N.C. Harrison examines a sitcom in which the father figure isn’t portrayed as a bumbling doofus.
I apparently have the taste in television of a sixteen year old girl. That’s all right, though, because even though I look like a lumberjack and lift weights, I am not particularly manly and am, in general, pretty comfortable with that. I listen mostly to music that was featured on the Lilith Fair tour, have not yet given up on the cute cupcake fad and still don’t mind reading the odd Sweet Valley High book from time to time. This is why it should come as a surprise to no one that when I am gripped by the cold clutches of insomnia late at night, I fire up my Kindle and lie in the darkness watching teenage soap operas like My So Called Life and Degrassi: The Next Generation (what a tragedy that Patrick Stewart wasn’t the principal of Degrassi High!).
My latest little obsession, in the wee hours, has been MTV’s relatively new show, Awkward. Although it is “hotter and sexier”—not to mention live action—it reminds me a great deal of Daria, one of my favorite shows from years past. Ah, sigh… I used to dream, when I was in eighth grade, of meeting a girl like Daria. I since have, and even dated a few, but usually broke up with them because we were far too similar. No wonder I always found her so sympathetic!
Would a show which depicts mutually competent parents who play different, complementary roles be better, or truer to life?
|
Anyway, Awkward reminds me of Daria because it features voice over narration by a wry, rather less than popular female protagonist (the wonderful and, at least to any misfit kid, relatable Ashley Rickards as Jenna Hamilton) and depicts her navigating the blackboard jungle of contemporary high school. Hook-up parties, sexting scandals and school spirit are all skewered by the deft writing and dialogue so quick that it brings to mind Joss Whedon’s better work. These are all wonderful things, and only slightly more important than the fact that I am really feeling the love for Desi Lydic as Jenna’s slightly absent minded counselor, Val. Nothing can warm the heart like a blonde with Sailor Moon eyes and a Raggedy Ann doll’s sense of fashion.
♦◊♦
The thing that has really made it stand out to me, however, is how it flipped the script with regard to Jenna’s parents. Most sitcoms, ever since the seventies, at least—with an absolute glut in the nineties—have employed the trope of “the bumbling dad.” This guy isn’t a bad egg at heart, he’s not abusive and he loves his kids, but he’s not so much a father as he is an older, or even younger, brother to them.
This ineffectual, lovable goof is the kind of guy who won’t fall off the roof while fixing the satellite dish…no, he’ll fall through the roof and onto his mother-in-law—who will reply with a witty rejoinder about his weight, of course. These are men like Al Bundy (though he is nastier than most examples), Carl Winslow (though he, mostly due to Reginald VelJohnson’s field of sheer awesomeness, manages to rise above this trope), Randy Marsh (he’s a little more psychotic than most versions… and none of the adults on South Park, save Chef, are brighter than a bowl of soup anyway) and Tim “the Tool Man” Taylor. The quintessential example, Homer Simpson, has even had his grunt of frustrated idiocy rise to the level of pop cultural phenomenon, far outstripping his wisecracking son. My personal favorite bumbling dad, however, would have to be Earl Sinclair, of Dinosaurs. He, in turn, watched his own in-show sitcom about this subject entitled Totally Ineffectual Dad.
♦◊♦
On Awkward, however, it is Jenna’s father Kevin (as played by Mike Faiola) who represents the more grounded, closer-to-earth aspect of the parental pole while her mother Lacey (Nikki Deloach) is a cheerful flibbertigibbet. Although Lacey does care for her daughter and attempts to advise her on life’s foibles, said advice is usually shallow and leads to more trouble than resolution. That Jenna sometimes follows it… well, fifteen year olds are not particularly known for their foresight. The two also bicker, more like sisters than a mother and daughter, perhaps because Lacey is only seventeen years older than Jenna. Kevin, however, is a constant source of succor and gentle wisdom for his daughter on subjects ranging from boys to schoolwork. He is not perfect, like a fifties sitcom father, but is a good man who is trying to do the best he can for someone he loves.
Would a show which depicts mutually competent parents who play different, complementary roles be better, or truer to life? More true to life, maybe, but I am not sure that each facet of parental wisdom would look as impressive without the contrasting foil of a more blithe spirit. I do know that Kevin Hamilton’s quiet strength and regard for his daughter, even though he isn’t featured as heavily in the show as some, stands out all the more for the field of doofuses (doofi?) that he was sown in. I love Homer Simpson, yeah, because Homer Simpson represents my weakness and vulnerability, but I’d like to be Kevin… and not just because he has a blazing hot wife and big house. Though those would be nice, too.
Image–Wikipedia