If you’ve watched “Unbelievable,” let’s chat. If you haven’t, skip this piece (and go watch the show!) ....
*This work can inspire reverence because it’s so well-done, and because the subject is so serious. But a project I also enjoy is seeing the piece as an actual object, something man-made; it’s fun to consider the gears spinning beneath the surface.
One thing that makes the story satisfying is the substantial change we see over time. Obviously, Dever’s character has several watershed moments. She suffers like Job; she is powerless, inarticulate; and yet, ultimately, she wins justice and becomes a badass. (Maybe *too* much of a badass to keep things plausible; there’s a “fan service” quality to her final scenes in the show.)
I also like the changes the other protagonists go through. Toni Collette is brassy and ambitious, and she makes a show of rejecting Merrit Weaver’s tenderness--but maybe Weaver actually has rubbed off on Collette, because we see Collette (quietly) allowing Weaver to take major credit for the team effort. And Weaver does seem to hear Collette when Collette says, “Lighten up”; we watch Weaver relaxing, and actually laughing, at a party toward the end of the show.
*My favorite moments are when the writers resist trite choices. In a different show, Collette/Weaver might have had a total victory--but this show makes a point of telling us that the two women do *not* get all of the information they want from their suspect.
Also, another show might have made the rapist charismatic and compelling and mysterious; this show, on the other hand, pays very little attention to the rapist, because he is banal. (Smart choice.) And I like the writers’ careful depictions of the small struggles of working life: being polite to people who enrage you, spending many hours on hold on the phone, photographing every single Mazda in your state so you can prove a certain set of markings is unique. Fascinating and unusual.
*This show gets therapy right. A savvy person--played by Brooke Smith--sits with Dever and tries to encourage Dever to talk. Dever won’t. “We can just run out the clock, right?”
Over time, Smith makes a smart choice. She says, with honesty, “I believe you were violated. I’m interested in hearing the story.”
And yet the tale isn’t forthcoming. It’s only after the two characters begin a bizarre and gripping chat about the movie “Zombieland”--yes, “Zombieland”--that we start to see Dever loosening up. Thoughts of evil and conflict--in the context of a zombie story--inevitably lead to a discussion of Dever’s actual situation. Therapy really works this way. I’ve seen it happen.
Those are my favorite moments. And yours? What a great gift this show was.
*This work can inspire reverence because it’s so well-done, and because the subject is so serious. But a project I also enjoy is seeing the piece as an actual object, something man-made; it’s fun to consider the gears spinning beneath the surface.
One thing that makes the story satisfying is the substantial change we see over time. Obviously, Dever’s character has several watershed moments. She suffers like Job; she is powerless, inarticulate; and yet, ultimately, she wins justice and becomes a badass. (Maybe *too* much of a badass to keep things plausible; there’s a “fan service” quality to her final scenes in the show.)
I also like the changes the other protagonists go through. Toni Collette is brassy and ambitious, and she makes a show of rejecting Merrit Weaver’s tenderness--but maybe Weaver actually has rubbed off on Collette, because we see Collette (quietly) allowing Weaver to take major credit for the team effort. And Weaver does seem to hear Collette when Collette says, “Lighten up”; we watch Weaver relaxing, and actually laughing, at a party toward the end of the show.
*My favorite moments are when the writers resist trite choices. In a different show, Collette/Weaver might have had a total victory--but this show makes a point of telling us that the two women do *not* get all of the information they want from their suspect.
Also, another show might have made the rapist charismatic and compelling and mysterious; this show, on the other hand, pays very little attention to the rapist, because he is banal. (Smart choice.) And I like the writers’ careful depictions of the small struggles of working life: being polite to people who enrage you, spending many hours on hold on the phone, photographing every single Mazda in your state so you can prove a certain set of markings is unique. Fascinating and unusual.
*This show gets therapy right. A savvy person--played by Brooke Smith--sits with Dever and tries to encourage Dever to talk. Dever won’t. “We can just run out the clock, right?”
Over time, Smith makes a smart choice. She says, with honesty, “I believe you were violated. I’m interested in hearing the story.”
And yet the tale isn’t forthcoming. It’s only after the two characters begin a bizarre and gripping chat about the movie “Zombieland”--yes, “Zombieland”--that we start to see Dever loosening up. Thoughts of evil and conflict--in the context of a zombie story--inevitably lead to a discussion of Dever’s actual situation. Therapy really works this way. I’ve seen it happen.
Those are my favorite moments. And yours? What a great gift this show was.
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