Evolved: A show about 2 brothers trying to be progressive but their white, male, middle class privilege thwarts them at every turn
This project will only be funded if at least $10,153 is pledged by .
Equal parts buddy comedy and cunning social satire, the show explores what it means to be ‘evolved’ and the hypocrisy that mantle entails. We all think we're evolved in some way. Some of us have more blind spots than others. Evolved slyly asks: can heterosexual white men really have it all?
Danielle and Viri believe that many of the most basic organizing principles of our culture are, well, pretty silly! Evolved pokes fun at every point along the spectrum, from people with stuffy normative values to the militantly progressive.
Right now, the script is a finalist in the Sundance Episodics Labs (yay!). But we don't want to wait for someone to tell us we can make this thing. We just want to make it. And we need your help!
The pilot episode explores the show’s central question — what does it mean to be ‘evolved’?— along professional and romantic lines, as both brothers push the limits of their own progressivism.
Nate wants to get a promotion at work but an equally-qualified black single mother, Phoebe, is also up for the position. With Phoebe’s help, Nate gets woke that his office is riddled with misogyny and worries that he is the unwitting beneficiary of discrimination. Nate has to choose between getting ahead and sticking to his principles.
Meanwhile, Ben wants to be the kind of man his girlfriend Rachel wants to be with. But when she asks for a rumspringa, Ben must prove that he is capable of having an ‘evolved’ open relationship. Ben sets out on a heroic quest to have a meaningless one-night stand but his kind, empathetic nature make the “just sex, no feelings” imperative nearly impossible.
Nate (Michael Cruz Kayne) wants to be an evolved man and father but he lives in a culture that rewards a narrowly defined version of manhood. Nate’s neurotic insistence on being progressive is often his undoing at work and in love. Despite good intentions, Nate is a nice guy that ends up finishing last and looking like an asshole.
At the end of watching Return of the Jedi with Aiden, Nate worries that princess Leia was objectified — did he just teach his toddler the male gaze? Shit.
Ben (Ken Beck) wants desperately to be viewed as an ubermensch, but his emotional, affectionate, and empathetic nature gets in his way. Ben is the kind of person who enters a room full of strangers and leaves with detailed backstories, a handful of inside jokes, and a standing brunch invitation. Ben longs to please others.
Driving around in his Fiat convertible, Ben blasts Beyoncé’s ‘Formation’, but when he stops at a red light he quickly changes it to Bruce Springsteen, Live in New York. Gotta love The Boss.
Rachel (Mary Kate Morrissey) enjoys the luxuries of being a 30-something in a DINK (dual income no kids) relationship with Ben. But her free, independent lifestyle is disrupted when her boyfriend Ben becomes one of baby Aiden’s primary caregivers. Suddenly the question of marriage and kids is forced upon Rachel. And she responds by throwing a grenade into the all-too-well-paved road ahead of her by asking Ben for an open relationship.
Rachel would camp out at Burning Man just to have the experience. But secretly she would think the music was garbage and the sculptures were crap.
Phoebe (Chanel Carroll) s a certified badass. Not wanting to sit back and wait for the right person to come along, Phoebe adopted a baby (Shonda Rhimes-style) and is raising her daughter by her own. damn. self. She slays at home and at work where, if it weren’t for a stacked deck in her office culture, she’d be rungs ahead of Nate and the rest of her beer guzzling coworkers on the corporate ladder.
Phoebe doesn’t like to talk about it, but yeah, she knows Michelle Obama.
Danielle DiPaolo (Writer, Director, Producer) is a Canadian-born television and sketch comedy writer in New York City. After completing a BA at McGill University and an MA at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Danielle promptly turned to the Upright Citizens Brigade theater (UCB NY) for her post-post graduate work. Danielle has performed stand up, improv and storytelling in some of the finest dive bars in NYC. Her pilot (this pilot!) is currently a finalist for the 2016 Sundance Episodics Labs.
Viridiana Lieberman (Director, Producer) is a filmmaker, writer, editor and activist who completed her BFA in film at Miami International University of Art and Design and her MA in Women's Studies at Florida Atlantic University. She's created shorts, features, podcasts, fantastic whiskey drinks and a book. Check out her dope-ass documentary Fattitude (coming soon!).
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
The first season of Evolved explores what that term means — ‘evolved’— for each of the characters. Nate moves back to Texas after he and his wife ‘consciously un-couple’ (Gwyneth + Chris Martin style). Nate must acclimatize to his new physical environment (the suburbs of Austin), and social environment (as a new bachelor and first-time single-parent). He explores suburban single life, going on a few ill-fated dates. At work, Nate will struggle to win the respect of his hyper-masculine colleagues and bosses.
In the first season, Ben explores his new role as uncle/ nanny/ surrogate-dad. What was formerly known as ‘unemployment’ is now dubbed ‘domestic labor’ in the Reynolds household. Ben spends his days caring for Aiden and playing politics in his new friend group— a smattering of British au pairs, mail-order nannies from the Philippines, and high school girls trying to make enough cash to buy Justin Bieber tickets. Ben becomes one of the girls at parks and moms-and-tots pure barre classes. But, while the nurturing caretaker role comes easily to Ben, it creates problems in his relationship with Rachel throughout the first season.
Rachel’s comfortable dual-income-no-kids lifestyle gets disrupted with Nate and Aiden’s arrival. Rachel might never want children and having a toddler around forces the question. Rachel believes being evolved means being able to operate outside the norms of heterosexual monogamy. Ben, on the other hand, has a more teleological idea of what it means to have an ‘evolved’ relationship. Feeling hemmed in, Rachel goes a little wild on her rumspringa. Her experimentation culminates in an Eyes Wide Shut-style S&M party. When the party goes awry, Rachel winds up back at the Reynolds house donning all leather just in time to meet Ben’s parents, Mr. & Mrs. Reynolds.
in season one, Nate and Ben will try to get ahead in their regressive milieu while also acting in accordance with their versions of what it means to be evolved. Using both slapstick and satire, Evolved will poke fun at every single character who variously reinforces and/ or tries to deconstruct the restrictive organizing principles of social life. In short, we’re all implicated. Hold onto your butts.
What are we gonna do with all this ca$h?
Equipment: Shooting a pilot is great but not if you can’t see it or hear it. To make that happen, we need to rent cameras, lights and sound equipment. We are women and we want to be both SEEN and HEARD!
Locations, Props, Costumes: We want the people, places and things in the show to look and feel authentic. That means we’re going to some weird spots, dressing up in weird things, and (among other TOTALLY NORMAL things), procuring a statue of two gorillas copulating.
Post Production: Now that women have the right to be heard, we want to be heard WELL! That requires some sound mixing in post. Now that we’re being seen, we don’t want our skin to look all orange on screen. It’s not a vanity thing, it’s just common sense. Tada! Color correction!
Food: The people involved in this shoot are donating their time and skills. We want to be able to feed our incredible cast and crew each day of shooting. We’re planning to eat some serious deli sandwiches. And those meats add up! (see video for examples).
Do you know how many people (read: mostly dudes) told us we couldn't do this? In the writing process, people (read: dudes) told Danielle she couldn't write male characters. In the pre production stages, people (read: definitely just dudes) questioned whether two women could pull off a project of this scale. And in the funding stage... well, that's why we're here!
Help us show the whole world (and a bunch of dudes!)... WE GOT THIS!
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