Someone I would NOT want to hang out with.
:: Nov 12, 05:27 PM

I realize that I hate Japanese dramas in the morning. Everyday from 8:15 to 8:30 on NHK – they run a 15-minute drama which lasts for a few months at a time. The main character is always a young woman – trying to make it in the world. The premise is usually quite full of potential – woman takes up career, woman is awkward and has an interest in something creative, etc. But then a love-triangle premise enters the picture and the general pattern is that I stop watching it once I sense this conflict. Ultimately, she obtains a husband, exalts her love interest by translating her success into his or “finally” kicks her awkward charm once she is deemed worthy of his presence. Fin. No overture. No reprise. No vibrato. No rubato. No septet… or tap dance encore.

These dramas make women look:

Needy
Insecure
Humorless
Immaculate
Boring
Emo
Neurotic
Annoying
Indecisive

in other words, someone I would NOT want to hang out with.

I’m not saying that American soaps are all high and mighty. But, at least Sammy is a crazy bitch who speaks her mind, Marlena still has fantasies that a queen bee is entitled to and Kristen is always brimming with new ideas to better her situation – even if it involves secret cellars and an evil twin. I would SO rather hang out with them. (For those of you who lost me, these are characters from Days of our Lives circa 1996 – the year meaning nothing… another awesome aspect of daytime soaps… when they mean opera, they mean operatically long.)