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this is a spread-the-love post
Let's start like this:
- John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
Now, I know, since you're on my flist, that every one of you has felt this at one point or another. It doesn't just apply to books, either: it can be music or a movie or a place, even. For me, often, it's TV shows.
So this is a post about two TV shows that I feel this way about. These are the two shows that--I'm serious--if I became stupid rich tomorrow, I would pay all the people I love to watch.
The first one is a show about football. Except it's not a show about football at all. It's a show about people, and red state American life, and how fragile and precious life is, and how much you can want things and how much life can hurt you and how beautiful and strong people can be. It's structured, very loosely, around a small-town Texas high school football team, but you can hate football vehemently and still love this show.
Watch this. Please. Watch it.
Joss Whedon likes to say that the two most important things in a show are emotional resonance and rocket launchers. Well, this one doesn't have rocket launchers, but it has so much emotional resonance it doesn't need them. YES, THIS IS A SHOW TOO GOOD FOR ROCKET LAUNCHERS.
I am notoriously picky about media that attempts to portray red state American life. As a Southerner and someone who loves small towns fiercely, I am well aware of the horrible things about the places I love, but I am also aware of the good as well. The American media tends to be terrible at portraying life in "flyover country," and the less money the people being portrayed have, the more terrible the portrayal becomes.
This portrayal? Is wonderful.
These people are real. Their have real problems and real desires, and they have conversations I can actually imagine hearing people I know have.
I don't think there's every been a show that is so much about the characters. And these characters will crawl inside your heart and stay there.
You have Matt, who absolutely shatters my heart in a way that no other character ever has--he's so alone and so good and I am telling you right now: "The Son" is the greatest episode of television ever made. You have Tyra and her fierce, fierce clinging to her dreams that seem impossible--she wants to get out of Dillon and make something of herself even though everyone tells her she can't. You have Julie, who is the ultimate teenage girl character--she's a good girl, but she makes mistakes and those mistakes make sense; she can be immature but she can also be wonderful. You have Tim Riggins, who's a stereotypical bad boy on the surface, no parents, no morals, he drinks too much and uses women and doesn't seem to care about anything because he's been hurt so badly--but he grows up and learns responsibility and figures out what really matters to him and what he'll do to get it.
You have Smash, who has more confidence than any twelve people combined, but who you're rooting for because he also has a smile and dreams like you wouldn't believe--you want him to get every single thing he wants. You have Lyla, a princess on an overturned throne, whose life seemed perfect until it wasn't but who keeps fighting despite that. You have Jason, who has every single thing he's ever cared about taken from him and then has to fight to get even the smallest bit of it back. You have Landry, who's a giant nerd in that way that so many people really are, in a way you never see on TV, who wants things that people tell nerds they can't have and then goes out and gets them. You have Jess, who loves football more than any guy and who is absolutely going to become a football coach one day, I believe in her.
You have Vince, who is always a hair's breadth away from becoming a statistic, but who was just waiting for someone to give him a chance to show just how much he can be--which is so, so much. You have Becky, who has absolutely nothing going for her in life, but who has this huge open heart anyway. You have Luke, who is your kind of typical redneck boy who becomes so much more when he's called upon to have some integrity. You have Buddy Garrity, who you think you'll hate, but is so real (and who comes through when it counts in unexpected ways) that you can never quite do anything but accept him.
And you have Eric and Tami, the high school football coach and his guidance-counselor wife, who have the most beautiful marriage ever portrayed on TV. It's real: they fight and they disagree, they say things that hurt each other and they act stupid. But you never for one minute doubt their commitment to each other or to their marriage: they will get through anything and everything. And they also flirt and tease and kiss and confide in each other and sacrifice for each other. And they keep the town together: they care about kids no one else cares about, they fight and fight and fight for the people of this town who are constantly being told that they don't matter. They say: you do matter, and I'm going to prove it to you.
This show is about these people and the lives they live and the town they live in that holds them together. It's about the best and worst of what America--and people--can be. And it is so, so beautiful.
The next show isn't quite a work of art tour-de-force like FNL, but it's not trying to be. It's about a group of high school boys who have a band, and that band is really just an excuse to hang out together. But then things happen and it suddenly gets the opportunity to be more, and they have to figure out whether that's what they want, while dealing with loss and falling in love and figuring out how to communicate with their friends. It's a bromance show, sort of, except that it's so much more than that.
