Roseanne and The Conners Character Review: Harris Healy

*For the foreseeable future, some Character Review posts may not be published every Thursday as they have in the past.

*Warning: This post contains spoilers about the characters from the television series  Roseanne and The Conners. Read at your own risk if you have not watched the show.

There is something to be said about a well written, human character. They leap off the page and speak to us as if they were right in front of us, as flesh and blood human beings, instead of fictional creations.

In this series of weekly blog posts, I will examine character using the characters from Roseanne and The Conners to explore how writers can create fully dimensional, human characters that audiences and readers can relate to.

It is often said that women become our mothers, whether we like it or not. On Roseanne and The Conners, Harris Healy (Emma Kenney) is nearly a mini-me of her mother, Darlene Conner (Sara Gilbert). Born premature, Harris survived her first few months in the hospital before coming home to a loving and chaotic family.

While most of her is a miniature of her mother, there is also a little of her aunt, Becky Conner (Alicia Goranson & Sarah Chalke). After spending most of her life in Chicago, Harris was not pleased when she had to move back to Lanford. To be a teenager is hard enough, but to be uprooted and move to a new town at that age is especially difficult.

Though Harris does make friends, they are not the sort that her mother approves of. They tend to lean toward not so legal activities, creating a rift between mother and daughter. Like any good parent, Darlene is just looking out for her daughter. But in Harris’s eyes, her mother does not understand how she feels.

Her one wish is to move back to Chicago. She hopes that her wish materializes in the form of her estranged father, David (Johnny Galecki). But like many hopes, it never became reality.

To sum it up: We all remember how hard it was to be a teenager. It’s one of the most tumultuous, life changing and sometimes heartbreaking experiences that anyone will ever go through. What I like about Harris is that she is an ordinary teenager. When your that age, it’s nice to see yourself reflected on screen.

Which is why Harris Healy is a memorable character.

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In the Wake of the Rapidly Expanding Coronavirus, We Have to Work Together

There is nothing like a crisis to force normally opposing sides to work together.

The coronavirus is more than a crisis. To say that it is a crisis is an understatement. It has the ability to stop life as we know it to be.

As far as I am concerned, at the moment, I don’t care if you vote red, blue or any color in between. I do care that you are working with your colleagues in the halls of power to do what needs to be done to stop this virus in its tracks.

In New York City, where I live, the institutions that are part and parcel of this city’s reputation are closing. Broadway theaters will be shuttered until next month. The Metropolitan Museum of Art will be closed for cleaning. Opening day for the 2020 baseball season is pushed back (as of now) to sometime in April. Though the schools and the MTA have not shut down yet, I suspect that it will only be a matter of time before they are shut down. I also suspect I will be working from home for longer than previously expected.

It does not help that when you know who addressed the nation last night, he provided conflicting information. Given the gravity of what we are facing, I don’t think it would be too much to ask that just once, he is honest with us.

It has been said that in times of crisis, one’s true colors are revealed. I hope that this virus reveals that we are able to pull together in spite of our differences. If we don’t, our differences may be the one thing that destroys us.

Throwback Thursday: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

We all want to be in love and most if, not all of us, would like to say “I do” to someone at some point.

In the 1954 movie, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Adam (Howard Keel) married Milly (Jane Powell) after knowing her for less than a day. When Milly arrives at her new home, she discovers that her husband is the eldest of seven boys. Inspired by their eldest brother, the rest of the Pontipee men are eager to marry.

While watching his wife turn his brothers in gentlemen, Adam is inspired to find wives for them. The method of finding wives comes from the story of the capture of the Sabine women by the Romans.

There are many musicals from this era that are considered to be classics. They are also slightly misogynistic. For its time, this movie musical is fine. But what bothers me is that the screenwriters gloss over the fact that the Sabine women were according to legend, raped, not captured with the intent of marriage.

Do I recommend it? Not really.