Welcome back to this important and necessary series where I watch classic lesbian movies that somehow everyone has seen but me. Our last movie was Elena Undone, a movie that provoked a lot of questions that ultimately went unanswered by Nicole Conn even though I marked all 41 of them. Seems rude, but okay.
For my next movie, I asked the editors what to watch. Riese suggested Room in Rome, but I informed her that I’d seen it and also that it scared me, and asked that we never speak of it again. “Bloomington is like Loving Annabelle but somehow even worse,” she then said before informing me that she was convinced it took place in one condo and one condo alone. Chilling.
Bloomington, I found out, does not take place solely in a condo, but it does take place in a world where subtlety is not a concept that exists. It sits in the palm of a heavy hand, proudly displaying the most transparent depiction of mommy issues I have ever seen. Come, join me, Professor Stark, and Student Jackie on this road to… love?
The opening credits in this film are going for a very Sunday afternoon stroll, I’ll say that much. We’re getting lifeless shots of “general town” and “someone getting ready for travel” and the pacing is killing me. I’m already ready to bail. (Truth be told it took me three separate attempts at getting past the credits alone.) Oh, the director of photography for this movie is George Feucht. “Feucht” is a great name to chant over and over in that way where you sort of lower your voice like a bark, which is something I would do if I was ever on set with him until he undoubtedly would quit. FEUCHT.
We meet Jackie, the famous actor turned regular college student, going over her first semester course load with an academic advisor. Notice her looking at the Entertainment Magazine next to her. What a juxtaposition of current priorities.
For orientation, Jackie is shown to her (single unit!) room by another student who is at first very nice and offers to help set up Jackie’s phone should she need it, but then very abruptly changes gears and is like, “No one ever gets their own room as a freshman,” with the air of an end-of-the-movie flashback that highlights the small detail that we the audience missed at the beginning that upon closer inspection reveals it was the unsuspecting person responsible for all the horrible acts committed.
Jackie has her first interaction with other students at a psych study group. Here we learn about a Professor Stark. “She sleeps with her students.” Not the kind you might think, though – the girl ones. “I heard she’s a vampire.” Someone in the group says “cool it with the homophobia” and based off the vampire comment and the decision by filmmakers to make Stark a professor of abnormal psych, I agree.
Jackie calls home after her first day of classes, and this is the face of someone who’s just been hung up on by their mother not out of anger but inconvenience. Ouch. Hopefully this doesn’t lead to a loaded relationship to older female authority figures.
Speaking of older female authority figures, we next meet Professor Stark. Her eyes are what could be described as “extremely threatening.”
Confirming this for me, the first time Professor Stark meets Jackie in her office she starts talking about her ECT machine, or her electro-convulsive therapy machine. “It shocks people,” Stark says. Jackie wonders aloud why anyone would do that and Stark says, with total calmness, “It’s a form of treatment.”
Professor Stark doesn’t get any less terrifying when she later fills in for another professor’s psychology class and writes her name on the board with the stroke equivalent of stabbing. Jackie happens to be in this class, as do her new psychology study group friends, and Professor Stark flusters one of these new friends by asking where the class last left off. The new friend absolutely blows it and after the interaction calls Stark a “freaking vampire lesbo.” YOU RANG.
LMAO, Professor Stark is really in a constant state of putting out a Single White Female vibe. Here, we’re at a mixer for the psychology department that includes both professors and students, which is apparently a thing that happens. Jackie spots Stark and is intrigued.
Some time later Jackie and Stark meet in a rock quarry? There they formally introduce, and Stark says about Jackie, “Ah, the famous one.” Then Jackie says, “So are you, from what I hear,” and within 30 seconds of pretending not to know what Jackie is talking about, Professor Stark does this:
OKAY! Someone help this poor girl and her single braid. Just so everyone’s aware, we are not even 15 minutes into this movie. Where does this movie go from here? Isn’t this what you build up to? What is exposition? Now Stark asks Jackie back to her place.
When they arrive at Stark’s place, they immediately go upstairs to Stark’s room. Hahaha, what is this, day one at school? Jackie looks extremely uncomfortable and has a face that is verging on terrified, but it’s okay because Stark has asked if Jackie’s okay and follows up with a, “You sure?” See? Everything’s fine. Now they’re going to have sex and Stark says, “Don’t forget to breathe. Good girl.” A-YIKE.
