Married, Single, Other

I must confess I have been vaguely aware of the existence of the show “Married, Single, Other” for quite some time. I never really had any interest in seeing it as the title seemed to reflect that it would be a show whose primary purpose would be a loosely stringed plot that always involved naked young women. However this week I decided to give it a shot. I have not been so pleasantly disappointed in a long time.
The story focuses on three main couples; two have children and have been together forever. The final is just starting out.
One of the forever couples—Lillie and Eddie— have never married, they have two children and are quiet happy. At least Lillie is. Eddie and one of their sons, Joe, wish they were an official family. Lillie comes to realize that if marriage is so important to those she loves than maybe it is more important than her feminist stance. Regardless of my personal feelings on marriage (it’s a good thing) I was so glad the writers chose this route for their characters. I don’t mind other views than mine… but when every single TV couple decides it would be purer not to marry it stops being thought provoking and starts being predicable. I loved this couple. They loved each other and loved their kids.
The other forever couple – Babs and Dickie—are facing the end of their relationship. Or at least their marriage. Babs is at the end of her rope; she says herself: “I love him. I love him more than anything… but he… Oh Lillie, is it wrong to dump someone because they are a bit immature and a little bad with money?” To which her old friend says “Maybe. But it’s probably not so bad to end a marriage with someone who is very difficult and complete crap with money.” Not an exact quote but generally. This couple addresses the pain of love. Babs always loves her husband. But his addiction to gambling and his lack of ambition has ruined her. So this story begs the question, when do you forgive those you love for their weaknesses? When are they taking advantage of you? How far does the vow for better or for worse go?
The final couple—Abbey and Clint—are just starting out. Clint is, as his sister in-law, Babs, refers to him, “The King of Sleaze.” He meets Abbey, who is drop dead attractive and funny and all around the girl of his dreams. Unfortunately, she finds him to be a bit of joke. But they decide to give one another a shot.
Though this series began as trying to define a couple what it ended was defining the family. The brave part of this piece was—not to give away the ending—but pretty much everyone ended up somewhere between “Other” and “Single”. Despite their individual relationships going to pot they all stay close Eddie, Lillie, and the boys. They are form a family like relationship with this family. The theme of the work was “Couples more often than not, break up. Something horrible and unpredictable happens, someone cheats, some lies, someone has unfair expectations. However, families; on the other hand, last forever.”