In my introduction post I said that part of the reason I made this blog was because I was pissed at NBC at here I'll tell you why. Honestly, I'll probably post multiple parts to this why I loved this show so much and why its cancellation hit me so personally
I'm not one to watch a show and follow it to the end. I think it has to do with my ADHD. But I've never really stayed committed to a show super emotionally, I'll usually get bored and lose myself interest in it before it completes its run. Either life gets in the way or the show's story gets too stupid for my liking ( cough, cough, Riverdale). But with Rise, it was different.
I'm a huge theater kid, So I follow plenty of Broadway fans and actors on Twitter and Instagram, and when the trailer first aired, plenty of people on my feed were tweeting the trailer, so I was Immediately interested, and it had such good credits too. Producer of Hamilton(Jeffery Seller), writer of Friday Night Lights (Jason Katims), creators of This Is Us, Broadway actors from musicals like Waitress (Joe Tippett, Tiffany Mann), Newsies (Damon J. Gillespie), and Spring Awakening (Sean Granville), AND upcoming teen stars Auli'i Carvalho (Moana) and Shannon Purser (Riverdale, Stranger Things, Sierra Boggess is a loser). And probably more that I don't even remember. Also Don't even get me started on the queen herself Stephanie J. Block (9to5, Wicked, Falsettos, The Cher show). God, I love being a white woman's whore
I don't even remember what I was expecting from the first episode, I just sat down, being excited about a show aimed at theater kids (I know there was Glee but this is different) that was doing my favorite musical Spring Awakening. From the start, it gave me the classic vibes of some coming of age movies like Lady Bird or Boyhood. This wasn't like Riverdale or 13 Reasons why, where it feels like the characters problems were just written for the viewers entertainment (again, that's for another blog post) You immediately get the feeling this show is trying to pick up, that these are just teenagers in high school, and nothing is ever simple in high school. Nobody in high school has everything figured out. We all just feel lost and unsure, powerless to break limits that the adults in our lives have set for us. I immediately got that from Robbie, Lillette, Simon, Gwen, and Gordy. They've grown up in this small community of Stanton, feeling the pressure of expectations set out for them. Over the shows ten-episode run, you could see these kids have massive character development from bringing to end, and you see how this drama program changes them, and how they take the lessons they learn in the theater and use it in their daily lives.
Let's focus on some of these kids their character development individually for a minute.
Characterization
*Also I wanna say that although I compare these charters to certain troupes and television stereotypes, these characters are so much more than stereotypes. But for this post it was easier to compare them.
Lillette Suarez - Right away, you can see that Lillette was built on the stereotype of independent Cinderella type character used for many teen movies. She's the daughter of a single mother, works to support herself financially, has only one close best friend, and doesn't really do anything other than school and work. The conservative town of Stanton already has her labeled because of her mother (a single mother who had Lillette as a teenager who works at a diner, also her affair with the coach), and makes Lillette believe that this might be all life has for her. But she becomes so much more of herself once she takes a chance on Stanton Drama. She finally sees realizes that she more potential than she was using before, she has people like Lou and Tarcy who actually believe in her, and she doesn't feel judged by the kids in the Troupe. Lillette finally has something in her life that makes her feel special, and real friends who see her for her. That's the kind of storyline I love, people who realize their own worth and finding what makes them happy.
Robbie Thorne - Once again, we start a tv stereotype that grows to be their own person. Robbie is the star of Stanton. QB1, football legend with high expectation set out for him. But when Lou approaches him with the opportunity to be Melchior in the musical. It takes him by surprise, that someone is saying that he's better at something that isn't football. Over the shows run we see him break down under the pressure from both sides, torn between the two things he loves as well as having to deal with his mom. Robbie's at a crossroad, it's finally time to decide who he wants to be. But for me Robbie extends from the stereotypical tv drama jock in the way that there was never a moment where he betrays the troupe, he always treats them with the utmost respect (as they deserve). Yeah, they could be a bit embarrassing, but they're family, and he knows that.
