Forward Thinking: Living with the reality of TV

Bronwyn Turei as Cody and Jay Ryan as Kevin in Go Girls. Photo / Supplied

Reality is talking - over coffee, wine and roast dinners - far more than doing. GAH. It's time to see myself reflected in my television again.

There I am, with my closest gal pals - and a guy or two - having crossed the existential crisis hump of our "mid-20s" and sliding towards the black hole that is the big 3-0. We're debating the minutiae of each other's relationships, lounging about on each other's couches and toasting each other's pipe dreams. We talk and talk and talk and talk, forgetting, momentarily, all those other friends who are overseas, indulging their personal growth. We seem content enough with our suburban/inner city lives, and with living each other's suburban/inner city lives.

We meet for coffee. We meet for drinks. We sit on the beach.

I don't live on the North Shore and I have six close friends left in New Zealand rather than four, and I don't have seven spare evenings per week to go to my local and spill gossip over cocktails, but otherwise, TV2's Go Girls pretty much mirrors my life. I'm of the same age, same city, same sort-of lifestyle.

Just last week I went to a pot-luck dinner with my girlfriends - and one boy, the Kev of the group. The Britta insisted we went around the table and reflected on where we hoped 2011 would take us. I thought it was a totally naff idea and got the giggles until I realised it was just like being on Go Girls, especially as we just happened to be in a modern house on the Shore. Then I was totally into it. So we drank wine and laid down our plans. And clinked our glasses. And then kind of forgot about them.

But this week, being the first episode of season three, I feel like the TV show has tracked me down and forced me to do a bit of self-assessment once again.

How far have I, and the Go Girls, come since 2009?

Over the past three years Cody's done the marriage thing, Britta's found love, Brad's divorced and found new love, Kev's bought a business, Olivia's attempted to rebuild bridges, then pashed Kev ... and Amy's travelled the world with her German lover.

Me? I'm pretty much doing the same thing. Other than moving back home "temporarily", taking up yoga and striving for an earlier bedtime. But I'm okay with that because, as far as I can tell, Britta still lives at home and Cody's still wearing the same Easy Tune uniform. And Britta still hasn't found a job, while Brad is still trying to find his calling. And Kevin still hasn't had a normal girlfriend ... or been able to hold down a normal girlfriend, I should say, after watching this week's episode.

Thank goodness for Go Girls giving us 20-somethings five characters we can actually compare ourselves to (six with Amy, but let's face it, a brainy model-esque lass doing humanitarian work with her German boyfriend in Africa? She's not your average woman). It can't be an easy task to keep the series alive - and not only that, but gripping - for three seasons, as rather privileged 20-somethings who are not really career-oriented can't be the easiest demographic to reflect on the telly. The fact that none have particularly exhilarating jobs rules out any kind of workplace drama, like solving murder mysteries or saving lives in hospitals or trying to juggle a work-life balance, or trying to resist having affairs with colleagues. You can't send a vampire to the local high school to mix things up, they're a bit old for love triangles, and no one believes in aliens, so there's no call for any kind of brain-burning mystery.

They are at an age when reality is talking - over coffee, wine and roast dinners - far more than doing, and when the only real threat to the equilibrium is the existential crisis, which, to keep the drama rolling - and the series going - bites them every episode. Usually over drinks. Clink. Gulp. Gone.

-TimeOut