Being Erica - The 4th Season

[Owain Taggart]

Haha, I got a kick of seeing Dr Tom as Spock. Dr Spockenstein! Someone should make an av of that! It was nice seeing the wedding that we all knew was coming. Sad to see what happened with Kai. Back with Adam. Really?? Another reason why I've felt this season hasn't been as good. It's been like a revolving door.

Looks like this will be the last episode before it comes back in January.

 

[Captain Fine]

Back with Adam feels forced. Would have preferred Ethan by far, or even Kai. I don't see why Erica was so turned off by Mylo though.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Yeah, I agree.

Spoiler: A&E

Being back with Adam really feels forced, and I can't help but feel that they made the point when they broke up that she'd never be able to make him happy because they're just so different. So, seeing him go back to Adam was a surprise, though not in a good way, though it wasn't so much a surprise considering they've kept showing him these past few episodes. But honestly? She should be more sure of herself by now, but she seems as wishy-washy as ever.

The direction this season has taken has been not that great.

And looks like whoever had the theory about Dr Tom possibly retiring from his practice were right. It's not a definite at this point, but it shows that he's thinking about it.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I'm half way through the new episode.

So.

Did Kai have months of memory decimating heroin and alcohol addiction in his youth that his future self can "take over" months, nearly years without disturbing what seems to be his continuity?

Does that mean that he's suddenly a hell of a lot more healthy because he wasn't on heroin as a kid but just freejacked and making out with Erica instead?

Or was he never on heroin and always the victim of his elderself and just assumed he was on the pipe and the bottle, and was maybe even left evidence by his elder self enough to make that assumption wrongly before Older Kai ever returned to the future...

Did Old Kai always shoot up before he went home?

So does that mean that Young Kai never had a substance abuse problem, and only continued an assumed substance abuse until his real problems manifested but all that was ever wrong, was that Old Kai had covered up the years he stole form his own life too well?

 

[intrinsical]

I loved Dr. Tom's quote "Learning to see an imperfect person perfectly". Adam is by no means perfect for Erica, but that's the point of the episode isn't it?

 

[Guy Gardener]

His eyes are too beady.

But Erica timeraped him and Adam forgave her.

Extrapolate from battered wife syndrome and take the ball.

Adam is wrong.

UM.

So just because Bieng Erica is finishing, it doesn't mean that they can't spin off the showwhere Erica is the Doctor costar... Supporting star? And some new little dink takes centre stage to be fixed by Erica?

I'm sure this passing the torch thing happens all the time in tv, more for accounting purposes than anything else, in not so Sara Lee....

Yeah, like how Magnus took over Star Gate and MacGyver became the general.

Did Tapping have top billing in season 8?

 

[Agent Richard07]

- Looks like we really do have two episodes left.

- As to when the remaining episodes will air, one guy at the IMDb says we'll get them in January, but the CBC schedule says we'll get them in December.

- I'm not happy that Erica is back with Adam. It would have been nice to have her single for a while.

- I wonder if there are other reasons why Tom wants to retire. Amanda's attitude towards his secrecy seems to have simmered down. Maybe he really feels it's time. I don't know what I'd do if I were in his position. Having the power to manipulate reality would be damn near impossible to give up.

- Somehow I don't think we've seen the last of Jenny. We may see a reconciliation before the season's end.

- I really, really want a 5th season. This one didn't deliver what I wanted to see. I'm not going to treat this season as the last until it's been confirmed that the show won't be back.

- Kai's song was pretty nice and I can see him coming back if the show continues. Who would have thought that we'd see him again when his arc ended in season 2?

 

[Guy Gardener]

Well...

Besides my huge aside above, has me wonder if young kai does a small scratch of detective work what he might dig up asking Erica about all his missing time when he bumps into her while connecting the dots?

So, Yeah, present day Kai is still wandering about dazed and confused.

 

[Owain Taggart]

- I really, really want a 5th season. This one didn't deliver what I wanted to see. I'm not going to treat this season as the last until it's been confirmed that the show won't be back.

