The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Wednesday, November 23, 2016 — 5A
FXX
“Didn’t you die on ‘Orange is the New Black?’ “
The characters on “You’re the
Worst” are best described as,
well, the worst.
These disaffected
Angelenos are by
turns narcissistic
and
callous,
disinterested
and
egotistical,
bitterly
cruel
and
relentlessly,
hopelessly broken.
In the stellar part
one of the season
three finale, “You
Knew It Was A
Snake,” Gretchen (Aya Cash,
“Easy”) says as much to Jimmy
(Chris Geere, “Urge”): that the
two of them are fundamentally
splintered and subdued souls, and
there’s not enough space in this
wheel-spinning relationship for
that much chaos.
The exchange could serve as
a sort of thesis statement for the
series as a whole. “You’re the
Worst” is interested not so much
in human relationships as it is in
the futility of trying to be in one
at all.
How much will we endure,
really, to be with the ones we
love? The underlying toxicity of
the three principal relationships
has never been more explicitly
rendered than in “You Knew
It Was A Snake.” The episode
functions like a twisted Edward
Albee
play,
tracking
the
downward spirals of Lindsay
(Kether Donhue, “Pitch Perfect”)
and Paul (Allan McLeod, “Life
After Beth”), Edgar (Desmin
Borges, “Preacher”) and Dorothy
(Collette Wolfe, “Interstellar”)
and Jimmy and Gretchen in
cross-cutting scenes of flared
tempers and aggressive hostility.
It’s riveting — and excruciating —
to watch.
Dorothy’s
jealousy
and
resentment
over
Edgar’s
instantaneous
success
is
a
somewhat
odd
pivot,
especially
given the weight
of
his
storyline
earlier
in
the
season.
But
Lindsay
and
Paul’s standoff is a marvel of
dark comedy. Their storyline
this season ranged from comic
absurdity — it’s easy to forget that
Lindsay both microwaved a used
condom to inseminate herself and
literally stabbed her husband in
the back — to the most nuanced of
scenes, as the show’s treatment of
her abortion was one of its more
successful moments.
But if theirs was the most
outright
hilarious,
then
our
principal couple’s devolvement
was
the
most
devastating.
Gretchen and Jimmy haven’t
traversed
the
traditional
television rom-com route: they
got together, and then stayed
together. And in that subversion,
the show has become more brutal
and unsparing in its depiction of
their relationship.
“You’re The Worst” is not an
easy watch. It’s a comedy, and a
romantic one at that, but it also
rejects the idealization of love
and monogamy that we so often
succumb to. Creator Stephen
Falk (“Orange Is the New Black”)
takes no prisoners: Gretchen and
Jimmy need each other, and it’s
impossible to imagine them apart,
but it’s also inconceivable that
watching their relationship won’t
be akin surveying a car crash on
the side of the road.
Take, for example, the closing
shot of the finale. It’s an explicit
callback to the final shot of the
penultimate episode: a split screen
of Jimmy’s and Gretchen’s faces
as they both drive in separate
cars, right next to each other, but
still separated by a barrier they
can’t breach.
The finale ends on a strikingly
similar note. Jimmy, having
just
proposed
to
Gretchen,
is completely shaken by her
casual use of the word “family.”
In perhaps the show’s coldest
moment, he immediately leaves
her, newly engaged, and drives
away. The left side of the shot is
Jimmy’s panicked face; the right
side is Gretchen’s signature pout,
fireworks incongruently bursting
behind her. I’d call it cliché if I
weren’t so emotionally shaken.
The show is full of dramatic
ironies like these, but at what
point do we stop praising the
show for its subversiveness and
simply commend it for being its
own entity? “You’re The Worst”
is constantly defined by its
relationship to other rom-coms,
but it’s defiantly singular in its
willingness to stand, unflinching,
and stare down the barrel of the
emotional difficulty of human
connection.
Intimacy
and
warmth and genuine meaning —
these take grueling work. But the
alternative? That’s the worst.
NABEEL CHOLLAMPAT
Daily Arts Writer
‘You’re the Worst’ finale explores
the difficulty of human interaction
Season Three of FXX show unflinchingly tackled deep emotional issues
TV REVIEW
I
was taught growing up that
if someone was bullying
me or hurled a hurtful
comment toward me, I should
ignore it and not let the malice
get to me. I did
my best to follow
that
mantra,
but I sometimes
retaliated against
those who would
provoke me.
In
retrospect,
it
makes
sense
that
I
didn’t
always
react
in
the
mature,
level-headed way
that
I
should
have when it came to those
kinds of harmful situations.
