tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797035092645713329.post7600719122783971199..comments2024-03-14T02:43:01.811-05:00Comments on Broadway & Me: "Next to Normal" is Next to Greatjan@broadwayandmehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05871839027802882307noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797035092645713329.post-1964001577527547742009-06-07T12:14:55.758-05:002009-06-07T12:14:55.758-05:00Lismarie, thank you for such a thoughtful comment....Lismarie, thank you for such a thoughtful comment. I think the writers probably wrestled with how to end this show, just as many bipolar people and their families struggle to find the right treatment for the disease. The end of the show doesn't necessarily mean the end of Diana's problems. I imagined that she would continue to struggle and I feared her daughter might eventually tread the same path.jan@broadwayandmehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05871839027802882307noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797035092645713329.post-15644421913183342772009-06-07T10:39:21.334-05:002009-06-07T10:39:21.334-05:00I'm a bit concerned that--once again--the stor...I'm a bit concerned that--once again--the storyline ends too close to normal. In that, while this woman is consistently referred to as a "bipolar mother," by the end we are are asked to suspend belief in that diagnosis. Maybe it is not her brain but her soul that needs to heal? Maybe her grief was not pathological and she did not need meds, doctors, or the overprotective spouse? Am now also expected to just go cry a little and heal thyself? Not a great message, really. I'd rather have the character continue to struggle--not with normal grief of losing a child--but with the next to normal grief of living everyday in a struggle with the bipolar illness and its "treatments." That would have been, for me, both more real and perhaps even more heroic (and optimistic?).Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12792857066962182580noreply@blogger.com