Bradley's Buzz

Is It Better To Have Not?

You may find it hard to believe but I'm not really a soap opera addict, I was never into was "Dallas" or "Dynasty" or "Melrose Place" or any other of those - it was only my beloved "Knots Landing" and after that show ended in 1993, numerous other night time soaps would pop up from time to time. None of them excited me except for a summer fling with "2000 Malibu Road" in 1993 but that had more to do with its starring Lisa Hartman Black than anything else. But when Fox announced the arrival of "Pasadena" I was finally excited. But as scheduling would have it, by the time I realized the show was on it had been put on hiatus.

A few months ago, Soapnet acquired the rights to "Pasadena" and I was finally able to watch the show. From the very first moment of the pilot I was hooked. In fact, the first episode is definitely one of the best pilot episodes ever done. Brimming with mystery and misery, I was hooked.

The whole series tells the story of the Greenlees, calling them an affluent family would not be doing it justice. This is Pasadena, California and the Greenlees own the town. The rich and famous have nothing on this family who run the newspaper and seem to own the cops and the entire Pasadena area. The whole thing begins when 15 year old Lily, home alone in her parent's mansion finds herself looking at an intruder. The guy holds up a locket asking the scared Lily if she knows the woman telling her that it was her family who killed her, right before shooting himself in the head, in front of her, in their living room!

It just gets better from there - told from Lily's perspective we are to believe this is the story before the "scandals, the murder" etc. Lily ends up befriending poor Henry Bellow, an out of town transplant on a scholarship at Lily's prestigious high school. No sooner has Henry settled into class before he is informing Lily of all of her family's corrupt secrets.

The series follows the main storyline of a muder mystery - who is the woman that was killed 20 years ago? Is she buried in the Greeley's back lawn? Which Greeley killed her? How could all these people be lying all these years?

What transcends is a very real, very disturbing story. I had orignally watched 7 episodes and then missed a couple and had to go back to get them on DVD. So finally last night I had a PASADENATHON. Watching episodes the last 6 episodes in a row. Sprinkled here and there with a bit of comedy, but mostly a very dark tale about an affluent family, with much too much loyalty and not nearly enough love.

After the final installment finally ended, I realized how affected I actually was. While watching "Knots Landing" and its fairly realistic interpretations of the modern family lives, I always knew I was watching a television show. But "Pasadena" felt like I was actually sitting at one of their family dinners and let me tell you that dinner left a bad taste in my mouth.

Through out the series, we are reminded that the "lies" Henry is putting into Lily's head - the lies that turn her against her own family - are brought on by Henry's obsession when he who has nothing but a brother, sees all that Lily has and wants it for himself.

The truth is much more sordid than that for Henry is really only trying to find a family he never had and the Greeleys' is by far not the family he even wants. Once the murder mystery begins to dissolve and both Lily and Henry realize what has gone down, the truth comes out that the entire family is an evil bunch who pride themselves on appearances and influence more so than love or anything substantial.

The cast is amazing and the writing is terrific, but what horrified me to no end (and still does today obviously) is the fact that these could be real people. People who would go to the lengths of murdering a best friend, hiding the body, framing someone for the murder, terrorize a teenage kid, ruin his entire life and then kiss and hug before having a "civilized" dinner where everything is wiped away by the time dessert is served.

Coming from the middle class or is it the upper lower middle class, I never once had the opportunity to push people around with my grandfather's influence, there is no trust fund, any house I buy I will have to pay for, my education I had to work for, and through it all I had my family. A family with nothing in terms of financial freedom but a loving family.

In the case of "Pasadena" the final thoughts left are if you knew your family had some horrible dark secret would you turn on them in order to do what was morally right? It's a hard decision and one most would say, "Absolutely not, you can't pick your family but you can be loyal..." etc. but when this is the family and there is much hatred so that all you have is loyalty I have to wonder.

Now I realize this is all just television, but in this rare instance, this television show has affected me so strangely. Perhaps if the show had a better ending, or more justice I wouldn't feel so crappy. But the fact is the haves kept what they had, the have nots didn't get justice and in fact left with even less than what they had when they were introduced.

In real life, this is probably exactly what would happen but in the case of a TV show, I think I want justice. Rarely is a TV show about the bad people and I've discovered that's exactly what "Pasadena" was, these were bad people. I rooted for Catherine (lily's mother) to get what I felt she deserved and in one riveting scene it looked like it may happen but alas it all came together in a completely different way.

Incidentally, Dana Delaney was great in her role - I know women like this, I know families like this - perhaps that is what made it all so disturbing.

So I have to say if being in a power packed family like the Greeley's leaves you feeling so bad, I have just renewed my pride in being born "poor white trash" - Give me Valene Clements Ewing and her middle class neighbors any day for as realistic as TV can be, I prefer to live in a little plastic bubble full of fritters, happiness and wondering how I'm going to come up with the money to pay my dentist bill.

posted by swivek @ 8:55 AM