the Moonlighting series

https://www.hallowedgroundmedia.org/hallowed-ground-storycast/moonlighting

I listened to this podcast, where Lani Diane Rich was talking about the Moonlighting series, and I was happy to discover that she had all the same frustrations about it as I did, but is so much better at talking about them.

I watched Moonlighting when it was airing in Russia, in the 90s. I was a teenager, and I was sucked in in all the mad energy of Maddie and Dave, their chemistry and unbelievable UST. Reader, of course I shipped them.

I loved the crazy antics, the fourth wall breaking, the experiments, I loved Allyce Beasley Curtis Armstrong’s characters.

But mostly, yes, I was there for Maddie and Dave.

But will they won’t they was becoming boring and sour, and when they got together it was horrible, and then everything just got worse and sadder. I couldn’t understand what was happening.

And then much later I learned of the so called “moonlighting curse”. That supposedly falls upon any consummated relationship in tv series and turns everything into crap. And which totally doesn’t not exist, because it was obvious even to me when I was watching, that the problem was with bad writing that seemed not to know what to do with the characters. I mean, there is plenty of conflict and interesting stories could be told about people in relationship – just not if their only goal in live was to kiss each other. And honestly, not knowing what to do with the characters was just one of the problem. It was what they did with the characters that seemed to be the problem.

When the series started, Maddie was someone we cared about, a person who lost her money, and has to adjust to a new life, a new job, new people around her. She tried to be serious and careful, and economical. Cybil Sheppard, as her heroine, was, I think a half-forgotten star of several movies (I haven’t seen any of them), and this series was supposed to be her comeback. But was Bruce Willis who became a breakout star instead. And well, his David was electrifying, fun, engaging and irresistible. It was fair. But as the series progressed Maddie is shown as a caricature – boring, nagging, killjoy of a person who never has fun herself and never lets anyone have fun. She is having random womanly emotions, and she is wrong most of the time. David, on the other hand, becomes more and more adorable: he likes fun! He solves crimes while having fun! He has real deep feelings! Everyone loves him!

It is no wonder that the relationship between actors were sour as well. But seriously, the show became unwatchable in its later episodes.

Still, when I think of Moonlighting now, I think of the amazing first seasons, of Atomic Shakespeare, of Agnes DiPesto rhyming on the phone, of all the fun, and of the valuable lesson that the chemistry between characters is not enough for the story to work. And that there is no moonlighting curse.