Radio is a resilient industry, staying profitable for decades by playing whatever it is – whether songs or other types of programming – that people want to hear. The industry’s resilience has been necessary because radio has always been a changing technology. It was a hobbyist’s toy in its early days, became the backbone of national entertainment in its golden age, and, finally, evolved to an important local medium that often struggles in today’s economy.
During all six episodes of the new third season, “Unproductive”, a team of students worked in a studio intended for radio broadcasts within the territory of the college where they studied, i.e. Brooklyn College.
In truth, I noticed only 4 important characters in the show, who really made a great contribution and by whose efforts the audience could follow a certain storyline throughout the whole season 3. In this case, I’m talking about Roxy, as I think she played great, Austin, Dylan and Emily. These four heroes essentially personified the entire third season. None of the other characters was as noticeable as these four.
The story of the third season, “Unproductive,” will inspire viewers, about a girl, Roxy, a cheeky and self-confident girl who puts women’s rights on top of her ideals and works in the same studio as her old friend, Austin, who in turn prepares to become a young father and is burdened with the state of things. Roxy runs her own show, “Roxy: Midnight”, which managed to succeed and get fame among the young college students. In my opinion, the plot starts attracting viewer’s attention when one of the best college basketball players agrees to form a company in the evening release with Roxy. That evening, it turns out that Michael, that is, the very same basketball player, took advantage of the recent state of the girl, Valerie, at a recent party and raped a poor girl. Valerie could not keep it inside herself and found the courage to express it all on the air of the evening release “Roxy: Midnight”. Yes, it was then that Michael got that cool boxing hook from Roxy, who has got mad when she heard Valerie’s revelation about her evening guest. And as we know, Roxie shares the extremely feminist views of women on rights as compared with men, and she could not stand aside.
I think that the further plot, which due to the small number of episodes can be called a denouement or climax, can be associated with the recent film I had seen, “Good Night and Good Luck”, in which the famous journalist and reporter Edvard Morrow fought with the anti-communist policy of the United States of America, affecting all residents of the United States in general and affecting every stratum of the population, whether it is a Senator of the United States Congress or a simple employee of the New York Times. This film is about the excessive degree of criticism that CBC journalists have had to face, and the consequences of this criticism.
However, in the third season, “Unproductive”, a young group of students faced another important problem, which, in turn, also protected the freedoms and rights of American citizens. In this case, we were told about the rape and how popular this type of crime has become in the 20th century. Roxie played the role of Edward Morrow, because she, like him, did not become a mere contemplator, but decided to make her contribution so that justice would eventually triumph. And it has triumphed.
Compared with the first two seasons, in my opinion, the third season was the best, not because I was an extremely successful game of actors, unlike the previous two, but because this season consists of a specific storyline that was well developed and presented to the audience. Of course, 6 episodes compared with the duration of the past seasons are very few, but no one should forget the fact that the amount of effort put into the new work has many times exceeded the efforts involved in creating the previous ones. Significant progress has been made in improving the sound component and camera positions during filming. This could not but rejoice the audience, because the first two seasons were criticized most of all not because of the sense that they were directly carrying, but because of the technical part, which by then was not the best. I am sure that the amount of time spent on the removal of the third season paid off with the quality that the producer originally planned and wanted to see in his show. Therefore, in my opinion, it is foolish to deny that the guys did an excellent job, because, in fact, I repeat, they did a lot of work, surpassing something new every day that was not there before them. And as you know, to invent something new from what has already been invented even more, is a great job and the guys really succeeded.
If we compare with another film about which I wrote a blog post below, “Daniel Ellsberg: The Most Dangerous Man in America”, then the theme of the third season, “Unproductive,” undoubtedly affects the theme of the above film. As with the story of the activities of Edward Morrow, Dan Ellsberg struggled with concealing real facts by the US government from his own people, while the war in Vietnam reached the inevitable death of millions of people. Dan Ellsberg devoted his life to protecting the rights of citizens of the United States of America and thus put an end to the vindictive war in which the United States achieved ambiguous results and which still remains one of the most controversial wars in the majority opinion. People sought to do everything possible in order to save someone’s husbands and sons and put an end to the bloody war. Most of all, people tried to retain the right to choose, which they did not have by that time.
Therefore, as we see, two films illustrating the struggle for the rights of citizens are connected with our third season of the show. In the end, Roxy and Emily were able to achieve justice and Michael was removed from the game for his team in the final. It was the worst thing for him to expect. In fact, Michael got what he deserved. I am confident that thanks to people like Ed Morrow, Dan Ellsberg and Roxy, the American people can be rest assured that their rights will not be violated by anyone and even more people will be inspired by the idea of protecting citizens in questions about the attacks on their freedoms.
This show shows a concrete example that if you see a person in trouble, and this person needs your help, you should not stand aside and stay idle. On the contrary, it is necessary to provide as soon as possible the help that is required, because it can save a person both physically and morally.
This story with Michael reminded me of the show “13 reasons why”, in which the main character faced a similar problem, but none of the people close to her could help her in any way. In this case, I watched the act of non-participation of people and unwillingness to help a young girl. However, in our show everything turned out for the better. Michael received the degree of justice he deserved, and Valerie achieved what she wanted. It would seem – everyone is happy. Although the ending of the film turned out to be a little sad because Roxy and Austin would not be able to work together anymore, each of them got what they wanted. Austin will become a father soon and Roxy was invited to a real professional radio broadcasting studio, where she will definitely work and get satisfaction of what she is doing.
I was extremely interested in watching “Unproductive” and I hope to see the fourth season soon with even more episodes and characters. I hope that these guys will succeed in the art of acting if they suddenly decide to specifically engage in this activity and consider this option as a way to earn money in the future. They were able to impress me, because every time I watched the next episode, “Unproductive,” I thought only of one thing: after all, these guys are good, and how do they manage to shoot the show without having any budget behind them?
Since this is my last post for this semester, I tried to make a thorough analysis of the show and compared some of its moments with other films that were set for viewing earlier. I think that I did it, and I, in fact, received a dose of emotions, being in this Introduction to Mass Media class and can really say that from now I consider working on TV or on the radio in the future. During this period of time, I watched as many old but fascinating films as I have not watched in my entire life. I hope that those classes for which I have already managed to register in the new semester will be as exciting as this one. The most interesting thing throughout the semester, I was not bored only in this class, and I would like to definitely say thank you to our professor.
