Often in life, when at our lowest point, the one thing we can cling to is hope. Hope, that one day, things will get better and we’ll see light at the end of the tunnel. It’s an endearing emotion that we all collectively experience, yet it dares to ask whether it is too much of a good thing to believe that your circumstances may change. ‘It’s the hope that kills you’ is the phrase often brought forward to the table.
Yet I’d like to think that this statement is incorrect and it’s something that I think the best creators of art feel in a similar regard. Take, perhaps, the most universally adored film of all time, The Shawshank Redemption. We see our main character Andy Dufrense reach the lowest of lows as he is sentenced to life imprisonment for the alleged murder of his wife and lover, a crime he consistently maintains he did not commit. The circumstances for him as throughout his stay he is subjected to torrential abuse brought on by the prison warden, guards and even his fellow prison inmates. Despite all of this, where many would cave in and bite the bullet, Andy never once loses his hope that one day he will walk free. If you’ve never seen the movie I do apologise, but to go into spoiler territory, the climax of the film sees Andy escape the prison, being forced to climb through a tunnel of literal excrement, 500 miles long, to escape. It speaks to all of us and the hardships we go through in our lives. Quite simply, in order to reach our goals, we’re going to have to go through some of the worst times in order to achieve the best times, and the one thing that will constantly get us through this is the hope we carry throughout.
It’s this idea of hope that led to the creation of this podcast that tackles some of the best examples of its use as a literary theme in creative media and how they are all interlinked by sharing the same meanings and ideas. They are works that I have enjoyed and which have made me laugh, cry and be overwhelmed by the sense of thrill and adventure.
Episode 1 investigates the Apple TV comedy-drama series, Ted Lasso, an American Football coach tasked with managing the English Premier League soccer team, Richmond A.F.C, with no prior experience coaching in the sport. Ted tackles the prejudicial scepticism from the players, fans and the British Press, who all eventually warm to him, due to his upbeat and cheerful demeanour, a demeanour brought upon the belief and hope Ted has in the players that he coaches, instilling in them that they can be great footballers, but that they also have the power to be even greater men off the pitch.
Episode 2 wanders into the world of animated films, specifically Dreamworks’ 2008 animated adventure Kung Fu Panda. Panda and kung-fu mega-fan, Po is accidentally hand-picked to be the ‘Dragon Warrior’, a kung-fu master destined to protect all of China. Like Ted Lasso, Po must face constant hypocrisy and mediocrity thrown his way by his fellow new teammates of ‘The Furious Five’ and his new kung-fu master, Shifu, who consistently scoff at the idea of a fat panda being fit to defend the townsfolk. Yet still, Po’s belief and hope that he is special because he is simply himself is what consistently gets him through these struggles and is ultimately the reason why he is fit to be given the monarch of the Dragon Warrior.
Finally, episode 3 is an uncovering of the uplifting ideals of the 2013 PlayStation video game, The Last of Us, which, last year, was adapted into a universally acclaimed HBO drama series. Set in a post-apocalyptic United States, we play as Joel, a bitter and cold old man tasked with smuggling a young bright-eyed teenager, Ellie to potentially cure the pandemic that has loomed across the country for the last twenty years. What follows is a relationship and bond that, initially, neither wants to admit or be a part of, to eventually that of a father and daughter, as Ellie, through her optimistic outlook on life, is the key to reminding Joel of his forgotten humanity and instils in the hope to keep fighting for one day longer, so as long as there is someone he loves to fight for.
Each example is one that I feel best illustrates how having and maintaining hope in something is, quite simply, the greatest emotion that unites us. To explain any further would be a disservice to what you can listen to in the podcast and can’t simply be wrapped up in a written format. You can listen to each episode below and are best advised to do so in numerical order so that the best listening experience is achieved.
Episode One
Episode Two
Episode Three
