Did you ever watch a TV show when you were in your teens or early twenties, and think it was so deep and insightful and the characters were big, mature grownups with real grownup lives and problems? And then maybe ten to fifteen years later, did you go back and rewatch it, realize that you are at this point older than the characters on the show are supposed to be (but, true to TV, not older than the actors playing them), and boy does it show?
So now that Ally McBeal is on instant watch, I've been rewatching it.
*cue Bender singing "Single female lawyer... having lots of sex..."*
When this was on and the coming thing (Brisco County Junior style), I was in college (it started in my freshman year). At that point, I was dating my first love, Dumpster Dave, and I couldn't even imagine how you'd ever get over someone you ever truly loved, and I deeply felt Ally's tragedy, and couldn't understand how Billy could leave her.
Now, rewatching it? Ally is rigoddamndiculous. They broke up YEARS ago, and she's still pining for the guy. And him? He sucks as a character, and I don't see why either of these women give him the time of day (really, I didn't then, either), but I can so see why he would be pretty tired of the girl he'd been with since puberty struck by the time grad school rolled around, and ready to try something new. And the whole office is just so unprofessional and inappropriate. This is nowhere near what I thought it was at 18. It doesn't reveal the great inner truth of life and the human experience like I was convinced it did. It's like Mr. Kuus rewatching Dawson's Creek all over again (that year and a half age difference was HUGE in college, I tell you hwhat).
Despite that, I really am enjoying it, in a Degrassi, guilty pleasure sort of way.
