Rick Santorum’s It Takes a Family 10

In my latest reading of Rick Santorum’s It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good, Santorum offered some thoughtful insights on movies and stories.  A lot of his discussion on this topic was lamenting the illicit sex without consequences and the anti-hero in today’s stories, which he contrasts with the clear delineation of good and evil in stories of the past.  But Santorum makes clear that he’s not in favor of flat stories that do not show anything unpleasant.  Here are some of his insights about stories:

Page 275: “An ancient rabbinic saying is that ‘God made people because He loves stories.’  I say, ‘Man makes stories because God made us to love.’”

On page 282, Santorum quotes novelist Walker Percy, who said: “Judeo-Christianity is about pilgrims who have something wrong with them and embark on a search to find a way out.  This is also what novels are about.”

Pages 285-286: “Cultural capital consists of the stories, images, music, and practices—-all the ‘artifacts’ and the activities that are the fruit of leisure—-that explain ourselves to ourselves, the whole of ourselves, and which do so truthfully, honestly.”

I agree with a lot of this.  I love stories that encourage me to care for the characters.  I believe that good stories have characters who grow.  And I think that good stories have realism or (even if they’re unrealistic) communicate values.

Santorum takes a swipe at Desperate Housewives, but I think that the series fits what Santorum considers to be a good story, at least in many areas.  It makes me care for the characters.  It presents characters who learn and grow, notwithstanding their flaws.  And, while I agree with Santorum that it does not promote a morality in which sex is reserved solely for heterosexual marriage (since there are gay characters and also people who live together), it does have story-lines that depict the bad consequences of adultery, as well as highlights that pre-marital sex can result in a baby.  Moreover, it has had positive episodes about faith.  I’d say that these are characteristics that I’ve observed in a number of TV shows and movies nowadays.

The Desperate Housewives Finale

Here are some thoughts about the Desperate Housewives finale.

1.  Bree’s murder trial was wrapped up quickly and neatly, as Karen McCluskey (who doesn’t have long to live) stepped forward and took the blame for killing Gaby’s abusive step-father.  Was this satisfying?  Well, on the one hand, I was hoping for more length and drama to the resolution.  There was drama, for I enjoyed watching Ben refuse to reveal Bree’s secret on the witness stand and going to jail as a result.  But I hoped for more, since the murder of Gaby’s step-father, the subsequent cover-up of it, and the resulting tensions have encompassed this entire season, and so you’d expect more to the resolution than a quick confession by Karen McCluskey soon followed by a dismissal of Bree’s case.  On the other hand, Karen McCluskey’s confession was a neat way to resolve this plot-line, and I admired McCluskey for doing what she did.

2.  There was long talk that Marc Cherry would make a spin-off about Karen McCluskey and her sister, who is played by Lily Tomlin.  (And, as West Wing fans know, both actresses played Jed Bartlet’s secretary on The West Wing.)  But Karen McCluskey died, and so that’s now out of the question.  I do not know for certain, but Marc Cherry may have canceled the idea due to Kathryn Joosten’s lung-cancer.

3.  I enjoyed the last episode, but I can’t say that I found it riveting, until the last few minutes.  Why were the last few minutes so riveting?  For one, we see that the ladies drift apart from each other.  Susan sells her house and moves.  Lynette, Tom, and the kids go to New York, where Lynette becomes a big-shot executive in Katherine Mayfair’s new company, grows old, and has grandchildren.  Gaby and Carlos stay close to each other in their marriage and start an online shopping company, and eventually a TV show.  And Bree marries Trip (played by Scott Bakula, whom I love as an actor), moves to Kentucky, and enters the world of politics (presumably as a Republican).  All of this was sad and yet good (since it left an emotional impression on me).  It makes me want to wait a while before I watch old episodes of Desperate Housewives because, if I were to watch them now, I’d be sad that the ladies’ good times at Wisteria Lane would eventually come to an end.

Second, there were the ghosts on Wisteria Lane.  I could identify some of them but not others.  Fortunately, wikipedia has identified them, along with providing links to who they are.  I’ll quote wikipedia, and I’ve taken the liberty of supplying the links that wikipedia left out: “As Susan departs the lane one last time, the ghosts of the lane watch her. Among them include Mike Delfino, Karen McCluskey and her son, George Williams, Juanita ‘Mama’ Solis, Mona Clarke, Karl Mayer, Ellie Leonard, Nora Huntington, Rex Van De Kamp, Lillian Sims, Beth Young, Chuck Vance, Alma Hodge, Bradley Scott, and Martha Huber.”

