MovieChat Forums > The Astronaut Wives Club (2015) Discussion > I'm Usually Very Opinionated About Every...

I'm Usually Very Opinionated About Everything......

posted 9 years ago by mmitsos-1
17 replies | jump to latest

But I can't decide if I like this show. I have been watching it every week, but, perhaps because of the time period ...which I usually love (the 60's) when depicted in films and Tele ision, just seems a bit antiseptic. The women are a bit too Stepford-Wifish for my liking. I don't know, Laura Petrie had more life to her than most of these women portrayed.

And, did the wives hang out all that often, again as depicted in this show? Were they in each other's business all the time? Having a support system is one thing, but busy-bodies just letting themselves in your home is quite another.

And, the pacing seems a bit too quick. Will this series even last beyond three seasons?

I'll continue to watch it, but I have never had such ambivalent feelings about any film or TV series before.

[–] pinoko 9 years ago

I thought I was the only one who felt this way. It's not like there is no effort put into this show but somehow the result is a bit unremarkable.

[–] boxerrebellion 9 years ago

Especially the Mercury wives were military wives. Yes, it was very much like this. In fact, it was pretty much the Senior Officer's wife's JOB to keep tabs on all the other wives. Did you never see The Unit a few years ago? On military Bases (albeit now, mostly overseas Bases) that was pretty normal for the time.

[–] johnston.scot 9 years ago

I'm not sure I agree with Stepford-wife characterization. If anything, they've pushed Trudy Cooper a bit much in the opposite direction. Rene Carpenter and Marge Slayton are also a long way from Stepford wives.

Don't get totally caught up in the clothes, hairstyles and obsession with ill-considered adventures in food preparation - that's just fun period detail They all have distinct characters, though the size of the ensemble restricts getting a really fully-rounded view of all of them.
- Grissom: down-home, unsophisticated but good-hearted;
- Schirra: socially ambitious, attentive to slights; bit of a chip on her shoulder;
- Carpenter: smart, savvy, ambitious, though in an okay-for-women way by the standards of the time;
- Cooper: ambitious in a not-so-okay-for-women say;
- Glenn: sweet, amiable and smart, but hamstrung by her stutter;
- Shepard: brittle, "classy" exterior belies underlying fear and self-doubt.

Though I haven't read the book, from what I've heard the extent of the hanging out together is generally accurate. I suspect it varied from person to person, but many of the families did live near each other (the Shepards being an exception, actually). Of course, what we see in the show isn't every moment of every day: the bulk of life, even for an astro-wife, is driving kids to baseball practice and grocery shopping, not gathering to watch missions on TV.

I'm not sure where you got the idea the show could possibly last beyond three seasons. It was planned as a single season show, and can't really last beyond one.

[–] Tornado-chaser 9 years ago

Good characterization of the main wives! After tonight's episode, I'm really liking the Marilyn See character. So sweet and yet so sad what she has to go through. Beautifully portrayed with grace.

[–] wab-3 9 years ago

They missed a key plot point tonight, though. Showing Deke being so compassionate was not the complete truth. In reality, he thought See was a poor pilot and he blamed the fatal T-38 crash on See. The writers could have juxtaposed the solidarity of the wives with the competitiveness and backbiting of their husbands.

They're also not showing the full story of what Louise was going through at this point. When Al moved over to managing the astronaut's office, he became a semi-tyrant who terrorized the newer astronauts. I'm sure that affected Louise's relationship with the other wives, but they're not showing it.

As to proximity, the book covers this. There were a couple of different housing development deals where the astronauts were offered fully-furnished new homes on generous terms, so there were a couple of clumps where multiple astronauts lived next door to each other or on the same street. There were two main areas where sets of astronaut families were close neighbors. The Shepards were the exception. I don't know why the show depicts there place as suburban as the others; in truth, they lived in an executive-style apartment in a high-rise building in downtown Houston. It was another way in which Al and his family stood apart from the rest.

[–] Tornado-chaser 9 years ago

Very interesting! I like knowing the factual version alongside what we are watching. Fun to compare and contrast.

[–] wab-3 9 years ago

We're now into the phase of the programs where Andrew Chaikin's book is probably the best historical source. It's a great read, as is Deke Slayton's book.

[–] allie106 9 years ago

They did show the Shepard house as being different in episode 6 when Louise and Marge brought Alan home after he got in that fight outside the bar. They showed the Shepard home as not a ranch like the rest of them live in but a raised building, there was a pretty steep staircase Alan had to climb up. It didn't come across as a high-rise to me, I guess I would have called it more of a townhouse style maybe although that's not quite right either. In any case they did depict it as being different from the others. Wasn't there also a scene, either last week or this, when they showed the view outside their living room window and it was more of an "urban" environment with tall buildings?

[–] johnston.scot 9 years ago

Wasn't there also a scene, either last week or this, when they showed the view outside their living room window and it was more of an "urban" environment with tall buildings?

Yep: I noticed that too. It looked like a snazzy apartment, which would be accurate, I think.

