The Being Erica BS detector: Season 3, Episode 2
Episode 2 of Being Erica aired last night, and again, we’re left craving some more extensive time travel. (It’s kind of hard to play time cop when only a few minutes of the episode take place in the time travel vacuum.) Still, we managed to spot a few details worthy of the BS detector.
As always, we’ll leave the more general analysis—like how not-hot Ryan’s haircut is or how ick that “We are a full service gym” comment was—to the other experts. Click here for a more thorough explanation of the time copping process or read on for this week’s scorecard.
The time period: Somewhere around 1999. It’s Claire’s stagette, and when Claire and Ethan split in season 1, it was 2009, and they had been married for 10 years. (This back-to-the-future mission happens because Erica is having trouble letting go of Ethan, so she travels back in time to learn from another woman who has loved and lost the same dude.)
• Technically, our first objection isn’t a matter of historical accuracy, but are we the only ones who find it hard to believe that Erica would throw a party in honour of a girl she can’t stand? As Claire says to Erica, “Do you really think that you throwing me a party to make Ethan happy is going to erase all the years of tension between us?” We don’t. (-1)
• As the girls enter downtown clubland, the camera pans to a light display–free CN Tower. The lights were added in 2007. (+3)
• We’re pretty sure the song playing at the drag bar (actually, El Convento Rico) is Geri Halliwell’s version of “It’s Raining Men,” which didn’t come out until 2001. If we’re wrong, we’ll do an orgasm shot in penance. (-2)
• Claire uses a totally outdated, era-appropriate cellphone when she calls Ethan from the club (+4), which only highlights the fact that in 2010, Erica uses a payphone to call him. The notion that Erica Strange, publishing whiz, would be operating without a cell is ridiculous. (-8) Also, that phone booth was totally spotless and almost inviting. If that’s what Toronto phone booths looked like (rather than sketchy STD receptacles), maybe we wouldn’t be such a cell-dependent society. (-1)
• And since we’re very briefly breaking the rules and opening this up to the present day: would anyone really buy a magenta car? (-2) Julianne would! (+6)
Final score: -1
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Courtney Shea is a freelance journalist in Toronto. She started her career as an intern at Toronto Life and continues to contribute frequently to the publication, including her 2022 National Magazine Award–winning feature, “The Death Cheaters,” her regular Q&As and her recent investigation into whether Taylor Swift hung out at a Toronto dive bar (she did not). Courtney was a producer and writer on the 2022 documentary The Talented Mr. Rosenberg, based on her 2014 Toronto Life magazine feature “The Yorkville Swindler.”
