Escape Artists
PodCastle => Fantasy Discussion => Topic started by: Listener on February 23, 2009, 07:59:26 PM
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Being_Erica
My wife started watching "Being Erica" this weekend. I caught a good chunk of the pilot episode. It starts out as one of those dramedies aimed toward women -- successful but not too successful, pretty but not gorgeous, unlucky in love, and neurotic woman... whose life then goes to poop. She is somehow directed toward a Mystic (in this case, a psychiatrist, though it could be a gypsy woman, magician, alien, whatever) and is catapulted back in time to what she considers an extremely important turning point in her life. Without being spoilery, because the plot is pretty obvious, she discovers in the first episode that even if she tries to change things, the result when she gets back to the present isn't EXACTLY what she expected to happen.
I consider this a fantasy series, and not just in the "wow, what a fantasy THAT is" way. There's a person who can do something supernatural -- send a person back in time, let her change events, and not destroy the world in the process (as far as we know). If it was a short-story written well enough, and not with such a familiar trope, it might get bought by an SFWA-accredited publication. But because it's on SoapNET (in the USA), it's considered a dramedy directed at women, not a fantasy series.
I don't plan to watch it, because the story and underlying theme are a bit too hackneyed for me and I'd rather see them done in a more serious fashion, but the fact remains that it's out there.
Would you consider it fantasy? Or would you stick it in the dramedy category and ignore it? Other shows like this, ones that have only a single SF element, are often put into the drama/dramedy category. I mentally consider "Being Erica" a genre show, though most people I've talked to today say dramedy.
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Magical time travel is fantasy in my book. :)
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Somewhere in Time, someone agrees with you. ;)
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I was going to agree with you but then my future self showed up and changed my mind. :)
I wish he would put the old one back. ;D
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Somewhere in Time, someone agrees with you. ;)
I love that movie! My husband and I saw it on our first date, and used the Rachmaninoff music in our wedding four years later.
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Somewhere in Time, someone agrees with you. ;)
I love that movie! My husband and I saw it on our first date, and used the Rachmaninoff music in our wedding four years later.
Even though the watch comes from nowhere, i like that movie a lot, too. =)