Post #16: It's Grown On Me

-Ella Enchanted
-The Hangover
-The Office (Mom)

At first when I began writing this post, I could not think of anything to write about.  If I don't like a movie or TV show, I typically don't watch it again.  If I don't like a book, I typically don't read again.  But I have made some exceptions.

When I was in elementary school, I started reading Ella Enchanted, but I did not like it and gave up on it after just a few pages because it was too sad.  I was upset by the fact that her mother died, her father didn't care about her, and her stepmother and stepsisters treated her terribly, taking advantage of her forced obedience.  At that young age, I didn't like to hear about sad things because it made me really upset, but when I got a little older, sometime in middle school, I picked up the book again.  This time, I wasn't upset by and actually really enjoyed the plot line because I was more mature and was able to see past the obstacles that Ella faced and got to the ending, which of course ended happily ever after.  They did make a Disney movie out of it, after all.

In middle school, I first watched The Hangover with my family.  It is a comedy, and as I thoroughly enjoy comedies, I was excited to see it; however, I didn't find the humor in the movie to be particularly funny.  Everyone else--the rest of my family, my friends and neighbors, even people I rarely associate with in school--loved it, though that it was extremely funny and one of the more well-done comedies made recently, but I disagreed.  A lot of the movie is stupid, even crude humor, but I think most of the reason I didn't like it was because everyone else did, an I wanted to be different.  Kind of silly, I know.  But after watching it again just recently, I found myself laughing at the parts I didn't enjoy before, and at the stupidity of the characters and their actions.  It took a few years, but the movie really did grow on me.

In early high school, my cousins introduced me to "The Office," and my brother and I loved it.  However, my mom didn't--she thought that the jokes were stupid and the characters were rude, especially the protagonist, Michael.  She did end up buying the first season of the show for my brother and I as a holiday gift, because we really enjoyed watching it, but she, unlike my dad, refused to watch it with us.  One day, though, she sat down on the couch while the rest of the family was watching "The Office," and--whether it was a change of heart or the particular episode's plotline, we'll never know--she actually laughed aloud at some of Michael, Jim, and Dwight's jokes.  It seemed like the second time was really the charm for her.