November132009

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#37—Fake families This is almost an offshot of #20, “Familial relationships (of which I am jealous).” In lots of books and television shows, great characters bind together to create a tight, faux-family unit, and it’s always been one of media kinks. You throw me a group of roommates who have managed to become siblings to each other, and I am there. #37—A: Judith Hagendorf, Oliver Sabel, and Christian Mann of Verbotene Liebe Judith moved into the flatshare in Düsseldorf in a flurry of controversy—Christian’s girlfriend Coco had just moved out to pursue her DJ dreams in Goa, Oliver’s uncle decided to move to Berlin for a better job opportunity, Christian and Oliver had awkward, unresolved sexual tension—and quickly revealed hersef to be awesome by: telling Ollie and Christian they were an adorable couple. explaining that she was an architecture student who worked with a construction company in the field a lot, and then proceeded to wear a lot of hardhats. had no issues with not being fifteen or twenty pounds overweight, and in a nice show of writing was pursued by the most attractive guy on the show—and she rejected him. A lot. Christian did not appreciate her assumption that he and Oliver were together but the rest of their introduction went so well that she immediately moved in with them, and they became the best siblings ever. Christian and Ollie soon did get together, and she teased them mercilessly, and she had so many boy issues they could never keep her love interests straight. They never squabbled over chores but spent a lot of time watching terrible movies. They eventually took other roommates, but Lydia was never as interesting, and Constantin really only moved in to try and win over Judith again—and again she rejected him, so he moved to London. This trio was always the core of the flatshare. But then, inexplicably, without warning, last month Constantin came back to Düsseldorf for a few weeks to visit family and Judith had decided, in his absence, that she did love him, but as she tried to tell him her feelings he revealed he lived with a girlfriend in England. Heartbroken, she threw herself into her classes, until the night Constantin had to leave when he showed up outside the flatshare and told her he dumped the girlfriend and begged her to come with. And after a few minutes of deliberation, she packed a duffelbag, decided she’d figure out the school situation later, and gave Christian and Oliver a quick goodbye and hopped off to London. Just like that, their family was gone. I miss it so much but, in tribute to the awesome year-and-a-half that these three were siblings, they are the inaugural fake family. More will follow. (This photo is awesome, right? I have no idea what the logic for such a photo is but here it is. It appears to be from an edition of the Verbotene Liebe calendar in Germany which featured different groups of the show’s characters posed weirdly surrounded by flowers at a castle used prominently in the show. I am not complaining—this picture is the best thing I’ve ever seen. Why do you have to sneak around at a castle to get your own Christmas tree? I do like, however, that these are the three posing for the December photo, with the photo directly relating to an important family holiday—there are plenty of other characters on this show, many biologically related, but none seem to be as much of a family as this group, and even Verbotene Liebe seems to recognize that.)

#37—Fake families

This is almost an offshot of #20, “Familial relationships (of which I am jealous).” In lots of books and television shows, great characters bind together to create a tight, faux-family unit, and it’s always been one of media kinks. You throw me a group of roommates who have managed to become siblings to each other, and I am there.

#37—A: Judith Hagendorf, Oliver Sabel, and Christian Mann of Verbotene Liebe

Judith moved into the flatshare in Düsseldorf in a flurry of controversy—Christian’s girlfriend Coco had just moved out to pursue her DJ dreams in Goa, Oliver’s uncle decided to move to Berlin for a better job opportunity, Christian and Oliver had awkward, unresolved sexual tension—and quickly revealed hersef to be awesome by:

  • telling Ollie and Christian they were an adorable couple.
  • explaining that she was an architecture student who worked with a construction company in the field a lot, and then proceeded to wear a lot of hardhats.
  • had no issues with not being fifteen or twenty pounds overweight, and in a nice show of writing was pursued by the most attractive guy on the show—and she rejected him. A lot.

Christian did not appreciate her assumption that he and Oliver were together but the rest of their introduction went so well that she immediately moved in with them, and they became the best siblings ever. Christian and Ollie soon did get together, and she teased them mercilessly, and she had so many boy issues they could never keep her love interests straight. They never squabbled over chores but spent a lot of time watching terrible movies. They eventually took other roommates, but Lydia was never as interesting, and Constantin really only moved in to try and win over Judith again—and again she rejected him, so he moved to London. This trio was always the core of the flatshare.

