Idea for a TV Show

I think I have a good idea for a TV show.

I've really benefited from attending regular counselling sessions since I married my soldier...talking to someone helps deal with the realities of his job.  I know that, percentage wise, being in the army is not the most dangerous occupation in the United States (even in wartime).  It's commercial fishing. 

So sometimes I think about how family members of those Alaskan King Crab fishermen they show on the Discovery Channel would benefit from therapy, too.

So my pitch is this: a twenty-something woman has just completed her doctorate in psychology or therapy or whatever.  She returns from the big city to the teeny fishing village in the tundra where she grew up to set up a counselling practice.  Except no one wants to go see her because A) they feel betrayed she left to go to the city for schooling and B) grief counselling is considered a weakness and people think they'll be ostracized for attending her sessions.  I think I'll call her...Simone.  Dr. Simone Dylan.

Of course we'll need her family...her rough-and-tumble sea captain dad (who's torn between pride and embarassment about her behavior), an older brother who's his spitting image, a mother who keeps the peace at a great cost to her self and a little sister married to a fisherman who's angry our protagonist has dared to make a different life for herself.  Add in an old high school boyfriend who continues to call her by some slightly annoying pet name and maybe a few folks from a film crew that follows the fisherman around for a cable show and I think it's got potential.

So if you work for a cable network and you're skimming the Internet for new material to impress your bosses with...have your people call my people.

Mother/Daughter Drama

Holden (older brother) called My Husband last night.

From what I assume is a half concerned/half passive-aggressive place, Holden gave My Husband a heads up about some recent drama between their mother and India (older sister) that involved us.

Apparently India didn't call their mother on Mother's Day last week.  When my mother-in-law called India the next day, she was miffed that India's husband Stuart (who the family pretty much hates) didn't talk to her on the phone as well.  When the two spoke again yesterday, they got into some kind of argument about how I sent pink lilies to my mother-in-law and made an effort to speak to her on Mother's Day and India didn't do a thing.

Holden told My Husband that he "didn't want to repeat her [India's] exact words," but that some disparaging things had been said about me and that India was angry and thought I was trying to show her up.

Surprisingly, I did not react very strongly to this development.  I'm regularly deflecting less-than-complimentary statements about how I'm perfect and get special treatment.  Last summer when My Husband's family set up a beach vacation for everyone, I asked if they could try and get a dog-friendly rental so I could bring Buoy.  Dorian called My Husband a few days later to harass him about how I was some kind of little princess who needed her dog with her 24/7. 

That's besides the fact that when My Husband and I were first dating, my first meeting with India ended with her getting drunk and asking My Husband why he'd rather spend time with "some whore" than with his own family.

Case in point, this is not the worse thing I've ever heard concerning my in-laws.

What really sucks is that I don't think India is ever going to really let me in...and frankly, I've never met a woman more in need of a sister then India.  My Husband and I are her best allies in the family (we both like her husband and support her marriage and her life in Chicago) and we're the guardians of her daughter should anything happen to them.

We were getting along so much better lately...that is, she hadn't said or done anything mean to me and I was starting to feel comfortable around her.  Now that's all blown.

And I know she's under a ton of pressure.  Her family judges her every move and regularly criticizes her choices.  I'm sure she's afraid My Husband's and my children will eclipse her daughter as the favorite Delaney babies.  And I bet she's pissed no matter how hard of a time I've had with them, I'm still here and making slow but steady progress.

But when I have a hard time, I deal.  When India has a hard time, she blames.  And I'm back to being her favorite target.

Grey's Anatomy

I miss Grey's Anatomy.

I started watching this ABC medical drama when it debuted as a mid-season replacement for a show I can't even remember.  I was a loyal viewer all through college and after graduation...even when they consistently depicted all Army personnel as being gung-ho for battle 24/7 or as tortured PTSD-ridden shells of their former selves.

I was loyal through all of Meredith and Derek's break-ups and make-ups, Izzy's character disintegration (Heigl's eagerness to leave the show was palpable through all her scenes) and Alex's lack of growth.  I loved that show.  I still love it.

But with a husband deployed overseas and overhearing gunshots during our phone conversations, the final days of Season Six and the sum total of Season Seven are beyond my capabilities as a viewer.  I couldn't handle it.  I couldn't handle the finale (a disgruntled husband of a former patient goes on a shooting rampage throughout the hospital, killing many).  I knew I wouldn't be able to sit there and watch Derek bleed from a bullet wound while his wife pleads for his life, offering her own in exchange.

So I didn't.  I haven't watched a single episode of Grey's Anatomy in more than a year.



Season 7 Cast, courtesy of http://www.daemonstv.com



I know it's just a television show and I'm too emotionally invested in such transparent fiction, but I can't help myself.  Instead of giving me some respite from my life, Grey's started to really depress me; I'd be raw for days after an episode would air.  And it may be healthier to face the negative possibilities of a war-time deployment head on, but I found solace in pushing those thoughts from my mind.  Grey's kept them on the surface at all times.

I still follow the show on Wikipedia like some girl who stalks her ex-boyfriend on Facebook but makes no effort to reconcile.  Considering all the story lines based on PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) from last season finale's carnage, I know I made the right decision.  Watching people have panic attacks as they remember being two steps away from death is not my idea of entertainment.  Television is supposed to take you away from your everyday life into a world where everything is more dramatic and therefore less realistic...not remind you some degree of these events could be your fate as well.

So I have yet to replace Grey's Anatomy on my TV schedule.  I tried Private Practice (a Grey's spinoff) but was put off by the main character's consistent infidelity.  Off the Map (another medical drama by Shonda Rhimes) seems promising but is over for the season.  Taking place in the middle of a South American jungle, that show has just the right amount of fantasy to prevent me from dwelling on the traumas.

My Husband hooked me on a few shows I never would have tuned into otherwise...Sons of Anarchy and Archer on FX and the station's newest original, a black comedy starring Elijah Wood called Wilfred (starts June 23).  I stopped watching The Biggest Loser (I found it to be too much about winning the game and not enough about losing weight and changing one's life in recent seasons) but am still a fan of ABC's Castle, Fox's Bones and the one-two comedy punch of Modern Family and Cougar Town.

I find myself becoming a fan of House after getting caught up watching reruns on USA Network.  Next season I'm gonna make a real effort for Community (I regretfully skipped it as it used to be on opposite Bones) and some of the promising pilots coming on this fall.

But I don't think I'll ever stop missing Grey's Anatomy.