Bah.

[deathpixie]

One thing I never understood with Rent: Mimi is an active drug user. Roger is a recovering one. One of the great tenants of drug rehabilitation is to avoid getting back into the culture, to make new connections that aren't users. So why are Roger's friends, who are aware of the twelve months of withdrawal that he's just done to get clean, almost forceably push him towards a relationship with Mimi, who could potentially drag him back into heroin addiction?

I mean, I understand it's the Great Tragic Love Story (or one of them) of the show, but it still bugs me. For something that's otherwise very pragmatic about such things, it's an annoying flaw.

In other news, I apparently have a digestive system waging massive war on me. Food is either nauseating or otherwise problematic. I'm woozy from three days of eating only small meals and then having that food evacuate my system as fast as possible. So yes, I'm home sick. Again. It's very boring.

At least the big TV and surround sound is awesome.

Comments

[indiana-j.livejournal.com]

From what I remember of the movie (and it has been several years where you've obviously just watched it *grins*) I didn't feel that it was so much them pushing him towards Mimi as ... neglect? Each of his other friends are so involved and wrapped up in their own problems/lives (ironically, a main theme of What You Own is how that big dinner was the one night they were truely connected after being so withdrawn from each other) that I don't think they ever saw the potential issues of Roger and Mimi.

Mark struggles as the only healthy character and with his ongoing issues with Joanne, plus his career. Tom's wrapped up in his new love with Angel. Benny's a douchebag.

They did react very positively when Roger and Mimi finally hooked up - either a transgression from the writers or more character flaws of how wrapped up they are in themselves that they don't see the potential dangers.

In other words, they're all really fucking selfish. *cough*

[deathpixie]

I'm going off the movie (which I have on right now, yeah), so it might be different from the stage show, but there's lots of little things, Mark pushing Roger to go have brunch on Christmas Day with her; the song where she barges in on him and at the end she's being comforted by Angel, Collins and Mark and Roger's being presented as the insensitive jerk up on the fire escape; the next day, where Mark is again telling Roger he should take a chance on Mimi and not spend his life in the house... But yeah, there's a lot there.

And I just realised - Mimi says she and Benny had a thing "about three years ago". She's nineteen, now.

Ew.

[indiana-j.livejournal.com]

Ahaha - yeah, I'd actually forgotten all of that stuff. So neglect AND pushing, I'd say. It's sort of like that "Oh hey, paying attention to you for five minutes. There's a girl? Go for it!" You have the drug thing but all of his friends knew he had HIV so why on earth would they push him so hard when they might not have known that Mimi had it as well? (I got the impression that Mimi was a new addition to the group so I wouldn't have been surprised if they hadn't known as well.)

...eeewwwww!

[frito-kal.livejournal.com]

Wait it WAS three years ago? Argh, I've been saying months for ages now. Dangit.

Are they aware from the start that Mimi's a drug addict?

(also, there's the chance that none of them are aware of that step...)

[frito-kal.livejournal.com]

Maureen (Mark's ex) and Joanne are healthy as well, as it Benny (I think. I mean, depending on how long Mimi's been HIV+, he might have it as well, which I wish they'd mentioned...)

[indiana-j.livejournal.com]

Generally, I meant more in the tight circle of friends. Maureen might have been Mark's ex but the others didn't seem like they'd been best of friends and Joanne was fairly new to the scene or so it seemed. And I dunno - there are some parts to the musical that I remember where Benny hooked up with Mimi after she'd broken up with Roger...