Last year it seems like we did a lot more movie panels, but this year we ended up in more TV show panels. Every year, I can only pick so many new shows to watch and then some inevitably slip through the cracks as the season goes by. One of the shows that Andrew and I are totally obsessed with is the Big Bang Theory. My sister got us into it and in turn we got others into it and it cascaded from there. There are still a bunch of our geek friends who don’t watch this show which is a shame. One day they’ll find out what they’re missing.

We didn’t go to the Big Bang panel last year and decided to go to another room that had more things in it that we were interested in. This year, we decided to go to the Big Bang panel and it was totally worth it although we kind of messed up the rest of the day by leaving the room and then tried to get back in later rather than stay in there the whole day. We were totally greedy that day and it didn’t turn out well. It was nice that we were able to sleep in and get into ballroom 20 (the second largest room) when we got in line right before 8 am, but our attempt to leave and come back meant that we missed the Shield panel (one of my must-see panels) by a mere 15 people. Sitting right outside hearing the crowd cheering was painful. Our aversion to the Bones panel in between totally messed up our judgement. (Last year, the Bones panel was the worst panel we went to and we didn’t want to sit through it again.) Alas, the rest of the day went well because this was the day we saw Almost Human and my beloved Joss Whedon. Andrew puts the Big Bang Theory panel as one of the best we’ve ever gone to. I wouldn’t list it that high, but it was definitely fun. The panel consisted of the writers and Melissa Rauch who plays Bernadette as the surprise moderator. There were no actors scheduled to appear so she was a fun surprise, but it was an even better surprise when Johnny Galecki who plays Leonard showed up during the audience Q&A in full Bounty Hunter Princess Leia costume. If you’re a Star Wars geek, you would’ve loved it. The video of Leonard crashing the panel is above. Let’s just say Andrew and I were full of glee when he revealed himself.

Sherlock panel

Another show that we are totally obsessed over is BBC’s Sherlock and we totally planed our day around this panel. It’s a different kind of show because the two seasons out there only have three episodes each and were released with two years between them, but I am digging their new take on how a TV series can be done. Each episode is about one and a half hours each which makes each one almost like a complete movie. Their third season will start soon and we can’t wait. They showed a clip of an upcoming episode which was absolutely hilarious and totally made the panel worth it. Although there were no actors at this panel (other than Mark Gatiss who plays Sherlock’s brother and is also the co-creator), Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman sent a welcome message to the audience which was amazing. View the video at EW’s website HERE.

The Vampire Diaries panel

Arrow panel

We were able to walk into ballroom 20 on Saturday evening which was a nice change to the craziness of our Shield debacle the day before. We caught the last part of the panel for the Vampire Diaries in preparation for the Arrow panel. We don’t watch Vampire diaries, but I thought the actors were really nice and had intelligent things to say. Arrow was a pilot we watched last year that we tried to keep up on, but for whatever reason, we totally deprioritized it and we missed the last half of the season. It was still on our DVR though because I had the best of intentions of finishing it up when we had extra time. Andrew thought it was funny that we were going to the panel because we weren’t caught up, but he quickly changed his mind when he saw the season two reel. He was so excited which doesn’t happen a whole lot when it comes to stuff like that. This panel totally reignited his desire to watch the rest of the season and we went home to finish off the rest of the episodes in record time. Surprisingly, the panel had a ton of guys in the audience which I took to mean that they did a great adaptation of the comic. Check out the clip below and get caught up because season one was really good. The surprise appearance of John Barrowman to the panel caused a girl behind us to completely freak out and she screamed at the top of her lungs for him periodically throughout the panel. It was kind of annoying, but now that I’ve seen him in Doctor Who (my current obsession) as Captain Jack, I can totally understand.

Sitting in the same room all day means that you’re likely to sit through panels that don’t align with your interests, but you sit through them all the same because you want to see what is coming up afterward. Last year we had to suffer through Bones (Sorry, but David Boreanez seemed like such a jerk even though I loved him as Angel) and this year we had to suffer through X-Files and the Following. Andrew’s seen some X-Files, but otherwise, neither of us cared about either panel. Even though we did see celebs like David Duchovny, Kevin Bacon, and Shawn Ashmore (I’ve loved him since his Animorphs and In a Heartbeat days), we found X-Files to be really boring and disappointing as it was the 20th anniversary and no one there seemed to remember anything or want to talk about anything. No disrespect to the Following because we just aren’t into that type of show, but the first clip they showed was extremely gory and disturbing and we had no idea what they were talking about the whole time. I took the opportunity to take a short nap during this time.

Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny of the X-Files

The Following cast

We also happened to sit through the panel for Psych. I sat next to Rowley during the this panel and he’s a total fan of the show while I haven’t ever seen it. Even though I knew nothing about the show, the panel was still incredibly entertaining. It was destined to be a great panel when the surprise moderator turned out to be Cary Elwes. Of course I went bonkers when he came out and he was so energetic that it was hard to not be interested. Sitting next to Rowley helped as his enjoyment of the panel was contagious too. The whole cast was really funny and we all got Psych: the Musical t-shirts as a freebie. Also, Maggie Lawson is in the cast. Does anyone remember her and Justin Timberlake in the Disney movie Model Behavior? Cheesy but adorable.

Cary Elwes revving up the audience

The cast of Psych

We saw Kristin Kreuk last year at the Women Kick Ass panel and we really loved her. She didn’t fight to speak, but when she did she was really intelligent and such an inspiration for strong female characters. This year, we were able to see the Beauty and the Beast panel and I totally want to start watching this show now. Kristin Kreuk was as awesome as I remembered her and it was cool seeing Jay Ryan who was in a little known show that I loved called Being Eve. I wanted to attend the panel last year but didn’t. When the series aired, I watched the pilot and recorded a chunk of the episodes before finally deleting them off my DVR due to lack of memory. The panel was still very interesting considering the fact that I had no idea what they were talking about.

Beauty and the Beast panel

As I’m going through all the different panels we went to, TV shows were definitely the majority of what we attended. I’ve always been a huge TV person and now I’m actually documenting how much of a TV nerd I am.