Love In the Next World: How “The Good Cop” Uses Collage by Rey Cooper

The Good Cop is a TV show that premiered in 2018 on Netflix. Summarily, it follows a NYPD lieutenant named Tony “TJ” Caruso that is horrible at parties (or in any other situation) due to his tendency to strictly follow rules and regulations and call people out on their infractions, however small. When his father, a former cop named Tony Caruso Sr., gets let out of jail after serving a corruption conviction, TJ must learn how to live with the exact opposite of himself.

The Good Cop is a classic daytime TV show that combines comedy and drama through murder mysteries and other “whodunnits.” Each episode is featured around a certain crime as the A-plot, while the B-plot is most often relegated to an arc revolving around TJ, Tony, and/or Connie, who is TJ’s dead mother and Tony’s dead wife. The episode that I’m choosing to focus on is Episode 10, titled “Who Cut Ms. Ackroyd in Half?”

In Episode 10, an elderly woman is killed by a malfunctioning elevator in the Drake Apartment Building and is also the third person to be killed in that building in a short period of time, calling TJ and the NYPD in to investigate if it was an accident or foul play. This incident is also balanced with an arc between TJ and another main character named Cora, with whom there is a “will they/won’t they, opposites attract” dynamic. In terms of their romance, they don’t get much time together solely focused on developing that relationship, but in Episode 10, they really get time to shine. The only way that TJ can successfully catch the killer in the Drake building is going undercover, and he has to do so with Cora posing as his wife.

TJ and Cora spend most of their time together bickering with each other due to previous events in the episode, but the one moment that they do get to spend with each other in some form of peace comes in the form of a late night scene in Ms. Ackroyd’s former apartment. At the end of their first day undercover, TJ and Cora are caught in the classic “only one bed” trope and have to share it. They resolve the idea by sleeping in opposite directions, which leaves Cora at the foot of the bed while TJ is at the head of it. However, as she watches the taping of Cyrano de Bergerac on the bedroom TV, Cora realizes that she can’t watch the TV comfortably in her position. TJ graciously solves the issue by getting a metal serving tray to prop up on the pillows by Cora’s feet to act as a mirror to watch the taping from.

Another issue comes in the form of that the taping is in French, and Cora can’t read the subtitles since they are backwards in the reflection in the tray. TJ then dramatically reenacts the dialogue so Cora can follow along. They go through the whole of the play, but only show two scenes, one near the beginning, and one near the end.

A summary of Cyrano: Cyrano de Bergerac is a play written by Edmond Rostand in 1897 that follows the life of the Frenchman Cyrano de Bergerac, who was a real man and prolific author in the early half of the 17th century. The play follows Cyrano’s plight over his “abnormally large nose” and how he believes because of it, a woman whom he desperately loves named Roxanne will not love him in return.

By using Cyrano de Bergerac, TJ is able to confess his own love for Cora (although she is tragically asleep) through the lines following (said by Cyrano):

“Farewell, Roxanne, because today I die. No more shall my eyes drink the sight of you like wine. Nevermore with a look, that is more a kiss than a look, shall I follow the sweet grace of you. I am, and will be in the next world, the one who loved you with all his soul.”

After reciting that, TJ looks directly at a sleeping Cora with quite a soft look in his eyes. This moment in The Good Cop parallels Cyrano though the themes of the miscommunication of the confession of love. The basis of TJ’s character is very much like Cyrano, as he privately deals with many emotional burdens from his past and present that affect his perception of himself and his relationships with others. Instead of having TJ confess his love for Cora in a different way, the show uses clips and dialogue taken directly from the play Cyrano de Bergerac to find a structured way for TJ to say what he needs to say.

In the total framing of the episode and the show, the confession doesn’t do much to further Cora’s side of the relationship as she was asleep. However, it does set the stage for an emotional confession from TJ about his dead mother later in the episode in which Cora was present. All in all, the use of Cyrano does indeed further the development of TJ as a character (and to a small extent, Cora) and is, to me, effective and emotional.

Prompt: Take a character from a play from the past and modernize them by using a popular romance trope, like “only one bed,” “enemies to lovers,” or “fake dating.” Make sure to stay true to the character through repurposing original dialogue.

Discussion Questions

1. In the theme of love confessions, what are other pieces of work in popular culture that could work as a good medium to confess love to someone? Think a promposal reference.

• How much can something like collage be used to build a character and influence their actions before it becomes a lack of your own work?

