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BEING ERICA |
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Erica Strange - Erin Karpluk Dr Tom - Michael Riley 
OFFICIAL SITE
Season 1 Season 3 Season 3 E4.com OTHER TIME TRAVEL SHOWS Doctor Who Journeyman Timecop Daybreak OTHER SELF HELP SHOWS Eli Stone 
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Being Dr TomFollowing the tumultuous events at the end of Season 1 Erica finds that she has a new therapist since Dr Tom will no longer see her. Erica refuses to take part in any more therapy without him and so her new therapist takes her back to a time when Dr Tom was simply Tom, a man whose life had hit a bottom so hard that it would lead to a rooftop and thoughts of suicide. There are times in BEING ERICA when it all feels a bit soapy and a bit girly and a bit superficial, but the opening episode of season two is anything but that, though it does its best to wrongfoot the audience from the start. Erica is sent back to a Coyote Ugly style bar where she has to bare her midriff and dance on the tables and it's all very light and breezy. Very BEING ERICA. Then she finds Tom. Michael Riley gives a brilliant, heartfelt performance as a man on the edge, a man who doesn't want to be helped, a man whose anger at the world is only surpassed by his anger, and contempt, for himself. This performance alone plunges the show into real depth, so much so that when it tries to return to the bright and breezy relationship at the end it really doesn't manage it. There is now an undercurrent that wasn't there before. There's also a sense of something else going on. For one thing, there is more to Dr Tom's existence than just Dr Tom. There are other therapists, other manipulators, and a sense that we are skating blithely on the surface of a much deeper and darker and more dangerous lake than we know. Then again, with the really delightful Erin Karpluk as our skating partner, we'll chase her round the figure eights until the secrets are revealed. Top Battle RoyaleWhen Erica and Ethan's relationship hits a bit of a rocky patch Dr Tom sends her back in time to a summer camp that she worked at and an ex-friend who became her worst enemy almost overnight. It's back to business as usual with Erica having a life lesson from her past inform her present. The not so subtle message this time around is 'talking is hard, but it's the best thing to do'. Not only is it hammered home with the subtlety of a piledriver, but there's the dynamite force of the explantory voiceover just in case that you didn't quite catch the moral of the story. Fortunately Erin Karpluk is still endearing enough to paper over the cracks, there is the interesting existence of another time jumper and one whose response to her advances is somewhat less than expected and the first signs of a more soap opera-y story developing in the office. You know what you're getting with BEING ERICA, but the episodes are usually a little less obvious than this and it is disappointing after last week's cracker. Top Mama MiaErica and Judith's friendship has changed ever since the birth of Judith's baby. Now Judith is always cancelling their time together and when Erica offers to babysit Judith doesn't really trust her, so Doctor Tom sends Erica back to a time when she really let her friend down. Only with the baby in tow. This is the most female-orientated story for a while. The history story of Erica messing up in the past because she has the baby with her is only a nice twist because it comes as a surprise that the baby goes along for the ride. The rest is pure soap opera and all about female bonding and female empowerment. The male audience, if there is one left, is completely excluded from the whole thing. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Why shouldn't women have a sci-fi show that speaks to them and not their partners? Erin Karpluk is as winning as ever, though the purple hairstyle is never going to catch on. Top Cultural RevolutionWhen Erica is offered the chance of writing the sex book that will head the company's new line up, her friend challenges her to do it since she never takes a risk in her life. Doctor Tom sends her back to a time where she turned down a trip to Taipai, a trip she can now embark on and learn the true meaning of bravery. Erica steps out of her own cultural backyard and into someone else's, although that someone else's seems to be living a male fantasy since it involves three women taking up residence in a flat where the party never ends and lesbian snogging with some chippy from the UK is on the menu. The trip highlight is Erica belting out a karaoke tune in a night club, out of tune of course. The moral of the story is fairly obvious from the start and the hammer that is used to bash it into the audience's head is a bit large and obvious this time around, but the incidental pleasures are keeping the show just the right side of lecturing. Top Yes We CanWhen Erica gets frustrated from being hemmed in by everyone else's rules, Dr Tom gives her a chance to relive the previous day and do whatever she wants, safe in the knowledge that at the end of the day everyone but she will forget what happened. The Bill Murray film GROUNDHOG DAY gets namechecked in this episode, which is only fair since it takes the concept wholesale from that source.The idea of living the whole day without any consequences and the fact that doing so starts off looking so appealing, but descends into total chaos is somewhat predictable. That said, Erica walking into Dr Tom's office to find him completely naked is a very, very funny moment. Top Shhh...Don't TellErica's boss's boyfriend is caught in flagrante delicto with another woman in the photocopy room by Erica. In order to deal with her moral dilemma, Dr Tom sends her back to deal with a situation in High School where saying nothing led to humiliation for another girl. To tell or not to tell, that is the question. Whether tis nobler in the mind to grass up a bad'un is the central dilemma here, but the time travel story is so slight as to be bulimic and any story that has a character's humiliation at its core is somewhat disturbing at the best of times. It is fortunate, then, that the situation in the office is inching towards trouble as everything else seems to be treading water. Top The Unkindest CutErica is trying to help everyone around her, but is failing. Kaj is refusing to accept his