Butterfly Effect

In 2004 Butterfly Effect hit theaters with Ashton Kutcher, and the saying ‘a butterfly flaps its wings and the weather changes in China’ once again became a popular phrase among movie-goers. Over the last decade Hollywood has produced several running series, as well as a few film franchises that have had their own butterfly effect on US culture. Living in New York City I have noticed that there is one series that has had such a huge impact on women that it has completely changed popular culture, the way we act, dress and approach work and life in the Big Apple. Sex and the City was an international success and HBO flourished during its 6 season run.
Over the last few months I have been searching for a new apartment and have found it amusing that about half of the 3 to 4 bedroom apartments I have looked at the ladies occupying the rooms when I was there were watching old episodes of Sex and the City, or catching up on the recent episodes of The Hills. During the apartment viewings, every conversation I had has included the question; “If you were a character from Sex and the City who would you be?” I find that many young women living in the NYC area are now basing their lives off the series. They are looking to live with people that make up a close niche of 4 people, people like Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha. You will even find women writing personals in search of friends on Craigslist with headlines like “Looking for a Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda to complete my group of Sex and the City” or “Want a close group like SatC”. The ladies of Sex and the City have made an impact on males and females alike and their influence spans a wide range of ages. Everyone wants to relate to them but I wonder how far people are willing to take their obsessions.

Two weeks ago I was wandering the city with my brother who was visiting from San Francisco, and as we walked we began to notice more and more "Carrie" look a-likes. Not because they looked like Sarah Jessica Parker, but because they were dressed to the nines in designer clothes, with matching accessories, and some were even walking down the street in groups of four. I fear Sex and the City has slowly taken over NYC in real life, appearance, behavior, and personal searches. No one looks for "Mr. Right" anymore. Today every woman wants to find her "Mr. Big!” I find it interesting just how far the franchise stretches, and even more so how much it continues to influence our lives. The 20 to 30 year old women of today who religiously watched all 6 seasons are now adding that much more pressure to themselves as they continue the search of a dream life that only lives in television. For better or worse, Sex and the City is today’s fairy tale for young girls.

Before Sex and the City, the 9 season run of Seinfeld was what many people compared their lives to. We can all quote lines from Seinfeld like Soup Nazi’s "No soup for you!", or Elaine and her search for men that were "Sponge Worthy", or Jerry and George's brilliant pitch idea to the executives of NBC for "a show about nothing". And who can forget Jerry arguing with the woman at the car rental who needed to "hold the reservation". Some may have even compared their friends to characters like Phoebe, Monica, Rachel, Chandler, Joey, and Ross. Friends was also a way of life that we followed religiously. Even the wild adventures of Will and Grace and the outrageous one-liners from Jack and Karen we love. We want to be able to say we had a “Karen moment” or to tell someone, “that is so Just-Jack”. The every day life of the average American is crazy, hectic, and unpredictable. We have good days and bad days, but no matter what happens on any given day we always look for an escape to relax with an activity, hobby, show, or video game that allows us to step out of our own personal lives for a few minutes. Whether it is an escape through music, or through one of the classic shows that dramatize or add a comedic flair to conversations and our personal interactions, we are all looking for something.

Classic shows live on forever in the hearts and minds of fans and those special shows like Seinfeld, Friends, Will & Grace, and Sex and the City will influence generations long after the shows are no longer running. We just need to remind ourselves to pull back from the dream world of television and step back into the real world where we live our lives and create our own fairy tales.

A Show About Nothing...

