Stories Plus

I am a creature of habit and a total nerd. With autism and no social life, binging shows over and over again after falling in love with the plot and characters is just my way of life!

As a kid (early 2000’s), my brother and I grew up watching Teen Titans, TMNT, and W.I.T.C.H. Saturday mornings, cartoons played on 4KidsTV which my brother and I loved! I have very distant memories of these shoes from back then, but I have them all on DVD or demand now. My brother and I are constantly trying to rewatch Teen Titans and WITCH on DVD while I obsess with TMNT on demand.

Teen Titans is a very popular show that aired on Cartoon Network with only five seasons. Back when it was airing, I had my dad tape the episodes to watch over and over with my siblings. We only had 10 episodes at a time since my parents preferred to tape other shows, and I watched them almost nonstop. We were obsessed. Years later, while reminiscing, I decided to buy the full DVD collection and finally watch the whole show in order. By then, I had already seen every episode multiple times. My brother and I still like to binge the show when we’re together.

W.I.T.C.H. I only vaguely remember watching as a kid. The show originally aired in France on Jetix and came to the US on ABC kids and Toon Disney. The series only holds two seasons but was left open for a third. I watched the full series on YouTube before my parents got me the DVD collection for my birthday. I later discovered the series is based on an Italian comic book series and ended buying the entire collection on Kindle. The show follows five girls who obtain magic abilities based around the natural elements which they use to protect the universe from threats against the balance of power. The five girls’ names are Will, Irma, Teranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin. The first letter of their names spell out WITCH. The show and the comics are vastly different but each are amazing in their own way. There are over 150 books in the comic series which I am still reading!

TMNT is my comfort show. My dad grew up on the 80s version of the show, I grew up on the 2003 version. This version aired on Nickelodeon and I found available on Paramount Plus. After reading the comics, I found the 2003 version loosely follows the original story-line developed by Eastman and Laird in the 80s. The comic series is a little harder to follow since there are mini-comics following individual characters which affect the main plot but aren’t in the main series. I intend to try reading the series again and ensuring to follow the mini comics as well as the main series to get the full story when I have the time. Personally, I only really like the first four seasons, but there are seven in all. In season 5, which is the shortest season, a few of the voice actors changed and the story line is a little different than the rest of the series. Season 6, the entire art form changed and the characters are no longer the same. They are a lot less serious and the show feels more like exploring the world and focusing on a single goal rather than the adventures of a group of brothers acting in solidarity and protecting their home and loved ones. A lot more people seem to enjoy the characters being more humorous than serious which is sometimes a good mix. I prefer stories with a good mix like Avatar the Last Airbender. While TMNT doesn’t have quite the same amazing humor as ATLA, I very much enjoy the balanced mix and general plot and story-telling. The artists did a wonderful job of sticking to the original comics while adding their own twists to make it more kid friendly and make it more relevant to the era it was aired!

Avatar the Last Airbender I watched with my family multiple times. Everyone in my family is hooked on it. My dad watched it every week when it aired on Nickelodeon while we were too young to understand and properly appreciate it. Back then, I only caught bits and pieces out of order, so in my mind, they were going to the North Pole to visit Santa. As I grew older, I began to appreciate the complexities the show had to offer! It’s very well balanced with good humor while tackling the struggles of a 100-year long war and how it affects everyone, including the enemy! There have been a few different live-action adaptations, but none of them truly capture the rich culture and history the team created in the original series. While I haven’t actually watched the sequel series, Legends of Korra, I don’t think it can compare to the original. It perfectly balances humor and heartache allowing even the most devastating episodes to feel lighter at the end. The show is great for all ages which is why it’s one of those amazing shows to grow up on!

As I grew older, I started falling in love with my own shows like Burn Notice, NCIS, Leverage, Gilmore Girls, and Friends! All of which I’ve seen more times than I can remember. I started sharing a few of these with my roommates! I binged NCIS when I was in highschool on Netflix before season 12 or 13 came out. I had kept up with it for a while on air, but after Tony left it became a completely different show that I can’t find as much joy in. Once I grew up a bit, it started to feel more like a cringy drama. I still like the show overall, but not as much as I did when I was a teenager. Burn Notice is an amazing show about a burned spy trying to get back in the game! It’s a good mix of action, drama, and comedy. Micheal Weston is really good at his job but sucks at communicating with other people unless it’s about the job. Leverage is a little similar to Burn Notice. The main character is a former insurance investigator hired to work with a team of thieves. Eventually, he works with this team to work outside of the law to help people! Gilmore Girls and Friends are both drama comedies. I am currently showing my roommates Gilmore Girls and they are loving it! I do hope they revamp the show! It follows a mother and her daughter as they go through life and try to achieve their dreams.

I can’t remember all of the movies I’ve seen more than five times, but most of them are Disney or TMNT. I watched the first 90’s TMNT movie a lot when I was a kid. I also binged the Bayverse TMNT movie after it came out! I just enjoy all things TMNT so I’ll watch a new series or movie a few times when I first get into it. The Rise series is close but I’ve only gone through it three times so far. I also tend to fall back on a lot of Disney movies like Treasure Planet, Wall-E, Tangled, Coco, Encanto, etc. When we were kids, my parents would resort to Lion King on VHS during road trips (our mini van was fancy and had it’s own VHS player). My dad would get tired of listening to the same movie so he’d come up with a new ending of some sort as a joke.

I’m sure there are a lot more series or movies that I’ve binged over and over, but I don’t want to get into everything. I love going back to my favorites and just enjoying something familiar while I work or game. It’s just comforting to know some things won’t change.