I want to start off by stating, bluntly, that this is not a defense of a position, because anyone who tells me my experiences are A. not allowed to color my opinions  and/or B. make it so that my opinions are invalid are not worth confronting. You cannot tell me my subjectivity means less than your subjectivity. You can disagree with it, sure. Hell, I've disagreed with tons of people about tons of things. It's kinda my shtick. I got weird tastes. But, if you're sitting there telling me I should like something, sit back and examine why you feel this way. I guarantee it's a you problem, not a me problem. I'm not advocating murder here, people. I'm just saying I don't really like the show where Jigsaw from Punisher: War Zone cheats on Lisa fom Newsradio. 

 

It's at this point I assure you, anyone reading this thinking I am talking just about you, no point I address hasn't been brought up by at least two people. You are not being singled out, as my intention is not to start a war; it's to snuff one out. 

 

So, anyone who's listened has probably heard the tension brewing over the course of multiple episodes wherein I inevitably say "I don't care about rich, white people problems." It came to a head when we talked about The Girlfriend's Guide to Divorce, wherein, I just kinda repeated the same talking points a few times, was chided, and then alluded to the fact I grew up poor. Some people told me I just sat there and got talked down to. Other people said I lashed out like a child. I really only thought I sounded like an actual idiot, as always. None of you can criticize me like I do. But not about that stance.

 

Let's look back on all the new shows we reviewed over the course of the podcast. We'll exclude the fantasy worlds of stuff like Gotham, Scorpion, The Flash, and Red Band Society, because complaining about class inequality in a show about Bruce fucking Wayne is a conversation all by itself. Save for The Knick, How to Get Away with Murder and Jane the Virgin, all the important characters were white. Save for that one episode of The Leftovers where Matt can't afford his church, money has never even been remotely an issue for any of the characters in any of the shows. Even Jane's family somehow is living pretty nicely even though it appears only Jane works. Sure, she takes the bus, but that house is pretty bangin' and her mom has a damn CW level stylish wardrobe.  Also, though I can't prove it, I am relatively sure that the kid from How to Get Away with Murder being on the wait list indicated he was poor, too. Or maybe just not prestigious Philadelphia law school rich. Either way, not an exact cross-section of the median American income. 

 

Right now, at this very second, I can fuckin' visualize two very divergent reactions. One reaction sees where I am going with this. The other immediately feels I am bitter and has dismissed everything I've said offhand. It's a strange mindset to have to go up against, and I've bumped up against it a fair amount in my lifetime.

 

What I'm trying to get to is that it was an entire season of new dramas where I was not represented. Hint: I am not white, and though I make a decent amount of money now, I sure as shit am not, nor ever have been rich. I am not saying that every single protagonist was a goddamn Scrooge McDuck, but none of them ever had to worry overdue bills, either. Even the American Horror Story cats had their freak show bought by a mysterious, rich white man who also murders people. It was not the first time this has happened, and it won't be the last, and that is where the fatigue and anger comes from.

 

Look, I'll flat out admit I do have a chip on my shoulder. Now, it is slightly disingenuous to say I grew up poor but, okay. A few years after I was born, my maternal grandmother died. She left my parents her house. It was completely paid off, so, hey free house. It was in one of the nicer suburbs of Philadelphia, and you know, easily housed six people. Currently, after multiple mortgages, I am pretty sure that same house is going to be seized by the bank by the end of 2015.  My brother, recently, asked me how that could possibly happen. I turned to him and said "well, that's what happens when you have four kids and both of you deliver pizzas." Basically, in a desperate bid to try to keep up appearances in a suburb and raise children, my parents rode a wave of debt that followed one to her grave and the other to, man, I don't even want to imagine what the future holds for my dad. 

 

I tell that story to tell this story. So, The Girlfriend's Guide to Divorce. Divorce is fucking devastating, I know, but I am pretty sure the bank that comes with having multiple best-selling books will ease some of the, well, trickier aspects of  divorce. Like, say, not being able to afford it? My parents were separated pretty much the entire time I have cognizant memories. Oh, no. They didn't live apart. They just hated each other, didn't sleep in the same bed, but neither could ever afford to really, truly leave. Decades of tension and unhappiness followed, and boy was there drinking. After a few of us got older, and my dad fully circled into alcoholism and made out with a neighbor, there was an attempt at a separation. It lasted less than two years. It wasn't because of a reconciliation, it was because my dad wasn't paying child support and flat out said he couldn't afford to live on his own. Then my mom got diagnosed with cancer, and you know the rest. 

