Jan 08, 2022
I just finished this season. I will start by saying I’m definitely intrigued and eager to see where the show goes! If there is a confirmed season 2, I WILL be watching! That said, there are some strengths and weaknesses I saw in this show.
I’ll start with the positive. For one, I adored seeing such great inclusivity in a completely organic and non-preachy way. The women on this show were women of all sizes, races, ethnicities, and abilities, but it was never a big in-your-face orchestration and the writing didn’t intentionally and overtly pat itself on the back for that. As someone who has struggled with weight my whole life, it was a relief to see girls who were thinner and others who were not and to FINALLY see what I call the “John Candy” effect in females. John Candy was never “the fat character”; he was always a character that just happened to be fat and nobody talked about it or cared all that much. NONE of these girls were dubbed “The Fat Girl”. These characters were characters FIRST and not treated like quotas on a checklist, which was really refreshing to see! Additionally, while I see a lot of criticism on the jokes, I really felt they were standard Mindy Kaling style/Office fare. It’s your thing or it isn’t. It’s my thing, so I appreciated the humor of this show! Finally, I loved the arc involving Leighton coming out, as I thought it was so honest and found great relief in that the season didn’t end with a major revolutionary change in her; just a small but powerful step. That echoed so strongly the experiences of friends and family I know who have struggled with the same thing.
Okay, now to the down side. For one thing, this could be my own issue as a viewer, but I thought that notions of class division were kind of tone deaf and warped. A person is “poor” for struggling to afford tuition at an Ivy League University? I wouldn’t say that makes someone poor; I’d say that it makes them standard, particularly when her mom was able to save to swing dinner at a fancy restaurant, which many women couldn’t. That Leighton was a genius without even trying by virtue of the fact that she was born with a silver spoon, but the character Kimberly was a complete deer in headlights because she wasn’t brought up in a royalty-level aristocracy was a bit far removed form reality, and I think it alienates a big portion of a young demographic who could resonate with Kimberly. Rather than watch this show and FEEL suddenly like they’re poor, they should have been reminded that their struggles are common ones and that they’re perfectly fine. There are many people who start from humble, middle-class, public school roots who grow up to be successful, and I think this show either intentionally or unintentionally tried to dispute that.
Additionally, I’m all for female empowerment, but does it always have to come out of making every male in existence look like a scumbag? There wasn’t a single redeeming male character on the show – except, perhaps, Canaan – and even the attempts they made to redeem characters (Eric) were unconvincing and sad to me. Yes, there are scumbags out there. No, not every man is one. This show was able to show females in an honest way and depict them as complicated and flawed, but ultimately good if you got to know them. Yet, the message seemed to be that, if you’re a guy, you’re only out for one thing and you’re genetically programmed to be demeaning and rude. I think that message does women a huge disservice. Rather than say that all men are born crap, perhaps there could have been a more delicate balance where, yes, guys make bad decisions, but they can be good people too just like we can. I think that we could do well for ourselves if we look at each person as an individual and don’t make generalizations about their intent or character as a virtue of their gender.
That being said, while there were a few kinks in its design, I really did enjoy the show and am eager to see where they take it!
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