One Mississippi

[Drunk Monk]

This is a semi-autobiopic of Tig Notaro series. Season 1 is 6 half hour eps and I’ve seen them all. It darts back and forth between truth and storytelling, reminiscent of Graham Chapman’s Liar’s Autobiography. Tig, who plays herself, returns to her childhood home for her mother’s funeral. She’s already had her double mastectomy, which happened after her mom died irl. Actors play her family in broad caricature strokes. She relives some very painful experiences, like delivering her mom’s eulogy, and really lays bare some of the terrible experiences she’s had in her life, like being molested by her grandfather. She also goes topless, revealing her mastectomy scars - twice. That stuff is intense. Then there’s her signature humorous observations and anecdotes about it all, some of which got my lol-ing. It’s witty and authentic, edgy in places, inspirational in others.

I realize that one of the things that I like about Tig is that she dresses like me. We have a similar physique, which is weird to admit but I’ll own it. Perhaps that’s why I’m relating to this cancer surviving lesbian’s wry dry humor. 

She works as a radio dj and her sound engineer is her real life wife - they have a palpable chemistry. Irl, Tig met her working on a show. On this show, there’s a romance afoot for S2.

S1 has her staying with her stepfather and brother for some time in the wake of the funeral to find closure. At the end, she returns to LA. Many of the events are situations that she retells in her stand up, acted out with Tig’s reactions. There’s lots of dream sequences.

S2 looks like it’s going deeper into Tig’s fictitious life as the premise (radio dj instead of stand up comedian) is developing further.

[King Bob]

I liked this. The dad is funny too. Unfortunately it seemed like it might have been hitting it's stride just as it ended.

[Drunk Monk]

Binged S2 and agree about it hitting its stride, KB. It became more fiction, still parsed with Tig’s real life tales, but her stepfather and brother develop their own story arcs of interest. Straight Kate (Tig’s real life wife) steps more into the spotlight as the romance blossoms and I found myself rooting for them, knowing it was inevitable, and also knowing Tig deserves her given all the tragedy in her life. I hope Stephanie gets some real roles some day. Could’ve done without the musical bit. 

Sad to see this end. Twas fun while it lasted.