My Life as a Sitcom

I have a strong perspective on life. Some may say extreme (my parents certainly have said so). And it’s full of contradictions.

How to best celebrate March 8?

When I was a teenager, in Rome, Women’s Day meant marching in the street singing about female power. We bought ourselves mimosa flowers. Then, on the way home, we stopped by the bookstore to get the free book and 50% discount especially reserved to us. March 8 was political.

In my twenties, there weren’t protest marches to go to anymore. Just the bookstore. And the florist. March 8 became more of an annual special treat.

Small Screen, Big Love

TV series are like long term relationships: they seduce us slowly but engage us for a very long time. And that is why we feel so involved with them. They create bonds that are hard to break.

Even with the most indulgent director’s cut, a film won’t last longer than three hours: like a summer flirt it can be intense and satisfying but it’s a self enclosed experience. If it’s a good one, we will forever remember it, treasuring in our heart the best moments. But it’s over. We knew from the start it was never meant to last. We can only relive it again and again in our memories. It forever belongs to the past. 

With a good sitcom, we spend many a night for nine, ten years, week after week: it’s a love story. Always changing, always evolving, never quite the same experience. A TV series has a present, a past and a future.

“Would I rather be feared or loved? Easy: both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me.”

Michael Scott, The Office