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"Home Economics"
I recently watched all the extant seasons (1-3) of "Home Economics", a sitcom currently airing on ABC in the US. It's reasonably funny, has some fun actors and writing, and sometimes gets at issues I haven't seen explored in other TV-type mass media (although I'm not thoroughly keeping up). The third season just finished and we don't know whether ABC will renew the show for a fourth.
As English Wikipedia summarizes:
In particular, this show is set in the modern-day San Francisco Bay Area. Connor's a private equity investor, living in a mansion I think in Sausalito or the Marina District; Sarah and Denise, who work in public schools, live in Oakland; novelist Tom and taking-a-break-from-corporate-law homemaker Marina live in a suburban house. (The geography does not really make sense to me when it comes to how quickly they jaunt from home to home, and also we glimpse a map onscreen saying that the suburban house is in Berkeley but I do not think there are any neighborhoods in Berkeley that look like that, but I have decided to not let that bother me.)
I've found it interesting to reflect on what the show does and doesn't address, given its premise.
I like that the show gets at some of the frictions that show up when you're rich or poor relative to someone you care about. One sibling makes a loan to another; several episodes later, when the borrower tries to pay it back, the lender tries to refuse the payment, calling it a gift, and the borrower is insulted by the attempted charity, because this ties into their own insecurity about being seen as a good provider for their family. And yeah, the person with the biggest home is the de facto host and party organizer, and that's fraught. There are lots of little interactions and decisions that feel realistic to me and that provoke salutary reflection on desire, jealousy, pride, what tradeoffs we're willing to make for comfort, obligation, and fairness. (Along with the standard-issue sitcom plots where people go to ridiculous lengths to deceive each other, and then reveal everything, hug, and Learn A Lesson in the last 3 minutes of the episode.)
That being said!
Each episode's title is an item and its price, e.g., "The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire: An Oral History (Used), $11" (the first episode I watched, because an episode title that mentions the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire is intriguing to me). But we don't actually get concrete income or wealth numbers for any of the families; for instance, in an episode where Connor is upset that his investments are going badly, he writes the amount of his losses, and of his remaining wealth, on bits of paper, and other characters react to those unseen numbers. We can infer that he's a multimillionaire based on the $1M+ cost of some of his purchases.
The cost of medical care comes up for Denise and Sarah when they consider having a baby; the cost of IVF is a big blocker for them, as Sarah's health insurance does not cover it. But when Marina and Tom are making decisions about whether she should go back to a corporate job, they don't discuss the cost of health insurance at all -- which is pretty unrealistic, given their situation at the start of the show. (He's a novelist. She left her corporate law job about 3 years prior, so COBRA has run out. They have three children. They're either on Medi-Cal or they've bought an exchange/ACA plan, or they're uninsured.)
I'm not sure whether this is a show that portrays poverty in the government-policy sense. At the start of the show, Denise and Sarah are scraping by in low-paying public school jobs, carry a credit card balance, and live with their 2 children in a very cramped apartment. Their landlady is very slow at repairs until Denise threatens to start a renters' union and potentially initiate a rent strike. But we never hear Sarah or Denise mention, for instance, SNAP/CalFresh food benefits, or Section 8 housing.
Our main characters are all white-collar professionals. Connor's housekeeper Lupe is very comfortable, as Connor pays her well and has her set up with a retirement savings/investment plan as well, thus keeping the character from representing a more precarious existence.
Who has significant debt in this show? Marina and Tom own a house and I think the mortgage is not paid off yet but I can't recall. Sarah and Denise (a therapist and a teacher) likely have student debt, and it would make sense for them to be deferring student loan payments through a public service exemption, but they never mention that debt, as I recall.
Maybe what I like most about this show is how, in between the sitcom-standard plot movements, people worry or rejoice. There's a really melancholy, relatable moment in the second season finale where Tom, having just been dealt a crushing blow that may destroy the chance that his newest book will be published, says that he's stuck, and they keep trying to make enough money to keep up but they're not just treading water, they're drowning, and he used to be a writer but maybe now it's time for him to be something else. And a few episodes later there's a moment when Denise and Sarah, saving for their new baby, have a close call where they narrowly escape a big unexpected expense, and they think about how much it is going to cost to raise a new child and deal with the inevitable unexpected expenses. And a few episodes later, Tom gets a windfall and we get the texture of, like, how the echoes of financial worry take a while to die down even after their cause has stopped.
I am extremely hesitant to recommend this show. It's a totally fine way to pass 22 minutes at a time, watching reasonably good-looking people banter and make references you'll probably get, laughing a bit. If you want to try a single episode, try S2E3, "Bottle Service, $800 Plus Tip (25% Suggested)". I needed a little brain vacation after a rough January so I gulped the show down and it served its purpose of immersing me in a different life for a bit. And at least it's trying to reflect some aspects of cross-class relationships in a way that's been a bit useful for my brain.
As English Wikipedia summarizes:
Home Economics follows the lives of three siblings. Tom, the oldest, his wife Marina, and their three children are considered a middle class family. The middle sibling, Sarah, her wife Denise, and their two adopted children live in a tiny apartment and are barely scraping by on their meager incomes. The youngest, Connor, is very well off financially but unlucky in love, as the series begins with him finalizing a divorce.
