Woman of a certain age

My mom loves the show Men of a Certain Age. I say love because she says love like she says love for all the 50-something shows taking up 110 hours on her DVR at this moment. Hence, it is really of no consequence that my mother "loves" this show and that is not what this post is about. It's not about me loving it either. I think it's OK.

This post is about the gorgeous woman to the left. Actually, it is more about the character she plays. Melissa, portrayed by Lisa Gay Hamilton (awesome that there is another actress besides Marcia Gay Harden with the middle name of Gay), is a stay-at-home mom of two and wife to a car salesman. Aside from her cuteness and her familiar face (I figured it out, she used to be on The Practice, which I MISS), I never really paid too much attention to the character, which is actually what was intended from what I've read of Hamilton's interviews. However, the last episode I saw brought her careening to the forefront, for me personally at least.

After ten years as a stay-at-home mom, Melissa is re-entering the workforce, a concept itself which deserves to be examined more in mainstream television. It's also a concept I often think of as a newlywed who is looking down the barrel of motherhood in the distant yet not-so-distant future. What really made me feel like the producers at TNT were spying my dreams/nightmares was that Melissa was a writer, one who felt she should just tell potential employers that she was in jail for the last decade since it would sound sexier than "just being a mom."

As Melissa reflected in disbelief that she spent six hours on Craig's List only to land a single interview for a vegetarian magazine, and was even EXCITED about it, it was like I was reliving the last two years of my life as a post-grad while getting a fast-forward view of my life in 13, 14, 15 years.

What I loved most about this episode was not the foray into the life of a writer/mom itself, but the way it made me feel, which was no longer scared. It made me understand that the struggle you go through to make your name after college can feel the most desperate and miserable because you have nothing yet to show for your life up to that point besides a piece of paper, which promised you a job that you can't find. But Melissa, she had two kids, a big house, a husband with a nice ass. The struggle the second time around will be just as hard, if not harder. Yet I don't think it will come as close to breaking me as the first time around did.

Anyway, I love this show now. But I'm still saying love like my mom says love. My DVR is full, too.