Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
cleaning out the filesystem
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2003 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
Once upon a time, a year ago, I considered making an anguished fan page:
Sumana Harihareswara's Ironic Seventh Heaven Page Why? Dear Lord, Why?
I find that, against my own will, I enjoy watching Seventh Heaven, a television show broadcast in the US by the Warner Brothers network. It was created by Aaron Spelling, the same fellow who created Beverly Hills, 90210, and its offshoot Melrose Place, and its offspring Models, Inc..
I can't claim complete ironic distance from enjoying the show. I mean, I actually keep track of the plot. Camp-as-self-loathing seems to apply here; I like something that I know I should hate, and thus project my revulsion with myself upon a defenseless serial. But -- allow me to say -- there is something to like in Seventh Heaven. There are strong parents who like each other and cooperate in raising the kids. There is some snappy dialogue. Stop me before I puke.
But I never finished it, and boy am I glad.
I never watch "SevHeav" today, but I hear the characters have remained borderline cases and the writing still swings between wonderfully absurd and awe-inspiringly awful. So there you are. Watch out, West Wing, Aaron Sorkin can easily descend into Aaron Spelling.
