RISE- Page 3

[Miles2Go2]

Posted: 4/24/18 at 10:20pm

Deena Jones said: "It’s growing on me.... "

I actually had the exact opposite response to tonight’s episode. Make no mistake. I’ll keep watching, but for every scene that works, there are at least two that don’t. And any hopes of getting a somewhat likable protagonist in Lou are pretty much non-existent after tonight. The best scenes tonight were the last ones which featured the cast singing and a montage of the different characters together. Coincidentally, these scenes worked best because there was little dialogue. I wish Lou would allow Perez’s character to take over as director. He is truly infuriating. 

[AGussBway]

Posted: 4/25/18 at 11:11am

I'm one episode behind (didn't catch last night's), but so far have been sort of enjoying the show. It just feels very unrealistic. 

[dramagoer]

Posted: 4/25/18 at 5:04pm

What a mixed bag of a show.  I am hate-watching at this point, and who has the time?  Poor Rosie Perez.  

[Miles2Go2]

Posted: 4/25/18 at 5:06pm

Rosie is truly one of the best things about the show.

[oh-bwayhereicome]

Posted: 4/25/18 at 5:17pm

I'm still going to watch bc I find the cast is very talented and most of the storylines outside of the Spring Awakening rehearsals interesting. However, the whole rehearsal process is so fake and unrealisitic. This last episode with Lou going straight into a full run on the first day of tech is ludicrous. Like how did this man with 0% experience even find his way to the auditorium? It is crazy to watch.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 4/25/18 at 6:50pm

I heard from a journalist friend that NBC is cancelling the series. It won’t be back for a Season 2 due its ratings.

[Robbie2]

Posted: 4/25/18 at 6:58pm

i was just about to say it won't be renewed!

[Miles2Go2]

Posted: 4/25/18 at 7:00pm

BrodyFosse123 said: "I heard from a journalist friend that NBC is cancelling the series. It won’t be back for a Season 2 due its ratings. "

Sadly, that’s not too surprising. I think even if the quality had been higher, this show would’ve had trouble finding a broader audience. 

[BroadwayStar4]

Posted: 4/25/18 at 11:23pm

Miles2Go2 said: "Sadly, that’s not too surprising. I think even if the quality had been higher, this show would’ve had trouble finding a broader audience."

Nah, it would have found an audience. The problem is that the show alienated their intended audience by straight-washing the main character. NBC and Rise received major backlash because of that, and their explanation didn't convince anyone. 

[Miles2Go2]

Posted: 4/26/18 at 12:14am

BroadwayStar4 said: "Miles2Go2 said: "Sadly, that’s not too surprising. I think even if the quality had been higher, this show would’ve had trouble finding a broader audience."

Nah, it would have found an audience. The problem is that the show alienated their intended audience by straight-washing the main character. NBC and Rise received major backlash because of that, and their explanation didn't convince anyone."

I agree that the show did itself no favors in regards to the straight-washing, but I also realize that as large of a contingency of us theatre-goers as there are, we are likely not a big enough group to prop up a show like Rise. If it had been better quality and hadn’t faced a backlash from the get-go, it might have gotten one more season (I’m assuming the rumors are true that it won’t be renewed), but then it would’ve faced the same fate as Smash. Other somewhat comparable shows (music - Nashville; high school - Friday Night Lights) also struggled to find audiences and only survived more seasons due to being rescued by other networks after their original networks cancelled them over poor ratings. Of course, those shows had fans that advocated for them and they appealed to larger audiences (country music, football). That won’t happen for Rise. The only recent music-related shows that I can think of that could be considered successes are Glee and Empire. Both appeal(ed) to broader bases than musical theater fans like us.  I’m a fan of all these other shows I have compared Rise to. Glee was not always well written (especially after season 2), but it was entertaining and appealed to a broader base. It also felt novel at the time. Empire is one of my guilty over-the-top pleasures. It’s seems to be in on the joke that it’s not terribly well-written, has ridiculous plots, and is campy, but it appears to a broad R&B/hip-hop-loving audience (of which I’m one) and is fun and moves at a good pace. 

I guess what I’m saying is that even if Rise a) hadn’t faced a backlash and b) had been better written, the anticipated audience still wasn’t large enough to sustain it past one more season unless it drastically changed its tone to more closely resemble Glee/Empire. I don’t like football, but loved Friday Night Lights, but I don’t think most of my friends (football loving and otherwise) would have given Rise a chance no matter what. 

At least if it had been better-written, it could’ve been a show that found a second life on streaming networks or on another channel. I doubt that’s going to happen now. 

[AllThatJazz2]

Posted: 5/11/18 at 7:16pm

The show has officially been cancelled after one season.

I thought it was problematic but hoped if they got a second season they could retool a bit and try to improve. It had potential.

[Miles2Go2]

Posted: 5/11/18 at 7:20pm

AllThatJazz2 said: "The show has officially been cancelled after one season.

I thought it was problematic but hoped if they got a second season they could retool a bit and try to improve. It had potential. "

Even though the show was a hot mess, I did look forward to watching it next week. It is so rare to see these type of shows on tv. It makes me sad too although I understand why it was canceled. 

[EllieRose2]

Posted: 5/11/18 at 11:55pm

Josh Radnor ruined it by being so insufferable.  Oh well.  

[uncageg]

Posted: 5/12/18 at 12:30am

I have not read the book that the series was inspired by. How far did they stray away from the book? Just curious.

[antonijan]

Posted: 5/12/18 at 12:45am

Was there an actor in the cast that is gay in real life or vice versa?
 

