Saw a tweet wondering why there aren’t more Mormon protagonists – lead characters - in mainstream fiction. Reminded me of something I wrote a couple years ago. Thus, a 20-tweet thread…./(1)

Take a look at the 2020 Golden Globes. The award for Lead Actress in a Comedy went to Fleabag star Phoebe Waller-Bridge and the Lead Actor in a Comedy went to Ramy's Ramy Youssef. Further, the 2018 Golden Globe for Best Actor went to Atlanta's Donald Glover./(2)

All three shows are similar. They're about late 20-something urban singles, trying to make it in a world that doesn't seem cut out for them. All three lead characters are extremely aware and hip, smarter than anyone in the room, but misunderstood and maligned at every turn./(3)

The protagonist in Fleabag is a disappointing younger sister who can't please her parents, can't hold onto a man, struggles financially, and lost her best friend to suicide due largely to a situation she caused. Yet, she is a character you cheer for, and also empathize with./(4)

Ramy is a backsliding Muslim in New Jersey who can't please his parents (he doesn't want to marry), hates his racist Muslim uncle who he has to work for, and struggles with the idea that religion should be central in his life./(5)

Ramy is a walking contradiction. He sleeps around, takes drugs but DOESN'T drink because it's against his religion. He gets laid-off and winds up in his old bedroom at his parents house, trying to figure everything out./(6)

Earn (Atlanta) is a down-and-out black man in the projects, who once had a scholarship to a great college but lost it. He dreams big, wants to be a music producer, but is broke and struggling to co-raise a child with an ex-girlfriend. He's capable and brilliant, but stuck./(7)

All three are stellar shows. Particularly the first seasons of each, all award-winning, sensational TV. All three shows are also TV-MA, completely profane, with nudity, drug-use, etc.... /(8)

Particular to Ramy- Most orthodox Muslims wouldn't watch that show - and the show isn't really made for them. It's made for the rest of the world to have a lens into that culture and environment - the northern New Jersey Muslim culture./(9)

The adult material in Ramy is really strong. But the show is lights-out fantastic in its portrayal of the American Muslim culture and the Millennial generation within it, trying to find its way through both their religion and urban American culture./(10)

Thus, I ask: What of a show/novel portraying a Latter-day Saint in a similar environment as Ramy, Earn, or the protagonist in Fleabag?/(11)

A 20-something Mormon struggling to make it, trying to please his/her orthodox LDS parents who he/she loves but doesn't agree with, at the same time breaking every commandment out there as he/she strives to forge a path. Sometimes feeling guilty about it, sometimes not?/(12)

Unflinchingly TV-MA, showing everything that someone in these types of situations faces each day - language, sex, drugs, violence, religious hypocrisy, etc..../(13)

Statistically, there are tens of thousands (+) of these 20-something Mormons out there today, right now, living such a life. What about a TV-MA show (or novel) about them?/(14)

The show would not be made for orthodox Latter-day Saints. Indeed, it would probably be roundly criticized by them. But the show wouldn't even try to 'hook' that audience. It would be for everyone else, particularly American millennials who have no idea about our church./(15)

Much of the mainstream see us as sticks in the mud, hide-bound to a stupid religion. Why not light a tailored torch for them, letting them see what we see everyday on social media..../(16)

Which is - Mormons, particularly young Mormons, struggling with the gospel, trying to figure it out, backsliding, misunderstood and maligned, often giving up and/or coming back, only to give up/come back again..../(17)

It could be fantastic. Done well, I think it'd break down barriers between the LDS community and regular society, open us up for more realistic scrutiny ('we are more like you than you think") & could even serve a missionary tool. It could also be fantastic entertainment./(18)

It would need heavy involvement from a team of LDS writers, to portray it accurately (Ramy Youssef basically writes out his life story in Ramy....). The setting? How about suburban L.A. - where the church clashes w/ the world more than just about anywhere?/(19)

Imagine- an LDS actor or writer(s) winning awards/acclaim for a TV-MA show (or novel) centered on the struggles within our culture, helping the world understand us better, and stand up & cheer. You want mainstream LDS protagonists? Well, here's a solid way forward.

Thanks./END.