You have not known what you are.
You have slumbered upon yourself all your life.
Your eyes have been as much as closed most of the time.
What you have done is already in mockeries.

The mockeries are not you.
Underneath them
And within them,
I see you lurk...


-Walt Whitman



28.7.08

confessions of a certified series addict

SERIES ADDICTION. it all started, when my best friend, joy, and i decided to watch an american t.v. series. it was when we still both have cable subscriptions. (she have her own place already but too bad for joy, her landlady won’t allow it. i wonder why?). it was not for long before we got hooked and got addicted with that tv series. ever since we had our television set ‘cabled’ (is that a word? hehe!) i stopped tuning the remote to the local networks. no kapuso nor kapamilya, no local news, no nothing. i felt brainwashed by what cable tv offers. my mind was colonized by the americans (hehe). it got worse when joy and i got tired of waiting for a week for the next episode of the series to be aired, and decided to buy and watch it from a pirated dvd (alright, you can boo me. i’m a criminal. hehe!)—complete from season 1 to 3. no annoying commercials of shampoo, whitening soaps, foot powders, feminine wash, condoms, female napkins...that take 5 minutes or more! but i tell you: watching tv series continuously without commercials, with no time to rest or breathe between episodes, no time to recover from the nail-biting end of the previous episode – i realized how i miss the commercials. good for joy, she’s now enjoying lots of it on her ‘uncabled’ tv set! (har! har!).

anyway, i was a junior student in a medical university when i got hooked. after finishing the addictive tv series with my bestfriend, we had a long time to wait before the next season comes out. three months. that’s why we shifted our attention to other tv series out there! and we got hooked on each and every one of them. dvd marathon on the next level! we watched one after the other…or sometimes two or three at the same time (joy usually does this. i’d rather finish one than start with another. no wonder she’s ‘blind’ already). there came a point when i got so addicted that i barely sleep and watching dvd is the only thing i do everyday, besides, eating, sleeping, breathing, and taking a bath (i brush my teeth too..sometimes..haha! joking!). during those days, i really sleep late. 5 in the morning (that’s really early) and wake up in 1 or 2 in the afternoon. the scorching sun on my bedroom window usually wakes me up, then, i eat, and watch again, then sleep. i was a sloth. one reason why i gained a lot of weight in college. i mean…a lot! wait till you see my high school pictures (hehe!). i am not really a morning person but i had to overcome this to prevent tardiness from messing up my hospital affiliations. i was an owl. i used to go out in the middle of the night to buy extra large ‘burger machine burgers’ (they changed the name to ‘buy one plus one burgers’ to match minute burger’s ‘buy one, take one’ promo. i don’t blame them. the latter is selling burgers like pancakes), complete with cheese and coleslaw and sometimes with sunny-side-up egg. and to match the salty burgers, there has to be a large mug of creamed coffee. all these infront of my fave tv series---hays…like bree van de kamp…just perfect!

moving on, these are ones i have already watched. there is desperate housewives (the secrets of wisteria lane intrigued me, especially the obsessive-compulsive bree van de kamp), 24 (joy didn’t like to watch this one while steph and her family go gaga with it. i love the concept that a whole season happened in just a day), grey’s anatomy (this inspired me to be a surgeon…but reality hurts..hehe! i love sandra oh’s character), house, md (like grey’s anatomy, it stimulated my mind being a medical practitioner. i just love hugh laurie’s acting. he won an emmy for best actor) the o.c. (no comment. i’m just glad marissa died. haha), alias (this is the first series i finished. too bad it didn’t go as far as five seasons. this made me love jennifer garner!), prison break (this one’s recent. one of my favorites but sadly didn’t make my top 3. my bestfriend is head-over-heels with wentworth miller. dream on! haha! her ex love this too. peace tayo, hales!)

it was really strange when no one in school seemed to know what i was talking about when telling them (with full of energy and sound effects) about these tv series. perhaps they had no cable or dvd player i thought (haha! joke!). joy and i shared the same sentiment and we had this very proud feeling that we were the pioneers of american tv series at school. because of constant ramblings about this addiction of ours, our friends started to buy the dvd’s as well…and it spread through out the campus…(haha!)

enough blabbering. here are the ones that topped my charts:

TOP THREE.
CHUCK
. who would want to miss sarah’s pretty face and her ass-kicking moves, charles ‘chuck’ bartowsky’s geeky humor, morgan’s fixated character, casey’s growls, the power mongering tang aka lord sauron, and the funny antics of the nerd herd at buy more? (haha!). anyway, i don’t want to give anything more away in case you’re interested in watching this one. i, myself hate spoilers, although i’m a big, walking spoiler! (joy didn’t fail to let me now). well, it’s quite obvious why i like this one. it’s a comedy-action series. every episode never failed to make me laugh my heart out! (haha!) anyone needs to laugh or smile once in a while in this miserable world, right? i just love the geeky humor of it…snap!