There were a variety of reasons that I was moved by the ghosts scene.  (1.) What better way is there to say good-bye to the show than to see the various characters who have appeared in the show’s history?  (2.) It was interesting that good people, bad people, and weak people were among the ghosts, and they all had peaceful expressions on their faces.  Mary Alice said that these ghosts hope that the living will learn to put aside regret and bitterness.  I like the concept of redemption for the wicked, who look back on their lives and realize that they made poor decisions, perhaps out of insecurity and ego, and they hope that the living will learn not to make the same mistakes.  (3.) Overall, as the ghosts were surveyed, the people you’d expect to stand next to each other were not standing next to each other.  Paul Young was not near Mary Alice or his second wife, for example.  The point here may be that our social roles in this life do not carry forward into the afterlife.  At the same time, there are exceptions to this, for Mike still cares for his wife, Susan, and Karen McCluskey was standing next to her son (or so wikipedia identifies him), whom she lost when he was young.

It was disappointing not to see certain characters in the afterlife.  Eedie Britt was not there, but I’m not surprised, since the actress who played her is not on good terms with Marc Cherry.  But I was especially disappointed when I did not see Ida Greenberg, whom I really liked.

(UPDATE: The wikipedia article has been updated.  First, it says that Matthew Applewhite was in the background as a ghost—-and Matthew Applewhite was Betty’s son in Season 2.  Second, it says regarding Eedie: “Edie Britt‘s ghost is absent in the final scenes because of the lawsuit pending between Nicollette Sheridan and show creator Marc Cherry.  In an interview in Summer 2011, Cherry had previously hinted that he wanted to ask Sheridan back for the series finale ‘to pay homage to everyone who has been on the show’.  However, though they could not get Nicollette back as a ghost, there is a blonde woman during the final scene in the background that could be Edie.”)

Third, at the very end, we see that the lady moving into Susan’s house has her own dark secret, and we’re not told what it is.  Life on Wisteria Lane continues!

My Twenty Favorite Desperate Housewives Episodes

The last Desperate Housewives will be on this coming Sunday.  Last year, when Smallville was ending, I wrote a post that discussed my fifteen favorite Smallville episodes.  This year, I’ll talk about my twenty favorite Desperate Housewives episodes.

Season 1

“The Pilot” (Episode 1):  I fell in love with the show from the start.  There is so much to praise about the pilot episode, but I’ll focus on what I particularly liked.  I enjoyed the part when Mike Delfino first met Susan Meier at the reception for Mary Alice’s funeral, tasted Susan’s macaroni and cheese, and remarked to Susan that it tasted burnt and undercooked at the same time.  It was hard not to like Mike, but (like most viewers) I was wondering what exactly he was up to.  And then there was the end, when the ladies read the note that Mary Alice received shortly before her suicide: “I know what you did, it makes me sick, I am going to tell.”  Mary Alice narrates beyond the grave that she did not want to burden her friends with this, and one of the ladies says, “Oh Mary Alice, what did you do?”

“Running to Stand Still” (Episode 6): My favorite part of this episode was when it showed Carlos and Gaby signing their prenup, as Carlos’ mother (or, as Carlos called her, his “Ma-MA) looked on.  Savvy woman!

“Your Fault” (Episode 13): Bree tells the pharmacist, George, about how she met her husband Rex.  She met Rex at the Young Republicans Club, and after meeting him she talked late into the night with him about big government and other issues.  (Incidentally, the actor who plays Rex was the Republican Speaker of the House in episodes of The West Wing.)  This stands out to me because I like it when television touches on politics.  And, although I am more liberal nowadays, I enjoy watching Republican TV characters, such as Archie Bunker and Alex P. Keaton.  As an honorable mention, I’ll refer to the opening scene of Episode 15, where we see that Bree has a huge picture of Ronald Reagan with a cowboy hat hanging on her wall.

“Sunday in the Park with George” (Episode 21): Susan is estranged from her boyfriend, Mike Delfino, because she has learned that Mike has a criminal record for killing a cop.  Susan goes to Noah Taylor’s house to question him about what happened.  Noah Taylor (played by Bob Gunton) is the wealthy father of Deirdre, who was Mike’s girlfriend (and Deirdre is now missing and dead).  Noah does not answer Susan’s questions, but Deirdre’s sister Kendra privately tells Susan what happened.  According to Kendra, Deirdre was a drug addict who had been in and out of jail, and an undercover cop caught her using and made her have sex with him in exchange for her freedom.  When Mike found out about this, he was furious and tried to put a stop to it.  When the cop pulled a gun on Mike, the two of them struggled and fell over the balcony.  Mike got up, whereas the cop died.  When Susan learns that Mike killed out of self-defense and went to jail for trying to save Deirdre, she cries and says “I knew he was good.”

