Just a Fluke?

I have a question for all of you.



As far as I’m aware, many or most of you are fans of one or more of the following: Buffy, Angel, Stargate SG-1, Stargate: Atlantis, Heroes, Harry Potter, Firefly, Serenity, Supernatural, Smallville. Myself, with the exception of SG-1 which I’m still a little iffy about, I’m a fan of all of them.



These television shows, films and books have one thing in common, the Fantastic.



Fantasy, Sci-fi, Horror, Supernatural.



What I want to know is how much your preference for specific genres has to do with the fandoms you actively follow. Meaning, were you always into vampires before Buffy came along? Did you watch anything and everything involving a spaceship or an alien before watching Stargate?



Or has it happened the other way around? Has watching Spike go grr in a sexy black coat given you a desire for throats, puncture wounds and blood? Has watching poor Peter Petrelli finding his destiny made you into a closet comic coveter?



Or is your obsession for Angel and his dark, broody and sometimes annoying ways simply a one-off?



For me, it’s like this: I first saw Alien when I was barely five years old, I followed Freddy Krueger through each one of his shredding sprees, and I avidly watched that mean ol’ poltergeist pull Carol Anne into that television set over and over and over again. The original Buffy film was a favourite of mine, but when the series came out, I wasn’t interested. I wasn’t interested in Stargate: SG-1, and my Batman days were over before I even went to school. Apparently, I’d dropped my genres down a drain.



But it wasn’t the genres that I suddenly didn’t like, it was the thought of those genres in the form of a series. I didn’t believe it could be done properly until I trusted in Joss Whedon



Ordinary tales barely interest me now, not unless the writing/acting/script/premise/directing is absolutely stunning and highly original i.e House. I need the Fantastic. I think I always did.