I am a big buff for sitcoms.. I started to watch American sitcoms in my late teen years and still continues to do so... The thing with sitcoms are, you never wonder about its ending.. you just enjoy each episode minute by minute, week by week, month by month, season by season... frankly..you don't want it to end.. you sort of live it up... you become one of the characters in the series... either the protagonist..or someone close to them.. and in your head... you are giving out all these facial reactions to someone else's weirdosities (I don't know whether such a word exists..but it sounds just right now)... and hear the audience going crazy over something you have said or did... you are happy and well paid in your head...
But when the series ends... I feel this big emptiness... I miss the show, the characters and everything related to them... and I began to wonder what happened to those people in real life.. where are they now and what are they doing?? May be that's because.. you don't see the actor.. you see the character... you are concerned about them... You don't care if Jennifer Aniston broke up with Brad Pitt for cheating on her with Angelina Jolie... even if you were, you will pass it... but when Rachael broke up with Ross, for cheating on her with the girl at the xerox place with the belly button ring... you were concerned... you wanted her to forgive him and get back together..even though it was his fault...
Recently, I happened to catch the season finale episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond, FRIENDS and Frasier... When I realised that it is the last episode that I am going to watch of that particular show, I was overwhelmed. Thinking they are leaving me and would only come back as re-runs and that made me feel, well.. kind of sad..
Anyways.. there I was watching the season finale episode, not knowing how it is going to end...
The one thing I have noticed in the endings of the sitcoms is the change the characters overcome. Change in their life, career, relationships, appearance and in many other areas.
I found the ending of Everybody loves Raymond a bit different from this.. nothing is changed there... the meddling parents are still across the street paying helpful visits every five minutes, the giant in secured brother is visiting as always, the wife is upset and angry for reasons which a man will never understand, the kids are angels and Raymond is being an idiot as usual... I mean.. nothing changed.. they are going to live like that for the rest of their lives..then why couldn't they have continued the series...
The ending of FRIENDS on the other hand... showed some class... at least some class to me...the six main characters... 5 of them got married.. 2 pairs married each other and had kids... one of them out of the 5 married an outside guy.. that itself shows change... now they are not the urban singles who hangs out in their uptight high maintenance chef friends' beautiful apartment with a balcony.. they had their own life and things to take care of.. they left the apartment and bought a new house as they now had kids.. which was a wise decision. And what about the 6th one.. what is he doing?? nothing happened to him.. he is not married or in a serious relationship.. his career was not taking him anywhere... all his friends were leaving him... the show ended with an uncertainty on this character...
I was a bit worried about thinking about him... I mean.. what is going to happen to him without his FRIENDS.. Well.. I didn't have to worry that much.. they started a spin off series with him in the title role and without his buddies...but for that, he had to move.. move from The Big Apple to Hollywood..new place, new people and new life..
Same was the case with Frasier... Frasier moved from Boston to Seattle in search of a new life... thus the show 'Frasier' begins... After 11 years of being a successful radio therapist..having ups and downs in his romantic life... meeting so many people... having constant differences with his family in a funny way..his brother getting married for the 3rd time and becoming a father, his father getting married for the 2nd time and his bestfriend getting promoted as the station manager...Frasier is offered a job at San Francisco with more pay and benefits.. but he hesitates at first.. as Seattle is his hometown.. the place where he grew up and where his family is... but when sitting at home alone on a rainy day looking out from the balcony door... he changes his mind and decides to take this big risk...so he flies to San Francisco to take up the new job... On the final episode, Frasier talks about how a man should take risks in their life... Taking a risk means you are willing to change...
When I saw that final episode of Frasier, I started to think about my own life... My life is a somewhat perfect example of how I accept change..All my life, I was living the same way... same town,same house, same address, same phone number, same food,same plate, same cup, same brands, same type of dresses, same friends, same neighbours, same hairstyle, same genre of movies, same TV shows, same places for shopping, same library..and to top it all.. same parents and same brother..-just kidding- and what was wrong with it?? I will tell you what was wrong?? NOTHING...absolutely NOTHING... my life was just fine.. I was surrounded with good people..good food and living in the middle of luxury... I may have to disagree with the hairstyle and dresses..I was never happy with either one of them..but apart from that.. I was in heaven...well..not exactly..but something close to that...
At some point in that due course I started to miss out something...I didn't know quite what it was.. but I was certain..there is something..or in fact.. so many things..I seemed to be holding on to something which never belonged to me in the first place... I didn't want to end up living in my past... I wanted a change.. a change from everything I was so far..I wanted a new chapter in my life... I wanted to start a new series in my life.. I realised if I stay where I was right then..nothing new is going to happen to me.. I will be the victim of a mega serial instead of a reality show.. so I decided to take a risk.. a risk that most of the women of my age will hesitate to take.. I decided to travel from safety to uncertainty.. which seemed impossible for a girl like me... who was always been taken care of, lived in the lap of luxury... for whom any problem can be solved with a phone call... who had a TV, a phone, a computer, a room, and a toilet for herself...
But when I decided to take this risk... the reaction of the people around me surprised me a little bit.. I thought they will be concerned and will try to make me change my mind... but I was wrong.. you know what they said.. they said.."we knew this would happen one day". There weren't surprised or worried about me.. on the other hand..they had confidence and faith in me... and for some reason they are sure that I am going to be more than OK with my new life... ha...amazing...
If I hadn't made this particular change in my life... try to find out what I really want out of it.. I guess..I would have been at my same old house watching the same old re-runs, chatting with my same old friends (which I still do, by the way).. I would have missed out an entire chapter of my life... I think it is like that saying..."Where it appears to be the end of something...it is actually the beginning of something else"...
And now.. I couldn't stop worrying..thinking that..My life is actually getting started....in my way...Oh boy!!!
