Burdensome Subjects

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Visual and situational juxtapositions of both current and historical events are weaved in and out as the story progresses through, what would be, just a normal dramedy about college youth. Yet, the narrative finds itself in Pre-modernized Los Angeles when the Tongva, and other tribes, lived on the land, right as the Spanish made contact; or when the Anglos ran the newly independent Mexicans out of Texas, Arizona, and California hundreds of years later; or, when Irish immigrants came in a hundred years after that; Greene Davids knows little of this history, or how his Irish ancestry landed him in Downey, or that his name used to be Tamoshanter before it was changed because of assimilation.

There is Syria, long before the infamous civil war of 2011, or Hafiz Assad’s takeover, or the preceding Ba’athist takeover, or popular nationalist revolt before that, right as the French started losing their short-lived control of the Mandate over the country; this history is woven with Fadia’s family legacy over a plot of land that has been fought over through many governments, and many generations. While the history of modern Syria, or pre-colonial Downey, are parallel with the characters stories, the parallel narratives bear connections throughout, albeit sporadically.

Greene Davids unique preoccupation with American imperialism in the Middle East is a mystery. It may have begun as early as the Iraq war, when he was a young man, though he would be unaware of this. Certain philosophers would say it’s because Mr. Davids is unknowingly stepping on the remains of hundreds of thousands of native peoples who used to live where he now does, which transfers an energy that resembles anti-imperialism into his soul. His mother is anti-war as well, but not to the extent where she could talk about, say, Operation Protective Edge, like Green could. She doesn’t know much about the war in Yemen either, which Greene decries as “being waged in my name!” In all fairness, Greene’s preoccupation with his government’s actions can be argued to be a fully sane response— the most sane.

Fadia’s concern for Syria is not so mysterious, as she watches her country be destroyed by many different parties, many different factions, and all for nothing, as she sees it.

Leaf might have a concern for global warming, but it’s all numbed by his occupation as a drug dealer in Los Angeles. While he does think of the melting ice from time to time, he doesn’t do anything about it, and has no illusions that he does. However, something changes when he realizes a little problem that could affect his bottom line- the surveillance apparatus of the LAPD. Leaf, begrudgingly so, will become an informed citizen on this issue, and may even join in an action or two to stop it. As the story progresses, he will become radicalized, but to what extent remains to be seen.

The story orbits around these ideas instead of focussing in on them. Each season is between 1-2 years, so people change, time goes on, spaces are taken for granted. This stylistic technique will be used throughout the series to avoid heavy-handedness; it will evoke, visually, fluid movement of these big ideas to provoke thought, instead of declare a message. Every history has an apex, and the author assumes that the era of 2016-2020 is, in itself, an apex of gigantic proportions. All of world history has led us to this point. This is what accounts for such radical times, burdensome subjects abound. Eventually, as history is written, the characters themselves may have to make a choice between being young progressives of a new democracy, or burdensome subjects of a failing empire.