Music as Collage: Punk Goes Pop by Mikey Harper

so, what is punk goes pop? well, punk goes…is a project powered by hopeless records in which different bands signed to their label cover popular songs of a set year/two years, which are recorded and compiled onto different albums. there are many different variations of punk goes… – for example, there’s punk goes 80s, punk goes metal, punk goes christmas, and punk goes crunk (don’t ask me about this one). but punk goes pop is the most emphasized edition of punk goes… with seven full volumes whereas no other variations of the project have more than 1 volume except for punk goes 90s and punk goes acoustic (both only have 2). for a better idea, here’s some punk goes pop albums aligned with their years and songs. here are some examples (and these aren’t all the songs on each album, just a few staples). PGP volume 1 has songs like bye bye bye, baby one more time, and i want it that way. volume 2 has i kissed a girl, disturbia, and beautiful girls. volume four has super bass, rolling in the deep, and just the way you are. volume five has call me maybe, some nights, and boyfriend. volume six has blank space, ain’t it fun, and sweater weather. the most recent volume, volume 7, has stitches, can’t feel my face, and closer.

let’s get a better idea of the difference. i know we’ve all heard somebody that i used to know, but here’s a little refresher.

now here is the same song, this time covered by mayday parade and pierce the veil vocalist vic fuentes. so, how does this play into the idea of collage? firstly, let’s make one thing clear: there are lots of songs on these albums, not just four or five. and every single song is done by a different band, no band gets repeated on a volume. this is a matter of different pieces of art being remade by completely different people with different visions to come together as one succinct album that is made to define a time period. i would call this adaptation if it were one band, or one song, or one album – in that case, there is no real reason behind making the cover other than the fact that they wanted to cover the song. with this, all these different versions are created from scratch minus lyrics and a melody (which are also changed in some cases) with the main goal of fitting with other different bands and songs in order to create one uniform body of work. these albums also feature original artwork that is made specifically to fit the collection, which is a collage in and of itself.

this is the act of using preexisting art to push your own artistic vision and keep your original creative style while meshing together with other elements of that same practice to create one volume of work that speaks for itself; this is collage.

so, HOW CAN PGP BE USED AS A MODEL FOR COLLAGE OVER ADAPTATION AS A WORK THAT WALKS A THIN LINE BETWEEN THE TWO? the answer is simple: the end goal of punk goes pop isn’t geared toward the individual songs; it is geared toward the art of capturing a moment in time (through an entirely dfferent lens). this is why volume 7 has the most 2016/2017-looking lineup of songs you’ve ever seen; because it is aiming to show the art’s consumer what that period of time was like music-wise, and not just through something as simple as a compilation of preexisting music. many of these bands had to write drum fills, power chords, and tons of other things into the songs that did not previously exist in that piece in order to keep it authentic to punk goes pop’s roots and their visions as artists. the lyrics are the same, but so are the faces of the people you cut out of magazines to make collages from – until you add your own touches on top.

PROMPT

think of your favorite song at the moment. now, think of your favorite song from this time of the year when you were in sixth grade. now, ask yourself: how can i blend the lyrics of my current favorite song into the sound of my old one? what could i add to blend the two more seamlessly? what lyric changes could i make to play with the cadence of how the two interact?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. what other creative work can you think of that works specifically for the purpose of capturing a moment in time like this?
2. would you still classify this as adaptation?

That Damn Donna Reed! by Natalia Alarcón-Castro

Summary

Gilmore Girls is a “dramedy” set in a small town in Connecticut called Stars Hollow. Our main characters are a single mom in her 30s, Lorelai, and her teenage daughter Rory. Rory has two worlds- her private school in Hartford, and her home life in Stars Hollow. The show focuses on relationships- the one in focus is one of Rory’s romantic relationships. The Donna Reed Show is an American sitcom television series. It aired on ABC from 1958 to 1966. The show stars Donna Reed as Donna Stone, a housewife, Carl Betz as Alex Stone, a pediatrician (baby doctor), Shelley Fabares as their teenage daughter Mary, and Paul Petersen as their son JeK. “That Damn Donna Reed” is the fourteenth episode of the first season of Gilmore Girls. It is eight episodes after Dean and Rory first get together- which gives you an idea of the time spent. The span of time is generally a week. In the episode, Dean comes over to the Stars Hollow Gilmore home to watch reruns of The Donna Reed Show. Rory and Lorelai both take turns at making fun of the 50s lifestyle that is ever present in The Donna Reed Show. They mock it by making their own exaggerated dialogue, and Dean points out that he kind of likes the idea of a wife cooking for the husband like Donna Reed does. Rory and Lorelai both look at him in shock. Later in the episode, Dean makes a mildly odd joke about the show, and Rory gets angry. They have an argument and part ways for the afternoon. Rory calls Dean later that evening and asks him to come over to the neighbor’s house where she’s catsitting. When he does, she’s wearing a Donna Reed dress. In fact, her whole outfit is Donna Reed, down to the heels, apron, and pearls. She’s modeling her perfectly with her attitude and words- she calls Dean into the house with a chipper “Honey, you’re home!” Dean is obviously very confused. They go inside and he discovers that Rory has made them dinner. After they eat, Dean says that he doesn’t expect this from her. Rory actually changes her original stance from the beginning of the episode- she says it was fun, and that Donna Reed was one of the first female television executives. The scene ends with Dean taking the trash out at the same time as Luke takes out a broken lamp while the mother and daughter both leave the houses they were in. They all feel awkward, which leads to both men leaving.

