A Question of Family

The long horrible winter continues, and as such, I did not do much other than curl up on the couch and read a great deal, and watch a bunch of movies and tv. While flipping thru the channels, I came across a marathon of an old classic sitcom called "Beverly Hillbillies." Now this show surely will never be regarded as highbrow entertainment in the least lol, but it involves a ragtag family and their various escapades in Hollywood. Of course there have been a multitude of 'wacky' family sitcoms aka Adams family, the Munsters-not all were just Brady Bunch or Cosby or Rosanne or Everybody Loves Raymond. I grew up watching these shows but it had been ages since I've seen them, and I was struck by regardless the absurd situation, at the end of the day, the characters always retreated home and back to their family.

In the same vein there was much ado in the media this weekend as the wife of Ashton Kutcher (currently starring in David Mackenzie's "Spread") is on the cover of a leading fashion magazine again, and gave a good interview, where Demi Moore spoke about her relationships, addressed all the flap over her being with a younger man, and their family and relationship with her ex etc. I honestly don't get what the fuss is over her relationship and the fact that their families still get along. I mean there are a plethora of divorced people and remarriages and extended families everywhere I go so I am still amazed that this concept of these things actually working remains fodder for the press. Why society feels a need to judge you if you date a younger man I'll honestly never understand, or why the media obsesses that she and her current husband get along with her ex I honestly don't get, but I guess generate sales at the newsstand, so I guess that is the bottom line.

While I was reading the reaction to this interview, I saw as well that summaries and pages for Rounding up Donkeys are finally hitting the mainstream sites such as Yahoo and even the New York Times. The teaser description for Donkeys (not sure who sent that out) is reading "Facing a serious, life-threatening illness, Alfred Patterson decides to make amends for his past errors and neglect of family. He seeks out his estranged daughter Jackie and her twelve-year-old child, but the more he tries to do the right thing, the more he continues to do wrong."

Now again this makes me wonder on the character of Jackie- where did this 12 year old daughter come from? So I take it this is 12 years after Red Road? Is she a single mom or is Martin Compston's character somehow involved? I think that icky boss she was having an affair with too had a daughter-is this the same? hmmm

The press release on the second film in the Advance Party trilogy states:

"The films take place in Scotland but apart from that the writers are free to place them anywhere according to geography, social setting or ethnic background. Their back-stories can be expanded, family relations can be created between them, they can be given habits good or bad, and secondary characters can be added if it is proper for the individual film.

“The interpersonal relationships of the characters differ from film to film and they may be weighted differently as major or minor characters. The development of the characters in each story or genre does not affect the other scripts."


It doesn't say a story can be revised per se so that means ( I hope) that her daughter didn't actually survive ala Dallas and Bobby Ewing and it was all a dream type thing lol but I am most curious to see how they will have progressed her storyline. So, ok...James Cosmos character wants to go back to his estranged family- ooh family! There it is again! I think its a fair statement that families depicted in the various films of Sigma are err... non-traditional, yet the love remains as a basis and at the end the love is there (and yes esp Young Adam and Asylum both involved 'traditional' families/relationships at the begining sorta, but then turned them on their head ). Look at Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself, Dear Frankie, even Hallam Foe you could say made peace of sorts with his past (although I doubt he sent a card at Mothers Day to Verity lol), these films all dealt with the issue of 'family' and non traditional ones and the relationships in an honest and true manner. These were families and people in situations you see here in every day life and that is why I like them, and I think these films will stand the test of time and make for quality productions (and lol they are most certainly not like the hillbillies and their pots of 'black gold' and Jethro wanting to become a knight lmao and Jed as an admiral is classic) Regardless I can't wait to hear more about Donkeys and hope the plot for this will make for a good story, just as in Red Road.