WARNING! This article contains SPOILERS for The Conners season 5, episode 20.Most family sitcoms can’t take on the subject of unemployment, but The Conners kept Roseanne’s theme alive by offering an unsparing take on the topic. At the time of its release, Roseanne was unique among American family sitcoms. After the ‘80s offered a string of shows about upper-middle-class families from Full House to The Cosby Show, Roseanne provided a working-class alternative to this idealized image of Americana. A huge influence on later hits like Malcolm in the Middle, Roseanne was funny but unsparing in its depiction of the working-class struggle and its impact on families.
For the most part, The Conners has strived to keep this Roseanne theme alive. Even when The Conners season 5 jeopardized Jackie’s marriage, it was because of the titular family’s ever-present money woes and not a more far-fetched, silly plot line. The realities of working-class life are never far from the plots of The Conners and this has not stopped the show from maintaining a light, funny tone even when its heroes are barely able to make ends meet. A great example of this occurred in The Conners season 5, where Darlene’s long-running employment struggle allowed the spinoff to foreground its working-class roots.
The Conners & Roseanne’s Work Focus Works
Even though employment (and unemployment) is a heavy topic, The Conners deftly found humor in Darlene’s struggles. Her unemployment placed a strain on Darlene and Ben’s marriage left the family with no way of paying for Mark’s college and even resulted in tensions between Darlene and her father Dan. In The Conners season 5, episode 20, "What's So Funny About Peas, Love and Understanding?” the Roseanne spinoff also depicted Darlene’s deliberation over whether to quit a good new job to become a lunch lady (so she could guarantee her son affordable college tuition) realistically and still managed to make this unfortunate conundrum funny in the process.
Even though The Conners season 5 saw Darlene spend weeks trying to find a new job that valued her, she eventually proved that she was willing to give this up to ensure that Mark could attend a good college. In "What's So Funny About Peas, Love and Understanding?” this resulted in Darlene taking on a role that she was overqualified for so that she could take advantage of the college’s tuition breaks for employees, making Mark’s The Conners season 5 plot a moving story of a mother sacrificing her career for her son’s potential future. Despite how poignant this was, like its predecessor Roseanne, The Conners kept its tone light.
The Conners Season 5 Makes Darlene’s The Show’s New Roseanne
Darlene sacrificing her own ambitions for the sake of her children, despite all of her sardonic asides and snide remarks, proves that she inherited her mother’s big heart as well as her sharp wit. This was never really in question, but Darlene didn’t need to give up much for her children in recent seasons and, since The Conners season 4 mostly focused on her and Ben, it was easy to forget how much motherhood shaped her as a character. However, by foregrounding her tough working-class life and her willingness to endure anything for her children’s future, The Conners season 5 proved Roseanne’s heroine lives on in Darlene.