Part 3

The question has come up - what the fuck is the narrative for this reality show? Set aside agendas - i.e., showcase Moirville; reaffirm the platonic lie, make a few bucks since this is the sort of project available to them absent a legitimate sports management team like IMG and since the plug was pulled on the deal with Roots.

When you do a reality show, you have a narrative. Until now, the narrative in reality shows hasn't involved out and out lies. It's about reframing context and selective emphasis and sometimes pretending that something is hanging in the balance when in actuality, a decision has already been made or an alternative was never seriously considered - or totally made up.

The fundamentals are basically true; their presentation is radically skewed. Something not so important becomes hugely important/dramatic in the editing. Something routine becomes dramatized (i.e., how the racehorse Zenyatta's habit of staying in the back til she made her run in the stretch was turned into melodrama in the reality show Jockeys).

IOW, the common denominator among reality shows is the PREMISE is true.

I.e. - this is a family. Here's how it breaks down.

Or - these are jockeys and this is the meet.

Or - here are 24 eligible women and one eligible guy. We're going to put them through a lot of scenarios until he weeds the women down to the two he tells us he likes best.

This Tessa and Scott reality show is different. The premise is a hoax. The fundamentals are lies. It's the equivalent of having 24 happily married moms compete on The Bachelor as single ladies.

But it has a storyline. What the fuck is it?

I think I see a storyline, but it seems to be built on how Scott and Tessa believe they're perceived by fans. Which is = golden children. Everything's easy. All the talent. All the looks. All the luck. Natural chemistry not seen in skating since Gordeeva & Grinkov a generation before.

Tessa. Model gorgeous. Once in a generation talent. Guys drooling over her. An incredible dancer and athlete. Courageous, appetite for risk, all out commitment and an ability to immerse herself in performance at high stakes competitions.

So the story in this "reality show" seems to be - none of that is true.

a. Tessa isn't a golden girl. She's an insecure, absolutely exhausting, dreary, neurotic, whiny drama queen who can't cross the street without a crisis of confidence. She's got no sex drive and low self-esteem. She can't let anything fucking drop and is a complete pill. She's perfectly happy to let Scott cock block anybody who wants to date her because she's hoping that some day Scott will become masochistic enough to get with a girl whose idea of a good time is crying into her cell phone and having twelve meltdowns a day. She trowels on the make-up just to hang out at home in her p.j.'s. Her coach has to coax her like a baby to get her to try anything hard. The second she meets resistance, she crumbles. Everything with her is a chore: "Try the lift." "Noooooo." She's hard work for everyone around her. Also? Incredibly boring. Tedious as hell.

"I find responding. To emails. Heh heh heh heh.
Is really stressing me out."

b. Scott isn't a guy who has loved one woman since he was a child. Scott is the stud of Canton, Michigan, and, needless to say, London, Ontario. He's "hot and heavy" with his "pretty new" relationship, but if that chick has one doubt about his relationship with Tessa, over the side she'll go.

There's plenty more where she came from - plenty of girls are available to Scott Moir. He even decides if OTHER guys can get girls chicks. He's got the body, he's got the package, he's got the booty. Tessa's sweet and all, but Scott's a young guy with all the options, and to be honest, Tessa is a pain in the ass.

Chemistry is natural? Hah! They're numb to each other. They can't feel it. They've been doing this since they were children and they just can't react to each other anymore. The physical indifference has become an obstacle to convincing performance. They need a ballroom dancer to come in and coax them to feel each other up and take them step by step faking it til they make it. It's so freaking DIFFICULT. They STRUGGLE with their chemistry.

At least Scott can relax on weekends in London in his model home (I loved the recapper that called it that - the absolutely depersonalized space with the white plates set on the bare table - I think Scott and Jessica's empty restaurant dates had more versimillitude.)

What does this accomplish? Okay they have to work for everything - give them the gold?

They're actually not appealing personalities? Scott's peurile, patronizing and sexist - a wannabe player, and Tessa is hard work?

I'm pathetic. What if he doesn't show up? I should leave.
5 more minutes. If he doesn't show by then, I'm leaving for sure.
I'm such a loser. Why would Scott Moir even want to have dinner with
someone like me? He can have any woman he wants."

Well you can tell by the way I use my walk I'm a woman's man, no time to talk.