Nevertheless,
it
seems
like
that pattern of retaliation still
exists today, but in a virtual
form that intensifies its impact.
With the anonymity of the
Internet, social media users
can say whatever they please
almost without consequence.
Simultaneously,
the
online
deindividuation makes people
much more susceptible to being
offended by and easily drawn
to
provocative
comments,
particularly on Twitter.
This kind of instance in
particular is relevant to the
most recent Twitter controversy
with Donald J. Trump,
(a
well-known
cyberbully)
and
our
President-elect.
Last
week, Trump caught flack for
bashing the cast of Broadway’s
acclaimed
hit
musical
“Hamilton”
for
allegedly
“harassing” his running mate,
Indiana
Gov.
Mike
Pence,
who attended a showing of
the musical. In reality, the
“Hamilton” cast did not harass
Pence, but one of its stars,
Brandon Victor Dixon, offered
a rather powerful, sensitive and
respectful message to Mr. Pence
about protecting the rights
of American minorities and
people from all races, creeds
and orientations.
Still, that didn’t stop Twitter
users from firing back against
Trump, as hundreds flocked
to respond to his message with
snarky, vehement comebacks.
Admittedly, Trump deserved
the hate he got for brewing such
a malevolent tweet against a
cast of Broadway actors who
gave the American people a
statement
about
embracing
diversity and love. It’s also
ridiculous how the man who
will be running the country for
the next four years continues to
fall back on hiding behind the
hollow, vindictive shell of his
Twitter account.
However,
the
fact
that
Trump’s controversy against
“Hamilton” received way more
attention
from
mainstream
and social media is absurd,
especially considering that the
much bigger story of Trump’s
$25 million fraud settlement
for his fake Trump
University
was
downplayed
tremendously. Even
such
a
notable
publication like the
New
York
Times
made the “Hamilton”
story
bigger
than
the
$25
million
settlement
story
on
their
Saturday
online front page.
Most of Trump’s
online strategy — and I’m
assuming this may be the
strategy of many other Internet
trolls as well — is intended to
provoke people who he knows
will get offended by his tweets.
This
strategy
only
works
depending on how willing we
are to retaliate and to let his
malice get the better of us.
Though many Twitter users
were
affected
by
Trump’s
“Hamilton” tweet, some were
undeterred.
“Silicon
Valley”
star, comedian and avid Twitter
user Kumail Nanjiani retweeted
an
article
from
Politico,
regarding how the American
people are so easily vulnerable
to Trump’s deceptive, taunting
Twitter clickbait. In an even
more direct response, Little
Miss Flint posted a tweet,
reminding people that there
are way bigger issues than the
“Hamilton” debacle, like, I don’t
know, the Flint water crisis.
A similar situation occurred
earlier this week when Trump
denounced
NBC’s
“Saturday
Night Live” on Twitter for
being “one-sided” and “biased,”
implying
that
there
should
be “equal time.” Actor Alec
Baldwin, who has impersonated
Trump since the 42nd season
premiere of the late-night sketch
show, responded with a series
of brutal tweets that put the
President-elect in place about
focusing on the responsibilities
of his impending job and not
on trivial pursuits like Twitter
bashing.
And while it was sweet to see
Baldwin take down Trump, the
irony was that it still didn’t solve
the real issue at hand, which
is that Trump’s tweets should
not be the forefront of national
issues in the media. To tell the
President-elect that what he’s
saying is stupid or wrong is just
giving him more incentive to
continue making provocative
statements. Pushing back and
retaliating
against
hateful
online comments is juice for
Trump and online bullies alike.
It’s not entirely unjustified,
though:
Baldwin
had
the
total right to call out Trump
for continuing to give every
single pissed off Twitter user
an aneurysm, especially since
he is literally about to become
president of the United States.
However, regardless of how
articulate and witty your tweet
comeback against Trump may
be to you and your followers,
Trump will proceed to make a
plethora of politically incorrect
tweets unless his presidency
somehow
reforms
him
to
become a more conscientious
human
being,
if
that
ever
happens.
Twitter often acts as a liberal
echo chamber, and users like
Donald
Trump
rattle
that
chamber and consequently grin
about the worthlessness of our
complaints. Whenever people
are filled with strong emotions
about something, they often
go to Twitter to share their
unfiltered thoughts, whether
to vent about Trump or say
something clever about life,
pop culture nostalgia or the
brokenness of society.
