HYDE PARK, MA - SMILF, maybe not the best-titled show, but the decisively-named Showtime series is really, really good and I highly recommend it to you, my devoted Ghostlifers. It's created, written, directed by and starring local Frankie Shaw, as well as Rosie O'Donnell who plays her South Boston mother. It's one of these sharp TV shows like 'Better Things', 'Search Party' and others like it that share a unique style, perspective, and honest, societal insight created by voices the conventional networks can't broadcast. It's also filmed in Boston, with unique shooting locations only locals would appreciate (i.e NOT Faneuil Hall or the State House), making it the first Boston TV show I've personally seen that naturally feels like Boston. So many shows and movies that try to portray the city in any fashion always seem to fall victim to clichés like bad accents and constantly naming Massachusetts town names. But this gets as close to what Boston feels like day-to-day from my experience. Not the characters and their lives, but just general personalities, the deeper than surface level location shootings, etc. 'Candid,' 'raw,' and 'vital' are words I've seen thrown around in reviews, and I'd have to agree. Just a darn good show that I hope doesn't fall through the cracks because of it's name - good or bad - overshadowing the content within.
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