scaled.Picture_2.png

Oh my God—where is that toe going???

For a spoiler-ridden discussion of last night’s installment of Todd Haynes’s miniseries adaptation of James M. Cain’s Mildred Pierce, proceed after the jump.

Already good, Todd Haynes’s Mildred Pierce got a dozen times more exciting last night. First, Mildred mourned her loss by throwing herself into opening her fancy chicken restaurant. In the 1945 version, the restaurant is an instant success because JOAN CRAWFORD DOES NOT FAIL. But in the HBO version, there’s some actual struggle, and the restaurant’s a tightwire-success because Mildred figures shit out and works her ass off. (And when Ida showed up and threw herself into service, I cheered.) Apparently, watching a restaurant get up and running will always be exciting, like watching Julia Roberts try on hats. (Also, Wally building Mildred an illuminated pie case was ridiculously sweet, and a million times nicer than anything the (handsomer) 1945 Wally did for Joan Crawford.)

Then things got sexy. WITH A TOE.

Then came the fundamental conflict with Veda, made a zillion times more poignant by making itself known when Veda is still a child. The 1945 Veda always looked like a 22-year-old in a gingham dress, but HBO’s Veda is a KID. 14 years old, I’d guess, and still being played by not-Evan Rachel Wood by the end of episode 3.

Veda’s youth also makes her dealings with Monty so effing twisted. (The stuff about kitchen legs and drawing-room legs? And telling how many times he fucks her mother??!!)

It’s all so deliciously filthy, and, in some ways, just getting started. Sunday cannot come soon enough. (Also, I could look at people handling 1930s kitchenware all day.)

Also: That refrain of “Cut the mush!” Sob!

David Schmader—former weed columnist and Stranger associate editor—is the author of the solo plays Straight and Letter to Axl, which he’s performed in Seattle and across the US. His latest...

8 replies on “HBO’s Mildred Pierce Episode 3”

  1. Yeah, this “Mildred” really took off with the most exciting scenes of the episodes: preparing for the war of serving dinners en mass, and the toe sex.

    Adult bitch Veda full throttle should also be a kick.

  3. Also, I could look at people handling 1930s kitchenware all day.

    Whatever else can be said about this series, this is 90% of what it boils down to for me. Judge me if you will.

    However, I really am having some difficulty with the Veda character. Even if I suspend disbelief to accept that a 14-yr-old in 1930-whatever could speak and act like that, the notion that a scrappy dame like Mildred would respond as she did, rather than with an eye-roll and/or slapping the living shit out of her* is a stretch too far for me.

    *I know she did slap her, but I mean something more decisive than that. Not slapping her, feeling guilty about it, and then buying the goddam piano.

  4. I credit the piano purchase to Mildred feeling guilty for having recklessly exposed Veda to such a boundary-free creep.

  5. I would *like* to believe that. But do you think she sees him as boundry-free as we do? What I heard was mostly a bunch of dissatisfaction over what a shiftless loafer he is mixed with some squickiness about her own sexuality.

  6. I think she realized he’s a uniquely garbagey human being.—”This needs a rape scene..”—which makes what’s to come all the more squirmy….

  7. Ooh. Oh. I don’t *know* what’s to come. NOW we’ve got some suspense going… [/titillated]

    Well, I don’t think I really buy your read on it, but I’m going to pretend like I do because I like both Mildred and the show better that way.

    (My god, I’m actually considering watching the Joan Crawford version. I didn’t see THAT coming.)

  8. Where’s our god damned episode 4 post? It’s not like I have anyone else to process this shit with. We’re into adult(ish) Veda now. That’s major.

Comments are closed.