(I may have to read the whole thread.... sorry...i only read the last page)

Updated On: 5/12/18 at 12:45 AM

[Elegance101]

Posted: 5/12/18 at 1:49am

The real-life guy that Josh Radner's character is based off of is gay. However, the character in the show is straight, hence straight-washing.

The series really just wasn't as good as it could've been. I really think it could have been realistic and still a good show. It was as if no one who wrote the show had ever done theatre even in school. Was a huge disappointment in my book.

[Wayman_Wong]

Posted: 5/12/18 at 2:35am

From John Russell's 'Rise's Straightwashing Is a Stunning Letdown for Original Gay Stories at Out.com:

''[Producer Jason] Katims, a cisgender, ostensibly heterosexual male, took a true story with a gay man at its center and reframed it around a straight man. That is a choice that he made, that he owns, and whether he knows it or not, it sends a message to LGBTQ people that even our stories aren’t our own. We can be written out of them, erased or sidelined by those in power.

''Katims has argued that his show doesn’t “shy away” from LGBTQ issues, but that is precisely what it does. I’m not willing to give him points for relegating to the wings characters and storylines that should have taken center stage. ...What we haven’t seen is a show with a deeply closeted middle age leading man. It would be a truly risky move to build a network drama like Rise around such a character. It would require audiences to empathize with someone capable of incredible deception as well as inspiration.

''Instead, Rise presents us with a much more familiar story. With Radnor’s character at its center, the show simply reinforces the TV trope that LGBTQ people are part of the rich tapestry that serves as a backdrop for straight people’s lives. We’re there in the B plots; we’re the supporting roles, but never the focus of the show.''

https://www.out.com/out-exclusives/2018/3/21/rises-straightwashing-stunning-letdown-original-gay-stories

Updated On: 5/12/18 at 02:35 AM

[A Director]

Posted: 5/12/18 at 3:57am

This is also from John Russell's article.

"Inspired by New York Times Magazine writer Michael Sokolove’s 2013 book Drama High, the show tells the story of a Pennsylvania steel town English teacher’s efforts to revitalize his high school’s theater program by staging a production of Spring Awakening."

Did Russell read Drama High?  The first part of the sentence is correct, the second part is wrong.  Lou Volpe did not need to revitalize his high school's theatre program by staging Spring Awakening!

His being gay is not the primary focus of the book.

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 5/12/18 at 9:02am

A lot of people wrote off the show because of the so-called straight-washing of the main character, but it better served the needs of the show. Also, those people missed out on missed out on plenty of other LGBT representation, the openly gay kid, the trans kid, and the closeted gay kid with his possibly also closeted dad.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 5/12/18 at 9:20am

Perhaps if it weren't based on an actual gay person it wouldn't matter. But they erased a part of his identity - and I can understand the backlash.

The issue that killed the show, was that despite the talent (those playing most of the kids were GOOD) it was horridly written and implausible.

[Kad]

Posted: 5/14/18 at 10:37am

I think the fact that a show with a theatre focus didn't even find much of a foothold in the theatre community is very telling.

[MrsSallyAdams]

Posted: 5/14/18 at 11:00am

I've never understood why so many high school theater stories are built around the love life of the hot popular jock. One of the reasons my fellow theater kids and I did shows was to get away from the hot popular jocks. Then the arguments pop up that the quirky theater fans aren't enough to support a show about theater kids... which always leaves me wondering just who is this for? The hot popular jocks of the world aren't going to support shows like High School Musical, Glee and Rise no matter how many of them you cast in the leading roles. Pushing the theater lovers and minorities to the sidelines alienates the folks that should have been your target audience. 

[Playbill_Trash]

Posted: 5/14/18 at 2:38pm

I completely agree that the show was written by people that have never done high school theatre, or theatre at all, before. The show was ridiculous in its portrayal of how high schools do musicals from the beginning and it kept being outrageous through last week's episode. 

Did anyone see last week's episode? If you're a hate-watcher of the show like me, there was a little gratifying payoff when Ted Mosby finally understands that this show is incredibly inappropriate to force a bunch of minors to put on. A montage of scenes that they try to re-stage because the PTA has petitioned the show. Finally the writers acknowledged how ridiculous the idea is, but it did not make up for the last 8 weeks.

 

Also, a few weeks ago when the cast broke into the steel shop and went around town to get pieces of the set to bring back? The most inaccurate part of the entire series so far - no group of high school actors is that helpful with tech. Ever. 

 

But if this show was not cancelled, I would watch every episode of whatever they threw together. 

[Islander_fan]

Posted: 5/14/18 at 5:40pm

It was a poorly constructed TV show, period. And, I expected more since I love both Friday Night Lights as well as Parenthood. 

I honestly feel that this show could have been akin to Friday Night Lights. For that show, you don't need to have an interest in or know thing one about football. But, that which was going on around the characters is what made the show interesting. One could enjoy the hell out of it with zero knowledge or interest of football. Rise, could have, and had plenty of chances to do something similar in vein. While washing aside, I enjoyed the scenes of them rehearsing Spring Awakening. Maybe that's because I love theatre. But, anything else that wasn't that was poorly done. Be it the religious parents angry that their son is playing a gay character in the show. Or, the also poorly constructed plot line of the two girls angry at one another because one girl's single mom is sleeping wit the other girl's father who's the football coach and married too. 

Updated On: 5/14/18 at 05:40 PM

[gypsy101]

Posted: 5/14/18 at 5:43pm

i thought this show was exhausting yet for some reason i kept watching just to see how it would go. i also thought it was kind of fun that they produced almost an entire Spring Awakening cast recording