Roseanne, A Leftist Reading of the First Nine Seasons

[brownjam]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRwIosijD3A

Despite not being a huge Roseanne fan, I really loved this and thought some of you might too.

The emphasis, as the title suggests, is on all the socially progressive stuff and working class issues covered in the show, which completely passed me by watching it as a kid. But it works equally well as a summary of the history of the original incarnation of Roseanne, what made it great, and why it went bad.

[Twed]

15 minutes in and it feels like he is interpreting jokey things as entirely serious. Roseanne's list of "people she could have fired" is clearly tongue in cheek.

[Kelvin]

I look forward to watching this. I'm a huge fan of the first six seasons of Roseanne, and it does have a clear left leaning message - which makes the sneering later years of the show, and Barr's own recent behavior seem even more inexplicable. 

[Twed]

It is an enjoyable video, even if it's just to go through the series with highlights and recaps of the big issues.

[Kelvin]

It is an enjoyable video, even if it's just to go through the series with highlights and recaps of the big issues.

Yes, watching it now, there's no real insight, but it does provide a nice timeline of the themes and issues. I wish he had a bit more to say about it all though.   

[Twed]

Pretty good stuff around the 1 hour mark.

[Kelvin]

The stuff about Darlene's depression (about 25 mins in) was good. Some actual analysis of how well they handled that subject on the show.

[paruses]

Thanks for posting. It's a bit too superficial and not particularly insightful but I like it as an overview of a show I loved in the early seasons and which I haven't watched since (it never seemed to be repeated in the UK or available on YouTube).

It's good to see how awful Roseanne is - I don't know much about her so always found my memory of the left-ish show  I remember being really at odds with what a right-wing narcissist she she presents as in her personal life. I liked the recap of how the show came about and how she got in and took over.

The writer crying and appealing for jokes in the BBC thing is odd - that's genuine isn't it? It's hard to tell.

For something I loved I have a very dim memory of it. I suppose these days - if I can work out how torrents work - I can find it somewhere to rewatch.

John Goodman's ace, isn't he?

[paruses]

The stuff about Darlene's depression (about 25 mins in) was good. Some actual analysis of how well they handled that subject on the show.

Yes - something that passed me by as a teen when I watched it or didn't see those seasons.

Really want to have a retrospective now. Do you think the show will hold up or see hammy and dated?

[Kelvin]

Just finished watching this. I think it's a shame that he doesn't address the elephant in the room; that the show basically held the family and the working class in contempt by the end, as it moved from a compassionate depiction of their struggles, to a sneering piss-take of feckless, willfully ignorant characters who bore no resemble to how they were originally written.     

Really want to have a retrospective now. Do you think the show will hold up or see hammy and dated?

The early years absolutely hold up, for the most part. It's only the later years when the characters become broader, more one dimensional, and some really nasty stereotypes creep in. In the early seasons, its wonderfully written, thoughtful and subtle. You could watch seasons 1 -6 without any trouble, bar a handful of dud episodes.

[Twed]

Every time there's a clip in this that include an episode's end credits, my brain briefly thinks it's the end of the video.

[Small Man Big Horse]

For something I loved I have a very dim memory of it. I suppose these days - if I can work out how torrents work - I can find it somewhere to rewatch.

Torrenting is surprisingly easy, I presumed it would be complicated but all you need to do is download a suitable torrenting programme (I use an old vs. of utorrent, but https://www.qbittorrent.org/ seems popular these days) and then visit either the pirate bay or RarBg, click on the download / mirror link and it'll start downloading.

[weekender]

I use an old vs. of utorrent

1.8.3, I assume?

[ian01604]

Watched this and the follow up video. Did make me laugh at the end when he said "by the way I didn't particularly care for Roseanne,  I just find this interesting". Sort of like principal skinner's mum and her photo album of cakes.

I remember the bbc documentary featured on this. You see roseanne get annoyed because there is a black extra with blonde hair and apparently black ladies in Lanford wouldn't be that glamorous so she gets wardrobe to cover her hair up. Obviously the same rule didnt apply to roseanne herself as during the run she got more glamorous and younger looking.

All in all the vid sums it up. Some good episodes and it dealt with issues well at times but overall Roseanne just made it up as she went along.

In the early days her dad was a doddery old fool,  then he was reconned into an abusive father and those experiences stopped Jackie and roseanne ever hitting their kids. Then in the 2018 eps that was forgotten and roseanne was an old school mom who'd beat her kids if they stepped out of line.

Maybe the inconsistencies were a book that roseanne was writing like Dan dying/not dying or some old shite.