Monday, June 04, 2007

Been a bit absent, but I'm back.

This morning I said goodbye to my oldest son Kaz as he embarked on a camping trip for a few days with his class, and of course the little bugger was so happy to go, he jumped on the bus without hugging me or saying goodbye! I had to go and find him and get my hug. :(

I know I'm behind on emails and comments, but I'll get back up and running soon, apologies, I've been dealing with the outside world a lot.

So, in contemplating my week ahead with only one kid, I'm looking at the TV guide and realizing with horror that the next episode of Studio 60 is coming out. I really liked this show even after this stunt, and a few weeks ago that insider I know told me that the next several episodes were going to be really dark, not very funny. (I declined to mention to him that most of the series wasn't very funny, hence the low ratings, duh...) Well, last weeks episode showed seven months pregnant Jordan, repeatedly unable to feel the baby kick, having her boyfriend of all people use a prop stethescope to check for a heartbeat, and then at the end of the show she was hustled to the ER to get checked, all alone. Now, notwithstanding the dumb plot device, I know from last week's portrayal alone, that they are absolutely NOT going to be realistic at all.

In the next episode she is supposedly being sent into surgery for a c-section, has high blood pressure, and maybe the baby is still alive. But at 28 weeks+ if she couldn't feel the baby kick for an entire day even after drinking gallons of OJ, the likelihood of the baby making it is almost non-existent. If they had written Jordan saying, "I can hardly feel the baby kick, something feels wrong," it might make more sense. As it is now, I'm worried misinformation is being spread about a serious medical condition. In real life, if the baby was alive but in trouble, she'd be rushed into surgery in 15 minutes flat, and certainly would NOT have had time to change her clothes, wait for her boyfriend to come all the way to the hospital, discuss her career and the kidnapping of an employee's brother, and her love life, and be proposed to, plus complain about the diamond ring sizing.

I'm also thinking her mind would be on the baby?

So this story arc is going to continue for 3 episodes, and I guess these vultures are going to suck as much agony as they can out of this. Probably unlikely they consulted medical experts or organizations like the March of Dimes or the MISS Foundation. I'll bet NBC didn't even give a charitable contribution or promote the issue, or do a news story on the Missing Angels Bill, nothing. I hate it when the media uses tragedy as a hook to make cold hard cash, but doesn't actually want to help people; I always feel like a piece of used kleenex at the end, you know?

Completely irresponsible, but what can you expect from a network that let the The West Wing tell the world that getting the flu can kill someone with multiple sclerosis? They had to hustle to change that, reshooting the scene, and altering the episode on DVD and all broadcasted repeats after the MS community reacted with outrage. Awareness is great, but it has to be accurate. Medicine has enough myths and lies around it without adding more confusion.

This Thursday I'll be watching, and probably jeering while the Docs either deliver a gigantic screaming baby with no medical problems and a short perfunctory stay in a NICU, or a dead or dying baby who will be cried over briefly then promptly forgotten as Jordan continues talking about the "real" tragedy, the kidnapping of an employee's brother, a guy she's never met, but hey in TVland, the threat of death of a grown adult must always outrank the death or stillbirth of a baby. *eyeroll*

Edit that to: I'll be watching while drunk. I'm not sure I can watch this piece of crap sober.

14 comments:

  1. It sounds almost as if the show (which, luckily for me, I've never heard of) is trying for a mood of dark comedy rather than anything remotely resembling realism. I certainly hope that no-one watching mistakenly believes that it's anything like real life.

    Does Jordan really spend her time complaining about her ring sizing instead of worrying about her baby? Unless she's supposed to be an extremely unsympathetic character, that's just really, really odd.

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  2. If you look at the preview trailer for next weeks' show on nbc dot com she does. I can't access it from Canada, but some of the fan forums had screen shots and a rundown.

    The whole thing is very very odd, IMO.

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  3. Aurelia- It sounds you react to these sorts of storylines in much the same way I do. I know that many women who have experienced the loss of a baby find them incredibly emotional. I can certainly understand that. For me though, I am much more concerned with whether or not they are handled accurately, than I am with how they might relate to my personal loss.

