Nova Scotia — For ages, we’ve known that the FX drama Sons of Anarchy causes middle-aged men to join outlaw motorcycle gangs and lead lives of crime.
But we can’t pin it all on one show that hasn’t aired in — what — four years or something, can we? So here are 10 other shows that we can also comfortably blame for most of the stuff that happens in our lives, and for how we react. If the RCMP can do it, so can we.
- Brooklyn Nine-Nine: This fun sitcom surrounding gifted-but-childish detective Jake Peralta and his ragtag team of cop friends is causing quirky characters from all over the area to join their local police departments. Which you’d think would actually curb crime in the Maritimes, but these new hires are too busy undermining their stern-but-lovable captains and making Die Hard references to solve any real cases.
- Friends: If you’ve noticed a steep rise in attractive, underemployed 20-somethings inhabiting unaffordable apartments and banging each other all the time, you’re not alone. This phenomenon is caused by Friends reruns on Netflix. And remember the time you went into an ATM vestibule and a citywide blackout trapped you there for hours, forcing you to flirt with a likewise trapped model named Jill Goodacre? That’s because of “The One with the Blackout.” You still cringe when you recall that she offered you a stick of gum and you replied: “Gum would be perfection.”
- Stranger Things: RCMP claim the rise in strange things all over Atlantic Canada is directly attributable to this show. Not only that, but the upswing in ’80s nostalgia and in parents letting their kids do whatever they want can be traced pretty easily to this popular series starring Winona Ryder. And did you know that the most popular baby name of 2018 was “Eleven”? I mean…connect the dots.
- Sex and the City: We keep noticing groups of fashionable 30-somethings strolling around in Jimmy Choos like they own the town, occupying the best tables at local brunch places, bragging about their sexual exploits and writing about them for a weekly newspaper column. The long-running HBO comedy can also be blamed for the uptick in people saying things like, “You’re suuuch a Samantha” and “Abso-fucking-lutely.”
- The Conners: The announcement of the upcoming Roseanne reboot without the show’s namesake has led to a widespread epidemic of matricide, as people around the country suddenly said, “Wait, we can just kill her?”
- The Big Bang Theory: It is commonly understood that this CBS hit is the reason why your girlfriend is “totally” into “nerd culture” but couldn’t tell a Kirk from a Picard.
- Arrested Development: The popular FOX sitcom, which made its move to Netflix back in 2013, has been cited as an influence on all of the people who have disappeared for years at a time, then returned like nothing’s happened. You know, like your dad.
- Grey’s Anatomy: This long-running medical drama has been responsible for a huge influx of good-looking people entering the field of medicine. We’re fooling ourselves if we think this doesn’t have an impact on the profession. Will sex appeal soon rule over medical knowledge? Only time will tell.
- Good Times: It was tough to pin the recent series of pipe bombings in Nova Scotia on a popular TV show, but by George, we’ve done it! Remember the 1970s classic Good Times? Well, we’ve good reason to suspect that the bomber was inspired by J.J. Walker’s seminal catchphrase, “Dy-no-mite!”
- Riverdale: The recent reboot of the popular Archie comic series has led to the gritty, oversexed reimagining of other childhood toys, stories and games. Like, for instance, “Rim around my Rosie,” “Hide and Go Peep,” and, naturally, “Hopcock.”