Where it all began...
We watched a documentary called "Factory City," about a place in China called Eupa, which is a self-contained company-owned community where over 20,000 people work and live.
After seeing this, we asked ourselves what would that situation look like if it happened here in the U.S on an even larger scale.
What if -- instead of just a city -- the entire country was purchased by one corporation and, instead of citizens, we became employees?
Our answer to that question is this TV show, a serialized Sci-Fi comedy called “Soap Dispenser Falls,” about an America in which every city is responsible for manufacturing a single product, and, in Soap Dispenser Falls, that product is – you guessed it – soap dispensers.
Most people work on the assembly line, which is tedious, soul-crushing work, especially for someone like...
GUNTHER
Meanwhile, to Beth's boyfriend Gunther, the epitome of the company man, it's a dream job.
BETH
... who's cursed with intellectual curiosity and ambition she doesn't have an outlet for. She feels stifled and bored and can't shake the nagging sense that something's missing from her life.
SONNY
Beth's brother Sonny couldn't care less. He just wants as little responsibility as possible.
Here's a clip of them working together:
But Sonny's rainy-day stash isn't just for him.
He sells this "productivity enhancer" (which is meth) on the side, and he's our gateway into the black market -- an unsanctioned, unauthorized part of this world.
The risks of Sonny's lifestyle are more than just the occasional exploded robot friend. You don't want to be caught breaking the law in this society.
Even small mistakes come with serious consequences. For example, what happens when you're fired from the place you live?
Let's find out...
PISS-ANT
This poor guy is our man on the ground in the Unemployment Zone. But, fortunately for him, he won’t stay the Piss Ant forever.
Over the course of the first season, we’ll watch as he rises through the ranks of the unemployment zone and goes from lowly Piss Ant to Dirt Worm to maybe even one day if he’s lucky Dumpster Maggot.
But, enough about that lovable sad piece of shit, let’s get back to the main family of this show.
DINO
The security guard who escorted the Piss Ant to the Unemployment Zone is Beth and Sonny's dad, Dino.
In this world, company security guards, like Dino, are the police. But even though he’s part of this giant corporation, he's still got small-town values, and what Dino values more than anything is his family.
Keeping the community safe is his way of keeping his family safe. That's why, when he's not sending people to the unemployment zone for minor infractions, he spends most of his time trying to bring down the insidious black market.
MELANIE
Melanie is Dino's current wife (more about his ex later) and a teacher at the elementary school where her and Dino’s son Hershel is the “bad kid” in class.
Not only does Melanie have to grapple with the moral issues of teaching her students company propaganda, but she’s also perpetually getting put in the middle of the tightly wound Principal and her Dennis-the-Menace son.
Where things go from here
Beth modifies the assembly line to automate some of her job, which is definitely not allowed. When a supervisor sees this, her boyfriend Gunther steps up and takes the blame. But, instead of getting in trouble, he gets promoted. Now, he’s Beth’s boss and he doesn’t know what he’s doing. Needless to say, this puts a bit of a strain on their relationship.
Meanwhile, Sonny begrudgingly rises through the ranks of the black market as Dino keeps arresting people higher up than him in the crime syndicate, which forces Sonny into a leadership position that he definitely does not want. Eventually, Dino discovers that the very thing he thought was the biggest threat to his family’s safety is led by Sonny, which creates a “Breaking Bad” Hank-Walt dynamic but with a father-son element.
If that wasn’t enough for Dino to handle, his past comes back to haunt him on one of his weekly visits to check in on the Piss Ant, when he runs into his ex-wife who was fired from the company years ago and has since become the "Furiosa" of the Unemployment Zone. As Dino is forced to confront feelings he thought he'd successfully bottled up for good, things get even more complicated when he learns that she and her many followers are planning a rebellion.
At the elementary school, Melanie’s assistant-teacher robot complains to Principal Jeffries that she treats it like a machine, so, to humor it, Principal Jeffries lets it be head teacher for a day. Unfortunately, this is the day that the education commission decides to audit the class, and they love how efficient the robot is, so they make the role reversal permanent. In response, Melanie starts a campaign to get the robot fired or “remotely decommissioned.”
To sum it all up...
As the show progresses, we'll see the cracks forming in the foundation of this capitalist "utopia" through the eyes of this family, who, each in their own way, unwittingly accelerate its downfall – whether it’s Dino accidentally fueling the fire of an unemployment zone rebellion, Gunther’s ineptitude wreaking havoc from within the corporate structure, Sonny’s drug ring, Beth’s automation causing mass layoffs, Hershel’s harmless mischief having less harmless results, or Melanie accidentally inciting a robot uprising.
Basically, it’s all going to come crashing down, and, to us, that feels like a satisfying outcome for a society that makes it very clear that your identity, your self-worth, and even your health care are tied to your job.
For some reason, we think the audience will be able to relate to that.