There was a time not so very long ago when Hollywood was producing hit after hit and the television networks were producing tons of Emmy acclaimed series that were truly worth watching. But a lot has changed over the last decade in both mediums. Of course I am one to talk, since I am fascinated and amazed by big explosions and the newest CGI (computer generated images) used for visual and special effects. But, I would love to see great writing make a compe back. I feel that unless the younger generations of film and television writers are not careful we will never see classics again. I have read scripts and watched films by talented filmmakers submitted for film festivals, some of the better writers are even still in college, but the styles of their writing and the things they write about are not original concepts. From personal experience I remember struggling with my serior video project, working in a crew of eight, trying to come up with an original comcept that was realistic and "do-able" for a college project on a college students budget. But our project ended up just being another version of a story that has already been told, and even retold again recently. I believe, and even regret that almost everything currently coming out of Hollywood has already been previously made at some point in the history of film.

Repeat offenders and modern adaptations to classics have infiltrated the media market in a way that has warped the minds of younger generations. Ask almost anyone under the age of 25 "who starred in the original Manchurian Candidate or The Day the Earth Stood Still" and they will give you a blank stare. Ask them which film Steven Spielberg's Disturbia was adaprted from and most won't be able to tell you it was the classic Hitchcock film Rear Window with Jimmy Stewart. Even ask waht film is similar to the recently released Eagle Eye, and I bet most will not think of 2001: A Space Odyssey. The newer filmmakers do not neem to have the creativity that the older generations had and it is beginning to show by the excessive number of remakes about to be released. Fewer and fewer stories are original ideas, and most are just modern remakes with larger explosions, more elaborately choreographed chase sequences, scarier looking villians, and enough blood to make any horror/gorror fan cringe.

But that is just the film market. Look at what is happening to the television market. About 75% of the offerings airing on cable networks are either reality television or competitive game venues. Each year we are seeing fewer and fewer written shows. We have very few sitcoms that could truly rival Mash, Seinfeld, Friends, American Dreams, or any other series that has run longer than 2 seasons. I wish we had more creatively written stories made for television that make watching TV more enjoyable.

The next time you’re at Blockbuster, ask to rent Seinfeld season 4, disk 1, and watch episode 43 (The Pitch) where George and Jerry make plans to go into NBC and pitch the idea of a new show that would be about nothing. This episode simply says it all. Good writing with an original idea, even if it is about nothing, could become one of the greatest series ever created. Today, unfortunately, we have shows that have no substance, shows that truly have no point and yet we are drawn into their creator’s “reality” and yet reality television is not realistic. There are shows about nothing, that go nowhere, that truly have no point, yet they are still written series. Every episode has a writer credited for each and every episode. Game shows, competitive reality series such as The Mole, Survivor, America’s Next Top Model, Wipe Out, Hole in the Wall, and The Bachelor are all produced reality shows. “Reality” television like The Hills, The Real Housewives of Atlanta, Bridezilla, Real World, Big Brother, and any upcoming reality show is a very special genre called produced television. It has the full appearance of being from the real world, which we all live in and we all watch because we find it fascinating, but it is not true to real life. The characters in the show are not always video taped 24 hours a day, so when the camera crews do arrive they are given topics to discuss so that the producers and directors have the conversations needed to edit segments in order to complete episodes. The main characters are given a list of topics to be covered and told to bring them up so that the camera can capture the footage. Late things are gone through and edited together piece by piece to fine tune everything until the product is finished, which we watch on any given network on any given night.

Produced television is the new craze that is about nothing and it is very easy to become involved with it and connected to it. We all watch it and get wrapped up in the drama, some of it true, some exaggerated truths behind disagreements between friends or couples, and yet we love it because it allows us an escape from our own lives and daily troubles. We look forward to the struggles that the characters go through each week being thankful that we do not have to go through the type of drama that is being portrayed as reality. One must just keep in mind that it is staged reality that you are watching that is being marketed and promoted as “true reality”. So take a back seat in life for an hour a night and catch up on the latest fight between Lauren and Audrina or on the adventure of Survivor and Amazing Race. Enjoy the short stay in their world, but just remember to make the return trip to the real reality that we live in. Come back to smell the fresh flowers which are used to remind us that life is real and not a façade like those Hollywood uses each and every day as they pitch their shows about nothing to the viewers, for every show is truly “a show about nothing.”