Question of the Day #818

I've watched three episodes of Showtime's "Shameless" and I can safely say I'm in love with the series.

Laurie Halse Anderson once said during an interview that the reason she wrote Prom was because all her readers wanted to read a book about "normal kids."

Not rich kids. Not kids with secret super powers. Not prom queens, drag queens or star athletes. Just regular kids.

This show, "Shameless," showcases a family that is anything but normal. The family is made up of six kids, a mother who ran away, an alcoholic father, one gay kid, one kid whose father has yet to be determined, a teenage girl whose boyfriend steals cars for a living, and so much more.

But in all that abnormalcy is normalcy. Like this week, the gas got shut off so everyone (subtly) wore puffy coats in the house. (Who hasn't done that?) Or the week before, when the oldest sister watered down the last drops of milk to make it go farther over her siblings' cereal. And an universal need to be loved twists through each character's storyline.

As messed up as this family is, it is so refreshing to watch a show about people who are not living in Beverly Hills or pimped out cribs or in a town where every resident sucks blood or shape-shifts. (Not that I don't love "True Blood." Just making a point.)

So this begs the question, why, as a society, are we not that interested in storytelling about people who are just like us? Or are we and is Hollywood telling us that we aren't? And what's your favorite story about normal everyday people?

xoxo,
Suzanne