Gender, Family, and Therapeutic Regionalism in One Mississippi

In addition to displaying many of the aesthetic and ideological features generally associated with the category of “indie television,” One Mississippi provides a rich take on female focalization and the often-hackneyed homecoming narrative. In this chapter we argue that the show dubbed a “traumedy” by Amazon enacts a particular therapeutic regionalism and illuminates the complex nature of independence, idiosyncrasy, and autobiography integral to its star Tig Notaro’s persona. In One Mississippi bereavement, geographic distance brought on by adult mobility, and contingent domesticity work in a coordinated way to establish a counter-positioning to biologically deterministic notions of family. The series’ searching relationship to queer family values, temporal complexity and histories of whiteness are notable features. In addition, it offers a rare television depiction of Southernness that avoids the extremes of either gothic excess or comedic trivialization. With the attention it pays to lingering trauma and complex experiences of estrangement and integration, and its guardedly optimistic sense of our power to recover and grow, One Mississippi’s ideological problematic may be understood as a sophisticated challenge to superficial, widespread resilience imperatives that have gained such structuring force in contemporary US culture.