Comedian Tig Notaro, and EP Louis CK, tackle homecoming and loss.
By Matt Fowler
Amazon’s Fall 2015 “Pilot Season” is underway in the US, UK, and Germany. The way it works is that those with Prime memberships can stream a handful of new pilots for free, and the ones that wind up getting the best audience feedback have a chance of getting a first season pick up. Past pilots that have been picked up for series include Transparent, Bosch, The Man in the High Castle, Red Oaks, Sneaky Pete, and Mad Dogs. You can check out the current Pilot Season episodes here.
Probably the most lovely and moving of this recent fall batch of Amazon Pilots is comedian Tig Notaro’s very personal One Mississippi. More somber and dramatic than comedic – though the label “dramedy” still feels appropriate – One Mississippi is a quick, melancholy look at an ailing woman, post-double mastectomy, making an unexpected trip back to her coastal Southern hometown to be there when her mother is taken off life support.
Co-written by Notaro and Diablo Cody, and executive produced by Louis CK (who’s been a huge supporter of Notaro’s stand up career), One Mississippi is unique in mood, voice, and topic. It’s spare in words, but high in emotion. Mostly culled from Notaro’s own life, this first episode felt very much like a short story, heavy on visuals and reluctantly reliant on Notaro’s own voice-over narration. The voice of a tremendous storyteller who’s still slightly uncomfortable telling her stories.
Notaro’s own personal battles with cancer could easily make for an intelligent, provocative series just on their own. But here, at least in this first episode, they take a back seat to the more-immediate tragedy that she must come to terms with. So right away we’re given a character, who’s facing enormous challenges with her own health, having to deal with a huge loss and tragedy unrelated to her own struggles. It’s shockingly weighty, but also very real.
If the series were to move ahead, it would likely deal with Notaro staying in town – that of Bay Saint Lucille, MS – in order to sort through her mother’s belongings. Comforted by girlfriend, Brooke (Casey Wilson), while occasionally clashing with her curiously cold stepfather, Bill (John Rothman). Thankfully, there’s no “culture clash” here. Notaro lives in LA, but there’s no “Doc Hollywood”ing going on. At least, not in this wonderful first episode that’s more about her reacting to her mother’s death and not others reacting to her.
One Mississippi isn’t filled with cheeky banter or a parade of heightened situations like you might find in other “comedians do TV” shows. Notaro has, instead, opted for a more direct, confessional mode of storytelling that relies on the space between words as much as it does the voice itself. Superb and moving.
