Clara Bush

Journalists on TV are so fake

This blog was originally published on elkharttruth.com on Dec. 11, 2014.

Maybe this is because I’m a journalist, but I’ve noticed there are a lot of movies and TV shows that portray characters in the journalism industry.

But, as probably any profession depicted, it’s not usually accurate.

In movies, there’s Kevin in “27 Dresses,” Sophie in “Letters to Juliet” and Megan in “Absence of Malice,” just to name a few.

On TV, here’s a short list, from realistic to ridiculous.

Robin Scherbatsky on “How I Met Your Mother”

She worked her way to the top, which makes sense.

She worked weird hours (as in, went to work at 2 a.m.), which makes sense.

She went from horrible, meaningless stories/shows to the top TV station depicted on the show. And then worked even more. Makes sense.

Rory Gilmore on “Gilmore Girls”

Rory starts out how many journalists do: at her high school and college newspapers.

I give “Gilmore Girls” credit for realistically showing the struggle of finding a writing job post-college.

Rory was a Yale grad who set her sights on a New York Times fellowship. Those are hard to come by.

She freaked out during her senior year, but in the end, she got a low-paying job reporting on the road for Obama’s election campaign.

But, for someone who dreamed of being Christiane Amanpour, it was odd that Rory never tried broadcast journalism while in college.

Sabrina Spellman on “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch”

Sabrina loves writing and after graduating college in two seasons (thanks to the magic of TV time), she lands a job at the fictional Scorch magazine.

The magazine world is tough — but most likely, she would’ve been a freelancer, not a staff writer, at first.

Yes, she gets stuck with assignments no one else wants, but I don’t imagine the magazine world is anything like what she experienced.

Then, she quits and becomes a freelancer. But she never is seen working again for the remainder of the series. Because that would totally work … not.

Carrie Bradshaw on “Sex and the City”

No weekly columnist would be able to afford that big of an apartment in NYC, much less all the designer fashion.

While it’s believable that her columns were turned into a book, it’s absurd to see her lifestyle unfold on TV knowing that even columnists work long, odd hours, and could probably never afford Manolo Blahniks.

‘Gilmore Girls’: A show that will stand the test of time

This blog was originally published on elkharttruth.com on April 13, 2014.

Two weeks ago, I finished watching all seven seasons of Gilmore Girls.

I was very sad when I completed my three-month journey of watching all 154 episodes.

I admit, I’m mildly obsessed with the show. I think I’ve seen every episode at least three times.

I can relate to the show, especially Rory, the daughter of the mother-daughter duo the show centers around.

Rory is a driven, innocent girl who comes into her own in college and then freaks out about finding a job post-graduation … in journalism.

Yep. That sounds familiar.

But the show is relatable to others as well. Whether it’s the mother-daughter dynamic, the domineering mother/grandmother relationship or just the ups and downs of navigating through life, there’s something for multiple generations to enjoy.

Seven years after the show went off the air, it’s still a relevant show.

Here are three reasons why:

The mother-daughter dynamic

The mother-daughter duo of Lorelai and Rory, I think, is what many mothers and daughters want in their relationship.

In one of episodes, Lorelai tells her mother, Emily, that she and Rory are best friends first and mother and daughter second.

Lorelai and Rory share a bond of survival (Lorelai got pregnant with Rory at 16 and raised her as a single mother while working her way up to manager at an inn.) and love … not to mention the same name (Rory is a nickname for Lorelai).

They watch TV together, eat junk food together, poke fun at movies together, struggle through life together. All while maintaining a mostly honest relationship.

It sounds too good to be true. But that’s where Gilmore Girls keeps it real.

The show never sugar coats the relationship between Lorelai and Rory. They have fights. They rarely speak to each other in season six until the ninth episode. They tell each other how they really feel, rarely holding back.

The fast pace of the show

Fans of the show probably know this, but each episode’s script is about 30 pages longer than an average hour-long TV show script.

Why? Because each episode is chock full of fast-paced dialogue.

The characters talk a mile a minute, or at least it seems that way. It’s one of the main reasons I love the show, because I talk that fast in real life.

