"wage love with a mistletoe"

[ Pushing Daisies...note: Chuck is a girl - nickname for Charlotte ]

Chuck: I can’t even hug you? What if you need a hug? A hug can turn your day around.
Ned: I’m not a big fan of the hug.
Chuck: Then you haven’t been hugged properly. It’s like an emotional Heimlich. Someone puts their arms around you and they give you a squeeze and all your fear and anxiety come shooting out of your mouth in a big wet wad and you can breathe again.
Ned: That’s fine for someone else to do if I’m choking on something other than emotion, but you can’t touch me.
Chuck: So a kiss is out of the question?

It's so refreshing to find believable and tender romances on television, especially in the present Grey's Anatomized era of TV drama (You know, the long dragged out relationships, break ups and make ups played out to variations of SP's "Chasing Cars")...and I'm a strong believer that the romances we see on television does play a part in creating the expectation for relationships that "sweep you off your feet". it'd be easy to say that Hollywood portrayals of women are too idealistic, but at the same time, portrayals of men are equally unfair.

The typical soapy drama contextualizes relationships in grand schemes of romance - extravagant gestures of kindness, loved ones showing up at the right time all the time, and every breathing moment is spent daydreaming about the person - women are shown as being completely raptured by their love for the men, and men, the so-called Derek Shepherds of the world, bring flowers, ice cream, and initiate forbidden make-out sessions in the elevator.

*shivers*.

and so, when "real" (as real as they can be, anyway) relationships are portrayed on tv...they really are a breath of fresh air. nothing dramatic or particularly timely happens, but instead, the relationship portrayed attracts loyalty from viewers on the basis of its subtleties. the most popular example of this is the PB & J (Pam Beesely and Jim) relationship on "The Office". For three seasons, audiences squealed when JAM, as the characters are affectionately called, cooperated on practical jokes involving mostly Dwight, and exchanged stolen glances only caught by the camera. Things didn't have to come together quickly...nor dramatically, but really just through the development of a friendship.

I'm on the bandwagon for romances that demonstrate the importance of the ordinary things - helping your loved one put the exact amount of cream and sugar in their coffee, doing their laundry without having to be reminded, asking them how their day went even when you don't feel like it - those are things that love is made of.