Anybody even remotely familiar with the whole teenage drama television format knows about the basic plot structures that haunt such shows. There are the couples who you'll know end up together, because that's the way it's supposed to be, that's the way it should be, but somehow, producers and storywriters alike, tend to stretch this already paperthin relationship out for two seasons or more. A striking example of this can be found in the Gossip Girl series. The show starts off with Serena, Blair, Nate, Chuck, Dan and Vanessa (actually, she only shows up halfway through the season, but details, friend, details!). So anyways, Serena hooks up with Dan, Nate struggles to choose between Vanessa and Blair, the latter of which has caught the eyes of the young Mr Chuck Bass. For the next two seasons or forty-shy episodes, these love triangles will continue to evolve, break up, reforge and break up again, until finally, midway through season three the happy couples are finally united. (To find out who ends up with who, I suggest you view the series, or, Wikipedia them!)Unfortunately, a series like Gossip Girl has the side-effect of portraying love as something completely bouleversé. Lives are built up, only to be brought down again. Hearts are filled with love, only to bleed out later. It makes you wonder if these writers draw their art from life or from nature? And if from life, it is a faithful representation? Because if so, we humans are pretty shitty lovers, aren't we?
Deny it as much as we want to, a sad lovestory always sells better than a happily-ever-after, need I bring up the box-office numbers for Titanic or even Moulin Rouge? As much as we want to believe in fairy tale endings and blissful marriages, there's a deeper and darker part of us that preys on the total destruction of hope and erasure of love from what, for all intents and purposes, is considered to be a fictional character. That way, the audience can always leave with the though that their life is nowhere near as complicated and that, despite how bleak their future might look, there's a good chance some fictional Dick or Jane who have it inifinitely more to endure than we ever could.Romance, or at least, what passes as romance on-screen seems to has lost much of its appeal, to me. I mean, I know all the old sayings such as 'You don't know what you've got 'till it's gone', 'Some of the best things in life, are the things that are right in front of you', 'True love' and all that other sensible stuff, so why is it, that when people watch television shows, the ratings start to steadily drop when the drama stops? Isn't that what love is about? Being devoid of drama? Having Ariadne'd yourself out of life's labyrinth of emotional dead-ends and ever-winding paths? The reverse seems to be true. Romance is just the start of things to come. The beginning of the end, if I were to be a cynic.
Even with all these cinematic rocky roads, there is a core to be found in each one of them. A truth that lies in the hearts of all of us. The search for love in a world that seems to do everything in its power to nihilate such notions. The search for something more ethereal, when all we seem to do is be silly little material boys and girls. So I guess therein lies the challenge: to believe in something more. Not gods, kings or rockstars, just people.
Yes, I know, I've been going on an emotional rollercoaster again with this blog and I hope you weren't too dissatisfied with it, because I can't promise it won't happen again. But hey, if you can sit through all the other lovy-dovy shows, than I think this little blog should be the least of your worries, should it not?
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