I have a friend Glen who shares all the ins and outs of the TV world. He posts upcoming shows and cancellations and everything anyone could want to know about TV. I suppose he really enjoys it because it must take a lot of his time. I like to read about the new things coming out and always hope for something a little deeper than a sit-com or less violent then some of the police dramas. So this spring as I saw info on a new show Rise I thought that it sounded interesting. Not something Brian would watch there are no guns or bombs exploding. So each week not even committing to recording it I would watch it On Demand whenever I had an hour alone at home which isn't often. I found some of it to be a bit too real life for me but I liked that it was based on how life was when I was a kid. Families eating dinner together. Kids getting together in the evening for a football game and going out afterwards. Each family with their own drama and all this surrounds a school play. Now if you have not yet watched the final episode stop reading and watch. I will wait...
For those that didn't take the time to watch the 10 episodes I will give you a quick rundown on some of the things that were going on at Stanton High School. A catholic boy struggling with his sexuality kisses another boy, a girl becomes a boy and a foster kid sleeps in the light room in the school auditorium because it is better than his foster home until the teacher finds out then moves in with his family. The star quarterback's mom is dying and he is in the play and the female star of the play is the girl who's mom is seeing the married football coach. The girl who thinks she should be the star is struggling with her football coach father splitting up with her mom and the female teacher that has worked with the drama dept for 20 years gets passed up for the director job by a man. And this new director well he has his own issues at home with his son drinking and he brought home a homeless foster kid wants to put on a play that is going to change the world. If this doesn't make you want to watch well. I can't help you.
My friend Glen posts the past few weeks the drama of behind the scenes TV that the show we like to watch Scorpion is not going to be renewed too much drama on the set because two of the stars really dated and now can't work together. People of Hollywood when will you learn. Another show I like Lethal Weapon may or may not be renewed because one of the stars is so full of himself the others can't be around him. Really this is your livelihood or do you just believe another opportunity is around the corner. Glen now says they are going to bring the show back but the character that I really like, the troubled cop, he was the problem maker and his character has been re-cast. Not sure I will like it. So I thought that maybe Rise would be able to fill the gap that one of these other shows would leave. But just like in the show the reality of real life is really too much for today's TV audience. The viewing public would much rather see unrealistic things like people getting married after just meeting or people living naked in the wild with TV crews all around them than to watch how realistic people live with their own personal dramas.
Now I have given those that haven't watched plenty of time to stop reading so Spoiler alert it will all be spilled in the next few paragraphs.
It makes perfect sense I mean it is real life imitating art or art imitating real life either way. The people of Stanton as they start to hear about the play, parents each with their own concern about their students part in the play and that the subjects broached in the play are too mature for their teen. The ironic part is they are all subjects that teens have been exposed to for years. Teenage drinking, pregnancy, sexuality. So why not watch a show like this with your kids and have a conversation about it instead of it being taboo and well leave your kids life to chance. Just like the Catholic family struggling with what might be going on in their son's life the answer must be to pull him out of the public school and put him in a Catholic school. How will that fix anything? And if you don't watch this show with your kids they will never drink or have sex until they have moved out of your house. Come on world. I know. I don't have kids and I don't understand how hard it is to be a parent today. Nope. I don't. But I can relate to when my parents were getting divorced and the things that I did as a teen some just like the kids on the show because everyone else did and others well I made those mistakes on my own. And any day of the year I can tell you all the reasons I shouldn't have made those choices but I did because I didn't have the nerve to say no or the ability to walk away. Why not deal with that subject at home and remind your kids that they don't have to do whatever it is that everyone else is doing. Trust me there were things I knew my dad would kill me if I did them and most of them I didn't do. Yes, some of the things were fun and so are the things these kids are doing. As they practice for the play they see the progress and are proud of their work but then have to go out and defend it all the same to their parents to teachers and the principal always working the angle that his head will be on the chopping block if this play goes on as rehearsed.
In the weeks leading up to the play the principal and the PTA moms come to see a run through and basically ask the director to cut out the parts that they feel might offend or might not be appropriate for some. So they slash scenes and change costumes to make them more appropriate and by the time they are done they have changed the play. Is the kid going to commit suicide oh no that can't happen. He is just going to be really sad or is it she because this is the transgender kid. At the end of the big number do that say it is F- up or Hosed. I am not a fan of the word but doesn't mean that as an expletive it does have it's place in the dictionary. I would assume there are voices out there like mine that feel that this show does have its place on TV. But the voices of the ones that are offended. You know the ones. They are struggling in life with their own issues and don't want to be reminded on TV that life is hard. Not that living naked in the wilderness is easy if it was we all would be doing it.
The two teachers the one who has been working with the drama department and the new to the dance director have made compromises and have gotten under each others skin all at the same time but always coming back together for the good of the production. She is the choreographer and prop master and he is the visionary that wants to make his mark on the world or at least his small town. In the days leading up the principal makes a deal with her and says she can have the program next year if she just gets these changes made and well the director he sees that she might be working an angle and confronts her and now she isn't going to opening night. You feel it don't you it is all about to blow up in someone's face.
Here we are, all the drama at home these kids have practiced their hearts out just like we did for band in High School. The principal walks into the directors office on opening night and says that he and the PTA moms were talking and there is just one more scene that needs to be cut. If you agree to cut it the play will go on. It is opening night there are people already sitting in the auditorium and he wants another change. There is no time for another change. Now in my head I have known for the last two weeks what is about to happen because I am the person who will stick my neck out for what is right and if I believed in the beginning that this play was ok, it is.
The principal walks out and there he is standing in front of his entire student cast. The director had asked the other teacher to come but she wouldn't budge. She felt offended not so much that she was found out but that he said that she was putting herself in front of the students. She to was just trying to do what she thought was the best. The director looks at the kids and one asks are we cutting that scene and he said, "No. Do it as we originally rehearsed. Do the whole thing as we originally rehearsed." The transgender kid asks, "am I really sad or am I committing suicide" and he says, you are committing suicide". Now he knows he is probably committing career suicide by making this decision. So the girls are removing the extra material added to their costumes to make them less revealing and the transgender student is looking for the prop gun and it can't be found. The student prop master has to make the call to the other teacher asking where would the gun be? And she keeps asking why and what is going on and she says, "cough once if the suicide scene is going on". The student coughs and she runs to get into the shower because there is a play to go to tonight.
There they sit in the middle of the theater the principal and the school board president and the PTA moms. When the curtain goes up they immediately notice the costumes are more revealing than they thought they should be. Oh my did they just say the "F" word. The principal gets up and thinks he can stop this. Thinks he can stop the two boys from kissing or the the girl being beaten or the kids dealing with pregnancy and abortion. But there she is the teacher that was willing to cave but not anymore. She tells him how proud she is of these students and how hard they worked and you can't stop it now.
This is how I feel about the show. NBC basically put a show on TV with some depth so that the people who can't handle it could complain and then what cave to them. Or is this just a ploy that they are that brave director and next season there will be more. It is basically the choice of the network. Be brave or cave.
I know I am just one person but I have just given you every reason to cancel the show and to keep it on the air. It is your choice now. Are you brave enough to show your true colors like your Peacock emblem or are you really an ostrich sticking your head in the sand.
I really enjoyed watching the show. Thanks for that.
