A pet peeve

I mentioned last time how I'm a fan of My Boys. It's not the funniest show on TV, but it makes me laugh. The cast has chemistry and it's light and breezy fun, perfect for the summer TV doldrums. And Jim Gaffigan just kills me. But one thing bugs me. The show follows Jordana Spiro's PJ as she hangs with her buddies in the neighborhood bar, hangs with the same buddies on poker night, catches brunch or drinks with her best friend, Stephanie, and has hapless romantic escapades with a series of Mr. Not-Quite-Rights. Yet PJ is supposed to be a newspaper beat writer covering the Cubs. So when would she have the time to have a social life? The typical baseball beat writer works almost every day from March to September (October's free -- this IS the Cubs we're talking about), and their days off usually correspond to their team's off days. A Monday here, a Thursday there....certainly no weekends off. Even if the Cubs still played all day games, PJ gets out way, way too much. Maybe that's why this season the show's writers have played down her work life almost completely. Which is too bad, because being a beat writer -- especially a female beat writer -- is a job ripe with opportunity for plot points, as it was in the show's first season. Seems like a wasted opportunity to me, but not too surprising, since TV and movies that delve into the newspaper world almost never get it right. (Copy editor Drew Barrymore having an office and a secretary in Never Been Kissed? Screaming front page headlines reading "LOCAL MAN TO FACE MURDER CHARGES" when in reality the story would be a 3-inch cop brief?)

For a little bit of reality, how about this scenario for My Boys, Season 3: With her newspaper announcing major cuts and looming layoffs, PJ becomes a blonde ball of stress, has doubts about her career path and drinks too much with her friends, complaining about how her work has had the fun sucked out of it and how the corporate slash-and-burn strategy will only bring ruin to the paper. She spends a few episodes secretly applying for soulless PR jobs and pondering major lifestyle changes until the season finale, when a major TV sports network swoops down and hires her to be an on-air personality, giving her plenty of time to hang with her friends and enough money to buy rounds.

'Cause you've gotta have a happy ending.