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"Caroline
in
the
City"
beware...
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I got bored. I'm very sick. I've been in bed for two days and still have a fever. I've been eating, had soup twice, and drank enough water for a whale to sleep in... but I got bored earlier and wrote this.
I've been watching "Caroline in the City." So, enjoy... or don't. :) LOL! If there are any other fans of the series, I'd love to hear their takes.... If not, Johan can probably still delete this! :)
I rarely write static characters, mostly because I try to write my characters with some basis in reality, and I believe that the majority of us are not static beings. We do not stay in neutral our entire lives. We vary, we grow, we evolve and change and adapt to the world around us.
Last week, I bought the first season of "Caroline in the City" and have since rewatched the entire series. I have not watched every episode... but I have skipped through each, if that makes sense, and I love the evolution of the tone of the show.
For some reason, this series was released on DVD in England long before it made it here. Why that is, I'm not sure, but I wonder if it has to do with the English better liking a show that changes and morphs and evolves. Funny enough, the closest thing to a static character "Caroline in the City" has is the main character.
If you'll allow me to break it down, and yes, there will be spoilers, I'd like to delve into my favorite character: Richard. He's played by the phenomenal Broadway actor Malcolm Gets, and his character probably goes through the most growth throughout the course of the series. You can tell when they wrote the pilot that they had not yet completely grasped all that they could do with his character. In fact, his relationship with Caroline (which later evolves into the show's main ship) feels like an afterthought in series 1. Uptight and closed-up, Richard finds his way through the world with sarcasm and a belief that his own happiness will destroy him, so it's better to enjoy wallowing in self-pity.
By mid-season, some of the ice has been chipped away from his heart, just from his daily interactions with these people. He's in a job that strays from the typical. They work in Caroline's loft, meaning that the personal world does not stay separated from the rest. Richard deals with her interpersonal relationships in a far more intimate way than a friend in an office. Richard witnesses the conversations, fights, interactions and general comraderies she maintains, and inadvertently gets sucked into them himself.
Annie proves a great sparring partner for him, allowing him to joust with an almost equal in the jaded side of life. Caroline gives the softer look at the world, trying to find the best in everything, but still remaining just a bit more air-headed than he is, and Del, who eventually molds into much more, is another male figure with which to interact, later to bond.
Del and Caroline break up for a short period after trying to decide whether or not they would be together long enough to plan a trip to Paris five months in the future. Richard gives Caroline a Christmas present that resonates; a painting he created for her of Paris. She chokes up over the gift, and kisses him her thanks on the cheek. He regards her with shock, touched by the gesture. When Del comes in, Richard jumps as though he had performed some act of adultry in receiving the kiss.
Then, when Del proposes to Caroline, Richard is at a loss. When he starts to voice his distaste for the arrangement, he catches himself, as though he's just now realizing the depths of his own emotions. Somewhere, in this half a season, that wall he put up in the beginning has begun to crumble a little, and he's not keeping the work world separated from the interpersonal.
By the end of the season, he fills himself with alcohol to write her a love-letter. He knows if sober he would never achieve the task, but he's starting to open himself up to someone, and it feels great. It's not been too long since he and Julia, the "love of my life" and he broke up. At the end of season 2 he tells Julia it took him three years to get over her, so it might only have been a year since he and Julia split as he writes this love letter to Caroline.
He leaves it for her, hoping for the best, and when she arrives at Remos, albeit a bit late, he embraces her, kissing her passionately, relieved that opening his heart was not a mistake this time. That's all good and well until he realizes she never received the letter.
He goes to her apartment to retrieve it, but it's too late. He hides outside as she cries and Del wipes away her tears. Richard has no way of knowing they just called off their wedding. In his mind, the woman he loves is getting the comfort he wanted to offer her from another man.
As he paints in Paris, she is the only thing on his mind, and when he gets back to New York to find her dating another man, he tries to get back to normal with her, to block out what he was feeling, but Annie intercepts and catches onto the whole charade, waving the secret love letter that Caroline never received in Richard's face. It keeps him vulnerable, on guard, and ultimately pushes his heart to open a little more to other people.
