Anyone But Me is a live-action, web television

Web television

Web television, also commonly referred to as web TV, not to be confused with WebTV, Internet television or catch up TV, is an emerging genre of digital entertainment that is distinct from traditional broadcast television...

 drama which first aired in 2008. The show is in serial short-format webisodes, each lasting between six and fifteen minutes, which follow the lives of a group of teenagers in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and Westchester County, New York

Westchester County, New York

Westchester County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. Westchester covers an area of and has a population of 949,113 according to the 2010 Census, residing in 45 municipalities...

.

Anyone But Me was developed by Tina Cesa Ward and playwright Susan Miller

Susan Miller (playwright)

Susan Miller, two time OBIE winner and recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in Playwriting, is perhaps best known as the author/performer of the critically acclaimed one woman play, My Left Breast and a producer and writer for the web series Anyone But Me.-Life:Miller served for three years as the...

 from Ward's

Ward's

Ward's is an organization that has covered the automotive industry for over 80 years. They are responsible for several publications including, Ward's AutoWorld, and Ward's Dealer Business.Ward's also publish the annual list of Ward's 10 Best Engines....

 original work. Anyone But Me initial launch and distribution was on Strike.TV

Strike.TV

Strike.TV is an internet television website that was created during the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike. It is an online network of original programming produced by well-known Hollywood names...

. Subsequently it has been offered on its own website and other online video providers such as YouTube

YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

 and Hulu

Hulu

Hulu is a website and over-the-top subscription service offering ad-supported on-demand streaming video of TV shows, movies, webisodes and other new media, trailers, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage from NBC, Fox, ABC, and Obstacle on October 20th 2011 Nickelodeon and CBS and many other...

.

Plot Overview

The series centers around the experiences of Vivian McMillan (Rachael Hip-Flores), a sixteen-year-old lesbian

Lesbian

Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

 whose father's illness prompts the two of them to move from Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

 to the home of Vivian's maternal aunt in Westchester, roughly 30 minutes away. Vivian attempts to maintain her relationship with girlfriend Aster Gaston (Nicole Pacent) while enrolling in a new school, negotiating old childhood connections, and establishing a new social circle in what she perceives to be a substantially different environment from her previous home in the city.

The Closet

As the series begins, Vivian has been living as an openly gay high-school student whose romance with Aster appears well-known to those around her. When she arrives at her new suburban home and school, she declines to reveal her sexuality or relationship to her aunt, to a local schoolmate she has known since childhood, or to most of her peers. In public, she also frequently minimizes Aster's role in her life to avoid exposure of the sexual nature of their relationship. This sets up a number of conflicts as well as a dialogue in Episode 8 of Season 1 on whether or not gay pride

Gay pride

LGBT pride or gay pride is the concept that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people should be proud of their sexual orientation and gender identity...

 is an essential element of an intimate gay relationship.

Changing Social Attitudes in Suburban America

Vivian's anxiety about publicizing her sexuality in Westchester is driven by her belief that her family and friends living there would not be as tolerant or accepting as she found them to be in Manhattan. The one person who quickly discovers Vivian's secret is Archibald (Joshua Holland), an African-American student at her school. In Episode 3 of Season 1, Vivian and Archibald discuss their common feeling that a largely white, traditional community would never fully embrace them because of their minority status. This perception is challenged by other characters, including Vivian's childhood friend Sophie (Jessy Hodges), who upon learning the truth is less upset that Vivian is gay and more offended that Vivian assumed she would be intolerant.

Lingering effects of 9/11

The show's creators bill the story as a search "for love and belonging in the post-9/11 age". Vivian's father Gabe (Dan Via) is a former New York City firefighter who suffers from respiratory problems appearing to arise from his work at Ground Zero, prompting his move with his daughter out of the city center. In Episode 3 of Season 1, Vivian's father describes the move away from New York City as intended to allow Vivian to experience her adolescence without having to constantly deal with the consequences the attacks have had on their lives.

Adversity in Parenting

Vivian's mother left the family when Vivian was a young child. Since the onset of her father's illness, some aspects of their parent-child relationship have become reversed, with Vivian seen scolding him for failing to call upon her immediately when he has difficulty. Vivian's maternal aunt Jodie (Barbara Pitts), who is childless, attempts with great awkwardness to take on the role of motherhood. Aster's parents are continually absent from and uninterested in her life; friends her own age, along with Vivian, assume responsibility for motivating her to regularly attend school. Archibald, who feels uncomfortable in the student community, spends time in the office of a school administrator. The administrator pushes Archibald to become involved with teams and clubs, but his encouragement appears primarily motivated by his desire to have a student spy for him on others who may be misbehaving.

Critical Reaction

Interest in the series has been heaviest amongst LBGT media

Gay media

Gay media refers to media that predominantly targets a gay or lesbian audience. The primary target market for gay media may also more broadly be considered to include members of a GLBT audience.-Origins:...

, with generally positive reviews from outlets such as Curve

Curve (magazine)

Curve is a lesbian magazine in the United States. It covers news, politics, social issues, and includes celebrity interviews and stories on entertainment, pop culture, style, travel, and a website that hosts an internet forum focusing on lesbian issues, active since 2000.The magazine was first...

and GO magazines. The mainstream audience New York Observer

New York Observer

The New York Observer is a weekly newspaper first published in New York City on September 22, 1987, by Arthur L. Carter, a very successful former investment banker with publishing interests. The Observer focuses on the city's culture, real estate, the media, politics and the entertainment and...

's Gillian Reagan described Anyone But Me as a show that "succeeds in showing us the potential of the [web-original] medium."

External links

• Official Show Site
• Strike.tv show site
• Anyone But Me at Lesbicanarias Episode Recaps (Spanish)