“One Wonderful Day” (Episode 23): This was the final episode of Season 1.  In it, the mystery of why Mary Alice killed herself, what Paul Young was hiding, and why Mike Delfino was in Wysteria Lane is solved.  Essentially, Deirdre (a drug addict) sold Angela (a nurse) her baby, and Angela then changed her name to Mary Alice and moved to Wysteria Lane with her husband and her new child, whom the Youngs named Zach.  After Deirdre uses her rich father’s money to track Mary Alice down, she comes to Wysteria Lane and wants her child back.  Mary Alice thinks that Deirdre is still on drugs and does not want to give Zach up, so Mary Alice kills Deirdre.  But Mary Alice then looks at Deirdre’s arms and realizes that Deirdre had quit using drugs.  Mary Alice and Paul dismember Deirdre’s body, place its parts in a toy-chest, and bury the chest underneath what would later become their pool.  Mary Alice kills herself years later because Martha Huber, whose sister was a nurse who worked with Mary Alice back when Mary Alice’s name was Angela, knows that Mary Alice bought the baby, and Martha sought to blackmail Mary Alice in an attempt to solve her own financial problems.  In this last episode of Season 1, Mike Delfino takes Paul Young into the desert, points a gun at him, and demands to know what happened to his girlfriend Deirdre, but Mike does not shoot Paul after learning the truth; rather, Mike leaves Paul in the desert.  Mary Alice’s closing narration is inspiring, for Mary Alice says that she roots for her friends, even if she’s not sure that all of them will make it.

Season 2

“I Wish I Could Forget You” (Episode 6): Zach Young was the biological son of Deirdre and Mike Delfino, and the adopted son (if you will) of Paul and Mary Alice Young.  Susan pays Zach to go to Utah in search of Paul, since Susan wants to keep Zach away from her daughter, Julie.  Mike finds out about this and is upset with Susan, and he confronts her when she is trying on a wedding gown, hoping that Mike will propose to her.  Susan runs after Mike into the streets, crying and begging him not to leave.  After Mike drives away, the other ladies rush to the street to comfort Susan.  I love this scene because, a lot of times, we try to keep our pain private and hidden from our friends, and it’s beautiful when our friends can support us, even when we show our sadness in public.  You can watch the scene here.

“Coming Home” (Episode 10): Carlos has found religion, and the insidious Sister Mary wants him to go with her on a mission trip to Botswana, to Gaby’s chagrin.  When Carlos tells Gaby inside of a church that there are a lot of suffering people in the world, Gaby responds, “And there will be a lot of suffering people in this church if you don’t wipe that patronizing look off your face!”

“One More Kiss” (Episode 11): Betty Applewhite and her sons, Matthew and Caleb (who is developmentally-delayed), have moved to Wysteria Lane.  Nobody else in Wysteria Lane knows about Caleb at this point because his Mom keeps him locked up in the basement.  This is because Betty thinks that Caleb killed Matthew’s girlfriend Melanie in Chicago, after Melanie rebuffed Caleb’s request to be her boyfriend.  The residents of Wysteria Lane think that the Applewhites are hiding something, but they’re not sure what.  Melanie’s family hires a private investigator, Curtis Monroe (played by Michael Ironside), to track down Caleb.  Curtis enters the Applewhites’ residence to take Caleb hostage, and he falls through the stairs to the basement while his gun goes off.  Curtis dies.  When Betty and Matthew come home, they see Curtis’ corpse and decide to put it in his car.  The corpse is accidentally discovered by Susan, and the residents of Wysteria Lane gather to see what’s going on.  Betty at first says to Matthew that she is not worried, but, when she sees the ladies looking at her with suspicion, she says, “Now I’m worried.”  Betty was a mother who knew how to keep her cool, but she was worried that her secret would be exposed once the ladies started to talk.