And, okay, it has the worst name in the history of names. Worse than Cougar Town, which is saying something. It's called Shut Up! Flower Boy Band, and there's a reason for the whole flower-boy thing, but I won't get into it now. Suffice it to say that I'm begging you to ignore the title because it is the worst. But the show is the best.
This is a show that takes teenagers seriously without actually falling into believing that they really are the center of the world--it's the perfect balance. It absolutely never patronizes to the characters or the viewers. The writing is amazing--it's only 16 episodes, but every single one of the characters feels fleshed-out and fully-realized. It also is perfectly paced, which almost never happens in a kdrama, and it has the most satisfying ending that gives you what you need without wrapping things up too neatly.
This is a show about growing up. That sounds lame, I know: how many coming-of-age stories are there in the world? But we keep telling them for a reason, and this show reminds me of those reasons. Because it's about that time in your life when the whole world feels open to you but at the same time everything seems too much, too scary. It's about that time when you realize that your decisions have actual consequences, that the choices you make now are going to shape your entire future, and about how you don't feel ready for that, but you rise to the occasion because you have to. It's about figuring out what you want out of life and also what you are and aren't willing to do to get it. It's about recognizing the fact that you can never know where you should be headed, you have to choose, not knowing, and that's absolutely scary and it doesn't ever get less scary, but you have to do it anyway because that's what growing up is. It's about learning when you love something not for what it is but for what it represents, and figuring out that you can let it go and still hold on to the thing it symbolizes. It's about friendship and falling in love and losing the things and people that matter to you and dreaming and working hard.
The main focus of the show is the relationships between the boys in the band, some of which are complicated and some of which are straightforward, but all of which I'm invested in. There are 3! different couples, too (with varying degrees of focus on them), and y'all, all 3 are wonderful--I was actively invested in all 3. And the main couple is just so wonderfully good for each other, functional and sweet while remaining really believable.
The one--one--downside to the show is that there aren't any relationships between the ladies. The ladies are AMAZING and I love them each to bits, but they don't interact with each other much, which is a real shame. But the rest of the show is so strong and the female characters are so beautiful that I think it's worth overlooking. Even if you’re typically someone who only is really interested in women’s stories (which I understand), I do believe you’ll still like this show. I really do.
Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.
- John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
Now, I know, since you're on my flist, that every one of you has felt this at one point or another. It doesn't just apply to books, either: it can be music or a movie or a place, even. For me, often, it's TV shows.
So this is a post about two TV shows that I feel this way about. These are the two shows that--I'm serious--if I became stupid rich tomorrow, I would pay all the people I love to watch.
The first one is a show about football. Except it's not a show about football at all. It's a show about people, and red state American life, and how fragile and precious life is, and how much you can want things and how much life can hurt you and how beautiful and strong people can be. It's structured, very loosely, around a small-town Texas high school football team, but you can hate football vehemently and still love this show.
Watch this. Please. Watch it.
Joss Whedon likes to say that the two most important things in a show are emotional resonance and rocket launchers. Well, this one doesn't have rocket launchers, but it has so much emotional resonance it doesn't need them. YES, THIS IS A SHOW TOO GOOD FOR ROCKET LAUNCHERS.
I am notoriously picky about media that attempts to portray red state American life. As a Southerner and someone who loves small towns fiercely, I am well aware of the horrible things about the places I love, but I am also aware of the good as well. The American media tends to be terrible at portraying life in "flyover country," and the less money the people being portrayed have, the more terrible the portrayal becomes.
This portrayal? Is wonderful.
These people are real. Their have real problems and real desires, and they have conversations I can actually imagine hearing people I know have.
I don't think there's every been a show that is so much about the characters. And these characters will crawl inside your heart and stay there.
You have Matt, who absolutely shatters my heart in a way that no other character ever has--he's so alone and so good and I am telling you right now: "The Son" is the greatest episode of television ever made. You have Tyra and her fierce, fierce clinging to her dreams that seem impossible--she wants to get out of Dillon and make something of herself even though everyone tells her she can't. You have Julie, who is the ultimate teenage girl character--she's a good girl, but she makes mistakes and those mistakes make sense; she can be immature but she can also be wonderful. You have Tim Riggins, who's a stereotypical bad boy on the surface, no parents, no morals, he drinks too much and uses women and doesn't seem to care about anything because he's been hurt so badly--but he grows up and learns responsibility and figures out what really matters to him and what he'll do to get it.
