Just as predictable as the police showing up at the wedding (come on, if they didn't show up at the ceremony, they had to show up at the reception) is Mel blogging about the botched IVF storyline on Desperate Housewives. You've got to be freakin' kidding me.
Not only was it the least realistic IVF cycle IN HISTORY (don't quiz me right now on why it made me so pissed off because I've put it out of my mind. That's how deeply I suppressed it), but they finished off the storyline by having (1) the wrong embryo transferred (TRANSFERRED--not implanted--idiots idiots--you transfer an embryo) but (2) the couple lose the baby without one shred of emotion except some controlled anger with the fertility clinic doctor. They go home without a child and there is not one tear, not one conversation about loss or grief, not one speech about desperately wanting the child they had been carrying through surrogacy for nine months. And where is this child now? Left at the hospital? Given to the couple who produced the embryo? Can you imagine that phone call? Um...we seem to have transferred your embryo to another couple. And they just gave birth through their surrogate. So...congratulations. You just became parents. It's that simple. Come on.
Give me ONE storyline where the couple wants a child, overcomes huge obstacles, and goes home to raise their child happily ever after. You can choose the method to parenthood--I'm not picky. A realistic adoption. A realistic IVF cycle. A realistic surrogacy storyline. Donor egg? Insemination? Anyone?
Just one storyline where the emotional aspects and financial aspects and physical aspects of infertility are presented to the public. Without a laugh track (because, truly, I don't know about you, but except for laughing through tears when my husband whispered something like "boom chica wah wah" in my ear during an insemination to make me feel more sexy, I never laughed during fertility treatments. Oh...except for the times I made my husband sit across from me and pinch the fat on his stomach when I had to give myself an injection so I wasn't the only person pinching fat in the room. But other than those two times...). Without apology or simplifying or dumbing down. Just a good, old-fashioned IVF cycle where the doctor uses the term "retrieval" and "transfer" to discuss retrieval and transfer.
I have got to get to Hollywood. Kick down the office doors at ABC (also home to Grey's Anatomy!) with my steel-toed, knee-high boots. Or...um...my size eight Keens. Whichever seem more impressive.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
I knew you'd blog about this. You didn't let me down. :)
I'm not surprised they made it into such a freak show. (But they did surprise me with the actual baby...I thought the baby would be Asian).
I really don't even know what else to say. I just hope my GC didn't watch it! ;)
I've never watched that show, but I have noticed that TV shows & movies never get IF "right". You'd think with all the movie stars who are, you know, actually having IVF, someone would say "hey, you screwed this part up", but no...
I will admit, tho, that there are many things about ART that I find funny.. but almost always in an if I don't laugh, I'll cry sort of way.
Ughh, it pissed me off, too! I kept thinking where is the child? Who is going to take care of it? Then I sort of felt like it was a little racist as well. That couple was going to adopt a baby from white parents and when that didn't happen they moved onto surrogacy. This didn't just irritate me on a infertility level, but in just a basic human being level. How could they just not care?
Marcia Cross, where were you when they were going this route with the story line??
My question for the entertainment industry is why do they have to make light and humor over a situation that causes so much pain?
Er, did you ever see that show "Inconceivable"? It was on for 3 episodes or so last fall before being cancelled. The opening scene of the pilot featured a white couple watching their white surrogate give birth at the L&D corridor, conveniently affixed to the RE clinic. The baby was born. She was black. The expectant father said "What the hell is THAT?"
In the next episodes, it turns out that the surrogate (that untrustworthy slut!) had had a one-night stand a few days before transfer. The couple sued the clinic and didn't proceed with the adoption. The surrogate left the hospital without the baby. The one-night-stand guy was located and (miracle of miracles!) started bonding with his child.
Then, thankfully, the show was cancelled while my TV was still intact.
I'm stuck on how adoreable your husband is. Not that you needed my opinion, but he's a total keeper. :)
Ugh. "adorable"
I swear that I passed several spelling tests in elementary school.
...Gotta love "creative license." NOT!
I do not watch DH, so I never would have paid attention to that humdingger. But, I did was the (pull my nails out as torture) Inconceivable show and it was just horrible. Even Days of Our Lives is on the IF screw-up bandwagon these days...
Maybe if someone in Hollywood who has actually BEEN through IF treatments would take a stand, maybe Hollywood would finally get it right.
So very glad I don't watch that show. Argh.
Exactly, aah0424--where was Marcia!
Post a Comment