Despite his best efforts, Richard cannot fully separate himself from his feelings, and upon seeing Caroline dolled up for an event, can barely whisper how beautiful he finds her. The cynical exterior stripped away, he gazes up at her for one brief moment as a man in love. When her date falls through for the night, he goes with her, but decides they will not dance. He has to try to keep this separated as much as possible. However, her pouting prompts him to satisfy her yearning to dance, and they find themselves in one another's arms as a sweet, romantic song plays. At first they hold their form, but she loses it after a moment, allowing herself to lay her head against his chest, grateful to have him there. Yes, she has a boyfriend, but the boyfriend said he could not be there for her, and Richard is there, holding her as they dance.
Richard takes a clue from her break of form and pulls her right hand against his chest. The mood softens as he lets his head lean against hers, their bodies moving in a soft rhythm together. Of course, the moment is broken up by her boyfriend, but it's obvious from the way they separate that for a moment they forgot anyone else was in the room. Richard, though, thinking the attraction one-sided does his best to block himself once more.
When Caroline and her boyfriend break up, she drinks herself to oblivion, then runs to Richard for comfort. He holds her as she cries, and when she passes out, he takes off her shoes, putting her in his bed while he takes the floor. It's a truly romantic gesture, one that she cannot yet appreciate.
At the end of the season, Julia reenters Richard's life, and in a wild, freaked-out moment, he decides to pretend Caroline is his wife. When Julia, her fiance and Richard and Caroline share a meal, Richard appears more naked than ever, exposed by being with the first woman he ever loved, Julia. When she asks him to dance, he gets up without hesitation, flustering Caroline for reasons she has yet to identify within herself. Julia's fiance cuts in, placing Caroline once more in Richard's arms. This time, there is no pretense. They break form the moment they come together, and she rests her head upon his shoulder. This time, however, they're both unattached, and she can allow herself to dream of things she would not have before.
In her mind, she sees them naked, in her bed, kissing. She lurches out of the fantasy, shocked by it, and pulls away from him while he stands there, flabergasted, confused, unaware of the thoughts in her head.
That night, as they're forced to share a bed to keep up the charade, he's so caught up in his own fears of what he might do should he share a bed with Caroline that he misses her own fears. Earlier in the day, she imagined them in that very bed, but he has no idea. He only knows the fears inside his own heart, because he has loved her for a year without her returning the affection. Sure, she did not know, but she always had someone else, and he seems to respect the boundaries of her being with another person much more after the apparent failure of his love letter on the eve of her wedding to Del.
They end up in the bed together, and in their sleep roll into a comfortable position, his arm across her, head on her shoulder, her arms carressing his bicep. When the touch wakes them, he goes downstairs searching for something to calm him, and finds Julia, professing love for him. She unfolds the sheet clinging to her naked body, and he finds himself reunited with the love of his life, the woman he first gave himself to, the woman he actually had a significant, lasting relationship with at one point.
Though Caroline comes down the stairs and slaps him, he remains oblivious to her affections, and having reunited with his first love, decides to make that reunion permanent. He marries Julia, thinking he will never have the affections of his boss, and knowing that he once loved Julia passionately and believing he can love her with that same intensity, now.
Now, there's a lot going on with Caroline... we'll get to that, but here's the one thing you need to know: She left a message on his machine professing her love for him, but Julia erased it.
When Richard comes in to work the next morning, he announces he married Julia, and Caroline is crushed, though Richard seems oblivious to that. From this point on, Richard tries to make his rushed marriage to Julia work. There are moments, sure, where he and Caroline inadvertently put wrenches in one another's lives, but he tries to remain true to his wife. Even when Julia sets Caroline up on a blind double-date with them, and he unknowingly verbally spars against Caroline's date Trevor, he remains oblivious. It's not until Richard and Julia pull away in the cab, and he sees Caroline and Trevor hold hands that something wrong registers in Richard's heart.
