My non-political post of the day
It needs its own post because it is so vastly a different subject it's not even funny.
BRUUUUUUCE!
First order of business: my DVR is set to record Area 51 next Saturday night, even though I expect to be home. I am recording it because I cannot watch it right before bed or it will give me nightmares. Instead, I will watch it Sunday morning, and I will still probably hide under the blankets more than a couple of times.
Second order of business: Bruce and Melissa in Touched by an Angel - "The Peacemaker." Oh, wow. Just... wow. I cried! I cried so much! For all of the stuff he's done that's been terrible for whatever reason, the only time I tuned out during this episode was at the end when they did the whole "we are angels, and the Father wants you to know... blah blah." I was like - whatever, put the camera back on Bruce, I know he's making his I Am Emotional face.
I wonder - and will likely see if I can dig up - if this episode was written just for them. (That show often had special guest stars, and I'm not sure if they wrote the episode and then found someone to fill the role, or if they found their guest stars and then designed an episode for them.) It was done in 1998, which was before Bruce and Melissa had a son with drug problems, but other than that... well. My readering would suggest this is a pretty true-to-life portrayal of the Boxleitner household about that time.
Mark Tanner is the teenage son of Scott, a hostage negotiator for the police (Bruce - I know, surprise, surprise, he's a cop!) and Michelle, a painter (Melissa.) Right away we get the impression this family has already been through a lot. Mark is making a video to submit with a college application and eludes to the fact that he is a recovering drug addict. Then he puts the camera on his dad (YAY!) who puts it right out there. Mark got into trouble with drugs and ended up in rehab. It was a difficult time for the family. Scott and Michelle fought a lot and at times weren't sure their family would make it out of it all intact. But, they did. And now, as a tradition, they have "Tanner Coffee Time" each morning. On the surface, they're happy - but you can sense a tension underneath. There are things Mom and Dad aren't talking about.
Mark gets accepted to NYU. Yay YAY! BIG family celebration, in which Scott plays the piano (holy shit. Does Bruce really play the piano? And sing? Because that was definitely him singing, if not playing.) And then Michelle takes the acceptance letter and puts it in a "memory box" of a bunch of her son's things that she saves. Underneath the memory box is a mysterious manila envelope. (dun dun DUUUUN!)
So! Then we get a story about Scott and Michelle's marriage. Scott used to be a jazz musician (holy shit. A musician!) They were happy creative people yay! But... then came the baby, and Scott left his music and became a police officer. For their first anniversary, he got Michelle a watch. I don't remember how it comes up. She got him a matching one at Christmas that same year. The intention was to get them engraved, but it never happened, they didn't have the money, etc... and time just gets away from you...
Cut to: Mark is looking for his dad's leather jacket and stumbles upon the manila envelope. He opens it and finds divorce papers inside.
After this, Mark is acting strange. He needs money. He takes off with his bank book and both of his parents' watches. Michelle thinks he's back on drugs. Scott refuses to think about it in those terms. They fight. Scott storms out. He goes to work, where he gets a call about a hostage situation at the local bank. Mark is inside. He is shot and killed.
This is where I lost it: Cut to Michelle, in bed, in the dark. Scott joins her. He lays on his side facing away from her, and there's a long pause... and then he starts crying. Just sobbing, and crying, and it's not that "bein' a man, fighting the tears" thing John Sheridan was so good at, it's flat-out crying. And she holds him, and they cry together, and I... I just... waaaaaah! :( And then their marriage starts to fall apart. They fight more. He bails on Tanner Coffee Time. She accuses him of hiding in his work. They fight on their anniversary, and she blames him for their son's death and throws the manila envelope with the divorce papers inside at him. He doesn't open it; he knows what it is, and he just leaves.
More fighting the next day, lots of yelling, lots of high emotion and then a visitor comes to the door. it's an old guy (and the angel of death, whatev) who says - look, your kid was supposed to pay me $600 for this, but I don't feel right asking for it anymore, so here you go. And he hands them a video tape.
This was the other part where I lost it: the video is a bunch of scenes from home movies cut together and set to music, and they are real home movies! And they are so fucking adorable! The baby in the videos is obviously Mikey, and there are bits from their wedding (including this totally awesome part where they get rice thrown at them), and there's even a glimpse of Rick Biggs! In one scene, Melissa is dancing with Mikey, dipping him and they're both laughing and such, and you can see Rick Biggs dancing away in the background. I was just... just... *sobfest* And then the teenage son comes back on the screen and says, look, I found your divorce papers, but I really thought that was a bad idea so I ripped them up, hope you don't mind. In the envelope where the papers used to be are the watches they got each other years ago - and their son has had them engraved.
More actual, real crying from Bruce (and Melissa), and more crying from me.
And the episode is dedicated at the end - "For Garrett" - the child of a RL friend of theirs who died before Mikey was born, and Mikey's namesake (Michael Garrett Boxleitner.)
All in all - I've been wanting to see this for a long time, and for once it was worth the wait. You know, if you can get past all the religious morality at the end, which I conveniently left out of this summary anyway.
(That said, I should probably go say a few prayers for forgiveness, or something, because my RPF muse has been triggered in a big way.)
