Saturday, July 7, 2007

Gah

I used to love For Better or For Worse. Of course, Calvin and Hobbes will always be my favorite comic. And I loved the edginess of Boondocks. For FBOFW was a comfortable pair of slippers you could return to.
No longer. I'm glad Lynn Johnston's ending the show. This year's series has been a train wreck. And now the worse has come to ought. Liz is paired with Anthony. Actually the way she's acted this past year, she deserves the whiny, passive, selfish drip of a man. I've always hated Anthony, way back when Liz was dating him in high school. He's boring and dull. And did I mention passive and whiny? As the feminist blogs put it, he's a "Nice guy" TM, not a normal nice guy, but the kind who thinks he's nice but isn't really. A truly nice guy doesn't visibly moon over another woman at his engagement party, his New Year's Eve party or any other time with his wife. A nice guy doesn't then wonder why his wife is jealous. And a nice guy, after his wife makes clear she doesn't want to have children, doesn't pressure her and berate her into having one and complain about her lack of maternal instinct. A nice guy, after rescuing someone from a sexual assault, doesn't dump his miserable emotional baggage onto the assault victim's lap only minutes later.
A nice guy doesn't have to be boring and dull. He can be well-read and an interesting conversationalist and have great hobbies even if he's in a "stable" job. I would never call my brother-in-law, who is an accountant, boring and dull.
And Liz, Liz, Liz. Used to be my favorite character. What happened to her? She's living an exciting life helping kids in a remote area of Canada and as soon as Anthony's divorce is announced, drops her interesting boyfriend, who had made all the effort in the relationship, to move back home, betraying her promises to her students.
She doesn't ask her boyfriend, after he's already requested one transfer, whether he'd be willing to move south. It's her way or the highway, no compromise. And then plays victim when he finds someone more suitable.
Gah. I'm through. Sorry, Lynn, I used to love you, now I don't. You used to have a wonderful comic strip.