TOP TWO
LOST. who would have thought this one has been hailed the ‘worst tv series’ ever, says one magazine ( i forgot the name), but shame on them because of all the tv series i mentioned so far, this one and house, md, are the only ones who got a decent primetime emmy nomination this year--best drama series. (haha!). but well, i can’t blame them for saying so. the first two seasons formed a lot of questions that were not answered. i too, got frustrated, but it seemed to me that the more i got frustrated, the more curious i got, then, the more i got interested and the more i craved for answers. that i think made it more worth watching. i love mysteries, and i enjoy formulating hypotheses and pondering probabilities of what would happen next, of the reason for a certain phenomena, of what happened between gaps of a timeline. each episode were divided in two parts, the present and a flashback (usually the life of a featured character before the ‘incident’) but in latest season the writers took a daring move. instead of flashbacks, they changed them into flash forwards, which i think formulated more questions! (it broke the timeline and you have to fill the gaps, of course).

imagine yourself on plane that crashed on a seemingly deserted tropical island, with polar bears (aren’t they supposed to be in the south pole? fyi: no polar bears in the north pole), old underground research labs, ‘monsters’, and there’s no way of being rescued. no way out of the island. because one can find the island. you’re lost. you’re stuck with all the mysteries and the looming hostilities. the island is so mysterious i almost wish it is real. anyway, summarizing everything, i love this one because, i think, it’s the most mentally and intellectually-stimulating watch of all.


TOP ONE.
ONE TREE HILL. surprise! surprise! (if you fail to notice a tree and the logo on my header, lucas scott’s quote on my top sidebar, and the song on my music box. hehe). this is the first tv series i first got addicted to with my bestfriend (yep! the one i told you earlier). this is mainly about a circle of friends attending high school, in tree hill, north carolina. each and one of the characters have different personalities, hence, they have different stories to tell, different perspective on life, love, everything. one thing i love about one tree hill is how the characters are well rounded. the characters are so dynamic and you can bear witness on how they progress or deteriorate as the story goes. i have a personal connection with this tv series. i could relate to what the characters are going through—their fears, their aspirations, triumphs, hesitation, confusion, happiness, sadness…and every episode never failed to inspire me. every story teaches a lesson to learn…every lesson becomes a challenge…and the challenge is how to apply these lessons to my everyday life…lessons about life, love, and everything that a person goes through in a lifetime. of all the characters, i could relate with lucas scott…he’s one confused guy. lost. afraid. he doesn’t know the person he wanted to be. he asks a lot of questions and learns the answers the hard way. but i know he’ll find his way in the end. the immensity of his love scares him, so as the people that tries to love him back.

this series also teach how friendship and family are very important in molding one’s personality. well, this premise is so clichéd already, but people are very forgetful most of the time—looking for things they already have on their pockets, aiming for something that they thought could make them happy but not. people need to remember. people need to be reminded. not necessarily the hard way. it could just be a pirated dvd away…

that’s my top 3 tv series…please…let me know yours. ciao!

20 comments:

ka bute said...

one tree hill rocks! =)

"At this moment, there are six billion, four hundred seventy million, eight hundred eighteen thousand, six hundred seventy one people in the world.
Some...are running scared.
Some...are coming home.
Some tell lies to make it through the day.
Others are just not facing the truth.
Some are evil men, at war with good.
And some are good, struggling with evil.
Six billion people in the world, six billion souls.
And sometimes...All you need is ONE."

- Lucas Scott/ Peyton Sawyer - One Tree Hill -

lucas said...

wow...at last one tree hill fan lost in my blogsite..hehe!!! at dahil dyan, im adding you up in my blogroll!! hehe! thanks for visiting!!

Abou said...

sayang wala akong cable tv. makikinood na lang ako sa kapitbahay ng mga top shows mo he he.


siyanga pala, ni link na din po kita. ang ganda naman ng blogroll mo.

naalala ko. ung ke wentworth miller na series, na adik ako dun. ung one tree hill parang OC lang kasi ung trailer, ewan ko.

FerBert said...

one tree hill ang kauna unahang american series na pinanood ko.. bwahahaha

www.kokeymonster.com

lucas said...

to abou:bumili ka ng pirated DVD's haha! try mu panuorin yung mga nirecommend kong series baka para maadik ka rin..hehe! salamat. ang daming magandang blog s net.yan pa lang so far..at kasama ka..hehe..parang pareho lang pero ang loser ng OC! haha!thanks!

to tanginang alien: wow..the author of the infamous kokey monster in my blogspot.cool. i never expected na napanuod mo na tong OTH..hehe! keep writing..thanks!

Anonymous said...

