I want to write the Long Day's Journey Into Night version of The Munsters. 

I know NBC tried pushing a Munsters reboot with an addiction metaphor, and I suspect I might be the only person who saw it that way. 

Am I the only person who sees The Munsters as a metaphor for living with addiction? And, if Herman was created to be Lily's partner, what does this mean for that poor schmuck? I feel very sorry for him. Is he supposed to be her enabler, or to keep her from being an addict? 

Think about it. Of the entire family, you have three vampires, one, uh, re-animated corpse construction, and one family member who passes for human. This scares me the most. Marilyn says she's "the ugly one of the family," but she's the one who passes for normal in society. She's a niece of Lily and Herman's, and she's part of the family in a full and consistent way. So, I can see how the show creators see her as a bridge between the "normals" and the Munsters, but how does she fulfill the metaphor? 

As the NBC reboot pushed it, she's the lure for Grampa's addiction issues. which makes sense. But what does a woman who has nothing and everything in common with her family want for herself? She really could leave them, but there has to be something that she wants. which means that either she's a really functional addict, or she's never been addicted, but something else makes her want to be there. 

which would mean she's controlling the addicts for her own purposes. a family of pet vampires. jeez, who wouldn't want that? 

Herman's conflicts seem obvious. he's made to be a partner for Lily, someone who won't be afraid of her addiction but doesn't share it. Then they've got a child. If you go by traditional vampire canon, either he's a child from outside the biological family who was turned, or he's the biological product of Herman and Lily. which asks the question if vampires can reproduce. I will not use Twilight as a reference. 

I am, however, stuck on the notion of Herman and Eddie sitting in the living room quietly trying to function with the fact that Lily is addicted upstairs and Grampa is addicted in the basement. 

I actually liked the NBC reboot (even though I generally dislike reboots).  I saw a lot of potential for it as a metaphor for addiction. Since Grampa becomes younger, sexier, and stronger after he's fed, it brings up the really sad part of dysfunctional families. Sometimes things are better when they're at their worst. Sometimes the happy memories of a gleefully drunk parent or remembering the smoky smell of a loving grandparent can be the worst parts of dealing with addiction. But the episode ended with a dead body in the basement, who would certainly be missed by the outside community. 

Pretty heavy stuff for something that's trying to get PG-13 audience numbers. 

I thought about writing a story about a family with a vampire-like curse, but not actually bloodsucking, fanged creatures. Let's say they suck the breath out of you or something. and you have that happening in three direct generations of the family, plus two family members who are half outside, half in, who are either enablers or protectors, who are stuck half in and half out of the family. Maybe this is worth pursuing. 

I've been watching a lot of American Horror Story in the past week. Probably not a good idea. I'm colossally bored with everything and I seem to be able to parcel this out to myself as a cheap treat.  I watched the whole first season, most of it in one marathon on Saturday night. I started watching the second season, and I'm into it so far. I like horror as a metaphor for other things. The writing is compact and it moves fast. It's a good reminder of everything I learned in school about writing.