And today, let me throw Amazon’s 1960’s feminist work-a-day drama, Good Girls Revolt, in the ring for your consideration.
What Good Girls Revolt Is
1. A fictionalized period piece based on the not at all fictional book, The Good Girls Revolt, written by Lynn Povich, based on real-life events where Povich herself sued Newsweek to gain workplace rights against sex discrimination.
Let’s break that down. It’s FICTIONALIZED. It’s not a perfect period recreation. Events happen out of order of google-able timelines. The magazine where the characters work is News of the Week, fictional, obviously, and covering events and narratives that Newsweek never did.
But it’s still a PERIOD PIECE. Not as spot on as Mad Men, but still in the same vein, you’ll get immersed in the costumes, the mores, the music, the conversation and my god the SMOKING. So much smoking.
2. A feminist portrait of a few young women, with different backgrounds (the hippie, the trust fundie, the good girl) who unite for the common goal of being treated equally at work, specifically bucking up against an illegal system that refused to let women have bylines at their magazine.
Personally, I think it waters down the sexual discrimination that these women experienced. It isn’t until the latter few episodes that we see any of them experience overt sexual assault. And for 1969, the men that they work with tend to seem, while oblivious, fairly benign with regard to their status. Sure, the women literally work below them in “the pit,” but they are also constantly told how important they are, how they couldn’t do the work without them. “Great job!” is heard, like a lot.
So is it feminist? Yes. These women start the process to sue for equal rights. Is it accurate? Meh. In some ways it seems a little too rosy. But there is also the young wife who stands up to her husband and receives a back hand for it. The young daughter who can’t do right by her parents and is relegated to taking their money to get through her singlehood. But for all of them, I’m hoping the consequences of their complaint up end the system they’ve got going on in more ways than one.
3. A fun pick for your next binge watch. There are AMAZINGLY fun to scrutinize costumes that you will remember your mother having in her closet but never wearing. There are some incredibly hot sex scenes featuring Hunter Parrish and even Christ Diamantopoulos, better known as Brian the Boom Mic Guy.
There’s great music, sweet love stories, complicated female friendships, and high stakes. It doesn’t matter how different the women in it are, you are rooting for all of them. Plus I loved being introduced to actresses I hadn’t seen before. Genevieve Angelson is adorable, smart, sultry voiced and totally fun to watch. Erin Darke, who I’d seen in Kill Your Darlings, is such a stand out that you don’t expect to surprise you but TOTALLY DOES. And of course, Anna Camp from Pitch Perfect is compulsively watchable.
But seriously, Hunter Parrish is WAY HOT in it.
