MAD ABOUT YOU: 3.08 “Giblets for Murray”

I don’t think people tend to think about Mad About You all that often. But every Thanksgiving, I do. Because they have one of the best Thanksgiving episodes I remember. Maybe that’s the key point. I might not remember all that many, but I always remember this one.

In this particular Thanksgiving episode (sure, there was more than one), Jamie and Paul are hosting Thanksgiving–and, of course, knowing their families, nothing goes as planned. Everyone wants something different: cranberry sauce from the can so you get that sound of it sliding out; vegetarian lasagne; a seated dinner, not a buffet. Basically, everything that Jamie and Paul had not planned.

Which makes them continuously run downstairs to the convenient store every five minutes to get something new. Including the man of the hour: the turkey.

Disaster after disaster, the two have to keep going down to get a new turkey. I feel horrible that I can’t remember what started this, but ultimately, their first turkey was an epic fail.

But (and this is key) they don’t want their family to know.

So it’s not just buying turkeys. It’s hiding them from the guests. This means that Paul is leaving it in the hallway to pick up later–of course, it’s stolen. And there’s a great scene when they’re hanging it from the roof, trying to get it in through the window–and it falls.

My favorite? Jamie successfully sneaks it in while no one’s in the living room. But as she makes her way to the kitchen, crowds come out of the bedroom and the kitchen, causing her to make one panic move: throwing the turkey out the window. Yes, they’re multiple floors up.

I love it. In the end, everyone figures out the turkey saga and conveniently look away as they bring the last one in. It’s by far one of the most creative and unusual Turkey Days in television history–only made that much better because anyone with family completely understands Jamie and Paul’s predicament of trying to make a perfect holiday for their families. Really, it’s just all great.

So here’s to Thanksgiving. And here’s hoping you get it right in one turkey–or at least enjoy it either way.

In putting this list together, I wanted to include something from my Nick-at-Nite days. I don’t do nearly enough about those old favorites of mine. Hopefully, that will change in the future. All those sitcoms would do holiday themed episodes. I can still clearly remember Dick Van Dyke and his cast dressing as Christmas marionettes for “The Alan Brady Show,” or Lucy disguising herself as a minuteman statue. You could pretty much count on every long-running sitcom to have a Christmas and Thanksgiving episode, with Halloween, Valentine’s Day and New Year’s on the second string. Independence Day was harder because of the summer, but it could happen too.

So, in racking my brain, I remembered several classic Thanksgiving episodes from the 50s/60s/70s, which I’ll probably include on my Friday post of all the ones I left out. The one I really wanted to make this post about was The Bob Newhart Show’s fourth season episode, “Over the River and Through the Woods.” Unfortunately, I can’t find a video clip of it anywhere, and that’s half the fun. It’s one of the series’ most famous episodes, with Bob (“Durr Hartley”) and his friends drunk, trying to order Chinese food (“mooooo gooooo gai pan”). Hilarious. Hopefully, Hulu will add Season 4 soon.

So, that would be my pick for Classic Sitcom. What about Modern Classic? Cheers, Frasier, Murphy Brown, Friends…they all had great Thanksgiving episodes. But my favorite has to be “Giblets for Murray” from Mad About You. There is one moment in this clip-filled episode summary that still makes me laugh uncontrollably (3 minutes in). Basically, Helen Hunt and Paul Reiser’s characters are trying to throw their first family Thanksgiving dinner, but they keep losing their turkey. As funny as the episode is, it also has a heart-warming ending, as any good holiday episode should.

So, it was brought to my attention today that while I possess a rather sophisticated level of cultural literacy, my pop cultural literacy is deplorable. I basically might as well not have been born in the ’80s, because all I remember from my early youth is leggings and Mad About You. Haven’t seen it? That’s because you didn’t spend all of your time with adults who were totally comfortable letting their 7-year old watch a show about snarky intellectuals in a bizarre relationship. If there is a movie, book, band, or TV show I’m expected to know about, I probably don’t. Some exceptions: Goosebumps (the books) and the Spice Girls.

I did, however, know all the lyrics to “Streets of Laredo” when I was 5. My dad taught me.