When Caroline's grandfather's snow globe shatters in the Christmas episode, he takes on a second job to replace it. He wants to give her something that special. He doesn't realize why he's doing it, but he does it. When he finally gives it to her after secretly working a second job, she hugs him, truly grateful at the thoughtful gift. He holds her, but as they pull apart, his eyes catch the mistletoe. She sees it, too, and though they at first move in for a quick peck on the lips, they both stop just short of the touch, letting the kiss sink in a little too much, a little too long.
Julia bursts in and assumes the gift is for her, and Caroline allows it, even adding that Richard wanted to wrap it first. Richard regards Caroline with surprise as Julia hugs him, and then the guilt crosses his face, as though only now does he realize what he was doing, that he was working to give a gift to Caroline, not Julia.
The next episode, Julia and Richard prepare for their Honeymoon while Caroline showers them with gifts to make the experience more joyful, grinning through her teeth. Annie watches the interaction and worries for her friend, knowing Caroline is still hung up on Richard. Of course, everything goes wrong, and Richard and Annie find themselves sitting together at Laguardia while she sips a White Russian. The two start to argue in their usual tone, until Annie accidentally informs Richard that Caroline is in love with him. The news shocks him, and for the first time, he hears something other than the beating of his own heart. Annie tries to avoid him, but the look on her face gives away the truth of the message despite her best efforts. He asks her for more information, but Annie breaks away before Richard realizes just how close he was to getting the woman he loved. He looks down at Julia, who is passed out on the floor (long story), and has to wonder what just happened.
The next episode, Caroline and Richard finally admit to one another what they felt, but neither realize just how close they came to finally being together until the end as they argue about Caroline's inability to express her emotions. She informs Richard that she left him a message proclaiming her affections, but Julia erased it. Richard's dismay at the news leaves Caroline backtracking, not wanting to look like she's casting Richard's wife in a negative light. She says Julia did it to keep them all from being embarassed since it was his wedding night. As Caroline walks away, Richard finally gets it. That night when she slapped him across the face for kissing Julia, it wasn't because they were pretending to be husband and wife. It was because she was falling in love with him, but hadn't yet found the words. That night, Richard, in his haste, rushed into a marriage with another woman thinking he would never have Caroline. That night. It all happened in one sweeping night, and if only...
Richard confronts Julia about the message, but when she asks if it would have made a difference, he says no. He really does want this marriage to work, and for most of the next episode, you feel like he is keeping as much out of Caroline's personal world as he can... until she calls him at two in the morning freaking out.
She asks about this music he played in the loft earlier while they worked, and though he took it home, he made her a copy long ago. When she asks if he knows where it is, he knows exactly. It's imbedded in his mind, and he can't escape it. It's tragic to watch him trying to hold onto his marriage, but finding out about Caroline's affections shocked him, changed him, struck out his motivations and corrupted them. The duality escapes him, however, as he tries to be with his controlling and manipulative wife (yes, I said it), but also wants to still be there for Caroline.
Unable to sleep, he goes to her loft to talk to her, to offer her comfort. He finds her in nothing but a towel, so she throws a blanket over herself to make it a little more appropriate while sharing tea with him and listening to the calming music. When the blanket falls to the ground, Caroline tries to reach it, but risks her towel popping open in the meantime. Richard reaches down and wraps it about her shoulders. The moment seems completley innocent until Julia breaks in and Richard pulls away, just as he did after the kiss under the mistletoe, as though he feels like he were cheating. He does not know it, but in his heart, he is.
Things, again, come to a head when Julia's father unblocks her trust fund, leaving her and Richard with $3 million. Julia goes overboard, obsessed with money and partying and having a blast, while asserting he can finally leave his job with Caroline. That bothers him, and Richard tries to elongate his time with Caroline without realizing why. Finally, as everything breaks down, Caroline's boyfriend and Julia assert that Richard and Caroline are in love. "No we're not!" Richard screams into the air, still not getting that... they are.
In case you're wondering, Richard does quit, and gives Caroline the key to her apartment back. He tries to fit in with Julia's friends, but finds himself at a loss, and when she goes off to Spain for a month of partying without him, he feels comfortable to be alone with his painting. However, Caroline thinks she saw Julia having an affair, and Richard rushes off to Spain to confront his wife. When Caroline realizes the error of her ways, she takes off to Spain with Annie, despite the fact that Trevor and she were in the middle of moving in together.
