TV Review: Shrill Season 3 Is An Empowering Goodbye
Owning your power and your person is not, necessarily, the same thing. They can become one in the same, as seen in my recent review of The Boy From Medellin, but figuring out how to do so Is a journey that Annie ( the fantastically funny Aidy Bryant) finally takes on the last season of Shrill: out May 7 on Hulu.
For Annie, her weight is an emotional, double-edged sword. When she owns her body, and her talent, she is more confident than anyone else, but, when she doesn’t, she is also more insecure than them. Yet, last season left off with Annie having an epiphany I hope we all get to: her life is her own. She spent the first few seasons waiting for someone to open a door for her to find a great career, a beautiful relationship, and a sense of being that could be validated by others. This season Annie realizes she is her own door, which brings a whole bag of triumphs and trials.
I think think the hardest part about being a woman, especially a woman that does not fall under “standards of beauty,” is that having wants and going for your ambitions is seen as ridiculous. You are seen as someone that either can’t attain them or shouldn’t because how people view you should dominate over how you view yourself. The first two seasons were about how Annie, for better or worse, absorbed what others thought of her, and Season 3 feels funnier and more empowering because she is determined to think of herself for herself. It is a fascinating turn because it shows the transition from being constantly insecure to being constantly confident. Thus, Annie runs into HILARIOUS hiccups as she starts telling the men in her life, from one night stands to bosses, what she wants from them. The problem is that she, like most of us, has tendency to realize what she wants after experiencing what she doesn’t.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2091t8zCvEYou ever have someone list restaurants and you say no to all of them, of which they respond, “Well, what do you want to eat?” In some ways, that is what life is like; I can tell you everything I do not want in a career, a relationship, or even myself, but what I do want can be murky and fluctuating. It is as if desire is more ambiguously felt than disappointment; as if the latter is clearer and more potent. Thus, Annie’s newfound power at The Thorn and desire to own “her desires” leads her into an inadvertent epiphany; for however marginalized she can be for her body, she is still privileged. She is a hetero-cis white woman and now the helm of a popular site. While she still suffers and struggles to clear, even herself, from own path, the fact that she even has one and is on it is what makes her privileged.Thus, as she begins to cover other oppressed groups, she also expands what it means to love, own, and elevate yourself in a world that brings down so many others for superficial reasons like, skin, weight, and who you sleep with at night.
Like any show, Shrill has it cast of secondary characters that win over your heart. I would say the love story between Fran (the absolute fierce Lolly Adefope) and Em ( the incredibly charming Emily Fightmaster )is the most heartwarming. It draws you in amidst laughs to represent that falling in love is like falling into a pit of discovery. Seeing them explore each other and, in turn, themselves is both hilarious and relatable because, naturally, the noise of friends, family, and self-doubt permeates to test whether their bond is strong enough. Yet, unlike the billions of television relationships that are addicted to throwing monkey wrenches in their romance, I enjoyed seeing the stability and sweetness between them. They embody the solidity of feeling slippery; as if to love someone is the equivalent of sliding on a banana peel but strangely never fully falling down to get hurt or embarrassed. Ugh! I love LOVE, and this season wraps up that, in the end, empowerment is really about learning to love yourself enough so that you don’t need others to love you but you attract the right ones that do.
