TV Review: Freelance Questions The “Joy of Freelancing”
Generation Millennial is so commented on, it is hard to sift through the mythos of this generation to get to roots of its problems. Freelance focuses on one, major issue: the workforce. As the most highly educated, severely in debt generation, we bought the American Tagline: work hard, focus, and your dreams will come true. Thirty-five internships later, and most of us are still wondering when “exposure” becomes a valid currency to pay our bills and whether freelancing is the only labor option.
Freelance is a “dramedy” that is 100% based on the tragedy of being a Millennial. We got the shortest straw in a very material world. The problem with material insecurity is it does not mean you are going to go “Braveheart” on your life and become spiritually savvy. On the contrary, each Freelance character feels emotionally screwed. Life is never something easily figured, both mentally and spiritually. Yet, when you spend your day applying for “stable” jobs/ securing projects that, hopefully, pay AND you add relationship issues, the whole “life thing” seems intolerable.
Produced solely by women under 25, and written/directed by Alison Flom, Freelance shows the simplicity of feeling “off.” Laura (Naaji Kenn) wants a child and, secretly, has an abortion to avoid the wrath of her girlfriend, Josephine (Kristen Brody). Charlie (Claudia Dockery) is, literally, working as a clown while she tries to find a stable job from an “unstable boss”, Jose (Connor Bond). Patrick (Satya Valli) and Madeline (Hannah Lynne Miller) have no idea what they want from life, but, somehow, have booked it into a deep relationship. You see my point! In a world that can be so material in how defines itself, not knowing where you are, literally, in your life makes it hard to see your “figurative” location.
Freelance succeeds on multiple levels. Flom assures the show’s tone is easy and flowing, and proves if there is one thing about young women, that I never doubt, is how meditative we are. Moreover, not getting what you want in life really does make you think about it more; something that series oldest character, Dorothy (Roseanne Rubino), represents. For every generation, life is series of unfulfilled desires, and twenty-something seems to be the starting point of that “show” but not nearly close to its end. Thus, Freelance asks its audience the same question it asks its characters; can you still be happy?
If you are going to your neighbor’s house to steal eggs and tomatoes, because you cannot afford your own, then are you really doing well? Are you, actually, okay if you get accepted into the college of your dreams, but are only getting more education because you have no idea where your life is going and are tired of the natural loneliness that comes from working at home? Can you, genuinely, hold a relationship when you struggle to have a career? There are really hard questions that are incredibly common, and, while Freelance approaches them, it leaves it to its viewers to figure out what would be their response for themselves. After all, it is hard not see a little of yourself in these freelancers. Catch Freelance on Youtube.