When Caroline comes back, Trevor is gone, leaving nothing but a note. Caroline's self-pity is interrupted when Richard knocks on her door, asking for his key back (she was house-sitting when this charade started). The two find out their mutual relationships ended, but Richard can still not bring himself to say the words he needs to. There is still a wall there, and it takes the woman in the elevator prompting him for him to go to the door.
See, he accused Caroline of being afraid to say how she felt, but the last time they were in this position of caring about one another and both being single, they had no clue. They were pretending to be husband and wife and neither had a clue the other was in love. That time, Richard didn't tell Caroline and he lost her and put himself in a marriage that was doomed to fail.... This time, he was going to do the right thing, and he finally runs up to that door and knocks (since he no longer has a key) and asserts that the reason his marriage failed was because Julia was not "You." The two embrace, finally.
So, that's the end of Season 3, but Richard had further to go. His character still had a lot of pain and terror to get through. In season 4, he was forced to open up by allowing Caroline to take care of him. With Julia, he didn't really have much of a choice, Julia had money, so they both had money. They were married.
With Caroline, the two are a couple, but with that, Richard thinks the boundaries should remain. She practically has to force him to come back to work with her because he has no money, and then she almost has to arm wrestle him to the floor to get him to let her put a bath mat in her apartment. He can let strangers change the place around, but he has trouble letting Caroline in. It's that loss of control that a stable relationship requires, and after being completely controlled by Julia, he's bucking at it. However, by the end of the episode, Caroline and Richard spend their first night together at his place.
There's an episode where Annie reads Richard's divorce papers and realizes that though Julia signed them two months ago, Richard has yet to sign them. When Caroline confronts him, he tells her how it symbolizes him failing, and that he's afraid he's just going to hurt Caroline, too. "Sometimes when I see you smile, I think about how much I'm going to miss it," he tells her. She asserts that they cannot give up before they start, and he concedes, but it's hard for him. He's still holding back because he fears deep in his heart that he is going to screw things up with Caroline, that he is going to leave her as broken-hearted as he is, but in a moment of faith and hope, he signs those papers in front of her.
Their first date was a wreck since Caroline wanted to go somewhere nice, and Richard had a nice, simple plan. However, despite mishaps, she finally gets one of the most romantic gifts ever; a subway map. Sure, it might seem like nothing, but Richard filled it with moments from their life together, including their first hug. It's sentimental, and it's beautiful.
Richard has to give even more when Caroline wants to buy her parents' house in her hometown. Richard loves the city life, and has no desire to be trapped in a freezing cold home in Wisconsin, but he tells her to buy the house anyway. He's changing, he's growing, he's developing, and he's opening up to her more than ever. It's such a change from the man he was back in season one who hated if she sat at the drafting table to work.
Towards the end of the season, you get the feeling the writers knew they were going to be canceled, because the show takes quick and hard dramatic turns. An old friend of Caroline's enters her life, and they comes from the same small town, have a lot of the same memories, and have a lot of things in common. He's safe. He's comfortable. He's someone she would never be challenged with, but she can't help feeling something for him.
The first time Richard really gets into something he's working on with his art, Randy (the old friend) re-enters Caroline's life. Del, now a friend to Richard, tries to point out that Randy is a threat, but Richard does not take it to heart until he realizes Caroline spent an evening with him and doesn't want to talk about it.
Back at Caroline's, Richard forces her to talk about it after she has trouble touching him affectionately. He asks what's going on, and she admits her feelings for this other man. Richard, confused, wants to know what else she needs, and she finally admits she needs to know where the relationship is headed. I would call this selfish of her, but I remember being at a point in my own life where I wanted to know that, and sometimes we women get unrational about those things...
Richard, after spending a day locked in at the video store after a robbery, realizes he cannot live his life without Caroline, and proposes to her. She wants a bit of an engagement, but he wants to get married right away, so excited to be happy, and so afraid it will be taken away from him. It's the most we've ever seen him smile, and it feels like that last bit of something he was holding back from Caroline has been released. He wants her to know every bit of him, to see every bit of him. For the first time, he's really opening his entire heart to her.