“Silly People” (Episode 14): After Bree sneaks into the Applewhite’s home and sees Caleb in the basement, she demands that Betty tell her what is going on.  Betty tells Bree the story, and I’ll quote from wikipedia’s summary of it: “Melanie Foster was Matthew’s on-and-off girlfriend in Chicago. After one of their feuds, Caleb called Melanie and asked to meet her at the lumber yard. Melanie saw this as harmless and agreed to meet him. Caleb told Melanie that if he was her boyfriend he would never break up with her or fight. Melanie laughed in his face. Caleb tried to kiss her, but this made Melanie uncomfortable and she slapped him. This angered Caleb who picked up an axe and killed her. This, Betty believes, is the reason why she felt it was her fault and not his for not protecting him ‘from himself’ since she is his mother and could not see him going through imprisonment or even death.”  After hearing this story, Bree puts her hand over Betty’s hand to show compassion.

“Thank You So Much” (Episode 15): Bree has a drinking problem, and Lynette suspects that something is wrong after Bree babysits Lynette’s children and falls asleep, during which time the kids leave the house and go to town.  Lynette learns from Mrs. McCluskey that Bree was drunk, but Bree brushes off the accusation when Lynette confronts her.  Lynette looks through Bree’s garbage and finds a bunch of wine bottles, and she lines them up in front of Bree’s house (which would make an impression on the socially-conscious Bree!), leaving a note that says “Do you still think you don’t have a problem.”  Bree and Lynette then look at each other in silence.

Season 3

“Bang” (Episode 7): I’d say that this is my favorite episode of the series.  Laurie Metcalf plays Carolyn Bigsby, a former neighbor of Orson Hodge, who has recently married Bree.  Carolyn thinks that Orson abused and killed his first wife, Alma, and so Carolyn tries to warn Bree about Orson.  Bree then informs Carolyn that Carolyn’s husband, Harvey, is having an affair.  Carolyn is outraged, and she goes to Harvey’s supermarket and holds it up with a gun.  Lynette is in the supermarket with Nora, with whom Lynette’s husband Tom had a one-night stand (before he met and married Lynette) and a child.  Nora recently tried to seduce Tom, and so Lynette is upset with Nora (not that she liked Nora in the first place).  When Carolyn learns about this, she shoots Nora, who then asks Lynette to take care of her daughter.  After Nora dies, Lynette gives Carolyn a sermon about how life is hard, but we should deal with it.  When the hostages finally make it out of the supermarket safely, we see Lynette lying on a bed, having her recurring nightmare about the time that she saw Mary Alice shortly before Mary Alice’s suicide.  Lynette sees Mary Alice reading the note, “I know what you did, it makes me sick, I am going to tell”, but this time Lynette does something different.  She puts down her shopping bags, goes up to Mary Alice, and asks her what is wrong.  Mary Alice tells Lynette that she cannot save her, but that she should enjoy each beautiful day.  Mary Alice narrates that this was the last time that Lynette dreamed about her.

Season 4

“Sunday” (Episode 11): I wrote about this episode here.  It gets into such issues as going to church and the Bible to find answers, and the difference between ritual confession and genuine repentance.

“Free” (Episode 17): Season 4 introduced Katherine Mayfair into the series.  I will not describe her story in detail, but what happens in this final episode of the season is that her abusive ex-husband (a cop) finds her and threatens her, and he is killed.  Bree quickly gets her friends together to coordinate their stories so they can lie to the cops and protect Katherine.  I found this to be a beautiful scene because the ladies did not get along with Katherine before, but they came to have compassion for her.

Season 5

“Home Is the Place” (Episode 11): I talk about this episode here.  What I liked about this episode was that it highlighted how much Gaby had to give up to take care of her husband Carlos while he was blind.  Gaby (a former model) loved jewelry and beautiful clothes, but she had to give those up to meet the family’s expenses.  And Carlos had to decide whether to take a job working with the blind, which he felt would nourish his soul, or take a six-figure job in which he could be the shark he didn’t want to be.  For Gaby, he picked the latter.  I had to admire Gaby for the sacrifices she made, since she can easily come across as a shallow character.  But there’s depth there!

“The Best Thing That Ever Could Have Happened” (Episode 13): I talk about this episode here.  Beau Bridges plays Eli Scruggs, a handyman who helped people.  We learn that he did so because Mary Alice helped him when he was dirt poor, and he felt awful after she killed herself.

“Mama Spent Money When She Had None” (Episode 14): I talk about this episode here.  Gaby joins a boot camp to lose weight and fit into a dress.  When she does not show up one morning, the Israeli drill sergeant of the camp brings boot camp to her front door!  This episode is also noteworthy because Eedie gives Gaby a lecture about humility.  Eedie was good at giving convicting lectures, even though she herself was far from perfect.

