TV Reality vs The Real World

Lessons I've learned from watching Melrose Place. (1992-1999, Drama)

Favorite quote: "No good deed goes unpunished"

Let's introduce our characters as resembled in the real world.

• The Innocent vs Guilty

• Emotional Manipulators & Naive Lovers

• Money Motivated vs Do-Gooders

• Sex-driven Seductresses & Self-centered Ego Maniacs

• Believers and Non-believers

• Rule Followers & Rule Breakers

*If I forgot anyone, I wasn't trying to be exclusive, I just ran out of names that wouldn't get me ban for being mean or using any of those other impolitically/politically correct terms.

Our characters, a mix of good, bad, and ugly, disguised in beautiful meat suits that are set to define their place on the humanity food chain. The rich and powerful designed to set the rest of the characters world's pace. The higher the status, money and power, there comes a loss of kindness from the soul.

I have come to ascertain, whether on TV or lived, Love & Money are the only two true motivators of life. It also seems a person can only have one or the other as there is no balance of both. If you have both, it is guaranteed you will lose one in the process.

Lesson One - Both love and money will bring out the best and worst in all involved, depending on motive or otherwise known as intent. Love makes people weak and money doesn't care who it has to hurt to stay on top. People will say anything, but how are we to tell the difference between manipulation and truth.

Lesson Two - Money equals power and love equal weakness. Both are dangerous in the wrong hands and power is money that comes at a cost. These two things don't mix well and can push people to do things that go above and beyond the expectations of either good or bad, depending on the size of one's ego.

Lesson Three - Jealousy will destroy you if you let it control you. And jealousy is an ugly face. No matter how much we love someone, we will always be let down. It seems we hold the ones we love to a higher standard than we are willing to go ourselves. And once we are hurt the truest evils arise with intent of revenge and vengeance to cover the blow to our pride, as perceived by the level of hurt.

Lesson Four - Everyone has a price but not everyone can be bought. Those with money are above the law and those that break the law can be freed for the right amount of dough. And with that comes blackmail, which always works when the accused is ashamed of the allegations made, be it against the ego or the soul. If you aren't in the sinners' circle, you will be the one to take the fall.

Lesson Five - We all want what we can't have. Some will take it anyway regardless of ownership and some will walk away with nothing left but a broken heart. The line in between is self-perceived, and we will say anything to save face, whether we mean it or not, even at the expense of someone else's self-preservation.

Lesson Six - Good and bad come in threes. Disguised as a blessing from the Holy Trinity or a lesson from a juicy, love triangle of threesomes that just never seem to work out. Like any good ganster knows, three can keep a secret if two of them are dead. And there is always someone waiting in the shadows to throw dirt on the third person's casket. There are no secrets amongst friends or thieves. Where does that leave the rest of us?

Lesson Seven - If something sounds too good, looks too good or feels too good, there is a 50/50 chance it's rotten inside. Becareful what you wish for, because if you get what you want, there is a good chance it's going to disappoint you.

Lesson Eight - FEAR can make or break a person. We either crack under pressure or become fearless in spite of or because of the narrative. We are all one bad story line away from becoming one or the other.

Lesson Nine - Healing from the violences of the world is a long, lonely journey of one. No one is perfect, but at the same time I personally cannot comprehend the level of evil others are capable of, be it on TV or in real life. Is it true that people can really be so cruel. It must be because there is so much hate taking place every day.

And finally,

Lesson Ten - Lies are always easier to hear than listening to the truth. Every, damn, time. But the moral is, the truth will always come out in the end; after everyone involved has already gotten hurt. Only then will it be clear if the motive was love or money; and if the story ends with life or death. Because love and money determine the human states of morality and mortality.

How far can one person's kindness be pushed before we become the very things we despise in others? I'm beginning to think that TV and Life have a lot more in common than we would like to admit. We must remember every storyline is written between layers of someone's reality; just some are silenced and others are given a voice.

Who will decide the truth in your story? I sure hope it's you.