The New Norm simply changed my attitude towards love as such.
It’s hard to call a pair of David and Brian normal, which was my opinion before I started watching the series. But when I looked at the relationship between these two loving, appreciating and respecting people during the first season (so sorry for such a short one), my attitude towards unconventional couples changed significantly.
The series has a lot of humor and colorful characters, as well as no hint of vulgarity. The New Norm promotes tolerance, tolerance and respect for others. The plot is very dynamic and you do not have to miss a second during the series. I was impressed by the actors, it should be noted, perfectly selected!
Justin Barta had previously seen him in “The Bachelor Party” and could not even imagine that he would cope with the role so amazingly, being a perfect heterosexual and married man.
Andrew Rannells is wonderful, positive and stylish! His character is an example of a person who is always ready to help his neighbor, while he is not without self-irony and a brilliant sense of humor.
Bebe Wood - her heroine Shania is just a wonderful child, smart beyond her years and, strange as it may sound, a wise girl.
Georgia King Goldie, the heroine of Georgia, is a kind woman with a big heart, but she is very naive. Glad she met such wonderful people who helped her get out of Ohio.
Ellen Barkin is just an amazing Ba! Her witty and sarcastic jokes always cause an explosion of laughter! In a word, an incomparable woman.
Not Lyx is mind-blowing! What is worth only her manner of talking! As soon as her character appears on the screen, a smile immediately floats on my face.
"The New Norm" gives a good mood and makes you think about many important things! This series is about love in all its manifestations, mutual respect, kindness, tolerance, faith in yourself and your loved ones.
The title of the series is the New Norm. The series is like one big propaganda or a textbook on tolerance. From the first series, in addition to the main topic of homosexuality, we are also shown how in America it became good to live for everyone - African Americans, dwarfs, mute, disabled. The series is not even about gays, but just about someone’s fairy-tale life within this new norm and how bad and wrong it is to be a person of the old and conservative type (which is shown only by the example of grandmother Jane).
The whole plot revolves around the house and life of a new normal family of two guys and a surrogate mother who lives with them, and her school-age daughter.
For the Russian audience, the series will seem something surreal, especially against the background of toughening attitudes towards homosexuals and dissenters. Here you will not see heroes fighting public hatred and obscurantism, solving problems of betrayal, rejection of parents, persecution from work, etc. Here we are shown the times when everything is already allowed, and society seems to have accepted everything that happens as normal. I write “as if”, because I am sure that in fact everything is not so chic and the society shown in the series is only a reflection of the desires of the creators.
In fact, the absence of any serious problems makes the series too cute and sometimes boring. The main opposition of views occurs with Jane and it looks funny, because she appears rather as a confused and backward character, whom everyone around must teach this new norm. The remaining disputes and disagreements take place at some household level, such as whether to give the child to the football section or to the ballet, whether to paint the walls of the nursery pink or blue, whether to buy a device for imitating the breast from a man to feed the child from it, etc. And even the meeting and conversation with the priest flow into an absolutely positive channel, where he says that it is quite normal to lead such a lifestyle.
In general, the series is light, the series is short, seasoned with cute humor, you can watch. But more like a fairy tale.
The series is dynamic, it has almost no awkward moments, which makes each episode pleasant to watch. There is a certain amount of theatricality, but it is perceived as a game with the audience, not as playfulness or mockery. In addition, this is a fairly sincere film that raises life questions and sometimes gives very suitable examples.
To the disadvantages, I would attribute the fact that the creators seem to be trying to deceive us by involving us in viewing. 50% of the real funny humor is concentrated in five to ten minutes of the first episode. Another 40% is in the remainder of the episode. It doesn’t start as it continues. We are caught on the hook of laughter, promising a lot of fun, and in the end we are watching the wrong thing and the wrong thing. I’m not a big fan of humor and I don’t think the next series is worse than the first one, but it really looks like a hoax, and there’s such a thing as a mood. The atmosphere. It turns out that the series does not justify hopes. Maybe we're getting something better, but frustration comes with it. In the beginning I really laughed, and in the series from the second to the twenty-second it never happened.
It is also worth noting a certain leap of narrative. Sometimes it seems that there should be another series between every two series going on in a row. You seem to have lost a thread, missed something.
The rest of the impressions are only positive. Very modern, bright, human - and, of course, it is a pity that there is only one season.
7 out of 10
Non-traditional family with an unconventional approach to life
It’s a shame that the series was shut down. But it logically and reasonably ended, leaving no questions, no additional storylines, or anything else.
