Filed under: Psychology,TV — posted by Breakup Girl @ 8:02 am
Science Daily: “New research by psychologists at the University at Buffalo and Miami University, Ohio, indicates that illusionary relationships with the characters and personalities on favorite TV shows can provide people with feelings of belonging, even in the face of low self esteem or after being rejected by friends or family members.”
I could have told you that. (But I told Liz Lemon instead.)
One thing singles tell me a lot is that they enjoy singlehood, they really do — and that they would enjoy it even more if they knew, for super-sure guarantee, that it also had an end date. Well, one new movie — starring BG imaginary BFF Emma Caulfield as a gal named Oona — uses machine-as-metaphor to make that fantasy real. It’s TiMER, in which women and men may choose to be implanted with a device that counts down the days, minutes, and seconds until they meet The One. But Oona’s timer is blank. So what will she do? Like the rest of us in the real world, will she have to just “just know”?
From the trailer, TiMER looks like a sweet sci-fi wrapped in a chick-flick tied with a careful-what-you-wish-for bow. And since what we’ve been wishing for is the return of Emma Caulfield, we’re not gonna be careful at all. (Now if we could just know for sure when — or if — it’ll go into wide release.)
2. Set your TiVos. According to The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, 8 in 10 teens and adults believe the decade-plus decline in teen pregnancy is due in part to increased media attention to the issue. And 75% of teens say that when a character in a TV show experiences a teen pregnancy, it makes them think more about the consequences of sex. The N, for one, is airing pregnancy-related past eps of shows including “Degrassi” and “South of Nowhere,” plus — don’t fast-forward! — lots of cool anti-preg PSAs. Other goodies appear throughout May on CWTV.com, with stats and info appearing online alongside relevant eps of “Gossip Girl” and “90210.”
3. Read Seventeen. The June issue features an honest look at the real lives of pregnant teens.
4. Abstain from saying mean things about Bristol Palin. Poor kid.
Save Chuck! NBC’s uber-charming, geektastic spy comedy Chuck is on the bubble of cancellation! I’m not going to argue that this is objectively the best show on TV, but for me, it’s the show I most look forward to — and I will miss it desperately should tonight’s season finale be a series finale.
First let me speak directly to the Nielsen families that read this blog: Please, for the love of Adam Baldwin, WATCH CHUCK TONIGHT LIVE!
To the rest of you: Zachary-Levi.com details all the ways to save Chuck. Chief among these is buying a $5 footlong at Subway TODAY and proclaiming your love of Chuck to the show’s biggest sponsor via the store suggestion box. This is actually a good deal; I mean, if you sent peanuts to CBS to save Jericho you didn’t get to eat them! Ditto the Mars bars.
I know you’re wondering why I am not OMGing over THE SCENE from last week’s episode — well, Lynn is a few episodes behind and I don’t want to spoil anything. (Only #6 on this list of TV’s top moments from last week? What’s that about??)
“The enthusiasm for the ‘Wild Kingdom’ analogy is a sign of how strange and hysterically funny the idea of energetic female sexual desire is — whether it’s in the form of 34-year-old Drew Barrymore, who has cheerily referred to herself as a “pre-cougar” or “puma” because she’s dated men a couple of years younger than her, or 50-year-old Madonna, who recently dated 20-year-old Jesus Luz,” writes Rebecca Traister at Salon.com. “How sad and backward that we have to give it a nickname, animalize it as if it’s outside the boundaries of civilized human behavior, make it a trend, pretend that Demi Moore invented it. That’s not progress, and it’s not a step forward for women.”
Now, I loved the original Cupid with Jeremy Piven and Paula Marshal. (Has it really been 10 years? Yikes!) So much so, I took note of the creator’s name, Rob Thomas, and when Veronica Mars was making its debut I actually checked it out because it was by “the guy who did Cupid!” Although it lacks the grit and, well, Piven of 1998’s Cupid, the new version retains much of the spirit of the old show, making it a highly watchable hour of TV. (Also available online.)
I’d like to recommend it to readers of this blog because, like Breakup Girl, Cupid mixes rational, practical themes in relationships with an unabashedly romantic, hopeful spirit. The two sides here are represented by Sarah Paulson as a relationship expert/psychologist and her sort-of patient Bobby Cannavale who may or may not be the Greek god Cupid. If you are expecting a show where “Cupid” is always right and the jaded psychologist is always wrong, you would be disappointed. Rob Thomas keeps it real. Ish. And even when the A plot gets their happily ever after, the B plot ends in disappointment.
The show stays grounded because Cannavale’s Cupid-ness is never completely confirmed. This ambiguity is brilliant. Without that grounding, the whole affair could have spun off into a huge mess like UPN’s TheCW’s Valentine. The difference between the two is really Rob Thomas. Let’s face it, without him, Veronica Mars would have simply been Nancy Drew.
Filed under: Psychology,TV — posted by Jackie @ 1:14 pm
Forget the Al Bundy-esque battle over the remote control. According to the New York Times, the latest pop-culture conflict heating up among couples is: The Netflix Wars.
For many couples, the queue — the computer list of which films will arrive next in the mail, after those at home are returned — is as important as everything else that spouses and other varieties of significant others share, from pet names to closet space to the bathroom. For some, this is fine. For others, the queue is the new toilet seat that somebody left up.
Yikes! Looks like someone just rented “Awkward Metaphor.” Anyway: from changing the account password to sneakily bumping up one’s own selections, “policing the queue” has apparently become “a delicate matter” that can cause turmoil under a shared roof.
True? What about you? Have you ever had a Bridget Jones v. James Bond scuffle over movie choices with your partner?
e-mail to a friend in need
The Cougar
I’ll admit it — I like ABC’s Cupid.
Forget the 