Things I grew up on:

–Masterpiece Theatre

–Mad About You

–Movie musicals

–ALL foreign films (Note: I did not know this was odd)

–Star Trek (Voyager and Deep Space Nine, mostly)

–John Irving books

–Leon Russell, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Bobby Darin…

Yeah. I’m pretty cool. So, next time you make a Rugrats reference, or a joke about the Babysitter’s Club, please respect my total confusion. Thx.

In this episode SR, Amanda and Santa sit out in the rain, eat popsicles and chat. Lacking any sort of common sense they begin by relating the film Away We Go which Amanda and SR recently watched to Whip It. We also find out the answer to the joke on the popsicle stick. We talk about this week’s episodes of The Soup and Tosh.0, two shows we love. Keeping with our discussion about dance competition television shows, we talk about this week’s episode of So You Think You Can Dance. Mike joins us and SR talks about a specific episode of Mad About You, as well as describing the premise of the series. We cover much more, listen here Indy movies, Popsicles, Mad About You and Stuff.

Matt LeBlanc está voltando para a televisão. Visto pela última vez em ‘Joey’, spin-off de ‘Friends’, o ator protagonizará nova comédia do Showtime em parceria com a BBC, criada por David Crane e Jeffrey Klarik (‘The Class’ e ‘Mad About You’).

A série focará em casal britânico que possui um seriado de sucesso que é adaptado para versão americana. O diferencial aqui é que LeBlanc interpretará ele mesmo.

O ator, de 42 anos, disse estar muito feliz de estar envolvido com o projeto. Os criadores ainda não liberaram muitas informações sobre o piloto, mas pode-se esperar muito cenas de bastidores do programa dentro do seriado. A estreia deve acontecer na fall season de 2010.

“You… complete me- Jerry Maguire

Wanted: Right Mate

The infamous quote of the century. My question is, how did Jerry KNOW that Dorothy could in fact COMPLETE him? Like she was the missing puzzle piece to his heart? (or she had his wallet…) There are countless movies, lyrics and books where they all in a round about way mention if you find the right mate who completes you, they will finally fill your every need and make all your dreams come true. (kind of a high standard right?)

From the textbook, “Sex, Love and Romance in the Mass Media,” dating expert Mary Laner suggest, ” that the depersonalization inherent in our mass media society might lead to unrealistically high expectations and individual longings for a close relationship in which one person will satisfy every need. “ Does the song … “Some day my prince will come….Some day when my dreams come true..” sang by Snow White ring any bells? Admittedly, we have all grown up thinking there is only ONE person out there that can truly complete us and make us happy. The reality is, the higher the expectations, the harder we fall when they aren’t met.

We see it in the movies, like most Disney and chick flicks, and also music lyrics with titles like “I can’t live, if living is without you,” and “You’re nobody till somebody cares.” Or you can go to the bookstore and buy the book, “From Your Lips to God’s Ears…Finding Your Right Mate in 10 easy Steps. (All for the small price of $12.95)  Some excerpts from the book,  “Are you lonely? Do you long for that special someone to complete you? Do you think that the right mate is impossible to find? This is a very unique little book on how to find that special someone that may have been eluding you in this lifetime.” (Not only do we have to find the person who completes us…but they may have been hiding?)

Having such idealistic views on who and how the right mate will complete you can only lead to disappointment and depression once your anxiety issues hit the fan. The path to success is to complete yourself instead of using that line, “You had me at hello,” every chance you get.

The following are examples of where we might have gotten this illusion.

Books – Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Sleeping Beauty, and most romance novels

Movies – Pretty Woman, When Harry Met Sally, You’ve Got Mail!, An Officer & a Gentleman, Last of the Mohicans, Only You, Sleepless in Seattle, City of Angels, Only You

Television – 90210, Mad About You, Ozzie & Harriet, Dawson’s Creek, I Dream of Jeanie

Music – You Complete Me, Because You Love Me, All of My Life

Scientists have since hypothesised that dinosaurs were in fact canine.

Jurassic Park 2: The Chaos Continues – not to be confused with The Lost World: Jurassic Park – is eerily prophetic with regards to the second movie’s plot.  In fact, the plot of Jurassic Park 2 actually makes more sense.