Yeah, same here. I know I originally thought we wouldn't get a 5th season, but I've largely felt this season has been underwhelming as a final season. No big push towards a final arc. No buildup to something epic. As a standalone season, it's great. But as a final season it severely undelivers and undersells its premise. It has largely felt like there's been no direction this season, but rather is just a set of loosely connected episodes that don't really offer any development. Where's the bigger picture? Where's the world that was created with the insight of Season 3? Where's Dr Arthur?. It strangely seems unconcerned about telling its story and the mythos. And as much as I love Dr Tom, this season has largely been focused on him rather than on Erica's final push to becoming a Doctor, and when we have gotten episodes focused on her, except for that one episode with Future Dr Erica and the one where she got a taste of what it was like to play with time, it's been largely about relationship issues instead of moving things forward towards the end. Isn't that strange? The 4th season doesn't have any momentum, and it seems like it has less sci-fi elements in it than in the past, with more of a focus on the relationships, which is frustrating because as a viewer, I want to know what's going on. I want to see Erica finally get an office of her own like we've been teased with in Season 3's finale. But at the moment, I don't really see it, unless the next episodes really ramp things up quickly. Even this recent episode wasn't really that great, as yet again it was about relationships, which I feel there's been too much of a focus on this season.

 

[Guy Gardener]

she has the office.

It's hers.

But is she avoiding it because she doesn't know how to manipulate space? Is she waiting for lessons? Are they waiting for to sack up and ask to learn?

I thought it was interesting to learn that Erica triggers the sessions and Tom has what? A ten second warning to look prepared?

 

[Owain Taggart]

she has the office.

It's hers.

That much is obvious. What gets me is they haven't used it, which makes last season's finale just one big tease. It's just one example of the many things in this season that haven't been followed up on that should have by now.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Did you think that Tom was having sex in his office last night?

 

[intrinsical]

One thing I did observe in the latest episode is that Dr. Tom did not need to raise the issue with Erica. Erica automatically zoomed in on her own problems with Kai and addressed it pretty much by herself. She didn't really need to see "dream guy" Mylo at all. Not only that, she was able to break off with Kai while simultaneously leaving him in a better place too. So the episode does show that Erica has already grown out of the need for Dr. Tom to be constantly at her back.

 

[Agent Richard07]

she has the office.

It's hers.

That much is obvious. What gets me is they haven't used it, which makes last season's finale just one big tease. It's just one example of the many things in this season that haven't been followed up on that should have by now.

I just accept that the office, the card and the "Dr. Erica" bit was put in to cap off the show in case it didn't get renewed. Since it did, they were able to not so much backpedal, but show us the real training process. It was quite a tease though.

Did you think that Tom was having sex in his office last night?

It did look that way at first didn't it? We see Erica enter Dr. Tom's office, then she looks around and we see Tom with Amanda in bed. For a second, I thought they were right there in the office. Part of it was the way it was shot and part of it was due to the fact that Tom is always there when she enters.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Yeah, I think they wanted us to think that. Also particularly by the way that he entered the room, made it look like maybe it was part of his own house. Maybe a house that, as we saw earlier in the season, once belonged to his father as he had practically the same office, unless it's a recreation of it. But it does make you wonder where all of these offices are, or if they're anywhere in particular at all or part of a void space reserved for Doctors.

 

[Worf2DS9]

Haha, I got a kick of seeing Dr Tom as Spock. Dr Spockenstein!

That was indeed cool to see, though I thought it interesting that he, and then Erica, didn't stick their thumbs out when they did the Vulcan salute. Dr. Tom couldn't have been that big a Trek fan if he couldn't even get that right.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I'm just wondering about the evil little beard.

Does that mean we are always watching the Evil Mirror Universe Being Erica, because mirror Tom in that universe might not have an evil little beard?

Which just makes me pissed off about Community getting the shaft when evil Troy and Evil Abeb are bound to break through to the good universe some time near what should be the season finale.

There's a mirror universe out there where Elvis and Kurt Cobain are still singing Christmas jingle duets.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Nah, he's not evil. He's just Tom

And Worf, It's just likely the writers didn't think of that detail or didn't think anyone would notice.

 

[Agent Richard07]

She looked really nice in that wedding dress...

And here's part of a Q&A with Erin...

Being Erica plays in so many different countries. What’s the funniest translation you’ve come across?
It’s not really a translation, but at one point there was talk of a BBC version called Being Archibald, set in Scotland. That would be great to see.

You probably also heard about the U.K. station that recently got into trouble for airing the episode from the third season with the giant penis ice sculpture.
I did hear that. I was kind of surprised that it came from Britain. The show airs in the States [on SOAPnet], where networks tend to be more lenient about violence but stricter about sexual content. There’s this episode from season one where Erica has sex in a canoe. It’s a key scene, and it was cut entirely in the U.S.

Erin Karpluk: Being Erica's titular time-traveller

 

[Owain Taggart]

Interesting. I was always impressed with how racy the show could get at times. Canada does tend to be a bit more liberal in its expression that way, but it does make me wonder what other scenes haven't been shown.