Confession time: I was that kid who showed up in eighth grade like she had just moved to the area, but in fact was just homeschooled up until that point and didn’t get out much and wasn’t really allowed to watch TV at home. For all I had contact with my age group, I might as well have grown up in Greenland . I was exactly as socially awkward as you would guess from that description, so this continued through high school and well into my college years, when I finally got an internet connection. The end result is that I tend to come at popular culture from the outside, particularly when nostalgia is involved. I’ve done a lot of catch-up work, mostly on Wikipedia, YouTube and TV Tropes, but there’s still a gap of experience that will always be there. Luckily, that same gap has provided me the opportunity to make some interesting observations. For example ...
It’s easier to jump into a franchise that has evolved over time. Case in point: Transformers. Now, I’m a huge fan of Transformers: Prime. It’s an awesome show, and I look forward to new episodes with unadulterated glee. However, the fact that it’s a Transformers show means little to me. I was barely aware of the franchise until the first live action movie, which I interpreted as “AWESOME PLANES and TANKS and GIANT SPACE ROBOTS, and also some kids for some reason, but mostly PLANES and ROBOTS”. And then the sequel sucked eggs on toast, so my interest meter fell back close to zero. I wouldn’t have paid any attention to Prime at all, except that I happened to catch the episode “Predatory” one night and was instantly hooked. Granted, the movies provided a little introduction to the main characters (really just Optimus and Megtron), but without that, Prime would still have pulled me in. I know from the interwebs that the show references a lot of franchise mythology, but again: That adds little to my enjoyment of the show. These characters aren’t awesome because I remember them fondly from my childhood; they’re awesome as characters in their own, surprisingly deep, story. The downside is that I can’t watch the G1 series without dissolving into a giggling mess at how silly it is. Which leads me to my next point ...
When I was a kid, GI Joe was something that could have paid my college tuition if my dad hadn’t made so free with the firecrackers. As with Transformers, I never watched the cartoons or played with the toys. My adult exposure consisted of the “Resolute” miniseries when it aired on Adult Swim, but only because I was unemployed at the time and was staying up late. However, the Renegades series caught my attention last year, and I quite enjoyed it while it lasted. It took an absurd premise (you know it is) and worked it into a believable (if not always plausible) story. It also developed the characters into something more than code names with cool outfits, which, to an outsider, is all they were. The live action movie, however, sent me once again into giggling spasms, because it did exactly the opposite. Don’t get me wrong, I had a lot of fun with those spasms, but still – there’s a difference between “here’s a reference, wink-wink” and “Hay guyz, check out these cool mini-subs! (Available wherever toys are sold.)” I’ll still catch the next movie when it comes out, because, hey – it <i>is</i> fun. But once again, without that bank of childhood experience to draw from, the fun can make it harder to get at the heart of the story. Of course, fun doesn’t have to mean they sacrifice quality ...
Which leads me to Batman. Third verse, same as the first: Hardly watched the cartoons as a kid; read a few of the comics in high school; caught up a little on Batman Beyond in college; then: Bam. Cue Christopher Nolan. Nolan proved that one can take a ridiculous premise and make a movie that <i>doesn’t</i> make the audience giggle so hard they pee a little and choke on their popcorn. And unlike the previous two examples, when I go back and review the animated series from the ‘90s, it holds up. Boy howdy, does it hold up. I will even go so far as to say it surpasses Nolan’s work (brilliant as that is). Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill defined Batman and the Joker, even summing up everything in one line: “Oh, what the heck – I’ll laugh anyway!” (Incidentally, this is one case where working backwards through a franchise has proved a disadvantage: I can’t watch the Tim Drake episodes of the ‘90s cartoon without getting seriously creeped out.) Because I’m playing catch-up, Conroy and Hamill may as well have done their work before I was born – even though they didn’t. It’s a weird feeling ...
Statistically speaking, I am outside the traditional target demographics when it comes to superhero cartoons and science-fiction TV. I’m 28 years old, and I’m female. But I always wanted to watch that stuff growing up and I never got to, so now that I have my own TV and make my own decisions, that’s what I choose. I watch Batman reruns when they’re on. I tune in to Generator Rex (if you’re not watching it, you should be) and Fringe religiously on Friday nights. I catch Phineas and Ferb (hilarious) on Saturday mornings. It’s like I’m making up for all the stuff I missed because my mom was so uptight about what we watched on TV (when we were allowed to watch at all) during my childhood. There was so much that looked so interesting ... and now that <i>I</i> own the remote, I dive in headfirst every chance I get. Ironically, this exploration still gets me in trouble: I actually had a conversation with my mother where she grilled me on the theological implications of the alternate universes in Fringe. (God would still be God over there, I told her. It didn’t do much to ease her mind.) And on top of that ...
I <i>still</i> feel like I don’t fit in with my age group. As an adult, I watch kids’ shows. As a kid, I didn’t watch much of anything. But even if my pop culture consumption mirrored the majority now, I would still have gaps in my experience. It’s a lot like coming back to school after being out sick for three weeks. You can read over the material and do the work and catch up on the gossip you missed, but you can’t recreate experiencing it for the first time at the same time as everyone else. There is no going back and filling in the gaps; the best you can do is paper over them and hope they don’t show too badly. I will always, at my core, be that socially awkward megadork from the cultural hinterlands. The best thing, I’ve found, is to accept that reality and just get on with things. I am what I am and I know what I know. The rest is all decoration anyway.
Besides, I’m finally getting the hang of this “pop culture as it happens” thing. After all, The Dark Knight Rises comes out in a few months. I’m super excited, because my money says Nolan kills him. I’ll probably even be a little disappointed if he doesn’t. But I’m going to the theatre opening weekend, like I always wanted to do. I will be with the curve for once, instead of behind it. Anybody wanna go halvsies on popcorn?
Joanna Lees is a cubicle monkey who goes home to a cat and a journalism degree. She is currently saving up to buy a bicycle. She blogs when she feels the urge at http://quartofsoup.blogspot.com.
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