‘Good Girls’ good at being bad
“Good Girls” is pretty good, or, to put it another way, the show’s co-stars are pretty good at being pretty bad.
The new NBC comedy drama, premiering on Monday, Feb. 26, takes a thematic page from the “Weeds” playbook as it portrays three suburban women who are best friends, find themselves individually in financial straits, and decide to try a little larceny, which only gets them in deeper trouble than they ever imagined.
Beth (Christina Hendricks, “Mad Men”) thinks she’s happily married and financially comfortable. The fact that her husband Dean is played by Matthew Lillard should be a dead giveaway that she needs to think at least two other thoughts. Dean is a car dealer who’s been making more than goofy commercials with his bubbly blonde colleague.
Ruby (Retta, “Parks & Recreation”) is happily married to Stan (Reno Wilson, “Mike & Molly”) but their daughter, Sara, has medical challenges and the only way to avoid a kidney transplant is a medication whose monthly cost would be $10,000.
Annie (Mae Whitman, “Parenthood”) is divorced and trying to keep her ex (Zach Gilford, “Friday Night Lights”) from getting custody of their child, Sadie (Izzy Stannard, “Brad’s
Status”).
The three novices in crime team up to rob the grocery store where Annie works as a checker and is regularly hit on by her creepy boss, Boomer (David Hornsby, “How to be a Gentleman”). The robbery goes well.
Too well, as it turns out, and the three are soon in over their heads.
The show’s success owes primarily to the performances by the lead actors, who are so appealing that you might not remember they are actually committing crimes including theft, kidnapping, blackmail and transporting contraband across international borders. And that’s just in the first three episodes.
That’s one of the challenges the series faces in winning our loyalty, that the three “Good Girls” are doing illegal things. We can accept that Retta is trying to save her daughter’s life, and that Annie wants to retain sole custody of Sadie, who is going through gender identity issues. But what about Beth? Her motive is purely about vengeance on Dean and making sure she can afford to raise their kids. Is that enough to justify committing felonies?
The one thing that saves the moral scheme of things is that eventually, the women get involved with an actual criminal. With tattoos, no less. So no matter what they’ve done, at least they aren’t as bad as Rio (Manny Montana, “Lucifer”).
The question remains not whether Beth, Annie and Ruby are too good to be bad, but if they are good enough at being bad to keep viewers returning week after week.
Good question.