Me included. For some reason this show is on through the prime time, though since I’ve been catching up with it just for the past couple years (never watched it when it was current), I realize how very much I enjoy this show.
The episodes usually have an immediate conflict or event that carries the show and is resolved, but always contains the ongoing thread of the underlying family relationships that just as in the real world, allow a continual source of tension.
The characters are just perfectly attuned to each other. One of the shows tonight was regarding Debra having PMS and it was just hysterical. Raymond, admittedly more out of concern for himself than Debra, does everything he can to remedy the situation, naturally does everything wrong. But he tries. His character is real and it is funny. Debra is great in her role as wife and mother of three, and Raymond’s mother, Marie is just a loveable and aggravating mother as she manipulates and weaves between brutal honesty and bald-faced lies.
They’re all over at Robert & Amy’s who are celebrating their 3-month anniversary, and Amy has unwittingly caused some problems by offering marriage books to Ray and Debra, and to Marie and Frank. Arguments arise.
"We’ve been married 47 years," says Marie, "and have been through highs and lows."
"What day was the high?" Frank asks.
Marie goes on, "You just plow through life together…"
"Then what?" someone asks.
Her reply,"Then you die."
I just love it.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology