Hooking Up According to ABC
My three favorite ladies from the show are Lisa who is a 36 year old Gynecologist from New York City, Amy, who is a 28 year old Real Estate Broker from South Dakota who now lives in the Big Apple with plans to make big bucks, meet Mr. Right and have the perfect life, as defined by Lisa. Then there is Cynthia who is 33 and a hair salon manager. I found her personality to be brash and she seems hard to please. Despite the personality flaws she gives the show the most entertainment value.
Cynthia is what most men would label high maintenance who only seems to be able to wonder why she can’t find a meaningful relationship that is going to last longer than a one night roll in the sack. She doesn’t give a date a chance. In the first 5 minutes she has formed her opinion and checks out of the date in a positive way, spending the rest of the evening thinking to herself how horribly things are going. In part 1 and 2 she ends her evening by text messaging some guy who is only interested in a booty call.
She can’t seem to see past the point of her nose and realize how she plays a part in being stuck in a negative frame of mind. She is your classic girl who is attracted to the bad boy and just can’t figure out why these booty call, bad boys don’t treat her better. Her first date is with a guy named Andrew. He is an aspiring actor from Britain and describes himself as a “Fabio look a like.” He looked more like an aging Michael Bolton and openly admitted that the pictures on his profile were 15 years old. OK, so, I agreed with Cynthia on this guy. The sooner the date ended the better.
She does what most women on a blind date would do if the date turned into a nightmare. She goes to the bathroom and calls a girlfriend and tells her to call her cell phone in ten minutes. You know, the fake emergency call and all that. Cynthia is more than happy to leave and go to her friends rescue once the call comes in. She skips out with a quick apology, leaving Andrew sitting there eating his dinner. Which, truth be known, he seemed more interested in than he did Cynthia.
Andrew was old, not at all as he had represented himself to be but he was no fool. He knew exactly what Cynthia was up to. He laughed it off and continued eating but I’m sure he would have rather been shown some respect. He is human; less than her perfect idea of a date but still human. I’m not so sure Cynthia puts much thought into anyone’s feelings but her own though.
Next thing Cynthia tries is speed dating. The idea is to sign up a group of singles in a restaurant or bar. The guys are assigned tables and then the ladies play a game kind of like musical chairs where they hop from one table to the next spending 10 minutes getting to know as much about their table mate as is possible in that length of time. If you happen to meet someone you might be interested in knowing better you write his or her info down on a card to be turned in at the end of the evening. If you get lucky that same person will turn a card in with your personal info on it and BAM, you have a match. Not sure it is one made in heaven but, hey, a match is a match.
Cynthia gets lucky and makes a match with this guy named Francis. They go out later for dinner and the most amazing thing happens. She likes this guy, really likes him and does she ever make him pay for it! She turns into this argumentative, witch on wheels who disputes everything he says. It’s almost as if she went out of her way to make him feel inferior and stupid. I wondered if she were testing him to see if he could handle a strong woman with strong beliefs or if she was just, once again, cutting her nose off to spite her face.
Francis didn’t back down, he didn’t give her control of the situation and stood up for himself and his beliefs. I was sitting watching the show wondering exactly what traits it is that Cynthia is looking for in a man. She gravitates toward the bad boys, but longs for a guy who can take her strong personality but also treat her with respect. In my mind, Francis was the guy. It didn’t work though, before long she stormed off and left him sitting there and probably wondering what the hell had happened to cause such rancor from the woman.
I have a feeling that Cynthia has some “issues” that need to be dealt with before she finds herself a keeper. Until then the most she is going to be getting out of life are one night stands with bad boys and a lot of disappointment as far as online dating goes.
Lisa was a bit boring. Not the kind of personality that makes good television. The striking thing about her is her inability to tell the truth. She says her name is Jennifer, doesn’t post a photo to her profile and doesn’t reveal that she is a doctor out of fear that men will express an interest in her out of that fact alone. I’m sure there were a few truthful tid-bits in her profile but for the most part, she represents the basics of who she really is.
She gets a lot of hits though and ends up going out with this guy named Doug. Doug is a Plastic Surgeon, a doctor in his own right, who, you would think, would encourage Lisa to come clean about her true identity. I mean, she is safe as far as him developing an interest in her because of her professional status since he is of the same status. This means nothing to her though and she keeps up the pretense.
They have their first dinner date and he is talking about his job. During their conversation she accidentally slips and uses medical terms that only a Dr. would know. He questions her about her knowledge and she tells him she has friends who are doctors, and that is where she picked the terminology. Doug is a great guy, very interested and Lisa seems to be enjoying herself.
You would think, at this point she would come clean with the guy and let him in on the truth. The reason for the charade is no longer valid but for some reason she keeps it up. It wasn’t until they had spent quite a bit of time together and had formed an attraction that she finally filled him in on the fact that she was a doctor also and that her name was not Jennifer but Lisa.
He was a nice guy, showed respect for her need to keep the secrets BUT what guy wouldn’t wonder what else she might be lying about? Being the smart guy he is Doug chose to cut his losses and move on to try again with someone else. Maybe Lisa will learn from it that honesty is the best policy.
Amy was interesting to me because she was so needy. I didn’t know they still made woman as needy as Amy to be honest about it. She has this plan on how to get the guy and keep his interest. Life for her will not be perfect until she finds Mr. Right, marries him and has babies. Her plan? Well, Amy sleeps with a guy early in the relationshipâÂ?¦like right off the bat. Then she withholds sex until the guy is willing to form an exclusive relationship.
I’m not sure what her thinking is behind this strategy. In this day and age sex is too easy to get for any woman to be using it to reel a guy in like this. Plus, what kind of lasting relationships are built on giving someone an ultimatum and what kind of woman would want a guy who could be manipulated with sex. Heck, what kind of woman would want a guy who could be manipulated by anything?
According to Amy, her requirements for the perfect love match are as follows; the guy must be single, a non-smoker, lives alone, likes animals, has a college degree, takes care of themselves physically, does not live with mother, must be professionally employed, doesn’t own any video games, doesn’t drink beer on a daily basis, doesn’t listen to rap music, doesn’t have bad breath, taller than 5’6″, has to be a morning person, goes to sleep at a reasonable hour, doesn’t watch sports, has a good sense of humor, is above average in looks, heterosexual.
Talk about knowing exactly what you want!! Let’s hope Amy learns the fine art of compromise cause this guy won’t be easy to find. Hopefully she will be able to take into account that bad breath is something we all deal with and can be handled quite easily. Maybe she will even discover that there are some highly intelligent, gainfully employed men out there who never went to college. If she would loosen up a little she might even find that a beer or two a day might go a long way towards relaxing some of those supper high standards she has for the man who is to father all those babies she wants.
I started out watching this show for one reason but will continue to watch it for another. All three of my favorite characters have found themselves in a good position to learn some valuable life lessons. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that at least one will walk away a smarter woman. Maybe not walk away with the man of her dreams but with more to offer him when she finally does meet him. I’ll let you know how it all turns out, or, better yet, tune in and watch for yourself.
