Rerun for the First Time

.As I've mentioned before, I'm spending a good portion of my summer trying to catch up on a few TV series that I've somehow missed out on over the past few years. The two I'm working on currently? LOST and The Office. I'm in the middle of the third seasons for both shows, and really looking forward to finally being caught up on them.

The hardest part about catching up on the shows I've missed? At first I would have thought the price of renting past episodes or even buying the DVD sets. As it turns out, most TV shows are distributed online for free (most legally even!). Now I'll admit, I used a Japanese site to illegally view the first two seasons of The Office, but only after finding out that they were not available for purchase via iTunes. All episodes of LOST on online (though I've ended up borrowing the DVDs from friends instead so that I might enjoy the episodes on a TV rather than my laptop) and TBS is rerunning The Office every Tuesday so I can catch up there for free. So where is the difficulty in my game of catch-up?

Spoilers. Both LOST and The Office have already concluded their fourth seasons, and being two of the most buzzed about shows on television, spoilers end up in conversation and on the internet all the time. Now I know a sitcom like The Office isn't something most people would consider being a show that could suffer from spoilers, but I still like to avoid them at all costs. From this point out you can assume there are spoilers for both LOST and The Office throughout the rest of the post. I'll be talking about a few of the things spoiled for me, but I'm not sure if they occur late in the third seasons of the shows or within the fourth seasons, so if you have a queasy stomach for spoilers like I do, you may want to leave now.

So The Office spoilers. I had no real interest in watching The Office until I saw a part of an episode in the fourth seasons. This showed Michael with Jan as an "item". Now this is all well and good until I start watching the series from the beginning and the idea of Jan and Michael getting together is completely ludicrous. I took that hit myself and can only blame myself for watching the series out of order. But I was not pleased when a friend blurted out that Pam and Jim end up getting together. Okay. I get it. I saw it coming. I mean, I knew it would happen. But watching them figure out their "meant to be" love really was meant to be is half the fun. I'm just thankful I found this out after I had seen the season two finale in which the two finally kiss. I almost cried.

As for LOST, I have had SOOO many things spoiled for me one way or another. Luckily, this show has more twists in it than an Adam Shankman routine (that's for all of you SYTYCD and Hairspray buffs). Off the top of my head things that I found out before they happened included: Michael's return from The Others, Sun's "secret", Boone's death, and now something about TIME TRAVEL. Or change in time. Or something about the future. I clicked away before I could learn too much.

Most of these came up from talking to people about LOST, reading episodes "teasers" for upcoming episodes, or merely surfing the internet. Now I know I can't blame anybody but myself for this kind of thing. If I didn't want to know these spoilers, I'd stay away from all LOST related information. Curiosity killed the cat and all that jazz. But I guess I just can't help but look around the internet for some information regarding the things that take up my time. Part of the reason I'm watching these shows (besides how good they are) is to feel like a part of their community, but when you start FOUR seasons behind, it takes awhile to catch up. It's hard to watch over 50 episodes of something without thinking that you know a thing or two about it.

I can't help that when somebody brings up LOST I want to exclaim with my newfound knowledge, "I know about that! I watch that! I want to bone Kate/Freckles!" rather than just shaking my head and saying, "Never seen it. Do you watch Desperate Housewives?" All I want is for the LOST fanclub to send me like a hat or keychain or something out of recognition for all these reruns I've been watching.

But then as soon as you do a Google search or open an Entertainment Weekly (which I've avoided the past two weeks due to the recent LOST season four finale) you realize that there's still a lot of ground you have to cover before you can call yourself a true fan.

Well look out LOST, The Office, Gossip Girl, and Big Love fans because if all turns out like it should I'll be joining your ranks before September! Just try not to spoil all my fun along the way and I'll promise to try my best to not ruin it for myself. And if I spoiled anything for you in this post- SERVES YOU RIGHT FOR LOOKING AT A BLOG WITH LOST AND THE OFFICE SPOILERS. But do know, I feel your pain.