The Leading Girl and Men

As I watching the Season 5 premiere of HBO’s “True Blood”, I catch myself noticing a line from Alex Skarsgards’ character, Eric Northman, when Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), senses that Sookie
Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) is in danger. He says “Fuck Sookie.” Though, the reason why Eric is even saying that in the first place is because of last season’s turn of events when Sookie decided not to be with Eric or Bill. Given the choice to decide who she wants to be with, she ended up choosing neither. Most fans, like myself, probably yelled at the television when this occurred. In all honesty, I wanted Sookie to be with Eric.

However, aside from fandom, It seems that there is always this scenario when there are 2 males trying to court the leading lady. One of them will be spiteful of the rejection, while the other will just feel some form of sadness and hurt, but will still care so much about the person whom he was rejected by. This isn’t the first time I see this particular scenario written for television.

The first time I think I saw this was when I was watching ABC’s “Ugly Betty”. Yes, this version of “Ugly Betty” was NOTHING like the Columbian version “Betty La Fea”. The first version was by far my favourite, much more serious than the American version. In the American version, during Season 2 of the series, we see that Betty (America Ferrera) is with the lovable, adorkable, Henry Grubstick (Christopher Gorham). Although that they seem quite happy together after a whole season of fighting all the odds to just to be alongside with one another. The boat is rocked when Betty starts to develop a crush to Gio Rossi (Freddy Rodriguez). Gio is handsome,  and much more spontaneous than Henry.

Though, at the end of season 2, Betty had to choose between Henry or Gio. Henry asked Betty to marry him. Gio asked her to go to Rome. Both very tempting choices. Most would like a hand in marriage or some would like going to Europe. In the end, Betty chose neither, which pissed off a lot of people. Gio was angry when he saw Betty again, to the point where he told Betty that he hated her. Sounds like a familiar plot, right?

Or even in “Betty La Fea”, Betty has to choose between Armando, dude whom she falls in love with, but lies to her and breaks her heart, or being with the nice, honest, French photographer, Michele. She ends up picking Armando in the end because he finally cleaned up his act. But still, in television, the leading lady has to choose between 2.

I’m only here stating the obvious. I just began to realize that these plots for the leading lady are always placed on television. She is left to choose between 2 eligible bachelor’s and she choose neither. The rejection of two men often leads to one of them to hate the leading lady. Then there is plot where she chooses the first guy she falls in love with (just like in the original “Betty La Fea.” In this case though, the second guy isn’t spiteful, and can only wish the leading girl the best (which I consider odd because I think the other guy feels a sense of rejection and hurt. Maybe anger?).

Like I said previously, I am only here to point out a plot line that I have become very familiar in the development of television programs. I’m not saying that I don’t enjoy these plotlines, if anything, they make things interesting. However, the climax revolves around what the leading girl decides to do, which can vary from time to time. I’m sure there are more outcomes than the ones I have been able to point out. Yes, there are certainly times that I do get angry at the decisions the girl makes. But, it goes to show, even in tv, the girl could have both, the girl could have one, or she just decides that she wants neither.

We can’t be angry at a character who decides to do something based on what she needs, wants, or just realizing what makes her happy. In real life, that’s how it plays out too. I think I have watched way too much television that I realize that I hope my situations will pan out like a leading girl. It’s yet to happen. And in a way, I’m glad that I never had to pick between two males. Too stressful.

Stay posted. I’ll TRY to go watch Moonrise Kingdom soon and then talk about how much I love Wes Anderson. I’m also going to go to a few free concerts in my local Los Angeles area, so I’ll be writing about that too.