    The ER episode in which Noah Wylie's character and his girlfriend(?) lose their baby aired not long after our twins died. I remember a lot of people saying I shouldn't watch it. But I did simply because I wanted to see how it was handled. In that case, I think they actually did a decent job. It sounds like this show may not perform so admirably.

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  4. Yeah, I couldn't watch this at all. I remember the ER episode (I think it aired between my losses), I sort of half watched it at the time. Now, anything comes out like that...I steer clear.

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  5. What do you plan on drinking Thursday?

    Anything good?

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  6. I actually had to explain to Manly what was wrong with last week's episode. All day without feeling the baby kick? Honey, you should have been at the dr. a long time before the end of the day.

    And the whole premature-but-full-size-and-completely-healthy had me screaming at the tv when I watched the movie of "Children of Men".

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  7. What scares me most is that we have to worry that people believe what they see on the night soaps.

    Where do these people live and/or work????

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  8. So Aurelia if you don't mind me being a bit of a PITA -- why watch at all?
    I couldn't help thinking yesterday evening as we had a long-overdue chat w/out neighbor, how sad it was that he was devoting so much time & energy to picking out his next HD-plasma-screen TV..."the opiate of the massses", indeed!

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  9. There are times I am glad we don't have so many American TV shows shown in Europe, the ones we have are bad enough.

    They're never going to get it right anyway, it wouldn't be entertaining enough!

    I prefer to lose myself in a silly romantic comedy or just a plain nonsensical comedy.

    I figure, I have enough drama of my own in IRL to get caught up in fictitious nonsense.

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  10. Val, you are not a PITA, you couldn't be! I just liked watching that show in general, because it's very witty and educated as opposed to the usual reality TV junk these days. And now, I'm disappointed in it, because I think they could do it more accurately.

    I agree the ER one with Noah Wylie was done much better, and in fact that may have been a reaction to a previous ER episode early on in the series,(first season?) called Love's Labour Lost, where the baby lived, but the mother died, & where there were a lot of inaccuracies, and the OB community freaked on them. (My Doc's medical school class used it as an teaching example of all the things you should NEVER do.)

    They've been careful ever since, but I guess every show isn't.

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  11. I've got better books than that

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  12. Sharah, I am sorry, but I disagree. I was at the doctor's in the morning, and then had a very busy day, and did not stop to think that I haven't felt him kick in a bit. So I suppose I am just as bad as a TV show. OK.

    I actually like the show a great deal. We did notice a few funky things, though. Like Jordan having lunch with Harry. Like seriously? Network president and an actress? Even the star?

    I didn't find too much wrong with last week's episode, though admittedly I watched it while still fighting jet lag. I thought Jordan was too calm when she suggested it might have been her heartbeat Danny was hearing, and that she should've known to just count it to figure out the answer.

    I really hope tomorrow's episode is not as bad as previews promise it to be. I really do.

    Oh, and I completely missed the MS flu episode on the West Wing, although I thought I saw them all. But if that at all matters, both West Wing at the time and Studio 60 now are by the same writer/executive producer.

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  13. After reading your post, I had to watch. :o)

    And I have to admit that I cried because I was THAT woman. And I cried because I know MANY women who were exactly like me.

    I noted on a Friday that Alex was "being quiet." On Saturday I felt like something wasn't right. On Sunday I started to worry. And even still, driving into the doctor's office, I didn't freak out into hysteria or even seem all that worried. I called work to tell them I would be in after my appointment. And with Travis...I drove myself to the hospital...I was that sure there was nothing to worry about (and it was my second go-round). I mean, I had JUST had my ultrasound four days earlier. What could possibly have gone wrong in that time? And really...God wouldn't be that cruel to let something horrible happen AGAIN.

    I'm sorry if that makes me sound stupid. But I was in a place where "things like this just don't happen to people like me"...and certainly not twice. But they did.

    So I have to respectfully disagree with the criticism of the show. Yeah, it was a tv portrayal...with all the shortcomings that come with tv portrayals. And yeah, it's going to have a tv ending because it has to...you wouldn't want to watch real time...that's not why you tune into these types of shows. But overall, I don't see anything wrong with last week's episode at all.

    And, quite honestly, if it makes ONE woman stop and think that this COULD happen to them and they should pay better attention than I did, then I think it's a great thing.

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