Analysis

At first, Donna Reed is brought into the episode to be mocked. Again, Rory and Lorelai make their own dialogue and satirize the 50s housewife vibe Donna Reed has. In fact, the viewer gets to see it for themselves. The TV can be seen as Donna Reed feeds her family. There are several other clips of the goings-on of the Stone family. Rory copies everything she does, from her actions, her clothing, and her speech- all towards the goal of what many Gilmore Girls fans thought would be to make a point. What point? Gender roles from the 50s are not every woman’s dream, and they should not be pushed onto one. However, we get surprised at the end when Rory claims she likes it. This is why I think the collaging was ineffective. The collaging could’ve been used to point out something ugly that is still sometimes present today. However, it was used to, in a way, justify it, and perhaps even romanticize it. In addition to this, “That Damn Donna Reed” is a very odd episode. For the most part, the problems in the show are very realistic- Rory can’t decide between Harvard or Yale, Lorelai argues with her mother about her relationships, Paris fears her secrets are out. And the solutions are always realistic too. Rory chooses according to what she thinks is best for her with encouragement from her mother, Lorelai and Emily reconcile in their own weird way, Paris comes to her senses with a talk with Rory. However, in this episode, the solution to a feasible problem is TOTALLY weird. What educated, intelligent girl like Rory who reads feminist books like “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” arguing with her boyfriend about unfair gender stereotypes decides to dress like a housewife and cook dinner for her boyfriend? And likes it? In addition, Rory doesn’t cook much at all in the show. She and her mother seem to live on takeout, Luke’s diner food, Sookie’s inn cooking, or Friday night dinners hosted at Emily and Richard’s. However, the fact that this collage was used ineffectively, doesn’t take away from its potential. It is a collage. Actual clips of TDS are in GG and the characters in GG layer their dialogue over TDS clips. A whole plotline is formed over it.

Model

This piece is an example of a missed opportunity to point out a negative practice. I think art can be used to do this. Art can be silly and fun, but when handling heavy topics, they shouldn’t be explained away so easily.

Collage Prompt

Create a collage piece based on an issue you see in the world right now.

Discussion

1. What’s another example of an art piece that mishandled a heavy topic in your opinion?
2. The Gilmore Girls bring references of books, movies, and shows very often. Do you think these references are what has made Gilmore Girls as popular as it is?

“Son of Mr. Green Jeans: An Essay on Fatherhood Alphabetically Arranged” by Dinty W. Moore – A Collage Without Collage by Benjy Azencott

“Son of Mr. Green Jeans: An Essay on Fatherhood Alphabetically Arranged” is a short essay written by the American writer Dinty W. Moore, which delves into the topic of fatherhood through his own experience as a father, his father, father figures on the television shows he grew up with and the actions of fathers in the animal kingdom. As the title suggests, the essay is broken up into a series of short sections ranging from one sentence to an entire paragraph that are then arranged alphabetically by title. These snippets do not generally lead into one another or, at first glance, have anything to do with each other. Many are simply statements of fact, such as the section titled “Toilets”, which reads, “Leave it to Beaver was the first television program to show a toilet.” But put next to each other, these sections – ranging from snippet’s of the author’s own life to facts about emperor penguins and the not-so-perfect lives of the actors who portrayed fathers in supposedly perfect nuclear families in 20th century sitcoms – come together to form a coherent (sort of like an “emergent property” of the text) narrative of fatherhood and the societal expectations and grim realities that come with it, weaving in the author’s own complex mix of disillusionment and tentative belief in the subject. Moore uses the alphabetical form to his advantage, at one point tricking the reader into believing he gave up on fatherhood entirely by having a vasectomy, before revealing in a later section that this wasn’t until five years after he had a child.

In analyzing whether this piece counts as collage, it must be noted that the piece is essentially entirely Moore’s own writing. There are a few short quotations, such as from Esquire or the dictionary, used in one or two sections, but I could not find any evidence of major collage used throughout the essay. Rather, Moore uses the form to “collage” together facts and memories that each get their own section. I would argue that because many sections function simply as statements of fact, they can count as outside sources Moore is “collaging” from even if he is the one who wrote them. As well, because it is the juxtaposition of each section that gives the whole piece meaning, I would consider that makes it a collage. This piece can serve as a model for collages revolving around central themes (such as “fatherhood”) and how disparate facts and pieces can be melded together to craft a message around it. His framework of alphabetical arrangement can also serve as an example of one method of organizing a collage.

Discussion Questions:

1. Does this piece manage to classify as a writing collage even though no significant repurposing of material from other written works was used to create it? (Hint: This piece was an example from the website, so the answer is yes.)
2. Do you believe alphabetical arrangement is a useful form? What drawbacks and opportunities does it present?

Prompt:

Choose a broad theme you want to write about. Create a collage piece interspersing your own memories and disparate facts to create an overarching message.