Gwen Strickland - When we meet Gwen, she's a bit up on her high horse. She has the leading roles, believe her skills to be superior, you get the picture. So it defiantly takes her by surprise when she doesn't get the lead in Spring Awakening since she's so used to being told she's the star. It knocks her down a peg, but also helps her gain more perspective, she can either mope and put about not being Wendla, or she carnally tap into Ilse's intensity. She learns to open up to her own pain and emotion caused by the current downfall of her family (her father having an affair with Lillette's mom, causing her parent's divorce). Gwen still has so much room for character development. From season one, she starts to see that life is never really as black and white as she thought it was. I really enjoyed seeing her see life from different people's points of view. (I have so many feelings about this but I can't say them correctly)
Gordy Mazzucheli - Little is really known about Gordy from the start, but you get the feeling that Gordy just feels disconnected from the world around him. He's the benchwarmer for the football team, he was the only one in his family not into musicals, and he doesn't really have something that he's passionate about. But something tells me that he doesn't want to be as out of touch with life, it's just that he doesn't know how to connect. In freshman year of high school, I once read something that said "teenagers don't know how to properly communicate their feelings. If they want something the make small gestures and remarks and hope to have it handed to them, that's because they don't know how to ask directly" (I feel like I said that wrong but you get the picture). That's how I think Gordy feels. Gordy has been out of touch for a long time, long enough that at some point he just gave up trying, eventually resorting to alcohol. He's on a downward spiral because he's hoping someone with reach out and eventually sees him. He wants that connection with people, he wants to have passion, something, just anything that will help him connect with life again. The conversation that he has with his dad shows that he's finally starting to connect again. There was so much more of his storyline that a lot of people who could really relate to.
Simon Saunders - Oof, where to start. First off. I love the first conversation he had with Mr. Mazzu, because it reflects a conversation I once had with my theater teacher. Mr. Mazzu saw that Simon was really really talented, and challenges him as an actor, instead of immediately making him a start. That's all I'm gonna say because that scene alone could be a whole other post. But you can see that his role as Ernst, and having to do a love scene with a boy, puts him in a difficult spot given his very Catholic family. Originally he's conflicted, because while he doesn't want to disappoint his family, Simon realizes the importance of Spring Awakenings story. I'm gonna keep this brief because I think I can write a whole damn essay about Simon's development. But to put it shortly, the change in the drama program, as well as Spring Awaking, really helped Simon understand more about himself, as well as put him in the crossroads of choosing between pleasing his family and accepting himself for who he is. I often see a lot of coming out stories on tv shows, but I've never really seen shows that portray the difficulty of being closeted lgbt+ kid in a conservative religious family.
Understanding Teens Today
There's just so much I can say in favor of Rise. It didn't feel like just a show to me because it just felt so real. So human. It doesn't have the cheesy tv troupes that are usually seen in teen dramas and it didn't mock things that teens go through today. This show just focused on the smallest detail in order to make it more real. Something about this show stole my heart from the beginning and made me genuinely care about these kids like they were my own friends, and in a way they were. I know that people always say that they can relate to tv characters, but these ones were so accurate to real teens. When watching the show, I felt like I was seeing my own life played back to me. In these characters, I saw my own friends, my own community, my own family, even my own life. You just want these see these kids turn out alright.
Rise had qualities that I haven't seen on tv in a long time. It made you want to care about what happens to these people because you saw these people for who they were. It made you believe in what is good and what an impact your high school year can have on making you who you are, especially for those of us who did/do theater in our teen years. Think about it, how many people can say they did theater in high school, and I don't mean just people in entertainment. Think of the adults in your lifetime, your parents, teachers, your boss, etc. So many people have the memories of doing the school musicals, fun memories of tech week, cast parties, and weird inside jokes with your cast. I feel like it's often forgotten how much art can impact our lives even in the simplest ways. There a sense of family, your with these people for hours at a time, you get so close and learn a lot about each other in such a short time. Truly there are no words for how special doing the theater is. Just a sense of home and understating when you can't feel it anywhere else.
And it's not just theater, this show also highlighted the impact that teachers, directors, and other adult figures can have on their students when they do their job right. Good teachers really see how much potential their students truly have. We've all had at least one teacher in high school/college that we feel inspired us, they're faithful in our skills and made us believe that we could achieve our dreams. Having the faith of a mentor in your life is different than having the faith of your parents. Parent raise you, they're supposed to believe in you because you're the reflection of their parenting. But mentors choose you, they'll see something in you that maybe you don't see in yourself.
Television Today
Recently, I've realized a lot more things about mainstream television is that over the years the amount of teen dramas has decreased. In the early 2010s, teenagers had shows like Pretty Little Liars, Switched at Birth, Glee, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Smallville, Boy Meets World, SO MANY TEEN DRAMAS. But as those shows ended their runs, teen dramas have really died down. Now, all we're left with is the poor writing of Riverdale and the misguided of 13 Reasons Why. But those two I'd like to direct another time.
