Desperate prognosticating
Where do you see yourself five years from now?
By Scott Patrick Wagner 12/11/2008
I have grown quite spoiled by Sunday evenings. Even with the hole left by the end of Mad Men’s second season (is there any way to go longer than 13 weeks with something that good?), I have basked for weeks in a TV-addict triple-shot: The Amazing Race, Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters. But Race just had its extra-exciting conclusion, and the other two series won’t return with new episodes until January; I guess I’m available for socializing again.
Brothers & Sisters reached a pinnacle of craftsmanship just before its hiatus, with a delayed Thanksgiving episode that featured both its finest storytelling to date and the most effective use of its humanely liberal stance. Gay brother Kevin and his husband (the California couple married before Nov. 4, so “husband” doesn’t need quotation marks) are ensconced so unflinchingly among the other family members that when Calista Flockhart’s character refers collectively to her and Kevin’s husbands, it is surprising mostly for its normalcy. And the scene of Kevin spending the night in the hospital — with his partner there by his side — speaks more to same-sex marriage rights than a week of speechifying.
The series, however, that makes me feel most zeitgeist-y at the moment is Desperate Housewives. It is unexpectedly better written and more entertaining than it has been in — ever. The feat of derring-do that provoked this creative renaissance was jumping the narrative forward by five years was. It was a daring move in a series so firmly rooted in episodic formula, and it inspires me to wonder how other situations might look when jumped ahead five years. Such as, for example, our nation.
There is buzz — preemptively optimistic, in my opinion — that we are entering a kinder, gentler era of media coverage and punditry with the Obama administration. I have no doubt that the communication coming from President Obama outward will have a more decent, respectful and intelligent tone. But one has to wonder whether that will be a two-way street. The glut of right-wing, inflammatory punditry had its infestation during the Clinton years and, mercifully, began to lose some of its appeal during the latter half of the Bush-whacked administration. Will the inflammation have a resurgence during a new Democratic term? Of course, there’s no way to know yet just how new or democratic the coming regime will be. If you stop to think about it — especially compared with what might lie ahead — how democratic do we ultimately think the Clinton administration was, with all its compromises? But if we were to jump five years, where might we be? I’ll give it a shot.
Unlike the first five years of the Clinton administration, we will now — in 2013 — find ourselves with universal healthcare. Instead of a liberal-leaning Clinton who jerked further and further conservative, we now — in 2013 — have an Obama who established a cross-party, apparently centrist coalition that allowed him to disarm his alleged adversaries and, paradoxically, get reforms passed that warm the cockles of most liberals’ hearts. Instead of Clinton’s “Defense of Marriage” act and “don’t ask don’t tell” policy, here in 2013 gay marriage is federally sanctioned and gay soldiers are welcome in the (now peacetime) military. On the media front, Rachel Maddow has become the recently appointed Czar of Media Decency, impelling Bill O’Reilly to abandon broadcasting and be treated for borderline personality disorder. And Rush Limbaugh will fart daffodils.
OK, maybe that was beyond what one might hope for in five years. But truth is, we don’t have any idea. We asked for change — mandated it. And nobody is quite certain just how deep the change will go. The media may never morph into a sane and even-tempered organization. But the country just might, and I’m actually open to some miracles. Hell, I didn’t expect Desperate Housewives to get good again, so anything’s possible.
Scott’s blog, “Multiple Personality,” can be found at blog.scottpatrick wagner.com
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