A sitcom about a gay couple who decides to get a surrogate mother for their child, who already has experience of pregnancy, may shock you a little if you adhere to traditional views on life. Nevertheless, in the modern world, gays and lesbians are already a kind of norm, with which many zealous connoisseurs of everything “normal” and “right” cannot reconcile. Therefore, homophobes (unless they are, of course, based on their psychology, not hidden gays) are not recommended to watch the series. They just can't handle it. The fact that two adult guys are not much that in marriage, and even close friends with a surrogate mother who escaped from problems, her daughter, born at a time when her mother was a teenager, who at first did not fit into the "collective" grandmother, plus one of the "husbands" has a transgender assistant (watch the plot carefully, there it was mentioned a couple of times) - and all this is presented in a quite acceptable and humorously tolerant manner ... In other countries, this fact will be perceived adequately, but not in Russia, so the next creation of Ryan Murphy does not and, alas, will not have the army of fans, like the Walking Dead. The series is specific, although designed for a wide audience, but precisely the one in which there are no dissatisfied with this gender way of life.
As for the plot: fairy tale. Maybe even a very real fairy tale, if you try, like the main character, to throw everything and go where your eyes look. The first episode was imbued with the spirit of a newfound freedom, the courage to leave problems behind in order to start a new life. Then gradually everything disappeared somewhere - and there were only hopes for the birth of a child and the expectations associated with it. Each series, no matter how funny and funny at times, said only one thing: how to learn how to cope with the expectation of replenishment in the family.
But the great thing is that the sitcom promoted a tolerant attitude towards each other, and hardly anyone else could emphasize this. It seems to me that Ryan Murphy, the original creator of the project, told the story to himself this time: he himself has a son with a woman who agreed to have a child for him and his husband. Just like the above story. And according to the same story, nothing more was needed than to show Goldie Clemmons’ pregnancy and the experiences of the two fathers, as well as to strengthen the viewer’s confidence that everything can be changed – once you decide. Even if you do not run away from the past, you can challenge it by creating a future, as an allegory in this case - to get pregnant, and not for nothing, but to please others. As for humor: you can’t say that the “New Norm” is brilliantly full of witty jokes and goes to a significant bar among other sitcoms, because the laughter here is more about the situations that take place in life, rather than the works of brilliant screenwriters. And still watching the “New Norm”, you get pleasure at least from the kind atmosphere and sharpness of the characters.
As a result, we have in consideration a very extraordinary because of the general plot and a funny, touching, interesting series designed for people tolerant of other orientations. I’m unlikely to review it, but the emotions he gave very positive – and thank you.
6 out of 10
(It’s still not the most suitable topic for a sitcom, but it’s good to go against the stereotypes, because dramatic films about gay people already exist)
Not a trivial annotation, but after a slightly negative article on LaM prompted me to watch the first series, ambiguous impressions - the second, the rest I wait, and will wait with keen interest. And I will say right away that Glee, which Ryan Murphy worked on, I did not like at all.
In the center of the plot is a gay couple who wants to have a child, a young mother who wants happiness, her special daughter and a harsh cynical grandmother. All this medley of characters is seasoned with good humor, charm of the plot and close conflicts. In thirty minutes of the series, you manage, and whine, and cry, and be humbled.
Now for the actors:
1. Justin Barta - the most beautiful actor from "Bachelor party in Vegas" is transformed into the most talented actor of the series. His character is interesting, lively and just falls in love in a moment. And his eyes, mmm... All right, it's time to switch.
2. Andy Runnells - the second gay series (sounds almost honorable), will irritate, laugh with his oddities, but will fall in love with himself almost immediately. Paradox.
3. Georgia King is probably the only actress I don't like in the series. No, the only character I hate on the show. If it can evoke such feelings, then there are two options: either Ms. King plays her role perfectly, or the writers have failed with the character.
4. Bebe Wood is a charming child who plays a charming child. I don’t like kids in movies and TV shows (incorrect and I can’t watch Glee), but there’s an exception. Shinaia is a very interesting and wonderful child!
5. Ellen Barker plays an eccentric, cynical grandmother who speaks for thousands of conservatives and intolerants, and she carries some of the humor we love Chandler for on Friends and Barney for How I Met Your Mom.
Decide to watch the series or not. I'll just say that if you're homophobic in the last phase, don't even start. I highly recommend it to everyone else, this is a great sitcom for relaxation.
After watching the first episode of this series, I was not very impressed, but still decided to evaluate the second, and then the third, fourth and did not notice how involved.
The original story, nice characters, good humor and turned out quite decent and ready to watch the series. I would not say that he claims to take any special place among the most diverse mass of modern TV shows, but it raises topics that are sometimes worth thinking about.
In general, I decided to watch this novelty, as I saw that the director of the project is Ryan Murphy, this is a wonderful person who gave us "Glee" and was also one of the writers of "American Horror Story" (I love), I think Ryan Murphy again did a good job and made the series funny and interesting, in general, very watchable. the series teaches tolerance, and not only because of the main characters of gay people, teaches us not to keep our heads higher, that we can not be too young or so nice to watch after that, and of course he leaves something so nice!
8 out of 10