TMC
05-04-2022, 01:22 AM
https://jacksonupperco.com/2022/05/03/the-ten-best-roseanne-episodes-of-season-six/
Accordingly, this season is less adept at using its characters, and, although many of its episodic plots are not as BIG as last year’s, there are more plots stretching weeks at a time now, which makes these narratives equally lofty, and since, in the case of Roseanne, the show used to be a relatable slice of everyday life, such cumbersome storytelling continues to feel like a direct threat to its identity — its credibility with realism. Okay, I want to be fair, for while I don’t care for the shallow teen angst, I do see the value in Jackie’s storyline. Maybe not in the pregnancy… but in her romance, for, given that her last serious love interest was a domestic abuser, her learning to trust again is motivated growth — and an evolution that we want to explore. However, the problem is… her new guy Fred doesn’t have much of a personality, and so the character opportunities promised by this arc are limited. Laurie Metcalf would walk away with her third and final Roseanne Emmy after this season, but the episodes themselves don’t really do as much for Jackie as they should — and certainly not on behalf of the premise, which, again, is nil now; that is, there’s no economic struggle suggested by the baby. (I think the one-night-stand bit is supposed to reinforce the “white trash” moniker, but that requires some mental gymnastics, especially in a post-Murphy Brown era!) To that point, the series’ use of drama has changed — most of the above story notions fuel romantic arcs, and Six only truly verges on melodrama a few times, like when it employs some revisionist history for Dan’s childhood (just as Roseanne got in Four/Five).
Accordingly, this season is less adept at using its characters, and, although many of its episodic plots are not as BIG as last year’s, there are more plots stretching weeks at a time now, which makes these narratives equally lofty, and since, in the case of Roseanne, the show used to be a relatable slice of everyday life, such cumbersome storytelling continues to feel like a direct threat to its identity — its credibility with realism. Okay, I want to be fair, for while I don’t care for the shallow teen angst, I do see the value in Jackie’s storyline. Maybe not in the pregnancy… but in her romance, for, given that her last serious love interest was a domestic abuser, her learning to trust again is motivated growth — and an evolution that we want to explore. However, the problem is… her new guy Fred doesn’t have much of a personality, and so the character opportunities promised by this arc are limited. Laurie Metcalf would walk away with her third and final Roseanne Emmy after this season, but the episodes themselves don’t really do as much for Jackie as they should — and certainly not on behalf of the premise, which, again, is nil now; that is, there’s no economic struggle suggested by the baby. (I think the one-night-stand bit is supposed to reinforce the “white trash” moniker, but that requires some mental gymnastics, especially in a post-Murphy Brown era!) To that point, the series’ use of drama has changed — most of the above story notions fuel romantic arcs, and Six only truly verges on melodrama a few times, like when it employs some revisionist history for Dan’s childhood (just as Roseanne got in Four/Five).