First of all, the main character is Dr. Alan Grant NOT Ian Malcolm.  We all know (or at least strongly suspect) that Ian Malcolm’s role in The Lost World was a plot contrivance based on Sam Neill’s reluctance to reprise the role of Dr. Grant (making his decision to appear in III all the more baffling).  Sure, Malcolm was the only one who was right about everything, but to us kids, he was the spoilsport trampling all over our hopes and dreams.  (We don’t want your science, Mr. Voodoo Man, we want magic!) Dr. Grant was the hero; the Everykid staring up in awe at a living, breathing Brachiosaurus for the very first time.  He didn’t cling stubbornly to the vestiges of his adulthood; he didn’t even care that his very livelihood as a paleontologist had become obsolete; he simply released himself to the magic of a dinosaur he could see and touch.

(It would be remiss of me at this point not to mention that while Alan Grant remains the central figure of this game’s story, he is not in fact a playable character.  The player controls Tactical Sergeant Michael Wolfskin, a mercenary dispatched by John Hammond to accompany Dr. Grant on this dangerous mission.  Regardless, in the context of an island overrun with wild, prehistoric lizards, an armed mercenary makes far more sense as a protagonist than a chaos theorist and mathematician.  He also looks a bit like Paul Reiser of Mad About You (and Aliens) fame, which doesn’t hurt.)

Dinosaurs were the cultural zeitgeist back then – we knew all of their names from Parasaurolophus to Pachycephalosaurus, we argued about them in the schoolyard (the ’smart kid’ at school tried to tell me that Tyrannosaurus Rex was not the quintessential King of the Dinosaurs.  If only I could journey back in time to inform him that its name literally translates as ‘tyrant lizard king’ in Latin.  PWND!), and we went to the museum, for fun.  I’ll repeat that for effect: we WENT TO THE MUSEUM, for FUN.  Such was the power of the terrible lizard.

JP2 also accurately predicted the rise of the DS to gaming prominence.

Second of all, Jurassic Park 2 takes place on the same island as the first film, Isla Nublar.  As the title suggests, it has been released into chaos since the events of the first film.  The Lost World contrives a second, neighbouring island known as Isla Sorna.  The idea behind this second island was that it was the ‘control group’, so that they could observe dinosaur behaviour outside of captivity.  How on earth they planned to do this is beyond me – did they get out there with a helicopter and a clipboard?  So essentially, InGen, Hammond and company decided to make the same stupid mistake a second time; albeit a stupid mistake that had a far greater potential for abject failure and complete disaster.  The plot of JP2, on the other hand, sees the original, abandoned park discovered by a rival company (the appropriately named BioSyn) which attempts a very literal corporate takeover of Jurassic Park and its reptilian denizens.  How did a group of game developers manage to come up with a better, more plausible plotline than Hollywood?!  I fear that I am destined to take this mystery with me unto death.

Jurassic Park 2, though repetitive, and tougher than granny’s gingernut biscuits, is positively dripping with atmosphere.  Tensions are always high, be they in the jungle or inside an abandoned complex.  Raptors stalk and surprise as well as they do in the films – perhaps a little *too* well…

Biohazard's the right word for it!

“Clever girl!”

In many ways JP2 is reminiscent of Alien 3 for the Sega Megadrive (another game superior to its film counterpart – by no means an astounding feat).  Activity time!  Substitute the word ‘raptors’ into the following sentence every time you read the word ‘xenomorphs’:

The xenomorphs are so fast you have to shoot off-screen constantly while running to avoid death.  This places unreasonable demands on one’s ammunition supply.

(May I suggest a raptor-killing tactic?  Set phasers to stun, charge your weapon while running, jump as soon as you see the raptor, turn and release.  Rinse and repeat.  The strongest breed of raptor (grey) takes no more than three fully charged energy bolts to put down.)

This game is so atmospheric it uses graphical filters in the foreground – clouds of dense fog in the swamps, a spotlighting effect in a dark facility – I know because I fiddled with the emulator–I mean, my legitimately purchased Super Nintendo Entertainment System – settings to switch them off and on again.  I don’t know how many other 16-bit games did this, but I’m impressed by the graphical spit and polish on this thing.  The moody synths and tribal beats only amplify the game’s tangible sense of dread, on level with the raptors-in-the-kitchen scene of the first film.

Fog filters and fluid animation: a match made in heaven.

If you’ve read Jared’s review of Jurassic Park, you’ll be coloured the same shade of surprised I was to find that not only was Jurassic Park 2 developed by the same company that developed the original (Ocean Software) – it’s also not crap.  In fact, it’s really quite good.  There is only one satisfying explanation for this singularity: a lack of info from Hollywood and a stricter deadline leading up to the first game’s movie tie-in release; versus the creative freedom afforded by not having to stick to a highly classified film script for the second game.

