Wow, all these posts are really interesting. Glad I'm not alone in my deep admiration for the show, and particularly Caroline.
Uncageg, that post gave me chills, thanks for sharing it with us (and I love Therapy).
I agree with what Rentboy said in that many ways Caroline is a hero. She may not be going to school at night (like Dotty) or fighting for civil rights (like Emmie) but she certainly stands strong in the face of adversity, she has survived a terrible marriage (standing up to her husband), her son has gone off to war, and she keeps working every day "underwater" so her three kids can have food and a roof to live under.
What I enjoy about Caroline (but what I think turned audiences off) is that Kushner and Tesori NEVER romanticize her or her relationships. Her last words with Dot are "We're through," she doesn't have an "awww" moment with any of her children, we know she loves them like no one else will but there isn't any cutesy mother-children scene, and at the end she even tells Noah that they'll never be friends. I think this makes her incredibly admirable.
I can't believe people laughed when Pinkins delivered the "that's where Jews go when they die" line, I find it to be such a harsh line and such an uncomfortable moment because of what Noah has just told her about "Negroes."
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
