Have you ever wondered what happens to guys who actually marry a Manic Pixie Dream Girl?
Chance is a software programmer who married spontaneously for love. He loves his wife, but she wants to self-actualize him all the time and now Chance strives for a simple marriage and simple life. Simone is a quirky free spirit who is determined to turn Chance's life upside down. He seeks advice on the internet.
As his story unfolds, viewers get a chance to see things from a new perspective: the manic pixie's. Questions of how they define themselves arise, and it becomes clear that each is playing a number of roles. Other fairly prominent characters in the story are Chance's cool and friendly boss Serenity and Serenity's brother Vincent.
The first season from 2015 has 9 episodes. There are plans to develop the story further. This web video series is available on YouTube at manicpixiedreamwife channel
. It was written and directed by M. Elizabeth Eller. Simone is played by Amy Danneker and Chance is portrayed by Cody Smith.
Manic Pixie Dream Tropes:
- Affectionate Nickname: Simone invariably calls her husband Chance with a pet name "Chancey" or sometimes "Chancey Bear".
- Animal Lover: Simone is concerned for animals and she starts rescuing them from a pet shop in the episode "Something for Profit".
- Big Fun: Chance is a big, fat, fun and fun-loving guy. Only occasionally he feels down... especially when his wife's antics become too much. And it turns out his work and life in general made him very depressed, and that's why Simone felt she needed to keep cheering him up and act her crazy and fun role-plays.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Vincent Miller is more than a little bit out-there, which is why he tolerates Simone's personality. Vincent's sister Serenity actually recommends Simone as a good candidate for the job, thinking that slightly crazy Simone and funny Vincent might be peas in a pod. Before he hires Simone as a secretary, he compliments her teeth and checks her nails, and then tells her he will act as her mentor.
- Dressed to Plunder: Chance is dressed like a stereotypical pirate in episode "I Be Her Bear". He wears a black bandana, an earring and he has a sword.
- Facepalm: Chance rubs his face or runs his hand over it when Simone is extremely tiring or if he's exasperated with her tomfoolery.
- Flowers of Femininity: Simone the manic pixie is very feminine and almost girly in her fashion choices. She's often seen wearing flowers in her hair. It fits her quirky and loving personality.
- Flowers of Romance: An old lady berates Chance because his wife picked up all of her daisies, telling her she was trading her for the possibility of adventure. But her granddaughter planted those daisies, damn it! It's implied Simone wanted to use the flowers in her usual quirky adventures. Simone gave those flowers to an old acquaintance of the old lady, possibly an ex love interest, and hoped they would rekindle their relationship. The old man extends his arm and hands her the daisies, but the old lady only accuses him of stealing from her and starts beating him with her handbag. Simone watches them from a distance and shrugs her shoulders.
- Grand Romantic Gesture: Chance, dressed as a pirate, kidnaps Simone who has been acting dejected for a time from her office to have a cute little maritime adventure — he plans a voyage trip to a close private island on a ferry. Simone loves the spontaneity and enjoys their lovely trip... at least until it turns out they have nothing to eat and they have to spend the cold outside on the island because the ferry does not come to the island as often as Chance thought. It's not all bad, though, because they have an opportunity to talk honestly about their marriage and their relationship.
- Important Hair Accessory: Working in an office seems to crush Simone's soul as she starts gradually losing her adorably quirky ways. Instead of her manic-pixie-esque clothes, she wears 'corporate clothes' and sensible black shoes, and most importantly, she stops wearing her various cute hair decorations. Chance tries to get her to wear them again.
- Kinky Spanking:
- Simone once pretends she's a naughty baby and wants to be spanked, asking Chance if he wants her to take the diaper off first. It's one of the example when Simone tries to be whimsical and sexy, but it doesn't quite work.
- Serenity playfully takes Chance's ruler and later gives him a light swat. She jokes that Chance has some Fifty Shades of Grey tendencies.
- Love Doodles: At work, Chance realizes he's falling for his boss Serenity when he doodles her name and some heart shapes.
- Love Triangle: Chance and Simone are married and they love each other, but Chance begins to feel attracted to Serenity who seems to enjoy flirting with Chance.
- Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Deconstructed. Chance met his dream girl Simone who is a quirky yet lovable manic-pixie-dream-girl up-to-eleven. But being married to her sure is exhausting... However, it turns out she acts this way because Chance needs to be cheered up all the time, and others expect her to behave in that way, too. She reassures and encourages her friends and random people to follow their hearts or to keep pursuing their passions like music; people admire her ukulele skills and her singing; she likes to pretend to be an alien or a baby, she keeps throwing dinners with a theme (like an under sea dinner party for Chance and her, and their pet fish Morrissy insisted to join them, too), she loves making music mixes for her husband, she doesn't like 'dangerous chemicals' (even medicine, because pharmaceutical companies are evil), she works for a charity dressed as a dancing potted flower... and so on and so forth. She's very loving and inspiring, but Chance becomes extremely tired from her various adventures and her attempts to self-actualize him all the time, and to his horror, he starts to feel attracted to a firm, energetic and funny woman who acts like a grown-up.
- Mixtape of Love: Simone is a rabid indie fringe music freak who bombards Chance with mix CDs. As he heads to work, she hands him several of his morning mixes: for as he drives to the freeway, for as he gets above 50 miles per hour, for sole reflections and quiet moments after he parks but before he surrenders himself to the drudges— He hopefully interrupts her and says he accidentally lost all of her blank CDs, but she replies that blank CDs are like tampons: A girl always has some stored in most unlikely places. And sure enough, she has stashes and stashes of blank CDs in their house.
- Office Romance:
- There's some mutual attraction between Chance and his new boss Serenity who both work in IT. They never go beyond casual flirting and ultimately remain only friends because Chance truly does love Simone.
- When Simone starts working as a secretary at Miller & Associates, her boss Vincent warns her that new office girls always fall in love with him, but he doesn't want any of that because he's married. She assures him she's happily married herself, but Vincent insists she's gonna feel at least tempted.
- One Head Taller: Simone is a petite woman and Chance is a bear of a man. He's almost two heads taller than Simone.
- Over-the-Shoulder Carry: Chance carries Simone over his shoulder when he plays a pirate who "kidnaps" her from work.
- Quirky Ukulele: Chance's manic-pixie-dream-wife Simone plays the ukulele. In episode "My Get-Well Juice" when Chance is in hospital, she plays her favourite instrument and sings him a song she wrote about toxins from plastic. (The song is a variation on "Littlest Birds" by the Canadian folk group The Be Good Tanyas.)
- Soul-Crushing Desk Job: Working in an office as a secretary for an insurance company seems to take its toll and Simone starts gradually losing her adorable free spirit ways. Instead of her quirky clothes, she wears 'corporate clothes' and sensible black shoes, and most importantly, she stops wearing her cute hair decs. Chance is afraid that he broke her by insisting that she work and he compares her to a robot doll.
- Standard Office Setting:
- Chance is a software programmer and he works in a standard IT company. Some episodes are set by Chance's desk, and there are some office meetings as well.
- Simone starts working as a secretary in an insurance broker company. Her boss is a kinda cuckoo himself, so he tolerates Simone's antics for a bit, but he insists that she behaves professionally.
- Talking Heads: Chance makes a video about his marital troubles and addresses his viewers on the internet, sitting by the desk, talking and looking directly to the camera.
- Talk Like a Pirate: Chance talks like a pirate in the episode "I Be Her Bear" when he "kidnaps" his wife Simone from work for a little maritime adventure. Simone's boss Vincent joins him in the fun and also talks like a sailor/pirate.Chance: Yarrr! Ha! Ha! Ha! YARRR, me matey. Ha-ha-ha, I'll be looking for a pirate wench who's ready for some high adventure-rrr.
- Themed Party: Simone throws an under-the-sea themed dinner party just for her and her husband. And their pet fish joins them, too. She decorated their house and food, and she wears a mermaid costume.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Chance is almost too chubby and decidedly less attractive that his wife Simone. Lampshaded by Lane, a guy from the park listening to and admiring Simone's music who wonders how a guy like Chance scored a woman like her... and he and viewers are berated for thinking that looks are that important. Chance claims that ladies love a funny man.
- Xtreme Kool Letterz: Episode "Dude, Your Wife Is Hotttt" has multiplied 't' for x-tra koolness.
