Confessions of a Liberal Puritan

I've been recording the episodes of Paul Gross' addictive series "Slings & Arrows" on Friday nights, ever since I found out that the "Ovation" channel was running them (for anyone who gets this channel and is interested, I see they're starting to show a season 1 episode every weekday, with opportunities to view it at something like 11AM and 3PM Central Time, starting with "Oliver's Dream" today).

So, over the weekend (when not working in the garden, etc.) I finally took the time to sit down and watch the first two seasons (12 episodes) pretty much straight through. I've only got the first two episodes of the 3rd "King Lear" season recorded so far, and I hate having to wait, so I won't re-watch those episodes until I can see the full set of six altogether, if I want to.

And what struck me most from watching those first 12 episodes pretty much back-to-back over the course of three days (besides the talent of Paul Gross, of course, which is a given)? It's the almost-redemption of Richard, the business administrator (I say 'almost' because, thanks to missmurchison and her offspring, I've seen how season 3 ends for him). At the very end of season one, he finally 'gets it' while watching "Hamlet" from back-stage, and by the end of season 2 I honestly rejoiced with him that his head didn't end up on the chopping block, after all (the con-man's totally offensive ad campaign did attract a youthful audience in droves, at the eleventh hour). But then . . . he's going to sell his almost-restored soul and birthright of humanity by the end of season 3 for the ego-stroking of musical theater and a mess of not-very-nourishing pottage.

I guess it always saddens me when there's that "missed it by that much!" moment in any character's development, and the slight gloom of wasted potential or wrong choices.

It almost reminds me of my disappointment when Gul Dukat (who almost seemed to be on a redemption arc, for a while there on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine") returned to the 'Dark Side' -- if he ever truly left it -- and then went completely EVOL (and functionally insane, quite a bit of the time) in seasons 6 and 7. Yes, I know Gul Dukat was the butchering mass-murderer of the Bajoran occupation, but there were a few episodes involving his half-Bajoran daughter which seemed to suggest he might become the Cardassian equivalent of "a big fluffy puppy with bad teeth" (Spike's description of Angel in AtS 1.3).

And I was a Kira/Odo 'shipper from pretty early on, so it wasn't Dukat's 'interest' in Kira which made me hope he might actually become a decent person.

Although . . . I could argue that Damar was actually Dukat's other side, split off and projected onto a semi-separate character, and that therefore Damar's 'redemption' at the end of season 7, while Dukat himself was working towards the destruction of all life in the universe, could be read as an 'AU' ending for Dukat. But never mind!)

Oh, well . . . .

I keep hoping that "redemption is for everybody" -- but a lot of RL people and fictional characters make that a very tough case to argue!

[I'm off to the fitness center, now that I've waited long enough for everybody else to have vacated it -- still not ready to exercise with a crowd, yet!]