In Elegy: Roseanne
I had to explain to my much younger colleague yesterday why the original Roseanne show mattered so much. She had never seen it, and now that even the original series has been pulled from basically every platform, possibly forever, she probably never will.
The original series mattered. I watched it when it first aired when I was a kid, and I've rewatched it multiple times as an adult, and I know it meant something. (You can disagree based on what you thought of it, but I'm saying it meant something to me and to many others.) It wasn't just about representing working class white people; in fact it was barely about that and it was also about so much more.
Roseanne (the character) was a bold, fierce feminist, a loyal and loving mom and wife but one who never let anyone get away with taking her for granted as a woman. The show featured gay people and black people, working class and wealthy, young and old, brash and mannered, single and married, and not just for the sake of "balance" or in the extremely self-conscious, cringeworthy way the new show supposedly depicted "both sides." It was never, ever about depicting "both sides" - it had a distinct voice and that voice rallied for a loud, fearless, march toward progress, tolerance and understanding.
It didn't have the flimsy caricatures of the new show, but featured characters with richly written, deeply felt story arcs and personality traits. Taken as a whole, it is/was a stunning piece of art, and I will always consider it one of the landmark shows of our time. Even the final season, which many people hated, told a profound, funny and painful story of loss, pain, wish-fulfillment and ultimately hope. (It was my favorite season.)
I let my love of the original show cloud my vision and distort my perception of the reboot. I hoped that Roseanne (the person) could go back to being Roseanne - both the character from and creator of the original show. I don't know exactly where one began and the other ended, but I believe that Roseanne the person eventually went into a bad place and never returned. I truly think Roseanne from 1988 would be horrified by the Roseanne of 2018. She was public about her struggle with mental illness and, frankly, I think she lost that battle. It's not an excuse but a reason.
Although I stupidly watched the first couple of episodes through rose-colored glasses and asked people to give it a chance, I was wrong. The new series was clunky, awkward, contrived, shallow, badly acted... and just not the same show as the original. Roseanne as an actress came across as wooden, emotionless, medicated. Jackie - often the show's true heart - wasn't even given a chance to shine. Dan was dumbed down beyond recognition. So many elements, such as DJ's black child, Darlene's divorce, Mark Jr.'s trans-experimentation, seemed to arise not from an actual desire to tell a story but to try to tick boxes from a list of social issues. This is not how the original show worked, nor how 1988's Roseanne would have wanted it. She was not trying to appeal to the mainstream, not trying to show every angle of a discussion. She was fierce, pointed and fearless, and dammit, she was on OUR side. The underrepresented, the repressed, the side of love and hope and peace and good. You don't have to believe me, but I know that to be true.
Despite my love of the original show, I gave up on the new one after a few episodes. And now I realize I should have given up on Roseanne long ago. ABC should have given up on her, Laurie Metcalfe should have given up on her, Sarah Gilbert should have given up on her, Wanda Sykes should have given up on her, and on and on. Because the original show meant something - had something important to say - we tried to ignore that the actual Roseanne had been slowly and steadily descending into madness for the past two decades.
And yesterday, she proved she could not ever come back from that place, no matter how hard she tried. I think she probably did try, but her demons bested her. I don't even think she has a coherent thought in her head, and it's truly a shame that she has now not only destroyed the new series - which was pretty terrible - but likely also the legacy of the original. It sucks. Roseanne sucks. She'll never come back from this, nor does she deserve to, but the original show didn't deserve this fate.
