It’s been almost seven months since I wrote a critic’s notebook wondering when television would catch up to the anti-Trump outrage and tap into the rich vein of what that actually is.
The world has been waiting. Why the slow roll, ya big tease?
Would we get deeper looks at authoritarian aggression,
Fundamentally changing America as we knew it wasn’t authoritarian aggression. Deregulating, lowering taxes, returning power back to states, nominating judges who don’t write laws but scrutinize laws to judge if they are constitutional… THAT’S AUTHORITARIAN AGGRESSION.
or the ways in which issues of race, gender and sexuality have divided America?
Colleges that want to segregate whites and activists that demand we go along with calling Bruce Jenner a woman is not divisive at all.
A clever post-Americans espionage story, updated perhaps? Or maybe just some good satirical comedies?
There is, I think, real opportunity there. But then again, I’m no longer interested in it.
Like, not at all. Please give me anything but a show even vaguely referencing or alluding to Trump.
Most shows that allude to Trump bash him incessantly. Probably 99% of them.
Like so many people, I have Trump fatigue.
You created it.
Constantly reading about his scandals
What scandals?
and incompetence
What incompetence?
and daily blunders
What blunders?
that make the country either a laughing stock
They laughed at Obama, not Trump. Trump they fear.
or just a sad shell of itself — or a large swath of land on the verge of nuclear devastation, take your pick — tends to get exhausting.
??
And no matter how many shows send him up or winningly pull off that you-gotta-laugh-to-keep-from-crying trick, from Saturday Night Live to Jimmy Kimmel to Samantha Bee and John Oliver, there’s nothing that can give me the energy to come back from the soul-sucking drain of his presidency. Television is not going to make that go away. Only Trump literally going away can fix that.
Oh well. Strap yourself in, it’s going to be a bumpy 6 years.
And a show about Trump would ultimately be pointless to the people its message would be aimed at anyway. Here are two examples: The Handmaid’s Tale and Roseanne.
(I redacted a rather long-winded self-suck session about a class this guy teaches.)
Another said that Trump supporters wouldn’t get it anyway.
Yes. We stupid. Not like Obama supporters in the inner cities, those poet laureates and PHDs.
I like that kid, even if that’s the kind of wide brush Republicans hate to be painted with.
I have a wider brush. Not only is it wide, it is accurate.
And yet: Roseanne.
I’m not watching Roseanne for a number of reasons, so let me enumerate them in order of weighted reasoning: 1. I didn’t like the original. 2. I don’t like Roseanne, the person. 3. I don’t care to understand my divided country from that perspective — I know that perspective because I’m living in it, reading about it and watching its supporters behave badly while also in it. I’m not just happy to be in a bubble from people like the fictional Roseanne (or the real one) — I delight in the distance. I’m a proud coastal elite. I don’t want any part of those Roseanne-esque people and their ignorance or viewpoints. That’s not soap-boxing — that’s fact. Live your tragically insular, religiously hypocritical white lives somewhere I’m not. I’m fine with the divide — you do you. Let’s never meet and I’ll ignore you and suffer your breathing if we do.
Would this call for division fall under race, gender or sexuality? And does this essay stop being transmitted 20 miles from the Atlantic and Pacific shorelines?
Oh, wait: 4. I don’t like a lot of network shows. 5. I particularly don’t like reboots.
So, that’s an emphatic no on me watching Roseanne.
I’m assuming viewers on the other side think the same. I don’t believe Trump supporters in particular or Republicans in general really want to watch a drama or comedy that conveys any message that goes against their core beliefs or takes them to task for having those beliefs. As a rule, I don’t think people want to be lectured or hectored.
Then why did you write this?
Of course, that won’t stop people from making those series if they feel creatively motivated to do so. I don’t see many series other than The Handmaid’s Tale or Roseanne that are realistically linked to the Trump Era, although there’s a bad on-the-nose cable comedy I won’t even mention.
I have news for ya, dopey, any show that comes out now is linked to the Trump era. He’s the president. The China Syndrome didn’t mention Carter, but I think of it as a Carter era movie.
More may come. I’m not sure that’s necessary, much less a good idea. While I absolutely believe that the United States in 2018 under Trump has enough racists, homophobes, gun nuts, under-educated and easily manipulated people to make the core ideas of The Handmaid’s Tale spring to life tomorrow if given the chance, is sending that message to people who already know this in their bones an artistically relevant achievement?
Is this an artistically relevant review? I know you have dreams of a Peabody, or whatever the frig award leftist’s shower their brethren with, but was it necessary?
We are a divided nation. From our news to our views — so often annoyingly expressed out loud in cafes
Two morons bring in their own water to a place that sells water, sit down order nothing and ask to use the bathroom. When access is refused because it’s for paying customers, idiots like you say it’s Jim Crow all over again, but WE’RE dividing the nation. Okay, dopey.
and via social media — there is no longer a pretense of bipartisanship. From the 2016 election to now, we have seen ourselves more clearly than anytime in the last 40 years. It’s not a pretty picture, but it’s the real us. I’m not remotely optimistic that the divide will be narrowed anytime soon and I don’t need a TV series to illustrate that to me, at least right now.
