The OCR (Obsessive Compulsive Reviewer)

There is a common misconception that a person who has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is, by default, organized. 

This is not true – therefore, the misconception bit.  Having been clinically diagnosed with OCD at the age of 8 in 1999, I am living proof that obsessive and organized are indeed not one and the same.  Throw me in the middle of a card game with uneven decks, or hand me a bowl of Skittles (taste the rainbow!) with six reds and two greens – not exactly a rainbow, but still – and I’ll have a field day.  Lock me in a messy room, and I’ll find something with which to procrastinate for days, even going so far as to pointedly ignore the mess when it’s right under my nose – just ask my husband!

My aversion to organization aside, it seems that my OCD tendencies are selective.  In most areas, I’m trying to work on these issues, because simply doing things because you feel compelled to do them is no fun at all.  I’m sick of even numbers and doing things in threes.  For the most part, I’m ready to shed this maddening behavior, and – never fear! – I’m putting real effort into breaking the cycle.

But there are a few areas where I let my OCD thrive.  For example, video games.  If there is a completion percentage for a game, you had better believe I’m going to do everything, find every collectable, do every extra, until I reach 100%.  Another, even more prominent area, are lists.

I love making lists.

Ask my poor sister, who, when we were younger, wanted me to play Barbies with her.  But – and this is not an exaggeration – it would take longer for me to prepare all my materials to play than it would to actually play!  I’d make lists of names, ages, character traits, careers, etc.  I’d randomly select variables to use for every member of the family.  Only when all my lists were completed and all data had been compiled, would I allow us to play.  

Incidentally, my sister still loves telling that story to this day, with equal parts exasperation and endearment in her voice.

All this has a point – I promise.  And it’s this: I don’t know all the science behind Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.  I don’t know if it actually helps to funnel some OCD tendencies into other, more manageable, or at least more fun, areas of your life.  I don’t know if I’m helping myself overcome my OCD by allowing it to roam unhindered in these few loosely corralled areas of my life.  But, as long as I’m giving it free reign in my writing – of lists or otherwise – then I might as well accomplish something with it, right?

I’ve been wanting to start a review blog for a while now, but I’ve never been sure just how to approach it because I wanted to make sure I organized everything perfectly, and I knew I’d need a system for choosing what to review and how to categorize entries.  It wasn’t until I came across The MacGyver Project, a review blog on Blogger by Nicholas Sweedo, that I found myself inspired enough to start.  I love his organizational system – he’s got all 139 MacGyver episodes, plus the two TV movies, in order, filling up different creative categories, and he started reviewing at his least favorite and worked his way up to his favorite.  And it’s not only well-organized, well-written, and fun to read, but it’s also aesthetically pleasing, the way that each review is similarly structured and organized.  I highly recommend checking out his blog – he’s finished MacGyver and is now reviewing Quantum Leap.  Click the link – it’s great.

I’m taking a very similar approach to my own reviews, because I love his organization so darn much.  I’ve also decided to start out reviewing MacGyver – not only because it’s one of my favorite shows at the moment, and I got the complete series boxed set for Christmas, but also because I’ve noticed an interesting trend in blogs about the show.  Again, I love Nicholas Sweedo’s blog, but what I’ve noticed, at least in most of the blogs about MacGyver I’ve found (and I know, it’s a big internet, so I’ve only discovered a few) is that a lot of reviewers are male, and grew up with the show.  I definitely break that mold, as a 25-year-old woman who was still a toddler during the show’s last throes and who just discovered it last year.  Because of this, I think I can offer a differing and unique perspective on the show, because although The MacGyver Project is great, I find that my episode rankings are often vastly different than Nicholas Sweedo’s, although he and another MacGyver blogger, both of relatively similar experiences with the show, found high correlation between their respective episode ratings. 

So, in short, I’m going to funnel my obsessive compulsive tendencies into this blog, using my unique experience as a young woman completely immersed in the MacGyver fandom, to create my own ranked list of MacGyver episodes and reviews.  Since I combined two-parters into one entry, there are 137 reviews to write for Mac alone, but I plan to, whenever I do finish with MacGyver, to branch off into reviews of other shows as well, including The Dick Van Dyke Show, Stargate: SG1, Doctor Who, Psych, Merlin, Once Upon a Time, and Robin Hood, in no particular order.

I will try to post at least once a week, and I would also love to dialogue with any readers in the comments – whether you agree, disagree, or just want to add your two cents.

And now, citizens, it is time for me to use my powers of compulsion to work, as I don my mask and take up my alter ego as the OCR:

The Obsessive Compulsive Reviewer.