The Being Erica BS Detector: Season 3, Episode 8
This week, the student became the teacher, or rather, the teacher became the student, as BE dug deep into Dr. Tom’s totally depressing past. Let’s be clear here: we like our Erica epies fun and frothy. Need we point out the obvious? An almost entirely Julianne-free hour is like a prom without spiked punch. Last week’s Jenny drama was so promising, and now here we are again, back at suicide central. And back to having way too many storylines, though we must admit that perfect Judith’s marital distress has piqued our interest. More on that, please.
Anyway, rather than try to dissect the entire Dr.-Tom-died-but-didn’t-die conundrum or weigh in on whether his heroin-addicted daughter (who looks a lot like Jo from The Facts of Life) should be eligible for time travel therapy, we thought we’d focus on one plot line in particular: Sam and Lenin.
So Erica’s little sis Sam is a surgeon, and her current love interest, Lenin, is a janitor at the hospital, albeit a groovy rock-climbing janitor with a Lisa Bonet-esque hairdo. The would-be couple has already encountered the whole “a bird may love a fish, but where would they live?” dilemma. (Answer: the supply closet, apparently.) But the real question is, is this a realistic storyline? Can broom and stethoscope become one?
I love Sam and Lenin together. She isn’t your typical ego-maniac surgeon. It is definitely a non-traditional match, though, and Sam has proven that she isn’t sure how to handle it.
Hey I am liking the episode and the link with Sam and Lenin but I must admit I am really not fond of the Ivan and Dave on the show. All for gay characters just do not like their characters on the show as they are currently portrayed.
I agree with beingerica fan, Dave and Ivan are weird characters. I think they could have done something better with them.
From the get go, this series has had all the makings of a hit and certainly its global viewing audience is proof positive of its popularity.
But audiences can become fickle when a show, any show, fails to meet its own mark. One episode that misses the baseline expectations and, “beep beep”, the audience is running down the road so to speak and with the click of a button, starts a new viewing habit. Great shows can climb in the ratings, teeter and fall and like Humpty Dumpty, can’t be salvaged. Case in point? The New Adventures of Old Christine. Gone.
I think Being Erica is a great show but I’m starting to waver on a few things. The stereotypical gay men that own “Goblins” – oversimplified and shallow characters that are nearly impossible to develop without a high price and risk to the show, just drag everything down and give B.E. a goofy gong show vibe. Thanks but no thanks… I haven’t started walking away yet but my shoes are on and pointed at the door.
The character of Julianne on the other hand is a character that isn’t so much stereotypical and shallow as it is loathsome on the surface but lovable underneath. In creating her, the writers gave birth to a “smartie” – you know, hard on the outside, soft on the inside and just the right character to spark a curiosity in viewers to see where she goes. But they shouldn’t stray to far from where they are in as much as they should just go deeper. Years ago, the series Little House On The Prairie created the character of “Nellie Oleson” – a mean little girl who, at heart, was miserable and looking to right herself. When the writers took her to that point, episodes became schmaltzy and sugary and the show became more slapstick and goof ball than funny and heart warming.
Before the writers are driven to kill the show B.E., I think the Exec Producers, Producers, Directors, Writers and Actors need to have a little sit down over a Kai coffee or two and look at where the show’s success is rooted. If they go for the gold of story telling, they’ll come away with a great show, one that has universal appeal, and that can do well in syndication without become irrelevant over time due to the killing effect of the schmaltzy factor.
Doctor Tom, please don’t let them open the door to schamltzy…
P.S.
In case anyone stands to lose sleep over it, the origin of the word schmaltzy is the Yiddish “Shmaltz” and German “Schmalz” for “drippings, lard”…
So as not to fall off the course of success, here’s a quick writers fix:
The Goblins guys don’t have liability insurance. Julianne slips and falls on a glob of lard used for baking something that Goblins sells. With Julianne in traction, Erica has to pick up the slack in the publishing biz while Brad circles and taking out her emotions on the world, Julianne sues the boys, takes ownership of Goblins and, unbeknownst to Erica at first, hires Kai back as general manager… And the boys, to close the loop on the stereotypical path already given to them by the writers, go to The Bay and work retail forever and live, eat and breath the rest of their lives on Church Street.
I hate the Sam with the janitor storyline. There she is, gorgeous, a succesful surgeon and a decent person – there he is, handsome, sexy with no real goals. This is not a realistic storyline at all; I don’t know any woman who would be happy to be with a janitor when she could be with a surgeon/professional. It’s a fact of life; just as men value beauty, women value social status. It’s pretty clear that some values social status too. And why shouldn’t she have a partner who’s on the same level as her, emotionally, mentally and financially? This storyline smacks of political correctness; it’s basically a feel-good story for men who want to think that they’re going to score with a highly sought after female even though they don’t have their life together.
Leigh-Andrea what you wrote above is a little offensive. I’m married to a caretaker of a school & he actually makes almost as much as me & I work in an office setting. Also who’s to say that a surgeon/professional would be the same level emotionally, mentally & financially as Sam? I have met plently of so-called professional men before my husband that were not the same maturity level or financial level as me. Actually they were very infantile. The fact is, there are couples of all types in real life. What a guy does for a living does not indicate how “together” their life is.
^ Of course what a guy does for a living is an indicator of how “together” his life is. And the FACT is, most women would not be happy with a janitor unless that was the best they could get. A woman who doctors hitting on her is not going to date the janitor. I’m not sure what kind of office job you have if you earn less than a caretaker. My point was about PROFESSIONAL women; working in an office does not make you a professional, it makes you an office worker (eg, secretaries are “office workers” but not professionals).
I don’t see what’s “offensive” about acknowledging reality.