Amanda Morton

I loved this show, but I have reservations. Great acting. Great premise. I like a show that focuses on a small team bonding under stress in an environment that is not glamorous. No corporate lawyers, PR firms or upper management gigs discussing optics. Real people working hard and actually loving what they do. But the second season, peeled away from beloved local fair. Suddenly these foodies are serving up boujie cuisine in a cavernous dining room that regular people can will avoid and moneyed patrons will get bored with pretty fast.

So bad it was sad. The story stunk. The acting was rot. I couldn't finish it. I still need to know. Did Anna Delvey really STEAL anything or did she simply joy ride and tag along. INVENTING ANNA is a story about adolescent twenty something grifters grifting eachother and the few "adults" they attracted. So what! 275,000? That's chump change. She was no Wolf of Wall Street or Bernie Madoff. She wasnt even that Fyre Island guy. The show tries desperately to suggest she was a complex personality and multifaceted because she was or wasn't bi, because she did or didn't wear the same black dress over and over or might have once neglected to wipe her bum. The story presentation is the dumbest of the dumb. If someone tells you they are a math genius and speak 7 languages and happen to be the heir to a fortune make them prove it. Wouldnt any normal person? I once knew a girl in highschool who said earth, wind and fire were going to play at her graduation party. Guess what? They didnt. I once knew a guy who claimed to dance in a kanye video. Guess What? He didn't. A friend of mine had a baby with a guy who claimed to own a castle somewhere in europe. Guess what? He didn't. Not even close. He owned a pair of rollerblades and not much else. Ive read so many garbage resumes. I know for a fact Everyone lies, maybe not exactly like this, to this outandish extent but suprise, surprise there are people bs-ing their way into every private party on the planet. Its not that big a deal. And the richie riches of the world are probably used to it. They are probably invaded by liars and cons 24-7. Infact, I know they are. Ill bet its a statistic. Like: Some one accidently marries a fake something or other every 5 minutes. There are posers everywhere. EvERYWHERE. The ultra rich probably love the cat and mouse and rubbing elbows with common cheeky climbers. If they dont bother to vet the goofballs they hang with its hard to feel sorry for them or even care. Sorokin will be back in Russia running a cash register soon enough.

(Spoiler) Grass Widdow: This series follows the book as closely as possible, almost scene for scene, line for line. Winslet feels miscast somehow. Shes not how I picture Mildred, but it doesn't matter. Winselt is exceptional. Mildred Pierce is believable and sympathetic, a flawed gutsy heroine surrounded by weak men. I couldn't get a handle on the family's exact social status. Lower middle class as described on the book flap or middle class rocketing downward from a brush with wealth as alluded to in the series? Its the latter, ofcourse. At any rate, this is 1931 and the start of the depression before things get really ugly. Mildred's unemployed husband is licking his wounds with an infidelity. She kicks him out and like the weaking he is, he goes without a fight. Mildred is suddenly alone in the world and she has to act fast. I love Mildred. She's tough, resilient, sensitive, guilty, embarrassed, driven, hardworking, mostly honest. This whole story is about class in American culture. Which we dont talk about much, let alone understand. For most of us, Americans, I mean, the world is divided by race and gender. To Americans class is fluid, I think. For people who believe in rags to riches stories, yr never stuck anywhere on the ladder. You arent defined by family history so much or even education. You are your own person. You make yr own path. As an American you are defined by what Mildred calls Gump. Mildred has it in spades. She is a talented business woman. Mildred is also a mother trying to hoist her daughter into the liesure class. She hopes to do it by bankrolling the girls musical training. Her plan works too well. Mildred believes her daughter has a godgiven gift. But Its unclear for a long time if the girl is anything more than a devious stuck up brat. Has Mildred confused the girl's passion for classical music for true artistic talent. Mildred seems to will Veda's -almost other worldly musical gift into existence. One minute the girl is a failed pianist, a mediocrity, the next a genius level "colouratora" (the book) and an overnight sensation. Mildred Pierce is mostly a story about loving your kids too much. And how your children can embody your deepest fears and insecurities. Mildred is an enabler who pays dearly for her good intentions and poor judgement. Her daughter goes from brat to demon. Veda rockets to fame, becoming a star and Mildred ends up right back where she started;same house, same lame-but loving down trodden huband. In the end she faces life as an empty nester, a childless parent prepared to drink the bad memories and pain away. Mildred Pierce turns successful single motherhood in a shrinking economy into a waking nightmare full of unrequited love, rejection and ingratitude. Theres alot of truth in this story. James Cain, the author was inspired by actress Constance Commings, whose mother sacrificed her own career to see Constance made it in "pictures". We already know this is "a thing" and we know the cautionary tales by heart. For every Jennifer Lawrence, Sarah Jessica Parker, Linda Blair, Justin Bieber, Britney Spears, Cauley McCulkin, Lindsey Lohan, or Tiffany there is a parent who believed and a family that jumped through hoops to see the dream was realized. Do these "artists" become happy well rounded people or do they go the way of Veda? We already know the answer, don't we.