Season 7

“Down the Block There Is a Riot” (Episode 10): Paul Young is exacting his revenge on Wysteria Lane because the residents abandoned him during his legal problems.  His revenge is to construct a halfway house for released convicts, which troubles the inhabitants of Wysteria Lane.  A disturbing riot erupts in protest, and Paul gloats to Lynette that the residents of Wysteria Lane are obviously no better than he is.  Lynette is sorry about her role in causing the riot.  This episode was disturbing rather than enjoyable, on account of the riot, but my favorite episodes are the ones that stood out to me, not always the ones that I enjoyed.

Season 8

“Always in Control” (Episode 7): The ladies are covering up that Carlos killed Gaby’s step-father (who raped her when she was younger and came back into her life to threaten her) and that they buried the body in the woods.  But Susan is in an art class, and her instructor (played by Miguel Ferrer, whom I know from The Stand) wants Susan to create honest art.  And Ben Faulkner, a construction man who has hired Mike, has learned from Bree about what she did to Gaby’s step-father (since Ben is using the land where the guy was buried). Ben asks Mike to bury the body under the concrete of their construction project, and he is surprised that Mike agrees to do so without question (for, unknown to Ben, Mike is protecting Susan).  As dramatic music plays, Susan paints a picture in which she and the ladies bury Gaby’s step-father.  And Mike is supervising as concrete is poured over the place where he buried the body.

“Suspicion Song” (Episode 8): Carlos is drinking heavily because he feels guilty about killing Gaby’s step-father, and his work suffers.  When a rich client learns about this from Gaby, he demands to see Carlos right away.  Right when you think that the client is about to chew Carlos out, the client pulls out his sobriety chip and strongly recommends that Carlos get help.  You never know who is in AA!

“Any Moment” (Episode 18): Mike Delfino has just been killed, and his and Susan’s son, MJ, is acting out at school.  Susan figures out a way that she and MJ can release their anger over Mike’s death—-they throw jars of jam (which were given to them as a gift) against the wall.  MJ throws the jars against the wall, and then he just drops a jar to the ground, with a look of dejection on his face.  This was a very sad scene.  At first, MJ was mad; but then he was just sad.

This series has made me laugh, cry, and think.  I picked my favorite episodes based on the ones that made the greatest impression on me.  I’ll miss Desperate Housewives, and I wish those involved with the show the best.

Stand Your Ground Laws

I can see some point to the controversial Stand Your Ground laws, even though I agree with critics that something is seriously wrong when those sorts of laws can be used to excuse George Zimmerman’s shooting of Trayvon Martin.  I’m saying this, not as a lawyer or an expert, but as someone who has begun learning about what those laws are.

I was thinking about this issue after I watched last night’s episode of Desperate Housewives.  In the story-arc for this season, the ladies have been trying to cover up Carlos’ killing of Gabrielle’s step-father, Alejandro, who raped Gabrielle when she was a teenager and returned into her life years later to threaten her.  Carlos whacked Alejandro on the head (and I think it was the back of the head) when Alejandro was giving the impression to Gabrielle that he had a gun and was implying his intention to rape Gabrielle.  But Alejandro did not actually have a gun, and so Carlos feared going to jail for killing an unarmed man.  That’s why the ladies buried Alejandro’s body and have been trying to cover up what Carlos did throughout this season.

But couldn’t Carlos come forward to the police and claim self-defense?  I don’t know.  A salient feature of Stand Your Ground laws is that they say that a person does not have to retreat before defending oneself from an assailant (see here).  A person can stand his ground, in short.  As I look at wikipedia’s summary of Florida’s law, my impression is that, had Carlos lived in Florida, he would have been able to claim self-defense, even though he did not retreat before he whacked Alejandro from behind.  The reason is that Carlos was protecting his wife from an attacker.  But suppose that Carlos lived in a state that required him to retreat before using deadly force, perhaps to show that he was the one who was defending himself as opposed to being the attacker?  In that case, I doubt that he could claim self-defense.

But should the Stand Your Ground law get George Zimmerman off the hook?  Jeb Bush, who signed the bill into law when he was Governor, says that he did not envision the law being carried out in that manner, for Zimmerman was the one who was following Trayvon Martin.  I think that I can see the purpose behind Stand Your Ground, but I wonder if there’s a way for the law to be written so that it cannot be abused—-so that it cannot allow people to shoot others unnecessarily in cold blood and to claim self-defense.