It doesn’t take a chaos mathematician to work it out:

Tie-in = Tied Down.

by Judi

Oh, the CROSSOVER. Jack Doneghy, I’m sure, loves the concept of the TV crossover being such a fan of things like “synergy” and “product integration”, “pro-menz” (that’s “positive mention” to you, little buddy) and “making lots of money.” After all, what better way to get your TV loving public to excitedly clap their hands and buy even more bags of Baked Lays than an episode of their favorite TV show starring people from their OTHER favorite TV shows. FUN FOR ALL, I dare say.

5. Dana from Step By Step helps Corey on Boy Meets World via dolphin in “The Happiest Show on Earth” (1996)

TGIF loved and I mean loved the crossover episodes. There was Urkel on Full House, Salem the cat from Sabrina running through all of the TGIF programs wreaking havoc on the sitcom space-time-continuum, and my favorite- Dana from Step by Step on Boy Meets World. True, she’s on for one scene and doesn’t say much but what she does say is enough to convince Corey that he’s still in love with Topanga. And she does this all through dolphins. Next to a dolphin tank. By telling him a story about dolphins. While they pet and feed dolphins. Dana sure is convincing. I hope she went into sales and is now so rich, she can by and sell JT. (And yes, I also hope she’s married to Cody. Shut up.)

4. Frasier Crane ruins Helen’s life again on Wings in “Planes, Trains and Visiting Cranes” (1992)

There were actually two Cheers and Wings overlaps, the other one being Cliff and Norm visiting Nantucket to go on a fishing trip but then they just go to the Sidecar and drink for two days. On “Planes, Trains and Visiting Cranes”, Cheers regulars Dr. Frasier Crane and his wife Lilith appear to do a seminar that Frasier’s devised about enriching your life (called amusingly The Crane Train to Mental Well-Being). The only problem is that Helen Chapel, recently back from a disastrous stint in New York City where she tried to become a cellist and ended up as a waitress as a strip club, took that same seminar in New York and blames it and Crane for all of her problems since then. The episode ends in a typical sitcommy way with all the Wings characters screaming at each other at the seminar and one of Frasier’s signature raspy “You people!” rants that we all so love. I enjoyed this episode so much when I caught the repeat last year, mostly because it reminded me of my sincere love for Lilith and her deadpan delivery.

3. George and Noah and Monica and Rachel on Friends in “The One With Two Parts” (1995)

It’s funny. I just realized a pattern here- the shows that used the crossover once more often than not used it several times. Friends is a solid example. We all remember (naturally- why would you be here if this were all new information?) that Mad About You’s ditsy waitress Ursula is Phoebe Buffay’s twin sister, forcing a confused M.A.Y. Jamie and her friend Fran to mistakenly come to Central Perk and hassle Phoebe about getting them coffee.

Ok, so technically I’m cheating here. George and Noah weren’t playing their ER counterparts but really, come on. It’s a great episode, they’re CLEARLY playing off their ER characters and it includes one of my most favorite, rarely used sitcom gimmicks ever- Monica and Rachel have swapped identities because Rachel has sprained her ankle and lacks insurance so the cute doctors think each is the other. And then they get into a fight. (How did they pick who got George, btw? I mean, I love me some Librarian and all but being the one who gets George is cause enough for a fight to the death itself)

2. Lara Flynn Boyle tells Ally McBeal to eat a cookie in “Making Spirits Bright” (1998)

Usually, crossover happen because of a shared network but they tend to happen more frequently when they also share a creator. And no, I don’t mean the sweet baby Jesus. I mean David E. Kelley. Ok, to some of you, that IS the sweet baby Jesus, but around here he’s the guy who just really likes quirky urban lawyers and piano bars.

This nifty little cameo featuring Lara Flynn Boyle as her Practice attorney Helen Gamble sizing up bobble-headed Ally McBeal was inevitable, considering the media broohaha at the time regarding the fact that both actresses were in desperate need of a few trips to Arby’s and the aforementioned bags of Baked Lays. Oh yeah, and that whole thing about Ally’s skirts being too short. All wrapped up neatly in a thirty-second shot that really makes me want to get a cookie of my own.