But then, inexplicably, without warning, last month Constantin came back to Düsseldorf for a few weeks to visit family and Judith had decided, in his absence, that she did love him, but as she tried to tell him her feelings he revealed he lived with a girlfriend in England. Heartbroken, she threw herself into her classes, until the night Constantin had to leave when he showed up outside the flatshare and told her he dumped the girlfriend and begged her to come with. And after a few minutes of deliberation, she packed a duffelbag, decided she’d figure out the school situation later, and gave Christian and Oliver a quick goodbye and hopped off to London.

Just like that, their family was gone. I miss it so much but, in tribute to the awesome year-and-a-half that these three were siblings, they are the inaugural fake family. More will follow.

(This photo is awesome, right? I have no idea what the logic for such a photo is but here it is. It appears to be from an edition of the Verbotene Liebe calendar in Germany which featured different groups of the show’s characters posed weirdly surrounded by flowers at a castle used prominently in the show. I am not complaining—this picture is the best thing I’ve ever seen. Why do you have to sneak around at a castle to get your own Christmas tree? I do like, however, that these are the three posing for the December photo, with the photo directly relating to an important family holiday—there are plenty of other characters on this show, many biologically related, but none seem to be as much of a family as this group, and even Verbotene Liebe seems to recognize that.)

November112009

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#36—One Life to Live

I’m sure everyone is sick of my love of soaps, but let me gush. These are my obsessions, after all.

In the brief time I’ve gotten into soap operas, there have been a few articles that all start the same way: One Life to Live is the best soap on television right now. Every news piece and blog entry is persistent. The show just finished the extended gay wedding storyline that featured the first all-male love triangle on daytime television, and admittedly a lot of these articles are from the gay press—but not one of these articles is wrong. The gay wedding plot made for landmark storytelling not because it was the first gay wedding on daytime television—it wasn’t—but because it was well-executed. Oliver came out on national television, and Kyle realized there was no longer any real reason to deny his feelings for his college boyfriend, so he decided to be honest as well: he told Nick he was not in love with him and left him at the alter. Dorian, in an effort to secure votes the day before the mayoral election, married her lesbian campaign manager all while hoping true love David Vickers would arrive at the ceremony to rescue her. Unfortunately David was already en route to London to put distance between himself and his heartache, and only became aware of Dorian’s feelings through a voicemail he listened to all too late as he watched her kiss her bride on television. Markko and Cole, supportive of gay marriage but aware that Dorian was staging the mass wedding to get elected, decided in the end to attend the wedding to support the many couples there who did love each other, and to support their girlfriends who had chosen to attend.

But the wedding, after all the weeks of planning, came to an end last week. The show is now winding down election day, with the mayoral race so close it will come down to the final vote. Kyle and Oliver have talked through the years they were separated and are starting anew. Layla, after telling Christian she could never be with him without her comatose sister’s approval, decided to move on with her life and let them be together without throwing obstacles in their path. David Vickers felt that with Dorian married to a woman there was no place for him in Llanview, and he decided to stay in London. Destiny returned to Llanview having not told Matthew she loved him. The characters who quietly took a backseat as the wedding heated up are now front and center in a stalking-murder-secret-father mystery, and as that plot develops, it has managed to leave me surprised at the end of every episode.

It’s a shame then that this show is the least-viewed of ABC’s daytime offerings. Had Aisha Taylor’s talk show pilot done better with test audiences, the show would not be on the air right now.

There are a lot of soap opera prognosticators on the internet, and none of them seem to agree with each other about the future of the genre. All soaps are down from five years ago, and plenty of soaps are down just in the past year. Days of Our Lives is up, even up in the coveted women 18-34 demo, and no one seems to know why. Daytime soaps are bleeding viewers where talk shows, like The View, are up. Everyone seems to think soaps need to innovate, but only one blogger (who I can’t find right now! which kills me!) pointed out that soaps right now are arguably more innovative than most of network primetime. One Life to Live held a double-wedding in August and the whole episode was a tribute to Grey Gardens. General Hospital is bringing on James Franco for two months. The Young and the Restless fired its patriarch in a contract dispute, only to bring him back two weeks later. As the World Turns, likely in its last year, apparently just had someone discover the fountain of youth and has another character jumping off of Philadelphia’s City Hall with Benjamin Franklin (I will never get over this confusing promo). Soaps are taking more risks than they ever have, and it’s not helping. They still suffer from low productions values. Only a few shoot in HD. They’re just as susceptible to bad writing as primetime shows, and more likely to be criticized for it by those with only a vague familiarity of the genre’s stereotypes.