The next day or weeks later, it’s hard to tell, Jackie calls Stark. Stark’s like, “Heyyyy, I’m on my work phone in my office as a professor at this school, just making sure out loud and in earshot of my co-workers that you’re okay about what happened between us sexually and that the line that I just crossed/poured gasoline on and then lit it on fire was okay with you?” Before Jackie can really process this Stark asks her over for dinner.
Continuing this Downhill Barrel Roll of Inappropriates, the first thing Stark does when Jackie shows up to her home (in the middle of the day?) is offer her a drink. Do we even know if Jackie’s 21? Stark says, “You always look so scared when you’re here,” and I can’t imagine why.
Oh hell yeah, now “32 Flavors” by Ani DiFranco is playing, so you know what that means: now all these two do is spend their time in Stark’s house having sex and making dinner.
This is an interesting cutting set up – knife choice, hand placement, cutting form, etc. All looks good and normal, like an adult who’s done this many times before and not like a child who’s never been made to cook and has no idea how to. While cutting in a way that makes me worry if this scene will end in an emergency room visit, Jackie talks about her relationship with her mother, which she explains is nonexistent. What’s interesting about this is even though earlier in day Stark was able to parse out Jackie’s drink of choice (scotch, per her father) based on presumed relationships with peers and authority figures as a child star, the dynamic that is being played out here is somehow not being brought up at all.
Jackie goes home to visit her mother and extended family and it doesn’t go well. Jackie’s mom feels attacked by Jackie during dinner and decides to take her outside to scold and slap her. COLD WORLD.
LITERALLY the next thing we see after Jackie’s mom walks away is Jackie being held by/crying into a very “There, there, sweet girl”-positioned Stark. WE GET ITITITITITITITITIT. Stark says, “I’m glad you called, Porcupine. I missed you.” Normal lover stuff.
You know what? It’s fine. I’m fine with this now. Why not? Clearly we’re not operating in the real world. Like this? This scene where Stark is washing Jackie in the bathtub? That’s fine! (I tried to email this picture and was hit with Gmail’s “Something’s not right” when trying to attach it and I was like… I know.) This is so blatant it’s a parody now. So, let’s go, let’s get to the scene where Stark sends Jackie off to school with a snack of Ants On A Log and let’s call it a wrap.
Jackie’s in the running for a scholarship and the only thing that stands between her and a bunch of money – that she already has as an actor fresh off a very popular television show and doesn’t necessarily need but hey why not take it from your peers just for the hell of it – is an essay. Stark, who works at the facility from which Jackie would be receiving this scholarship and who would therefore have a conflict of interest in helping one particular student, is helping Jackie with the essay. The approach: perception vs. reality. Give them what they THINK they want, not you.
Now we’re talking about the reversal of self-denial in the library. External circumstances paralleling self-imposed restrictions and the combination’s ability to inspire a new behavior. The conversation we all know and love. Jackie seems confused, so Stark explains it like this: you know how you’re quiet during sex when you don’t have to be in my home – the home where I, a professor, bring you, as my student? Well now that we’re in a public library, and you have to be quiet…
Look, I’m not saying these are terrible set ups. But if this movie is a vehicle for a particular kind of fantasy, maybe don’t have background music that sounds like it belongs on Wishbone, the PBS live-action children’s series starring a Jack Russell terrier. It’s really unsettling to hear someone on screen say, “Hold onto the desk,” while undoing someone’s pants and it being scored by the entirety of the wind instruments along with like a mischievous pluck of a violin.
Now it’s Stark’s turn to be psychoanalyzed. 50 shades of heyyyyy.
Stark’s afraid of flying so Jackie wants to try some exposure therapy by taking her to her airplane hanger. I really hope that scholarship comes through. Jackie can apparently fly a plane and so she takes a hesitant Stark on a ride. Stark is so moved that on their return home she tells Jackie she loves her in bed, but oh no, Jackie’s asleep.
Jackie gets a call from her agent who tells her they’re rebooting the series that launched her into stardom and that the producers want her back. Or, at least to audition, which like, ouch. It’ll be quick and easy, her agent says, just a couple days over Christmas break.
Mom’s made dinner. “Kind of quiet today, porcupine,” Stark says. Oh, just school stuff, mom. They discuss Jackie’s decision to maybe audition for the role that would require her to leave for L.A., and Stark seems pressed about it. Jackie’s like…
Hmmm, sort of seems like you’d want me to thrive but I guess there are more snakes in the grass than I previously thought.
