I am not sure when it happened, the transformation from English teacher who likes smart action TV to nerd. People say you are a nerd when you like something unabashedly and a whole lot. I suspect it is a combination of Joss Whedon simply doing what he does—creating feminist TV and fun movies—and the social phenomenon of Netflix and bingewatching old and new TV shows. Suddenly I can immerse myself into something cool and pay really close attention to the details and catch the kinds of continuity elements that are obvious when you watch four episodes in an evening rather than over the course of four weeks. That leads to an admiration of the writers/actors/set designers, a kind of “I see what you did there” that otherwise would be unavailable to me. Then you add social media and discover that other people really love the same things that you really love, which then makes it even safer to really love it, a kind of reverse peer pressure.

So, yes, the Earth is going to hell in a handbasket, no question, but at least I have my Captain America.