Tig Notaro’s ‘One Mississippi’ Serves Up Dark Humor [S2 Review]

It’s time for another Bingeworthy Breakdown, where we look at the hottest new TV shows and separate the wheat from the chaff. The biscuits from the grits. The chicken-fried steak from the regular steak. The crawfish pie from the file gumbo. If you’re wondering why my proverbs just went South, it’s because today we’re entering the weird and witty world of Amazon’s “One Mississippi.” This hard-hitter co-created by legendary comedian Tig Notaro and irreverent screenwriter Diablo Cody launched its second season just last week, which means it’s high time for an evaluation. In the show, Notaro acts out a fictionalized autobiography: gay radio DJ Tig goes through cancer, a life-threatening infection, her mother’s death, and a break-up in rapid succession. Reeling from those events (and still rather sick), the Los Angeles resident decides to stick around her quirky Mississippi homestead. We weren’t shy about our feelings for “One Mississippi” in our write-up of great Amazon shows last year, but has dramedy held up under this sophomore season? Yes, and then some. The second season of “One Mississippi” acts as an energetically comical foil to its more somber predecessor without losing the show’s biting honesty. It also delivers one of the most touching, adorable, realistic lesbian love stories in the last decade. But let me make my case.

All right, cut the crap. What’s a show I can finish in less than a day?
And hello to you, too! If you’re looking for your next quick media fix, “One Mississippi” just rolled out its second season, and yes, it’s short. In total, the show sports just 12 half-hour episodes. It’s a brilliant and beautiful comedy-drama that’s been raking in critical acclaim.

one mississippi tig notaroI’m listening.
That said, you need to be ready for this show to scoop your emotions straight out of your soul and then tenderly put them back together again in less than six hours.

Wait, what? What is it even about?
You’ve probably heard of the incredible comedian Tig Notaro, who, in the span of four months in 2012, went through a break-up, battled a near-fatal intestinal infection, underwent a bilateral mastectomy for breast cancer, and unexpectedly lost her mother. She released a smash hit comedy album filled with blunt and fantastic cancer jokes. There’s a Netflix documentary, “Tig,” which details those events and her quest for motherhood. She wrote a book about it all, too, called “I’m Just a Person.”

Nah. Not ringing any bells.
She has beef with Louis C.K.

Oh, yeah!
I have such lofty hopes for the journalistic profession. Yes, Notaro and “One Mississippi” have been in the press for the wrong reasons lately, after Notaro had the gall to point out that Louis C.K. hasn’t properly addressed his sexual assault allegations. She asserts that these allegations are “serious,” and that he should “handle” them.

blankOh. That’s actually really reasonable. Okay. So, the show?
Thank God. So yeah, the pilot episode of “One Mississippi” picks up right as Notaro’s character has to take her mother (incredibly acted by Rya Kihlstedt) off of life support. Still too sick to return home to LA, season one follows Tig as she copes with the loss of her mother, her breasts, and her sanity. Being home forces Tig to re-confront her childhood sexual abuse. Her stepfather, Bill (a delightfully intransigent John Rothman) and brother Remy (Noah Harpster) drive her up the wall. Her pushy girlfriend (Casey Wilson) makes everything about herself. There’s a lot of well-written noise for “fictional” Tig to sift through as she deals with her mother’s death and her own insecurities and self-absorption. The show’s moribund reality is cut up by “Scrubs”-esque fantasy scenes, and bolstered by (at times melo-)dramatic flashbacks. The final episode of season one found our hero returning to Mississippi for a longer stay, despite her fractured family. The season also concluded with the potential promise of a new romance for Tig, in the form of charming radio station manager Kate (a radiant Stephanie Allynne).

Wait, I’ve been Googling. Isn’t Stephanie Allynne Tig Notaro’s real-life wife?
YOU’RE DAMN RIGHT SHE IS!

blankOh, God, what’s happening. Why are you yelling.
BECAUSE I’M HAPPY! I’ve been walking on air ever since I finished season two of “One Mississippi.” As Allynne becomes a more regular character on the show, the series turns into an unprecedentedly heart-wrenching oddball love story. It’s just what the show needed to balance itself out, and the results are incredible.

I thought this show was a huge bummer. What’s changed?
Don’t get me wrong, I adored season one of “One Mississippi.” As she regularly does in her stand-up, Tig builds this show on groundbreaking, raw honesty. There’s a haunting scene in the season one finale that I’ll never shake — in a surrealist fantasy sequence, Tig has a graveyard sleepover with her mom, where she and a number of dead girls make light of their own sexual abuse. It’s shockingly blunt and absolutely unlike anything I’ve ever seen before (even though “Take My Wife” similarly used a halting, fourth-wall moment to talk about sexual abuse). It would be reductive and patently untrue to write season one off as depressing.