Test shoot time with the hot new actor around town that I thought was Ben from Parks and Rec. Jackie’s found her acting groove again.
Good to know this kind of thing still delights me as an adult. Look at the compartments in that thing. Jackie is reminiscing (crying) about all her old TV memories.
Wow this movie has really gone flat, much like this review. It feels like the past 30 minutes has just been someone alone in a room on a phone. This movie should be called AT&T Wireless: Unlimited Rollover Minutes.
It’s confirmed that Jackie’s gotten the part of the new/exact same role she played before, so now that she’s back in “the biz” we’re at an industry party. Here, Stark is introduced as Jackie’s “friend from college.” That is literally what half of my girlfriends have been called by family, so, same. Stark is very pleased about this as you can see from the picture above.
Stark is even more excited when she learns Jackie will have a romantic storyline with her co-star who has an IRL crush on her. When the huffing Stark’s doing prompts Jackie to ask if she’s really upset about it, Stark says, “Why would I be mad, Jacqueline?” You know, how some people in our lives use our full name when they are upset at/disappointed in us, although it’s hard to tell, really, which certain people I’m talking about?
After the party, Jackie and Stark start to fight about whether or not they’re a couple and about how they’d even make a long distance, closeted relationship work. Stark ends the conversation by saying, “Maybe I just don’t think you’re worth it.” I love cinema.
Jackie decides to give school another whirl and shows up for a random psych study group. When she enters the room someone immediately says, “You still go here?” and for the first time in this movie I laugh out loud. One of the girls in the study group accuses Jackie of coasting by on her fame and the perks of banging their teacher, which are both true, so like, what do you do?
APPARENTLY YOU SLAP THE GIRL THAT SAYS IT AND THEN SHE PUNCHES THE SIDE OF YOUR HEAD IN RETALIATION?!?!
Jackie shows up with a shiner to Stark’s house. Momma’s gonna make it better. Then paparazzi show up and Stark’s like:
After deciding that getting buck in study hall wasn’t the best way to handle their situation, Stark and Jackie bicker about Stark going to a party without Jackie and with another date. “You can stay the night, you know how to work the TV downstairs,” Stark says, failing to mention the pizza money she’s left for Jackie on the counter.
The jabs that their fights have incorporated have grown increasingly below the belt. Jackie reduces Stark’s existence to a leech on her parent’s inheritance and then we have Stark handing Jackie a Kleenex (not sponsored) box before leaving for the party and telling Jackie not to make a mess while jerking off to watching herself on the television. Some might say this is… very unhealthy.
Mom’s home from her party with her date. Stark instructs her date upstairs while Jackie watches TV on the couch. “Make sure you shut off the TV when you finish watching your cartoons, okay?” Y’all.
As revenge Jackie goes to a college party with a boy from study group. It goes exactly as planned, with Jackie gathering her clothes as she sneaks out of his dorm room in the middle of the night.
In the following days, Stark has a little bit of a break down during class and is literally talking through tears as people walk out of her classroom and take pictures of her on their flip phones. Everyone knows about the relationship between her and Jackie and – even though they’ve known Stark stays sleeping with her students – suddenly everyone’s mad about it?
Surprising no one, in the absence of Stark is the arrival of Jackie’s actual mom to pick up the pieces. Naturally everything goes very well and is worked out in the span of a dorm visit. JK.
During the aftermath montage is another Ani DiFranco song. I hope that when I’m in the tides of change I, too, will be lucky enough to be ushered into my new life by “Overlap.” Jackie is on her press tour and Stark is receiving her long-overdue firing. Jackie’s also leaving school, but not before running into Stark in the library. One last time?
One last time. However, they know it won’t work and say goodbye. Later, Jackie gets interviewed on campus while Stark watches from a window.
“I’ll never forget this place where I used my classroom as a dating pool,” Stark probably thinks. Then Jackie contemplatively looks up at the window where Stark’s office sits, like there she was, my professor who cornered me on my first day.
Ahahahaha, that’s it. That’s the movie. Nothing’s resolved and the Pandora’s box of issues that was opened in this relationship hasn’t been acknowledged by either party. Also, can anyone tell me why everything in this movie happened in the middle of the day? Look at the lighting in all of these pictures and tell me that the position of the sun is anywhere past 4pm. Bath time? Middle of the day. Drinks? Middle of the day. Dinner? Middle of the day.