He wants to run to the courthouse, but she wants a week to plan, and though he does not like organized religion, he's willing to let her pick out a chapel, and get a beautiful dress to wear. He gives in. It's beautiful.
Their plans are interrupted with the news that Julia gave birth to a son, his son, in Italy. He needs to go there to see his child, but does not want to postpone the wedding, so he proposes they get married in Italy. Caroline concedes and he hugs her, proclaiming how lucky he is to have her in his life. Funny, he told one of her boyfriends in Season 3 the same thing... How lucky a man he was to have Caroline in his life.
Caroline even entertains the thought of moving to Italy to be with Richard, but all that falls apart when she realizes he does not want kids. That's the one thing that could break them up, because she wants them, and she can't imagine a life without them. They say goodbye in an airport, which is sad and symbolic since he first learned of her affections in an airport.
When Richard, the reluctant father, gets to Italy, he holds his screaming son, and soothes him with a blanket Caroline bought him. The child coos as Richard looks down lovingly, despite himself.
In a special "Six Months Later" wipe, we see Richard, now happy as a clam to be a father, sitting with his son in Italy. A chance encounter with an old friend alerts him to the fact that Caroline is about to wed Randy, so Richard, his son with him, rush to America for the wedding.
As Caroline and Randy stand at the altar, the pastor asks that whoever has a reason for the two to not be wed speak now or forever hold their peace. The piercing cry of a child reach everyone's ears, and they look up to the supposedly-empty balcony to see a man, cradeling his son, working his way through the pews. Caroline, upon seeing him, rushes down from the altar as the pastor closes his Bible, Annie as maid of honor lowering her flowers. Caroline gazes up in amazement as it registers that it's Richard, and he looks around at all the eyes looking at him before settling on Caroline's.
The beauty of this moment is that he intended to come to the wedding, sneak in, and just be there for her. He still loves her, and always will, and just wanted to be there for her on her special day. However, the child changed all that. Stephano (the baby) covered in the blanket Caroline bought for him, picked just the right moment to cause a commotion. Richard waves with his one free hand before placing it under the infant as Caroline lowers her bouquet, looking up at him in amazement. Her mother whispers to her "The closest exit is right over there."
The series ends there. There's no more, but we have a good sense of what happened. I'm going to stop for now, because if anyone read this, they probably think I'm crazy, but I think Richard had a greater evolution in character than any of the others. He started out cynical and even brutal in his honesty. He would snap at whoever was close enough. He would block the world out. Slowly, he opened himself, and let people in, allowed himself to have friends, then allowed himself to love again. Then, he allowed himself, despite his horrible childhood, to have affection for a child. Despite problems with the mother of the child, he decided to be the right kind of father for his little one, and be there for him, and hold him and take care of him.
In the end, he still loves Caroline dearly. She decided to end it, and that wrecked him, and who knows if he would ever have opened his heart again to another, but he wanted to be there for her, no matter what. He wanted to be at that wedding, not to break it up, but to be her friend. He still loved her. He still wanted what would make her happy, even if it was not him. That is a huge leap from season one when he was willing to break up a marriage the night before the wedding to get what he wanted.
Richard was my favorite character when I watched the series back in the day on NBC, and still is. I love the man he grew into. He went from being oblivious to emotion and expressing affection to being able to read Caroline so clearly when she was conflicted, to being able to bond with his son, to being able to love someone so much he wanted what was best for them, not for him. It's just beautiful.
If you're wondering, Matthew is watching the show with me, but we're only five episodes into season 2, so he has a lot more to go before I can talk with him about all of this, so you guys get to deal with it... Well, or not read it, as I'm sure no one read all the way. Just as well, it's fun to write about. :)
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(VISITOR) AUTHOR'S NAME
Muffy
MESSAGE TIMESTAMP
24 august 2008, 11:42:57
AUTHOR'S IP LOGGED
70.160.80.211
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