Not
Sure It’s Funnier When He’s Not The President But #TheMayor
#3weekroundup #ABC #recap #review
All pictures courtesy of ABC
Y’all
know what the heck I do on this blog, so don’t act like you don’t.
What’s the next words outta my mouth/pen/fingers gonna be? Huh?
That’s right, it’s time for another new series’ three-week
roundup review/recap. On deck this week we have ABC’s new sitcom
The Mayor. So will this new pseudo-political show get your vote for a
full-season order or should it already be drafting its resignation
speech? (Wow! That’s a much better play on words than I’ve made
in weeks. Fantastic!) Let’s find out together.
ABC’s
The Mayor stars Brandon Hall as a small town California rapper named
Courtney Rose. The 27-year-old soon-to-be rap star is still waiting
on his big break and has a dream of performing at the local hot club
of the town (don’t worry kid, Jay-z didn’t really get going until
26). But hardly anybody knows his name and he has so far been reduced
to doing free street shows in various town squares. Until he conjures
a brilliant idea. He is going to run for Mayor.
That’s
right, this rapper is going to drum up more publicity for his name by
running for mayor of his small town in a bid that pretty much
everyone in the political climate and even those closest to him knows
is nothing more than a stunt, some “harmless” self-promotion. Is
this a complete mocking of current President Pussy-grabber’s own
run for election? You betcha! And it tries to make some smart and
critical jokes about the political climate in this country now and
how the people of the city would never waste their time or vote to
actually elect this know-nothing showboat who is full of talk and
blister but probably doesn’t know his hand from his butt as far as
governing goes. But still, everyone indulges him.
Courtney
is joined in his run by his mother Dina Rose (played by Yvette Nicole
Brown), a single mother who we later learn had him at the age of 16.
She is a hardworking and very nosy mail carrier who enjoys reading
other people’s mail to create gossip. While she believes that he is
God’s gift to the world, she knows that this whole thing is a farce
but will support him in whatever he does, especially if it gets him
closer to moving out of her house.
 |
| The Fam from Left to Right: Courtney, Dina, Jermaine, T.K. |
And
finally, we have the last two characters of any importance: Ed Gunt
played by comedy legend David Spade (he was on SNL in the second-era
heyday of the 90s and has managed a long career, so yes, he’s a
legend. Don’t roll your eyes), and Valentina Barella played by Lea
Michele. Valentina is the campaign manager of Gunt at the time before
the election. She is also a former high school classmate of Courtney
and was always an overachiever who clearly has her eyes on a much
bigger prize than helping some small-time politician win some
small-time mayor position in some small town even if said town is her
hometown. Her ambitions push everything about her character which is
all you need to know about her for now.
Well,
the show moves at a rather fast pace so that you can get to the
title’s meaning fairly quickly and realize that after a rousing
off-the-cuff speech in one of the only mayoral debates held, Courtney
wins the election and is shocked by his sudden power. And as a viewer
you’re panicking because, “Oh god, it’s Trump all over again,
but this time it’s even worse. This time he’s black.” Well, as
he and his boys brainstorm ways for him to slip out of his new
mayoral duties, his mother pulls him aside and says that he is a
conscious rapper who finally has the opportunity to effect real
change in a way that he could only dream about—the same way that
effects his raps. He mustn’t take this job lightly and shouldn’t
carelessly throw it away because he’d only be disappointing all the
people who voted for him. So now it’s on.
Courtney
and his team organize a clean-and-party event in which a bunch of
people come to the park/commons to clean up the place while also
stopping every once in a while to chill, drink, eat, dance and listen
to music. The one big drawback: They need to have a permit to do such
a thing. Luckily Courtney gets the proper permit for the party and
everything is cool. Even Valentina is impressed at how good the place
looks and how quickly the commons has turned into a nice-looking
place. But Courtney can’t bask in this success without getting
distracted from his main goal: to become a big superstar rapper and
improve his brand worldwide. So when he gets a call from that one
favorite club he’s always wanted to perform in that says that they
have an opening fit for the new mayor, he jumps at the chance like
Kris Kross.
With
Courtney gone from the party with the permit in-tow, the cleanup
party gets shut down and his mother gets carted off to jail for being
mouthy to the police. He bails her out and they have a heart to heart
in a van where she tells him that every citizen in the town depends
on every move that he makes, win or lose. Despite how inexperienced
he is, this is his job now and he must take it seriously because
people actually believed in him. He gets the message, realizes his
mistake and goes back to the park the next day to finish cleaning up
himself... well, with help from some little kid that had been playing
in the garbage field before. His team and Valentina come back to him
and forgive him for bailing and all is well. Not bad for his first
few days on the job that will be four years long. “Wait, this job
is four years?”
Episode
two deals with filibustering and veto power. Courtney starts by going
to an old elementary school music class in the same school he once
attended. While there, he talks to the kids, makes them laugh a
little, and makes them believe that no matter how small their role in
something, they have importance. He then over-promises that the
school will get new instruments, from pianos to flutes. The problem:
he hasn’t checked the budget nor cleared it with the city council,
two things that need to be done before he can pay for anything. When
Valentina tells him of this, he gets perturbed and hates how the
budget pie chart doesn’t allow for much squeeze room for anything
new.
So
while Courtney goes to a city council budget meeting to try and veto
their budget (and promptly gets overruled, not understanding veto
power), T.K. goes out on a mail delivery with Mama Rose to better
understand his job of dealing with the everyday problems of
constituents. There are shoes hanging across the wires of the lights
at an intersection, a huge puddle where a pipe has busted and other
concerns that are his job to listen to and help the mayor figure out
a way to fix.
