Date of release: June 29, 2018 (Netflix)
written by: Rachel Shukert
directed by: Claire Scanlon
So this is the Harvey Weinstein-inspired episode everyone was talking about when this season premiered in the summer of 2018? It was the half-hour almost all of the reviews were talking about, it was the episode that depicted for the first time a fictionalized account of the #MeToo era. Its impressive status was not surprising, even if I happened to mouth a couple of “holy crap”s during the related scenes, despite the fact that maybe I should not have, since the story has been blown wide open in October 2017 and continues to be blown open wider ever since. There are still aspects of Hollywood’s abusive behavior that have not even been uncovered yet, so I am sitting here and waiting for this to blow up the business as well, because there has to be a point when all this crap is over and actors and crew members can just work and put on a great show, without having to be threatened and abused by studio executives behind closed doors or tyrannical assistant directors who think they have the control over their set, but fail to check a prop gun and miss that there is a bullet inside it which kills your cinematographer. Just think about the pedophile ring that is situated right in the heart of Hollywood, pulling its strings behind the scenes of Nickelodeon and Disney Channel shows, while you do not know about any of it. Everyone should know about it, and yet anyone who does continues to be quiet about it.
The argument between Ruth and Debbie at the end of the episode had two different characters from two different centuries in it, and concerning the narrative, I do not know what to think of it. Debbie is accepting the unwritten rules of Hollywood, and it might have been one of the ‘WTF’ moments of the episode, but her 1980s way of thinking versus Ruth’s decision not wanting to be a victim of power sounded like it was a confrontation written with the knowledge of how far the Weinstein story has opened the floodgates in 2017, instead of maybe putting the story into the 1980s for real, without putting the audience into the headspace of someone who has followed the breaking story of Weinstein’s abuses and anyone who followed in his footsteps. I do not know if this helped or hurt the episode, but it is certainly an important piece of television, even if the writers deliberately decided to keep the dark drama as short as possible. It happened during the final ten minutes of the episode, and before it happened, the characters went through other dramatic stuff. Guiding the viewer through less than a half hour of Weinstein-related events may have been not enough time.
 |
| This is not the kind of dance club Bash was expecting. |
I do not know if any actresses were thinking like Ruth in their times (I am talking about the 80s and earlier) and if any movies were put into turnaround because they did what Ruth did (walking out of a situation before it went further), or shows were canceled because they did what Ruth did. While I appreciated the info that some actresses swallowed the ordeal and accepted that this is what it takes to become a Hollywood star, Debbie was for me a little too much the representative of the 1980s thought process in that scene, only put into the narrative to showcase that having to face male executives like this is part of the Hollywood business, and you cannot get out of it without screwing up anyone else. Maybe it was the fact that Debbie still had a problem with Ruth’s decision to walk away that made it so weird for me (defined by Debbie’s general conflict with Ruth over her affair with Mark), but I also know that I do not know anything about the Hollywood business, and I cannot imagine what women had to go through before the twenty-first century to get to the top of the business they were working in. I also know that not everyone can be like Ruth. Or Annabella Sciorra. Or Rose McGowan. Or Evan Rachel Wood. Or Terry Crews. Or Brendan Fraser. Or Alex Winter.
I can only hope that this story was not just part of the show because the producers needed to have an episode resulting from the late-2017 Weinstein news, and it will be very much forgotten or left at the side of the street after this. Yes, with the wrestling show having been rescheduled into the middle of the night and being close to cancellation, chances are this will be a huge deal for the women when they find out (or just Ruth, who feels guilty for the show’s demise), but what I do not want is for Ruth to have a change of heart and humiliate herself in front of network brass, just so she can save the show. First of all, let’s not forget that Ruth already saved the show when she pretty much directed the pilot. The show should not exist because Ruth happened to be around every time something happened that almost canceled it. Not that I am advertising for one of the other women to get into Tom Grant’s pants (although I would be amused by Carmen going in and smashing the crap out of the guy – maybe Tamme too, considering Kia Stevens was a professional wrestler in real life), but yeah, maybe Sam should start speaking up. Maybe Bash should raise his voice.
 |
| This is what Hollywood looked like (and still looks like) behind closed doors. |
But I believe Bash has other problems. Not just keeping the money flow going, but also his sexuality, which was very much the hidden issue here. When he entered the gay club and felt like he did not belong there, I was hoping this would be the start of his coming-out story, but apparently, the writers were not ready for that just yet. The money question is generally an interesting story, since it adds another layer to the uncertain longevity of Bash and Sam’s TV production (rescheduled and close to cancellation by the network, and now they are losing sponsors as well), but I am more interested in the character arcs of the show, and there was definitely something there when I looked at Bash’s face, looking at all the men dancing around him, and later looking at all the wrestlers on his collage board. As if he has been fearing getting lost in this rabbit role because he knew that he might not come out of it again for whatever reason. Maybe the AIDS epidemic was somewhat in the news by this point already (and not considered an epidemic), which alienated Bash even more from his real feelings.
