Summary
American Classic finds a really nice rhythm in Episode 6, delivering the usual good humour but also injecting it with real pathos and involving drama. I’m fully on board.
I wouldn’t say that Episode 6 of American Classic is leaps and bounds better than all the previous ones. It has the same blend of arch comedy and quieter drama, the same enthusiastic passion for the arts, sometimes at the expense of short-term necessity, and it has the same clutch of characters doing — mostly — the same things. But it finds something in all the silliness that takes it up a notch; an earnest sense of pathos for lost loves, aging’s cruelties, and the death of youthful idealism. And it’s tempered by, potentially, the loss of Richard Bean’s interpretation of Our Town entirely.
There’s a sort of ticking-clock device here, which is the pending city council meeting that will vote on Connor’s proposed casino plans. Millersburg is split 50/50, more or less, an idea that we see visualised rather obviously during the meeting itself, which splits the yay and nay camps down the middle. But the reason it works dramatically is because of how the decision will impact various key characters we’ve come to care about over the last few weeks, and how their personal predicaments determine their vote.
First, Richard. After taking Connor’s money to give Nadia a part, he’s grappling with the idea that if he doesn’t publicly endorse the casino, the funding for the production will be pulled. This is a problem compounded by the fact that he inadvertently told Nadia she couldn’t act, but that kind of sorts itself out. Nadia turns up to the latest circle of truth with an impassioned speech, and Richard hits on the idea of giving her a different, smaller role, that of Simon Stimson, the (male) choir director who takes his own life. When Nadia, unsure about the offer, reveals her own occasional suicidal ideation, Richard beams, “You want to kill yourself? That’s fantastic!”
The Nadia issue being solved doesn’t handle any of the other pressing problems, though. Richard has another funny moment when he’s visibly excited about the power of art wrecking marriages among the cast, but then he has to recast the missing parts and tweak some existing ones. That includes one of the best scenes of the episode when Linus realizes his failing mind means he can’t play the Stage Manager anymore. It’s a lovely, tender scene, but it means Richard taking on the part himself. He also wants Jon and Kristen to play Mr. and Mrs. Webb, which neither of them is necessarily inclined to do (even though we know they will).
Elsewhere in American Classic Episode 6, Kristen and Jon are both quietly working on their own issues. Jon is obviously trying to pre-emptively make amends for gambling all of Miranda’s college fund away, which leads him to support Kristen’s suggestion that Miranda take a gap year in New York. But Kristen is only really offering this as a bribe, since she wants Miranda, who is leading the counter-casino protests, which include satirising Connor in viral videos, to ease off on the activism. Miranda recognises the tactic immediately and only doubles down on her efforts.
This all comes together in the much-talked-about city council meeting. It’s framed as a proper showdown between both sides, with the drama coming from the fact that we don’t know how Richard or Jon is going to come down on the issue. Richard needs the funding, and Jon wants to support his wife, who logistically has no choice but to support the development, given the jobs and tax revenue it’ll provide. Miranda, obviously, vehemently opposes the deal, since there’s plenty of long-term evidence that the presence of a casino not only steals the soul of a town, but also leads to other adverse effects like falling property prices and rising crime.
Richard, telling a dramatic version of Jon being tricked into gambling his nest egg away — without naming him, obviously — comes down against the casino. The councilors’ votes are split down the middle, with the deciding call left to Jon. He votes no, nixing the casino project, much to Connor’s chagrin. The only problem now is that without a casino, there might not be a production of Our Town, either.
