I'm just now hearing about this series again since it first premiered several years ago.
The premise has me intrigued to be frank, and I'd like to ask for those that have seen it how you would describe it?
Serious? Soapy? Saccharin?
I'm looking for another good series that blends fantastic elements with good characterization and plotting.
Would this be a series to try?
The first 2 or 3 episodes of the first season are pretty bad, frankly. They feel very juvenile. But then, something happens - it's an episode about Erica on the first day of a new job at a publisher's, and the show suddenly takes off. My reason for telling you this is, if you give the show a try, don't worry about the first 2 or 3 episodes. I promise it gets much better, and quite quickly.
How would I describe it? It's a science-fiction (fantasy?) show with a very strong female character at the centre. She's complex, courageous, vulnerable, intelligent - really, I haven't seen a female character this well-acted and well-written in a science fiction show for a while.
When the show is funny, it's often laugh-out-loud funny. When it's sad, it can make you cry. And sometimes, at its best, it's tense as hell, real edge-of-your-seat drama. It usually feels very real, with real people facing real problems. As an sf show that is drama-focused, it's truly fantastic....for the first 2 seasons. The third season, to be honest, drifts a bit, and that's mainly because it drops most of the major plot lines that kept the tension in the first 2 seasons so tight. But still, the show as a whole is one of the better ones of its type. (Oh, and you'll have to ignore the horrendous acting from her male best friend/potential love interest. The producers eventually realized he was awful and did something about it, but for the first season or so, you'll have to deal with it. Don't worry - he's not a hugely important character, screen-time-wise.)
My only real complaint about the show is that it seems, so far, uninterested in its own sf premise. It cares very much for the characters and their lives, but not so much for the science (or magic?) behind the doctors, what their motivation is, why they get involved in people's lives, etc....I hope they spend some time in the last season focusing on it, but they probably won't.
Other than that (and it's a personal preference), this show is highly recommended. It's thoughtful, mature, very adult, very smart, and very entertaining.
Lighter tone? I hope it won't be too light, because what made me appreciate Being Erica was in how it handled tough subjects. exploring them in ways I hadn't seen done. But if they're more in line with what we saw when Erica was drunk and at the gay pride parade, then it should be fun.
Is it me, or does it sound like Julianne is going to be Erica's first patient? My memory's failing me, but wasn't there an episode when Erica bumped into Julianne at her University in the past? That would make it easy to showcase Erica's friends using Julianne time traveling.