Go to bed, everybody who made this movie, at night. Y’all are wild for this one.
i feel attacked
nani i am right here with you like i feel so kink shamed
LOLOLOLOL
love to my mommy fans
My freshman year of college I had a visiting professor that everyone theorized was a lesbian vampire. But instead of blood she drank TAB cola, which she made us all try after we questioned this bizarre life choice.
I just need to register my excitement at seeing this post, because Bloomington is my #1 hated lesbian film of all time (!!!)
However I’m at work so I will save reading it and the inevitable FULL FORCE of my FEELINGS until later. Also, I look forward to seeing whether my conclusion about the crux of this film’s problems matches Erin’s.
!!!
This sounds awful but I’m mostly disappointed it doesn’t have a proper ending. I guess I will go watch the classic Better Than Chocolate.
I really thought I had seen this movie, but further into the recap I realized I was thinking of a different movie where a professor seduces her student – and I know I’ve seen at least two of those. So are there three with that trope? Probably. That says something weird about our community, or something.
same! i was thinking of cracks starring eva green, which is a lesser known but equally disturbing film with a teacher/student situation, and erin–maybe your next recap? it’s hideous you’ll love it
Wow, I’ve never seen Cracks. I think I need to. I love Eva Green. I think one of the ones I’ve seen was Loving Annabelle, which I watched with my wife, and we were horrified at the sexual harassment suit waiting to happen. There was another, but I can’t remember. I’ll have to look at my Netflix queue; I think we found it there.
I almost hated Eva Green because of Cracks! Really! The movie is so outrageous and abnoxious that I have no further words to describe how much I (still) hate it!
Not during this whole review, just during that scene at the awkward party where Stark was her “friend from college”, I was picturing Ned Stark from Game of Thrones. It was nice.
I watched most of the films you’re reviewing – including this one – as a queer-content-hungry fourteen-year-old, believing every one of them to be a true masterpiece and feeling utterly grateful for my being alive at the same time as this Art existed in the world.
Having recently turned the ripe age of 20, I feel like it is time for me to shed my comfortable but deceptive blanket of teenage naiveté and face the cold, hard truth – one Erin review at a time.
may you ever be content hungry
Honestly, who needed this movie?
feucht
This is the most important series I have ever read, or may ever read.
“You know, how some people in our lives use our full name when they are upset at/disappointed in us, although it’s hard to tell, really, which certain people I’m talking about?”
Please never stop.
Erin,
If you ever start a religion, I am so there.
I will sway to your gospel.
I will swoon to the power of your wit.
Rapture.
Erin, start a religion! Think of the taxes you won’t pay!
good looking out carmen!
my kittens
I get so annoyed when people call me by my whole name for this very reason….
i never will!!!
“feucht” is the German word for “moist” btw, thought you might like that information :D
I had a friend once describe this movie as “a sexual harassment lawsuit with the cinematography of a Hallmark commercial” and looking at the weirdly lit screen shots, I’d say that sounds pretty apt.
honestly yr writing is always genius but these screenshots? the punching one? wow
i saw the devil in these pauses
I was about 16 when this movie came out and it made me so Mommi thirsty that I didn’t even know what to do with myself. Just kidding. I knew exactly what to do with myself, which involved spending a lot of time alone in my room with the door locked, hahaha. Bloomington is glorified cinematic pwp.
just with worse music!
i forgot what a f***ing MASTERpiece this was omg
You should watch Loving Annabelle next for some good old comparing and contrasting. I can’t believe this was made in 2010 and not 1997 as the screenshots suggest.
These movies want to inspire what Carol inspires but fail so terribly that they’re a threat to Mommi’s entire appeal.
May I just again and again and a thousand times over recommend “Mädchen in Uniform” after which’s image these terrible films have been molded?
This was made in 2010??!!! LOL LOL LOL LOLLLLLL
? just reading this review made me want to crawl into a hole, I can’t imagine sitting through this.
Even though Jackie looks 15 since the character is supposed to be over 18 this movie is slightly better than Loving Annabelle. But there’s a whole lot of ewwww. The scene where she’s slicing the carrots makes me cringe. Why would she use that knife? Why?
I’m reading this recap while watching Breaking the Girls. Never seen it before but what else would I be doing on a Tuesday afternoon? It’s not good. It’s a convoluted mess.
