Comedian Tig Notaro is gearing up for the premiere of her Amazon series “One Mississippi“ by speaking about the project at the TCA press tour this week. The series, The Hollywood Reporter via Yahoo News reports, “centers on Tig as she leaves Los Angeles and returns to her hometown in Mississippi upon her mother’s untimely death. What begins as Tig reconciling her mother’s affairs becomes a poignant and surprising exploration of family, childhood and life after grief.”
As Notaro said, the six-episode, autobiographical series covers the four month period when “my mother died, I had cancer, I had an intestinal disease, I went through a breakup, I had pneumonia — the list goes on.”
“[It’s] about 85 percent real and there were a few parts that we bridged moments together,” Notaro said of how close “One Mississippi” gets to her own life. “The timeline is off from when my life actually fell apart; we crammed all that into the pilot so we could go from there if it went to series. Having gone to series, it’s more fictional but there’s still a lot of reality and real moments from my life.”
Executive producers Kate Robin and Nicole Holofcener were also on hand to emphasize the importance of shooting the series in Mississippi. “It’s a very specific place,” Robin said. “It’s deep South. [But] there’s nothing about the show that’s a cliché, it’s all very true to life. There’s no broad stroke. It’s not ‘the South,’ it’s not ‘lesbianism.’ It’s not a stylized tone. It’s very real.”
Notaro also made a point to note that, although her main character is a lesbian, the show doesn’t necessarily focus on her sexual orientation. “I think it could be expected, taking place in Mississippi, that the topic of being gay and coming out and conflict with family members would be an easy place to go, but that’s not the issue in my life, so that’s been an exciting element, to present my life as it is in that manner,” she shared. “No one flinches if I have a girlfriend or three. I didn’t think about it when I was thinking about the show or pitching it.”
“One Mississippi” will premiere on Amazon in September. Holofcener directed the pilot. Also in the works over there are the third season of “Transparent,” which hits on August 19, and “Fleabag,” a series created by and starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge, which focuses on an “angry and rage-y single woman trying to navigate life and relationships in London.” Waller-Bridge was also at the TCAs and said that the series stems from her being “confused about feminism and how to be a good feminist.” “Fleabag” premieres on September 16.
