[7.4/10] This one doesn’t hit as hard as the series premiere did. The points seem blunter and more didactic. The new characters (or at least more-robustly explored characters) don’t feel as lived in as Blanchett’s Schlafly. And there’s a touch more period piece/origin story contrivedness, where you can feel the show’s writers and producers bending the messy twists of history into a neat storytelling package.
But there’s still plenty of good stuff here. I’ll admit, I don’t love Bryne’s performance as Gloria Steinem here -- it’s a little more affected (maybe it’s just the accent) and a little less naturalistic than I generally prefer. That’s arguably something you can accuse both Blanchet and Margo Martindale as well here. But the former makes sense as Schlafly tries to maintain a certain Mid-Atlantic gentility, and the latter works because despite Martindale’s own shaky accent here, her natural charisma shines through.
The take on Steinem here is interesting though. There’s an interesting divide that the episode is occasionally too heavy handed about, but which still rings true. Phyllis is the one thinking of the professional opportunities she never had, the ability to become a lawyer, or a congresswoman, or someone with successes outside of the home, despite her fight to (nominally at least) protect homemakers.
Meanwhile, Gloria is on the forefront of the women’s liberation movement, is unmarried and has never had children, and yet in her own way, seems to be mourning her “original dream” just a little bit. I don’t think either would trade her life for the other’s but at the same time, the show does draw a connection between them, that each wants at least a little of what the other has.
And it also redoubles both of their resolve to continue fighting what each views as the good fight. Schlalfy wants to prove those Illinois state legislators wrong, the ones who demeaned her for not knowing what she was talking about and the Phil Donahues who fact check her backstage. She wants to show that even though she is a homemaker, her opinions are valid and she can lead and organize and argue with the best of them.
Meanwhile, Gloria wants to fight for her cause, one that affects her personally, whether it’s politically convenient or the “the right time” or not. Again, the show gildls the lily a bit too much for my tastes between the flashback and the chance meeting with a magazine-toting admirer at Gloria’s building, but I like the idea that abortion and bodily autonomy are issues that have affected her persoanlly, and she’s going to pursue them on behalf of people who haven’t been as lucky or as supported or able to get out Toledo like she was.
There’s also an interesting theme in the episode about how women’s progress can be stalled by others setting them against one another. Once more, the episode is a little on the nose as Gloria practically declares it on the flight to Washington, but it’s a consistent motif in the episode. This is a show about the ERA ratification fight, so there’s alway going to be a story of one group of women fighting against another, which we see most clearly in the Illinois ratification fight that makes up the spine of the episode.
But at the same time, we see the sparks fly between Steinem and Betty Friedan, particularly when those flames are stoked by the press. We see general infighting among the women’s liberation movement as to what direction they should move in, what topics should be prioritized, and who should lead them. We see the aforementioned female representatives in Illinois tearing down Phyllis after their defeat. And we even see Eleanor, presumably still stinging from how her DAR club meeting was commandeered by Phyllis’s machinations, tweaking her sister-in-law that the loss was due to a political snarl out of Chicago rather than anything that Phyllis herself idd.
It’s a stretch, but maybe the point here is that there’s more that connects these women than they think, and yet the fight for the tiny sliver of power a male-dominated society allows them to have leads them to elbow one another, across the aisle and within it, to get a hold of it. At first I thought this might have been a story of two different sides with different approaches. The anti-ERA crowd gets behind Phyllis because she maneuvers her way into that position and drives the movement as a clear leader. At the same time, the women’s libbers don’t want to emulate their masculine counterparts and so have more of a coalition, where different ideas are allowed to be heard, but where there’s also clashes and stepped-on toes which hinder their ability to organize as a unified whole.
And yet, there’s plenty of moments that suggest dissension in the ranks on both sides, cracks in each facade, and also connections. The show definitely contrasts scenes of Schlafly with her husband and Steinem with her boyfriend, noting important differences but also similarities, little nudges and recognizable relationship sticking points, as both eventually have the same television show on in the background of their very different homes. “Gloria” is an episode that wants to mark what sets its title character character apart from her anti-ERA counterpart, but also to show the unlikely places where they align, and how the divisions between them and their allies pose similar threats to what each wants to accomplish.
(As an aside, I’m still enjoying the cinematography and costuming and especially the needle-drops here. Also, post-Gilmore Girls, it’s hard not to look at these DAR meetings a little differently!)
