#tv discourse

LETS TALK ABOUT IT!!!

rewatching Half & Half and I’m realizing Mona was treated kinda crazy???

like… she wasn’t dramatic, she just didn’t sugarcoat anything.

both sisters are Black. both moms are Black. same dad.

but Mona (darker, spiritual, outspoken) was always framed as “too much,” while Dee Dee got way more grace for doing the same (or worse).

as an adult it’s very 👀 how often Mona had to apologize or shrink just to keep the peace.

For decades, LGBT+ actors were told to stay closeted if they wanted careers, while straight actors collected awards and praise for “bravely” portraying LGBT+ experiences they could walk away from at the end of filming. Meanwhile, actual LGBT+ actors struggled to even get auditions, not just for straight roles, but sometimes even for queer ones.

Representation is not just about what appears on screen. It’s also about who gets opportunities behind the scenes and inside the industry itself.

And before someone says “acting is pretending”, yes, obviously. Actors play people unlike themselves all the time. But this conversation exists because Hollywood has a long history of shutting LGBT+ performers out while still profiting from LGBT+ stories. That imbalance matters.

There’s also something authentic that many LGBT+ actors bring to these roles. The body language, the emotional nuance, the lived experience, the understanding of what it feels like to hide, to come out, to navigate identity, those things can add depth that audiences absolutely notice, even if they can’t explain why.

None of this means a straight actor can never play an LGBT+ character. It means the industry should stop treating openly LGBT+ actors like a “risk” while handing LGBT* narratives to safer, more marketable straight stars.

S1, we see Syd’s resume briefly, & Carmy says, “…that’s some serious heat…” - because it really, Really was. All the places listed, are real places. Alinea, specifically is, currently, the only 3 Michelin starred restaurant in Chicago & it’s regularly listed amongst the World’s best too. So for The Bear’s in world story to have Syd work there, is a Big deal.

If you like meta & have Netflix, you should go watch the Alinea/Grant Achatz episode of Chef’s Table - season 2, epi 2. It has so many tidbits that seem to reflect back on The Bear. Like, Achatz tells a story about working in misery under famous Chi chef, Charlie Trotter. Now, Trotter is deceased, but when he was working, he had this rep for being wildly cruel. And he’s supposedly who Carm’s nightmare boss in NYC is modeled after!

By the final seasons due to how the actors union handles television, and how tv worked, yes friends did have a higher budget over all cause there was fuckin 10 seasons of that goddamn show and actors get paid more the longer they are able to renegotiate their contracts, so congrats, you kept your paladin oath to defend sitcoms, by saying they cost more cause they are built to run forever like a meth addiction

Still haven't answered why having 26 episodes is important (besides advertisements)

1. Sydney is being defended a little bit more, progress. I wonder what changed, I don’t want to reduce it to this but they have been posting Ayo’s magazine photos.

2. Read this really interesting post about how many times ‘beautiful’ is mentioned in season two. <has anyone else read this post>. The writer claimed they weren’t arguing for or against Claire and Carmy, but interpretations skewed more pro Claire in a diplomatic way. They brought up Molly’s statement that intimacy for Carmy is starring at a woman. Conveniently does not address he spends most of both seasons starring at Syd. But no harm, no foul, it was interesting.

3. They think the romance angle is coming from Sydney if at all, this truly made me chuckle. It’s literally the complete opposite of what we’re picking up, because sometimes I have no read on Syd. Only when Claire appeared or was mentioned, or the latter half of the table scene and the stare off Syd and Carmy had in the first episode of season one reacted as though she had any feelings or interest, she’s so guarded. So that was hilarious.

4. When they discuss the pairing, they still flat out dismiss it. Don’t address any of the one thousand scenes that what suggest romance. Nothing new there.

5. They think Ebon had the best acting, and I’m not anti Richie but Jeremy Allen White carries the show, @moments-on-film addresses this. End of discussion.

6. There was one thing we could all agree on was that the table did not need fixing.

7. They also tried to run a poll on if The Bear’s audience was more male or female. I’m no statistician but I can without a doubt state that running that poll on Reddit would render an deceptive results.

Also agree with s19 not having a defining love story. I always thought Andy and Ryan should’ve been the great love story, at least for the first few seasons. And it felt like they were setting it up in the lead up to his death but obviously that was only to make it hurt more. I also didn’t mind Jack and Maya (I know, sacrilege lol) at first but s3 ruined them for me. In a way marina ended up being that big lovestory but also not really because lesbian couples, even femme white ones, don’t have the same mass appeal. But yeah no other love story really stuck. Or friendships other than Vic & Travis who deserved more than comedic relief. I really loved Maya and Andy in s1/2 and Andy herself is what drew me to the show but s3 dropped the camaraderie and fun and became a melodramatic angst fest. Which isn’t necessarily bad, but it was so over the top all the time. Remember the finale (?) episode with the robbery, stabbing and Car crash and death? It all happened back to back lol. I also agree that it being a spin-off didn’t help because people were adamantly against it because of that from the start because of all the crossovers. Still, like you I wonder how it would’ve turned out if Stacy McKee had stayed on for the full run. She seemed to have a lighter touch with writing (and she’s written some of my favourite greys episodes) whereas the seasons without her seemed like they’d never heard of subtlety lol.

Thank you for reaching out to me! It's fun to dive into this stuff from a slightly more technical standpoint.

Ultimately, Station 19 set itself up as the ensemble being the great love story. What they had you rooting for at the beginning was the team, the family, the fact that they all had each others' backs. But they didn't keep that as the centrepiece, and so the formula started to shatter.

And how do you keep viewers from episode 1 until your finale? You give them something to root for. A viewer needs to finish a pilot episode (or a second episode, sometimes...) with something they are looking forward to seeing happen. Some whiff of romance, budding friendship, accomplishment... Something they can predict as a possible or probable outcome.

For so many shows, it's the romance: Booth & Brennan on Bones, Sydney & Vaughn on Alias, Ross & Rachel on Friends, Luke & Lorelai on Gilmore Girls, Janine & Gregory on Abbott Elementary... every single one of those couples are hinted at in the pilot episode.

For others, it's a goal: building a park on the empty lot in Parks & Recreation, getting to the people who might be able to help create a cure in The Last of Us (season 1), creating a successful restaurant in The Bear, solving the case in Vigil (I didn't guess there was a couple to root for until after the pilot), etc, etc.

And then, beyond that, there's the found family stuff: Brassic, Futurama, Leverage (I'm basing this purely off gifs I've seen on my dash), Happy Endings, Parenthood (but they're totally all related), Private Practice (sort of?), etc... Station 19 started itself as one of these and probably would've been more successful if it'd stuck to it.

Grey's Anatomy was absolutely a strike of lightning. But it was also a factor of great cast, extremely talented writer and creator, a great crew, enough budget... it takes a lot to make a good TV show. I wish networks still recognized that and were more willing to put the time and money into making it possible. I, for one, am getting sick of the quick-and-ditch formula of streaming (and frankly, my career is, too).