Series · Prime Video · 1989

The Simpsons

The early years love the family. The long years love the joke more.

For a few years this was the best writing on television about a family that was not rich and not leaving. Then it became an instrument that could only play mockery, and a civilization that learns to speak in that instrument gets mean in the mouth. Watch the early seasons if you want the family. Do not let the later voice correct your children.

The eight

Industry
5/10
Homer has a job at the plant. Marge keeps the house. The job is a joke that used to be a fact.
Household
6/10
They remain a family. That was the radical part, and it frayed into a formula.
Piety
2/10
Church is a gag most weeks.
Courage
3/10
The courage is Lisa's, when the writers still let her be right without being the scold.
Republic
4/10
A town full of institutions, all of them corrupt or absurd.
Temperance
3/10
Satire became the house style and then the only food.
Truth
5/10
Early episodes tell a recognizable truth about a class and a marriage.
Stewardship
3/10
It has been handing the same joke down for decades. The joke got tired. The influence did not.

Live historicallyIf the show is on, pick a year before the joke ate the father, or pick something else.

Series · Prime Video · 2006

Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team

The work is real. The public judging of bodies is the product. Do not let a daughter take the cut list as a measure.

Making the Team shows hours of practice, which is more than the stadium shows. It also lines women up to be kept or discarded by a panel while you watch. One episode can teach a teenager that a performance is labor. A season can teach her that a panel is the judge of a body.

Prefer the practice. Refuse the panel as a household authority.

The eight

Industry
7/10
Rehearsal, stamina, a standard of execution. It is a job and they train.
Household
3/10
Families appear as support. The squad is the house the show cares about.
Piety
2/10
None.
Courage
5/10
They try out in public, which takes nerve and also takes a certain compliance.
Republic
3/10
A famous institution. The civic content is a brand.
Temperance
3/10
The gaze is the point of the uniform. The show does not apologize.
Truth
5/10
It is candid that most of them will be cut, and that the cut is a look as much as a kick.
Stewardship
3/10
What a girl might copy is the cut, not the discipline.

Live historicallyIf a girl in your house dances, praise the rehearsal. Never read her a list of who got cut.