The problem is the show we want to be on and the one we want to watch are two completely different shows.
The show we want to be on is a romantic comedy, the one where missed connections and happenstance lead to weddings and babies and new jobs. We already know the ending before it starts: the good characters win what they deserve, the city comes together holding candles and singing anthems… These shows make us feel good, which (I’ll go ahead and make the leap) is the kind of life we all want to live, yet this is also the most openly made-fun-of genre of movies there is.
The show we want to watch, the one we put our attention on, is a very different story. In fact, there’s rarely any story, more like a menagerie of train wrecks and red faces. It’s more about finding strong personalities and letting them launch into each other repeatedly, watching people throw other people into pools and then laugh the star-quality laugh of a winner as others weep their way off the show.
We call the first type of show fantasy and the second one reality.
That says a lot.