Here we are, fresh off spring break, a week in which alcohol consumption outweighed hours slept nearly 4-1. For some, it’s beaches and exotic getaways. For others, it’s a preview of summertime.
I wouldn’t have traded my spring break for the world – maybe a date with Kate Upton, but not the world. But there was one thing I missed (aside from water and sleep): my TV.
Aside from a deep-cleansing shower and my first full meal in days, the primary item on my agenda was a date with the DVR. And honestly, the season finale of Pretty Little Liars only accounted for about 45 percent of the urgency.
TV is underappreciated in today’s society. Without it, we woldn’t have all the blueprints we generate in our minds about love and relationships, friendship and family and the massive number of quotes we laugh at on a daily basis. They all stem from that same screen our parents once tried to push away from us.
How frustrating can your family be? More importantly, how many times has it been mirrored on an episode of Modern Family? The most popular sitcom in the country teaches us that dysfunction is a more-than-common theme in all our lives – in all shapes, sizes and colors. You might not have a gay uncle or a ridiculously hot grandma with an agonizing voice, but maybe your dad did accidently shrink-wrap your mom’s photo on the minivan.
You don’t always need a TV show to demonstrate how to find friendship. But sometimes what takes place on screen is all too familiar to what goes on off of it. If you’re a fan of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia you might know exactly what I’m talking about.
The gang: Charlie, Mac and Dennis – and I’m notably excluding Dee – represent the notion that friends are constantly ripping on each other. That time your bro threatened to hook up with the girl you’re chasing after – call that the Dennis-Charlie complex. Or when your wingman helps you facilitate your plan to get chicks – you know, the D.E.N.N.I.S. System. And that time somebody called you and your best bro out for having a typical bromance – it was completely uncalled for. Bromances are awesome.
The most important life lessons you grasp from TV, however, are about love.
Ted’s quest to find his soulmate in How I Met Your Mother is the same pursuit of a significant other we all encounter at some points in our lives, although Ted’s journey is certainly lasting quite a while. His off-and-on relationship with Robin – isn’t that sort of like the guy or girl you dated in high school, then for a little bit sophomore year of college and maybe not-so-accidentally hooked up with over Christmas break?
The show also features the Marshall-Lilly dynamic, the couple who is best friends and almost unimaginable to see apart from one another. For some, that’s a unique reality, but it applies to some of the greater love stories. On the contrary, there’s Barney, the successful bachelor who is beginning to realize he might want love after all.
But the best TV love story of all time, for me, is Jim and Pam’s of The Office. The eight-season saga of the receptionist and the paper salesman proves adversity cannot get in the way of what two people believe is true love. The fiance, Roy; the new girlfriend, Karen; three months away at art school and, most recently, another co-worker aiming for a fling could not get in the way of Jim and Pam. And the way Jim first told Pam he had feelings for her, the proposal and the wedding are among the all-time great TV moments.
TV is an inspiration for the relationships in our lives. It helps us relate. It teaches us lessons. It gives us hope.
Sam Spiegelman is a senior journalism major. He can be reached at spiegelman@umdbk.com.