--

aylab chuck

hakhak

soper peborit ku yan

hakhak

elyens

XXXxx

odin hood said...

haay sobra dami! cant figure out how to rank them all!

i also love chuck! my bro just got a dvd of it kanina... sobrang funny ni chuck n d rest of the herd and im a sucker for spy films n series

KRIS JASPER said...

Ive seen some of them.. but not really followed them

except for SUPERNATURAL.

jericho said...

TV series addict ka rin pala ... i haven't seen Chuck ... I got lost with Lost (still looking for copies so i can resume watching this one) ... but i like the rest you mentioned. i watch OTH dahil kay Lucas.. hehe

lucas said...

to odin: adik ka din pala! haha! ang galing ng chuck noh? ewan ko ba?..mabenta sakin ang mga geeky humor...hehe! love spy movies? try watching alias! ang lupit!!!

to kris jasper van dyke: hays..ang tagal ng release ng susunod na mga season...i lost the motivation to watch yung iba...hehe...maganda nga siguro yang supernatural...s fantasy series--charmed lang ang natutukan ko.hehe

to jericho: ang lupit na ng lost!!! you should watch it again--maybe we could find our way, hopefully..hehe! i love the character of lucas scott..nakakarelate kasi ako...

everyone...thanks for posting your comments..thanks alot!!

gillboard said...

oooh tv series... mine are reaper, chuck, grey's anatomy, private practice, how i met your mother and dr who...

di obvious na wala akong ginagawa sa buhay... hay

kalansaycollector said...

ang kinabaliwan kong us series ay ugly betty, gossip girl at heroes! winnuuurrr! kaso letse may cable nga ako kaso namimiss ko naman ang mga nasabing shows sa tv eh wala akong dvd so hindi ko na nasubaybayan gossip girl at heroes season 2 at ugly betty season 2. leche.

okey din ghost whisperer for me.

Chyng said...

3. Sex and the City

2. Desperate Housewives

1. Queer as Folk! (the best!)

lucas said...

to gillboard: di ko pa napapanood yung dr. who, private practice, at reaper...run out of money to buy dvd's! haha! pareho tayong walang magawa sa buhay..hopefully may turnaround na mangyari! thanks alot for posting your comment...

to kalansaycollector: thanks for your comment. im intrqued with gossip girl though..parang may aura xa ng 'cruel intentions' hehe! ako nga din ang daming gustong panoorin kaya lang nkahang halos lahat...same reason. hehe! i love j. love hewitt...thanks!

to chyng: desperate housewives, and sex and the city are my guilty pleasures...kaya lang hindi ko na natuloy panonood..hehe.thanks!

i have to watch that queer as folk--ngayon ko lang narinig eh..hehe..thanks!

Chyng said...

clue: sa mga gay clubs ka lang makakabili ng series ng QAF! (--,)

i'll buy one tree hill, wala na kasi ako pinapanood ngayon.

Clare Marshall said...

Cool beans!...I'm a sucker for american tv series, too!..Wohoo!..I like lost, desperate housewives, 24, Alias..etc. (many to mention..lol)OMG!...Halos lahat ng mapanuod ko na series like ko...at halos lahat din napanuod ko..kaya lahat d ko nasusubaybayan kasi tambak na cla!..wahaha...Better buy dvds na nga lng...para marathon...hahaha..whenever I get the chance na mag watch lng ng series or movies sa bahay...all day talaga...bwahaha...kung wala kayo cable pwede kayo manuod ng cool na american tv series sa studio23 or channel 23 yata...ngpapalabas cla dun ng mga series na yun...astig db?..minsan dun ko na din napapanuod mga encore run..lol!

Anonymous said...

first season lang ng Lost ang napanood ko. Hihi.

Hindi pa ko nanonood ng Chuck at One Tree Hill. Current addiction ko ang Damages at Prison Break. :)

lucas said...

to yoshke: waaaaa! dapat ituloy mo..ang lupit ng season ender ng season 4! wee! panoorin mo OTH saya! nacucurious nga ako dyan sa damages..nominated din un sa emmys ksma ng lost...i love prison break! whew! can't wait for the next season...thanks!

Anonymous said...

sabe nga nila, sobrang ganda ng OTH. Yung Lost, nabore na ko eh. haha. kakatapos ko lang ng Prison Break kagabe.

Myk2ts said...

whew, i think i need to grab some popcorns and start watching OTH... i like the musical scoring... nice.

i love CM too, medyo tricky kasi yung analysis... i wish i can be a profiler din... astig.

supernatural is one of the best, syempre sila lola prue,piper at phoebe na ren. csi lasvegas din. ugly betty, desperate housewives at chuck. na medyo sinisimulan ko pa lang.

naloloka nga si mama dahil 2 days marathon ako nun sa cm. aba, magagalit daw ang meralco! :)

hay.. i miss my DVD player soooo much!