 

I am not embarrassed of where I came from, that's not what chipped my shoulder. My dad was a former drug dealer who immigrated to America from Egypt when he was 8. My mom was a former drug addict who was kicked out of the military and had to drop out of nursing school because she got pregnant. They made the most out of these circumstances, and if there is even a snort of classism behind you as you read about what you deem are poor financial decisions, you can fuck right off. You don't get to judge. Something of a life and a positive reputation was built on these really shitty foundations. 

 

No, the chip comes from dealing with people who come from a more privileged background either looking down on me, or asking me not to get mad at them "just because they are rich," because though what you think you are saying is "I'm a person, too" what you are actually saying and what has been ingrained in our culture is "I have more value than you." I am not even going to equate it with racism, which, you know after 9/11 has become a thing I've faced, but it does carry the same vibes of "why isn't there a white history month?" 

 

Like, when I say I don't care and can't relate to the lady doctor from House dealing with divorce, I'm saying ninety percent of the issues I know that come along with it she won't have to deal with. Yeah, I can accept her pain as real, but that's about as far as the connection goes for me.

 

The flipside to this is, when has anything similar to what my life story was ever been presented in a drama? There is a tinge of it with Walter White becoming a meth dealer, ostensibly, to take care of his family, but when has it been the driving force behind a big, prestige drama that you can recall? An argument  can be made for The Wire, but that was just one factor, and not where the core of the show's drama.  Treme was another close one. But, other than those two, I can't come up with anything else, other than Shameless, which still has to repeatedly dip into the comedy well to make sure you know it's okay to laugh about this!

 

It's not like it's completely absent from television, though.  The frustrating part is where any semblance of lower middle class and below exists: only in sitcoms. It's perfectly okay to treat not having money comedically. Married, Roseanne, The Middle, Malcolm in the Middle, really one of the cores of any family sitcom is that of money. It's okay to laugh about not having enough, but ever really delving into the seriousness of it is just a no-go. Being poor is a joke, not a real thing that happens to real people! If you can't solve poverty in thirty minutes (including commercials), than you have no place on television!

 

Maybe I am stretching it a little bit there, but not much. It's a frustrating thing to know that, no matter how many people share in your experiences, they just aren't deemed fit enough to be what people get to invest themselves into.  You can never have a serious discussion about class in television.

 

Do I even need to bring in race, as well? I know I pass like nobody's business, what with my arch-enemy being the sun, but I am not white. I joke and say I haven't been since 9/11, but that isn't far from the truth. Middle Eastern didn't really register as anything other than Caucasian until America, and really the whole world started to look at us with that suspicious eye. I am not going to go into that identity wormhole, as that is something I am saving for after I finally see Ridley Scott's racist as hell Exodus movie. Also, though my house was in the Philadelphia suburbs, my home was in Philly proper, and well, let's just say it's the polar opposite of all the Powder cosplayers that make up Seattle, where I live now. Basically, the television landscape reminds of me where I've lived, never my home. 

 

So, what the fuck does all this mean then? In short: When I say I am tired of rich, white people problems, essentially I am saying I am tired of seeing rich, white people problems as the only  problems on television, with the more prestigious the drama, the more white the people are, and the more personal the problems become.  Instead of real socioeconomic or philosophical problems, instead of problems based on any sort of disadvantage, instead small events are magnified inward, and we examine how these events affect our characters. The problem is, the same basic template is being used for the character. It is really, really, hard to get me invested in a character who doesn't represent me just because they are well done when I know that all this will do is reinforce the fact that people don't want to see characters that represent me. 

 

Sure, sometimes rich, black people get to have problems now, but that's only in the Shondaverse.  Jane has telenovela problems, which are a whole subcategory we don't need to touch on. When people say there is a lack of diversity on television, it isn't just skin color.

 

In the end, though, I am not a critic. I have never once said I was reviewing these shows I'm watching. I am talking to a friend and giving my honest-to-goodness responses to the show. That is what the podcast has always been, and that is what you sign up for when you download it.

 

Though, really, I gotta say if you are truly upset and bothered that I don't care about "rich white people problems," well, that is really your baggage, not mine, isn't it? You can tell me a millions times that something is hailed as one of the best things on television, but if I still think it's pepetuating a trend, I am not going to sit here and let it slide so you can feel good about yourself.

 

That's where I stand, at least.