Ever notice how most tv shows, movies, novels, poetry, classic rock songs, radio formats, presidential campaigns, educational curricula, medical research, and public policy are created and executed with middle class white dudes as a starring focus?
No? Never mind.
Art notes: Louis CK gets a shout out, because I love his show, but can only watch in small doses because it hits close to the bone. It also falls into the general category of white male middle class protagonist show that has steered television for decades. The best of this has often been the antihero genre of Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, and Louie (who is also a genuine Everyman hero, too) – all great shows that go to great pains to reify yet undermine the central focus of their leading men. They’re great at portraying the complex workings of toxic masculinity in individual characters, its effects on the people around them, at different levels of society and points in history. But I’d really like to see TV do something else.
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