YOU JUST WROTE THE MOST DIVISIVE PARAGRAPH I HAVE EVER READ (SEE ABOVE) (SEE “SUFFERING THE AIR THAT I BREATHE) AND YOU’RE LAMENTING THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF THE DIVIDE NARROWING???
Maybe you will get that award. This is the kind of retarded, illogical rhetoric that resonates with the dipshitz on the left.
Winner of This Week’s punchable Face, and it’s only Monday!
“Like so many people, I have Trump fatigue.”
Let me help you out with that. Suicide is a viable alternative.
Obviously Tim Goodman is no relation to John. The guys a queen. Roseanne may piss me off someday. But right now I’ll watch every episode.
What a whiny bitch. Yes, there is a big divide in this country, and it’s because of intolerant leftist assholes like the sniveling simpleton who wrote that crap. If leftists push the country over the edge (and they’re closer than they know), little Timmy Goodman and his ilk will be cut down like weeds.
That picture of him with blind lust in his eyes makes me assume he’s about to get tea bagged.
He looks like somebody’s grandmother.
He wrote it for himself and his fellow leftist clones.
notice he didnt say “broad” brush cuz that would identify all brushes as females or some such bs.
but he use “wide brush,” thats politically correct. sheesh
More like “fisting” time.
WHITE HATING WHITES do not exonerate themselves from racism.
It just makes them look like the same haters they’ve always been.
Mr. Illustr8r and I were at Costco on a Saturday (going against our rule to only hit Costco mid week an hour before closing). The parking lot was amass of insufferable libs (considering the zip code) entitled parking behaviors and in store inability to steer carts.
Mr. Illustr8r said, “Lib and let Lib,” as we were stuck behind someone who can only decide if they want the big can of nuts if they are in the middle of the aisle, clueless, to others trying to get by. So, anytime we wanted to smack anyone we just say, Lib and Let Lib, and laugh.
The more I encounter Libs I am so happy I am not. Liberalism alters your brain and heart plus changes your bone structure into a punchable face. No thanks.
Ya know the thing about punchable faces is, sooner or later you need to punch them. Otherwise it’s all bull shit. Not trying to be an asshole but what I’m saying is the truth.
The funniest thing, if Progs ever get the utopian society they so ardently want, the “intelligencia” will be the first to go.
Well, after all the guns are gone, eh?
Nope, not giving mine up, you can keep knocking Tim, you still can’t come in.
I Like the divide, for now. Let the libs occupy Malibu, SF, Greenwich Village, Upper West Side. I’ll take Texas.
I don’t even like their vocabulary, including words like sexism, homophobia, gender, empowerment, sexuality, and a bunch more. I don’t use those words unless absolutely necessary, which I hope to be never.
Their entertainment industry, for the most part, is pumping out shit products that I refuse to buy.
They don’t realize the damage they have done. They have turned a decent society into a very sick one. Oversexed, overdrugged, mesmerized by celebs, and lacking common sense. If we ever got invaded by a hostile power, they would do nothing but lay down.
Bad_Brad April 23, 2018 at 11:12 pm
Suicide is an excellent option for liberals and atheists. Let’s hope they have nationwide classes on how to best do it. No guns permitted to do the job though.
I strongly encourage liberals to consider it.
I really don’t like Roseanne the person and although right now she’s all in for Trump, I know she’s still a libtard.
I will continue watching the show though, just because it causes other libtards so much anxiety that the ratings are good.
Plus it’s funny, especially since they haven’t been showing the screwed up boy in skirts.
Anonymous April 24, 2018 at 1:19 am
Rosanne may have turned to conservatism because she’s Jewish, which is as good a reason as any. They are finally understanding that US conservatives are Israel’s best friend. Alan Dershowitz (attorney) is another one.
It’s a great thing for us, and horrible for liberals to lose that demographic.
That guy Tim Goodman…what sort of man makes a living from being a critic for TV shows? That’s like being a garbage collector or a shit shoveler. TV is all crap, so the analogy is valid.
Garbage collector is hard honest work. I’d say he’s like the guy who reviews garbage collectors.
Either this guy’s butt plug has a burr on it, or his boyfriend must have chipped a tooth.
A rampant raging case of TDS, Trump Derangement Syndrome
Aaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnd a nuther “critic” otherwise known as a whiny, little bitch frustrated with his inability to be an actor…or a man!
Um Handmaid’s Tale came out in the 1980’s, so did Roseanne.
Roseanne is timeless, HT is just creepy
that beta male rage is something else…
punchable fag face
The pretense of bipartisanship disappeared in the Obama era, dick wad.
Best to position yourself behind and smack him in the back of the head. You don’t want to see what’s likely to cum out of his mouth.
dee April 24, 2018 at 7:36 am
HT does seem creepy all right. I haven’t, nor will I ever, watch it, but I know the gist of it, a future dystopia run by men where women are forced to wear bonnets, have babies, and spend all of their time in the kitchen.
Such a scenario has never happened since 1776, except possibly in the Amish communities. I don’t know why the author, Atwood, would come up with such a bizarre scenario and where people like the faggot Goodman would believe it is imminent. Liberals and queers are always fearful of something.
People that fearful are useless for anything other than spreading hysteria.
Typical old gay man