One Life to Live has been uniformly excellent in the past few months, and it’s really thanks to the writers. The storylines have been well-thought but, more importantly, the writers have made commitments. In the past few weeks there have been a few moments that I think the writers intended to use as tribute to As the World Turns, which broke a lot of barriers two years ago with daytime’s first kiss between men, and its subsequent gay teen romance. But in what I can only assume were sly winks to a fellow struggling soap in a tip of the hat for making this story possible, One Life to Live has pointed out how much better it is. These tributes, regardless of whether or not they were intentional, had me laughing out loud. One Life to Live is as realistic as other soaps, but has an emotional purity other shows lack. What was played for desperate longing on another show only seems humorous in Llanview. The gay wedding storyline was larger in scope than the initial romance between Luke and Noah, but truly surpassed their romance by being as well-written in low key moments as it was during the height of the wedding. As great as the wedding was, the episode set the next day, which showed the couple it finally reunited had spent the whole night on the roof of an apartment building talking, was even sweeter.

And as great as the morning after the wedding was, it’s even nicer that Llanview has not turned upside down because now it has an out gay cop with a med student boyfriend. It’s nice to see the writers are integrating them into the other storylines of the show in a way As the World Turns has never managed to do, as Luke and Noah still sit on the sidelines most of the time.

Today’s episode ended with Fish and Kyle and Layla and Cristian sitting down to watch Christina Comes Home for Christmas (also the clip embedded here, starts at 5:02). The name was said too often for me to not wonder about it, so I did the journalist-y thing: I googled it. Last year One Life to Live devoted a Christmas episode to the movie, which exists only in Llanview, Pennsylvania. It’s the show’s It’s a Wonderful Life. Every character has some sort of association with it, and the show even went out of the way to write and shoot part of it.

Television shows don’t do that anymore. Television shows don’t have to do that anymore. It wasn’t necessary or asked for, but it’s beautiful to watch characters interacting with a Christmas classic and then to realize the show is creating a classic episode of holiday television. And after all of that…

They brought it back. It’s a new year, with new characters, and it could have been a one-shot (because soaps shove their own characters up in attics and never bring them back, so what’s to say it wouldn’t happen to a once-referenced movie?). But it wasn’t a one-shot. They brought it back, and to have four characters (and I could write a whole other essay on the importance of the fourtet in soap operas) who even a few months ago seemed like they’d never be able to stand the sight of each other sitting around eating popcorn, getting the holiday season started right, if early…

It was lovely. I love this show because it’s lovely. One Life to Live is so good not just because of the writing or the acting or the close-ups. It’s all heart.

Layla: Christina Comes Home for Christmas! I love this movie.
Kyle: Cry every time.
Layla: I know! Me too.
Cristian: So you guys’re…
Fish: Staying in. And Kyle’s heading home after the movie.
Kyle: Sit. Watch. Cry.
Layla: Try and stop me.
Cristian: I hope there’s still beer in the fridge.
Layla: There is! Can you grab me one? Guys?
(Kyle and Fish raise their beers)
Layla: They’re good. Oh, I just love the part where—
Fish: He opens the door and she’s standing there?
Layla: And then she—
Kyle: Says she couldn’t live without him?
Layla: And realizes—
Fish: That he can’t live without her? Shhhh!
Cristian: So why do you want to watch a movie that makes you cry?
Layla: Because, that’s what makes it so good.
Kyle: Totally.
Fish: Right?
Cristian: Right. Got it.
(they watch)
Cristian: That movie’s so cheesy.

October182009

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#35—Fisica o Quimica

This show is tiding me over until Skins returns, I told myself.

But is it bad I almost prefer it to Skins? It’s not as serious or as “good.” It’s shot like a sitcom and tends to be a little more humorous, though it does offer plenty of drama. There are so many characters I often get confused.

The most recent episode still isn’t up in all its parts with English subtitles, but I know from recaps and watching the subtitle-less videos what happens—since the season premiere it’s been established that David needs to come out to his parents, even if his parents are fucking religious lunatics, and it looks like he finally does.