therapy, so his therapist, with Dr Tom's permission, sends Erica to the future where she learns that Kaj is a rock star about to go into meltdown. His presence in her present is because it is a regret in his past that he is refusing to leave. BEING ERICA takes a step further into science fiction than it has yet gone by taking Erica into the future (2019 to be precise). HD televisions are wafer thin, ipads rule and the rock music industry is as twisted as it ever was. As a view of the future, it's a credible one, but might be a bit further away than just nine years. Erica learns that she can't solve other people's problems for them (this being the moral of the episode and delivered in the soap opera family circumcision story), but Kaj's problems are deeper seated than can be dealt with in one single visit. This means that this side of the story is slightly unsatisfactory, but it is just one step and there might be more future trips on the way. At least it shakes up what was becoming a repetitive pattern. Top Under My ThumbErica catches Ethan pleasuring himself to internet porn. She desperately tries to understand and be part of what he doesn't want her to know anything about. Her boss is having a meltdown because of the way that the company is treating her over one of her authors and her sister has left her husband and come home from the UK. When Erica thanks Dr Tom from letting her escape from all those problems, he drops her right back in amongst them. Quite apart from the surprising adult nature of the subject matter here (internet porn and masturbation) this is an atypical BEING ERICA episode because it doesn't involve any time travelling all. That reduces it to a simple soap opera. It's a glossy, well-written and well-acted soap opera, but a soap opera nonetheless. Top A River Runs Through It...It Being EgyptErica comes down hard on Kaj for what he did with her sister, so Dr Tom sends her back in time to the night that she and her brother threw a party and got their dad's car trashed. She does everything to ensure that doesn't happen, but it still does and she learns something about both her brother and people in general. This is still more glossy soap opera than anything else as Erica admits her feelings for Kaj and the trip back to the night of her party does more to just fill in the time than it does to illuminate the story in the present. Top Papa Can You Hear MeWhen Erica asks Dr Tom to help Kaj, his reaction is somewhat heated. In order to help him understand the source of his anger over the subject his therapist sends him back to the day that his daughter left for the last time. It's great to see Michael Riley's Dr Tom getting the limelight for a change and whilst his interaction with his daughter has an oversweet edge thanks to his experience in therapy, enough goes wrong and remains the same to keep in from going all saccharine. There is a definite sense that this side of the story still has further to go. It's Still a shame, however, to see that the makers can't do without the heavy-handed voiceover. Top What Goes Up Must Come DownErica’s first big book launch is a huge success, more so than the book which gets horribly adverse reviews all over the place. When she tries to defend Julianne from the ire of the company head, she finds herself as equally fired as her boss. Dr Tom sends her back to correct a regret she has about pulling out of a fledgling dotcom business just before it sold for millions. How will her life turn out is she was rich in her 20s? Wow, now this is a reversal of fortunes for Erica. One minute she’s as up as she can be and the next she is back on unemployment and virtually unemployable within the publishing world. It’s a slap that takes the show out of its slightly middle-class comfort zone and acts as a wake up call to the characters. In a sort of IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE twist, Erica isn’t sent back to right a regret, but sees instead what the impact of that change would have on her later life. Initially, being rich is great, but there are downsides to everything and it is inevitable that Erica will eventually decide that she is better off as she originally was. Ethan’s reaction to Erica’s plan to take unemployment as an opportunity rather than a setback is, at least, surprisingly believable. Top The Importance Of Being EricaErica is caught between Ethan’s advice that setting up her own business is far too risky a venture and her own desire to do the thing that drives her the most. Dr Tom shows her a corridor full of doorways through which she can go, but she simply follows him, so he sends her back to college to a time when she failed to impress a lecturer. It’s season finale time and that means that various storylines have to be wound up, but a few surprises also have to be dealt. The time travel aspect with Erica being told a few home truths about herself by a crotchety woman lecturer with her own inferiority complex is the least satisfying as the lecturer is a character whose only purpose is to tell Erica to do what drives her and is therefore not convincing at all. The resolution of Kaj’s story is much more nicely wound up with some nice work from Erin Karpluk and Sebastian Piggott as he finally does what he was sent back by Dr Fred to do and learns what he needs to learn. When Erica congratulates him only to find that he no longer remembers her it’s a surprisingly moving moment. It is nice to see Erica on the receiving end of someone else’s regret story and the time travel aspect is given a new twist as Dr Tom takes Erica into the passageway of doors all leading somewhere. What the passageway is, what it represents, isn’t made clear, but then little about this therapy process ever is. It’s a nice image though, and adds something to the genre aspect of the show. The best, though, is saved for last as Erica takes her newfound confidence in herself and the bravery that comes with that and takes a decision that is far more life-changing than taking the decision to set up a business. This comes out of the blue, is surprising and shocking in terms of the show and certainly gives the show a kick at the end. The final scene could nicely round off this show in case it doesn’t get a third season, but anyone who has been following it will have to admit to needing to know what lies on the other side of the door that Erica goes through. Top |
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