Some of my progressive, open minded friends have a LOT to say about Roseanne Barr and her show this week. It's as if since the March For Your Life marches are over, they need something new to be outraged about. To which i say, please keep being outraged by gun violence!.
Look, I get it. The anger toward Trump in 2016 getting elected isn't going away, and every day it becomes less and less about "our person not winning" and more and more about "the worst possible person in all of humanity won" So yeah, I am angry at people who voted for Trump (like Roseanne the non fiction person) and still support his "policies" (like Roseanne the non fiction person). Honestly, I mostly avoid any kind of conversation or interaction at all with family or friends who I know voted for Trump. There is definitely some sort of Civil War going on in our country right now that doesn't as of yet involve a war level of gun fire and blood shed.
BUT I am equally angry and some of my liberal friends who are usually on my team, but who voted for Jill Stein or wrote in Bernie or worst of all did not vote at all. They are just as responsible for the Trump presidency as any one who DID vote for him. Those people have joining our parades NOW, but they don't get a free pass. At least not with me.
So with all that anger going around, is lecturing people on how they shouldn't be watching a TV show really a battle you want to fight?
It isn't for me. I should also tell you that I don't like when people tell me what to do. So if you lecture me to do something, it will most likely have the opposite effect. If my parents were alive, you can ask them. They know this well. And while I express my strong opinions about many many things out of my mouth and on social media, I try very hard not to tell people what to do. I try to lay out the facts, and if people make stupid choices despite that then so be it. I say I try to do this, so if you ever see or hear differently please call me out on my BS.
But I digress. So getting back to "Roseanne". "Roseanne" is perhaps my favorite comedy show of all time. So I was always going to watch the reboot of "Roseanne" since the day it was announced into existence, but I REALLY REALLY was going to watch it after some of my very "progressive thinking" friends willed me not to watch it. That's just what I do. I kind of like doing my own thinking.
It's funny that Roseanne is getting called out by liberals because of her politics because back when it was on long ago, it was getting called out by conservatives. My mother, who leaned conservative, hated it for the reasons I liked it. I liked it because no TV program is ever going to show a 100% percent realistic family, but for me Roseanne was the closest I had ever seen and I still believe that to be true.
So yes the actress who plays Roseanne is infuriating to people for many reasons. Right now she is infuriating to liberal minded people (including myself) because she voted and supports Trump, but she used to infuriate conservatives because of her treatment of their sacred national anthem. Roseanne has always been a rabble rouser or a pot stirrer. Being a bit of a pot stirrer myself, i have always liked that about her even when I don't agree with her (and that is fairly often).
Separating the artist and the art is always tricky. It is something I have struggled with with a lot of Woody Allen movies among other things. But in this case Roseanne may be on to something. She voted for the same person that 46% of voters also voted for. So she wasn't alone in that vote, but she realized how polarized this country is and now she is making a statement about that on her show. I was interested to see how the reboot would address our 2018 reality, and i am really pleased with what she did. Her show is not pro Trump as some have said. One character being pro something doesn't make the whole show pro something. My guess is that more of her writers and actors on the show did not vote for Trump than did and that opposite point of view is certainly more than represented on the show that I watched last night.
The other thing besides the family aspect of Roseanne that I have always appreciated is the way her show takes on issues that other shows won't usually touch. And not just that, but her show takes on these issues in a very gray way. What I mean is as humans we like things to be black or white. Art is often either pro this or against that. Gray is uncomfortable for most people. But " Roseanne" has always dealt with issues in a gray way. The show puts the issues out there but doesn't do our thinking for us. So whether or not I agree with a character's point of view on her show I appreciate that it wasn't just one viewpoint that was shoved down my throat like I see in a lot of other artistic expression.
I like that. We need more of tha--t especially now. So yeah, if you don't like Roseanne and don't want to watch her show. HAVE AT IT. But I can and will watch "Roseanne" if I want to .
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