For TV dramas, it is really difficult to tell the story of the poor, especially if it is real and not depressing, it is not simple.
There are two more typical poor people stories that can be thought of at once in American dramas, "Shameless" and "The Conners". The former is at the bottom of the real society, and there is almost no thought of turning over. The latter is a working-class class trapped in a vicious circle, and even if they work hard, they don't seem to be able to do it, so they get worse and worse. Although the perception of these two dramas is slightly different, in general, the audience will laugh while watching, but they will feel helpless after laughing.
HBO's British drama "Rain Dogs" (Rain Dogs) is also a typical poor people's story TV series, which seems to be a comedy with a lot of laughs on the surface, but it completely shows the helplessness of the poor inside.
The protagonists of the story are a mother and daughter.
Costello is a down-and-out writer and a former alcoholic, and she and her daughter, Iris, who are almost 10 years old, were kicked out of the house after three months of drinking for rent arrears.
Costello went to find her good friend Gloria, but she didn't get a hangover and didn't bring her **. In desperation, she took her daughter to the house of a strange man she had just met in a convenience store. The man claims to have a cheap room for rent, but when Costello finally sees that his daughter has a bed to sleep in, he realizes that the man clearly has bad intentions.
Costello, who really has no choice, can only call ** to his good friend Selby, who has just come out of prison. Selby is a wealthy prodigal who spends his days fooling around and went to jail a year ago for a fight. Costello refuses to associate with Iris for fear that he will have a bad influence on Iris, but he has to admit that Selby is the most reliable man in Iris's life, and only Selby can help him in his most difficult times.
Selby leaves the ill-intentioned man's house with Costello and Iris, but it remains to be seen how much the mother and daughter will stay next.
The whole story is the story of Costello, with the help of his own group of strange friends, trying to give his daughter a "home".
In a way, it's the adventures of Costello and Iris, a mother and daughter who have to go through all sorts of challenges along the way, and the mother Costello has to protect her daughter Iris from being a "poor" person, and their goal is nothing more than a stable place to live.
In this "adventure", they have to avoid all kinds of ill-intentioned people, have to "fight wits and courage" with the social security system, and in the whole process, they have to avoid being numb and rotten due to exhaustion.
The biggest problem for the poor is in **? The biggest disadvantage of the poor is that they have no safety net, and there is almost no room for error in their lives.
In fact, there are many plots in this play that talk about this issue very bluntly. For example, in the first episode, Costello really doesn't know what the man wants to do? But at this time, as a mother, this is the only way for her daughter to have a place to live at night. No one will "choose" to be poor, and the poor have no choice at all.
On the surface, the mother and daughter are neatly dressed, Costello is wearing makeup and holding a mobile phone, and Iris is carrying a schoolbag and wearing headphones, which does not seem to fit the stereotype of the "poor at the bottom". But if you think about it, the mother and daughter are almost like no cone on the top, and the poor in the developed countries may be like this.
It's a lot of difference in the world. In the second season of "White Lotus Resort", **The rich spent 5,000 euros on prostitution a night without blinking, and the naïve rich man was deceived of 50,000 euros without sighing; In "Succession", buying a poor person **1 million feels like he doesn't need money. In this show, Costello's credit card can't even pay for a pack of potato chips. But it is such a poor person in developed countries, although it seems to be very embarrassed, but at least enough food never seems to be a problem, but what about the real poorest poor people in the world?
Therefore, although this drama has a fairly realistic depiction of the "poor" constraints, it still adds a safety floor to the story overall, such as Selby, a rich man who can help at critical moments, so that it is not too depressing for people to watch.
In reality, do people of Costello's class really have friends of Selby's class? I'm afraid that her friends will also be unable to protect themselves.
Of course, just as many people always like to stand on the commanding heights and look down on the poorer (people) than themselves, and say lightly, "Why don't you work hard?" "In the same way, watching this kind of drama really can't help but feel this way. This is a very big limitation of this kind of work, they can't make the characters really "grow", or even if they "grow" in other aspects, but in terms of social class, they will inevitably not improve.
Shameless is like this, and so is "The Connors", their lives will even get worse and worse, because this is a TV series about the poor, and it is to show the audience the difficulties faced by the poor, whether it is an objective or subjective issue. So I'm afraid this drama is the same, the mother and daughter go around in circles, and their living conditions are not better.
It is true that there will always be poor people in this world, and the characters in the play cannot be allowed to have fun in the suffering, so this play is "comedy" from the perspective of the picture, and there is no gloomy filter to set off the depressing atmosphere.
This drama is quite unique and can be watched.