Yes, I definitely hear you. But my concern remains with regards to what you said about how "some people aren't meant to live in a small town." I don't think there's anything "wrong" with that on a fundamental level, but the bigger problem to me, and really the bigger problem about this show and the vast majority of Western media, is how this peddles very neoliberal values.

I mentioned it in my first comment to Vidhi, but I take issue with the ways that "happily ever after" are almost uniformly represented in popular media. I have no issue with characters winding up happy, but when happy is synonymous with financial/career dominance and fame, then I have problems. American media (which based on globalization and colonialism has deeply affected media around the world as well) is founded on Puritanical American cultural values as it pertains to work. That is, your character and your value is entirely defined based on monetary and career success and the idea of "hard work" through a rigidly capitalistic lens (that is, you don't "work hard" if you work in fast food, but you do if you're killing it on Wall Street). This mentality percolates down into every facet of American life--which I referred to earlier as the deification of "the grind"-- and ultimately through every category of media and society reinforces the idea that true happiness and success fundamentally require dominance and excess.

This is how capitalism sustains itself; people are on "the bottom" aspiring to climb the ladder, as they must easily be able to do in the "American Dream"--any impediments are internalized as being their own fault and something that grit and "hard work" alone can overcome--and they aspire to get to a place where they can preside over the masses based on nothing except for their superficial and often extremely arbitrary claims to fame and money. The illusion is deep that this is virtuous and based explicitly on worth (reinforcing the idea that financial/career success and fame are tantamount to individual worth overall), despite the fact that the American Dream myth has been debunked left and right, and most of us can see in plain sight that the majority of people who "make it" start out wealthy, are white, or have various other privileges that predispose them to this form of success.

I don't think it's inherently wrong at all for anyone to aspire to career success or money or fame. I think it's wrong that that has been so deeply and universally embedded in the American (and increasingly global) psyche that we value it above all other things. The only reason that classism and racism persist as much as they do today is because capitalism reinforces the hierarchies, the hegemony that necessitate the exploitation of a mass number of people so that a small number of people can be considered "better." And the myth of hard work and virtue guarantee that people stay disempowered, because there is such glamour, perceived fulfillment, and actual material ease and privilege that come from being able to get into those socioeconomic places.

David stays behind only because he glams up the town with his trendy store (which as he says, he could easily franchise and move to New York with). Moira *was* an actress; plenty of people quit things that have been toxic for them (she is funny, but she's clearly a toxic narcissist and acting fuels that for her) even if they provided material wealth or fame. I am weary of hearing that it would be "implausible" for Moira's character to move beyond her desire for fame. Moira's character is implausible to begin with and this is a highly theatrical show, so let us not pretend that verisimilitude to "realistic portrayals" is suddenly the key priority for the show's writers. And for the record, what's wrong with singing in a group or community theatre? This is the kind of elitist thinking (I'm not saying you are an elitist) that causes people to belittle anything that's not Broadway or Hollywood. People, especially people in Western countries, are experiencing deep existential crises in part due to the profound self-loathing that we have been indoctrinated with through the narratives that the things that aren't overtly/societally seen as "making it" are abject failures.

It's a sad consequence of neoliberal/capitalist culture that most of us simply accept that anything that's not corporate or huge or expensive is "lesser." Maybe for a character like Moira it would be, but again, this is the character and the consistent archetype of a character that people love seeing and defending, because she reflects that same internalized sense of deficiency and lusting aspiration that each of us have growing up in hyper-competitive, voyeuristic societies where we need to feel better than others in order to feel enough. And surprise! Most of us still never feel enough because we're still constantly in pursuit of more, more, more.

Johnny never "had" to grow the business. Again, here is a man with plenty; a man who apparently values being near/with family, who has already had a long and successful career and could ostensibly be close to retirement if he so chose, and he actively chooses to continue pursuing predatory growth and exploiting low-wage workers across boutique motel chains, because he can feel good about "saving" Roland and Stevie and more importantly, feel important and big and powerful again.

Alexis could utilize her talents anywhere too. The idea that going to New York to "make it" is tired and again, fits directly into the neoliberal narratives I mentioned above. I could yawn eternally based on the stories of hopeful, ambitious people going to New York to "make it," only to become more of the desensitized materialistic assholes who ruin society like most of the people working on Wall Street.

It sounds like you probably want to move to a small town because of your preexisting experience having spent time in small towns and seeing how special they can be. It is possible that you found positive elements in the show that reinforced this because it was already a perception that you held. But for the majority of people who don't have experience in small towns, that is unlikely to be what they take away from watching it.

I suspect we may strongly disagree on this, which is absolutely fine. I appreciate the comment/dialogue!