With her new web series Do Better, Amie Darboe is living a childhood dream. 鈥淓ssentially I鈥檝e been writing since I was probably 7,鈥� she says. 鈥淸I] always knew I wanted to write for TV, but I didn鈥檛 do anything about it until I was an adult.鈥�
Darboe says the show was inspired by her college friendships. 鈥淛ust one night I was thinking about my college group of friends, which was predominantly black and Asian people,鈥� she says. 鈥淎nd just how that experience was so vastly different from my experience in Austin.鈥�
She already had several unproduced pilot scripts in her portfolio, she says, but this one seemed to resonate more for her. 鈥淪omething about this story moved me enough that I decided that I actually wanted to make it,鈥� Darboe says. 鈥淎nd so it [was] a good opportunity for me to learn how to produce and put something together and that鈥檚 how it became a web series.鈥�
Though it鈥檚 set in Oakland, Do Better was filmed in Austin (the series was filmed in 2018 but post-production was completed this year). Darboe says the show was largely inspired by the 鈥�90s sitcoms she grew up watching. 鈥淭here was a lot of Black content, particularly around sitcoms, in the 鈥�90s,鈥� she says. 鈥淪o I grew up seeing Black people on TV all the time, but then there was a hiatus in the early 2000s, and then now it鈥檚 coming back.鈥�
Darboe says that while there are sitcoms on the air now that feature primarily Black or Asian casts, she doesn鈥檛 see a lot of content where they interact with each other, and that鈥檚 something she really wanted to see reflected on a TV screen. 鈥淔or me,鈥� she says, 鈥渋t was like how do I bring these two communities together that are so important to me but also aren鈥檛 necessarily seen as allies?鈥�
Though the show was largely inspired by the sitcoms of her youth, Darboe says she likes to classify Do Better as a dramedy rather than a straight comedy.
鈥淚 find that [in] dramedies, the characters actually tend to make a lot more progress than the sitcom characters,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ecause [in] sitcoms, it鈥檚 a reset button at the top of the episode.鈥�
She鈥檇 like her characters to have room for growth and change as the show goes on; in fact she鈥檚 hoping to write season two this summer and, if possible, create the sort of TV writers鈥� room that she dreamed of working in as a kid. She wrote season one by herself but wants more input from different voices for season two. 鈥淲hat I want is to create a writers鈥� room, especially to have all the other voices. Like, there are queer characters in our show. I want queer writers on our team, I want Asian writers on our team, just to be able to diversify the perspective,鈥� she says.
鈥淭he primary mission of the show is just to center marginalized voices,鈥� Darboe says. 鈥淏ecause a lot of times, I find that when I see black or [other] people of color on TV, it鈥檒l have been written by people who aren鈥檛 us. I want to center these voices but also get the story right.鈥�
