The Aussie American
Cate Blanchett crowned Mrs America
On stage and the silver screen, Cate Blanchett has been responsible for bringing to life some memorable characters. From Lord of the Rings’ Galadriel to Notes on a Scandal’s Sheba Hart and Thor: Ragnarok’s Hela, the Australian actor has impressed with her ability to convey emotion, determination and power with sometimes just a flick of an eyebrow or a flicker of a smile.
Now, like so many others of her generation, she’s made the switch to television with 1960/70s’ period drama Mrs America (now streaming on Neon with new episodes also debuting on Sundays, 8.30pm, SoHo2), delivering a doozy of a performance as the real-life Republican Party campaigner Phyllis Schlafly.
Author of four books on nuclear strategy, and mother to six children, Schlafly desperately wanted to get into politics. However, after two expensive, failed bids to get into Congress, even supportive husband Fred (John Slattery) is balking at her making another run. Likewise, while party officials are happy to tap into her expertise, as the only woman in top-level discussions, she’s expected to take the role of secretary in meetings.
But while her opinions on national security aren’t seen as a way of getting her elected, a suitably conservative view on women’s issues just might.
The rising feminist movement is urging the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the US Constitution, but there’s a growing fear among Schlafly’s socialite friends that it could threaten the traditional American family.
Attempting to spook others by suggesting it could lead to women being shipped out to Vietnam, and the end of alimony, Schlafly decides to launch the grassroots campaign around her theory that a sex-neutral society should be of bigger concern to the country than the Russians.
While Blanchett duly lights up the screen and dominates proceedings in the opening episode of showrunner Dahvi Waller’s (a writer on Mad Men and Desperate Housewives) drama, she’s just one member of a superb female acting ensemble, each of whom promises to get their own moment in the spotlight during the nine-episode run.
There’s Pitch Perfect’s Elizabeth Banks, Orange is the New Black’s Uzo Aduba, American Horror Story’s Sarah Paulson, British comedian Tracy Ullman and Australia’s Rose Byrne, who gets the plum role of controversial feminism campaigner Gloria Steinem. Also keep a look out for New Zealand’s Melanie Lynskey.
Filled with plenty of food for thought, fabulous costumes and production design, and plenty of choice dialogue soundbites (‘‘I didn’t get anywhere in this life waiting on someone’s permission’’), Mrs America offers compelling viewing.
Meanwhile, if you’re after a more contemporary and light-hearted look at the female condition, then buckle yourself in for Motherland (now streaming on Neon, with new episodes debuting on Thursdays at 9pm on SoHo2).
Now in its second season, this British look at the trials and traumas of middle-class motherhood might just be the funniest show now on television.
An acerbic answer to Australia’s House Husbands, it focuses on an eclectic group of parents who banter, clash and bond during the daily school run. There’s struggling PR executive Julia (Death Comes to Pemberley’s Anna Maxwell Martin), the chaotic and blunt Liz (After Life’s Diane Morgan), disastrous stay-at-home-dad Kevin (Mother FatherSon’s Paul Ready), and ‘‘Alpha Mum’’ Amanda (A Series of Unfortunate Events’ Lucy Punch).
Thanks to the brilliant writing quartet of Sharon Horgan (Catastrophe), Graham Linehan (Father Ted), Helen Linehan, and Holly Walsh, each perfectly calibrated episode is filled with hilarious hijinks, identifiable moments, and terrific quips (‘‘you know you’ve had a good night when you find crisps in your knickers’’).
Originally pitched as a US show in 2011 (a pilot, then titled Bad Mom, starring Jenna Elfman, Frances Conroy and Tom Everett Scott failed to get picked up), Motherland has now been retooled into must-see British TV.