Masked Mom's Media Monday: My Fair Brady: We're Getting Married

As is required by law in the United States, I have seen every single episode of The Brady Bunch at least once--some of them I've probably seen ten or twelve times but there's no way of knowing since I don't remember the first time I saw any of them. I just know that around the age of eight or nine, I realized there was never an episode on that I hadn't already seen.

I wasn't exactly a Brady Bunch fan--it was on TV, the TV was on and I was in front of it--often with a book or notebook open on my lap. It was harmless, the lesser of any number of after school TV evils (Woody Woodpecker Hour or Dialing For Dollars Movie, anyone?)

I feel sort of the same way about My Fair Brady: We're Getting Married, the reality TV show covering the engagement and wedding of Adrianne Curry and Christopher Knight (a.k.a. Peter Brady). I've never watched it on purpose--just caught a snippet here or there while aimlessly channel surfing. In great Brady tradition, all of the episodes have a mindless--and somehow comforting--similarity to one another. There is, however, considerably more screeching, door-slamming, tear-shedding and alcohol consuming than on your average episode of The Brady Bunch. (There's practically as much of those things as on your average episode of The Sopranos, but without all the mafia intrigue to spice things up.)

Anyway, this weekend, I watched the episode in which Chris and Adrianne, at long last, got married. Like everything else this couple has done--they met and fell in love on The Surreal Life, just for starters--the wedding and reception were loud, expensive and very, very public.

There was much bickering about inane details--the kind of bickering that, as a flower shop manager, I am regularly witness to. I have seen couples, both in my job and in my personal life, who have their very first argument over wedding details, leading me to my belief (which I've shared with a number of overwhelmed brides and their stressed out attendants) that a wedding is a terrible way to start a marriage.

Of course, this isn't your average couple and all the squabbling over the wedding was only a natural--and almost romantic--extension of their mostly charming everyday dysfunction. The wedding was actually a perfect reflection of their relationship, but still, I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief as Chris and Adrianne drove away in their decked out limo (one window read: "I bagged my Brady!").

Masked Mom's One-Word Review: Romantic (in a morbidly fascinating train wreck kinda way).