Now don't get me wrong, I actually like Riverdale, but not in the way that I take it seriously. I watch it in more of a comedic way because of its lazy writing. I mean, let's face it, this show's the teen version of Days of Our Lives, but with motorcycles gangs and better lighting.
But the point is, yeah, Riverdale is a teen show, but it lacks empathy and depth. Its characters are two-dimensional and have no strong personality traits, there's really no way to relate to these characters. It's almost insulting because it reflects what the writers think us teens want from a show, but we don't. We want real. We want empathy. We want vulnerability. We want to be able to see ourselves in the charts struggles. It's like writer think we can't handle real story arcs with complex characterization and deeper subtext. But not Rise. Jason Katim's never looked down on the teens his show was aimed at, he saw us as what were are, complex people who haven't really figured who we are and what we want to do with our lives. He respected that and remembered it while writing the show. Rise wasn't just teen drama, it was a reflection of life. Just so utterly human.
Representation
When I talked to my mom about the show, she said the reason it got canceled because it had so much LGBT+ rep that it "was too specific of an audience". In translation: she thinks the show was only made for the gays and that it didn't aim at a wide enough audience. When she said this I literally wanted to roll my eyes at how wrong she said. First off, just because something has LGBT+ rep doesn't mean it's just for LGBT+ rep, obviously straight people can enjoy it too (and they should but they're too stuck on Riverdale). Brooklyn Nine-Nine has tons of LGBT+ and yet it's still an extremely popular show. If anything, shows and movies with minority representation aren't just more necessary, but they're also more interesting. In the past year, shows and movies like Wonder Woman, One day at a Time, Black Panther, Love Simon, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Crazy Rich Asians, Everything Sucks are famous for the best representation of different minority groups, they're a refreshing change to the regular movies all about cisgender straight white males making boner jokes and doing slo-mo action scenes.
NBC Is Basically Clueless
Furthermore, it's not like NBC has been putting out a lot of high quality television. I'm pretty sure Saturday Night Live and Live is the only thing that's been keeping them alive the past four decades. Tbh they'd be nothing without Tina Fey and SNL. Then they came out with This is Us. Now I don't watch the show, but I do hear it, every week my mom and sister watch it together and I hear it from the other room (not good for homework), so I hear it enough to know its good. It's strong, meaningful television that makes us feel the characters raw emotion. This is Us is an amazing show about family, hope, and growth, and it has already captured the hearts of many of our parents. I mean come on, people were LITERALLY throwing away their crock pots after learning of Jack's death, so much so that the show had to make a Super Bowl commercial saying "hey, don't blame crock pot, it just be like that".
So clearly this type of show works, it worked with This is Us and explained why Rise was successful among teens. Both shows were made by the same creators, so CLEARLY they were doing something right. So my question is: Why doesn't NBC makes more shows like this? Because it obviously works in their favor. SO what's with all the mediocre comedies about adults half-assign their lives and growing it out with wine? As far as I know, they're comedies are always sub-par and not very successful. Most of their shows last 2-3 seasons at the most, and then get the cut, never to be heard from again. But let's be honest do we really care enough to hear from them again?
Here's the rundown of NBC: If it's not a talk show, related to murder, or SNL, it probably won't be worth sticking around for.
I mean seriously, NBC's relationships to their shows tis like the flakey partner in the relationship that leaves when the honeymoon phase is over. They want the benefit of a relationship, but don't put enough work in tactually get the benefits. We all now the long term relationship is the most rewarding, but is also takes her work and a good amount of attention, and when it comes to Rise, NBC didn't do either. There's gonna be a follow up post to this dedicated to why Rise's cancellation statically didn't make sense either. Because honestly the show was doing well with what little support it had from the Network. NBC, why'd yu decide to ruin a perfectly good thing? Cue the vine of Cardi B saying "What was the reason!?!?"
Closing Statement
Low-key Idin't feel like I wanted to end this yet because I know I have so much more to say in favor of Rise but it's currently 4 am I have work in 8 hours, and I need to stop watching Shane Dawson. But for now I'll just leave you with this. I think the reason why so many of us can relate to this show is because so many of us recognize the sense of feeling lost. We serve dot see teenagers on tv who feel just as damaged as we are, were deserve to realize that you don't figure your whole life out at 16, and we most faintly deserve to feel like someone in the writing universe is hear our callsA lot of u felt lost and alone at least one point in their life, and it when you find that thing tat makes you feel alive again, brings out your passion, and makes you feel motivated again, and I think that's just something really special.
More to come!
But that's all for now!
xoxo,
Taylor
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