The Conners Can’t Afford Mark’s New Contrabassoon

screenrant.com:

Despite Darlene’s well-meaning advice to Mark in The Conners season 4, her choice of instrument for him is wildly misguided. The Conners is not the most realistic show in television history but, unlike most sitcoms, the Roseanne retooling does make a point of depicting working-class characters with believable struggles. Over the years, the eponymous family has encountered all manner of financial woes, andThe Conners like Roseanne before has never been afraid to show how difficult it is to make ends meet in modern America.

This made one oversight in Mark’s Conners season 4 plotline bizarrely striking, as the series seemed hopelessly out-of-touch about an easily researched price point. When Mark began selling ghostwritten admission essays to his rich former schoolmates to fund his own college tuition, Darlene was impressed with his ingenuity but disapproved of the scheme. She did some research and discovered a more ethically straightforward pathway to guaranteeing a college scholarship.

Related: Why The Conners Season 4 Needs To Reunite Darlene And Harris

According to Darlene, college orchestras often need to find students who have mastered more obscure instruments and can often be willing to pay their way in exchange for their willingness to play. Naturally, Darlene thinks that her son could funnel some of his ambition into learning an obscure instrument to help secure his place in college. While Mark’s addiction to ADHD medication earlier in The Conners season 4 should probably have been enough reason to not suggest that he take up another difficult extracurricular activity, that’s not the main problem with this premise. The instrument that Darlene suggests her son learn to gain a sought-after skill and all-but-guarantee