Things I love about this episode:

  1. This is a show with a sprawling cast: there are probably a dozen teenagers, plus many parents, and several important teachers. However, there’s always a kid on this kind of show who just seems to have no authority figures in his life, and in this case it’s Fer: the guys definitely spent the night together, and as they rush around to avoid getting caught by David’s parents who are home earlier than they expected, there is no mention at all of any trouble Fer might be in for not coming home or something. Nope.
  2. A staple of shows set at schools is the sublime coincidence that whatever is being read for class happens to mirror the turmoil going on in the lives of the show characters. FOQ gives us some speeches about lying and Romeo & Juliet.
  3. I love that the photo of Fer and David that David’s mother finds is just a still from last season’s finale. It’s so low-budget, and it makes me love this show even more for being thrifty.
  4. All of this ALMOST makes up for the episode appearing to have very little Gorka-Paula pregnancy action. GORKAAAAAAAAAAAA! I could write an essay on how excellent this character is, but I’ll withhold my enthusiasm—I don’t want to bore.

October162009

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#20—E: Gregor and Christian Mann of Verbotene Liebe It would be easy to just pretend Gregor and Christian are the German Nate and David Fisher: after all, the comparisons are easy—the older brother is a little flighty, the younger gay… but that’s where the similarities stop. Gregor and Christian have far more of a rapport than Nate and David, with much less effort to be that way—the suicide of their mother and the death of their gambling father while Christian served a jail sentence for Pops have left them each other’s only family (with the exception of boring lesbian cousin Stella, who I’m sure they wish to forget). They definitely have their trust issues—Gregor spends a year or two as a womanizer after his wife—in order!—cheats on him, miscarries their child, and then leaves him to become a cokehead, and Christian assumes Gregor—the same Gregor who made Christian realize he was a homophobe, the same Gregor who flirts with men for tips, the same Gregor who was once a rentboy—will disown Christian if he comes out, so instead actively hides his romance with Olli until Gregor walks in on them making out. (Gregor is then devastated his brother mistakenly thinks so poorly of him.) But all in all, these are two excellent brothers, and it seems appropriate to put them on my list this week as Gregor has just been seriously injured in a helicopter crash and Christian is distraught. UPDATE AS OF 11/10/09: Gregor has just gotten married, and Christian interrupts them to dance with his new sister-in-law. Gregor immediately seeks out Olli to dance with in an effort to make Christian jealous. It was brilliant, and made me fall in love with these guys even more.

#20—E: Gregor and Christian Mann of Verbotene Liebe

It would be easy to just pretend Gregor and Christian are the German Nate and David Fisher: after all, the comparisons are easy—the older brother is a little flighty, the younger gay… but that’s where the similarities stop. Gregor and Christian have far more of a rapport than Nate and David, with much less effort to be that way—the suicide of their mother and the death of their gambling father while Christian served a jail sentence for Pops have left them each other’s only family (with the exception of boring lesbian cousin Stella, who I’m sure they wish to forget). They definitely have their trust issues—Gregor spends a year or two as a womanizer after his wife—in order!—cheats on him, miscarries their child, and then leaves him to become a cokehead, and Christian assumes Gregor—the same Gregor who made Christian realize he was a homophobe, the same Gregor who flirts with men for tips, the same Gregor who was once a rentboy—will disown Christian if he comes out, so instead actively hides his romance with Olli until Gregor walks in on them making out. (Gregor is then devastated his brother mistakenly thinks so poorly of him.) But all in all, these are two excellent brothers, and it seems appropriate to put them on my list this week as Gregor has just been seriously injured in a helicopter crash and Christian is distraught.

UPDATE AS OF 11/10/09: Gregor has just gotten married, and Christian interrupts them to dance with his new sister-in-law. Gregor immediately seeks out Olli to dance with in an effort to make Christian jealous. It was brilliant, and made me fall in love with these guys even more.

October132009

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#34—Sea Wolf I’ve been listening to “Wicked Blood” pretty much since Devon posted it. And after listening to it for the thousandth times, I realized that I’ve only ever listened to Sea Wolf through Devon, but I’ve never heard a song I’ve disliked. So I sought out more and… I really like this band. Girl, I owe you one. I requested this on Eric and Adam’s radio show last week. They made it clear that they listened to something else while they played this, and Eric said something about the first five seconds they heard being emo. Well, we knew Eric was a snob. It’s his loss.

#34—Sea Wolf

I’ve been listening to “Wicked Blood” pretty much since Devon posted it. And after listening to it for the thousandth times, I realized that I’ve only ever listened to Sea Wolf through Devon, but I’ve never heard a song I’ve disliked. So I sought out more and… I really like this band. Girl, I owe you one.

I requested this on Eric and Adam’s radio show last week. They made it clear that they listened to something else while they played this, and Eric said something about the first five seconds they heard being emo. Well, we knew Eric was a snob. It’s his loss.

