The Here and Now of American values in the Trump era
In an era of quick fixes, it’s a tall order to expect a single television show to change the world, according to writer/producer Alan Ball. ‘‘The intention is to tell an interesting story, to entertain, to hopefully spark dialogue, to be thought-provoking,’’ the 60-yearold writer of Six Feet Under, True Blood and Banshee says.
‘‘And I would be very averse to saying yes, we can change the world, because I wish it was that simple,’’ he adds.
Changing television, however, may be slightly more attainable, though Ball is loathe to take too much credit for the critical and cultural impact of his work, particularly the groundbreaking family drama Six Feet Under.
‘‘Six Feet Under happened at a time when television was [already] changing,’’ Ball says. ‘‘I think The Sopranos was a big game-changer. And for me at least, The Sopranos meant I suddenly had a different idea of what television could be. To me it was very exciting to be working in television.’’
Ball’s newest work, Here and Now, is a contemporary American family drama, exploring the clash of values in post-election America for a multi-racial liberal family: parents Audrey (Holly Hunter) and Greg (Tim Robbins), and adult children Ashley (Jerrika Hinton), Duc (Raymond Lee), Ramon (Daniel Zovatto) and Kristen (Sosie Bacon).
Audrey and Greg’s three older children are adopted: Ashley was born in Somalia, Duc in Vietnam and Ramon in Colombia; their youngest child, daughter Kristen, is the couple’s only biological child.
The first draft of the pilot was written before the 2016 US election in which Donald Trump was elevated to the presidency. The final draft was written after. Ball says that for the writers the shift was deeply affecting.
‘‘When Donald Trump was elected, I came in the next day and we were devastated,’’ Ball says. ‘‘People were crying, people just couldn’t believe it. And we opened a bottle of rum and pretty much destroyed it.
‘‘I remember saying, we have to use this as an opportunity because this show can be a way to look at what’s going on in America. Without being particularly specific about who’s in the White House, because we didn’t know … would he still be there?
‘‘It was a way to look at the rise of racism, the fact that Nazis are marching in America, and just look at it from a mundane level and see how everybody reacts to it and how different characters experience it based on who they are and their perspectives,’’ Ball says.
With the pilot put to the page, Ball says there was a deep sense of catharsis for him. ‘‘I think there’s a release,’’ he says. ‘‘I think I do express a lot of emotional stuff through the characters,’’ he adds. ‘‘I don’t necessarily see it as a form of therapy but I do think if I didn’t have that outlet, I’d probably be a lot more angst-y.’’
The series also wrestles with the self-satisfaction of the liberal cause and the extent to which that undermined it. ‘‘Liberalism did sort of become very satisfied with itself, so there is an element of, ‘look at us, we’re the ones who are right’,’’ Ball says.
At the same time, he adds, ‘‘I still believe that liberals in America seem to care more about people than conservatives do.‘‘
In the series, Greg and Audrey Bishop adopted their children as ‘‘a way to sort of like atone for whatever crimes America had done in those countries that they adopted those children from. Does that mean that they shouldn’t have done it? There are a lot of people who would say yes.’’
The complex imbalance of racial experience in modern America is brutally illustrated in one particular scene where the two sisters, Ashley and Kristen, are arrested and each has a very different experience. Moreover, Kristen seems oblivious to the idea that the black and white experience could be so different.
‘‘I saw that as a chance to sort of highlight the different experiences,’’ Ball said. ‘‘[As a writer] you have to trust your instincts. And try not to hit the nail too hard, but a big rule of thumb for me is, it’s always better if you show it rather than have someone articulate it in dialogue.’’
The series does come with one very unusual aspect. In pre-launch media coverage it has been described as a ‘‘supernatural’’ element, but Ball is at pains not to overstate it lest the series be misunderstood. It is more, he says, a mystical quality.
‘‘I do believe there’s a lot of energy and stuff that we don’t necessarily perceive, because we’ve kind of been conditioned out of it,’’ Ball says. ‘‘And I do believe that there’s more to life than just the material world. And that’s as far as I’ll go.’’
The show’s co-producer, Peter Macdissi, says the show’s mystical element is intended to be a symbol of connectivity between people.
Ball says he is going into Here and Now with no real sense of where it might conclude in the longer term. As a writer/producer he has previously had to oversee the very complex finales to Six Feet Under and True Blood.
‘‘Ending a show is very difficult, but I never think about that at the beginning,’’ he says. ‘‘At the beginning, especially in creating a pilot, I just try to open as many doors as I can, because I’m going to need other people to help me figure out the course of the show.’’ – Sydney Morning Herald
❚ Here and Now 8.30pm, Mondays, SoHo and on demand on Neon. The first episode is being repeated at 7.30pm on Monday on SoHo.