In particular, this show is set in the modern-day San Francisco Bay Area. Connor's a private equity investor, living in a mansion I think in Sausalito or the Marina District; Sarah and Denise, who work in public schools, live in Oakland; novelist Tom and taking-a-break-from-corporate-law homemaker Marina live in a suburban house. (The geography does not really make sense to me when it comes to how quickly they jaunt from home to home, and also we glimpse a map onscreen saying that the suburban house is in Berkeley but I do not think there are any neighborhoods in Berkeley that look like that, but I have decided to not let that bother me.)
I've found it interesting to reflect on what the show does and doesn't address, given its premise.
I like that the show gets at some of the frictions that show up when you're rich or poor relative to someone you care about. One sibling makes a loan to another; several episodes later, when the borrower tries to pay it back, the lender tries to refuse the payment, calling it a gift, and the borrower is insulted by the attempted charity, because this ties into their own insecurity about being seen as a good provider for their family. And yeah, the person with the biggest home is the de facto host and party organizer, and that's fraught. There are lots of little interactions and decisions that feel realistic to me and that provoke salutary reflection on desire, jealousy, pride, what tradeoffs we're willing to make for comfort, obligation, and fairness. (Along with the standard-issue sitcom plots where people go to ridiculous lengths to deceive each other, and then reveal everything, hug, and Learn A Lesson in the last 3 minutes of the episode.)
That being said!
Each episode's title is an item and its price, e.g., "The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire: An Oral History (Used), $11" (the first episode I watched, because an episode title that mentions the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire is intriguing to me). But we don't actually get concrete income or wealth numbers for any of the families; for instance, in an episode where Connor is upset that his investments are going badly, he writes the amount of his losses, and of his remaining wealth, on bits of paper, and other characters react to those unseen numbers. We can infer that he's a multimillionaire based on the $1M+ cost of some of his purchases.
The cost of medical care comes up for Denise and Sarah when they consider having a baby; the cost of IVF is a big blocker for them, as Sarah's health insurance does not cover it. But when Marina and Tom are making decisions about whether she should go back to a corporate job, they don't discuss the cost of health insurance at all -- which is pretty unrealistic, given their situation at the start of the show. (He's a novelist. She left her corporate law job about 3 years prior, so COBRA has run out. They have three children. They're either on Medi-Cal or they've bought an exchange/ACA plan, or they're uninsured.)
I'm not sure whether this is a show that portrays poverty in the government-policy sense. At the start of the show, Denise and Sarah are scraping by in low-paying public school jobs, carry a credit card balance, and live with their 2 children in a very cramped apartment. Their landlady is very slow at repairs until Denise threatens to start a renters' union and potentially initiate a rent strike. But we never hear Sarah or Denise mention, for instance, SNAP/CalFresh food benefits, or Section 8 housing.
Our main characters are all white-collar professionals. Connor's housekeeper Lupe is very comfortable, as Connor pays her well and has her set up with a retirement savings/investment plan as well, thus keeping the character from representing a more precarious existence.
Who has significant debt in this show? Marina and Tom own a house and I think the mortgage is not paid off yet but I can't recall. Sarah and Denise (a therapist and a teacher) likely have student debt, and it would make sense for them to be deferring student loan payments through a public service exemption, but they never mention that debt, as I recall.
Sarah, a leftist, does think Connor's wealth is unjust, and her point of view on the matter is clearly conveyed to us. Does the show agree with her? I don't know but I think it doesn't. I think it basically assumes: there are going to be rich people and not-rich people, and sometimes the luck of the draw, and your temperament, put you in a particular slot.
Sitcoms often indulge in stasis; characters can't fundamentally grow, relative to each other. I think HE largely falls into this category, and in particular isn't portraying the moment of class mobility. Sarah takes a job at a private school, and thus starts making way more than Denise, yet we don't see their relationship shift in any way because of this. Connor leapt into the 1% before the show started.Maybe what I like most about this show is how, in between the sitcom-standard plot movements, people worry or rejoice. There's a really melancholy, relatable moment in the second season finale where Tom, having just been dealt a crushing blow that may destroy the chance that his newest book will be published, says that he's stuck, and they keep trying to make enough money to keep up but they're not just treading water, they're drowning, and he used to be a writer but maybe now it's time for him to be something else. And a few episodes later there's a moment when Denise and Sarah, saving for their new baby, have a close call where they narrowly escape a big unexpected expense, and they think about how much it is going to cost to raise a new child and deal with the inevitable unexpected expenses. And a few episodes later, Tom gets a windfall and we get the texture of, like, how the echoes of financial worry take a while to die down even after their cause has stopped.
I am extremely hesitant to recommend this show. It's a totally fine way to pass 22 minutes at a time, watching reasonably good-looking people banter and make references you'll probably get, laughing a bit. If you want to try a single episode, try S2E3, "Bottle Service, $800 Plus Tip (25% Suggested)". I needed a little brain vacation after a rough January so I gulped the show down and it served its purpose of immersing me in a different life for a bit. And at least it's trying to reflect some aspects of cross-class relationships in a way that's been a bit useful for my brain.
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