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#33—infoMania It’s not that I’ve gotten any more obsessed with it, but I should have acknowledged how wonderful this show is and how important it’s become to my life a long time ago.

#33—infoMania

It’s not that I’ve gotten any more obsessed with it, but I should have acknowledged how wonderful this show is and how important it’s become to my life a long time ago.

September132009

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#32—Les bleus I am so surprised some network in America hasn’t heard about this show and decided to bastardize it into some sort of Grey’s Anatomy rip-off yet. But, at the same time, I am thankful, because a remake of this show would surely insult the original incarnation, which is excellent. The show follows a bunch of rookie French cops, making mistakes and being hilarious. The star is Kevin, who is gay and dating another (non-rookie) officer, Yann, who is a total commitment-phobe. There are a few other rookies, who are all great, when they are not working on cases, they are totally giving cops a bad name by having a party, getting super drunk, getting busted by other cops, forcing them to explain that they are cops too but partying, which leads to them getting left in jail cells overnight, and then mockingly applauded in the morning. In short, this show is amazing, and I wish there were some subtitled DVDs going around online but, unfortunately, there aren’t.

#32—Les bleus

I am so surprised some network in America hasn’t heard about this show and decided to bastardize it into some sort of Grey’s Anatomy rip-off yet. But, at the same time, I am thankful, because a remake of this show would surely insult the original incarnation, which is excellent. The show follows a bunch of rookie French cops, making mistakes and being hilarious. The star is Kevin, who is gay and dating another (non-rookie) officer, Yann, who is a total commitment-phobe. There are a few other rookies, who are all great, when they are not working on cases, they are totally giving cops a bad name by having a party, getting super drunk, getting busted by other cops, forcing them to explain that they are cops too but partying, which leads to them getting left in jail cells overnight, and then mockingly applauded in the morning. In short, this show is amazing, and I wish there were some subtitled DVDs going around online but, unfortunately, there aren’t.

September52009

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#20—D: Luke and Faith Snyder The Snyders are a complicated family on As the World Turns. Father Holden has children Abigail and Aaron from previous relationships, mother Lily had son Luke with an Italian mob guy, and then when Holden and Lily got together Holden adopted Luke, and later in life Luke renounced his biological father for being a jackass. Then Holden and Lily went on to have three more children together: Faith, Natalie, and Ethan. But none of these siblings are as awesome together as Luke and Faith, who are both smart and intuitive and sometimes snarky. Faith always knows when her parents are lying to her, and Luke is always a good enough brother to be honest with her about it. I can’t wait until Faith grows up and becomes even more awesome, because soap opera children tend to be a little bland and the blossom at 16 or so. Fingers crossed!

#20—D: Luke and Faith Snyder

The Snyders are a complicated family on As the World Turns. Father Holden has children Abigail and Aaron from previous relationships, mother Lily had son Luke with an Italian mob guy, and then when Holden and Lily got together Holden adopted Luke, and later in life Luke renounced his biological father for being a jackass. Then Holden and Lily went on to have three more children together: Faith, Natalie, and Ethan. But none of these siblings are as awesome together as Luke and Faith, who are both smart and intuitive and sometimes snarky. Faith always knows when her parents are lying to her, and Luke is always a good enough brother to be honest with her about it. I can’t wait until Faith grows up and becomes even more awesome, because soap opera children tend to be a little bland and the blossom at 16 or so. Fingers crossed!

September42009

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#31—Luke and Noah of the CBS soap As the World Turns

CHRONICLING AN OBSESSION

I’ve wanted to do this for awhile, but Luke&Noah are the first obsession I’ve had in some time that have perfectly fit the format.

1. Read a lot of news… and forget it. This is the most important step. Spend a lot of time reading gossip websites, blogs, GoogleNews, random articles you’re linked to through tumblr. Then, stop thinking about these things after a few days. I first heard about Luke and Noah well over a year ago, in the midst of the seven-month span where they did not kiss on camera, which angered a lot of fans of the couple. I then promptly stopped caring about them. When Daytime Emmy nominations came out a few months ago, I only vaguely remembered that there was a gay couple on some soap, and thus the impact of one of the actors being nominated meant very little.

2. Keep reading that random news. This is how I knew that the Daytime Emmys had even happened. Seeing a full list on Deadline Hollywood Daily, I thought, “Oh, well, who won some of these?” And then knowing I know nothing about soaps, tried to think of things I did know… oh! Wasn’t one of the guys in the gay couple nominated? Did he win? This is the key—you are starting to care!

