My partner sucked out most of my joy for this series

My partner sucked out most of my joy for this series and I’m struggling to regain it.

I found the Owl House in late January, after an injury that left me bed-/sofa-bound for two weeks. (I can’t recommend my strategy of never consuming certain media even though you’re interested in it enough. I had been saving this series for two years so I would have something fresh if needed. I still think it saved me from insanity.)

I fell in love. We’re both teachers, so I loved all the positive vibes this sends to children and teenagers (and adults, too, obviously), many of which I’d love to see in my pupils. But, being an adult, I naturally gravitated more towards the adults of the show and even though I love them all, by the second half of season 2, Eda was my absolute favourite.

I was pretty sure my partner would like the series, too, given it’s a positive model for kids, the sheer whimsical insanity it often shows and the darker themes, especially in season 2 onwards. Basically, I told him “this is really important to me and I’d love it if you watched it with me”. There was no threat or force. I offered to watch something he’s invested in return. His response was along the line “no need, if it’s that important to you, we’ll watch it together”.

Now, I want to preface the rest of the experience with the fact that I offered multiple times to stop watching it together once I realised he really wouldn’t get into it. But he wouldn’t let me stop. As soon as we had time, sitting on the couch together, he’d put it on and we would watch two episodes. He fell asleep, read on his phone and was continually distracted, sometimes asking me who a certain member of the main cast was again.

He didn’t care for the first episode. I thought once the plot starts to thicken it would get better, so we skipped the second and kept going. I fully expected him to only find Amity interesting and skip over Gus and Willow, but midway through it, he forgot who the name ‘Luz’ belonged to. The Intruder got a comment along the lines of “a bit dark for a kids’ show”. Covention, which I loved for its worldbuilding, went completely over his head and he didn’t retain any of the political knowledge. Almost nothing for the rest of the first season (we skipped Once Upon a Swap) apart from a light comment that Eda seems to be winning during her fight against Lilith. The reveal that it was her who cursed Eda? Not even worth mentioning.

We drudged into the second season, me with very little confidence and him super happy for doing me this favour. No interest in the golden guard, one comment during the second episode “These parents are endangering their own daughter.” Echoes of the past? Gwendolyn? No reaction. (Even though his mum would be exactly like Gwen if she had a chronically ill child and he doesn’t like how overbearing she is.) His slightly positive reaction to Flapjack’s and the other palismen’s cuteness was immediately overshadowed by his feeling that Hunter’s name is too on the nose (English isn’t his mother tongue and apart from a few flowers I don’t think we have noun names). During the next episode, he forgot who Raine was multiple times. He did like the nightmare and the confession part of Knock, Knock, Knockin’ on Hooty’s Door. The next few episodes he commented once on the fact that he hadn’t expected the echo mouse to be actually important. The Coven Day parade was overshadowed by the fact he had completely forgotten Raine and Kikimora. Elsewhere and Elsewhen? It only showed him that there’d been another guy like Belos before, uninteresting for the plot. The next two were a whammy, because he only remembered his dislike for Hunter and not any of the other characters. Any Sport in a Storm ends with Darius, who is also seen in the beginning of Reaching Out. In the like 5 minutes between, he’d forgotten about him again. Them’s the Breaks, Kids was confusing because who the hell is Raine?! Hollow Mind got a slight approval because it was dark. Wait, why did Belos tattoo the witches? I was happy for the engagement, so I explained. Approval, then silence. Edge of the World didn’t prove sufficiently that King is a Titan, so apparently, it’s a red herring. During O Titan, he fell asleep multiple times, especially during the Luz&Eda and King&Steve moments, which really annoyed me because it’s great character building. So, I finally put my foot down and changed the program. Once he woke up, he apologised and put it back on before the parts he slept through. He was extremely suspicious of Raine because from his perspective, this never-before-seen person shows up and heavens forbid they try to bond with their girlfriend’s kids and try to calm her down after a super scary situation. He fell asleep again during most of the planning and then woke up to complain that they added so many new characters for the finale. That’s where I got up and walked away.

He still tries to get me to watch it to the end, but it just makes me feel bitter. If he talked the series down, I’d get it. You don’t have to like everything. But only watching it with one eye while still claiming to be doing a favour to me soured the whole experience.

Now, I’m a bit struggling with appreciating it. It’s not like I watched the show too many times, but I liked lurking on this subreddit with my main account, admiring all the great content. How do I get the whimsical joy back?