Blamblog - Brett Lamb's Blog

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Fixing Erica

Being Erica, CBC's only promising new series, has starting losing viewers since moving to Wednesdays nights, despite having the strong (well, strong ratings-wise) The Week the Women Went as a lead-in. The problem? Erica is up against LOST ... and recent episodes haven't lived up the the promise of the earlier shows, treading dangerously close to indulging in the twin CBC pitfalls of 'downer storylines' and 'stuff nobody likes in light entertainment' ... in this case, religious storylines. Even the Americans, who have been known a times to be a little bit religous, avoid putting religion in their shows because it crucifies ratings. You're giving Canadians religious story elements in your tv show? Now wonder the ratings are heading south.

Thing is, Being Erica mostly works, so hopefully CBC will resist the temptation to do too much retooling. But there are some elements that are hemming in the writing and could be tweaked. Here's how the show could be more fun:

1. Regress Erica's Dating Success
Logically, the series ends when Erica fulfills her aspirations to have a relationship and a career. Dramatically, the show could also be over when Erica has the capacity to achieve those aspirations. Well, she already has that capacity for relationships ... next episode, she has two great guys and has to pick!

Slow down, already.

The show cheated us out of the most entertaining part of dating! The part when you date all the wrong people. Oh wait, they did give us some of that ... on Erica's blog:

Worse still, the two male characters Erica has two choose from are nearly identical, both physically and in their droopy, dry personalities. Contrast can add zing. You know who had a more interesting love life? Anne of Freaking Snot-Green Gables.

How to fix it: Make her best friend her best friend and make the other guy gay. Why does Ethan even have to be a romantic interest? Erica should be dating and it should be messy and fun. The people she dates should reflect her mental state ... the guys she's dating now suggest that she's easygoing and settled. Also, she should be dating a lot of interesting characters from outside of her immediate world. It should be a bit like traveling (as a counterpoint to 'time travelling'). Most of the show's target demographic married the guy they went out with in high school or university and Erica's messy, thirty-something dating should be a vicarious adventure for them.

2. Make Dr. Tom flawed.
Michael Riley was one of the best things about This is Wonderland, but so far he's a bit wasted on Erica. He plays Erica's 'therapist' who sends her back in time to deal with her life's regrets. The thing is, so far Dr. Tom appears to be infallible and that saps the dramatic potential out of the character and the show.

How to fix it: You don't need to radically change the character; all you need to do is sow a bit of doubt. It could be done by having Erica go back in the past and, while there, she overhears another person talking about contemporary events. She confronts the person and that person explains that they're also being treated by 'Dr. Tom'. The character sees Dr. Tom and points 'him' out but Erica doesn't see him because the other Dr. Tom is a woman (I'd cast Lisa Ray because her smooth vibe would contrast well against Riley). The two Dr. Toms meet and they know one another and have serious philosophical differences ... I dunno, the second Dr. Tom might think that you only send a person back a couple of times because repeatedly sending a person back and overwriting their past over and over can overwhelm a person.

What this does is even out the power balance between Dr. Tom and Erica and lets her challenge him and the writers can have a bit more fun with their bickering. The actors have great energy and chemistry that they're not using. The way things are now, when she's upset he just pats her on the head and gives her sage advice and she eats it.

3. Time travel should be less routine.
I used to have this recurring nightmare where I'd wake up in my parent's old station wagon on my way to high school in grade 10 ... but with full knowledge of the present. It was terrifying and my thoughts weren't of what I'd gained by being able to do everything over; I was crushed by what I'd lost. I'd earned those years and everything had been erased.

Only seven episodes in, the time travel has become to feel routine. In tonight's episode, they even jumped off Premise Beach and had Erica go back to someone else's time. Seven episodes in on a 13-episode season. If they're doing that now, what are they going to be doing by third season? Milk the premise!

How to fix it: Expose Dr. Tom as being a bit flawed and you have an excuse for making the time travel a little more unpredictable and risky.

4. No More 'Pretty Betty'
You would think the CBC would have imposed a 'No Pretty Betty' rule after 'Sophie', but no dice. Erica has a new job in an office with Ugly Betty-esque qualities (except Erica's boss, instead of being funny and lusty, is just mean) and Erica, like Sophie, is the 'Pretty Betty'. And the job isn't just boring, it's too predictably 'Toronto' ... and the Erica character is too compelling to be working in trade fiction. Anyhow, that's probably turned off a few viewers.

How to fix it: 'Pretty Betty' never works. Stop it. Now.

Fortunately, Being Erica will survive because, so far, CBC's goal of creating ''popular" shows isn't working out so well.

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