Mrs. America

Sophisticated look at multiple perspectives on women's rights. Still relevant today.

In most political tv-dramas ala West Wing there are the good sympathetic side, the pragmatic middle-ground and the evil/greedy/malicious adversaries. Not here. You will at times feel sympathy for both Cate Blanchetts complex portrayal of Shaftlys campaign against the women's liberation movement and disgust at the Pro-ERA proponents that ignore, undermine and fragment themselves in the fight for true equality between the sexes. The conversations are realistic "-Have you read Xs new unamed book? -No. I hear it is boring. -She is always a bore -". Events that we tend to think were front and center in the 70s are not dominating the narrative. Watergate, Vietnam and hippies are not shown to be the centre of the world like in Forrest Gump, rather they are mentioned briefly in passing conversations. Things that were way more discussed then but nearly forgotten today, like SALT and the awkward situation with the political parties in mid-shift is prominent. The conservatives and liberals are not synonyms to the respective parties. We meet the progressive republicans and the chauvinistic democrats. Kudos for showing that. Roe vs Wade is not shown to be the giant battle we think it was today, but rather we are treated to the more bipartisan support it enjoyed. ERA is not shown to be a life or death struggle with a small group of women standing up for it, rather a manifestation of a beginning culture war. There are no heroes, no easy answers or giant victories. This could have been a Wicked witch Shcaffly vs Saint Steinem series. It is not. We see Steinem avoiding picking sides, pedantic infighting, racial unspoken tension, the emergence of lgbtq-struggle, a wide range of christian views from the new evangelicals to the practical pragmatic Catholic mother who shield her gay son in Scafflys case. I love it. Because it does not try to dumb a complicated era down, rather we are shown an era were having a mailing list of 30 000 people was considered a major political asset... and where by-then-standard progressive women still considered it their duty to drive the daughters to tennis-lessons so their husbands could succeed... Where married women debating without their husbands present on television was strange. I am captivated( and also a man), in a way I have not been since Rome was premiering on HBO.

I was born a decade after the events in this series, but knew some of the this and that of the era. Of course, artistic licensing is taken here and historical accuracy is not its point, but what's been created is very engaging and entertaining (thank goodness).

The miniseries draws you in with the writing and the story, and with the likes of Cate Blanchett, Rose Byrne, Sarah Paulson, Jeanne Tripplehorne, Uzo Abudo and the rest of the fantastic supporting cast, you just don't want to shut it off.

Blanchett, of course, knocks it out of the park with her acting, with every thought and emotion written all over her face, while Byrne manages to steal our hearts so we cheer her on, whatever she chooses to do throughout the series. I binged watch this into the early morning hours and can't wait for the remaining episodes to drop!

To be fair, I knew the draw here was its star power and didn't expect much else from the miniseries, but I'm happy to admit I was wrong.

As a woman who is old enough to remember the events in this series, I can say most of it is true. And as a New Yorker, it brings back memories. Despite a few reviewers who claim this is a 'disgusting' and false portrayal of the early 70s women's movement, sorry, they are wrong. And if they look at Wikipedia's entry of Phyllis Schlafly, they will learn. This is a very entertaining and important series, don't miss it.

The writing, the acting, the cinematography, the soundtrack, the costumes...... all are of such incredible quality that it was hard not to binge watch the whole series in one go. I had to limit myself to 2 episodes per viewing so I could fully appreciate the context, the storylines, the historical unfolding of two very real and very opposed ideologies that run so deep in America.

Absolutely fantastic viewing.