Sobre "Roseanne"

Roseanne Really is Deplorable, por Telly Davidson, em The American Conservative (o artigo é anterior ao cancelamento da série - aliás, só soube dele na sequência do cancelamento - mas acaba por se manter atual):

Roseanne Barr is not a conservative. Ronald Reagan and William F. Buckley were not exactly her favorite people. She supported Bill Clinton’s first presidential run to the point that she claimed her number one-rated show, Roseanne, helped put Clinton over the top by complaining about the crummy economy a week before the 1992 election. She’s had as much use for the “family values” conservatism of Phyllis Schlafly as a fish has for a bicycle. (...)

Yet in spite of all that, it is completely predictable—even almost inevitable—that Roseanne would have voted for Donald Trump, just like the 80,000 or so voters who made the difference for The Donald in the Rust Belt “swing states.” (...)

At this crucial point, the new fetish in Clinton and Dubya-era politics became “Swing Voters.” These were best defined as American Beauty-style professional husbands and fathers and (even more so) their SUV-driving, soccer-and-wine wives—secular or “mainline” religious, two-story suburban, money in the bank, “good college”-educated, and, for the most part, white.   (...)

The late Clinton and George W. eras proved that the Krystle Carrington world of conspicuous consumption, casino capitalism, and invisible poor people had become the New Normal. It was the grungy, ironic, early 90s intercession of Tupac & Biggie, Kurt Cobain, Married with Children, Do The Right Thing, Falling Down, King of Queens and, yes, Roseanne, that served as the brief exception. And so it would remain, right up until the economic meltdown of 2008.   

This wasn’t just limited to politics. By the end of Roseanne’s initial run, that same “swing voter” audience was also the only demo that Hollywood (or the news industry) cared about. In the decade between Clinton’s exit and the 2008 meltdown, it was all about upscale “prestige TV” ensembles, from the high-tech models of CSI, The West Wing, and Grey’s Anatomy, to self-consciously “chic” shows and movies like Sex and the City, Will & Grace, American Psycho, Mad Men, The Devil Wears Prada, and fantasy “rom-coms.” In the late 90s and 2000s, the single-minded pursuit of the “upscale” 18-to-49-year-old professional was complete and total—along with the marginalizing of everyone outside that target audience. (...)

Whether it was “Time for a Change” in 1992 or “Change Has Come to America” in 2008, many of the Roseanne Connors just didn’t think they had enough change left in their pockets after all was said and done. The revival of Roseanne (the character), who voted for Trump (reviewers, unsurprisingly, were scandalized), is the inevitable return-of-the-repressed revenge. Roseanne (and Roseanne) is getting up in our faces and gloating, “This time, I was the real Swing Voter—so DEAL with it!”

[Já agora, isto acaba por ter algo a ver com isto]