Let’s Talk About Middle-Aged/Senior TV Characters

Let’s Talk About Middle-Aged/Senior TV Characters

I haven’t written about TV shows or streaming shows since I stopped living with my mom (we would watch a lot of them together and share our opinions in the Friday TV Report on this site; 2015 – 2023). But, “The Newlyweds” on #NBC has gotten me MAD and I need to vent. #TheNewlyweds could be SO MUCH BETTER!

First of all, they have three A-list, excellent actors: Téa Leoni, Tim Daly and Jamie Lee Curtis, who are COMPLETELY WASTED in this horrible sit-com nightmare script. Why do they hire such cowardly writers, or hamstring any good ones with such junk?

Here is a REAL-LIFE married couple (Téa and Tim) acting as a new couple who decide, very early on in their knowing one another (fewer than 3 months, one of which he’s out of the country entirely), to get married. She’s a widow (not funny); he’s divorced (somewhat funny, I suppose). They got set up on a blind date which they both bailed on, then met accidentally at a nearby bar, anyway, and hit it off. He leaves the next day (!?!) for Norway for an academic placement (very vague and not believable), and they do a lot of video calls. He comes back, they are SO IN LOVE, etc. So far, so good.

Then, the writers have taken too much mescaline or something:
WHY the trope of the crazy foreigner (Norwegian, played by Bill O’Neill!?), ) as Tim’s assistant? He is NOT FUNNY and not the least bit realistic. The actor may be talented, but WHO CAN TELL?
WHY give Jamie Lee Curtis a ridiculously vampy/trampy role that screams ABSURD? She can’t even stand up straight, it’s so silly to be that character.
WHY are Téa’s two adult children (Emma Meisel and Ignacio Diaz-Silverio) each a trope instead of a character?
Couldn’t they have given them actual roles instead of schticks?
Why do we need a flat and boring “possessive friend of Tim” (Al Madrigal) for any reason at all?
If Tim has a friend, where are Téa’s?

Look, writers and execs: YOU HAVE A GOLD MINE HERE and you are blowing it. Here’s how to fix it:

Write about REAL late-in-life romance, sex, health, jobs, money. Highlight menopause/perimenopause actual symptoms and how they affect real women. Show Tim dealing with prostate problems, even cancer. Baldness for them both. ED for him, vaginal dryness or low libido for Téa. Bladder control issues for both. Show mood swings, tendencies toward depression.
Show how to deal with ALL of these while falling in love and being newly married with adult children who are going through identity and job crises as they brains finish forming (age 25). Show bad decisions, drug and alcohol challenges (but no addiction, PLEASE? SO overdone). Show challenges of dating, employment, housing, psychological development endemic to young adults in realistic ways. Jealousies, competitions, triangles, lying, cheating: these happen in real time and need to be dealt with and can be funny as they are true.
Show how a sane person deals with a borderline narcissist (Jamie Lee, I suppose) and tries to set boundaries and deal with her insanity without killing her (can be funny, but also, very common).
Show the challenges of a newly married couple at these ages with two households and how to navigate time, chores, money, food, togetherness: all could be funny while being REAL.
There are ADS galore available for these issues, so stop saying a network can’t do this.
This plan would give the show much higher ratings and elevate your “sit com” into the stratosphere. Hasn’t been done lately, but Norman Lear was famous for real issues sit coms. Get writers like those!
Give these seasoned, excellent actors some ACTING to do!
Téa needs to stop being whiny and become her character’s intelligent, emotionally and hormonally challenged self, dealing squarely with all of these issues. Show her at work! She teaches middle school: get some laughs there!
Tim needs to be more verbal about his deepest feelings and troubles, more vulnerable and more honest. Give Tim something to DO besides type.
Since Tim teaches classes, too, do a split screen showing them both teaching, and showing college and middle schoolers behaving exactly the same! That’s true and funny!
Jamie Lee needs to stop posing and verbally pratfalling and DO SOMETHING important. Give HER some health problems (but NOT cancer, please?). Maybe she develops Diabetes Type 2 (very common) or has a mild heart attack (show WOMEN’s symptoms: very necessary!) and recovery. Does she have a job? Show her at work!
Give these women other friends. Maybe one of them has eczema or psoriasis (See? Ads!).
Give Tim’s friend health problems (prostate cancer? ED? toenail fungus? colitis? MORE ADS!).
Give the Emma and Ignacio actual characters and lives, so that, if this younger demographic actually watches this show, they can learn something and see themselves reflected in some of it.
Show Jamie Lee and Téa debating never wearing bras, ever again. Comparing hot flashes. That’s funny, and REAL!