TV Is My Life

So, my husband went out with the guys tonight. I was invited but opted to "work on my thesis" instead. I have been home alone for an hour and not once until this moment did I even consider working on my thesis. I mean, inititally I fully intended on working on my thesis, and I still might at some point...but it's sooo boring and time-consuming.

Instead, I opted for blogging.

Recently my husband and I have been watching Being Erica on Netflix. We tend to cling to certain shows and watch them obsessively. Like, we watch House every Monday night...except this one because we don't have TV anymore...but that;s another story. We also watched Mad Men in the course of a couple weeks. Several episodes a day. Or Wonderfalls which we've watched several times.

Anyways. Being Erica. We've been obsessively watching an episode or two or three a day. We're in season 2, just after the "do over day" and I've gotten so caught up in this fictional life that I'm fretting over her relationship with Ethan (Who is the hot bartender in Wonderfalls and who plays essentially the same character so husband and I have been imagining that Wonderfalls preceded Being Erica and that poor Ethan/Eric has gone through two divorces and is a hopelessly good guy with incredibly bad luck).

This always happens. We get swept up in the drama and excitement of vicariously living through TV and we feel so personally tied to the characters and their well-being.

This time around, there's a motif. Every episode or two, Erica actively screws things up. It's like there are so many ways that things could work out if she just didn't screw them up, but she invariably does. Typically because she's a whorebag. And a little stupid at times. So now, almost every time we watch an episode, at some point I'm going to start yelling at the TV, "Noooo!! WHY is she such a WHOREBAG!? UGH, what is WRONG with her?" Like that cute, very smart, well-adjusted guy from the high school reunion. She was starting to really connect with him back in time there, but she had to go and sex him up right there on the boat after only having like one conversation with the guy ever. Shockingly, this didn't become a problem. But after being turned down by him at the reunion, she goes and turns it on for Ethan. I mean, there are a ton of times where she just makes out with people, or sexes them up or does something really whoreish and if she just resisted a wee bit, things would turn out better.

However, this show is highly unrealistic in its consequences. There are many times where she tells people stuff that normally would go very badly for her, but they seem to work out in the end. Told her sister she was marrying the wrong guy? Only an issue for a week or two. Yelled at Ethan for being a coward? He came back and professed his love. Told her best friend she was a bad mother? Her friend agrees with her! This is totally unrealistic.These things would not get resolved so quickly or so well in real life.

But now, there's this new guy that's fun and exciting and cool who really hits it off with Erica and they have this special bond, but I can't bear to see Ethan heartbroken. I'm torn. It upsets me that there is a seeming plethora of nice, attractive, available men on this show! You can't just be like "clearly that one's the best looking plus he's the only truly nice guy". It's trickier than that. How are you suppposed to choose who to root for when you feel bad about not rooting for the other handful of decent guys? You can't just hope that they all get her. That would likely be highly dissatisfying for all the guys, though not for Erica...she'd probably love it, the whorebag. Kidding. A little.

Anyways, all this is to say I hope my husband doesn't stay out too late because, damnit, I want to find out what happens with Erica, Ethan and Kai!