Early review of The Wonderful Maladys (HBO)

After Mischa Barton, it's SMG's time to make her comeback and I am going to start right away with the punchline, this is the best thing I read in a long time.

The Maladys are a fucked-up family that lost everything before the game had even started when both their parents died as they were young, leaving them with nothing. Alice, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar found refuge into alcohol and aggressiveness. Mary, played by Molly Parker from Swingtown, found refuge into her work as a therapist even though not being able to follow advices she gives to her clients. The last one, Neil found refuge into, well, weirdness.



I've always been a fan of dramedy, even the not so good ones (I won't tattle) and it's why I was delighted by The Wondeful Maladys script. Some scenes (see at the end), literally made me laugh out loud, and it wasn't the dumb funny that I sometimes laugh at, it was the smart and edgy funny that you can't find these days on TV (you can look, you won't find). The thing that had me worried was how they were going to deal with the death thing and I was once again really surprised at how good they were. Some scenes simply were heart-breaking, and the way it made move the storyline was amazing. I just wish everyone could read how brilliant this is and shed at a tear at the Maladys.

It was also amazing to discover the characters, especially Alice (SMG), her obvious issues and her self-hate that you really only discover a few pages before the end in a sex scene (SMG fans sure aren't going to miss it) that was terribly hard to read and yet so fantastic. Mary, the oldest sister and the only one that looks a bit sane (she only looks that way) is married to a not so nice person and confronted to dilemmas such as : "if my husband asked me to buy me lesbian porn but without any black girls, does that make him racist ? ". Next comes Neil, that tells during a family therapy session one of the dirtiest story ever told also sounds fascinating, but the pilot doesn't center much on his story. When all your characters are screw-ups, it becomes too easy to be shallow but TWM focuses on what made them who they are, their personalities, their deepest fears and much more and when you think about it, that's what's interesting about them.

I still don't really know what The Wonderful Maladys is about, maybe about making their lives better, but honestly, I couldn't care less about what that show is about because it's still one of the best writing I've read in years and I'm going to watch it anyway.

Cast includes Nate Corddry as Neil Malady, Sarah Michelle Gellar as Alice Malady, Zak Orth as Charles (Mary's husband), Molly Parker as Mary Malady, Adam Scott as Doug (Alice's ex).

I'm not really allowed to do that, but here is a dialogue from the pilot.

GEEKY AUTHOR
I’m so nervous. I’m miserable at small talk.

ALICE
It’s a book party. Try to find something
negative to say about television. Or the
internet. Or just look forlorn and keep
asking, ”What happened to Woody Allen?”

ALICE (CONT’D)
The answer is always “the Republicans”. No
matter anyone says on any subject, blame the
Republicans. I’m serious. Totally works. Bad
weather? Global warming. The Republicans.
Movies suck? The studios went corporate.
Republicans. Toe blister? It’s the crappy
Chinese shoe factories. Thanks to the...?

GEEKY AUTHOR
Republicans.