Full Circle
2 weeks ago the hybrid of For Better or For Worse started with little Meredith not recognizing Grampa Jim or knowing who Gramma Marian was, or why they lived so far away from Milborough. Mike is on the verge of getting around to answering this question 2 weeks later, with what has to be, in today’s strip, a lead-in to some Gramma Marian strips.
I don’t recollect Michael Patterson venerating his Gramma Marian before, but I do have a fondness for the Gramma Marian strips. Her death in the strip, the preparations for it and the repercussions after it, spawned some of the best sequences ever in For Better or For Worse. Some people like the Farley death story and some people like the Lawrence coming out story; but for me it was Gramma Marian. Lynn Johnston got to deal with the idea of how a child does deal with the death of a parent, and how to treat the parent who is left. Moreover, back in those days, Elly handled it well, I thought. Grampa Jim moved in with Elly, and there was much bonding with young April and older Elizabeth. I liked these strips, because I really liked the persons the Pattersons were at that time.
However, I seriously doubt Mike Patterson is going to lead into Gramma Marian dying. My money is we are going to see one of those, “Visit Gramma Marian” strips which happened about once a year back in the old days. With any luck, we will get the younger Grampa Jim too, because I remember him being even grumpier and saltier when he was younger.
I don’t recollect Michael Patterson venerating his Gramma Marian before, but I do have a fondness for the Gramma Marian strips. Her death in the strip, the preparations for it and the repercussions after it, spawned some of the best sequences ever in For Better or For Worse. Some people like the Farley death story and some people like the Lawrence coming out story; but for me it was Gramma Marian. Lynn Johnston got to deal with the idea of how a child does deal with the death of a parent, and how to treat the parent who is left. Moreover, back in those days, Elly handled it well, I thought. Grampa Jim moved in with Elly, and there was much bonding with young April and older Elizabeth. I liked these strips, because I really liked the persons the Pattersons were at that time.
However, I seriously doubt Mike Patterson is going to lead into Gramma Marian dying. My money is we are going to see one of those, “Visit Gramma Marian” strips which happened about once a year back in the old days. With any luck, we will get the younger Grampa Jim too, because I remember him being even grumpier and saltier when he was younger.
posted by howard at 12:06 AM
12 Comments:
That seems to be the consensus on the LiveJournal: one or two Grandma Marian strips defaced by mush from the Mythologizer. It'll be so good to see her and really grumpy Jim again that I almost don't mind having the reminiscence annotated by a cretin.
Well, maybe we will luck out and Deanna will say something instead of Mike, but it certainly doesn't seem to be headed that way.
I don't think she'll be allowed to narrate until Lynn shows us how her evil social climber mother dragged her away from the earhly paradise that is Milborough into exile in the evil city of Burlington.
I liked the Marian strips also--it's tragic how far FBoFW has fallen. For a good while it was a slow decline; it seems like the last year and a half has been a runaway train wreck.
I wish Lynn had stopped when the characters were still likeable....
DJ
DreadedCandiru2,
Good point about Deanna and her narration. Lynn has mentioned giving us backstory on Deanna’s mysterious departure enough times, that is probably the reason why she has appeared. Considering how the Thérèse / Anthony marriage story retcon went, I will be surprised if she goes with the “Wilfred Sobinski saw an opportunity to open a hardware store in Burlington and so we moved” story.
DJ,
I think what happened in the last year and a half was that we have seen a lot of longterm storylines brought to an end for the purposes of wrapping them up by September, her original stop date. It has been so fast and furious, it has been jarring. For example, if Mike Patterson had gotten a few rejection notices for his novel, the story would have been more interesting and more realistic. However, that had to happen before Mike quit his job, which had to happen before they could decide to live in Milborough, and on and on.
The so-sickening-it's-funny thing about her probable attempt to convert Mira into Imelda Marcos will leave us even more firmly on her side. After all, look what happened when she tried to turn Anthony's ex into a monster: we ended up with an army of Therese-shippers.
DreadedCandiru2,
There is an art to making a good villain. If done right, the readers will cheer when the hero wins, but still have an understanding of why the villain did what he or she did. With Mira Sobinski, Lynn Johnston has most of these elements except for the main and crucial one---the villain actually has to do something villainous.
My problem with the treatment of Mira Sobinski is that many of the things she does are things I would like for my kids’ grandparents to do; and many of thing Elly does are things I would like for my kids’ grandparents not to do. The biggest criticism in the strip of Mira Sobinski is that she is overly-involved in her children and her grandchildren’s lives and that is somehow a bad thing. To me, that’s a proper grandmother. Buying your granddaughter a new outfit is not villainous. Defending your daughter against a testy lower apartment dweller is not villainous. Wanting your daughter to live in a nice house/apartment near to where you live is not villainous.
It's of a piece with her treatment of Therese. Expecting her future husband to dress better is no more villainous than expecting Mira's expecting Mike to be a better provider for her daughter. Expecting him not to eat like a slob isn't villainous either. Nor is expecting him to be loyal to her during their engagement and marriage and not gaze longingly at some pallid twit he had with whom a bland non-relationship in high school. Neither is expecting him to apply himself instead of rotting away as a book-keeper at a garage in a flaccid suburb. The only 'villainy' I can think of off the top of my head is her affair but how can you betray an oath that was false from the get-go?
DreadedCandiru2,
Between Mira and Thérèse, I see Lynn is afraid to have true villainy represented. I remember during the infamous school lunch table scene with the special needs kids and their taunters, none of those taunters was able to muster a decent or ugly or even coherent insult. There was not one comment with the word “retard” in it. So, when Shannon gets up to complain about being taunted, she is complaining about “Koo! Koo!” or “Winkies” or “Telling long-winded stories.” No wonder the kids in the school didn’t realize she was offended.
The sad part is that we also haven't seen real heroism in quite a while either. All we get are what Chris Rock calls low-expectation-having motherfuckers who expect praise for doing things they're supposed to be doing. Except for April's visit with Jim and Iris last winter, I can't recall an occasion where a Patterson did something nice without having to be prodded into doing it.
DreadedCandiru2,
Elly did bring Grandpa Jim a tuna casserole (his favourite). Of course that action could be interpreted as villainy or kindness by the casual viewer. In the Elly world of eating, it would have been noble sacrifice.
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