I’ve now seen “In the Room” (getting ready for China trip) and “Impact Winter” (China trip). Yes, there were some stupid things. Having the Surgeon General say that losing the use of your hands is like having a headache — deeply stupid. But the essense of the statement — you’ve lost functionality, what are you going to do, issue a press release? No point to it — made sense.
But on the whole, they captured the extreme weirdness that is MS, and they managed to communicate it well to an uneducated audience. My daughter watched “Impact Winter” with me, and we exchanged a laugh when CJ said, “We asked for a fifteen minute break; he’s been asleep for four hours.” At my house, it’s “I’ll make dinner in a few minutes, just let me lie down first.”
There were other scenes I’ve played, too. The bathroom floor scene, when Jed asks (rhetorically), “What the hell am I doing here?”, and his wife replies, “Apparently you like the tile.” We’ve had that conversation. Sometimes you just have to break the tension with something.
No, Jed’s fictional MS may not be just like yours or mine; he’s an individual case and if there’s one thing about MS, it’s that it’s widely different from one person to the next. Considering the damage the show could have done in presenting MS, I’m very impressed.
Other takes:
Emily, on headaches
Emily, part II
Becca, more headaches (it’s a meme!)
Michael on MS and suicide statistics
John on the likelihood of ON immediately followed by paralysis
I think you’re right about the humor thing. Before I was diagnosed, in that murky period between having the MRI and waiting for the results, my husband and I joked that either way, it was all in my head. We make such jokes all the time, it definitely takes the edge off.
Heh … all in your head… yeah. Been there, have the film.
Yeah, that hands/headache remark was not just stupid. As someone who has NO use of her hands or arms, I was offended.
All in your head?! NOOOOOOO! That’s MY disease! ;-)
Now, now, we can share.
Better not… I don’t always play nice ;-)