Hello everyone, It’s me your Feisty Indian Aunty who is utterly confused about this new Netflix series. Please raise your hands in bewilderment over the ending which left you like me going: “Ugh! What the hell happened here?” Thank God, it said Season 1. Here’s hoping it’s popular enough to get a Season 2, or I might just have to go read the books that it’s based on.
“Firefly Lane” is the name of the street where two young girls lived in homes directly opposite each other. It is all about teenage friendship in the 1970s and that was what captured my interest. What makes a good friendship? Similar characteristics or mutual understanding of each other’s problems, shared likes and dislikes, the feeling of empathy about a person’s situation, or all of the above? It was all of the above for these two girls, Tully Hart (Katherine Heigl) and Kate Mularky (Sarah Chalke). The 10 episodes span over 30 years with constant flashbacks as their friendship develops.
Tully Hart, who is beautiful and popular with the boys, gets raped. Her mother is a druggie who belonged to the Hippie movement. Tully is embarrassed and her friendship with Kate begins with a lie. She tells Kate that her mother has cancer, but confesses the truth about the rape. Kate has the softest heart you can find in anyone. She is not attractive and knows it. But she feels for Tully and somehow they develop a friendship bond that appears unbreakable no matter what happens in their lives.
And that feels like the message of Firefly Lane as it deals with how and why this friendship endures even through the most trying of times. Through betrayal and divorce. Nothing could tear them apart, not men, not their broken families, not their very different approaches to life.
Tully is selfish, self-centered, and needy. And I felt sorry for Kate as Tully constantly demands that she understand her situation, and seldom provides any thought or understanding herself. In fact, the greatest gift that Kate gives Tully is the total acceptance of Tully as her best friend. Without judgement.
Tully is truly awful. I don’t know if different people sympathize with different characters in this series, but I figure that even if you were the Tully in a particular relationship, you wouldn’t have the self-awareness to realize that you were. In fact, watching Firefly Lane, you’d probably feel the same way I do about her. You’d probably be thinking: “Poor Kate. She’s such a good soul for having to put up with such a difficult friend.”
Firefly Lane is a good series to watch and I did enjoy it until that ending which left me with a big “WTF?”
Friendships are indeed gifts from God. Even if you have a close-knit family and enough relatives to sink a ship. A friend is not of your blood. A true friend is one who will drop everything to be there when you are alone and when everyone you love deserts you. Do friendship last a lifetime? My answer is a big “YES.” The real ones most definitely do. It is only appropriate that I quote Walter Winchell who once said: “A real friend is the one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.”
Follow Us