Last night on ABC, the new show GCB premiered as part of a wave of Southern set TV shows that have come on the scene in the last five years after roughly 150 of being ignored. So I thought it might give “interloping yankees” a nice perspective to be able to rank the Southern set TV shows both in terms of quality and accuracy.
6. True Blood…Quality: C. Accuracy: D+…This show is set in the backwaters of Louisiana, except that these backwaters have vampires. Now I know some will say it’s not fair to judge this show in terms of accuracy because it’s a fantasy, but if that disqualified something I’d also have to make adjustments to The Walking Dead and GCB’s grades. In the quality department, the show started off pretty strong but went bat shit crazy somewhere towards the end of the second season and has never really recovered. In terms of accuracy, it doesn’t even try. I know it has vampires and fairies, but still…they could make an effort to cast at least twenty percent of the cast appropriately, but True Blood goes out of its way to hire non-Southern actors and make them try out shitty accents.
5. Hart of Dixie…Quality: C…Accuracy: C-…This is the only Southern set show currently set in Alabama (that I know of) and it doesn’t really try in the handful of episodes I’ve seen. This is mostly in love with an Alabama than never existed (the kind where people would elect the town’s sole black man as mayor, and the words “crystal meth” are scarcely mentioned). It tries to be both very generous by not showing Alabama’s hateful side but also condescending by still finding ways to put down small-town hicks. By taking the easy way out in both departments, it’s as much a fantasy as True Blood.
4. The Walking Dead…Quality: C…Accuracy: C…Once again we’re treated to something fantastical where zombies (about the only type of creature not on True Blood) roam the Earth, but I can still judge it accurately by way of the performances and character interactions. TWD fails in both departments. Much like True Blood, the show doesn’t even try to fill its main roles with Southern actors, and the very British Andrew Lincoln as the lead sheriff especially has a hard time sounding convincing without over-drawling. Also, the characters talk way too much. That might sound jarring, but I’m serious. These people never, ever shut up about “liiiiife deciiiisions” and philosophizing in a way that doesn’t sound natural for the type of rural, blue collar Southern characters they’re supposed to be. This also hurts the show’s quality as there are just way, way too many scenes where someone is sitting around jaw-flapping but essentially talking in circles by saying things they’ve said in every episode since the beginning. We fucking get it, Shaaaane is for surviving, and the (in my opinion) wimpy lead character of Riiiiick is for humanity, move on already.
3. GCB…Quality: D…Accuracy: B-…I can’t say I know that much about Dallas. I’ve only been there twice and neither time was for very long, but this seems to accurately nail the self-righteous yet completely unaware vibe of religious rich folks. The kind that want others to follow The Bible in an unrealistic way, but are oblivious to how petty or bad their own behavior is. Still, being accurate doesn’t necessarily make me want to watch more, and there’s just no getting around that this “Kris-chin” version of Desperate Housewives just isn’t a show I would watch outside of reviewing purposes. I felt hives breaking out just watching Kristen Chenoweth’s tan skeleton quote Bible verses.
2. Treme…Quality: B…Accuracy: B…I’m in the minority of reviewers on this New Orleans set series from The Wire’s great David Simon. Unlike the majority of reviewers I don’t love it outright, and unlike the vocal minority of reviewers I don’t think it’s awful or pretentious. The word I might use to describe Treme is “overindulgent.” Too often, the show thinks what it’s showing us is fascinating simply because it’s showing it to us and the show is “great.” Having five or ten scenes an episode devoted to blowhards sitting around chest thumping about who’s the better obscure jazz musician or who’s cajun food is better doesn’t exactly make for riveting television. And it also doesn’t make for a very accurate depiction of New Orleans either. The reason the show only got a B in the accuracy department is because it’s so self-consciously “realistic” about the way people talk about jazz music or creole food, that it forgets to show us much else, turning a blind eye to people that don’t obsess about jazz musicians 99.9 percent of the country has never heard of. That isn’t the full New Orleans, but the makers of this show seem oblivious to it.
1. Justified…Quality: A…Accuracy: A-…The closest representation to the South that I know is this Kentucky set show. The show doesn’t shy away from poverty, drug use, characters that are religious without being single-minded about it, and one of the most accurate Southern criminals ever committed to film which is Walton Goggins’s Boyd Crowder, the always-changing rural criminal who does what opportunity allows him to do. I won’t say it’s accurate in terms of it’s hero always escaping tight spots like a near-cartoon character, but the setting is beautifully correct, the situations spot-on, and the characterizations (like season two’s excellent Mags Bennet, a female crime boss in the hills) never merely condescending. Great job.
Of the TV shows reviewed, I also like Justified the best.
I wondered if ‘Justified’ was accurate or not, along with ‘Winter’s Bone’ it doesn’t depict a very pleasant lifestyle in the non-union/right to work for less south.
Joe: Good
Morgan: Winter’s Bone is a film I like quite a bit (all of those Hunger Games fans should check out Jennifer Lawrence’s breakout role, but they might hate it), but it’s set in the Ozarks…the near-no man’s land between Arkansas and Missouri, and exactly “Southern” cinema although its depiction of rural poverty is very much accurate. And you’re right to point out that fiscal conservatism and the complete lack of unionized labor has hurt red states far more than “helped create jobs.”