BRUUUUUUCE!
First order of business: my DVR is set to record Area 51 next Saturday night, even though I expect to be home. I am recording it because I cannot watch it right before bed or it will give me nightmares. Instead, I will watch it Sunday morning, and I will still probably hide under the blankets more than a couple of times.
Second order of business: Bruce and Melissa in Touched by an Angel - "The Peacemaker." Oh, wow. Just... wow. I cried! I cried so much! For all of the stuff he's done that's been terrible for whatever reason, the only time I tuned out during this episode was at the end when they did the whole "we are angels, and the Father wants you to know... blah blah." I was like - whatever, put the camera back on Bruce, I know he's making his I Am Emotional face.
I wonder - and will likely see if I can dig up - if this episode was written just for them. (That show often had special guest stars, and I'm not sure if they wrote the episode and then found someone to fill the role, or if they found their guest stars and then designed an episode for them.) It was done in 1998, which was before Bruce and Melissa had a son with drug problems, but other than that... well. My readering would suggest this is a pretty true-to-life portrayal of the Boxleitner household about that time.
Mark Tanner is the teenage son of Scott, a hostage negotiator for the police (Bruce - I know, surprise, surprise, he's a cop!) and Michelle, a painter (Melissa.) Right away we get the impression this family has already been through a lot. Mark is making a video to submit with a college application and eludes to the fact that he is a recovering drug addict. Then he puts the camera on his dad (YAY!) who puts it right out there. Mark got into trouble with drugs and ended up in rehab. It was a difficult time for the family. Scott and Michelle fought a lot and at times weren't sure their family would make it out of it all intact. But, they did. And now, as a tradition, they have "Tanner Coffee Time" each morning. On the surface, they're happy - but you can sense a tension underneath. There are things Mom and Dad aren't talking about.
Mark gets accepted to NYU. Yay YAY! BIG family celebration, in which Scott plays the piano (holy shit. Does Bruce really play the piano? And sing? Because that was definitely him singing, if not playing.) And then Michelle takes the acceptance letter and puts it in a "memory box" of a bunch of her son's things that she saves. Underneath the memory box is a mysterious manila envelope. (dun dun DUUUUN!)
So! Then we get a story about Scott and Michelle's marriage. Scott used to be a jazz musician (holy shit. A musician!) They were happy creative people yay! But... then came the baby, and Scott left his music and became a police officer. For their first anniversary, he got Michelle a watch. I don't remember how it comes up. She got him a matching one at Christmas that same year. The intention was to get them engraved, but it never happened, they didn't have the money, etc... and time just gets away from you...
Cut to: Mark is looking for his dad's leather jacket and stumbles upon the manila envelope. He opens it and finds divorce papers inside.
After this, Mark is acting strange. He needs money. He takes off with his bank book and both of his parents' watches. Michelle thinks he's back on drugs. Scott refuses to think about it in those terms. They fight. Scott storms out. He goes to work, where he gets a call about a hostage situation at the local bank. Mark is inside. He is shot and killed.
This is where I lost it: Cut to Michelle, in bed, in the dark. Scott joins her. He lays on his side facing away from her, and there's a long pause... and then he starts crying. Just sobbing, and crying, and it's not that "bein' a man, fighting the tears" thing John Sheridan was so good at, it's flat-out crying. And she holds him, and they cry together, and I... I just... waaaaaah! :( And then their marriage starts to fall apart. They fight more. He bails on Tanner Coffee Time. She accuses him of hiding in his work. They fight on their anniversary, and she blames him for their son's death and throws the manila envelope with the divorce papers inside at him. He doesn't open it; he knows what it is, and he just leaves.
More fighting the next day, lots of yelling, lots of high emotion and then a visitor comes to the door. it's an old guy (and the angel of death, whatev) who says - look, your kid was supposed to pay me $600 for this, but I don't feel right asking for it anymore, so here you go. And he hands them a video tape.
This was the other part where I lost it: the video is a bunch of scenes from home movies cut together and set to music, and they are real home movies! And they are so fucking adorable! The baby in the videos is obviously Mikey, and there are bits from their wedding (including this totally awesome part where they get rice thrown at them), and there's even a glimpse of Rick Biggs! In one scene, Melissa is dancing with Mikey, dipping him and they're both laughing and such, and you can see Rick Biggs dancing away in the background. I was just... just... *sobfest* And then the teenage son comes back on the screen and says, look, I found your divorce papers, but I really thought that was a bad idea so I ripped them up, hope you don't mind. In the envelope where the papers used to be are the watches they got each other years ago - and their son has had them engraved.
More actual, real crying from Bruce (and Melissa), and more crying from me.
And the episode is dedicated at the end - "For Garrett" - the child of a RL friend of theirs who died before Mikey was born, and Mikey's namesake (Michael Garrett Boxleitner.)
All in all - I've been wanting to see this for a long time, and for once it was worth the wait. You know, if you can get past all the religious morality at the end, which I conveniently left out of this summary anyway.
(That said, I should probably go say a few prayers for forgiveness, or something, because my RPF muse has been triggered in a big way.)