Learning the Words

[grav_ity]

(I don't really miss the Cold War.)

Last night was possibly the last episode of Pan Am. If you'd told me back in September that I would be VERY UPSET by this, I wouldn't have believed you. This is almost entirely because the ad campaign for Pan Am set it (and the Playboy Club) up to look like the natural successor to Madmen, which I have absolutely zero interest in. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Yes, there is sexism and racism and classism, but in every case, Pan Am runs at it full force, acknowledges the problem, and while it cannot, historically speaking, solve the problem, it still deals with it in a graceful, well written, exceptionally acted way. Yes, there are Boys and Their Issues in this show, but the predominant foci are the four stewardesses, and their journeys to become the kind of people the can, now that it's 1963.

All of this came to a head in "Truth or Dare", which aired before Christmas and might have edged its way on to my list of Perfect Episodes of Television (and not just because of the scene where they're sitting in the plane with their shoes off watching Colette tie a knot in a cherry stalk with her tongue while talking to the pilots), but last night, once again, Pan Am surprised me when it tackled sexuality.

SPOILERS!!!

The character in question is a minor one, a woman named Amanda who was the childhood tormentor of one of the main male characters, Ted. She was presented as the perfect socialite, with her eyes set on Ted as the perfect match, until last week when she kissed Maggie at a Republican fundraiser. "Great," I thought to myself. "So much for graceful."

I should have known better.

This week saw Ted get uglier and uglier as he started to suspect that his fiancée was not exactly who he thought she was, until finally he issues an ultimatum, and she confesses:

"I have always been more...comfortable with women."

The struggle before she comes up with "comfortable" was one of the most amazingly acted pieces of dialogue I have ever seen. It's not that she can't find the word, it's that she doesn't know it. She has no context for who she is (which she says in the next bit of dialogue), and she can't even really explain it to Ted because she is literally unable to do so.

Pan Am is pretty, you guys, but it mostly serves to remind me about how glad I am that I don't live there.

It is all soft touch and emotion, and then all of a sudden you realize they've hit you with a hammer when you were looking the other way.

Also: Female friendship! Excellent cinematography! Wonderful costuming! SPIES! ;)

Comments

[miera-c.livejournal.com]

IT IS SO FUCKING AWESOME I DESPAIR.

Seriously, this show is nuanced. Nuanced shows are not a good ratings bet. *sobs*

I was worried about the Amanda storyline too, but I should've had more faith that they would handle it well. I'm going to use that scene with Laura locking and unlocking her door in a class.

And Maggie! I was a little irritated with the whole newspaper story plot there, but last night when she stood up to the jackass pilot and was all "Tell him. I'm not that person, I'm better than you and I will survive!" I cheered. And then Kate hugging her while they were watching the news! Because she knows how important Kennedy was to Maggie! *sniff*

There's been no official announcement and it's driving me crazy trying not to hope.

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

Yes, that moment with Laura is just stunning in its perfection.

And yes, the moment with Maggie and Kate at the end was just perfect.

Also, I loved the pickpocketing. That cracked me up.

I'm not hoping, but...I'm kind of hoping? It's awkward.