The Michael Shur Effect

[lookfar]

Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Office, Parks and Recreation, The Good Place. Here at the Far Pavilion, we have admired all of these TV shows, but I didn't notice the common ingredient until B99; they are all Michael Shur. What they all have in common: everyone, everyone in the community gets to belong eventually, whether it's a workplace or the afterlife

Comments

[thesoundofduck]

Oooh, I love that! I didn't know the same person was behind B99 and Parks and Rec! I did notice that Jerry was similar to the two older police offers on B99 (too tired to remember their names!). It's lovely that everyone belonged in the end but I didn't like how they treated those characters, particularly Jerry.

Still love both those shows so much!

I loved Superstore too... it has a similar vibe. Have you watched Superstore?

[lookfar]

No, but I'll check it out. What platform?

[taz_39]

I thought the "Michael Shur effect", as you call it, was a kind of maturity, tbh

[lookfar]

Thank you for your long thoughts! Yes, maybe the increasing inclusivity - despite pushback from the Right - of American society may also be part of it. We all know that we're not there yet, at equity and fairness and justice, but we at least see the path. There's a real sense - small Earth, economic and social and environmental interdependence - that you can't leave anyone OUT anymore, because there's no outside. We have to get along, people, not only because it's right, but because we rise or fall together on this Earth.

[taz_39]

That's a really great sentiment <3

[lookfar]

xxx

[sanpaku]

We used to recognize this as a function of long-running shows. Archie Bunker, the bad characters on MASH, etc. Writers and fans get bored when a show repeats its premise endlessly. So on Parks and Rec, or the Office, they (somewhat unusually) stuck around long enough to have to humanize the worst of their characters.

That's also a function of American TV - part of the brilliance of the UK The Office, or Fawlty Towers, is that they knew to cut things short before sentiment sets in.

I also think these things are also quaint remnants of the pre-Trump era. We all understand, now, that Ron Swanson wouldn't be a gentle woodcarver; he'd be a QAnon marcher on the Capitol.

Finally, there are plenty of shows with unredeemed assholes who stay that way for the run of the show and they are very good. *You're the Worst* and *VEEP* come to mind. They are probably a little too hard-edged for young people who want comfort food... which is who you're watching TV with. :)

[lookfar]

Indeed there are! I have no idea if the Michael Shur effect represents a real change in the content of TV generally.