Emmy Catch-Up: Scenes from a Marriage (Series Finale)

Scenes from a Marriage: Season 1, Episode 5 “In the Middle of the Night, in a Dark House, Somewhere in the World” (B)

Once again, we tese two people coming back together to rehash many of their old problems, albeit in a very different context. Returning to the home they used to own which is now being rented on Airbnb was a jolting move, one that makes you consider whether or not that kind of thing happens in real life, with previous owners coming back to places they used to live and know where secret doors or vulnerabilities might be. The intentions of this once-and-future couple weren’t quite as nefarious, at least not towards the house, though their relationship continues to be toxic since they’re never on the same page about exactly what they want. Jonathan expressed a sentiment to his mother that she didn’t welcome after his father died, one that felt much more like Mira’s sense of relief at no longer having to be with Jonathan since they didn’t have the same expectations about what their partnership should be. Tovah Feldshuh’s Miryam wasn’t at all pleased with that question, yet Jonathan wasn’t startled enough by her negative response to do anything differently. The emphasis on Jewish traditions and interpreting them differently came up once again, with Mira reappropriating the mourning process of shiva as something to acknowledge the death of their marriage. This has been an interesting experiment, but having actors Oscar and Jessica walk back to their dressing rooms at the end of the episode as themselves made it feel a bit too staged. Perhaps a more expansive universe with other characters in it like the first episode might have made it slightly more impactful.

Series grade: B
Series MVPs: Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain

Emmy Catch-Up: Scenes from a Marriage (Penultimate Episode)

Scenes from a Marriage: Season 1, Episode 4 “The Illiterates” (B+)

I had heard of this episode since it received writing and directing nominations at the Hollywood Critics Association TV Awards, which I was fortunate enough to attend and where Oscar Isaac took home an award for his performance. It started from a place where things seemed like they were okay, and Jonathan was alright with moving somewhere else and preparing for the next stage of their relationship. But, as with any big move like this, there are bound to be last-minute jitters, or, in Mira’s case, the implosion of the reliable elements in her life that force her to reconsider what’s actually important. Jonathan wasn’t happy to discover that since he’s spent so long moving on from Mira and realizing what he needs to take care of himself. Mira, in turn, was very hurt that he was so interested in having another child but hadn’t even considered having one with her. That it was one of the reasons that her relationship with Poli imploded surely didn’t help, but there’s so much baggage that these two carry around and then wield to hurt each other. Jonathan talked about another Jewish concept, the gett, a divorce document that bears a great deal of significance and in some cases involves a long process of withholding from a husband not eager to let his wife go even if he has no interest in being with her. That feels in some way like what Mira is doing here, though she would certainly offer a different perspective about how Jonathan’s neuroses play into the agony of always having to come back to him. I don’t know whether to expect any resolution in the finale or just more underlining of misery.

Emmy Catch-Up: Scenes from a Marriage

Scenes from a Marriage: Season 1, Episode 3 “The Vale of Tears” (B)

This episode started from a very different point, with Jonathan seemingly much more at peace with what was going on, apparently reconnecting with some Jewish traditions that Mira wasn’t too fond of when they were together. They felt much more like good friends catching up, and I think the dynamics of a relationship can help guide a conversation since different people talk to each other in different ways. But this one took a similar path to the one featured in the previous episode when Mira dropped another bombshell, indicating that she had a work opportunity in London and thought it was reasonable, which maybe it was, to ask Jonathan to uproot his life and move there with Ava. The idea that her company would pay for his apartment somehow made it worse for him since he felt extraneous, but there was also the added dimension of her not staying with Poli but still not wanting to get back together with Jonathan. Pushing him to read his morning pages was a way to get close to him, and he quickly stopped himself from jumping into having sex with her since he knew it wasn’t going to be good for him. But playing Poli’s voicemail showed that he knew she might be there to rekindle things, and Ava waking up to ask for Poli to make her pancakes only further demonstrated just how complicated this situation has become. Presumably, it will be a while before we see the next scene and things won’t have gotten any simpler.

Emmy Catch-Up: Scenes from a Marriage

Scenes from a Marriage: Season 1, Episode 2 “Poli” (B)

I remember watching the first episode of this show back when it aired in September as the Toronto International Film Festival was in full swing, and I likely would have kept watching it if I had known that the whole thing was only five episodes long. The show did not earn a very warm Emmy reception, with Oscar Isaac earning the show’s only bid and last year’s Emmy winner Jessica Chastain snubbed. I do think they’re both very good, and this is certainly a formidable showcase given that it’s just the two of them talking to each other for the entire hour. Whereas the first episode, which I of course watched close to a year ago, also featured Nicole Beharie and Corey Stoll, this one was just a two-hander, with Jonathan sitting down to dinner with headphones in not expecting Mira to come home and tell him that she was leaving for three months. It’s interesting to get this window into their relationship from this extended scene, and it does feel like there’s some context missing which is always the case in any conversation. Given this show’s title, I imagine that the next episode, which marks the midpoint of this show, will take place a few months later when the two of them once again reunite, and things will surely be much different from they were on this transformative night. We’ll see how living in Tel Aviv with someone else changes Mira and whether it means she’s still happy in the life she thinks she wants.

Pilot Review: Scenes from a Marriage

Check out my one-minute take on every new pilot, which is embedded below and you can also watch by subscribing to movieswithabe on YouTube.

Take Three: I Love Dick

I Love Dick: Season 1, Episode 3 “Scenes from a Marriage” (C-)

I do not love this show. In fact, I really despise it. I had such high hopes for star Kathryn Hahn and her admiring director Jill Soloway, but this show just makes me angry. It’s a mess, first of all, and it’s completely unappealing beyond that. It didn’t take long at all for Chris’ deeply explicit love letters to Dick to get to him, mainly because she dropped them off for him to review, and predictably Sylvere got very angry about it. The whole relationship dynamic between Sylvere and Chris is already very all over the place, and adding his attempt to control her before punctuating it with his actual desire to be controlled by her, as forcefully demonstrated by the episode’s closing scene, only further complicates things. If there was some sort of catharsis or meaning that came from all this, that would be great, but Dick is also a relentlessly boring figure. Devon is so fascinated by everything that Chris has written that she’s essentially living her life through her, and she didn’t even blink at the idea of having been fired because she let her friends be too rowdy in a space that wasn’t hers to disrupt. I don’t feel that this show is going anywhere, and I’m fairly certain that its title is controversial enough that it isn’t likely to pick up a good deal of awards attention for fear of having to print this show’s name anywhere. As a result, I don’t feel any regret giving it up, and I hope to forget about it soon and enjoy the next season of “Transparent” instead.