After four long months of me rewatching Bob's Burgers over and over until it drove my roommate insane, she has started playing her Netflix binge of Buffy the Vampire Slayer aloud. While this may have started out as a revenge tactic in retaliation for my own down-spiral, in her defense her headphones are broken. Joke's on her, though, because now I am invested in this TV show. I have no idea what these characters look like, but I have to know what happens to them. So, here are the stages of investment in watching a show through someone else, as explained through our two shows.

Vague Interest

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As people who get excited a lot, my roommate and I often stop our shows and have to explain what's happening because we are experiencing so many emotions that we just have to tell each other the entire plot of the season or episode. This, at least for me, led to my vague interest in the show my roommate was watching.

Finally Putting a Face to their Name

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Specifically, with the character of Giles, I knew what he looked like because I knew right away who the actor was (same guy who plays Uther in Merlin ). What I wasn't expecting, however, was how young he looked. By the time I got around to seeing all of the character's faces, I was shocked because it was not what I had imagined. I've come to realize that watching shows through the audio and explanations is a lot like reading a book.

Crying Internally While They're Actually Crying.

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I knew I was invested in a weird way with this show when I started tearing up over listening to the episode where Buffy's mom died. (Whoops. Spoilers.)

My roommate was in need of the tissues and it wasn't until I heard her sniffling that I realized, I too, was sad over the death of a character I didn't even know.

Becoming invested in characters' relationships.

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When my roommate told me that Spike had realized he was in love with Buffy, I needed to know everything. I didn't have the patience to wait for my roommate to get to an episode where he told Buffy, so I googled the spoilers. I just needed to know what happened, without the details in between that listening and waiting would've given me.

Realizing that you don't have the attention span to actually watch a full episode.

Via: Pintrest

If it weren't for my lack of attention span when it comes to committing an hour to watching a show, I probably would've started Buffy by now. But my need for instant gratification and the comfort of re-watching a show outrank my need to watch new things. Maybe one day I'll get around to watching it, but for now I'm content living vicariously through my roommate