Couple thoughts. One, reading this part of the article, which is apparently from something Irby wrote in her newsletter:
"this wild reaction (by which i mean the entire internet’s collective loathing) is also disconcerting because some of it is coming directly to me from people i actually know? i promise you, someone has already sent me that nasty [tweet/article/podcast/blogpost/ransom note] that you were just about to forward to me. i’ve seen them all! they make me feel bad because this was a job i was hired to do and i didn’t take it as a joke!”
made me feel terrible for her. Long story but earlier in my career I was involved in a project where there was a spectacular, public flameout by one of the key personnel involved that made the local media. I remember how awful it felt to have my inbox pinging and it was yet another person sending me a news article about the person's public meltdown, usually with the subject line "isn't this the project you were working on?" or some similar statement. When something goes down in flames, everyone involved with that thing knows it is going down in flames. It feels terrible BTW and no one needs to be reminded that the whole thing has gone completely pear-shaped and failed miserably. I hope the people who were emailing the scathing reviews (especially people who said they were her friends!) to Irby have stopped that. It's not cool. She was definitely not sitting there oblivious being like "Oh iS tHere A PrOBLEM with ThE ShoW?" Emailing someone terrible reviews of their work is the equivalent of rubbing someone's nose in a pile of sh*t, and I firmly believe people only do that to gloat, and dress up the gloating with fake concern.
Secondly, I have no idea why the production team for AJLT would have hired a spectacularly talented person like Irby to write for the show and then treat her in a way so that she has to say:
"i am truly at the bottom of the totem pole that is this gargantuan production"
and
"please stop yelling at me, i am powerless over these decisions!!!!!!!!!"
I understand different people have different roles in a production, but maybe, just maybe, the show would be better if the executive producer echo chamber had allowed themselves to hear some other voices that could have put the show on a better trajectory. Imma just say it: Michael Patrick King sucks
... keep reading on reddit ➡Dear god no wonder episode 5 sucked so bad, Samantha Irby wrote it. MPK just falls all over himself talking about how amazing she is and how brilliant the script is (um ok) and the minute she begins talking I just want to turn the damn thing off. Has anyone ever heard her be funny or read/watched anything she wrote that was actually entertaining?
Just started...'Wow, no thank you'...I may have given myself a hernia within reading the first 6 pages. Ridiculously funny.
After listening to hours of the Writers podcast on YouTube, I am left with a sour sweet taste in my mouth.
They just Love their show, they think they are making a masterpiece. They are pating each other on the backs and every problematic thing is either not discussed or is meant to be so provocative and profound that we just don't get it. I mean if you really believe them... probably the bravest thing Miranda did in her life was become alcoholic and get fingered in front of Carrie. So groundbreaking and brave.
There are so many cringe moments with them laughing and loving every stupid idea... that you really understand how this show came to be.
So thank you for disgusting me, disappointing me, I am waiting for that surprise in the end that will make all of it worth it. And don't forget that it is a "Watercooler." Yeah.
>“I think the only thing worse than a lack of diversity is faux diversity or diversity for diversity’s sake,” series writer Keli Goff told Deadline at the premiere during a conversation that also included fellow writers Rachna Fruchbom and Samantha Irby. “You never know until you get started [on a project] because all of us have been in those situations where someone wants to hire us but then nobody cares what we have to say. I think it was refreshing to be in a room with [executive producer] Michael [Patrick King] who was open to really listening.”
Maybe he needed to do some talking as well. Or maybe they'll do a better job with POC than they did of someone on the gender spectrum.
