The Best Show on Television

Lisa Kron is one of America's most interesting writers. After a play and a musical, she is kicking butt with "Somebody Somewhere."

Her most recent script asks questions about gift-giving (a favorite topic of mine). A gift can be an expression of love, a subtle form of aggression, a farcical error, a mystery.

Sam arrives late to a softball game because she has stopped to pick up donuts. She already knows that her friend Fred is trying to lose weight; he has made a point of saying this. But Sam fails to read the room. The donuts seem fun, but they also seem like a way of undermining Fred, a way of declaring war. Fred's wife bluntly (too bluntly) says, "I wish you hadn't brought food. I see what you do to your body, but you don't need to drag my spouse down, as well." This is obviously brutal--but, if there weren't some truth in the remark, it wouldn't sting at all.

In a parallel scene, a group of church ladies presents two gay men with a gift. It's a rainbow mug that says: "I'm Proud of My Two Dads." The men aren't dads together; in fact, disagreements about the possibility of surrogacy have been a source of pain in their relationship. The church ladies want to be welcoming, but there is also something obnoxious and tone-deaf about their gesture. This doesn't make them awful people. It's just an intriguing, complicated reality, one that doesn't pop up in many TV scripts (at least, the scripts that I'm aware of).

The stakes are superficially low--but I'm so eager to see what happens with Sam and her friends. I'm also hopeful that Kron will contribute one more script.

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