I was trying so hard to watch a bad movie tonight — I started a Katherine Heigl one AND a Ryan Reynolds one and didn’t make it through either — so this was exactly what my evening needed. Thanks Erin!
howd it go biensurmacherie
Stark looks like a bizarre, cartoon-like version of Naomi Watts.
I think I tried watching this years ago and IMMEDIATELY bailed out of fright. Thank you for this!
Mommy issues, not mommi issues.
Also “freakin vampire lesbo” is definitely my new sexual identity.
Oooooooooo, same!!!!! <3
Thank you for validating our intuition to never watch this movie. Sounds horrible. Also, as a teacher and former TA at the college level- I’m offended by this story line.
Are there ANY good Lesbian centered romances out there? Just with real people?
Saving Face is not only the best lesbian romantic comedy ever, it’s also just a absolutely fantastic film. :)
And I mean, Carol. But I figured that went without saying.
Obviously! <3
I don’t think I’ve seen this movie :O
Seconding Saving Face and Carol. Other “Lesbian Movies that are Actually Good Movies” include D.E.B.S., But I’m a Cheerleader, and Fingersmith (although do yourself a favor and read the book first on that last one). All of them have romantic plotlines, but I don’t know if they are “romances,” per se. Fried Green Tomatoes only gets an honorable mention here, since its romance is subtextual.
Kyss mig!
I’m just gonna admit I watched every scene in this movie containing vampire Mommi dimples and turned it off when my Plot Senses signaled their inevitable departure.
If that’s all you’re looking for, it’s not a bad movie XD
Oh Erin, with each of these reviews/takedowns, I breathe a sigh of relief that I never wasted my time. I remember shyly renting this “film” from Blockbuster (this was before it closed for good) and anxiously driving home to watch it only to return it angrily and without any shame, mostly unwatched (I got maybe 20min in) that same night. This film was most certainly, kind of sort of but maybe only probably one of the reasons why I stayed in the closet so long…yes it was that awful.
I saw this movie after having seen Loving Annabelle. On paper, Loving Annabelle seems worse, since Annabelle is underage, whereas Jackie is just barely legal. In reality, the difference in age between Jackie and Annabelle is, what, maybe two years?
So why does this movie feel so much worse? The difference is with the older characters. Stark is the exemplar of “predatory,” whereas Annabelle’s teacher is very withdrawn, and walled off. It’s only after repeated efforts by Annabelle that her teacher opens up to her. I think we’re supposed to read Annabelle as more mature than her peers, too.
I’m not saying Annabelle’s teacher made all good, innocent choices… she could have stopped things… but she never comes across as on-the-hunt predatory, so it reads as less icky than the relationship in Bloomington.
Agreed. Loving Annabelle is an attempt at a love story, but the screenshots for Bloomington look like they’re from a decidedly non-romantic Lifetime movie about an underage student escaping a predatory teacher.
So I watched this movie on Netflix when I was a lonely 14-year old lesbian and I blame this movie for my obsession with spiteful older women with boundary issues
Or maybe that was my mother……..
A lot of introspection happening here tonight folks
we’re gonna get this worked out carine
Teacher-student relationships are my absolute least favorite lesbian movie trope, but the farther I got into this review, the stronger the sinking feeling was that I did not in fact bail on this movie early, as I should have, and instead watched it until the end. I am ashamed of my past self, and far prefer my sanitized memory of my disgust overpowering my desperation for queer content.
But seriously, thank you for validating my instinctual disgust.
May I suggest Below Her Mouth next? It’s on Netflix
A friend of mine recently recommended that movie to me. Is it as good/bad as it sounds?
Below Her Mouth is truly as bad as they say. The sex scenes (from what I saw, which is admittedly not much) were nice enough, but the plot and dialogue were pretty horrendous. To top it off, the actress for Dallas, one of the main characters, is not the greatest, to put it simply. I was 35 minutes in before I called it quits.
Erin already reviewed that! But in a semi-serious way, which was difficult for me to cope with.
ahahah sally
I don’t know but the sex scenes from Below Her Mouth made me cringe (and it wasn’t a good kind of cringe)!
I felt so embarassed watching them (and I’ve watched it alone in my room)… something felt so wrong in there but I don’t know what exactly…
The opening credits in this film are going for a very Sunday afternoon stroll– Gosh, i giggled at that.