I’ll admit that I’ve definitely
been
guilty
of
retaliating
online to stuff Trump has
said, especially when he wrote
his infamous “Appreciate the
congrats” tweet after the tragic
shootings at a gay nightclub
in Orlando last June. This
was
when
then-Democratic
presidential canidate Hillary
Clinton retaliated with the
phrase, “Delete your account,”
a comment that, while fantastic
in execution, didn’t end up
swaying
Trump’s
Twitter
followers to unfollow him.
What, then, are we supposed
to do as the 21st century
members of a flawed democracy
verging on a fascist regime? Do
our tweets, Facebook statuses
and YouTube videos possess
any positive influence against
the pushback of the alt-righters
and trolls of the Internet?
How can our passionate online
venting create any change if our
audience is predominantly like-
minded?
I’m not sure. I fear that
social media has become too
toxic at this point for anyone
to take down radical online
contrarians. Though Trump’s
tweets may continue to be
laced with veiled and direct
misogyny, racism, sexism and
blatant stupidity, the best way
to react to a taunting cyberbully
like Trump is to ignore him and
show him that his words cannot
get to us.
Rosenberg is still trying to
make Google Plus happen. To
add him to your circle, email
samjrose@umich.edu.
The artful deception
of Trump’s Twitter
HAMILTON
“When people say they hate you / Don’t come crawling back to me”
SOCIAL MEDIA COLUMN
When a cyberbully is our next president, social media has become too hostile
SAM
ROSENBERG
ALBUM REVIEW
I’ve never felt more conflicted
than I did when
Gerard
Way
first
announced
Hesitant
Alien
in May of 2014. I
was dying for the
chance
to
hear
him
sing
again
and
immensely
proud that he was
exploring
music
in ways he wasn’t
able to before, but
at the same time,
the fact that he was releasing
solo music made it clear that
My Chemical Romance would
never create together again. The
same feeling overcame me upon
my first listen to former MCR
guitarist Ray Toro’s debut album.
Remember
the
Laughter
comes three-and-a-half years
after MCR’s split, with little
fanfare; Toro has hidden almost
completely out of the public
sphere for the entire period.
The
work
lies
somewhere
on the softer, sweeter end
of
the
musical
spectrum,
and is especially impressive
considering that Toro sings and
plays instruments for almost
everything on the album.
“Requiem”
starts
out
tenderly, with steady plucked
notes that hover as the piece
unfolds, gradually transforming
into a nostalgic look back at
good things passed. Toro’s voice
is especially soft
in the beginning,
when
he
sings
“You
can
run
away / From all
the things that
hurt you in the
past / And you
can hide away /
Or face the truth
and live your life
at last”
The album is
extremely diverse
from song to song. “We Save”
is heavily inspired by the blues,
with prominent, strutting bass,
short yet expressive lyrical lines
and dexterous guitar. As he
sings “Gunshot, black like a stain
/ It don’t wash out these veins,”
Toro’s voice possesses a swelling
attitude that’s never really come
to light before.
Remember
The
Laughter
has several short instrumental
numbers interspersed within
the
greater
album,
each
of which act as a unique
introduction to the songs that
follow. The transitions between
the instrumental pieces and
subsequent songs are so fluid
that I didn’t even realize the
two were separate tracks until
I had a closer look at the album
list. “Wedding Day,” “Ascent,”
“Father’s Day” and “Eruption”
all contain audio recordings that
conjure up very specific images
when played in conjunction with
their counterparts.
The combination that struck
me the most was “Eruption” and
“Hope for the World.” Police
sirens, gunshots and frantic
screaming are overlaid with the
voices of an emergency operator
and a news broadcaster, who are
both talking about the city of
Ferguson, Missouri. Toro’s voice
breaks across the chaos suddenly
as he sings “Turn off the sound
of war and hate / Honor the cries
for a world that decides on love,
not race.” The contrast between
the two is especially striking in
light of recent events.
“Take the World” is another
positive,
encouraging
piece
that comes just at the right
time. Toro is passionate but not
overbearing as he sings “Let’s get
ready / To fight for what is ours
/ We can take the world / And
make it our own.” Faster paced
instrumentals and thrumming
bass
lend
the
piece
vague
whispers from Toro’s rock past.
Remember the Laughter is a
testament to Toro’s bountiful
artistic ability, proof of not only
his masterful guitar talent but
also a reaffirmation of his vocal
prowess.
SAMANTHA LU
Daily Arts Writer
Ray Toro strikes out on his first solo
project since My Chem’s break-up
The guitarist explores softer and sweeter work on diverse debut
B+
Remember the
Laughter
Ray Toro
We’re All A Little
Crazy
A-
“You’re The Worst”
Season Three Finale
(Parts 1 and 2)
FXX
Tuesdays at 10 PM
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