It all started when I developed this thing I'd like to call "James Marsden madness". I was obsessed to watch everything the guy was ever in. (I still am.) Somehow, Ally McBeal came last. I thought it through several times before I finally decided to check this one out. American drama series normally doesn't interest me. Little did I know that Ally McBeal is a whole different kind of drama. And then there's Ally, its titular character, who is, at this moment, my spirit animal because she's awesome.
Being a fan of James Marsden, I naturally started the series from Season 5, the only season Marsden was in. A decision I later found to be an advantage because Season 5 is considered to be the least enjoyable season of them all and I, not yet knowing what to expect, can enjoy Season 5 as what it is. And I must say it's actually pretty descent or else I wouldn't even bother checking out the rest of the series.
So my first ever Ally McBeal episode is titled "Friends and Lovers". The episode begins with Ally talking to her therapist about what happened to her earlier that day.
"It started off perfectly," she began her story, "I've been having a lot of perfect days actually and this promised to be another one. Then boom! I ran into myself."
"You ran into...yourself?" asked the therapist in disbelief, much to my own disbelief. Running into yourself? Ally, what are you talking about? What kind of show am I watching?
And then Ally went on saying how she had this lost look and how she reminded her of herself and that she's basically her because she and her ex-boyfriend also worked together before she got fired and now she's brokenhearted.
"Over losing her job?" her therapist asked.
"No, no no. Her ex-boyfriend." Hmm, interesting.
"She was like me, so I...I hired her," she continued.
"YOU DID WHAT?" asked the therapist, now in shock.
"What? I've come to a point in my life where deep, deep down I long to be..." she paused, "a...mentor."
In which her therapist responded with a facepalm, "Dear God, no." Cue opening credit and I am hooked. This show is something. This Ally is something!
So in my first meeting, what I knew about Ally is that she's a single, working woman, whose love life is apparently not as bright as her career. Ring any bells?
Continued viewing shows that by no means I had experienced the love life Ally had experienced but still, we seem to share a lot of the same beliefs, the same values, and we even view love in the same way, in which we both believe that everyone should end up with their one true love, how two people who are together should stay together forever. Simply put, we both believe that "happily ever after" exists. But in doing so, we're unintentionally hiding behind a wall, a protection from the harsh and ugly reality of love, built by the fear of not ending up with "the right person". Oh, and did I mention we both also like to dance? (especially when no one is around)
Jenny (the girl she ran into) questioned whether she's aberrant to have a male best friend, in which Ally responded that one of her best friends is also male. She mentioned John Cage, and how she loves him.This raised another important issue: soulmates. Do we all get to marry our soulmate? Ally considers John a soul mate. They get each other's eccentricity. Their relationship is the most endearing throughout the series. So why don't they just get together already, you probably ask.
Just ask the lonely, they know the hurting pain of losing the love you can never regain~
"As much as I love him as a friend, there's just no heat," Ally told Jenny, "I'm just not attracted to him." Poor John. I told you this whole love business is ugly.
By the way the episode ends with Ally back in her therapy session.
"If you don't mind my asking, why do you feel the need to protect Jenny?"
"Well, that's obvious. Because I used to be her."
"Ah. And what are you trying to protect her from?"
"I don't know. Maybe from... becoming..."
"Who you are today?"
"And who am I today?"
"Somebody who desperately wants love, but who no longer believes in it." Ouch. Even Ally explicitly says that it's an offensive thing to say to somebody, not to mention hurtful.
The therapist said he's sorry. Ally demanded him to fill her on why he thought that.
"You're not willing to be with a man you think is capable of hurting you," he answered. Double ouch. Plus I'm sold.
Six episodes later, I decided that I must know all of her story from the get-go...