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2020-05-16T21:43:33Z
[7.4/10] This one doesn’t hit as hard as the series premiere did. The points seem blunter and more didactic. The new characters (or at least more-robustly explored characters) don’t feel as lived in as Blanchett’s Schlafly. And there’s a touch more period piece/origin story contrivedness, where you can feel the show’s writers and producers bending the messy twists of history into a neat storytelling package.
But there’s still plenty of good stuff here. I’ll admit, I don’t love Bryne’s performance as Gloria Steinem here -- it’s a little more affected (maybe it’s just the accent) and a little less naturalistic than I generally prefer. That’s arguably something you can accuse both Blanchet and Margo Martindale as well here. But the former makes sense as Schlafly tries to maintain a certain Mid-Atlantic gentility, and the latter works because despite Martindale’s own shaky accent here, her natural charisma shines through.
The take on Steinem here is interesting though. There’s an interesting divide that the episode is occasionally too heavy handed about, but which still rings true. Phyllis is the one thinking of the professional opportunities she never had, the ability to become a lawyer, or a congresswoman, or someone with successes outside of the home, despite her fight to (nominally at least) protect homemakers.
Meanwhile, Gloria is on the forefront of the women’s liberation movement, is unmarried and has never had children, and yet in her own way, seems to be mourning her “original dream” just a little bit. I don’t think either would trade her life for the other’s but at the same time, the show does draw a connection between them, that each wants at least a little of what the other has.
And it also redoubles both of their resolve to continue fighting what each views as the good fight. Schlalfy wants to prove those Illinois state legislators wrong, the ones who demeaned her for not knowing what she was talking about and the Phil Donahues who fact check her backstage. She wants to show that even though she is a homemaker, her opinions are valid and she can lead and organize and argue with the best of them.
Meanwhile, Gloria wants to fight for her cause, one that affects her personally, whether it’s politically convenient or the “the right time” or not. Again, the show gildls the lily a bit too much for my tastes between the flashback and the chance meeting with a magazine-toting admirer at Gloria’s building, but I like the idea that abortion and bodily autonomy are issues that have affected her persoanlly, and she’s going to pursue them on behalf of people who haven’t been as lucky or as supported or able to get out Toledo like she was.
There’s also an interesting theme in the episode about how women’s progress can be stalled by others setting them against one another. Once more, the episode is a little on the nose as Gloria practically declares it on the flight to Washington, but it’s a consistent motif in the episode. This is a show about the ERA ratification fight, so there’s alway going to be a story of one group of women fighting against another, which we see most clearly in the Illinois ratification fight that makes up the spine of the episode.
But at the same time, we see the sparks fly between Steinem and Betty Friedan, particularly when those flames are stoked by the press. We see general infighting among the women’s liberation movement as to what direction they should move in, what topics should be prioritized, and who should lead them. We see the aforementioned female representatives in Illinois tearing down Phyllis after their defeat. And we even see Eleanor, presumably still stinging from how her DAR club meeting was commandeered by Phyllis’s machinations, tweaking her sister-in-law that the loss was due to a political snarl out of Chicago rather than anything that Phyllis herself idd.
It’s a stretch, but maybe the point here is that there’s more that connects these women than they think, and yet the fight for the tiny sliver of power a male-dominated society allows them to have leads them to elbow one another, across the aisle and within it, to get a hold of it. At first I thought this might have been a story of two different sides with different approaches. The anti-ERA crowd gets behind Phyllis because she maneuvers her way into that position and drives the movement as a clear leader. At the same time, the women’s libbers don’t want to emulate their masculine counterparts and so have more of a coalition, where different ideas are allowed to be heard, but where there’s also clashes and stepped-on toes which hinder their ability to organize as a unified whole.
And yet, there’s plenty of moments that suggest dissension in the ranks on both sides, cracks in each facade, and also connections. The show definitely contrasts scenes of Schlafly with her husband and Steinem with her boyfriend, noting important differences but also similarities, little nudges and recognizable relationship sticking points, as both eventually have the same television show on in the background of their very different homes. “Gloria” is an episode that wants to mark what sets its title character character apart from her anti-ERA counterpart, but also to show the unlikely places where they align, and how the divisions between them and their allies pose similar threats to what each wants to accomplish.
(As an aside, I’m still enjoying the cinematography and costuming and especially the needle-drops here. Also, post-Gilmore Girls, it’s hard not to look at these DAR meetings a little differently!)