"I Know What We're Going to do Today"

Does anyone watch the kids’ cartoon, Phineas  and Ferb? To understand what I am about to say, you must watch at least a couple of episodes, not a difficult task because these guys are pretty funny. The brothers, imaginative inventors of all things impossible, meet each adventure head on. They share the show with parents, friends, a pet platypus/secret agent, a benignly evil villain, and a sister.

It’s the sister, her boyfriend and their relationship that fascinate me. Candace is, to say the least, high strung. She lovable but insecure, her insecurities arising from the fact that no matter how hard she tries, her parents are oblivious to her  brothers’ escapades.  She is obsessed, can’t get them out of her mind, and coincidentally (as is the nature of cartoons) they are always right there in her face. She wants to “bust” them, expose them mainly to her ever-distracted mom, get them in trouble and mostly prove that she isn’t crazy for seeing the things that she sees.

She is a little bit loud, a little bit full of herself, but she is also a caregiver. She worries about her brothers and doesn’t want them to meet with the disaster they always seem to be headed for. She cares about her friends who are constantly trying keep her calm in the face of her many crisis. No one can call Candace irresponsible. She’s a little high maintenance but mostly she’s a kind, caring and deeply concerned young lady. I love Candace, I love her cranky/sweet nature and I love her vulnerability.

And then there is Jeremy, Candace’s boyfriend. Too good to be true Jeremy. He is the anchor in Candace’s stormy life, a voice of reason, her soft place to fall. In Candace’s words, Jeremy is perfect. He stays with her regardless of her paranoia and the predicaments she gets into. He likes her for who she is. He’s proud of her, but most of the time doesn’t understand what all the flap and fuss is about. Candace feels insecure as she tries to have deep and meaningful conversations with him but he drives her to distraction with his calm acceptance of almost everything. Certainly Jeremy must have faults, but the only obvious one is his stereotypical male nature.

Episode after episode, Phineas and Ferb do something totally impossible, Candace tries to stop them, the scheme comes to an end before she can involve her mom and their lives go on. So why am I writing about this? Darned if I know.