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amatt - 2005-05-17 10:08:05
Bravo! for not watching that Raymond show! I just don't get that show at all.
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I wombat - 2005-05-17 12:54:21
Yes, you may not realise it, but that was the devil, come lookin' for your soul, if you had succumbed...sadness, horrors.
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Editrix - 2005-05-17 18:45:32
I'm guessing that the book by the same Rodney Rothman who pretended to work for a Silicon Alley dot-com several years ago. I think it was originally published in the New Yorker, then later he admitted that he'd made up some of it. Fiction or no, it was pretty high-larious. Thanks for the tip!
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Paula - 2005-05-17 20:35:13
Hey, 'Trix: I didn't know about that, but found out some stuff, so thanks for the tip!
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Miles - 2005-05-18 01:23:09
Oh, Raymond is a great show, the most subversive show on TV for lo these many years. It masquerades as a typical family sitcom: stand-up comic turns act into TV show, they give him a TV wife who would pass as "plain" only in Hollywood and three cute TV kids, and Ray's parents get to be the "wacky neighbors." Looks standard issue, even yeechy.
But that's all a disguise. The show is really about the Heart of Darkness inside the family. The characters undermine constantly undermine each other - and themselves. The "wacky neighbors" are cruel, viscious, and resolutely refuse to behave in even a remotely acceptable or self-aware manner. The cute TV kids are rarely seen. Nobody learns anything. As they said of the Ancien Regime, they learn nothing and forget nothing.
Now, if this doesn't sound like your kind of thing, that's perfectly cool. But it's important that everyone know what the show really is: not treacly and sentimental at all, but a shiny black gem of a show. Last year I was amazed to find out it was the show most likely to be watched by Republican voters, 'cos there's no show that's ever put the lie to "family values" as consistently as this one did. I guess the show's audience fits the characters into standard sitcom tropes instead of, um, actually understanding what's going on.
Oh, and I skipped the pregame festivities because I knew they'd be cotton-candy fluff that would stand in stark contrast to the actual spirit of the show. I'd hate anyone to judge Raymond from that sort of thing.
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Paula - 2005-05-18 10:45:22
Yay, I knew you'd chime in eventualy, Mil-o!
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