Goodnight Seattle

Whelp, I did it again…I finished another show…another 11 season show to be exact…

That's right..."Frasier" is finished!

Remember WAAAAAYYYYY (and by way I mean beginning of February) back when I wrote this post about finishing "Cheers?"  Well the reason I started watching "Cheers" was because it was the precursor to "Frasier."  I’ve seen maybe one "Frasier" episode in my life.  But when I first got here and my computer was broken, there was one channel on TV that had about a four hour gap of English speaking sitcoms, one of them being "Frasier."  And I kind of got addicted.  I mean who doesn’t love David Hyde Pierce?

So once again lets break out the calculator.  11 seasons, 263 episodes, 110 days equals out to…2.3 episodes a day.  Which equals to about an hour.  So now all of you sitting there catching up on six seasons of "Lost" in one month realize you can’t judge can you? (P.S. I haven’t seen one single episode of Lost.  And I really don’t care.  Apparently my mom and I are going to watch it when I get home.)  And I’m not really one for repetition, so I skipped practically an entire season from when I had watched it three months before on TV.  So it’s even less…just saying.

Ok so what do I think of it?  Well…Kelsey Grammar got the hang of Frasier.  After playing him for twenty years, you’d hope so.  But I think my favorite character is Martin, dad, played by John Mahony.  But my favorite actor is Pierce.  Because he’s just so cute.  And so in love with Daphne.  It takes some good acting and writing to make me invested in one love story for eleven years worth of episodes (Diane left Sam after season 5, Ross and Rachel got tiring around season 7.)  And again…so many guest stars!  I love it!!  And it’s funny!  But in that pretentious, glad I listened in school kind of way.

Anyway, when I settled down to watch the series finale, I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I like watching these shows from start to finish, but investing four months of my life in them is a lot different than eleven years.  But then Frasier’s final monologue happened…

You all know how I feel about you, and the only reason I'm leaving is because I want what all of you have now: a new chapter.  Who knows if it'll even work out? But it's like that Tennyson poem Mom had us recite for us when we were kids.  Do you remember? […]

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down,

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, and though

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are,

We are made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

I've been thinking about that poem a lot lately.  And I think what it says is that, while it's tempting to play it safe, the more we're willing to risk, the more alive we are.  In the end, what we regret most are the chances we never took.  And I hope that explains a little this journey on which I'm about to embark.

And I just felt it ended perfectly. That poem is from Ulysses by the way. And it summed up exactly what I have been feeling through this whole journey.  Who would have thought a TV show could have done that?

So for now, goodnight.  And I’ll see you when I’m done taking my chances.

Oh yea...and now I need a new tv show?  Preferably one already finished, so I can watch it from start to finish.  Any suggestions?

Word of the Day: kans - chance