Babes in Guyland
Theres this show about friends, relationships and sex. The lead character and narrator is a loveable yet irritating blonde who relays her various man troubles using tired metaphors in an effort to uphold archaic gender stereotypes. The audience accepts these pearls because this girl, er, woman, er feminist is a writerso she must possess the wisdom and the voice to extrapolate and convey meaning from her myriad hapless encounters with the opposite sex. No, its not Sex and the City; its just TBS coming into adulthood with My Boys.
And if Sex and the City is the mommy, then Friends is the daddy, and together they created this lovechild that will never fill either parents shoes. My Boys will always be stuck in that awkward intermediate stage known as puberty, but instead of greasy skin and uncontrollable urges, its marred by stock characters and contrived circumstances. Yet, somehow, My Boys is mildly entertaining and somewhat charming in a befuddling sort of way.
To be accurate, this sitcom should be called One of the Boys, or better yet, My Girl, because PJ (half mom, half Ashton Kutcher) is a guys wet dream: She plays poker, drinks beer and eats pizza; plus, shes easy. But then, what does that say about men if all they really want is another guy?
When PJ (Jordana Spiro) and her friends have a food fight, were supposed to recognize how un-prissy, how cool she is. But if this is standard male behavior, were not so impressed by her willingness to join in and more disappointed in the facile pastimes of the less-fair sex. Really its childs play, and while everyone enjoys catapulting mashed potatoes across the table now and again, doing so should hardly be the prerequisite to being desirable. The show puts forth the trite contention that men are unfeeling, selfish, obtuse little boys walking around with full-sized penises swinging between their legsand that women should be, too. The alternative: PJs friend Stephanie, a remnant from the Victorian era whos just discovered Match.com.
PJ purports that relationships take away your free will. In one bedroom scene, nice guy Bobby complains that shes moving too fast and requests she act more like a girl. Is this show really claiming that womanhood is the act, and masquerading like men, like cliché me-like-boobies men, is genuine? Regarding her situation at work, PJ explains, Ive finally gotten to a place where theyve forgotten Im a woman. Now thats feminism.