Another Coffee Talk Entry Ignored
Served up for your enjoyment and delectation, another Coffee Talk entry which was not chosen to be used:
Last week’s story about Thérèse and Anthony’s marriage was a little disappointing. Lynn Johnston had already established that Thérèse worked for Anthony’s father in the August 3, 2002 strip. She had also already established that Anthony’s father was a successful businessman judging from the New Years’ Eve party he threw for his business associates in the January 1, 2002 strip. Even though the August 25, 2007 strip mentioned Thérèse had an affair with a co-worker, Lynn failed to mention that person would have also been an employee of Anthony’s father, and more importantly if there were any consequences to their employment due to the affair and the divorce. Surely the boss would notice, if his daughter-in-law divorced his son to go live with someone else who worked for him.
For that matter, it has never been told exactly why Anthony Caine continued to work for Gordon Mayes after he graduated from university, instead of working for his father to prepare to take over the family business. When the strips started talking about Thérèse Caine again, I thought we would finally get to see this aspect of the story. Aside from Thérèse talking to her parents by herself, the couple seemed to be operating in a vacuum with no family support whatsoever. Lynn Johnston has once again failed to mention the dynamic of Anthony’s family in his marriage, his divorce, and in his life as a single parent; which is odd considering her usual attention to detail and how vivid a portrait she painted of Deanna’s parents, Mira and Wilf Sobinski. Since Elizabeth Patterson seems to be on the path to marrying Anthony Caine, it seems like a significant missed opportunity to reintroduce those characters into the storyline. It was a little disappointing.
Last week’s story about Thérèse and Anthony’s marriage was a little disappointing. Lynn Johnston had already established that Thérèse worked for Anthony’s father in the August 3, 2002 strip. She had also already established that Anthony’s father was a successful businessman judging from the New Years’ Eve party he threw for his business associates in the January 1, 2002 strip. Even though the August 25, 2007 strip mentioned Thérèse had an affair with a co-worker, Lynn failed to mention that person would have also been an employee of Anthony’s father, and more importantly if there were any consequences to their employment due to the affair and the divorce. Surely the boss would notice, if his daughter-in-law divorced his son to go live with someone else who worked for him.
For that matter, it has never been told exactly why Anthony Caine continued to work for Gordon Mayes after he graduated from university, instead of working for his father to prepare to take over the family business. When the strips started talking about Thérèse Caine again, I thought we would finally get to see this aspect of the story. Aside from Thérèse talking to her parents by herself, the couple seemed to be operating in a vacuum with no family support whatsoever. Lynn Johnston has once again failed to mention the dynamic of Anthony’s family in his marriage, his divorce, and in his life as a single parent; which is odd considering her usual attention to detail and how vivid a portrait she painted of Deanna’s parents, Mira and Wilf Sobinski. Since Elizabeth Patterson seems to be on the path to marrying Anthony Caine, it seems like a significant missed opportunity to reintroduce those characters into the storyline. It was a little disappointing.
posted by howard at 3:45 PM
3 Comments:
Howard, it blows my mind to see the attention you give to each and every detail of a story. I agree with all that you say but I’m not disappointed because I don’t think anyone else could do a better job in this genre of story telling. In fact, the contradictions that you point out amuse me.
Today I heard another case of real life emulating FBORFW. A new teacher was describing how she met her husband. She had been in a car accident and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. From her hospital bed she called the EMS worker who got her out of the car. To make a long story short, they married and now have three children. And the best part: her name is Dana!
Anon NYC
Anon NYC,
That story about the teacher meeting her husband is shockingly similar to For Better or For Worse. Now if Mike and Deanna can just have a 3rd child.
I don’t think anyone else could do a better job in this genre of story telling.
I think it depends on how you define “this genre of story telling.” If you are just talking about strips where the characters age: Gasoline Alley, Doonesbury, Funky Winkerbean, Baby Blues, and Jump Start; the competition is pretty stiff.
I used to read several of the strips on your list; Funky Winkerbean is the only one that can still hold my interest.
Anon NYC
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