CBS Television Studios, Warner Bros. Television Distribution
‘Tis the season when we foolishly believe in our own ability to change–like when I drank a beer a week in preparation for the holidays with my family. Of course it didn’t work, there’s no drinking like holiday drinking. Or the time I thought I’d be breezy and gave a guy my phone number by ripping the receipt off my dry cleaning with my digits on it. Breezy, that’s me.
But then again, there’s the case of Hart of Dixie’s Lemon Breeland, played by Jamie King. In season one, Lemon had her future planned out as Queen Belle of Blue Bell, preserving traditions with the Memory Matrons and wife to George Tucker. Season one Lemon was obsessed with holding herself to an impossible, idyllic image of a proper southern woman leaving her to be uptight, ridged, and ultimately unhappy.
However, Lemon proved that disappointment and heartbreak can create a new, unexpected path of strength and growth, even with a few stumbles along the way. By season four, Lemon had left the Belles, started two businesses, tried living on a houseboat and learned how to be a good friend. She proved resilient, blazing her own trail, gaining strength as a risk-taker in her decisions, even reflecting in her wardrobe. She traded her homemaker fifties dresses for modern accents, breezy silhouettes, and pop colors. Season four Lemon was confident, generous, walked lighter, smiled easier, was capable of love and emotional intimacy, and was happy.
Obviously the inspired evolution of Hart of Dixie's Lemon is a case of TV fiction, great writing, and the performance of Jamie King, but perhaps, in my case, I was also aiming too low with my drinking tolerance goals. Here’s hoping there’s a Lemon Breeland in all of us with the potential and resiliency to truly evolve and change. Mere resolutions are for sissies.