Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Infertility TV, take 2

I was going to share the details of my latest visit with the evil HMO, but then I came across a couple of mentions of this new genre of television programming currently in development and got distracted.

Apparently, there are two programs currently in development - one for UPN (I think) that seems to be untitled and lacking in details, and the other at NBC, called Inconceivable.


The drama is a soap and a franchise set at a high-end fertility clinic, where a team of doctors and other specialists assist clients who cannot conceive children through traditional methods. The storyline explores the moral and ethical gray areas where science pushes the boundaries of law and where doctors are put into positions that some might say involve "playing God." But to the young couple who couldn't before conceive a child and now hold their newborn baby in their arms, those same doctors are merely heroes.


Excuse me while I gag.

Okay, now that I’m back. I’m not sure what I think of this whole idea - it could be a good publicity move for infertiles everywhere, or it could be as nauseating as the above description (which I culled from a random, and not necessarily fully legitimate source).

I’m imagining the possible storylines now:


  • The fat, bitter, infertile comes to the hotshot clinic in grubby sweatpants, with unwashed hair and a chocolate bar in each hand, and emerges thin but for her perfect pregnant belly. (Sounds like the Extreme Makeover - Infertile Edition I suggested over at Within the Woods. Or, as Amy suggested we call it, Pimp my Ute.)
  • The movie star who is not having IVF, no way, twins just run in the family. Got a problem with that? Talk to the “very attractive attorney” who founded the fertility clinic after leaving law because “her humanity became a liability.” Mmm, okay.


Maybe they’ll do a little shout-out to the infertile army, the barren bitch brigade, the obnoxious among us who will watch this while snickering about the inaccuracies, much as I imagine doctors do during ER, lawyers during Law and Order, and scientists during CSI.

Speaking of CSI, though, I wonder about the possibilities of a boom in the business of infertility as a result of the publicity. How many kids wanted to be forensic scientists before CSI? Now they can all aspire to be infertile bitches infertility doctors.

Things they may already have done accurately:

1. The character of the main fertility doctor is described as “Charming, handsome, incredibly smart, and ruthlessly ambitious, this renowned specialist has a well-earned God complex. Ethically ambiguous, but a lovable rogue. Has personalized license plate: ‘BABYMAKER.’ [Um, that’s more letters than would usually fit on a license plate. I guess they make extra-extra-special plates for the Gods among us.] Likes to Google himself.[Who doesn't?]

2. It’s hard to find concrete information about the show. What is out there is self-congratulatory but not particularly informative, and you have to click around a lot gathering information to get a good sense of things -- just like trying to get information from a fertility clinic.

Thoughts?

3 comments:

  1. Heck, as tacky as it sounds, if they'd pay for my IVF, I'd be on it in a heartbeat! Sad, huh?

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  2. I am screaming on the inside. Since when did something as painful as infertility become fashionable fodder as 'drama' in t.v. land? Answer: To asswipes who can't possibly know how horrible this feels. So, if that's the case, infertility is 'fashionable' and 'now', then who among those jerks wants to be the first to know how it really feels first hand (and I don't mean infertile because it takes someone a couple of months to get pregnant but really infertile like me who is infertile by infertile standards)? What? No takers? That's what I thought. Makes.me.want.to.smack.my.head.against.the.wall.and.scream.

    Arrggh!

    Emily

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