Addicted to the Gilmore Girls

A few years ago, a co-worker whom I loaned dvds quite frequently kept telling me that I should watch "Gilmore Girls." He - yes, it was a he - said the show was great and he was always supposed to bring in the DVDs, which he owned, for me to borrow.

I never watched the show when it was on TV because it was already on for a few years before I realized it existed. It seems to be a trend with me, to wait until a series has gone off the air to then get the DVDs from Netflix and watch the entire series at once.

That's how I watched Sopranos, which was loaned to me by a cousin who had all the seasons. That's how I caught up on "The Office" when it was already a few seasons in. I watched it on DVD, and then watched the most recent season on NBC online so that I was eventually caught up and ready to start the new season. Ditto with "30 Rock."

I did the same thing with "Criminal Minds" this year. My mom started taping random episodes of it when there wasn't much on TV. It was a mix of episodes from different, seasons, out of order. We finally decided to rent the series DVD by DVD from Netflix so that we could watch it from start to finish. It was a chance to get to see the relationships between the agents of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit grow. Plus we didn't have to wait months between the cliff hangers at the end of each season. The best part with "Criminal Minds" is we still have one more season to watch on DVD - last year will be released in September - and then we get to start with the latest season.

So now that we got caught up on "Criminal Minds," we decided to start watching "Gilmore Girls" and "Angel." The "Girls" we are getting from Netflix, and Angel we are watching on instant stream from Netflix. I have to say, though, my coworker was right. If I go a few days without watching an episode of the Gilmores, I feel a little bit of withdrawal. I love the quirkiness of the show and the sarcasm of mom Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel.) The pair grew on me quickly and I like the supporting cast, including appearances by actors who appeared in other shows later in their careers such as Milo Ventimiglia and Adam Brody.

The one bad thing about watching a series that has already ended is that once I get to the last disc of the last season, there is nothing left to see. For now, I've got a few more seasons to go.