finale episode of the first season, I'm hooked on a show I never thought I'd even try: Revenge.

What can I say?  Blond girl heros who are either the strongest, smartest, or most righteous character in the room somehow do it for me (that's why I mentioned those other two shows at the beginning).  Buffy improved as it went along - the fifth and seventh seasons are my favorite.  Veronica Mars, sadly, did exactly the opposite - I adore the first season, but the second and third seasons, while containing the same brilliant acting and clever dialogue, dump the plot and theme baskets in the river and then proceed to shoot them up with political garbage and crumbly management.

I really hope that Revenge takes its cue from the former show, and not the latter.  It's a tricky sell, especially for me.  Basically, imagine Batman if Bruce Wayne was a 25-year-old blond girl whose parents were betrayed by the rich people around them.  She comes back after two decades, determined to take her vengeance on those who wronged her.  She even has a goofy butler/tech type sidekick!  But like the inspiration for the show, The Count of Monte Cristo, the pleasure of the show isn't really the revenge (which would be a problem for me).  The pleasure is seeing the intelligence with which our hero plans her plans, and the moral struggles of everyone as those plans come to fruition.

Will I love the show when I watch the whole first season and start with the second at the end of the month?  I have no clue.  But I will be there - surprisingly, since I'd only planned on following Revolution and Elementary this fall (not even Castle, sadly, made the cut).  Hopefully I'll add another amazing blond girl hero to my list of fandoms. :-)