Page 4 - TVTIMES.2.3.2019

4 March 3 - 9, 2019 cover story
By Joy Doonan
TV Media
Showrunner Jenna Bans has been praised for her forthright por- trayal of fed up, angry women in “Good Girls.” Bans came up with the idea for the NBC dramedy during the 2016 U.S. election, and she wanted to capture the pervasive sense of injustice that many people seemed to be feeling. The producer and writer, whose previous credits include “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Scandal” and “The Family,” recalls in an interview with The Lily that she told her mother she “wanted to write something
that was fun and entertaining, but also empowering, and speak to those women out there who feel like they’ve been backed into a corner.”
With three lead actresses who deliver both a tight-knit on-screen relationship and the steely determination neces- sary for their characters, Bans has ac- complished just that.An unapologetic comedy about three downtrodden mothers who take their fates into their own hands, the show has been declared timely and authentic by many critics.A year after “Good Girls” first premiered, its anxiously anticipated second arrives this week, picking up where season 1 left us hanging.The first episode of sea- son 2 airs Sunday, March 3, on NBC.
Calling the shots
Criminal suburban moms are back in season 2 of ‘Good Girls’
El Dorado News-Times
seen entering her house to find that disgruntled crime boss, Rio (Manny Montana, “Graceland”), has beaten her husband. He gives Beth a gun and tells her that if she wants to be the hardened criminal that she’s been pretending to be lately, she has to shoot either Rio himself, or Dean.
“Good Girls” has consistently de- livered fierce wit, bingeable intrigue and righteous female fury. Don’t miss the keenly anticipated premiere of season 2 when it airs Sunday, March 3, on NBC.
The titular “good girls” are three earnest working moms who are at the ends of their ropes, struggling with financial strain and a host
of personal troubles. Beth Boland (Christina Hendricks, “Mad Men”) has mentally checked out of her marriage to cheating husband Dean (Matthew Lillard, “Scream,” 1996). Dean, meanwhile, has led their fam- ily into debt that leaves them on the verge of losing their house. Beth’s sister, Annie (Mae Whitman, “Parent- hood”), is a single mom struggling to make ends meet for her 11-year-old daughter, while being sued for custo- dy by her ex. Their close friend, Ruby (Retta, “Parks and Recreation”), is
a chronically mistreated waitress desperate for the funds to treat her young daughter’s kidney disease.
At their wits’ end, the women decide that being law-abiding sub- urban moms is not working out for them, and realize that no one can dig them out of their respective holes but themselves. They plot to rob the supermarket where Annie works,
but when they end up with far more money than they anticipated, they find themselves in the middle of a money-laundering operation run by local gangsters.
Though the raucous intrigue of the plot is enough to suck you into a TV
binge fest, “Good Girls” is more than just a heist comedy. The characters make conscious decisions to break away from their old lives, and they let everyone in their paths know that they will no longer be taken advan- tage of. When Annie’s boss figures out that she was one of the robbers and attempts to blackmail her into sexual favors, for instance, he ends up hogtied in the treehouse in Beth’s yard. When an entitled teenage boy injures himself at Ruby’s work and tries to coerce a degrading apology from her, she instead gives him a piece of her mind and promptly quits.
These are three thoroughly ordinary women who, faced with mounting abuse, decide they would rather join the criminal underbelly
of their suburban world than remain on its surface with the odds eternally stacked against them. In an interview with Variety, Hendricks said that
it’s important to her that the show resonates with the cultural mood surrounding the #MeToo movement. “It’s not preachy,” she noted, “it’s understanding and accepting, and still ... in complete support of how people are feeling right now.”
The humor of the show walks the line between being cynical when the situation calls for it, but also making light of disastrous hijinx. Hendricks also told Variety that the cast is re- lieved by the moments of laughter
on set, because most of the time, everyone is tense from the stress of their characters’ high-stakes predica- ments.
“Good Girls” has a sharp wit that breathes life and authenticity into its characters: Annie cracks sarcastic comments as the women blunder their way through a plan to pay $500,000 back to a street gang, and Beth pours a dram of whiskey into a sippy cup. These are moments that make their unrealistic circumstances just a little bit relatable.
Bans says that the upcoming season will pick up fluidly
from where the first one
left off, which is cause
for excitement for the show’s fans, who are still reeling from
the dramatic season finale cliffhanger. Beth was last
Mae Whitman as seen in “Good Girls”
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