my much loved friend is giving me the ick!

I've only recently become aware of these 'special interests' being an ADD type thing. My teenager gets frequent hyperfixations with things, as, it seems, do I. Particularly now as I'm menopausal.
As a teen myself I'd have very intense and obsessive crushes - I never acted on them, just happily looked at pictures of whatever pop star it was, played their music incessantly and bought any magazine that had anything about them in.
Right now, I can see in some ways, I have never fully moved away from those types of interest, but I'm able to better regulate it.

It's very odd, hearing my teenager talking about their latest obsession but being vehemently opposed to hearing anything about things I'm particularly interested in. I only recently realised that we're like peas in a pod with this.

Haha I adore my sil but she must watch every single tv programme going and will tell me in rather minute detail about the characters, the actors, the time period something is set in, whether or not she thinks the costumes are realistic for the times, the plots, what each persons relationship is to another character… I mostly let her chat herself out and then move the conversation on to something we can both relate to - she knows I don’t watch much telly 😂😂
And yes I still love her to bits - but she has a quirk that I accept is part of who she is! I have quirks too!

I’m with you OP. My older sister does this with things and I’m used to it because I’ve never known anything else but DH was a bit taken a back when he first met her. At that time it was The Walking Dead which she was obsessed with.

You just need to be firm and I normally go with “I love you but I can’t take any more (current obsession) right now”. Also I do try and give her space to talk about it and broaden her interest, when my sister was into TWD I went to see some zombie movies with her which I actually really enjoyed (the one Martin Freeman is really good). Maybe you could try this, like watching something else with the actor in that appeals to you both? Only if you’re up for that obviously you’re well within your rights to just tell her she’s annoying you, but this is what I’ve found works with my sister and it’s actually a nice way to connect.

She'll get over it! I developed quite a strange, very intense obsession with Rip from Yellowstone last year. Think it coincided with some hormonal fluctuations 2 years PP. I was like a teenager and went on about it to a patient and tolerant friend or two! I'm over it now! Just took a few.. months.. 😳

I’ve never heard of that show - googled it and it looks awful, yanbu. But surely you can ride this out as it’s a life long friendship? I doubt she will still be obsessed two years from now.

Interesting. I had a friend who was really obsessed by the LGBTQ TV series Pose - she was also obsessed by a series with a lesbian couple in it. My dear friend was from a very religious traditional background and I (and others) suspected that she was gay but could never admit it. She was the loveliest, kindest person so we saw no harm in letting her talk about it.

Slightly different with mine, but my 30 year friendship wobbled a bit over the summer when all my (very lovely) friend could talk about was the heat (she hates it, I love it), water shortages, hosepipe bans, how hot it was and back to the beginning again. She was obsessed with it. And I love the heat so couldn't sympathise at all.

I let most of it ride over my head - she has an autistic son who talks at her non-stop about his latest fixations and the weather was one. So she'd meet up with me and regurgitate what he'd been saying to her, and be equally repetitive. I did a lot of tongue-biting even though I did find myself thinking 'is this it? Can I take this for another thirty years?' and she's got it out of her system and we're back to our normal conversations now.

Sometimes I think in the interests of keeping the friendship, you learn the art of the 'hmmm, yeah, okay'.

I get this - I know people who are like this with SNP politicians, they talk about about as if they're simultaneously some kind of soap opera, and their best friends. Friends referring to 'Nicola' and 'Humza' all the time made me cringe. It's really hard to articulate the line between talking about something someone normally, and this weird vibe, but there is definitely a line.

My best friend is exactly the same regarding Heated Rivalry and knows everything about each actor, the production, the sponsors, the producers... She has proper deep dived it and has watched the whole thing 3 or 4 times that I know of. I've tried to watch it and just don't see the appeal. Even given their very lovely backsides. The characters are very one-dimensional and while admittedly I only watched two episodes, it got very boring watching them hook up then ignore each other over and over again - like, the Canadian one is a total doormat.

But it's nice when other people really love something and Lord knows there isn't much joy in the world right now. Let people have their nice things.

Sympathies, OP. Various people I know are also into this show and I'm afraid that when I tried to watch it, it gave me the massive ick because a) the men are so slick and boring they're like Ken dolls, but mainly b) the horrible noises during the sex scenes?? I don't need to hear their mouth noises! I don't need the weird pornographic noises the Russian guy makes when he's getting a blowjob, which manage to be both disgusting AND to suggest he's actually quite bored? I'm not getting it.

Whilst you sound extremely mature.

I‘ve got 2 friends in 40s / 50s obsessed with HR and Yungblud. I don’t get it and just treat it like any other subject I have no interest in I.e. move the conversation on. I’ve got no patience though in general for people relating lengthy plots of films etc. Get a clue that you are being boring!

Based on other things you've said, I'm confident it's not, however that means there's two people who have gone slightly unhinged with this show.

My friend doesn't speak to me so much about the shows they know we both actually love, and never so obsessively about any other show. There's something about this one that has people going a bit weird. It moved on to me even getting made to watch videos of those fake lesbian Russians singing "all the things you said" or whatever it's called because of it's connection to the show. That was the point I politely brought it to and end, but it was a good half hour of HR nonsense by that point 😂I did also tell my friend I think they're slightly losing the plot.

Haha 😂. Well I definitely wouldn’t do that (and don’t buy any merch connected to him). It’s more of a secret world I have and he’s in it. His existence has been good for my mental wellbeing but I’m savvy enough not expose my infatuation (for want of a better word) to the outside world. My son pulling me up on it was enough to put a lid on it 😳

Just to add, I have never even heard of this program.

I think you're going to have to try to find your humour around this OP so you can carry on loving your friend and lighten your annoyance load.

You do sound about 12. Carry on.

Yeah, this. My UK friends go on forever about that Traitor show. I engage minimally, and conversations move on. What I don't do is come online and invite strangers to talk shit about someone I claim to love.

If you have the ick, stop seeing her - I guess?

I have a friend who does the same thing with this show. it's SO weird. I saw them a couple of weeks ago and they kept playing me clips of it on Youtube. Like, I just don't care. It's not for me. But they wouldn't stop going on about it.

I hope it’s not dementia! I am also quite obsessed (in a very mild way) about a younger celebrity but his existence gives me a lot of joy (far more than the miserable life I had with my real life ex). I don’t talk about him any more because my son said, mum you’re obssessed - gulp 😳😳 so I try to keep my adoration of him under wraps but inside I’m like a 1970s teeny bopper 😂

A bit, she told me how 2 of them are having an affair or some shit, I don’t know I went to the toilet in the end just to change the subject when I got back.
She just talks about it loads and loads and gets angry that we haven’t watched it, - when she has demanded that we do.
It’s extremely weird.