TV and Me and Who I'd Like to Be
Admittedly, I am extremely fascinated with television. All kinds of TV. I'm not ashamed, and I don't try to hide my addiction. Granted, not every show on TV is something I watch, or would recommend. But in general, I'm able to consume a surprising amount of television, still allowing for plenty of time away from TV, and I'm not even ashamed to say I include some of the shows that are sub-par in my viewing repertoire.

It's an appreciation for television as a whole. And like many things, with the good comes the oh so very bad.

I was reading an article earlier today and was struck with the idea of who on TV I would most like to be. Out of all the shows I watch, or have watched in the history of my eyes being open and pointed towards a television set, if I could be one person or character for a day, who would it be?

There are many, many people to pick from. I can't even remember all of my favorites throughout the years, and believe me there have been many. When I was much younger, I wanted to be one of the Ingalls girls from Little House on the Prairie. I never decided which one I wanted to be, and I think I actually imagined myself in the scenario of being adopted into the family so that I could hang out with both sisters, much like they adopted drug-addicted Albert. I'm not sure why I found such a hard-working, rustic life to be appealing, but I wanted to be in that family. Pa Ingalls was like a superhero dad, strong and handsome, always helping everyone in the town. The kids got to run freely through fields and woods and ponds, riding horses and being outdoors-y. Sure, the girls had to wear the same dress everyday. But I figured I could find a way around that. The dress was the least of my worries.

Now that I'm much older and wiser, I feel I have a more sensible approach to which television personality I would like to be today. There are a lot of good possibilities. My first thought was to be Buffy, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Sure, she has to fight vampires at night, constantly risking her life to save the world. But then again, she is an actual superhero disguised as a normal girl with fun friends and good clothes and witty banter. She doesn't often slay demons in a dress, so that's a perk. But of course, she does die a couple of times, only to come back slightly 'off'. So maybe Buffy isn't such a good idea.

Then I thought I would like to be one of the Friends gang. Everyone likes Friends, and who wouldn't want to be a part of that group? So which one would I be? Possibly Chandler, if Chandler was a girl. He's the best Friend, by far. He and I are a lot alike, very sarcastic and funny and weirdly neurotic. Of course, I don't have a superfluous third nipple, as he did. And Chandler actually isn't a girl. So to keep my imaginary game more realistic, I couldn't be Chandler. I love the other Friends, but I'm not sure I could commit to being any one of them.

So, if I consider the broad range of everything that I watch on television, and excluding all reality TV, since technically it's not really much of a game to choose to be someone as regular as I am anyway, there is really only one true answer to the question of who I want to be on TV.

Hands down, it's Sydney Bristow from Alias.

Sydney is not technically a superhero, but she might as well be one. She's amazing. She's a spy, she can get out of any tough situation, she's brilliant, and she can kick just about anyone's butt. Not to mention, she's hot. And I'd like to be that hot.

The great thing about Sydney is that she's human. We see her struggle, cry, laugh, and deal with her bizarre life in realistic ways. Of course, her reality involves guns and bombs and secret codes and flying all over the world like there's no such thing as a time zone or jet lag. But still, she's very real about it. She can come home from a long day of flying back and forth to Moscow to rescue some secret documents from a highly guarded prison, having to navigate through dark tunnels and blind passageways while in disguise as a Russian soldier, then relax on the couch with a beer and a book. No big deal.

Plus, she gets to hang out with possibly the coolest dad ever, even surpassing Pa Ingalls. Her dad is smart, cunning, and while he hasn't always been upfront with Sydney or his intentions in manipulating certain events and people, he looks great in a suit and can also kick butt when you least expect it. Her mom is also a super-cool, possibly evil spy. There's just lots of spy hi-jinx going on in that family. Something we all yearn for at one time or another, right?

And as if that isn't enough, there's Vaughn and Will. Two of the studliest friends a girl could ask for. Sure, Vaughn is married to someone else now, and Will is in Witness Protection. But that's all just part of Sydney's whirlwind life. She'll find a way to make it work.

Because she's Sydney Bristow.

And that's who I'd want to be.

C.T.