UPDATE: As often turns out to be the case when I write posts like this, the issue is more nuanced than I thought.  This article says the following:

“Florida’s increasingly controversial ‘stand your ground’ law was passed in 2005, eliminating the requirement that a person seek an alternative — like fleeing — before using force if they felt they were in physical danger. The National Rifle Association and other advocates had argued that citizens were being arrested for merely defending themselves.

“Florida, like many other states, has long held that citizens have the right to defend themselves in their own homes. Court rulings have expanded that right to include employees in workplaces and drivers in their cars. But there was long a reluctance to extend those rights to public places, so judges had ruled that citizens under threat must make some alternative attempt to violence to escape danger.

“In 2005, the Florida House of Representatives voted 94-20 in favor of a new, ‘stand your ground’ bill that eliminated the requirement to flee.”

My understanding is this: Even before the 2005 Stand Your Ground law, Carlos would have been able to claim self-defense, since Alejandro was threatening Gabrielle in Carlos’ own home.  If this occurred in a public place, however, Carlos and Gabrielle would have to seek an alternative—-like fleeing—-before using deadly force.  But the 2005 Stand Your Ground law gets rid of the requirement that people retreat before using deadly force in a public place.

The Loop; Introvert Power; Last Night’s Desperate Housewives Episode

I have two good quotes for today, as well as some thoughts on last night’s Desperate Housewives:

1.  Rachel Held Evans had some good Sunday Superlatives yesterday.  One of them was Brett McCracken’s In Praise of Being Out of the Loop.  McCracken says:

“I desire to be more out of the loop. I want to go a day without knowing what the Twitterverse is talking about. I want to let trending topics come and go without ever knowing they happened. I want to be like Marilyn Hagerty, who didn’t know (or care) that for the rest of the world, Olive Garden was ‘old news.’ I don’t want to care about something just because it’s hot right now and everyone is talking about it; I want to care about something because it is interesting, important, worth thinking about. I don’t want to blog, tweet, or talk about things I haven’t mulled over or wrestled with first. I want to resist the idol of quick-to-the-draw commentary.”

I love Olive Garden myself: the salad, the breadsticks, the pasta, the breadsticks!

2.  In the comments section under Rachel’s post, Dan from Georgia linked to a CNN article about introverts, which states:

“Our culture is biased against quiet and reserved people, but introverts are responsible for some of humanity’s greatest achievements — from Steve Wozniak’s invention of the Apple computer to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. And these introverts did what they did not in spite of their temperaments — but because of them.”

3.  Last night on Desperate Housewives, there was Mike Delfino’s funeral.  I was reminded of reasons why I (and probably so many other Desperate Housewives viewers) like Mike.  There’s his down-to-earth quality, the fact that he tried to help people, and how the mistakes he made in his life (i.e., drug addiction) made him into a fairly non-judgmental person.  As Julie (Susan’s daughter) noted, Mike wasn’t much of a reader.  But I loved Mike’s description of heaven to his son, M.J.: eating delicious hamburgers with the people you love more than anything in the world, fishing, cheering at a ballgame, etc.

Something else that I appreciated about last night’s episode was that I got to see some old faces, by which I mean, not faces that looked elderly, but rather past characters who were killed off: Carlos’ Ma-MA Solis and Rex Van der Kamp.

I am confused by one thing: Where did Tom meet Lynette?  I remember an episode from a while back that said that they met at work, and it showed a flashback of Lynette getting into an elevator where Tom was.  Last night’s episode coincided with that story—-though Tom and Lynette looked different in last night’s episode from how they looked in the flashback of Tom and Lynette meeting at work, for, in the flashback I’m thinking of, they look like they always look, whereas, in last night’s episode, they looked more 70′s-ish.

But I also got the impression that there was a version of the story that said that Tom and Lynette dated in college.  Does anyone else remember anything to that effect?

Remembering Mike Delfino

Desperate Housewives should be good tonight.  TV Guide says, “On the day of a beloved Wisteria Lane resident’s funeral, each of the housewives reflects on the effect this person had on their life.”

Of course, as those who watched last week’s episode know, “this person” is Mike Delfino.  I always liked Mike: he’s a good, down-to-earth guy.  I’d be a lot sadder about his death if it had occurred before the very last season of the series.  But I’ll enjoy watching the memories about Mike on tonight’s episode.

