What Comes Around Goes Around

Three things I loved, then hated, but now love again.

 

1 – Tom Cruise. OK, love is too strong. But I’m back on his side. I’m not quite sure when it happened, I suspect that my instinct for contradiction just kicked in somewhere around year two of the anti-Cruise campaign, and then escalated with the Tropic Thunder release and hit a plateau with the “I’m a nice guy” PR tour of late last year. (I believed him!) He hasn’t said anything truly crazy in a while, and what craziness he does have is pretty much limited to his religion. So it feels sort of weird for hating him for that.  His kid is cute and at this point, Katie is to blame for her own alleged unhappiness – she is still with him after all. Yes, he’s smug and a bit creepy. But he’s still Jerry Maguire you guys!

 

2 – ER. I bowed out of Grey’s Anatomy before the Denny-Izzy ghost affair fiasco. Back then it was just Alex and crazy new face lady and Mere/Der on and off again and Christina being annoyingly bitchy and Izzy being annoyingly schmaltzy, and ENOUGH ALREADY. And it was quite by accident that I actually watched ER again: one night I was one of those people who was literally too lazy to change the channel. (File me away with the Jay Leno audience.) And here’s the funny thing. ER was good. It was basic. It was a hospital drama where people were sick or hurt and doctors fixed them up. With some snappy dialogue and lessons learned along the way. Its simplicity was like a throwback to an easier time, a time when doctors didn’t turn lesbian on a dime and dead people didn’t come back to fornicate with lost loved ones.  Angela Bassett and John Stamos were easy to like (and easy on the eyes). And now I’m back in for the (dramatic voice) “final season of one of our most beloved shows.” Full disclosure – it was one of my most beloved shows not too long ago. I stayed loyal as long as Noah Wyle was in the mix and for a little while after. But they made Maura Tierney’s character such a downer (and such a central piece) that I drifted away. Today’s version is not really perfect – the Sam character has replaced Abby as the show’s Debbie Downer of a heroine. But it’s entertaining. And it hasn’t once made me want to throw something through the TV.

 

3 – Days of Our Lives. OK, this one is premature. But I only had two for this post topic and I recently saw a Days commercial and thought I should start Tivo’ing it for John and Doc’s final days. And part of me knows that the minute I do that I’m back in forever. I originally quit because I felt that their crazy devil possessed burying people alive alien visiting twin sister stealing antics were giving soaps a bad name. I still do think that. But I also appreciate a good melodramatic goodbye when I see one coming.

Salem

here I come!