APART FROM identifying with Ally's idiosyncrasies (we're both insane, romantic lunatics) and emphatizing with her blues, I love the show Ally McBeal mostly for the songs as well as the tongue-in-cheek comedies provided by the other characters like John Cage. Here's an example:

"Love. We all want it. Don't all get it. I remember telling my mother in high school I wanted to wait for the perfect girl. And she replied, 'Idiot! Even if you found her, she might be holding out for the perfect man.' She also said I wouldn't recognize love unless it bonked me on the head.

And I retorted, 'Well, why don't you come along with me, mom, and if you see love, you hit me on the head so I'll know.'

It was difficult as a young man taking my mother on dates...

And then, one night, not a date night, but just one evening, I turned to my mom and, as I looked into her eyes, I could see... she was dead. She'd passed on quietly from an aneurysm, right there at the table. All she said was, 'Ip.' Sitting in a chair: a quiet little 'Ip.' It was her request to have her last words put on her tombstone. And I see people at the cemetery snickering when they read: "Joanna Cage. Beloved Mother. Ip." I miss my mother. Even though she's not here... I know she's still with me, smiling down on me... hoping I'll find love. "

See what I mean? Love angst coated in comedy and satire. Something that makes you vascillate between tears and cracking up in laughter. Genius!

May 22, 2005