It's Better to Marry A Ben Over a Noel...This Does Not Hold True for Dylans, Paceys or Deans

The Intro

[The only time I ever wanted to work at a place called "The Peach Pit"]

First, I will be talking about the following shows: Beverly Hills 90210 (the one from the 90s not that crappy one from the CW!) , Dawson's Creek, Felicity and The Gilmore Girls. I could add The OC (Seth or Ryan?), but seriously, what the heck happened at the end there? Besides too many triangles and not enough time. And, this is the only time I will mention vampire infused love triangles via Twilight or The Vampire Diaries...as they are too idiotic to even contemplate as viable options! I'm also not going to be mentioning the delicious triangle in Hart of Dixie as I love both George and Wade... a lot.

The first triangle I ever noticed as a plot device is the Brandon, Dylan, Kelly drama...which eventually turned into a Brandon/Dylan venn diagram of awesome (and, began a lifetime devotion to Lord Byron), which eventually turned into a cluster of...I don't even know what and I stopped watching.

Every good TV drama will have some sort of love triangle and if there isn't an out and out triangle there will be two guys who form a great venn diagram of lust/love and awesome good looks that we, the viewer, must contemplate on a weekly basis even when the show is trying to tackle tough issues like teen suicide and alcoholism.

Watching Felicity in its entirety as an adult who knew the ending made me realize that I may always root for the bad guy in the love triangle, but truly Ben is the only bad guy with a genuine heart of gold...sigh...

Why I'd pick Ben every day of the week and twice on Sunday

Felicity is a pretty good judge of character and she realizes early on that Ben is a good guy. Sure she spends some time trying to reform him, she comes to accept him for who he is and he, in turn, grows to love the girl who is obsessed with him.

Bens
Character Analysis
Ben is not the best guy. He will tell you that. But, he also shows you that he actual is the best guy. He will tell you he loves you, actual once you break down that wall (and there is a big one...think Great Wall of China) he will tell you pretty much all about who he is and how he feels all of the time. Ben is the best guy friend, as he will punch any one who hurts you, and he will tell you like it is...even when you really don't want him to do so. I liked watching as Ben became more than this unattainable boy who Felicity didn't even know enough about to be obsessed over.
Pros
Tells you how he feels, isn't scared of you and your intelligence, he knows how to win your heart and is willing to learn from you how to keep your heart. He is a hard worker who learns from his mistakes, he has loads of friends, he will do anything for you and he will keep you on your toes.
Cons
Baggage...he, um, drinks and may or may not cheat on you, while he may tell you how he feels, he doesn't tell you what is on his mind, you have to be patient while he reforms, but he will reform and that's what makes him great marriage material. He will appreciate every moment with you and he will be honest with you, but he will still be that bad boy who first possessed your heart.

Noels
Character Analysis
Plays a mean game of boggle, and perfect RA material.
Pros
Bows out gracefully, finally.
Cons
Doesn't really know what it means to love someone, he does however, know what it means to be a wee bit obsessed about someone. This good marriage material does not make. I knew he wasn't the guy for Felicity the second he began to sabotage her relationship with Ben...if she really wanted him, she would have gone to him all on her own.

Why it doesn't hold true for Dylan, Pacey or Dean

"The right kind of love..." er...not really...

Dylans
Character Analysis
"Mad, bad and dangerous to know" I never understood why girls kept flocking to Dylan.
Pros
Drive a kick-butt car...um, is a good friend to Brandon most of the time...um...
Cons
Spoiled, trust-fund kid who throws money at problems. He will never understand why his money isn't buying your happiness.

"Whine, whine, whine..."

Paceys and Deans
Character Analysis
Pacey and Dean are the same character for the most part. Moon-eyed and love struck, they are kind of wimpy. I still don't understand why Joey picked Pacey over Dawson, well, that is I don't understand until I remember that Dawson didn't really like people or girls and had a pechant for being mopey and a wee bit selfish. Gosh, Joey really didn't have much of a choice. I can't believe Dean ruined his marriage to be with Rory and I can't believe Pacey pined for Joey...I don't know how long, one million years?
Pros
sweet, thoughtful, kind, patient, never say 'no', hardly ever get angry
Cons

"Could he be any nicer!?"

Their pros are also ALWAYS their cons, as all those traits make them so easy to be walked on...and, are the very reasons they don't make good marriage material. I remember reading/watching "The Joy Luck Club" and there is this scene where a wife confronts her husband about his affair and he says something about the fact that they used to argue and talk and contemplate things all the time and she began to always agree. No one likes to be told they're right all the time. No person with any self-respect likes to be followed without question.

More fun via...

