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PrintEntertainment options for the fly-over states
What is a fly-over state? According to the user-generated site www.urbandictionary.com, fly-over states “generally aren’t destinations for travelers or tourists and are generally flown over when traveling from coast to coast. Some fly-over states include Nebraska, Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, New Mexico, Iowa and Arkansas.”
One person’s opinion, of course, but the term has undoubtedly made its way into popular usage. And middle America, with its own set of cultural and political distinctions, has come back under the radar of Hollywood production companies.
One such example, a new sitcom titled “The Middle.”
According to a Hollywood Reporter reviewer, “The show begins with something approaching an apology. (Lead actress Patricia) Heaton’s voice-over practically pleads with viewers to disregard the fact that the series is set in a part of the country familiar to most people only as acreage to be flown over to get where they’re going.”
As of the writing of this column, the show hasn’t yet aired, but I’m certainly curious. Not since “Roseanne” or “All in the Family” have we seen a sympathetic and popular portrait of the lives of so-called “ordinary Americans.”
But I have to admit, it’s the so-called “ordinary Americans” part of this equation that never really sits quite right with me. The best show I’ve seen in recent years is “Mad Men.” And while part of the appeal of “Mad Men” undoubtedly stems from the way in which it is steeped in the social, economic and gender politics of its era, I would always argue that what makes “Mad Men” worth watching is good writing, regardless of the setting.
If you read recent entertainment-industry reporting, you’ll quickly gather that this is the working thesis among production executives: When the economy is bad, viewers want to watch shows about themselves. When the economy is good, viewers want to watch shows about what they might become, as exampled by “Sex and the City,” “Friends” or “Seinfeld.”
This strikes me as weirdly ham-handed, removing from the equation the quality of the writing, directing and acting, as well as the very notion that audiences, including audiences in fly-over states, are capable of a broad, nuanced range of likes and dislikes. More simply, just because you and I live in Tulsa doesn’t mean you want me choosing your nightly programming. And if that’s so obvious to us, why isn’t it more obvious to film and television producers?
Still, up until this point, this is all conjecture, my conjecture. I believe audiences in Tulsa and other geographically similar cities are not reducible to a couple of strokes of a broad demographic brush.
However, recently, when searching for a movie on Netflix, I noticed a very interesting little sidebar, “Local Favorites for Tulsa, Oklahoma.” According to our fly-over status, I should find nothing more than an exhaustive collection of “Smokey and the Bandit” titles.
But, no, I can quite confidently write that the four movies and one TV show suggested make up as strong and diverse a collection as any offered up by the residents of any town in any state. At the top, a recent, difficult Academy Award winner: “Million Dollar Baby.” Next to that, the biggest surprise, “Oldboy”: a Korean avant-garde/horror hybrid that possesses some of the most inventive shotmaking I’ve seen in any film in years. How this became a Tulsa favorite, I can’t begin to imagine, but that’s what’s so cool and also what makes the fly-over label so silly. “Oldboy” is a challenging film, not a teen thriller by any measure.
After “Oldboy,” local Netflix users apparently watch the newest incarnation of “Battlestar Galactica,” the one item on the list I’ve never seen. I am aware, however, that this show consistently received remarkably good notices throughout its run. Then, “Madagascar,” a recent children’s animated hit that is a fine, fun film and was a gigantic hit in our household several years back.
Rounding out Tulsa’s top five: “Charlotte’s Web.” That’s a strong choice. Based on the E.B. White classic, it has none of the pop-art zing of the latest version of “Stuart Little” but all of the pathos and drama.
Just to summarize: Tulsa’s favorites include a drama about a female boxer that deals seriously with quality-of-life issues, an avant-garde Korean horror film, the retelling of a children’s literary classic, a wildly anarchic children’s blockbuster and an underground but critically lauded sci-fi serial.
That’s just a touch more interesting than being reduced to a group of moon-faced people who want nothing more than to watch hokey versions of themselves when the economy goes sour or emotionally stunted oddballs sitting around big-city coffee shops whenever the good times roll.