The actors have to work up to the final talking rate, which Keiko Agena, who plays Rory’s best friend Lane, demonstrated on a season 7 DVD bonus feature.

Sometimes when I re-watch an episode, I catch something new that I probably missed because of the speed of the show. It’s not enough that I miss a plot point, but it’s a treat to see what more you can laugh at each time you watch an episode.

The witty, obscure culture references

Some of the season DVDs of Gilmore Girls come with a handy dandy guide about the show’s “Gilmore-isms,” or a reference guide to all of the things the characters say.

Every episode contains multiple references to pop culture, literature, movies, current events and more.

For example, Rory calls Jess, a friend and eventual love interest, Dodger, a reference to Oliver Twist. Another episode references Lindsay Lohan’s barely clothed Vanity Fair cover.

It’s hard to keep up, but that’s what makes it fun. I’ve learned so many different tidbits from watching the show. I have to Google some things, and when I do catch a reference, it’s a proud moment.

I believe all the tidbits of knowledge will make you smarter … or at least better at trivia.

Gilmore Girls is a show that grew over seven years. It was never stale, and it was always entertaining. I highly recommend it. It’s a show I’ll continue to watch year after year, because it’s just that good.

‘How I Met Your Mother’ wraps its run with an unsatisfying end

This blog was originally published on elkharttruth.com on April 2, 2014.

Going into Monday night’s series finale of the CBS sitcom “How I Met Your Mother,” I expected mixed feelings.

Two days later, and I’m just confused. And I’ve watched the episode twice.

If you haven’t watched the finale yet, please stop reading, because there are spoilers.

Overall, the series finale felt rushed and unsettled.

The show is called “How I Met Your Mother.” But in the end, Ted goes to Robin’s apartment with the infamous blue French horn to ask her out, so maybe the show should’ve been titled “How I Decided to Reunite with My Ex.”

It’s such a letdown.

For years my friends have wondered why Ted and Robin’s romance lingered long after they broke up at the end of season 2. If Robin wasn’t the mother, why was she always in the back of Ted’s mind? And why was Ted always mentioning her?

In the last moments of the show, Ted’s kids told their father to go after Aunt Robin since the Mother had been dead for six years.

So, all that Ted/Robin stuff was kept in the show’s run for a reason. But that doesn’t mean it should’ve been that way.

To reiterate, the show is called “How I Met Your Mother.” Yes, in season nine, viewers saw key moments of Ted and the Mother’s relationship — their engagement, their first date and, in the finale, their first meeting.

But in the end, they weren’t together.

Viewers, myself included, anxiously waited to see Ted meet the Mother. While we finally saw that moment, it was skewed by the fact that he goes back to Robin.

Plus, the last few seasons have focused more on Robin and Barney. We see them get married, after some expected freak-out moments, at the end of the penultimate episode. Then, less than halfway through the series finale, they announce their divorce.

What? After the elaborate engagement, all the arguing, etc., they only last three years? The whole ninth season was about Barney and Robin’s wedding…and then it ended in 20 minutes.

Truly, though, the story always was supposed to be about Ted. And that was missing a bit in the last episode. I was hoping to see more of his life and his relationship with the Mother. But in the finale, we were updated on everyone in the MacLaren’s gang relatively equally. It would’ve liked to see more of Ted’s life than Barney regressing to his playbook-using days.

Also, I wanted to see the Mother more. I loved the character; she complemented Ted and all of his quirky habits, including his detective skills. While viewers were told they would see a lot of the Mother in season nine, the character was barely seen. And then she dies, which is a bit depressing for a sitcom. Wasn’t the death of Marshall’s father in season six enough?

I didn’t expect to see the gang stick together once they were in their 40s because that’s unrealistic, but I did expect to see Ted and the Mother evolve and grow in more than a few snippets.

I feel a bit betrayed that in the end, Ted goes to win back Robin. Nine years of waiting for the Mother led to one season of moments with her and then her death. I will say, though, that at least Ted’s kids made fun of the fact that Robin is in the overarching story more than the Mother.

I won’t go as far as to say the series finale of “How I Met Your Mother” ruined the show. But I will say I was dissatisfied with how the show ended.

What do you think? Were you happy to see Robin and Ted end up together? Let me know.