Happy

I haven't been in love with a TV show for a long time. How I Met Your Mother doesn't count.

My new show is POBian. My Mum's friend gave us DVDs of the whole serial.

At first I thought I only liked it because it showed modern POB but now I just love the characters and storylines and the subtle humour typical of POB. (I hate shows that scream out every joke, "Look, this is funny!" which is pretty much every American show.)

This show is actually a POBian version of another country's popular show, but it's very culturally POBian.

It's about a young unattractive woman who's always been sheltered from everything and even though she's smart and kind, she's lonely. However, her intelligence and innocence and goodwill slowly starts to win people over.

The show has all the feel-good themes - friendship, family, love. It also shows sadness, frustration, unfairness and the monotony that a person can live in. Best of all, it doesn't rely on cliche plots. Romantic tension is dealt with in a realistic way and doesn't overpower the storyline.

It's also unpredictable. For example, a beauty makeover of the main character done to impress the man she likes didn't make him even bat an eyelash because in real life, unattractive people don't become beautiful just by changing their hairstyle and adding make-up.

Also, even though the main character is obviously far from a stereotypical beauty, I can't help but notice how pretty she is just because of her personality. The credit for this of course should be given to the actress who plays her. She's just so real, it's hard to believe that the character isn't a living person. (The character actually looks SO much like Nadine, it's really freaky.)

Having the whole series on DVDs is also great because I don't have to wait a week between each episode.

I had a look at the website of the American version of the series and judging by the description, they changed the plot completely to make it superficial and hollywood-like. Typical.

So I'll be enjoying my new favourite show now.