[–] wab-3 9 years ago

Right, I noticed that as well. But in an earlier episode they show Alan losing his balance going up the stairs to an apartment building, supposedly his own, that clearly wasn't tall enough to have that view. Sloppy continuity.

[–] allie106 9 years ago

The original concept of the show was only going to cover the Mercury years, I suppose possibly so they could then follow it up with subsequent seasons which would follow the Gemini and then Apollo flights/years. Early on it was decided that the show would go all the way through Gemini and most of Apollo as well and once that decision was made I think it was determined it would only be a one time thing. I don't know how they would do another season since by the time Apollo is done all of the main players (Mercury 7 and their wives) are all pretty much out of the space program and several of the marriages are ending.

As far as them hanging out, well as others have pointed out you are only seeing slices of their lives, it's not a documentary following them around 24/7. That being said, they are all pretty much housewives (Trudy and possibly now Rene as the exceptions and even Trudy doesn't have a traditional 9-5 type job) and most of their kids are teenagers by this point and don't need to have constant supervision. Jo and Betty I believe are supposed to live next door to each other and are pretty good friends so I think they probably do let themselves into each others homes at least in the kinds of situations we've seen depicted (coming over to vent, arriving for a scheduled bridge game, etc). Don't forget, these women have formed a bond over shared experiences that not many other people would really understand. As Max said to Louise in episode 2 before Gus's flight, "Only you and the Russian woman understand what Betty's going through". Despite the fact that before this last episode there hadn't yet been any deaths, what their husbands were doing was still pretty dangerous and no one else could really truly understand what they went through. Also, they have been in each others lives since 1959 when their husbands were picked for the program. It's only been a few weeks for the show but in real life they had been forming these bonds over 8 years.

[–] johnston.scot 9 years ago

The original concept of the show was only going to cover the Mercury years, I suppose possibly so they could then follow it up with subsequent seasons which would follow the Gemini and then Apollo flights/years.

This makes sense, or at least is consistent with some oddities about the show. The first four or so episodes seem like they might've been part of a single season that would've ended, perhaps, with the advent of the second group of nine wives.

After c. episode four, the show gets chronologically loose and loses narrative continuity. It jumps around in a scattershot way. The "story arc" (or arclet) involving Annie and Rene's involvement in politics consists of a little bit of Glenn's 1964 campaign, then 15 seconds on the RFK assassination four years later. Post-Mercury-7 wives pop in and out haphazardly: Mrs. Conrad is there for a bit, serves no particular narrative function, then disappears. The entire Gemini program is reduced to one launch and maybe a total of 30 seconds of archival footage.

[–] AprilValen 9 years ago

They showed that the women who were side by side neighbors cut a hole in the fence between their houses so they could more easily vist, so it was assumed they could just walk in. People did that much more in those days.

This is a summer mini-series based on the book of the same name which was written by an author who interviewed the surviving wives. It isn't indeed to last multiple seasons.

It ain't the Ganges, but you go with what you got." ~ Ken Talley, "The Fifth of July"

[–] verucasalt23-1 9 years ago

I thought it was interesting that the movie, Apollo 13, showed Marilyn Lovell waiting for news with her and Jim Lovell's family while this show portrayed her hanging out with the other wives. I bet the movie was truer.

I think some women genuinely were like that. I mean, yeah, there were women who were desperate to have jobs, and they portrayed that with a couple of the wives (Trudy Cooper and Rene Carpenter). But there were also women who were content in the traditional roles, as they portrayed Alan Shepard's wife as being. My mother is somewhat younger (actually, about 20 years younger) than these women would be, and she has been pretty much content to look attractive, keep a nice house, and entertain. She went back to college and got her degree because she felt she should, but she's never been motivated to work. Heck, I know young mothers now who are content just to do the PTA thing. In the case of the Astronaut wives, if they weren't content to be arm candy, it probably wasn't a good fit to them to be married to astronauts, which I guess is why so many of them divorced.

"Arguing with trolls is like playing chess with a pigeon . . . ."

[–] johnston.scot 9 years ago

Keep in mind that Apollo 13's crisis lasted for 3 or 4 days. Those watching probably did so with different groups of people at different times.

[–] allie106 9 years ago

It's been a while since I've seen the movie but I seem to remember there being a lot of people at the Lovell house at certain times. I don't remember them ever claiming that all those people were family members. They clearly showed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin being there because Marilyn introduces them to Jim's mother.

My guess is the truth lies somewhere in the middle. I'm fairly sure there would have been more family around her, at least once the explosion happened and there was suspense about the fate of the astronauts, then the show portrayed where it appeared to be almost all astro wives there supporting her. I do think though there probably would have been some of the wives spending time with her, offering moral support, given how close they had all gotten. If the movie did portray it being only family I don't think that would be accurate either.

[–] wab-3 9 years ago

In the movie Apollo 13 there's a scene in which Marilyn goes off alone and listens to the squawk box, worrying. In Koppel's book there's a picture of Marilyn doing the same thing--alone, distraught. So the movie is accurate in at least that respect.