my favorite show of my life, thus far. I was hooked on it when it first aired. I was in high school then, but never finished the series. A mix of it not coming out every week and my short attention span and or impatience, and maybe extracurriular activities? It was so long ago. Oh, ha! I also was undergoing chemo n whatnots by the second season, now that I think about it and do the math, and was spending longterm in hospital with people constantly around me coming and going. So this was probably a lot to do with life schedule just kinda shifting and some things got lost in the shuffle I suppose.
Anyway, I have long remembered this show as being probably the one to have burned the sincerest impression on me back in my hyper-media-consumption days. I remember watching episodes every once in a while thereafter the hospital period, but we didn't have tivo, and I probably didn't want to know too much having missed chunks n bits, so staved off seeing the later seasons. Then, I didn't always have TV for a good ten or so years, being more the ever-moving somewhat-off-grid type. Having now been in place for a couple years I've finally taken upon myself to watch from the beginning.
The seed of having watched the series when it first came out and highly valuing what I had so far seen, sitting latently within me for eighteen years and then following through to the end today. -- What a culmination of feelings! Also, such a gratifying binge show! I remember watching one episode a week (and often it took two weeks between airing episodes, I think even sometimes there were three weeks between episodes! but I see why they chose to -- per prioritizing the show's quality!) -- and now to binge it -- whoa. What an ongoing cinematic investment in the story. I laughed a lot throughout the show. Delightful. From an orange peel smile to hilarious random references and the clever quips. My emotional investments into the stories of the characters. Oh man so good. And such honest tension and awkwardness and multiple perspectives -- I love seeing media which portrays a myriad of various viewpoints and thoughts and beliefs, as it enriches the experience and makes it feel that much more real to me. I bawled and bawled and released so many of my own blocks within my own body just watching through this and feeling genuinely affected by witnessing the dynamics in the characters' relationships. I could identify with them, and found myself understanding that, hell, I was holding on to a lot in my own various life episodes and chapters and relations, and how I've modified and coped and hardened and responded in ways that have just come to creep up on me in life.
Amazing. I haven't cried so significantly in several years now, and this was a blessed catharsis. Thank you to every human and part and bit that made the motions for this piece of a beautiful thank you gift to humanity to come to exist. Ahhhhhh!!!