THREAD If we allow ourselves to accept the concept of the Shoe People (1987-92), a show about sentient shoes living in Shoe Town, then we also must accept the overwhelming grief layered within. This is a town united in loss. Each shoe a surviving single of a once inseparable pair 
Initially a quirky, cheerful idea. What we are actually looking at is a mishmash of citizens who are thrown together, trying to pick up their lives after, we assume, their other, their sole mate if you will, has been plucked away from them.
This leaves a town of shoes striving to understand who they are. Living in the aftermath of a predeterministic fate, whereby the type of show they were born as, dictated their very personality.
A clown shoe becomes a clown.
A balerina shoe, a balerina.
A military boot, an uptight ex officer who's only way of coping with the loss of their other (presumably in combat) is through order and repression.
And let's not even look into the now problematic Trampy.
A balerina shoe, a balerina.
A military boot, an uptight ex officer who's only way of coping with the loss of their other (presumably in combat) is through order and repression.
And let's not even look into the now problematic Trampy.
Sure, we're told shoe town is in the back of a shoe menders shop and that he can't bare to throw these shoes away after they are not collected or irreparable. But this then suggests that humanity, in this world, is god. And it is for them to bestow death upon a shoe.
This god is empathetic but weak. Unable to make the hard decision and ultimately the easier option is inaction and abandonment.
So now what do we have. A town of sentient shoes, optimistic in a second life they never chose, struggling to keep a semblance of their former identities, whilst assumably in a state of pain and loss, abandoned by god. It's a Frankenstein town, that I admit is not without hope.
The reticence of their fate is optimistic. Instead of barrelling into depression they come together to allow each other to live out their lives with their former personalities. The police shoe still policing. The Wellington boot still splashing. All in a state of modest comfort.
So finally, we look at Shoe Town not as the quirky mishmash home of these shoes, but as a beacon of resilience against the darkest corners of life. Where shoes of all types come together and make the best of a situation they never chose.
The Shoe People are you and I my friends. The You and I we never want to experience. The people whose lives have been turned upside down. But they are strong in their collective hurt and we must look to them and smile for they are the bravest shoes that ever lived.