You have Smash, who has more confidence than any twelve people combined, but who you're rooting for because he also has a smile and dreams like you wouldn't believe--you want him to get every single thing he wants. You have Lyla, a princess on an overturned throne, whose life seemed perfect until it wasn't but who keeps fighting despite that. You have Jason, who has every single thing he's ever cared about taken from him and then has to fight to get even the smallest bit of it back. You have Landry, who's a giant nerd in that way that so many people really are, in a way you never see on TV, who wants things that people tell nerds they can't have and then goes out and gets them. You have Jess, who loves football more than any guy and who is absolutely going to become a football coach one day, I believe in her.
You have Vince, who is always a hair's breadth away from becoming a statistic, but who was just waiting for someone to give him a chance to show just how much he can be--which is so, so much. You have Becky, who has absolutely nothing going for her in life, but who has this huge open heart anyway. You have Luke, who is your kind of typical redneck boy who becomes so much more when he's called upon to have some integrity. You have Buddy Garrity, who you think you'll hate, but is so real (and who comes through when it counts in unexpected ways) that you can never quite do anything but accept him.
And you have Eric and Tami, the high school football coach and his guidance-counselor wife, who have the most beautiful marriage ever portrayed on TV. It's real: they fight and they disagree, they say things that hurt each other and they act stupid. But you never for one minute doubt their commitment to each other or to their marriage: they will get through anything and everything. And they also flirt and tease and kiss and confide in each other and sacrifice for each other. And they keep the town together: they care about kids no one else cares about, they fight and fight and fight for the people of this town who are constantly being told that they don't matter. They say: you do matter, and I'm going to prove it to you.
This show is about these people and the lives they live and the town they live in that holds them together. It's about the best and worst of what America--and people--can be. And it is so, so beautiful.
The next show isn't quite a work of art tour-de-force like FNL, but it's not trying to be. It's about a group of high school boys who have a band, and that band is really just an excuse to hang out together. But then things happen and it suddenly gets the opportunity to be more, and they have to figure out whether that's what they want, while dealing with loss and falling in love and figuring out how to communicate with their friends. It's a bromance show, sort of, except that it's so much more than that.
And, okay, it has the worst name in the history of names. Worse than Cougar Town, which is saying something. It's called Shut Up! Flower Boy Band, and there's a reason for the whole flower-boy thing, but I won't get into it now. Suffice it to say that I'm begging you to ignore the title because it is the worst. But the show is the best.
This is a show that takes teenagers seriously without actually falling into believing that they really are the center of the world--it's the perfect balance. It absolutely never patronizes to the characters or the viewers. The writing is amazing--it's only 16 episodes, but every single one of the characters feels fleshed-out and fully-realized. It also is perfectly paced, which almost never happens in a kdrama, and it has the most satisfying ending that gives you what you need without wrapping things up too neatly.
This is a show about growing up. That sounds lame, I know: how many coming-of-age stories are there in the world? But we keep telling them for a reason, and this show reminds me of those reasons. Because it's about that time in your life when the whole world feels open to you but at the same time everything seems too much, too scary. It's about that time when you realize that your decisions have actual consequences, that the choices you make now are going to shape your entire future, and about how you don't feel ready for that, but you rise to the occasion because you have to. It's about figuring out what you want out of life and also what you are and aren't willing to do to get it. It's about recognizing the fact that you can never know where you should be headed, you have to choose, not knowing, and that's absolutely scary and it doesn't ever get less scary, but you have to do it anyway because that's what growing up is. It's about learning when you love something not for what it is but for what it represents, and figuring out that you can let it go and still hold on to the thing it symbolizes. It's about friendship and falling in love and losing the things and people that matter to you and dreaming and working hard.
The main focus of the show is the relationships between the boys in the band, some of which are complicated and some of which are straightforward, but all of which I'm invested in. There are 3! different couples, too (with varying degrees of focus on them), and y'all, all 3 are wonderful--I was actively invested in all 3. And the main couple is just so wonderfully good for each other, functional and sweet while remaining really believable.
The one--one--downside to the show is that there aren't any relationships between the ladies. The ladies are AMAZING and I love them each to bits, but they don't interact with each other much, which is a real shame. But the rest of the show is so strong and the female characters are so beautiful that I think it's worth overlooking. Even if you’re typically someone who only is really interested in women’s stories (which I understand), I do believe you’ll still like this show. I really do.
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