1. Buffy drops in on Angel in “I Will Remember You” (1999)

It was a natural enough occurrence that the regulars on Joss Whedon’s Buffy would make an appearance on spin-off Angel. Angel would, after all, be nothing more than a glimmer in his big daddy’s eye if it weren’t for our favorite pint-sized slayer. In this episode, Buffy shows up for a reason I can’t remember off the top of my head and almost immediately helps Angel slay a big baddie, whose green slime accidentally turns Angel human.

The former couple agree that they won’t let this affect them, this sudden turn of events that they’ve both been wishing for since they met when Buffy was sixteen and Angel a spry 300 years old.  That naturally lasts about ten minutes and they end up going at it on Angel’s kitchen table. The ensuing scenes are pretty much everything we, the loyal Buffy audience (at least, those of us with girlie parts) have ever wanted- Angel discovering the joys of peanut butter and chocolate TOGETHER, ice cream, sunlight and being able to be with Buffy without turning into, you know, a total, murderous monster who likes killing her friends. Sadly, it doesn’t last. He’s a weak human now and can’t protect himself or her (not that she needs it but I guess after 300+ years, a sudden identity crisis would be pretty hard to overcome) so he goes to the Powers That Be and asks to be made vampire again. They agree to turn back the clocks, with the worst after-effect being that Buffy won’t remember their time together at all. And sure enough, even though she tearfully promises to remember everything, she doesn’t and soon stalks off the show back to Sunnydale.

WIZARDS OF WAVERLY PLACE: “Wizards vs. Vampires on Waverly Place, Part I”

Much like the rest of the entertainment industry, Disney Channel has fallen to the prey of the vampire obsession. But what show could they put vampires in? If only they had some sort of supernatural show where they’ve featured wizards and werewolves…

Hmm…

Oh, hey, what about Wizards of Waverly Place?

That they did. Vampires have moved in and started their own all-night sandwich shop, which is driving customers away from the Russo’s business. Of course, I wonder, if they sleep during the day (and I’m assuming they do), wouldn’t they be closed then? Wouldn’t the wizards be ok during the day?

Not that that’s really the issue at hand. Though perhaps I can see the compromise that they’ll come to reach later about the sandwich shops–that is if the vampires stick around.

Anyway, the real issue was Justin wanting to date the vampires’ daughter Juliet. (By the way, I don’t now if Shakespeare would have written Romeo and Juliet if he was aware how everyone would butcher the general premise so many centuries later.) Sadly, it didn’t really grab my attention.

I’m a big fan of Alex. Honestly, her delivery of lines and great use of sarcasm really carry the show. And she was really under-used in this first part of the four-hour (what?!)-long episode. It was really about Justin. Not that that’s bad, but usually with Justin’s plots, Alex helps him do something that they have to fix. There was very little that she did.

And there really wasn’t anything original about the premise. Parents don’t like who you’re dating. Then they turn around. The end.

But let’s divert. Let’s talk about the issue of the year: the representation of vampires. What’s most interesting about the various uses of vampires in TV and movies is the different way that the creatures are depicted based on legend. Unfortunately, this show seemed to ignore it. Sure, they sleep in coffins. They drink blood. Apparently, they take a while to grow fangs, since Juliet doesn’t have them yet. And they’re awake at night. And for the most part, they wear black. Oh, and some apparently live in their graves. Oh, and they can put people to sleep with a simple phrase.

That part was new, but nothing else was really discussed. Are they “vegetarian” vampires, only drinking non-human blood? Juliet must be since she drinks out of a glass. Her parents mentioned that they drank a human, but what now? I know this will actually be discussed in the second half (I’ve seen the previews), but I wouldn’t mind knowing more now. There is the idea that their faces look like rot until they drink some blood–that’s new, but again, how do her parents do it? Did they drink someone first thing in the morning? Or a glass of blood?

Personally, I’m actually a little sad that the Twilights and True Bloods have made me curious about how Disney vampires adapt to society. Oh well.

Anyway, I feel like the premise could have been a little more interesting. And I’m not sure why this was four hours long. I think that the next episode could very well be much more interesting–Harper and Alex in danger, Juliet growing her fangs. I almost wish they had just stuck with that half.

But hey, at least we have Anne Ramsay back in TV. Yeah, she played Jamie’s sister in Mad About You. Remember that show, any tweenagers out there? No? Sad.