GCB

I watched part of ABC’s GCB last night.  GCB is based on the book Good Christian Bitches.  There are Christians who are screaming “persecution” in response to this show.  Some have glibly stated that there would be an outcry if there were a program called GMB, with the “M” standing for Muslim.  In this post, I’ll list some thoughts:

1.  I don’t think that Christians should only be portrayed positively in stories and media.  The impression I get from folks on the religious right is that any negative depiction of Christians amounts to persecution.  In my opinion, though, religious hypocrisy is fair game when it comes to stories.  We’d have to eliminate a lot of literature if we could only accept the stories that depict Christianity or religion positively.  George Elliott’s Middlemarch had a religious hypocrite, Bulstrode.  There was the cold guy in Jane Eyre who told young Jane that she was going to hell.  There’s Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter.  There’s the Bible!  Then, going to the evangelical realm, there are Christian movies that depict one or more Christian character negatively.  I think of the movie Hidden Secrets.

2.  I do like to see some positive portrayal of religion in stories and in media.  One reason is that many Christians are good folks, and their religion inspires them to do positive things.  Another reason is that faith and the search for meaning are a part of our (and many other) cultures, and so stories that talk about the big questions can be quite powerful, when they are well-written.  Overall, I feel that television, the movies, and books are positive when it comes to their depiction of religion and spirituality.  I think of such programs as Six Feet Under, Desperate Housewives, Dexter, LOST, and a host of others.  I did not watch all of GCB last night, for it did not particularly draw me in.  But I hope that it’s about much more than bashing Christians, and that there will be something deep and reflective about it (but I’m not optimistic).  The movie Saved! also lampooned the evangelical sub-culture, but I liked it because it had positive things to say about faith—-where it is right, where it can go wrong (in the author’s opinion), etc.

3.  I can somewhat sympathize with my evangelical friends who feel that society is tolerant of everyone and everything—-except for them.  What would the reaction be to a show that depicted Muslims, Jews, homosexuals, or African-Americans in a negative light?  Shouldn’t we refrain from condemning all groups, including evangelical Christians?

I do not have a good answer to this question.  I think that, on some level, evangelical Christianity is fair game because of its prominence in American society (though, of course, many evangelicals would claim that they are marginalized in the United States).  I myself am not against acknowledging that people may have problems with elements of Islam or Judaism.  The West Wing, for example, talks about Islamic extremists, but (in contrast to Islamophobes) it does not apply that label to all Muslims.  So I’m not sure where I land on this question of depicting groups.  I’m against stigmatizing entire groups of people, but I also realize that stories reflect reality, on some level, and there are times when people use their religion in evil ways.  In my mind, it’s acceptable to highlight that.

It’s Not Censorship (Technically-Speaking), But It Still Stinks

This will be a rambling post.

In a sense, I can identify with the companies that have pulled their sponsorship from Rush Limbaugh’s radio program.  These companies support such values as civility and respect for people, and they do not feel that Rush practices those values.  Consequently, they choose not to support Rush.  I understand and I respect that.

But I myself have no intention of trying to get Rush kicked off the air.  In fact, I’m getting sick of conservatives getting kicked off of programs, period.  I think of Pat Buchanan being fired from MSNBC due to pressure from a left-wing group.  In my opinion, we lose out when voices are silenced.  And, while we may think that society would be better off if certain voices were simply not heard, I believe that those voices should be addressed and countered through debate, not silencing them.  (I’m refraining from using the word “censorship” here because the government did not remove Pat Buchanan from MSNBC, and I define censorship as the government repressing freedom of speech.)

“But you’re a right-winger, James.”  Well, I’m more middle-of-the-road nowadays, maybe even center-left.  But let me say this: I’m not going to join right-wingers to get things kicked off the air, either!  The conservative American Family Association has long liked to target sponsors to get certain programs kicked off.  I have not joined them, for I happen to like the shows that the religious right dislikes (i.e., Desperate Housewives, Picket Fences, Brothers and Sisters, etc.).  L. Brent Bozell (nephew of William F. Buckley, Jr.) has for years sought to remove Family Guy from television.  I happen to like Family Guy.  I think it’s funny.  It goes too far at times, but I’m not going to support getting it kicked off the air.

Another pet-peeve I have: When someone expresses an opinion, people act surprised and outraged that he has expressed that opinion.  I have in mind Kirk Cameron’s recent comments on homosexuality, which GLAAD has criticized.  Look, criticize away, for this country is all about debate!  But should we really be surprised that Kirk Cameron made those comments?  He’s a conservative Christian!  Of course he feels that way!  There are many people in the United States who still believe that way!  I hope Kirk Cameron is not pressured to contrive some phony apology.  People are still entitled to their opinion, even if that opinion is wrong and (in the eyes of some, such as GLAAD) outdated.

