#the king of queens

Some notes I will probably not return to flesh out:

In The King of Queens, we see white collar vs blue collar in a single household and are told the blue collar is aggressively non-aspirational while the white collar aspires to be more. However, as the story progresses, we can see that neither of them can be more and are tied to their caste station. Carrie is told at one point she will never progress because her accent makes her seem low. Doug is pigeonholed for his weight and even when he pursues an entrepreneurial goal in the final season, it is still driving and food based and ultimately fails because the system was rigged against him unbeknownst to him.

From the basement, from the depths within, comes the older generation, constantly scheming and striving to achieve the American dream of prosperity. This reveals their inner desire, but while Carrie and Doug are thwarted by the system, Arthur is often thwarted by his own hubris. He is their id (their frequent consummation upstairs is the super ego space, and their everyday life in the living room and in the world is the act of their ego). Arthur frequently discovers how to flaunt the system for profit, but pushes it too far or too quickly and his scheme implodes.

In the end, the pursuit of status breaks Doug, Carrie, and Arthur apart, as the white collar seeks the lure of the city and a fancy apartment and the id seeks fame by association. What ultimately brings them back together is the rejection of status and the embracing of the possibility of children —a symbol of a future together— in a maintained status. This is predicted in the theme song from every season, in which the ego body breaks down as the work day completes. In a static state, seated behind the wheel. Sitting in traffic, waiting with the similar masses. Living paycheck to paycheck and forever be moving forward in this static state towards home, where the id and super ego complete this static self.