Raising Hope and Why I Like It
If you haven't seen the show RAISING HOPE -- it's the family sitcom that was on right after GLEE last season (this season it follows that Zoe Deschanel comedy) -- I really, really suggest giving it a try.
Here's the setup. Under-achieving slacker Jimmy lives at home with his lower middle class parents and Maw-Maw. He longs for a better life (they all do, really), and in a rare bit of luck, hooks up with a gorgeous gal for an amazing one-night stand. It is a one-night stand, unfortunately, because it turns out she's a serial killer, and she's arrested and put to death -- after giving birth to daughter Hope, who is unceremoniously dumped on Jimmy by the system. He devotes himself to doing right by the little girl, with help from various friends and his parents.
Other than a rather surprising set-up, it could be a pretty generic comedy about parenthood. Instead, it is, for my money, the best sitcom since early-days Roseanne for capturing what its' really like growing up in a blue-collar household. The show deftly balances character-driven comedy, wacky quirks, honest emotion, and real heart. The cast are excellent and whenever you fear the show will tread down the schmaltzy path, it subverts expectations; it refuses to offer simplistic solutions to the problems facing this family, and even compels you to root for them, but isn't afraid to suck it up and offer consequences.
The main character, Jimmy, could easily be a bland 23-year-old slacker, but he makes you believe that he will do anything for his daughter. His priorities are generally in the right place (or at least wind up there), but the character is really a dope who just does the best he can with his limited set of skills. It's a nice illustration of how aimless youth can be given focus, but it also sends the message that any doofus is capable of making things better -- if not for himself, than at least for his daughter.
Backing up that claim is the wonderful parents (Burt and Virginia) -- both of them well meaning, earnest, idiots. What a relief to find that the mom is neither a sniping shrew or an all-knowing goddess, and that the dad isn't a useless dolt or a fantasy dad. They're a couple who got married way too young, had a kid when they had no clue how to deal with a child, and have spent the last 20 years or so barely scraping by and doing, frankly, a pretty uneven job of raising their kid. Burt runs a small gardening business with Jimmy; Virginia works for a maid service. Both of them are poorly educated, products of less-than-ideal lives themselves -- but they have a strong and loving relationship with each other, and with Jimmy.
Rounding out the family cast is Maw Maw, played by Clorence Leachman, who owns the house, but who needs to be looked after due to her dementia. She has a few hours of lucidity each day, if she's lucky, and entire subplots and running gags are built around her loopy antics -- more on that later. Jimmy also works as a bagger and shop boy in a local grocery store, managed by quirky boss Barney, and is in love with coworker Sabrina -- who's clearly wayyy out of his league and sees him (mostly) as a friend.
Here's the thing.
Let's start with Maw-Maw, who is most often played for laughs, but whose plight (as an elderly woman with dementia) factors into the show on a deep level. She's actually Virginia's grandmother, and she owns the house; Burt & Virginia live there to take care of her. Her illness, while providing endless wacky Leachman antics, is always underlined by glimpses of the woman Maw-Maw was before her illness got the better of her, and it is shown to be a real challenge sometimes for the Chances, who have a tough time managing despite some amusing coping strategies.
Burt and Virginia have their own issues. They were married very young, primarily due to Virginia's pregnancy (Burt was 17 and Virginia 15 when Jimmy was conceived). Burt is a bit gullible, but he's also very good-hearted. Virginia, who was raised primarily by Maw Maw, is more suspicious and class-conscious (because she cleans the houses of the wealthy). Virginia couldn't be at home to raise her son, and she gave up smoking when Jimmy pointed out that it was bad for the baby. In flashbacks, we see both how the Chances failed to make good choices about raising Jimmy, but we also see how much they gave up over the years to do what they could.
And here's the thing: they're allowed to learn from their mistakes. Most of those mistakes were made from ignorance, or just poverty or bad luck, but once it's pointed out to them, the Chances try to fix it. They own up to their mistakes, and they support Jimmy's efforts to make Hope's childhood better than his own.
