To say I watched a lot of TV growing up would be an understatement. I had a great childhood parked in front of the cable box watching shows I was far too young for. I think by now I’ve seen just about every TV show ever made (only a slight exaggeration), yet the ones from that era still hold a special place in my heart.
It hurts to see them forgotten, especially the ones that barely got to stay on the air long enough to learn to fly. Some of these 2010s masterpieces have become cult classics precisely because of how short-lived they were — but that’s the best-case scenario. More often than not, they simply lived short lives and faded into oblivion.
Well, today I’m throwing them a rope and walking into the sunset with them, and you should take notes; these are gems, people.
“Don’t Trust the B**** in Apartment 23”
Ah, how I love New York sitcoms about clueless 20-somethings. I wouldn’t exactly call the main characters of “Don’t Trust the B**** in Apartment 23” friends, per se — they’re more like vulgar scammers trying to take advantage of a naïve midwestern overachiever and getting stuck living with her. Frenemies, you might call them.
Chloe (Krysten Ritter, “Jessica Jones”) — the, well, you know, in Apartment 23 — runs a roommate scam to help poor small-town girls realize they’re better off away from the big bad city. It’s charity, really. June (Dreama Walker, “Pooling to Paradise”) is the first to grow some teeth instead of running back home with her tail between her legs. They’re baby teeth, sure, but they bite all the same. And every episode, they get a little sharper with a not-so-gentle nudge from Chloe and Chloe’s best friend, actor James Van Der Beek (“Dawson’s Creek”).
The quick comedy of the show was ahead of its time, which is why this might be the biggest cult sitcom on the list. In just two seasons, it showcased a more edgy side in casting a secondary protagonist as certifiably cold-hearted as Chloe. Ritter’s performance teeters on over-the-top (Chloe’s drunken messiness knows no bounds), but she always pulls back enough to make you see the human side of her. And while it’s nice to want to think like June, the eternal optimist, there’s something delicious about sinking into the wicked ways of a party girl like Chloe.
“About a Boy”
Not to be confused with the 2002 Hugh Grant movie “About a Boy” — but the two are awfully close. (And, if we’re comparing them like the US-UK “The Office” rivalry, the Americans did it better).
Rich, unemployed and womanizing, Will (David Walton, “New Girl”) has got it pretty good — but it gets better when an annoying single mom moves in next door with her 11-year-old son Marcus (Benjamin Stockham, “9-1-1: Lone Star”). Marcus is what many (including the bullies at school) might call a “mama’s boy,” which is embarrassing even when your mom is played by the legendary Minnie Driver (“The Witcher: Blood Origin”). Will wants nothing to do with this sweater-wearing, vegan-eating, drum-circle-starting family — until he realizes Marcus can help him impress a woman by pretending he is Will’s son.
Some things you may expect: Marcus spends all 33 episodes teaching Will how to be more emotionally vulnerable, and Will spends that time teaching Marcus how to be his own man. The show curates a carefully heartfelt tone, but that doesn’t mean its datedness doesn’t rear its ugly head every once in a while (i.e. womanizing). Still, it’s nothing as weird as Mr. Shue’s (Trigger Warning) (Matthew Morrison, “Christmas Waltz”) only friends on “Glee” being a gaggle of high schoolers — mainly because the Will in “About a Boy” is actually self-aware.
The pair is endearing, and the show doesn’t waste time on the other things you might expect: Will and Marcus’s mom never get together. And, thank God for that. Their friendship and back-and-forth insults keep the show fresh — a second heart to beat next to the primary dynamic duo. This show doesn’t get nearly enough love, so start sending your flowers as you binge the whole thing in a weekend (before exams start kicking your ass, that is).
“Life Unexpected”
In the early 2010s, every project was Britt Robertson’s (“Little Fires Everywhere”) “big break.” She deserves all the roses that have just missed her arms, starting with praise for her series lead debut.
“Life Unexpected” is the one teen drama that I can honestly say has an original premise. We follow Lux Cassidy (Robertson) as she tries to emancipate herself from the foster care system she’s had to endure all her life. But in the process, she finds her biological father, a bar owner stuck in arrested development named Baze (Kristoffer Polaha, “Mystery 101”), and biological mother, a radio personality named Cate (Shiri Appleby, “Roswell”) who wants nothing to do with him. As fate (or a family court judge) would have it, the two end up with custody of Lux and have to figure this whole family thing out.
You can imagine the drama: Baze is angry that Cate never told him about the baby, Cate is distraught to find out that her daughter has had such a hard life and Lux is just trying to get away from them both. Makes for some really great television — a couple seasons of it, at least.
I’ve been trying to put my finger on why this show has stuck with me, and I think it comes down to the atmosphere. While Portland, Oregon might not be everyone’s idea of an ideal city, its presentation on the show is cozy yet busy. It immerses you into a controlled chaos — an aestheticized angst that you can always rely on to give you a soft place to land at the end of the day.
These are the things I love about this era of television: The shows are such a product of their time, yet still find ways to get ahead of it. They’re allowed to play within the confines of their box, and because of that, get to bang up against every edge of it. They’re not cookie-cutter; that’s hard to come by these days. Without audiences trying to preserve treasures like these, they’ll all eventually fall into the pit of lost media. I’m not ready to see that happen to these shows just yet.
Daily Arts Writer Mina Tobya can be reached at mtobya@umich.edu.
The post A stroll down memory lane: Forgotten 2010s TV shows worth a second look appeared first on The Michigan Daily.
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