FAB and FAN here

Wade and Zoe and George here

Joey and Pacey and Dawson here

If you have found more posts or want to talk about your favorite love triangle, feel free to convo with me in the comments below, I can totally geek out about this topic forever...

"Felicity" Spring Break 2013

I found another show to obsess to/about and watched most of it during Spring Break...we had a staycation and Lila went to daycare a few of the days, she spent the night with her aunts, and I spent those days watching 'Felicity'.

OK, so I immediately saw myself in Felicity. Ugh. It was/is embarrassing. I think the only difference between the two of us (besides the obvious physical appearance) was that I haven't followed 'the boy' across country, rocking my whole world, and changing my life...um...although, I...

Anyway, whatever.

The week before Spring Break I started watching 'Felicity', I'd never seen it before. I wasn't sure I'd be into it. I'd heard that the show was sillier than 'Dawson's Creek' (such a vicious untrue statement) and I'd heard that it was pretty intense. So, I started the show and in the three hours of free time I had, I graded absolutely nothing and watched those first few intense, deeply emotional episodes of 'Felicity'. I laughed, I felt a little nostalgic for a time in my life that is no longer, and when the family came home I was in the middle of that mortifying tape scene in "Hot Objects" got a little weepy (I was there once, it was a letter to a friend about a boy...it was, I don't want to talk about it) and realized that I was 'hooked'.

I tell you right now I couldn't have watched this show while it was on the air. It's this emotional roller-coaster love triangle of girl angst with great hair and music (although I hear the music is different than it was when it originally aired) as a background. Three of the four seasons end in overwhelmingly awful cliffhangers that would have ruined my summer and unlike 'Beverly Hills 90210', a show that turned into a sexy soap-opera after it's first four years, and 'Dawson's Creek', a show that's just so sappy and ridiculous by the end, it has real feelings and real emotions acted by real people (albeit beautiful people); Felicity doesn't feel like one long music video.

So, before we spend some quality time digging in to what made this show possess a place in my heart and mind, let's get a few of the big things out of the way:

'Felicity' has a whole fandom of shippers...most of them are in their late 20s and early 30s; honestly after four years of Ben and Felicity and Noel I can understand. I am not a FAN. I am a hardcore FAB. Keri Russell and Scott Speedman make sure that you are...I mean seriously there's some too hot moments between the two of them that are...whew...cold shower, moving on. This starts in the opening scene. It does not stop until the final scene of the show.

I think I may have seen an episode or two of this show a long time ago. There were some things in season four that seemed familiar and hazy like a dream.

I miss the 90s. This show made me actually admit that. I loved the 90s. I feel sorry for any person who wasn't in high school or college in the 90s. I was in high school in the early 90s and college in the late 90s...there isn't a better decade to be nostalgic about...the music, the clothes, the end of the millennium, the movies, the shows, my life, the economy...sigh, good times. I love where and who I am now, but I miss that pretty awesome decade. And, while this show ended in 2002, everybody knows that the first few years of any decade look like the preceding decade.

I am a fan of the haircut. I am a fan of the reasons for the haircut. Girls could learn on to be so brave.

I am a fan of Felicity. Sure, she's selfish and self-centered (what girl, what person isn't???) and sometimes just plain 'girl' dumb and she makes horribly wrong choices and has to be forced to recognize the right ones, but she's real people and she makes me laugh and blush with embarrassment and, wow, such a nicely flawed character.

JJ Abrams is a bully. The WB is/was also a bully.

On the other hand the last five episodes of the show are pretty darned good. I am glad I was told about them first (thanks Jen!) otherwise I may have thrown the remote and punched a kitten. *SPOILER* I'm glad I watched them. I think it's important for all the shippers and the other fans that we see what 'Felicity and Noel' looks like so there are no regrets about 'Felicity and Ben'. These episodes give us a chance to reexamine our own choices/what-ifs. Plus, they give us a chance to see the hot cocky Ben that we haven't seen since the first season.

I watched the show with two brains. Brain One: 36 year-old grown-up Stephanie; Brain Two: college Stephanie...thank goodness they're both quite schmoopy and nostalgic.

I didn't watch this show in order. I am muy impatient. If this show had not ended the way I wanted it to, I would have felt like I wasted 84 hours of my time. I'd also watched the end of an arch (ie. like the whole Lauren thing--wth, was that anyway???!) before watching the beginning of an arch as I also hate surprises. After watching the show this way I realized that's the reason I can't watch 'Hart of Dixie' right now...ugh. Wade and Zoe and George...tell me what happens so I can watch in comfort...still gasping and crying like somebody killed my favorite pet.