What strikes me is how seldom the show has characters bickering over stupid stuff. When Burt gets hit on by his customers, he plays along with these cougars and their fantasies -- but only up to a point, because it leads to better tips. When Virginia finds out, she does NOT fly into a mad rage; she tries to play it off because practical concerns matter more -- but Burt, who's never been unfaithful to her, can't deal with the guilt. (In the end, Jimmy takes on the flirty pool boy duties.) There are plenty of misunderstandings, and they do get cartoonish from time to time, but there's a real honesty to how they play out and are resolved.
Jimmy's relationship with Sabrina, however, walks a different line. The two slip into an easy friendship, though Jimmy rightly realizes that he's a "safe" substitute for Sabrina's absent, jerk of a boyfriend. She, however, is clearly smitten both with Jimmy and Hope, and to some extent with his no-frills, real-people family. Let's face it -- the Chances are poor but not destitute. And until early in the second season, Sabrina doesn't reveal that her family is filthy rich. She is somewhat estranged from them because she wants to make it on her own -- and that's something that she and Jimmy have in common. Though I did appreciate the moment when she tells her friend's family that "she wanted to live on her own earnings rather than money that was just handed to her" -- and they react with laughter and tell her she's an idiot to turn down free money. That's an honest reaction -- working stiffs who do menial labor for a living wouldn't understand that sort of choice. Similarly, Sabrina has evolved, as Jimmy has gotten to know her, into a flawed character herself. She's no longer put on a pedestal. She makes bad choices sometimes, and she denies her attraction to the hapless Jimmy. We find out that it's largely her own insecurities and embarrassment that keep her distant from her inherited privilege, and Jimmy calls her out on it. And she, like the other characters, eventually accepts the criticism and attempts to fix things.
Mostly, I like that the conflict is either self-generated, or symptomatic of the world treating the Chances to a rough ride. They don't catch many breaks, and while they try to make the most of them, there's a lot they miss out on because of ignorance or bad choices. But their family is strong and loving, despite it all, and you leave each episode thinking, "well, Hope has a pretty good chance at a decent life after all".
Here's the setup. Under-achieving slacker Jimmy lives at home with his lower middle class parents and Maw-Maw. He longs for a better life (they all do, really), and in a rare bit of luck, hooks up with a gorgeous gal for an amazing one-night stand. It is a one-night stand, unfortunately, because it turns out she's a serial killer, and she's arrested and put to death -- after giving birth to daughter Hope, who is unceremoniously dumped on Jimmy by the system. He devotes himself to doing right by the little girl, with help from various friends and his parents.
Other than a rather surprising set-up, it could be a pretty generic comedy about parenthood. Instead, it is, for my money, the best sitcom since early-days Roseanne for capturing what its' really like growing up in a blue-collar household. The show deftly balances character-driven comedy, wacky quirks, honest emotion, and real heart. The cast are excellent and whenever you fear the show will tread down the schmaltzy path, it subverts expectations; it refuses to offer simplistic solutions to the problems facing this family, and even compels you to root for them, but isn't afraid to suck it up and offer consequences.
The main character, Jimmy, could easily be a bland 23-year-old slacker, but he makes you believe that he will do anything for his daughter. His priorities are generally in the right place (or at least wind up there), but the character is really a dope who just does the best he can with his limited set of skills. It's a nice illustration of how aimless youth can be given focus, but it also sends the message that any doofus is capable of making things better -- if not for himself, than at least for his daughter.
Backing up that claim is the wonderful parents (Burt and Virginia) -- both of them well meaning, earnest, idiots. What a relief to find that the mom is neither a sniping shrew or an all-knowing goddess, and that the dad isn't a useless dolt or a fantasy dad. They're a couple who got married way too young, had a kid when they had no clue how to deal with a child, and have spent the last 20 years or so barely scraping by and doing, frankly, a pretty uneven job of raising their kid. Burt runs a small gardening business with Jimmy; Virginia works for a maid service. Both of them are poorly educated, products of less-than-ideal lives themselves -- but they have a strong and loving relationship with each other, and with Jimmy.