What's new pussycat? Hate to keep a pretty little lady
like yourself waiting.

How could you give your love to someone else
And share your dreams with me
Sometimes the very thing you're looking for
Is the one thing you can't see

But now we're standing face-to-face
Isn't this world a crazy place?
Just when I thought our chance had passed
You go and save the best for last

"Snap OUT of it Tessa! It'll never happen! I'm
just fooling myself!"

The magazine said to try this. Oh God.

"Tessa ..."

"Fuck. I blew it."

"You're embarrassing yourself. I'm sorry."

Also. This reality show suggests that Scott's near-lifelong devotion to and uber-sensitivity about Tessa must have absolutely chapped Moirville's hide, and, over the years, they let Tessa feel it to the extent she's compelled to counterspin the whole thing in this reality show. That is some kind of self-abnegation Tessa is engaged in in this program, and absolutely counter to reality. What was the problem? His family couldn't stand that he was so in love/vulnerable to this woman? It burned their ass? It wasn't manly enough?

Next Part 4 and conclusion.

________________________
Additional thoughts:

After seeing this episode, I hope anyone who bashed Marina when Marina alluded to Tessa's last season confidence problem now understands that when it come to what she says in public, Marina says what her skaters want her to say.

The obvious: Tessa and Scott have a three year old daughter. A female child. A pre-woman. A future "chick", right, Daddy?

In this show, everyone has agreed that this little girl's mother, a woman the Canadian media has held up as a role model, should portray herself as an asexual, pathetic head case so ruthlessly self-critical she's nearly paralyzed. She gets in her own way and taxes the patience of everyone at the rink from her partner to her coach to her technical specialists. She's discouraged before even making the attempt. She lacks the fortitude to even try. She has to be jollied, babied and shamed into doing it. She takes the blame for anything that goes wrong even if it's Scott's mistake.

Off ice, her self esteem is in the toilet. She has no sense of herself as a woman whatsoever. If there's anything attractive about her to men, she's oblivious.

Also off ice, her partner is involved in a "new" relationship that has progressed rapidly to "hot and heavy", so certainly the MAN in this partnership has no confidence issues. In fact, his girlfriend better be secure in herself because if she's not, she can be replaced overnight.

One reason Tessa is socially isolated is because, it is heavily implied, she has an unrequited yearning for Scott. The problem is she's way too irritating for him to see her that way, although he does feel a little sorry for her. He's just not going to give her what she wants - his romantic attention.

He will, however, control who she talks to, who can talk to her, where she can go and with whom, and he'll speak for her while she stands there either mute or giggling. Then he'll get smug about it when he talks to the camera.

So even though he's not romantically involved with Tessa, that doesn't mean he doesn't control her sexually and romantically.

That stuck out so much in that scene with Chris Mior. It was about Scott and Mior while the women sat there fucking mute, like potted plants, waiting for their fates to be decided by Scott fucking Moir.

Then I look at Scott and Tessa's careers. For the past ten years plus - Marina Zoueva. Different co-coaches and specialists, but Marina Zoueva. Igor Shpilband goes away and they stay with Marina Zoueva. Jennifer Swan is one of the authors of the ground-breaking, innovative Carmen program. Maria Mountain - is the revolutionary (literally) trainer who conditions Scott and Tessa to execute their elements. Marnie McBean is one of their mentors. Mary Branagan got Tessa through her battle with CES.

Who runs the ISC? Alma, Carol, Marj.

Are they proud that so many women have made such a strong contribution to their careers? Is Scott proud that he has probably the most talented, courageous, athletic, competitive partner his sport has ever seen? Is Tessa proud of herself in any way, shape or form - about ANYTHING? Is she confident about ANYTHING? Does she have competency about ANYTHING without first being pushed or cajoled?

Apparently not.

They're not proud of all these women. They're ashamed in the face of the public.  It's zero sum to them, apparently. All these women emasculate Scott.

They should look up zero sum. That's not how it works. All these women don't drain Scott's masculinity. It's just talented people working together. It doesn't have to shrink his balls.

But they seem to be ashamed.

So there's another great lesson for their daughter, along with all the other messages, overt and subliminal, she'll grow up experiencing. You can be a strong, accomplished, smart, in-charge, talented woman. Just make sure you act ashamed of it. It's like something out of the fifties where smart women were told to act dumb so they didn't scare away potential husbands.