The one good thing about being sick is that I quarantine myself at home and watch endless episodes of TV. In this case, it was Inside Amy Schumer (which is better than her stand-up, I think), and Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey which I don’t know how I haven’t watched yet.
Oh, and doing some writing but it’s not nearly as fun as Amy Schumer.
My childhood in a song.
This show is exactly what I love: high-brow humour with topical investigative journalism. So. Awesome.
I watch some TV series and I get inspired to write and work on my pilot. I go to the queer film festival and I watch The Way He Looks and I get inspired to do another film. I watch the Emmys and I get inspired to pursue writing and making a web series. There’s so much I want to do, so much I want to write, so much inspiration out there that it can be difficult to try and manage it all. I feel like I want to do it all — my memoir, my picture book, my TV pilot — but I know being so diverse can also be a negative thing. I’ve always been one to want to do a slew of different things, bounding from one thing to the next. I don’t think I can be a master at everything, obviously, but I can try. Or at least try it all.
No idea what to blog about today, so here’s another review for The New Normal.
Episode 4: “Obama Mama”
Airdate: Sept. 25, 2012
Written by Ali Adler
Plot summary:
Goldie receives a letter but doesn’t mention what it says. Shania’s class is having a mock election. She says that most kids vote the way their parents do, but that she’ll be voting for Obama – implying that Goldie will be voting for Romney. Anyway, Goldie’s not that interested in politics anyway, saying her grandma stole her voting card for the last election and voted for her.
Jane, a Republican, and Bryan and David have an argument about Obama vs. Romney. She accuses Bryan and David of being racist because they support Obama simply because he’s black. The gay couple counter by saying they have plenty of black friends – Jane can see for herself at the party they’ll be throwing in a few days. In the meantime, they frantically try to find some black friends because, lo and behold, they actually don’t have any.
Eventually, Bryan is able to recruit Rocky, someone he works with (who is black). He tells her to “invite as many friends as you want”. However, at the party, the only friends who show up are white, and they get into a short argument about how assuming Rocky must have only black friends is actually racist. After he explains the situation about how he really wants to prove Jane wrong, she says she invited her brother, who’ll be coming soon.
Bryan then goes up to the waiter of the party, who is also black, and discovers that the waiter is also an actor. Bryan, who works in the film/TV industry, makes the waiter act throughout the night as if it’s an audition for Bryan. The waiter agrees, and acts like “a black Frasier” (complete with snooty accent).
At the dinner, Goldie and Rocky’s brother, Clint, flirt and get along really well. She tells him she’s single, and he asks her out. Jane, who sees that they’re into each other, tells Bryan and David in private that they ought to tell all their friends that they have a baby on the way. And they do, outing Goldie as their surrogate. Jane further embarrasses her daughter by telling everyone that Shania, Goldie’s daughter, should be here. Clint is shocked. Goldie, humiliated, runs away.
Bryan, David, and Jane all argue yet again after the waiter reveals himself to be an actor. David says the important thing is to find Goldie. Shania leads them to a fast food restaurant, as she’s been craving red meat. Goldie reveals that Clay, her dumb husband, is suing her for custody, and that the letter says she has to take Shania back to Ohio.
At school, Shania votes for Obama. Bryan, David, and Goldie befriend an interracial couple who have kids, and they agree to have dinner together sometime to talk about being parents. As the couple walks away, the husband says, “This is perfect. We were just saying we need some gay friends!”
Comments:
Well, my feeling was right. This wasn’t as good as the last episode. Granted, politics and race are a hard thing to write properly, so I give them props for even tackling topics that are still controversial and could alienate viewers. At the same time, while watching Jane go on and on at the dinner about Republic values while being completely oblivious to her own bigotry, I couldn’t help but think this:
Why are Bryan and David – no, why is anyone – putting up with her? I realize they have to occasionally run into her because she’s Goldie’s grandmother, but quite frankly, why do they have to talk to her at all, if she’s going to say such mean things to/about them to their faces? It’s one thing if Bryan and David tried to change her mind by rationalizing with her, but they don’t, and in many ways, this is what frustrates me sometimes about this show. It’s almost as if the show is a soap box for Jane to spew her anti-everyone agenda with, little or insufficient rebuttal. Yes, the show is trying to make her look like an idiot, and yes, she is supposed to be an antagonist. But time and time again, I find myself wanting – needing – someone to give her the same kind of loud, in-your-face argument from the other side. It’s almost as if the show doesn’t want to come off as overly left-wing (how the frick can it not when it’s based around a gay couple raising a family??) so instead of going on about liberal views, it posits right-wing ones. I think this is probably because no Republicans are going to be watching this show and enjoying it. Therefore, the only viewers would/should be those who are more liberal, those who already know that Bryan and David aren’t Sodomites or ruining families or what have you. But still! Argh.
Back to this episode. Like I said, it’s tricky to handle big issues like race, and I don’t think it was quite successfully pulled off in this case. The plot with Bryan and David trying to find black people for their party, not to mention the subplot with the waiter acting during the dinner, isn’t all that funny. Yeah, it’s ridiculous, but really, who cares?
There were nice moments between Goldie and Clint, though I’m biased because I thought Clint was unbelievably good-looking…. sorry, I zoned out there for a sec. The point is, that little scene with her and Clint said a lot about her character: she’s finally happy, she’s enjoying herself, she’s getting back in the dating world. Good for her!
There was one other thing I thought didn’t quite work. After Goldie confesses that she has to bring Shania back to Ohio because Clay is suing her, that’s a really emotional moment. The next scene is at Shania’s school, at the mock presidential election, and suddenly, the tone jumps to excitement and anticipation. Tonally, it’s a huge jump, and there should have been some other transition scene between these two. Not only is there such a difference in tone, but Goldie is now suddenly content and no longer weepy, like magic.
So, all in all, race humour, for me, doesn’t really work. Politics are also tricky. Try again, The New Normal.
Started watching this new HBO show called Looking, which is about three gay men in San Francisco. It’s similar to my show, but different in a lot of ways, and I found myself really wanting to get my show out there even more now (even more than watching shit that is DTLA). At the same time, I feel so defeated already, knowing it’s extremely difficult for someone who has never worked in TV to get an original show made, and it frustrates me.
So if anyone reading this wants to help me make my show and air it on TV, that would be super. Thanks.
I’m writing a TV show journal for my TV pilot class and I realized I wrote one last year for The New Normal, which I should post here sometime.
Also, my cat says happy holidays to everyone.
Nicknames I came up with today for groups in my TV class:
A group working on a pilot that takes place in a retreat: “The Retreat-ers”
A group working on a pilot that concerns draft dodgers: “The Dodgers”
A group working on an untitled Political/Journalism pilot: “The Pournos” –> (except I didn’t end up telling them their nickname because I didn’t think they’d appreciate it and also because I’m not close enough with any of the group members to say that to them without making myself look like an idiot)
watch old re-runs of Season 2 of Ally McBeal. Satisfaction guaranteed.
aaron's random musings 