At first glance, Apple TV+’s latest drama Little Voice, which premiered July 10, appears to be nothing more than a 2020 version of Felicity with a soundtrack. Ordinarily, there would be nothing wrong with that, but nowadays, the liberal agenda always has to add something more. In this case, it’s the frustratingly clichéd closeted gay friend plot, this time with bonus white male bigots.
The third episode “Dear Hope” follows our main character Bess (Bethany O’Grady) as she tries to write a song about hope for a writing contest. Unfortunately for her, the day she’s writing her song happens to be a pretty sour one. Most notably, her good friend Prisha (Shalini Bathini) is caught making out with a girl named Ananya in the middle of the park. This comes as a shock to Bess, who didn’t know about Prisha’s relationship, but it’s quickly interrupted by two men. Being white and male, they immediately harass her for being a lesbian minority, because this is what we are told happens every day in Trump's America.
Man: Send em back. Terrorist dykes, go home!
Bess: Prisha! Prisha!
The situation grows worse since Prisha is forced to go to the hospital for stitches and meets up with her traditional Indian parents who have no idea about her orientation. For their sake, the girls hide Prisha’s relationship, but her parents still seem pretty quick to understand that two white men randomly attacked Prisha in the middle of New York City.
Vilina: Where is she? Where is my daughter? What did they do to you?
Anil: Where’s the doctor?
Prisha: It’s okay.
Anil: Where is the doctor?
Anil: It’s okay. It’s okay.
Bess: The doctor came. They did a CAT scan.
Vilina: So, who did this? What happened?
Ananya: It was these-
Prisha: Two crazy racists.
Anil: Racists? Did the police catch them? Did you file a report, or-
Prisha: We filed a report, but they didn’t catch them.
Vilina: Why would anyone want to hurt you? Are you alright, sweetie?
Bess: This is Ananya, Mama G.
Ananya: We-
Prish: She’s in the band with me. That’s why she was there. Because she’s in the band.
Vilina: Ananya, do you want me to call your mother?
Ananya: You don’t need to call her. She’s got enough she’s dealing with.
Vilina: Look what this country has done to our beautiful daughter.
Prisha: Mama…
Anil: Vilina, don’t get upset.
Doctor: The family’s arrived, I see.
Prisha later states her parents sacrificed everything to give her a life in America. Apparently, it wasn’t worth it. After all, if New York City is filled with white men ready to throw bottles at women of color for being lesbians, there isn’t any hope for the rest of us unwashed masses. Or at least that’s what this show would have us believe.
On top of all that, her parents readily believe Prisha would have been attacked in broad daylight for simply being brown in "this country." One would think after the Jussie Smollett case blew up in the media’s face that the left would be less apt to go with that narrative. Sadly, it seems like almost every show is willing to die on the “white man bad” hill.
By the end of the episode, Prisha still hasn’t come out to her parents, so we can probably be sure this will come up again. It’s a shame since otherwise the series would just be a simple dull drama with a few too many f-bombs. Now it’s a ridiculous dull drama with a stupid agenda, which is far, far worse.
