The first question I have about this episode is who the hell are Melora Walters and Joanne Going, as their performances as the Linwood Sisters, Laurel (Walters) and Leah (Going) livened up an otherwise dull episode, because, when it came to the one-on-one scenes, poor Melora, having no one to play against, had to do all the work. And she rose to the occasion superbly.
I wish more had been made of Going as Leah. Because, the minute she entered the story, I saw what was going on--Laurel was acting out killing her sexually abusive father, with a bar pick up as stand in, because she was jealous of Leah, who she felt was loved more, because the father chose Leah over Laurel.
Laurel is pretty screwed up. But so must be Leah; even though she became a high price lawyer and all, I would have loved to have known her back story, and picked away at the issues. These two sisters have a rivalry to equal Jane and Blanche Hudson, because, while Leah may be fucked up, she, nevertheless, managed to become the more successful of the two! Why? That is what I would like to know.
But 'SVU' is only interested in playing things fast and easy, not psychological exploration. The more I watched Melora Walters play Laurel, the more she reminded me of Natasha Lyonne, as Gia Eskas in the 2011 episode "Educated Guest." That one involved Gia being hospitalized for mental problems, an uncle who had raped her since the age of 14, and two sisters living next door to each other, one played by the wonderfully malevolent Carrie Preston, who was faking cancer to get attention....oh, it was just wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am sure the executives of this show sat Melora down, had her watch "Educated Guess," pointed to Natasha Lyonne as Gia, then said, "We want you to duplicate that."
Which she did, wonderfully. Trouble is, like much of this season, it has all been done before.
Another doggie downer that I am sure Joan Didion could have written drunk, and have it come out this way.
Hey, Dick Wolf, why don't you just give up, already??????????????????
Ah, Joanna Going: that name brings back fond memories of my youth, when I briefly hobnobbed with a great many people in the daytime soap field. That was a gas, let me tell you: a better bunch of actresses you could not hope to meet (the male actors were another story: substance-abusing closet cases from hell, nearly all of 'em, including two I slept with).
ReplyDeleteJoanna is the textbook case of a very talented girl (yes, she was still technically a "girl" then) whose career got off on the wrong foot and derailed almost immediately thru no real fault of her own. Bad timing, bad luck, perhaps bad management. She was attractive but in a borderline-blah, indistinct-yet-quirky way. Genuine acting chops: she was very compelling and rather popular during her soap tenure, but then couldn't quite make the transition from troubled teen to adult recurring role.
So she vanished from soaps, and began bouncing from one doomed prime-time series to another (including a stint as Victoria Winters in the Dark Shadows reboot). She also popped up in random low-budget or mid-level indie films, until she snagged the lead in a 1997 movie that should have been a hit but instead died on the vine: "Still Breathing". This flick was groundbreaking in pulling a double-reverse on the typical rom-com trope: Joanna played "anti-heroine" to the hilt, while Brendan Frasier (at his peak of hotness) was the sweet sap. Storywise, it was a melding of Stanwyck/Fonda in "The Lady Eve" with elements of "Moonstruck" and "Big" mixed in.
Joanna took a giant risk with this part: anti-heroine doesn't begin to describe it. She is thoroughly unlikeable thru nearly the whole story, you almost hate her, yet keep routing for her and Brendan to get together. Very very tricky movie, but very rewarding if you can tune into what its getting at about damaged souls yearning to connect but failing because the hard shell they needed to develop for survival gets in the way. After "Still Breathing" bombed, it was back to TV guest parts and a rollercoaster of film cameos (mostly forgettable with a few high-profile flops thrown in). Her fans were devastated when she was completely excised from the final cut of "Love & Mercy", meant to be her showy comeback role as Brian Wilson's mother.
Going would have been better off not starting in soaps, honing hers skills a bit longer into adulthood, then getting discovered by a gay male talent agent who could pitch her properly for films. The soaps and other TV parts sustained her but also kinda dead-ended her. Ah, well-she did at least achieve some immortality with memorable appearances in "House Of Cards" and "Mad Men".
ReplyDeleteThey gave her "And" billing on 'SVU' like
she was some big deal. But I had never heard
of her.