MovieChat Forums > The Astronaut Wives Club (2015) Discussion > Where do they get their info on fidelity...

Where do they get their info on fidelity,etc of the couples? Spoilers

posted 9 years ago by davidvincentwolf
6 replies | jump to latest

...much of what's being implied on the show conflicts with what's on the wiki pages of most of the astronauts. Alan Shepard is portrayed as a serial womanizer/cheater and his wife is appears tempted to do a little cheating herself. But according to Wiki, there is no mention of any problems in their marriage and they were together the rest of their lives and died within weeks of each other. On the other hand, "Gordo" Cooper appears to be in love and a faithful husband who desperately wants to win his wife back after a brief separation, but the wiki page says he cheated throughout his marriage and they finally divorced after he retired as an astronaut. Other inconsistancies among the couples too, just wondering why they needed to even go there, but if they did, at least have it based on the reality of what happened behind the scenes. For example, among other things, why make Alan Shepard look like kind of dick in this mini-series if this is being shown just to create a little melodrama for the show?

[–] pinoko 9 years ago

Alan Shepard did cheat on his wife but as far as I know Louise stayed loyal. The character of the LIFE magazine journalist was made up for the show so she couldn't have had an affair with him. (since he did not exist) It depends on your taste wether you like this "twist" or not. I personally don't.

[–] wab-3 9 years ago

The LIFE magazine reporter did exist, and his name was Loudon Wainwright. Look him up.

[–] bugsboom 9 years ago

This VERSION of the Life magazine reporter did not exist. That's what people have been trying to make you understand. Nobody is denying there were reporters covering the wives. However, this version played by Luke Kirby was obviously made up for dramatic purposes.

http://musingsofablackgirlnerd.blogspot.com/

[–] wab-3 9 years ago

It's a meaningless distinction. Wainwright was close to the wives and ghost-wrote most of their stories for LIFE, just as Max is doing. Wainwright helped manage how the wives dealt with the non-LIFE press, just as Max does. 90% of what Max is depicted as doing on the series is actually what Wainwright did in real life, so obviously Max is just an adaptation of Wainwright.

True, with the last episode the writers are definitely setting up a romance between Max and Louise Shepard. I see absolutely no point to this, narratively. Louise didn't and wouldn't have ever had a dalliance with a member of the press, no matter how sympathetic. There is no need for Max to be an "explainer" to the wives about politics or the press, either, because the wives just weren't that naive.

Using Max as a source of exposition is understandable but the writers have gone way overboard with him and his relationship with the wives. There was no reason for Louise to be surprised to find a woman in the hotel room of the single Max.

[–] pinoko 9 years ago

I think you are beginning to understand wab-3. The problem is not that Max is a fictional character. The problem is that he has a quasi romance with Louise.

"90% of what Max is depicted as doing on the series is actually what Wainwright did in real life, so obviously Max is just an adaptation of Wainwright."

I do not doubt that Max is an adaptation of Wainwright but lately he has not been doing what his initial function was. Large chunks of the latest episode (more than 10%) were devoted to this platonic love subplot that as you too pointed out correctly has no point narratively speaking. There are 7 wives, 7 husbands, countless side characters in this show and it has only 10 episodes to deal with everything. A lot of people already complained that the writing is unfocused so I really don't see why they would focus on a romance that never even happened. Maybe Louise's character development profits from this somehow but I don't think that the same could not be achieved through interactions with the other wives or her husband.

"There was no reason for Louise to be surprised to find a woman in the hotel room of the single Max."

The OP asked if the writers created a little melodrama for the show or not. Well the answer is sadly a yes and this scene kinda proves it. The show is already soapy enough, they really didn't need to stoop that low. Creating (or not creating?) sexual tension like this is very unelegant and melodramatic.

[–] wab-3 9 years ago

Well, if you used books as your sources instead of Wiki, you'd get more accurate info, yes? Multiple histories of the Mercury program, including the source book for this series, depict Shepard as about the most brazen when it came to infidelity. They all cheated during the Mercury period, except for Glenn and maybe not Carpenter (who did eventually leave Rene for another woman). I don't remember if it states explicitly in the source book that Trudy had already left Gordo due to prior infidelity, but the implication is there.

Where do they get their info on fidelity,etc of the couples? *Spoilers*

Where do they get their info on fidelity,etc of the couples? Spoilers