Upon hearing tonight's episode of Being Erica features a topless lesbian scene, our reaction was, dare we say, predictable:

Best. Show. Ever.

The fact is, in a wider sense, rookie CBC drama Being Erica is not the best show ever, despite the laudable efforts of its fetching, relatable and instantly likable star Erin Karpluk.

We don't mean to be too hard on this series. But we're particularly opinionated about it, we suppose, because we were prepared to like it more. We don't want Karpluk's charm to be wasted.

For the uninitiated, Being Erica focuses on Erica Strange (Karpluk), an underachieving 32-year-old living in Toronto who comes across a mysterious -- albeit annoyingly smug -- therapist named Dr. Tom, played by Michael Riley.

Erica has regrets in her life, and Dr. Tom has the power to send her back in time to try to correct things.

Now, why certain TV shows do better on certain nights is an inexact science, despite the efforts of programmers to make it more exact. When CBC moved Being Erica from Mondays (where it was getting decent, if unspectacular, ratings) to Wednesdays last month, so it could follow The Week the Women Went, it seemed like a pretty solid idea.

The ratings for Being Erica have been trending down since the move. But maybe it's not that people can't find the show. Maybe, as the season has progressed, they simply have become less thrilled with it.

And we have some theories as to why that would be.

For one thing, Erica doesn't really have any problems.

Erica has horrible luck and bad timing, but she basically has no faults. Sure, her career has stagnated and she's still looking for Mr. Right, but that hardly makes her unique. She is a cute, good, kind person.

But because Erica has no faults, most of the other people in her life -- boss, parents, brother-in-law, virtually anyone she meets on the street -- are written as one-dimensional, cartoon-ish villains, designed to provide Erica with a series of nemeses.

So Erica's biggest problem is not really herself. It's not that she has made such horrific choices. Her biggest problem is that she's surrounded by jerks. Maybe she could just move to a different city and everything would be solved!

There are far worse shows on TV than Being Erica. Tons of them, in fact. And Being Erica has received quite a few positive reviews in publications in the United States, where the series began airing just a few weeks ago on a cable station called SOAPnet.

But remember, Being Erica got a lot of positive reviews in Canada, too -- at the beginning. By episode five or six, it just didn't seem quite as fresh or promising.

The lesbian scene in episode nine tonight is kind of titillating, so to speak. There's no actual nudity, dare to dream.

But the most compelling scene in tonight's episode actually comes at the end, when a hyperventilating Erica pours her heart out to one of the other characters. Karpluk plays the scene convincingly, and it's heart-wrenching.

We just hope Being Erica isn't headed down the Sophie path. And by that we mean, CBC skilfully identifies an actress with unmistakable star quality (in Sophie's case, Natalie Brown) but fails to build a good enough show around her.

We haven't completely lost hope in Being Erica. And admittedly, we would be more forgiving of a show from which we expected nothing.

But be that as it may, Being Erica needs to be a bit better.

And hey, if all else fails, the creators of Being Erica always could explore that lesbian thing a little more graphically.

We're just sayin'.