*Sorry there’s no episode number. That was hard to track down.

by Judi

5. Happy Days- Joanie Marries Chachi in “Passages (2)” (1984)

I, like many other children of the ’80s, was far too invested in the relationship of Joanie and Chachi. This wasn’t really my fault, though, and I’ll tell you why (of course I’ll tell you why.) Happy Days ran for so long that it had kind of the same emotional effect as a long-running soap opera. Meaning that most of us actually watched these crazy kids grow up. And, of course, the producers knew that and tied in the long-awaited wedding with what has to be the sappiest montage in television history and a tearful good-bye from the Cunningham family. Also, Scott Baio was seriously cute (and such is the depth of my affection that I can almost forgive his quoting song lyrics as vows. Ugh. Almost).

4. Cheers- Diane Doesn’t Marry Frasier in “Rescue Me” (1985)

As iconic TV couples go, you just can’t ignore Sam and Diane. The classic opposites-attract model of sitcom romance, playboy barkeep Sam’s constant wooing of aloof, refined Diane is pretty much the gold standard for inciting a riot of “will they or won’t they” among viewers everywhere. And if there’s anything TV viewers like better than a sitcom romance, it’s when that sitcom romance interrupts a wedding to another person (see Friends, Ross and Emily.) Poor Frasier. Luckily for all of us, he bounced back from this hitch in Italy to marry Lilith, one of the greatest characters in the history of the small screen.

3. Melrose Place- Craig marries Sydney in “Who’s Afraid of Amanda Woodward?” (1997)

Melrose Place was a solid prime-time soap, a bit dirtier and grungier than its BH counterpart and oh, we so loved it for that. Forget any shred of sap or sentiment. This wedding basically came about due to the high you get (or so I’ve heard) from a solid backstabbing- Craig and good old Syd plan to get hitched after basically ruining Amanda and stealing all of the clients from D & D.  Too bad it ends up with Sydney being awesomely mowed over by a car and, you know, dying. (Or not as she’s apparently going to be on the CW’s remake which I’m sure will be just as boring and stupid as the new 90210). I’m pretty sure Craig was the only one at the wedding who was actually bummed about it too.

2. Taxi- “The Wedding of Latka and Simka” (1982)

Andy Kaufman’s Latka was always good for a go-to laugh, if only for the seemingly bizarre culture of his native country, which Wikipedia helpfully reminds me was called “Caspiar.” His marriage to Simka is a perfect example. Instead of a simple ceremony, the couple are forced to partake in a series of really weird tests before they can get married in the garage, presided over by that dude from Ghost. Hijinks and hilarity ensue.

1. Mad About You- “Mad About You” (1995)

While not even close on my list of favorite shows, I sometimes get the strangest hankering for old episodes of Mad About You. Maybe it has something to do with the way Paul Reiser talks with his hands. Or how Helen Hunt always looks like she wants to kill someone. Whatever it is, unlike Beal, I found the show to be pretty smart for a traditional sitcom. It felt more realistic as a New York show (than, say, Friends) and, let’s face it, meditations on married life can either be great (Everybody Loves Raymond) or AWFUL (‘Til Death) Mad About You struck right in the middle, though sometimes veering a little too far into reality for some people’s taste (they split up for a while, a big no-no in sitcom land).

This is my favorite wedding for personal reasons. In short, I think weddings are kind of stupid. A wedding costs an OBSCENE amount of money for what basically amounts to a party with bad food. You throw together all of the people in your life (ie AWKWARD) and then basically demand a giant gift in return. Other than the free booze and seeing your Aunt Muriel boogying to old Motown, I’d much prefer to get married the way Paul and Jamie do- on a dirty New York street in front of a work crew at 4am, presided over by Lyle Lovett.

Viendo Maridos y mujeres (Husbands & wifes) de Woody Allen, no puede evitar acordarme de Secretos de un matrimonio, de Ingmar Bergman.

Hay muchos paralelismos entre las dos, y existe una devoción del genio neoyorkino hacia el maestro sueco, que se aprecia en películas “bergmanianas” como Interiores (imagen de cabecera del blog) o Setiembre.

