Monday, March 11, 2019

Still Pretty Good: Good Girls Season 2 Review


One of the more intriguing series in 2018 was NBC’s Good Girls, a show that started with three strong female leads, not anti-heroines, but closer to the definition than we’ve seen anywhere, especially on network TV. The series focused around three of my favorite actresses: Christina Hendricks, Mae Whitman, and Retta, who, in a desperate need for money rob a supermarket that they find out too late is a front for a major drug kingpin. They spent much of Season 1 trying to toe the line between making money, and turning into outright criminals, while dodging the FBI, the Mexican drug lord, and their own spouses. It basically came to a head, when Beth (Hendricks) came home to find her husband tied up and the drug dealer who she’d just double crossed with a gun in his hand. He practically dared her to kill him, but she couldn’t pull the trigger. So he shot her husband instead – but didn’t kill him.
Things are not going much better for her reluctant partners in crime. Ruby’s husband Stan found out about what his wife and her friends were doing, and because he’s a cop, he basically told her to turn her friends in, and cut a deal. Annie is now dealing with the fact that her ex-husband has gotten his current wife pregnant. And all of them have to deal with the fact that Boomer, the truly repugnant manager of the shopping mart they robbed wants to get even with them, and is prepare to do anything to do so. In the last episode, Rio ordered them to kill him before he became a witness against them. The three of them confronted him but again, Beth couldn’t pull the trigger. They tried to buy him off and make him disappear. Boomer responded by using the money to put a deposit on his wedding (with a woman he’s basically blackmailed into marrying him) and using his own bad behavior to get someone to beat him up so that he could get put into federal custody. I’m actually rooting for him to get shot.
What separates these woman from Walter White or even Nancy Botwin is that they basically don’t seem to be taking any pleasure from their own illegal activities. Don’t get me wrong, Ruby basically told her husband in the last episode that she did what she had to in order to save their daughter, and Annie enjoys ripping off his husband’s current wife’s friends. But they still have a moral center that none of the other antiheroes ever had. In the season opener, Stan made it clear there was evidence in a locker that would implicate them in the robbery they committed. The three woman made an elaborate scheme to rob the evidence depot and blame it on the company, with Ruby proving as distraction. But just as they were about to get away with, they saw very clearly that there were rape kits in there. Walter White didn’t hesitate to destroy anything that might hurt hi. These woman were willing to go to prison themselves rather than let this happen. The fact that Stan eventually committed a crime to help his wife evade justice didn’t make what they did any less noble.
And in a world where so many series are fronted by either antiheroes or unpleasant characters, it is refreshing to have a series where three soccer moms who are actually closer to what Walter White thought he was than what he actually. And the three leads are among the best actresses working in television today, and their work is among the best they’ve ever done. (I should also give a shout out to Alison Tolman, another recent discovery who has a smaller role as a single mom who got roped in, and is now over her head in a different way.) These woman are appealing and who could be our neighbors. They may no longer be the Good Girls of the title, but they’re still trying to be, even if they may never get there again.
My score: 4.25 stars.

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