Greg and Zanna watch a series about a band called Lady Parts.
SCORES
Number of Lady Parts: 5
Success of Lady Parts: 5
Cultural importance of Lady Parts: 5
HE SAW
The reason this feels like an important show
is because it tells a story about a marginalised group, but is not about their marginalisation. That is, it's not a show about a band of Muslim women trying to achieve musical success; it's a show about a band trying to achieve success and they're Muslim women. And it's in the mainstream. And it's a comedy.
It's odd how groundbreaking the show feels, given how technically and structurally ordinary it is. It's sweet and funny, and it never hides from the fact we all know where it's going from the beginning. There are many things that elevate it: the characters are complex and interesting, some of the music is lyrically brilliant and melodically excellent. But looming over everything is the uncomfortable fact we should really have had stuff like this years ago, not because it's good for us, which it is, or because the alternative - unrelenting cultural homogeneity - has been bad for us, which it has, but because it's right.
This six-part comedy series hinges, like so much of life nowadays, on a social media cancellation. This cancellation is followed, unlike so much of life nowadays, by social media redemption. I argued briefly with Zanna that this critical moment was lacking in causality. She disagreed, explaining that that's how social media works. I didn't think that was true but I was suffering through a cold; had been suffering through a cold for more than a week, and she was sick of it. Several times during the preceding days, she had told me I appeared to be "fine now". This far into my illness, she found the very sound of my voice repellent. There was no point using it to try to carry on an argument - it would only have made things worse.