Esta “deconstrución” de la vida matrimonial, esa confrontación de la realidad contra la parafernalia del amor eterno y los orgasmos al unísono (“el único orgasmo conjunto que tuvieron fue cuando se les otorgó el divorcio”), esos engaños, esa violencia, ese egoísmo, esa brutalidad de las cloacas de las relaciones… eso es tan humano, que en momentos de talibanismo (todo fan de algo, puede volverse talibán) dictaría que tales obras de arte deberían ser de obligada visión (aún sabiendo que todo lo obligado produce una reacción de rechazo), pues muestran algo más real, que la tan hipócrita y falseada realidad en la que vivimos. Y de la que nos esforzamos por ver sólo lo que creemos que nos conviene.

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Yo me lo pasaba bomba viendo a Paul Reiser y Helen Hunt en la serie Loco por ti. Esa visión afable, y para todos los públicos, de la relación matrimonial perfecta. Y la sigo viendo, cuando la reponen. Pero, en la vida real, la sangre se coagula y la carne se pudre: Woody Allen rueda una película, y Ingmar Bergman hizo algo más.

Mia Farrow y Woody Allen, matrimonio real y ficticio

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Supongo que nunca sabremos que parte de ficción hay en las realidades matrimoniales de estos dos autores. Woody, en sus películas, se separa o se junta con mujeres con las que, realmente, o estuvo casado o con quien estuvo unido. De Bergman sabemos, gracias a su biografía (La linterna mágica) que no sólo sacaba frases de sus peleas domésticas para sus películas, sino que parte de su obra recrea, con todo detalle, su vida, su infancia y sus relaciones.

Esto es de un egocentrismo que roza lo enfermizo, sí. Pero como dijo cierto neorrealista italiano (cuyo apellino termina en INI) “no hay nada más universal y atemporal, que algo profundamente personal y concreto”.

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I’m watching through Mad About You now, and I’m on season 2, episode 20.

I’m so thoroughly disappointed and frustrated with the characters. Well, moreso the relationship between the actors. Something happened, starting from season 2 episode 15 – Virtual Reality. Its hilarious. I laughed out loud quite a few times that episode, hardest at the end.

“I was wrong.”

But that episode is the last good one before things go really downhill for this season.

Its not the writing. Its the actors and how they’re acting. They’re ruining it for me.

Paul acts like he hates his wife. They don’t seem to get along together at all. Yet they go through the motions of the “romantic” stuff that’s part of the script.

The fight scenes are .. disturbing. There’s real anger coming out there, it seems as if everyone’s against Paul.

It seems Paul is a dick.

It seems .. I don’t know. After watching these past few episodes, I started to feel this show is a lie.

They should change the title of this show from Mad About you to just Mad At You.

They’re not mad about each other. All the romance is completely gone and they seem to do nothing but get on each others nerves.

This show _should_ tank after this season, but something good must happen because apparently it doesn’t.

Why NBC, you’ve done it again! I had lost all hope in you when your Thursday night lineup slummed to Joey, Will & Grace, The Apprentice and ER. It was like, just because Friends and Seinfeld had played out, you didn’t have to give up completely, but you did. I believe it was your shit Thursday that singlehandedly took your network to #4 in the ratings. Up to that point, I had always flipped to NBC when I had nothing in particular to watch during prime time, because your programming was generally better than any other network.

But then, you put Law & Order ”spin-offs” [read: exactly the same show with a new tagline] (and what the hell was that one with Bebe Neuwirth?) on every single night, in every single time slot, and I had to let you go. It was a sad era for television, and I, along with the masses, said to hell with network and began obsessions with HBO and cable programming. 

Which brings me to last night. NBC, you’ve won me back!!

You have created a “Must See TV” lineup like no other, and I thank you for it. I submit that it’s better than its last heyday(s)—The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Cheers, Hill Street Blues—Wings, Seinfeld, Frasier, L.A. Law—and later—Friends, Seinfeld, ER.  [Yes, I intentionally didn’t mention the shitty shows that appeared amongst these gems: Boston Common, Mad About You, etc.

Last night, I laughed OUT LOUD, alone, during each of the situation comedies you featured. Parks & Recreation was as funny as I could have hoped for, which obviously means it’s going to be cancelled, but I say please, please give this one a fair chance. Amy Poehler was the only reason I continued to watch SNL once it turned terrible, so I thank you for putting her in prime time. Her character is hilarious. When she rolled in in the duck taped travel pillow, pretending it was a neck brace from a fall she had endured into a pit, I peed a little. So so funny. And The Office can be totally hit or miss, but it’s funny more often than it’s not, and Michael Scott only forces me to change the channel sometimes. 30 Rock, hilarious, hilarious, hilarious. I won’t say any more. 