I tend to admire people—-on both the Left and also the Right—-who acknowledge and respect that there are people with different points-of-view, whether or not they agree with those viewpoints.  Let’s go a step further.  I admire those who also try to understand why other points-of-view exist.

Is It Orson? Star Trek: Voyager Anniversary

I have two entertainment items for today:

1.  On Desperate Housewives, who is the one who is leaving Bree notes and ran over Officer Chuck with a car?  We know that it’s a man, for, last night, we saw his hands on the steering wheel of his car as he was watching Bree.  Here’s my guess: it’s Orson Hodge!  He ran over someone before—-Mike Delfino.  He was married to Bree for a while.  But the question is this: How, if it is him, did he find out that Bree and her friends buried the body of Gaby’s abusive stepfather?  Of course, the way that these ladies have been blabbing, it’s a wonder if anyone does NOT know by now!  But the person who left the note knew early on, when it was supposedly a tightly-kept secret.

2.  Today is the seventeenth anniversary of Star Trek: Voyager!  I love this series, probably more than other Star Trek series that I have seen.  I like the one where Harry debunked a group’s beliefs about its afterlife, and yet learned from Captain Janeway at the end that perhaps the people’s souls go somewhere after death.  I like the one where the Doctor (or, actually, a copy of the holographic doctor) awakens in the future and sees a misrepresentation of Voyager and its crew—-as part of a people-group’s history.  There are so many awesome episodes!  I watched Voyager when it first came on, but I fell in love with it when it was in syndication, probably because I was older at that point and could identify with things on it more.

Danforth Keeton’s Addiction

For my write-up today on Stephen King’s Needful Things, I will talk about Danforth “Buster” Keeton.  Danforth is a town selectman who has developed a gambling problem, and he’s getting on the radar of the authorities because he has been embezzling money on account of his gambling problem.  Danforth does not appear to acknowledge his own role in his difficulties, however, for he blames his “persecutors” rather than himself.  Danforth did not always have a gambling problem.  He was student council President in high school, and he made straight A’s at a business college.  He was responsible, he was organized, and he was going somewhere.  But when the head selectman, Steve Frazier, invited him to the race-track, Danforth went and got caught up in the excitement of the game and his surroundings, and he was also happy to have won some money.  Danforth rarely felt as if he were a part of anything, but he now felt included in something.

There’s a lot of interesting stuff there.  The narrative that I have heard from twelfth-step recoverers is that sobriety can help a person to go places—-that alcoholism is an elevator that only goes down.  In a sense, that is true.  Granted, as far as I know (and that is a key phrase, for there is a lot that I do not know, and I could be wrong even on this), studies do not indicate that people who don’t drink make more money than those who do drink.  Some have even referred to studies in which the opposite is shown to be the case.  But I do believe that alcoholics do better—-financially, socially, etc.—-when they do not drink, for drinking often does cost them relationships, money, and (in some cases) even their freedom.

The problem is that many with alcoholism or addictions feel as if they are outsiders.  I’ve heard stories from real-live people about this, but, to return to the imaginary world of our novel (or, actually, Stephen King’s novel), Danforth felt empty, even though he was going somewhere professionally.  Danforth was a part of things, for he was on the Board of Selectmen, and he had a wife.  But he only felt like he was a part of something at the track—-and the track also appears to be the only place where he experienced excitement.

I think that recovery includes a variety of elements.  A significant part of it is to try to help people with addictions to feel less like outsiders.  This is attempted through recovery groups, and also through the twelve steps, which help people to identify how they have wrecked their relationships.  Rather than blaming other people (as Danforth did), people with addictions take a good hard look at themselves to identify where they were at fault (which is not to say that they were necessarily the only ones at fault in their situations).  People have told me that they experience happiness when they become a part of a community and deal with their personal baggage, and they gain hope when they get advice on how to deal and to cope with the challenges of life.

One factor in the lives of many addicts is a craving for drama and excitement (which was what Danforth sought at the race track).  I do not know how that problem is addressed in every case, but I do know that many recovering addicts get to the point where they are tired of drama: they simply want for life to run smoothly, and, for them, that is more likely to happen when they are sober.

On a related note, I really liked the latest episode of Desperate Housewives.  Carlos is developing a drinking problem, and that is causing him to miss meetings at work.  When a rich client learns that Carlos has a drinking problem, he demands to see Carlos right away.  Right when we think that the client is about to chew Carlos out, the client shows Carlos his sobriety chip and tells Carlos his story about his own recovery.  The client is there to help Carlos, not to chew him out.