3. Research that shit. I knew there was a gay couple on a soap, knew that one of the actors had been nominated… but did not know who the actor was, who the character was, which soap he was on, or if he had won. This means you need to do some random Googling, and then hop over to Wikipedia. Wikipedia told me the nominees for the categories, had links to the characters and actors, and helped me learn Van Hansis did not win for his portrayal of Luke.

4. A lot of interests make it through the first three steps but do not blossom into an actual obsession. This is the turning point of the process—you have to decide that you are interested enough to continue reading. This means that after looking up that Daytime Emmy list on Wikipedia, you are going to click over and read the article (the longer here the better) on Luke, Noah, Luke and Noah, As the World Turns, and maybe a few other characters (for no real reason you can think of). Click on the little endnotes and read a bunch of the articles the entry cites. Read up on the actors. There is a certain level you need to reach in this stage: you need to read so much you know exactly what has happened in the plot, and you need to not care because you still want to watch. It’s about the journey, not the destination. You officially have a minor obsession.

5. Go further if you can. Reading about something a lot can create a legitimate obsession: one of my first reading-only obsessions was Deadpool. But in many cases, you can go beyond just reading about what you’re obsessed with. In the case of Luke and Noah, this meant discovering that CBS encourages fans by not taking down videos featuring Nuke (the popular nickname, which one fan justified with “because they’re the bomb”), which means that several uploaders have taken the entire show, edited out all the parts not featuring Luke and Noah, and posted them on YouTube everyday. You can watch Luke’s Story, which starts when Van Hansis takes over the role of Luke (in 2005) and chronicles his coming out, or The Luke & Noah Story, which starts when Noah arrives in Oakdale in June of 2007 and continues even now. Plenty of others fans have edited together favorite moments, including a playlist of every time the couple has kissed following the lack of liplock controversy. I have seen the highlights of Luke’s Story, am currently making my way through the Luke & Noah Story (February 2008—only a year and a half to go!), and have seen quite a few awesome clips featuring the actors, who are apparently close friends in real life, talking about their favorite filming moments. And there: this is what an obsession looks like.

Stepping over this description of what makes an obsession, let me talk about Luke and Noah: I love them. I started reading on them and got interested, and even watched a great deal of clips on YouTube, but now that I am fully invested I am surprised at how happy I am watching this show. There are so many great things about this couple, and the many excellent soap opera things they have had to overcome (Noah thinks he’s straight! He’s dating Luke’s best friend! Noah kisses Luke! Noah comes out! Noah’s dad hates him! Noah and Luke start dating! Noah’s father tries to kill Luke! Luke is paralyzed! Noah’s dad actually killed Noah’s mother, who Noah had thought died when he was a child! Noah’s mom was a prostitute! Luke’s parents are getting divorced! Luke is depressed because he can’t move his legs! Noah has emotional insecurities! Luke can walk again! Noah gets into a green-card marriage! Luke is jealous of Noah’s wife!) are actually often dealt with rather well for a soap. Luke has the benefit of being hilariously snippy, and giving me a new excuse that will get me out of everything for life (Noah insinuates something to the effect of “You’re a little pervy” and Luke replies “That’s because I’m a writer! I have to, it’s my job!”). Noah, who originally bored me to death, has dealt with emotional blow after emotional blow… I love it. I love it so, so much.

The clip I am embedding here takes place in the Valentine’s Day episode, and has them imagining if they had never met—Noah would have joined the Navy, and Luke would be in college in New York. This is actually a terrible moment on the show, and I am including because I laughed so hard at how bad it is—it’s supposed to show how they are destined to be together, but it’s terribly written… the crowning moment is when Noah has to leave and gives Luke his only medal, which is not described beyond being “for bravery” (with no mention as to how he received it). I howled.

Also included: a compilation of all the things that Luke and Noah did do in the midst of their seventh-month makeout drought—you might think this video is exaggerating these moments or maybe that the video maker is crazy, but all these things were actually standing in for smoochies (though, this video forgets when Luke makes Noah a banana split, which had me laughing like an eighth grade boy). And if you weren’t sold on them, this is the favorite moment of both Van Hansis and Jake Silbermann: Luke and Noah talking about meat.

August222009

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#30—C.R.A.Z.Y. I’ve watched this everyday for a week. Unhealthy!?

#30—C.R.A.Z.Y.

I’ve watched this everyday for a week. Unhealthy!?