As for Southland, I plan on giving it a fair chance and reporting back. My Name is Earl is a throw away show that’s essentially a bad skit gone on far too long. But that I can accept. Your new lineup with it’s new name COMEDY NIGHT DONE RIGHT, is no longer a lie. You win.

thought it would be an easy sunday.  and yes it was.

started my day jogging at marikina riverbanks. i haven’t been there for more than a year probably.  did the whole stretch for almost an hour.  i just love the sight of the river.  it soothes me in a different way.  nothing much has changed since i first went there on a bike about 9 years ago. oh yeah, something has changed, there’s a SM now. hehe.  there are now more restos offering breakfast foods like lugaw, champorado and the like.  thought of eating there, but i just jogged (they say you give yourself an hour after you exercise for you to eat).

so i ended up at alex’s lugawan, the best lugawan in pasig (for me!).  had two bowls of lugaw + tokwa + lumpia. yum yum.  only to find out that there’s breakfast at home. so much for the 48 bucks. hehe.

sunday noon is hot! grrr!  

i enjoyed asap sessionistas earlier! sitti and richard poon is really great!

got to watch around 3 eps of MAD ABOUT YOU.  i really love that show.  90’s stuff and everything.

i watched us girls earlier. oh my, RACHEL ANN DAQUIS is super  hot! especially in those bikinis! grrrr!!

Dagens trip hop låt är en riktigt skön dänga. Lite soft och trallvänlig. Gruppen kommer från Belgien och startade 1995. Deras första singel som de släppte heter 2Wicky och är riktigt skön, men det är inte den jag ska spela upp här idag. Den 10 oktober 2008 annonserade sångerskan Geike Amaert att hon ville lämna bandet för att satsa på sin solokarriär. Hur det går med den återstår att se, men det ska bli spännande att se hur denna grupp kommer låta utan henne, På senare år har gruppen gått mer och mer över till pop soundet vilket är lite synd då de var som bäst i sina tidigare år. Nåväl! Här kommer då dagens låt.

Hooverphonic
Mad About You
2000

So a LOT has been happening! Revelations, energy shifts, life shifts, growing etc. so much and I will fill in some holes but let’s talk about today and firmly shutting the door on one part of my life.

Remember that show Mad about You? well there was one episode where a line that has been in my memory for 12 myears or more came from. The line? “Women need closure”. I am  one of those women and I also cling to the familiar. I’ve always had amicable break ups too. Get the picture? So when I was laid off my boss who also doesn’t do closure well, let me keep my keys and hadn’t pressured me to pack up my things and get them out.  But now 5 months later the companies moving and I had to get my stuff out. But here’s where God comes into the picture.

As I said things are happening. the biggest is that a publisher is reviewing my novel. In Doreen Virtue’s Archanel Oracle card deck there is an “All is well”  Archangel Raguel Card. In a nutshell it talks about how often things can seem chaotic or seem to be going “wrong” but God must diamntle the old to make room for the new. And this is what God has been demonstrating to me over and over again. So in my mind and spirit, I’ve been cinging to my old job to some extent. Even though with each day  I realize how unhealthy it was, how dysfunctional etc.   When little things would come up as potential work through them for example I’d think “OK, this is good I can stay connected, but not go back there”. Uh…so why did I feel the need to stay connected?  I have no clue! comfort? familiarity? all I know is that a few days ago it hit me. that if I wanted to move on with my life I had to permanently shut the door on that part of my life.

So today when I picked up my boxes, I gotta tell you, I  was so happy! 10% emotional and 90% jubilant!  i left my keys on the main desk and felt giddy.  Talk about closure – SLAM! Woo hoo!!! I’m free. And the world is wide open. REM’s song was in my head the entire time. So yeah, it’s the end of the world as we know it but let me tell you, I feel way fine, because, to use yet another song lyric, from a gospel song sung by the Richard Smallwood Singers… “I have come  too far. I have come too far. I’ve come too far to turn around, a higher place I’ve found; this I know: I’m going to make it. I can’t turn back now.” Amen.