Vee

I saw an alt right tweetstorm earlier about how this is all secretly an act on Roseanne's part to be 'subversive' and infiltrate them because of Mark Jr., D.J.'s black kid, etc. It's no act - she's just that contradictory in her feelings. She says and does repugnant things but championed the Mark character, giving D.J. a black wife and child and so on. The hard and somewhat messy facts are, the show's gamble was correct as were Roseanne's own instincts about bringing it back, just as she had similar instincts about how the original show would go to #1 with or without the showrunner she kicked out in Season 1 (Matt Williams). It's done so well because both sides embraced it. Critics seem to like it, the left is very conflicted about it (as am I in some ways), and the alt right also seems increasingly confused the day after. They can't decide whether it's theirs or a false flag. The answer is it's for everyone - and produced by a very liberal production team and an openly gay showrunner, starring a woman who has made repulsive right wing gestures in recent years, days and hours - and that makes it messy. We can't pigeonhole Roseanne, for all her ugliness and behavior I think is reprehensible, like the thing with David Hogg the other day. But she's more than just that, and the show is definitely not alt right propaganda. It's not Last Man Standing. I'm not saying we should tailor more entertainment 'for everyone' - I think that's a fool's errand, I don't have much stomach for it morally right now, and I think very few shows could successfully do that. I think this one could.

My heart bleeds:

I said this both here and in my status update, but that moment is one of the best I've seen on Roseanne since, I dunno... season 6? And it was also clearly deep for Gilbert.

Deadline: I am pretty critical so I would put the first night at Season 7-8 level of quality - not bad, but not amazing, with some great moments and scenes and a ton of potential. There were some great biting lines but they also went with the obvious gag a few too many times. Sara Gilbert and Ames McNamara were the standouts, Laurie Metcalf and John Goodman are always excellent and Roseanne and Lecy were slowly finding their pace. Early stuff is always rocky with revivals so I hope it keeps picking up.

A bad headline for a good interview:

Yes, that was definitely very Jackie to pump up her latest job. I did like the tender bit with Darlene and Harris worrying about Mark - I was glad Harris isn't all edge. That gets old, it got older in the later years of the old show. Roseanne had her best moment in a creaky beginning of the season with the kid playing Mark - them cuddling and him taunting her reminded me of how she and Michael Fishman used to interact at that age. That is Darlene's old teacher from the early seasons at Mark's school! Wow. And the scene with him and Darlene at the end was great. The beat Sara Gilbert took controlling her emotions before she told him kids would play with him really got me. She's so good here. And Ames McNamara is preternaturally good. I liked Dan hugging him and playing ball with him. Reserving judgment on the Becky story until it moves beyond one note. Lecy does still have the comic timing as Becky ranted about having a dentist who doesn't work out of a van.

So, my thoughts on ep 1: As critics say the pilot is definitely creaky - especially Roseanne, who hasn't had to act in a long time and it shows. And the Barney Fife is turned way up on Jackie, which I didn't care for but which Laurie Metcalf always enjoys. The gaslighting accusation Jackie made was smart though, and has roots in the old show. I thought the treatment of the issue was soft, but realistically I'm not sure how much they could do without getting really ugly and turning people all the way off. So if they want to move on with a more progressive show in spite of Roseanne's complicated politics, so be it. The whole Becky thing comes in out of nowhere but whatever, it's a pilot. I did find it interesting the live audience clearly is cheering for Jackie and booing a lot of Roseanne's Trump lines. The cast, old and new, is what works. I did like the commentary on Roseanne's failed book/Season 9. That's BS about Becky not finishing high school though - I could swear she did. The Becky stuff could easily have been (non-)written for Sarah Chalke, which I didn't like. I hope it improves. Darlene is softer and a bit more matured but she still has some great lines. She isn't a vicious caricature but she still has some edge. But when she started breaking down talking about having to come home, that got me. They never let Sara do that much on the old show - show that much open vulnerability - and she proved she's still an actual actress. To be the heart of the new show Darlene has to have one, and she does here more than ever because she's grown up.

The little kid playing Mark Jr. is already a star. It's uncanny how much his mannerisms and face remind me of Jennifer Elise Cox - the demented Jan in the Brady Bunch films.

Holy shít.

I'm sure they'll be locking it down shortly.

That's a renewal.

I'm just annoyed the social media reaction is already so tribalized - the alt right is trying to adopt it while it's not an alt right show tonally in any way, certainly not with Sara Gilbert and co. running it, while a lot of the online left is signaling how it can't be allowed. The actual reviews (from progressive critics) and quality of the show are being largely ignored in the noise atm. Hopefully that'll die down. I hope people read the Todd VanDerWerff review I put up a page or two ago.

Those scenes were so tough to watch, but very real. The thing is I never felt they were done to vilify Becky - I just felt they showed her as a fundamentally different person. It was with the recast that Becky became utterly two-dimensional.

I agree - I think they tried to rebuild Becky a bit when Lecy came back in S8, but the whole season was so hit and miss and then she was gone again. By then they were way too wedded to Darlene being the true heir to the show and Becky the fùck-up, and that stuck. While I understand and agree with shifting the focus to Darlene as a mother and the next generation, I hope it won't be quite so cut and dried here with the two sisters.

Lecy's Becky was never afraid to be raw and difficult - that's why I found her eminently watchable even when she could be so relentlessly spoiled and immature or unlikable. A real intelligence was behind it which made it harder to watch at times, because it was so real. Sarah's Becky was just a cardboard cutout. I do hope Becky's character doesn't just become a gag as she did on the original series post-recast - from what I've heard I think they dig into the Mark issue more. Still need to watch last night, I was at a movie.

Wrong thread.

He comes off as a very sweet, introverted man in every interview I've seen over the years. He went through a lot.

Todd VanDerWerff weighs in. More at link.

I don't care much for her either, but she's a good pipeline for certain things.

The trailer!

I am entirely too excited about OLTL's Renee Elise Goldsberry (and Kyle MacLachlan) doing the adaptation of John Bellairs' The House with a Clock in its Walls. I worshipped Bellairs' horror stories as a kid and it is beyond me they haven't been adapted more.