Back
to Courtney, he impresses on Valentina how difficult it is to grow up
like him and have a teacher actually believe in him for anything. The
only time he ever heard a teacher say good job to him was in the
music class. He learned how to commit himself to something in the
music class, which is why he feels he needs to fund these kids with
new instruments somehow. Valentina comes up with two ideas to go
against her old boss Ed Gunt who is head of the city council. First,
she plans a filibuster in which Courtney takes the floor to talk
about anything and everything before the judgment on the final budget
is made. But even after using that extra time to find places to cut
the city’s budget, she can’t find enough money for the
instruments. Then, she decides to bring all the kids from the class
in and have them play music on their beatup old instruments and
stream it live for the citizens to react. That plan works to
galvanize more supporters of the idea of funding the music program
and the day is saved.
Episode
three sees Courtney’s approval rating sinking to historical lows
even after he won in a double-digit landslide vote. People joke about
how he is unfit and unqualified to be mayor and how even their
children can be mayor come the next election cycle. So Courtney
embarks on a journey to an easy win. When one of his non-home boy
staff comes in soaking wet after having waited in the rain for the
bus, he decides to go with trying to install covered bus stops across
the entire city which currently has none.
But
there’s one problem: he’s got to get the expense cleared by the
city council, and we already know who runs that. Well, Valentina
tries to warn Courtney of how tough her old boss Ed Gunt can be, but
doesn’t stick up for him as much as Courtney would like for her to
when Gunt shoots down the bus stop proposal. In fact, he is planning
to block everything Courtney does if only to get into power himself
in four years and implement all of those same really good ideas. So
now with the block, and with Valentina’s less than enthusiastic
defense of her boss, Courtney suspects Valentina of not being fully
committed and needs a plan to circumvent Gunt’s obstructionism.
So
Courtney goes on a local political show called The Grey Live where he
plans to pitch his idea for the covered stops directly to the
citizens. But the host isn’t trying to hear it and tries to direct
against what Courtney wants to say. He then takes a call from Gunt
himself who supposedly has the head of the transportation department
who says that covered stops would pose a health and safety risk. Now
he’s stuck and embarrassed.
Courtney
goes back to his momma for another pick-me-up talk and realizes that
he can’t play dirty and try to undercut Gunt. He’s not that kind
of guy. Instead, he can compromise and find a way around what he sees
as an obstacle. So he goes back the next day and reveals a large
billboard to Gunt that features the both of them on it and them
working together to help the city. He can finally get the bus stop
covers like he wants and things are good again.
What’s
my grade? I give it a C+. Don’t get me
wrong, I like this show, but it screams “stereotypical black show
not made by black people.” The show, in many ways, feels partially
like a mock-play of something that white kids would write in a drama
class if given the assignment to write something based on the inner
city. It is very ghetto and while it gets plenty of current
colloquialisms correct, some of the writing feels hollow and false,
as if it doesn’t have an authentic voice behind it. The acting is
decent, although sometimes you can see Lea regretting the foolishness
that she signed up for. At least with Scream Queens there was an
expectation of way over-the-top ridiculousness. Here, it seems like
the show is trying to be subtle or at least as subtle as a sitcom can
ever be. Some of the jokes truly are funny, and the
afterschool-special vibe that the show occasionally sinks into during
Mama Rose and Courtney’s talks actually helps to ground the show
rather than throw off the tone. But something still seems to be
missing.
Ultimately,
I think that the political message it is trying to make, similar to
this season’s American Horror Story, is muddled and a bit all over
the place. As I said, this show is supposed to be a critique of our
current President’s run and subsequent win for the highest elected
office in the land. But where SNL tries to look at Trump’s body and
way of governance in a critical light, this show undercuts any real
criticism by making him so young, broke and full of actual
goodness—the antithesis of Trump. It’s both hard to watch the
show without thinking about and recognizing the partially veiled jabs
at Trump, and yet respect the show for what it is trying to do.
Ultimately, it treats Courtney Rose as a mere child just trying to
navigate his new life. It’s somewhat of a coming-of-age tale but
for adults. In that vein, it is hard to figure out whether we should
root for the newly elected politician to succeed and thus boost his
ego to astronomical heights, or if we should hope he fails so that,
even though it effects people’s lives, we ward off others of his
ilk from ever trying such a stunt and punish the voters for falling
for such a terrible idea.
Should
you be watching? Eh! As I said, I rather enjoyed the show and think
that it is OK, but at the end of the day there are a few other shows
I would pick to watch before this one, especially on a Tuesday night
when the NBA normally shows a game of my team. If, however, you are
looking for something that is funny, family-friendly, diverse and
semi-educational about civics, then this might be the show for you.
It’s harmless fun, albeit not very deep. But Black-ish does make a
great lead-in for it. The Mayor airs on ABC Tuesdays at 9:30pm EST.
Catch up on past episodes with ABC on Demand and on ABC.com.
What
do you think? Have you heard of The Mayor? If you haven’t, do you
think you will tune in now? If you have heard of the show, have you
seen it? Did you like it? Where do you think they could improve? Do
you think Courtney will ever have an episode where he fails to get
something done? And do you ever see a romance evolving between
Courtney and Valentina like I do? Why else make them supposedly the
same age? Let me know in the comments below.
Until next time, “[Insert Dumb Trump
Quote Here, Please]”
P.S.
I know, reader. It’s lazy of me to expect you to come up with your
own dumb Donald Trump quote to end this article as opposed to me
going to find one and seeing if it could work as my ultimate sign-off
line, but... well. It’s just that I really have other things to do.
I haven’t worked on my golf swing in a long time. I’m supposed to
feed my dang family but haven’t even gone grocery shopping so now
they’re complaining about there being no food and water, and Lord
knows I haven’t gotten any real work (book and screenplay writing)
done since I finished the last season of the Writer. So... yeah. I’ll
try to come up with a real sign-off next time.
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