And kept giggling till the end. Thank you.
May I suggest ‘The Journey-Sanchaarram’ next?
thank you for the laughs and the suggestion!
I have now read this post and heartily agree with all sentiments. Below are two further points of interest taken from my a very long diatribe I emailed to an unsuspecting friend in May 2011.
#1: I was pleasantly surprised when the first “seduction” happened, because I felt thankful that we’d be spared a tedious two hours of will-they-won’t-they. Not only was it lacking any kind of chemistry (plus must have been one of the most fully-clothed sex scenes I’ve seen that wasn’t on daytime TV), they then undermine any pretense of eroticism by having the girl plonk a stuffed animal on the pillow as she crept away in the morning. What kind of femme fatale lines the walls of their boudoir of seduction with cuddly toys?
#2: The moment I realised that there was no way this film could work was when the teacher says to the student that she wanted her from the moment she saw her. This was utterly unbelievable. Do you know why?
Her hair. Seriously, if you were an ex child star trying to break free of your youth, you would NOT have that awful straightened Hannah Montana hairdo, right? No one would bang those bangs, I rest my case.
1) i forgot about the stuffed animal and 2) hannah montana bangs is my dj name
??? this movie is pure trash. Still not worse than Loving Annabelle though. Yuck!
This series is solid good damn gold. Mischievous pluck of a violin? Yes!
i feel so validated by all these reviews
really really curious to see erin’s review of a perfect ending. it’s the only movie that has inspired me to go on a twitter tirade.
the nicole conn trifecta
i didn’t even know these three were all from the same person but i had already naturally grouped them together in my brain
Idk, this movie sounds like a cautionary tale:
Don’t make a layered relationship drama if in reality, all you wanted to do is porn.
Porn:
Hot professor randomly seduces former starlet student in several places pertaining to a University.
Drama:
Let’s explore mommy issues while in a relationship with an older woman who is inexplicably hot and predatory.
I feel you on the “inexplicably hot”. Swoon.
I kind of wish she predates me like that…
Fried Green Tomatoes- Absolutely gorgeous film. The book as well. I am all in if you could make that review fun!
Annabelle- Gravity by Sara Bareilles was effing gorgeous; so was her presence. Two saving graces in that film by a mile. Though I did like the film somewhat.
As a professor, it took me two tries to even get through this review.
I watched this as a child (about 14/15) so while I thought the plot was horrendous I didn’t get the heebie jeebies about the student-teacher relationship…until now. Thanks erin! Also, are you aware that your pic kinda looks like Lexa from the 100/Alycia Debnam-Carey?
I can’t believe you didn’t screenshot the scene where Stark cuts the daughter’s steak ?, that would’ve made the entire article unnecessary. Anyway, it’s a bad movie but you grow fond of it in time, besides for christ sake, have you or have you not seen Stark???! Gorgeous as gorgeous can possibly be.
I FORGOT ABOUT THE STEAK CUTTING! i think i shuddered continuously for like 3 minutes after that scene.
Didn’t the younger actress cringe as well? Wasn’t it supposed to make you’re skin crawl…?
Who knows what the intent of this movie really was? PWP? Cautionary tale? May-December romance? I can’t tell.
just re-reading this and re-loving it
(I tried to email this picture and was hit with Gmail’s “Something’s not right” when trying to attach it and I was like… I know.)
OK I just watched this with, as promised, your analysis right alongside me. Thank g*d you were there.
this is one of my favorite all time movie reviews. a great recap of a hilariously bad movie. The rock quarry! the lack of subtlety.
This review makes me feel seen. I’ve just finish watching this movie for the first time and it’s one of the craziest sequence of events I’ve ever seen. I died when you mentioned wishbone. Thank you for the good laugh.
As a heterosexual man, I am not sure I should write anything here, but the Google algorithm must have found this for a reason, so…
It seems to me that the review is a bit moralistic. I am the first to admit there are issues with the story, primarily with the typical attempt by many authors of lesbian stories to attempt to teach me some sort of lesson by inflicting outcomes on their characters that would typically not happen in real life. I really don’t get why they do that. With that out of the way, we should not pretend that professors and students don’t get romantically involved or that when they do, we are somehow above the idea. The only thing different about this story from what occurs on campuses everywhere is that we would generally be looking at daddy issues rather than mommy issues.