Here's my list:
1] S1 E1-11 in order
2] S4 E1-7
3] the last two of Season one; the first two of Season two
4] S2 E11
5] S3 E14-end; S4 E1-2
6] S4 E17; S4 the finale and E21
7] S4 E5-7; S4 3-4
8] the last two of Season two; S2 E20-21; S3 E1 and E3
9] S1 E12-14
10] S4 E10-11, E8-9; S1 E15
11] S1 E16-18; S4 E14-15
12] S2 E3-9; S3 E2
13] S3 E10-13
14] S3 E4-9; S2 E10
15] S2 E12-15, E18-19
16] S2 E16-17
and, then I watched the series finale again...and, some scenes I found on YouTube...you know...for closer.

 More later...

Female Role Models on The Tube

My Heroes

I've been watching a lot of Remington Steele lately, which means I've been doing a lot of self reflecting. I didn't realize it, but growing up I had two heroes; Wonder Woman, who stayed in my conscience brain and Laura Holt, who became so much a part of me I didn't even realize that aspects of me are, in fact, her.

When I was a kid I watched Wonder Woman every day after school (I must have watched it in some sort of syndication because I am not that old). And, from Lynda Carter's depiction of the Amazon Princess, I learned:

1. How you dress does not determine how you are perceived Although many today think of Wonder Woman as the sexy superhero (in writing this post I found severally Playboyesque pics of my hero), she doesn't for once let you forget that in tiny spangled spankies and high-heeled red go-go boots she can, and will, kick your heine.

2. Nice girls finish first Diana Prince, Princess Diana, Wonder Woman...always, always, always, according to creator William Marston stands for "love, peace and sexual equality". She is honest and virtuous and because of these traits always gets the bad guy and always gets the man she loves. Even if she does have to wait...for...ever...hmmm, she is also patient, another lovely quality of any 'nice girl'.

3. Girls are powerful in body and mind Even when talking to a perp, Wonder Woman's voice is smooth and without edge. As Diana Prince she isn't like bumbling Clark Kent instead she works for military intelligence and saves lives. She's been a secretary, a nurse, and a Major in the Army. Without the costume she is still self-assured and strong. In the costume she is all this and a powerful ally in the Justice League.

The Source is My Very Own Wonder Woman Pinterest Board

In Laura Holt, I learned all those traits, and more, could exist in a real person.

In watching Remington Steele with adult eyes and a nostalgic mind set, here are the things I've been noticing:

1. Less is More Stephanie Zimbalist is just friggin' beautiful. Yes, this is the first thing I noticed while watching the show again. The first time around I noticed Pierce Brosnan's beauty (yes, a 10 year old can know when a 30 year old is H-O-T), heck, the whole world noticed Mr. Brosnan's beauty. Anyway, Stephanie Zimbalist is beautiful running after bad guys, dancing in a ballroom, figuring out that a crime has been committed, in a skirt, in a dress, in heels, in espadrilles (and, she wears many variations and colors--I'm jealous), in slacks and without makeup. I love that there's so little make-up on her pretty face, that you can see her freckles. I also love that, unless she's working out, you do not see Laura Holt in sneakers...I hate sneakers and feel like a dork when wearing them...I don't know if I got that from her (my mother also wears sneakers rarely), but it's nice to see.

2. Girls with Brains Rule While it may be the girl with the curls and the eyelashes who catches the eye of the guy, it is the girl with the brains, the girl with the standards who gets him in the end. I mean Laura tells Mr. Steele how it is often. She makes sure that he knows that it's her detective agency. She connects all the dots all of the time and still, in the end, gets carried up the stairs by the man who loves her brains and her beauty.

3. Strong, Smart Girls Don't Always Have to Win It is so cool to see a character who is a strong girl who is allowed to be strong and still be feminine. Remington Steele is always there for Laura Holt...she cries on his shoulder when her house gets blown up and she learns lessons from his Type B personality...lessons like, "Friends come first", and, "Just because I'm angry at you doesn't mean I don't love you", lessons like, "Sure, We've got a crime to solve, but let's drink this wine first". There's one episode in Season 3 (I believe it's Episode 1) where Steele really does get angry with her and yells at her about how she always has to have everything her way and on her terms and he says that at some point in time he'd like her to think of him and what he wants. I love the role reversal and I love that she does, through-out the season, take a step back and reflect on her relationship with him. I love that he does too.


You've got to admit, I have some pretty awesome TV heroes.


Who are/were your TV heroes growing up?

"A Way Back When" Saturday...

Gotta raise the kiddo right you know!

What are your favorite shows from way back when?

Six Word Saturday #8

My life in six words
Kid Friendly Programming all.day. long.

Want to play along? All that's necessary to participate is to describe your life (or something) in a phrase using just six words. For more information, try clicking here. Feel free to explain or not explain. Add an image, a video, a song, nothing. The full list and linky can be found here. And, here's where I found it.