Thursday, September 23, 2010

A lesson from Raising Hope

I like to catch the pilots every season, so I just watched Raising Hope.
First of all, I love Garret Dillahunt. I love his voice, I love his clever redneck personality, I love his bone structure, I love that he can whip in and out of comedy and drama at the drop of a hat.

Now that that's out of the way, watching this show felt like swimming in floaties.

These people are supposed to be poor white trash rednecks.  I did not believe for one goddamn second that anyone ever involved in this show actually spent any time in a white trash home. Poor people are depressing; the only show that ever made that shit funny was Roseanne, and that's only because those people were so horrible you laughed at how glad you were that you weren't them. And no, Married With Children doesn't count because that was a fantasy white trash home.

Anyway, on this show they say some white trashy things, but they do it with complete enunciation and verb agreement and their clothes are clean.

I'm all for defying stereotypes, but first you have to embrace them. There's a moment on this show where the white trash dad and the white trash mom share a moment where you get that they love each other. They've been together since high school, but they seem to be a perfect match. Now, this would be a nice twist on the stereotype except it's not surprising in the least since these people don't really seem all that white trashy.

And while we're at it, speaking with a Southern accent does not automatically make you white trash. And fuck off with the assumption that it does.
Is it wrong to hope that show gets canceled so Garret Dillahunt can spend more time doing things I like? That seems wrong, but still kind of correct.

3 comments:

  1. Who says they're supposed to be poor white trash rednecks? Reviewers? I never heard that instruction in what I thought was a very funny show.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The dialogue tell us they're poor white trash, but see? You didn't buy it either.

    They work as pool cleaners and housekeepers. Mom smokes like a chimney and got pregnant at 15. They were all excited that the son's new girlfriend could pronounce big words. They said all these things, but they didn't play these things.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm still trying to deal with Martha Plimpton playing a grandmother.

    ReplyDelete

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