~ September 26, 2003 - 12:09 a.m. ~
Fall Premiers and Tinderbox
NBC's Thursday night line-up of season premiers. I was reduced to dialing my mom fifteen minutes into Friends as I hadn't seen the season finale in the Spring, and I was completely lost. Phoebe with Mike? Joey with Rachel? Ross with Charlie? Monica with big hair, and all of it in Barbados? Fuck that shit. I call for informational back up.ME (as I wait for my mom to answer her cell) : Come on, come on, pick up!
Call waiting beep.
ME (switching over) : Fuck, fuck, fuck!
MOM: Honey, did you just call me at home?
ME: WHAT HAPPENED ON THE SEASON FINALE OF FRIENDS?!
MOM: I don't know, I didn't see it.
ME (slamming my hand into the table) : SHIT! What fucking good are you? It's not enough that you carried me in your womb for nine-
MOM: SHUT UP, IT'S BACK ON!
ME: Bye!
I realize my mother has already hung up on me.
Eventually, thanks to all that awkwardness-induced over-explanations to former lovers, I think I figured out what was going on, but I'm sure some kernel that has escaped me will come back to bite me in the ass later in the season. I'll have to call BonBon, my fellow Friends junkie for the details.
OK. OK. I'm not ashamed of my Friends obsession. I'm just not. Tim has been trying to make me feel guilty for screaming like a psycho if he tries to play guitar while I'm watching it for years now.
TIM: Don't you feel silly talking about them like they were real people you knew?
ME: Nope.
TIM: It doesn't seem strange to you that you've invested more time and interest in these characters than you have anyone you've met in college?
ME: Nuh-uh.
TIM: Haven't you ever-
ME: Look, no. I like it. I like them. Feck off.
I'll have you all know that I finished college in three years, I graduated magna cum laude , I have always been an honor student, and I was on the Dean's list every semester at school. If I want to obsess over a stupid sitcom, I think I've earned the bloody right!
Actually, my love of Friends is nothing compared to my consuming fixation with ER . I rejoiced when we had USA for two weeks after the blackout, because then I could watch back to back ER re-runs every morning. I love, love, love ER , but I never saw the early episodes because Mom told me how graphic I was, and I think I was like 12 when the show came out, and I was all squeamish and everything. But I really adore the show, and although Tim teases me, he still watches it with me and is all like "What's going on? I though he with sleeping with her, why is he giving her the cold shoulder?" Disinterested my ass. He just doesn't like to admit it. When I was watching the morning re-runs, he would laugh at me because I would set my alarm so that I would get up for the first episode, but then he'd sit and watch with me and end up late to work.
Anyway, the ER premier was fabulous, except for the fact that I now doubt Carter and Abby are going to end up together, and I've been lobbying for them to get together since practically day 1. Four seasons now I've been saying there's chemistry; I can't fucking be wrong now.
Right, so the general melancholy of the show agreed with me; I've been in a so-so mood lately. I love the addition of Parminder Nagra (of Bend it Like Beckham , and I hope they don't kill her off or scare her away too soon. Although I'm sorry to see Luca go, you could tell that Goran Visnjic was getting tired of the show, or at least getting ready to go. They don't suddenly make a character such an asshole unless they're planning to bump him off . . .
And just so you don�t think I'm a TV-only junkie, I met with Stockmann today, and we agreed to start our company off with Macbeth . We are now Tinderbox Productions , by the way, website pending. Wish us luck!
