Pilot Review: American Woman


American Woman (Thursdays at 10:00 on Paramount; Premieres June 7)

If you're a lover of trashy TV, as I am, then you've probably already heard about American Woman quite a bit. It's the show Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards has been producing for what seems like 30 years now (it was announced in summer of 2015, ordered by TV Land in late 2016, and filmed over a year ago in spring/summer 2017, all of which amounts to three seasons' worth of mentions on RHOBH). It's the show all the ladies gathered to watch in the most recent season finale; it's the show that has famously caused a rift between Richards and her sisters, actress Kim Richards and socialite Kathy Hilton, because the protagonist is loosely based on Richards' late mother.

Now, if you're a lover of trashy TV, as I am, then you're probably salivating waiting to tune into American Woman, chomping at the bit to see just what was so salacious or nasty or offensive about the on-screen portrayal of Kathleen Richards that it could have caused a family to break apart. And once you see American Woman, you will have no answers and be left wondering exactly what Kim and Kathy could have possibly taken issue with.

It's the 1970s! Lots of women are married to scumbags and are stressed about having to maintain perfect figures, raise well-adjusted children, and still find time to go shopping and make old-fashioneds for their workaholic, emotionally abusive husbands. At least, that's what's happening with Bonnie Nolan (Alicia Silverstone, in her first regular TV gig since the failed Miss Match fifteen years ago). Her sister Kathleen (Mena Suvari) is surviving on diet pills and orgasms, courtesy of her closeted new boyfriend and investment partner Greg (American Horror Story's Cheyenne Jackson); and her friend Diana (Jennifer Bartels) is perpetually single, but they provide a necessary relief from the realities of wifedom and motherhood. Soon Bonnie discovers her husband (Revenge's James Tupper) is cheating on her, so she kicks him out of the house... only to be confronted with the realities of being a wife and mother with no income or job skills.

It sounds like a setup for a comedy, right? You can see how a broadcast sitcom might mine the 70s setting for laughs, putting Bonnie in ridiculous situations where she needs to buy something but has no money, or needs to apply for jobs she's unqualified for. You can probably picture some semi-homophobic jokes about Greg's masculinity and propensity for pool boys; you can probably think of a few B-stories about Diana trying to find Mr. Right in a world of misogynistic dogs. It could work! It could be funny!

But American Woman isn't that show. Though only a half-hour, it's more drama than comedy (though I found myself laughing unintentionally and 100% at, rather than with, the show when Bonnie packs her young daughters in the car to go catch daddy in the act of sexual infidelity) and the plot threads introduced don't promise much in the way of laughter. The official description of the show even mentions Bonnie subscribing to second-wave feminism (though there's no mention in the pilot), which wasn't exactly a period of joviality. Much of the "comedy" in the pilot comes from laughing at the stupidity of Suvari's Kathy for not realizing her boyfriend is not only gay but hustling her for money to start his own casting agency... which is to say, there's really not much comedy here yet.

Silverstone brings an earthiness to Bonnie that will work well once she's living the single, feminist life, but she feels weirdly out of place in the pilot. Part of that is the fault of the writing (creator John Riggi wrote the pilot but later departed the series), since Bonnie isn't a particularly funny character in a funny situation. She's actually quite dull. There's none of the expected "momager" antics (and barely a mention that the daughters, representing Kim and Kyle, are actors); there's nothing that paints Bonnie as anything other than a saintly do-gooder whose under attack from her own husband and the circumstances of the time period. Bonnie tries to stop Kathy from investing in Greg's business; she encourages Diana; she treats her husband well, greeting him each night at the door with a drink and a kiss and having sex with him whenever he desires. She's the ideal 1970s housewife, friend, and mom.

Which brings me back to my question of what the hell Kim Richards and Kathy Hilton could possibly find offensive enough in American Woman to stop speaking to their sister. Is it simply that it exists, that enough of their lives are already tabloid fodder and public knowledge that the memory of their mother should remain solely theirs? Maybe. I don't know. It's certainly not that Kathleen Richards is portrayed negatively or harshly or vulgarly. Nothing about American Woman raises such strong feelings.

Maybe that's it, then. Kyle managed to make their mother boring and ordinary, when the Richards' collective memories made her so much more.

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