Age of Love

I am a television addict. I subsribe to virtually every network known to man. It's shameful and slowly as my shows run their courses I've been very careful not to add replacement addictions. But I think I may have slipped.

Age of Love is a dating game show where a bevy of women vie for the affections of a thirty-year-old piece of man candy. The twist is that the women are divided into two teams. One team is staffed with women in their twenties, the other with women in their forties.

Now, let there be no doubt that not one of these women is a natural beauty. There is more collagen, botox and silicone on display than actual human flesh. The difference is that the forty-something women are FABULOUS and the twenty-something women are...fresh. Unspoiled. Unmarked. Hermetically sealed.

Of course the man candy can't decide. On the surface the older women are well-enough preserved that their appearance really isn't an issue, so for him age isn't an issue. Of course, he doesn't realize that these women with a year or two under their belts bring some life to the party, some experience and that's why he seems to prefer them. Somewhere deep inside you can almost here the little voice telling him that he's supposed to prefer the younger women.

However, there is one in particular who just took my breath away. Maria, age 42 realized that she had a little bit more dignity than required to truly compete. She decided that she wasn't interested in the meat puppet and planned to announce during the elimination round that she was eliminating herself. When she was called up by the generic stud, she turned the tables. After he professed his fascination with her and how he hoped she'd stick around so he could get to know her, she stunned everyone by telling him that he'd better step it up and give her a reason to stick around. She told him she just wasn't feeling it, and while she thought there might be some potential she wasn't sure he'd proven himself to her. The rest of the women, who had believed that Maria was going to self-select out just stood there slack jawed, as did our dreamy hunk. He stammered that she was right and he promised to step it up and prove to her that he was worth sticking around for. Then she turned on her heel and paraded past the seething older women and boggled girl-women.

I love Maria! And I hate Maria. Now I have another television addiction.