Rounding out the family cast is Maw Maw, played by Clorence Leachman, who owns the house, but who needs to be looked after due to her dementia. She has a few hours of lucidity each day, if she's lucky, and entire subplots and running gags are built around her loopy antics -- more on that later. Jimmy also works as a bagger and shop boy in a local grocery store, managed by quirky boss Barney, and is in love with coworker Sabrina -- who's clearly wayyy out of his league and sees him (mostly) as a friend.
Here's the thing.
Let's start with Maw-Maw, who is most often played for laughs, but whose plight (as an elderly woman with dementia) factors into the show on a deep level. She's actually Virginia's grandmother, and she owns the house; Burt & Virginia live there to take care of her. Her illness, while providing endless wacky Leachman antics, is always underlined by glimpses of the woman Maw-Maw was before her illness got the better of her, and it is shown to be a real challenge sometimes for the Chances, who have a tough time managing despite some amusing coping strategies.
Burt and Virginia have their own issues. They were married very young, primarily due to Virginia's pregnancy (Burt was 17 and Virginia 15 when Jimmy was conceived). Burt is a bit gullible, but he's also very good-hearted. Virginia, who was raised primarily by Maw Maw, is more suspicious and class-conscious (because she cleans the houses of the wealthy). Virginia couldn't be at home to raise her son, and she gave up smoking when Jimmy pointed out that it was bad for the baby. In flashbacks, we see both how the Chances failed to make good choices about raising Jimmy, but we also see how much they gave up over the years to do what they could.
And here's the thing: they're allowed to learn from their mistakes. Most of those mistakes were made from ignorance, or just poverty or bad luck, but once it's pointed out to them, the Chances try to fix it. They own up to their mistakes, and they support Jimmy's efforts to make Hope's childhood better than his own.
What strikes me is how seldom the show has characters bickering over stupid stuff. When Burt gets hit on by his customers, he plays along with these cougars and their fantasies -- but only up to a point, because it leads to better tips. When Virginia finds out, she does NOT fly into a mad rage; she tries to play it off because practical concerns matter more -- but Burt, who's never been unfaithful to her, can't deal with the guilt. (In the end, Jimmy takes on the flirty pool boy duties.) There are plenty of misunderstandings, and they do get cartoonish from time to time, but there's a real honesty to how they play out and are resolved.
Jimmy's relationship with Sabrina, however, walks a different line. The two slip into an easy friendship, though Jimmy rightly realizes that he's a "safe" substitute for Sabrina's absent, jerk of a boyfriend. She, however, is clearly smitten both with Jimmy and Hope, and to some extent with his no-frills, real-people family. Let's face it -- the Chances are poor but not destitute. And until early in the second season, Sabrina doesn't reveal that her family is filthy rich. She is somewhat estranged from them because she wants to make it on her own -- and that's something that she and Jimmy have in common. Though I did appreciate the moment when she tells her friend's family that "she wanted to live on her own earnings rather than money that was just handed to her" -- and they react with laughter and tell her she's an idiot to turn down free money. That's an honest reaction -- working stiffs who do menial labor for a living wouldn't understand that sort of choice. Similarly, Sabrina has evolved, as Jimmy has gotten to know her, into a flawed character herself. She's no longer put on a pedestal. She makes bad choices sometimes, and she denies her attraction to the hapless Jimmy. We find out that it's largely her own insecurities and embarrassment that keep her distant from her inherited privilege, and Jimmy calls her out on it. And she, like the other characters, eventually accepts the criticism and attempts to fix things.
Mostly, I like that the conflict is either self-generated, or symptomatic of the world treating the Chances to a rough ride. They don't catch many breaks, and while they try to make the most of them, there's a lot they miss out on because of ignorance or bad choices. But their family is strong and loving, despite it all, and you leave each episode thinking, "well, Hope has a pretty good chance at a decent life after all".