It pains me to give this series a 6. I am a longtime fan of Mr. Robbins and Ms. Hunter. I am a fan of Peter Macdissi. I was happy to see gay male characters in the cast, even though they are predictably twisted. Alan Ball's previous masterpieces are among my most memorable TV favorites.
But this is something else. I do not dispute whether it is an accurate portrayal of New Portlandia. It may well be. If the social landscape of Portland is dominated by New Left politics, then so be it. However, presenting a portrayal of this by excluding any possibility of outlying thought or characters amounts to an infomercial for those politics. After all 39% of voters in Oregon voted for Donald Trump in 2016. Some of these people must live in or around Portland, unless they have been tarred and feathered. Eastern Oregon voted Republican.
The show is trying to be entertainment. I am aware of this. But the sharp political divisions in the country are ignored totally in this drama, even though it embarks on a course through politically charged issues. It feels like the writers were themselves afraid to even consider a sane conservative or centrist character. That makes it propaganda, not simply storytelling. When anyone expresses a challenge to the enforced Leftist perspective in the piece, they are immediately cast as either disturbed, racist, sexist or whatever.
The most ironic segment is at a dinner party attended by three Black characters and a White character. One of the Black diners explains to another that Portland had been founded as a White Utopia as an illustration of the source of deep racism encountered by them. This is done without acknowledgment of the White diner's marital relationship with one of the Black diners. The White diner, previously shown as a sensitive and fairly intelligent person, acts like a fool, seemingly unaffected by the whole topic. All of this deep racialism occurs in a lovely bourgeois home owned by the Black couple. Such oppression!
White Privilege is beaten like a drum throughout the episodes. White people outside the multiracial family at the series' core are inevitably portrayed as insensitive, flaky or guilt-ridden about being born with skin-sans-color. A particularly evil character is a White female cop who is written as a a butch lesbian. It is implied that she enjoys interacting with the teenage daughter of the starring multiracial family but comes close to sexually abusing the married Black adoptive daughter of the same family, after the two are arrested for assaulting a pro-life protester. And, of course, the pro-life protester is revealed as a pedophile who must drop charges to avoid being put in jail for a parole violation. The stuff of a high-school student's short story assignment.
My disappointment centers on this series being just another extension of Hollywood hypocrisy. It is like one of the recent award shows, turned into a pageant for Leftist politics. Perhaps Portlandians can watch it and feel proud of the direction their culture appears to be going. Perhaps not. It is impossible to tell from much of the content which comes across forced and dimensionless.
But this is something else. I do not dispute whether it is an accurate portrayal of New Portlandia. It may well be. If the social landscape of Portland is dominated by New Left politics, then so be it. However, presenting a portrayal of this by excluding any possibility of outlying thought or characters amounts to an infomercial for those politics. After all 39% of voters in Oregon voted for Donald Trump in 2016. Some of these people must live in or around Portland, unless they have been tarred and feathered. Eastern Oregon voted Republican.
The show is trying to be entertainment. I am aware of this. But the sharp political divisions in the country are ignored totally in this drama, even though it embarks on a course through politically charged issues. It feels like the writers were themselves afraid to even consider a sane conservative or centrist character. That makes it propaganda, not simply storytelling. When anyone expresses a challenge to the enforced Leftist perspective in the piece, they are immediately cast as either disturbed, racist, sexist or whatever.
The most ironic segment is at a dinner party attended by three Black characters and a White character. One of the Black diners explains to another that Portland had been founded as a White Utopia as an illustration of the source of deep racism encountered by them. This is done without acknowledgment of the White diner's marital relationship with one of the Black diners. The White diner, previously shown as a sensitive and fairly intelligent person, acts like a fool, seemingly unaffected by the whole topic. All of this deep racialism occurs in a lovely bourgeois home owned by the Black couple. Such oppression!
White Privilege is beaten like a drum throughout the episodes. White people outside the multiracial family at the series' core are inevitably portrayed as insensitive, flaky or guilt-ridden about being born with skin-sans-color. A particularly evil character is a White female cop who is written as a a butch lesbian. It is implied that she enjoys interacting with the teenage daughter of the starring multiracial family but comes close to sexually abusing the married Black adoptive daughter of the same family, after the two are arrested for assaulting a pro-life protester. And, of course, the pro-life protester is revealed as a pedophile who must drop charges to avoid being put in jail for a parole violation. The stuff of a high-school student's short story assignment.
My disappointment centers on this series being just another extension of Hollywood hypocrisy. It is like one of the recent award shows, turned into a pageant for Leftist politics. Perhaps Portlandians can watch it and feel proud of the direction their culture appears to be going. Perhaps not. It is impossible to tell from much of the content which comes across forced and dimensionless.
