The Manhattan version of the reality show Million Dollar Listing has returned, featuring the mega-real estate broker Fredrik Eklund, pictured above in his trademark pose of Karate Kid triumph. In the first episode Fredrik is in bed with his handsome new husband, and Fredrik says that since their marriage, he’s become less obsessed with his career. He says this WITH A TV CREW IN HIS BEDROOM.
At the beginning of the new musical If/Then, the glorious Idina Menzel meets a handsome blonde soldier in a park, and because it’s a musical, it’s love at first sight. But I could feel that the audience, which was predominantly female, was a touch apprehensive: the soldier was wearing fatigues, so he didn’t seem to be an officer, and while he was clearly honest and brave, could a soldier really support our beloved Idina while she pursued her career as an urban planner? A few seconds later, the soldier revealed that he was also a doctor, and I could feel every woman in that theater pressing her invisible LIKE! button, as a huge invisible neon sign filled the entire stage reading SCORE!!!
A few scenes later the soldier sets up Idina’s gay best friend on a date with another handsome guy. When this guy mentions that he’s also a doctor, the neon sign read GAY SCORE!!!
Audience members, myself included, often have certain kneejerk reactions. For example, if a psychopath on a TV show kills a child, I might still give him the benefit of the doubt: maybe the psychopath had abusive, alcoholic parents. But if the psychopath even threatens a dog, then I want that psychopath to die horribly. Even in a comedy, if a character tosses an obviously fake dog out a window, there always has to be a shot of the dog walking away unharmed.
However, on the TV show The Following, the show’s resident psychopath recently strangled a cat, without losing his evil charm. This made me feel sympathetic to cats everywhere, because they’re more dramatically disposable than dogs.
Shows like The Following, Dexter and The Blacklist all follow another kneejerk rule. If you want the audience to like or at least enjoy a psychopath, just introduce another less attractive and less witty psychopath. This allows the primary psycho to shine.
In my family, if a woman brought a psychopath home for, say, Passover, everyone would tell the family member that she could do better. If she replied that the psychopath was not only a doctor, but a surgeon, the rest of us might reconsider our positions. We’d say things like, “I know he’s a psychopath, but he does very well for himself” and “Maybe he’s just a part-time psychopath. You know, like a hobby.”
