On the Borderline –
September 26, 2019 – It’s fitting, then, that Bloom’s recent Emmy win for Best Original Music and Lyrics, alongside songwriter Jack Dolgen and composer Adam Schlesinger, was for a song that celebrated the “everydayness” of mental illness. “Anti-Depressants Are So Not a Big Deal,” featured in the show’s last season, was sung by Bunch’s therapist Dr. Akobian (played by Michael Heard, who originally auditioned for Donna Lynne Champlin’s role of Paula Proctor), with choreography by Kathryn Burns and direction by Stuart McDonald. The tongue-in-cheek song points to two of the show’s persistent messages: that mental illness is far more common than people think, and that it can affect anyone, from any station in life. With lyrics like “Everyone’s special, that’s usually the sitch/but when it comes to meds, you’re such a basic bitch” and anecdotes from guest stars about their own forays into the world of psychotropic medications (“When my husband died, I stopped bathing/and watched Christian TV instead”), the groundbreaking piece touches on and pushes back against most of the common arguments against mental health treatment. And, as per the norm in Bloom’s work, it taps into serious public dialogue while staying comedic rather than preachy.
