“Beth is a human being. I think she’s a pretty typical human being. She is narcissistic and empathetic,” muses comedian Amy Schumer (Trainwreck), the star and creator of the TV show Life & Beth, now in its second season. She shares her views on the evolving relationships between Beth Jones, her husband, and life in general with Creative Screenwriting Magazine.
Life & Beth follows Beth a wine sales rep who may drink more than she sells and her now farmer husband John. Will she break out of her disastrous pattern of falling for the wrong men or forge a new life and make lasting change?
“I think she just continues to be at this crossroad where she’s really trying to figure out how to be happy, how to be a good friend, and now how to be a partner,” Schumer continues. Beth is now in a committed relationship with John (Michael Cera) and she’s determined to do everything right. In some respects, Beth is a mess of contradictions, at times being astutely self-aware and other times self-absorbed. Everybody knows a Beth. “My hope is that the audiences see themselves in her. I hope that she is just a conduit and a catalyst for themselves,” muses Schumer about her deeply personal TV series.
Comedy Or Drama?
Life & Beth skates between deeply sad moments like death and funerals, and hilariously funny moments such as attending a spa day with her friends.
Amy Schumer is reticent to box Life & Beth into the dramedy genre, although she acknowledges aspects of both comedy and drama genres in her TV show. “I think the show is slice of life, but it’s heightened. And there is some magical realism in there too. It’s just amplified.” She categorizes the dramatic components of the show as being grounded because these storylines are typical of relationships and friendships.
Amy Schumer
She draws references to other shows like Fleabag, Atlanta, and even, Girls for creative inspiration.
To further dissect Amy Schumer’s writing process, she claims that Life & Beth feels more like a movie in eight parts than a television show. This mindset allows her delve deeper into her characters’ lives and give them greater character arcs. “I would love the seeds of these other things to be explored. What i if Jess (Sas Goldberg) has an affair because she feels like she’s just missing something, and then the consequences of that? And how she finds her way back?”
“What if Jen (Arielle Siegel) gets addicted to opioids through an injury? What would this look like and how could we show it? It’s kind of funny, but it’s really pretty painful. It comes from a real place that some people can relate to,” clarifies Amy of the darkly comedic nature of certain storylines.
Lavar Walker who is a staff writer on the show and plays LaVar (spelling is intentional) on Life & Beth, is a pharmacist in real life. He pitched the idea of a prescription misfill which happens more often than you might expect and has dire consequences.
Matt, Beth’s former boyfriend (played by Kevin Kane) has a storyline where he discovers he has a teenage daughter. This was partially based on real life events.
The writers’ room is a true collaboration where people bring in their own experiences, including Schumer’s.
“I wanted to take my time with the personal relationships. I like watching how actors behave. That’s the most interesting thing to me. So more than snappy dialogue or good jokes, I just like to watch these people live out their lives whenever possible and creating opportunities for that. Even in the most ridiculous scenario.”
Breaking The Season
Amy Schumer chose to reverse engineer the season because she knew where Beth and John were going to end up. Then she works backwards. Curiously, she begins with the most most generic ideas which audience have likely seen before. Then she wonders how she can subvert it to ensure the audience is surprised within these regular storylines.
A typical TV show might show a romantic couple building up towards the big day at the end of the season. But for Beth and John, they get married quickly without having the wedding be such a big deal in the overall scheme of the show.
Beth (Amy Schumer) and Jess (Sas Goldberg) Photo by Marcus Price/Hulu
The unlikely couple appear to be dissimilar and mismatched. Despite their differences, they’re determined to make their marriage succeed. Schumer believes they are very grounding for each other, much like her marriage to her husband Chris. “I think these two make sense together. It’s a combination people probably wouldn’t see coming. Beth and John really do enjoy the same things, and they enjoy, respect and value each other and just feel connected,” states Schumer.
Flashbacks
The structure of Love & Beth allows Beth to visit past aspects of her life where Young Beth speaks to Older Beth creating an interesting relationship between them. One is the advice giver and the other, the receiver.
“I feel like they are two different characters. I don’t know that that I set out for that, but as someone who kept their journals during these teen years, there’s such a core that’s still in me. It’s how I was born and who I’ll always be. But it’s also an age where your DNA for the rest of your life is being set up based on your triumphs and your traumas,” mentions Schumer.
“I think the use of flashbacks to your younger self is a really good way to empathize with yourself and with others, knowing that the way we all become and our reaction to things is ingrained in us from an early age. One thing in life can quickly become something else,” she continues.
Amy Schumer adds that the placement of these flashbacks are typically decided during the editing process rather than meticulously planned on the page. “Young Beth is teaching present day Beth.”
Young Beth went to therapy and a large emotional burden was lifted. “She survived. She’s strong. She made it. You need to worry about the woman right here,” declares Schumer.
According to Amy, Older Beth is her about six years ago. “That’s a good distance to reflect. Older Beth is stunted and identifies as being younger than she really is.”
Being in your forties is a good time to look at yourself and reassess your life choices. Beth asks, “Am I happy? If not, I still have time to make a big change, but I’m scared.”
This is the essence of Beth’s emotional journey and the spine of the show. “It’s basically plotting a character’s goal and what makes them happy, what brings them peace,” says Amy.
For Beth, it’s all about “which pocket to go to. One pocket is your birth. It’s a singular event and you’re this incredible person who has an indelible effect on the world. And the other pocket is that you’re a speck of dust in the universe. I think it’s understanding those two things. And I hope that that is where she lands.“
