On the lighter side
Taking a break from the heavy-duty election-related posts, I have to ask: what’s up with ER? In particular, what’s their issue with reverse traditional (working mom/SAHD) families?
First, in the season premier, they have a baby suffering from botulism, having been fed honey by his clueless SAH father. When the bitchy working mom learns this, she screams at him for not having read the book. He responds something like "which book, you gave me 10."
Two weeks later, Susan is asking for the promotion to chief of emergency medicine (which she had previously turned down), because she needs the raise in order to make up for the lost income from her husband, who is going to be a stay-at-home dad. Within five minutes, she’s asking whether some of her troubles are "punishment for being a bad mother." What-the-*&^(? Not loving being home full-time and returning to work makes her a "bad mother"? Good grief. Plus, as the fine folks at Television Without Pity point out, we’ve previously seen Susan being a darn fine mother — not to her baby, but to her niece, little Suzie, the one she parented when sis was a druggie, and moved to Arizona to be closer to.
I don’t know why I care — this show has clearly jumped the shark — if not years ago, certainly at the start of the season when they actually had a shark in the show. The main problem with it is what my husband refers to as "Chris Claremont Syndrome" — when you run out of plot ideas, inflict something horrible on one of your characters. But I’m still not quite willing to give up on it.
(In case anyone’s wondering why I’m just posting this now, I’m just getting around to catching up on everything that’s piled up on my TiVo. As far as I’m concerned, TiVo is up there on my list of the top 10 best things ever invented for busy parents. You never have to watch anything that’s inappropriate for kids when they’re up; you can watch Blue’s Clues and Max and Ruby at any time of day; you can fast-forward through all the commercials; you don’t miss any of your show when you’re interrupted; and you never watch dreck just because there’s nothing else on.)
November 7th, 2004 at 12:56 am
Not being a regular ER watcher, I was not aware of their backward view of working moms. I think I am becoming more sensitive to criticism of working moms though and I share your indignance about this.
Regarding TiVo, I must agree wholeheartedly. We don’t actually have TiVo, but we have DVR from dish network (I think it’s pretty much the same thing), and your reasons for declaring it one of the best things ever for the working parent are right on. Our local PBS affiliate recently moved Sesame Street from its old, very convenient time slot of 6:30-7:30am (i.e. perfect Elmo-watching time for our daughter before we had to leave to take her to day care) to the monumentally inconvenient 10:00-11:00am. Now that we have DVR, Elmo is just a few easy DVR menus away. We can have Elmo-on-request whenever we want, and my husband now has a sizable collection of Good Eats and Iron Chef. The other best thing about DVR is it was my idea! Smart wife!
November 8th, 2004 at 12:25 am
TiVo is a Really Great Thing for parents, for all the reasons you enumerated. When we got it, I was afraid it would lead to more tv watching; instead, it has meant that when we do watch, we’re watching what we want to instead of whatever is on in that time slot. And we always have a Sesame Street and a Blue’s Clues saved, so when the girls want to and can watch tv, we can put shows we don’t mind them seeing on instead of whatever’s on.
Plus, we can fast forward through commercials, when we’re not watching PBS, so our 3 1/2 year old still basically doesn’t see commercials.
November 9th, 2004 at 8:48 am
So many thoughtful, serious posts, and here I am commenting on TV. I gave up on ER about 2 years ago and haven’t watched more than a few episodes since. I knew things were hopeless when the hospital became the magnet for every single implausible catastrophe known to humankind — tanks running amok, helicopters crashing on top of hated doctors, shoot-outs in the ER. Sigh. Where are Doug and Carol when you need them?