One cool scene- Looking closely at what makes a scene great: From ‘Feel Good’ S1 E4
A couple of days ago, I posted an entry about my current favourite TV show- ‘Feel good.’
I watched the fourth episode of the six part series yesterday. And one of the coolest scenes in an episode chock-full of cool scenes had Mae telling George about her parents’ arrival in London- to spread the ashes of their dead pet dog- and how she was going to meet them.
Making this announcement, she begins to walk away. However, George calls out to her, saying how she needs some emotional nurturing because of something that happened in the preceding minutes of the show- I won’t spoil it for you, for it’s quite funny.
In fact, she outright asks her to give her a hug. And Mae, who has begun to walk away comes back to her and complies. More than that, she brings George along to her meeting with her parents.
The scene was illustrative of two things. One is Mae’s proclivity to get fixated on something to the exclusion of everything else- a trait that has manifested as something very much like paranoia in the previous episodes.
Here, she is fixated on the idea that her parents are in London- in the city where she lives- and so she could go and meet them, to apologize to them for being(having been? The lines are blurred) a drug addict.
The second thing this scene illuminates is the easy intimacy between the two lead characters. Given how insensitively Mae behaves, the situation could have escalated easily. The cool thing is George does express her anguish at Mae’s indifference towards her present plight- something the latter only comes to realise when she points it out.
However, instead of making it a point of conflict, she just asks Mae to hold her. She does this without drama, in a self-consciously jocular way. Cool wouldn’t even begin to explain it.
Throughout the show so far, the idea of revealing character’s mind-set within a few short minutes has played out wonderfully many times. This is power of observation combined with power of good writing. I reckon it helps that the show is partly based on Mae Martin’s own experience with addiction.
Which brings me to another fact about the show which the aforementioned scene brought to mind- just how much of it is actually based on Martin’s personal life and how much is pure fabrication?
It’s the kind of question that people with too much time on their hand would post on Quora, I know.
Rarely have I felt like knowing about such a thing with any show before.
However, this time, it feels different. This time, the show, or the incidents in the show, look so life-like I am genuinely curious to see where the dividing line is between fact and fiction.
Part of the reason for this curiosity is that I am also a writer of stories; I wish to know if Mae’s insights into living could come only from lived experience or does artistic intuition also play a part? Part of the reason is that the show looks unlike other shows which always look overtly scripted.
