Scenes From a Real Marriage
Michelle Krusiec Scott Rodgers Dana L. Wilson
Watch the Sizzle Reel
Scenes From a Real Marriage is an all too real and thorny exploration of one couple’s attempt to reconnect emotionally and sexually after having children. Truthful and funny, Marissa and Mark remind us how much work it takes to keep love alive.
This six part digital short series (two have been completed) is about Marissa and Mark, an interracial couple with young children, currently struggling with sexual and emotional intimacy. Marissa doesn’t feel seen by her husband. Mark perceives Marissa as a naturally shut down woman. Invisible and disconnected, they awkwardly dance towards connection, one stumble at a time.
Director Statement
When I watch marriage depicted on most shows, I’m generally left feeling that many stories are simply not diving deeply into the issue of marriage and intimacy. No one wants to watch a bad marriage, I get that, but everyone who’s in a marriage can relate to the challenges of being married to the same person every day for potentially the rest of one’s life. It’s not easy. And the person who should be the closest to you can sometimes feel like the person farthest away or…so it seems. I’ve always been attracted to writing funny but honest material. Perhaps it’s the experience I relate to the most, being uncomfortable in life.
I wrote Scenes From a Real Marriage initially as a comedic response to all of the sex scenes not being depicted between husbands and wives. It was my own comedic sensibility of just how far away marital sex can be from twenty something sex. And then I noticed that sex scenes and intimacy, in general, weren’t realistic or honest in fact, in depicting a woman’s point of view in marriage, motherhood and midlife. Having been in a working marriage that has endured the ups and downs of life, I wanted to make a narrative about the nuances and intricacies of making a relationship work. Throw in new parenting and you have a blizzard of emotions and surprises. True connection isn’t what my twenty something self envisioned it to be: it takes work and Mark and Marissa want to succeed.
I wrote Marissa as an homage to the women who use their resilience like fortresses to keep them afloat and Mark for all the men who are darkly complex and express their masculinity in ways that feel strangely familiar to all of us. They are both wounded and human, looking to turn towards one another. If only they could see each other, they’d realize they’re both after the same goals.
—Michelle Krusiec, Writer/Director
