Don’t even get me started on the cancellation of Mozart in the Jungle.
Oops…too late.
When I first planned on writing a blog post about this show, I wasn’t aware of it’s future (or lack thereof) at Amazon Studios. So this post is going to be a little bit different from the notes I had written in my sketchbook in early March.
I binge watched all four seasons of Mozart in the Jungle in February and March and I truly fell in love with the show. Already I want to watch them all over again.
Yes, it’s that good. But it’s not just good. It’s different.
I’ve never seen a show that truly conveys what the creative process looks and feels like.
The focus of Mozart in the Jungle is on musicians, but the process transcends the music. Watching the wide range of emotions of these characters experience as they write their symphonies, conduct their orchestras, and find their place in the creative landscape could just as easily apply to a painter, a dancer, a writer, etc.
When Lola Kirke’s Hailey Rutledge (aka, “Hai Lai”) competes for a prestigious conducting award in season 4, we literally see her lose herself, and not in a good way. She internalizes everyone else’s opinions about how she should be conducting the piece and begins to doubt herself. When we see her literally float out of her own body, her piece loses what makes it great – her creative vision.
The theme of women in the arts being marginalized was explored, especially in the last season. One of the conversations that stood out to me was among contest judges who referred to female conductors as being “too emotional.”
Isn’t that what art, music, theater is? Emotion? Passion?
The arts seem like the one place where women would excel. Where we would be praised for being sensitive, emotional, passionate creatures. Yet women continue to be underrepresented.
And now the four-time Golden Globe nominee two-time winning series beloved by critics and fans is cancelled?
Just like that?
Right when Lola Kirke‘s “Hai Lai” was moving into the male dominated conductor’s seat?
While this post wasn’t originally intended to be a WTF is wrong with Amazon Studios post, I feel like I have to ask given their prior cancellation of Good Girls Revolt. Which…seriously…OMG…was ironically cancelled by a male studio head who was later charged with sexual harassment.
In the age of Time’s Up, you would think that Amazon Studios wouldn’t be so quick to behead television programs that address the underrepresentation of women in the arts. Especially award winners and critical darlings. If nothing else, it just makes them look shitty.
My hope is that this unique, beautiful show will find a new home. But I’m not holding my breath for Mozart in the Jungle, given recent cancellation patterns.
I can only do one thing now. Paint…with the blood.
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