What I’m Watching: Divorce

Divorce: Season 1, Episode 9 “Another Party” (B+)

With all of the big end-of-year awards, this show picked up just one nomination, a Best Actress bid for four-time winner Sarah Jessica Parker at the Golden Globes. While she receives top billing in the show, costar Thomas Haden Church, who I didn’t like at all in the first episode, quickly improved and is now probably the show’s most entertaining component, yet he hasn’t received any recognition. I think most probably judged this show based on its pilot and didn’t give it more of a chance, something I do occasionally since I can’t possibly stick with every series after a mediocre or off-putting series premiere. What we’ve come to at this point is a point of entertaining discourse, with Frances fighting to get rid of the snake and Robert seeming like an appointment angel while all Frances knows is the many names of the Tooth Fairy. Frances’ experience trying to get involved in parent school activities was plentifully awkward, with her decision to confront Gillian Vigman’s Janice a particularly poor choice. Hiring a new lawyer at Max’s suggestion introduced us to Elaine Campbell, portrayed by J. Smith Cameron, who plays a totally different kind of person on “Rectify.” Unfortunately, her style is far more aggressive than Max’s, and serving Robert with divorce papers while he was in the middle of coaching a basketball game seems to have soured things considerably. It’s interesting to see that Robert’s business ideas might not be all bad, and Nick may even end up being an investor. Nick’s newfound happiness with Diane couldn’t have lasted forever, and their miserable interaction when she was obsessing about prolonging the toast was uncomfortable. The best part of the episode was the unexpected flirtation between Dallas and Tony, which ended miserably after some crazy sex when Tony couldn’t get over her having dropped a Tums under the seat in his car.