I have tried to make this entry funny. Really, I have. It turns out that there is a very fragile anger/snark balance, and right now I’m too annoyed to properly access the snark. You see, yesterday I gave the first two episodes of Samantha Who? a try. The show has received fairly warm reviews and it looks a safe bet to be picked up for an entire season. Granted, considering its competition this season, that’s not saying much. It turns out that, for the most part, the show is a moderately successful, light-hearted comedy. So why did it have me yelling and chucking things at the TV?
The show’s premise is that the titular lead, played by Christina Applegate, is hit by a car and wakes up with amnesia, only to discover that she wasn’t an especially nice person before the accident. This establishes the basic conflict: while she wants to be a new (good) person, the old (bad) Sam keeps rearing its ugly head. Unfortunately, the new Sam is also a bumbling, neurotic and inappropriate fool with verbal incontinence. She depends on everyone else for opinions and information, even going so far as to ask her doorman if she should get a boob job. I’m fairly sure that when you aren’t certain of your position on the state of your own breasts, you need help. She is, quite simply, a weak mess.
This is in sharp contrast to Bad Sam, who is seen eviscerating her opponents through her wicked tongue and take-no-prisoners confidence. This Sam is completely in control and, if not likable, at least interesting. She may be the villain of the show, but she also gives the show the spark it otherwise lacks.
It seems this trend of openly neurotic female characters is not limited to Samantha Who?. I’m still not entirely sold on Pushing Daisies, and after last night’s episode, I can finally say why. Okay, the narrator still bugs, especially when he insists on counting down the time of each major event to the last second, but it’s really the women that are getting on my last nerve. Chuck’s insistence on discussing her relationship with Ned whenever it strikes her fancy — in the car, with company, while digging up corpses — sets her up as the stereotypical needy female. Olive’s unrequited love for the same man turns her into a scheming, manipulative object of pity. If they turned Pushing Daisies into the Emerson & Ned Show, I’d be far more likely to turn in each week. Imagine it: they’d have a knitting circle while doing shots of vodka and wondering if it was too late to wake up Kennedy and find out who really shot him. It would be so much better.
Private Practice isn’t faring any better than the other shows. Kate Walsh’s Addison had already transitioned from tough-ass bitch to love-hun
gry and rather desperate singleton on Grey’s Anatomy, but the spin-off further highlights that change as she fumbles her way around an adult conversation with Tim Daly’s character and seems to have entirely forgotten how to politely interact with others. When, in the first five minutes of the show, she announces to an acquaintance that, “A lot of men have enjoyed seeing me naked. A lot! Well, not a lot…. I mean…8. Well…11,” it’s clear that it’s going to be a very long season. In case that’s not enough, Audra MacDonald plays the role of Naomi as if her sole motivation is “scorned ex-wife” and Amy Brenneman’s Violet openly stalks her ex-boyfriend. Yeah, some of us did the call-and-hang-up thing. In junior high. Before *69 was invented. Please do not tell me that this women lacks the basic faculties of today’s fourteen-year-old girls.
So, why is neurotic and incompetent a desired female quality? These are not shows selling some sort of male fantasy, either, as they are all clearly geared toward a female demographic. Are we still feeling the aftershocks of Ally McBeal and Bridget Jones? I know the idea is that these characters will seem more approachable to the audience, but who is that audience? I mean, I’ve rung up an impressive list of embarrassing life moments, but I’ve never felt that my impulse control switch was a factory second. When I watch these shows, I cringe; I don’t relate.
Thankfully, this also seems to be the season of strong female characters, whether it’s the Bionic Woman (who, in addition to being super-strong, may be capable of killing you through boredom), Chuck’s spy hottie Sarah, or the still-to-come The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Of course, all these women suffer for their strength in some way, and I’m sure there’s a post about that for some other time. However, considering the alternative, I’m in no mood to be quibbling over small details. At least they know how to have an appropriate conversation with other adults or how to walk into a room without tripping over their own feet.
There has to be a happy medium between super-powered and bumbling fool, and I’m more than ready for the networks to find it.
What do you think? Am I riding too far on my feminist high horse or are this season’s new crop of women a bit…crap, really?
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October 25th, 2007 at 9:10 pm
the shows you’ve mentioned…i didn’t have any desire to watch before this post…now, i’m going to run as far away from the t.v as i can…just in case someone flips on the channel at those time slots…anyway, the only show i’ve watched, and enjoyed, this last couple of seasons is heroes!
October 26th, 2007 at 10:14 am
Melissa, it’s not necessarily that these shows are bad, but they would all be so much better with more composed female characters. The current ‘foolish woman’ trend is sucking the life out of potentially good shows.
But yeah, stick with Heroes, though I’ve had a few things to say about THAT this season, as well.
October 30th, 2007 at 5:34 am
I miss teevee. Even when it’s stupid.
Did I tell you that when we were at the resort, we sat through the new version of The Fog? And a couple of other horrible remakes and lame movies, just because it was teevee?
Sigh. We’re pathetic.