5
1
A Comedy of Remarriage That Mistakes Trauma for Depth
I returned to Okay, Let’s Get a Divorce because several comments claimed that episode 5 finally balances the responsibility within the marriage. Technically, it does. The problem is how it gets there.
We suddenly learn that on the day she lost their baby, her husband did not abandon her. He was actually trying to get back to her when he had a car accident. Then the drama adds an even more extreme revelation: days later, during her suicide attempt, he tried to stop her and ended up with a knife in his abdomen.
Somehow, she apparently remained unaware of this for years until a conveniently introduced character finally tells her. She sees the scar, realizes that her husband never abandoned her, falls to her knees, cries, and apologizes.
The scene wants to be devastating, and the performances give it some emotional weight, but narratively it is cashing an emotional check the writing never earned. We are not discovering the hidden meaning of information carefully established over five episodes. The drama is retroactively introducing extraordinary events to completely change our perception of the marriage and facilitate the eventual reconciliation.
By episodes 5 and 6, I also finally understood what kind of drama this really wants to be: a comedy of remarriage, a genre Hollywood was already doing almost a century ago. The Awful Truth (1937) used separation, romantic rivals, jealousy, and marital competition to bring a couple back together.
This drama follows essentially the same structure. She asks for a divorce, he moves back into their house, they are forced to live together, and each gets a potential romantic alternative. At one point, when both need someone to take care of them, they even call their respective romantic rivals into the marital home.
The problem isn't that I've seen this story before. The problem is that I've seen it done much better.
The drama takes a perfectly functional remarriage-comedy structure and overloads it with pregnancy loss, grief, a suicide attempt, a stabbing, guilt, and emotional abandonment. Then, whenever it wants to become a rom-com again, it simply switches all that emotional weight off and returns to jealousy, caricatured characters, an exhausting mother-in-law, and playful music.
It doesn't integrate genres. It switches them on and off.
And I could forgive it for not being a particularly good drama if it were at least a good comedy. But after six episodes, I haven't laughed once.
I will correct one thing from my earlier impression: the drama eventually does hold the female lead accountable and acknowledges that her husband was not the monster she had constructed in her mind. That is no longer my main problem with the series.
My problem is worse: this is an old story told mediocrely, artificially inflated with tragedies that it mistakes for depth, while constant tonal shifts destroy any sense of emotional continuity.
The Awful Truth understood this formula in 1937 and needed less than 90 minutes.
This drama has had six episodes and is still trying to convince me why I should care.
Dropped for good.
We suddenly learn that on the day she lost their baby, her husband did not abandon her. He was actually trying to get back to her when he had a car accident. Then the drama adds an even more extreme revelation: days later, during her suicide attempt, he tried to stop her and ended up with a knife in his abdomen.
Somehow, she apparently remained unaware of this for years until a conveniently introduced character finally tells her. She sees the scar, realizes that her husband never abandoned her, falls to her knees, cries, and apologizes.
The scene wants to be devastating, and the performances give it some emotional weight, but narratively it is cashing an emotional check the writing never earned. We are not discovering the hidden meaning of information carefully established over five episodes. The drama is retroactively introducing extraordinary events to completely change our perception of the marriage and facilitate the eventual reconciliation.
By episodes 5 and 6, I also finally understood what kind of drama this really wants to be: a comedy of remarriage, a genre Hollywood was already doing almost a century ago. The Awful Truth (1937) used separation, romantic rivals, jealousy, and marital competition to bring a couple back together.
This drama follows essentially the same structure. She asks for a divorce, he moves back into their house, they are forced to live together, and each gets a potential romantic alternative. At one point, when both need someone to take care of them, they even call their respective romantic rivals into the marital home.
The problem isn't that I've seen this story before. The problem is that I've seen it done much better.
The drama takes a perfectly functional remarriage-comedy structure and overloads it with pregnancy loss, grief, a suicide attempt, a stabbing, guilt, and emotional abandonment. Then, whenever it wants to become a rom-com again, it simply switches all that emotional weight off and returns to jealousy, caricatured characters, an exhausting mother-in-law, and playful music.
It doesn't integrate genres. It switches them on and off.
And I could forgive it for not being a particularly good drama if it were at least a good comedy. But after six episodes, I haven't laughed once.
I will correct one thing from my earlier impression: the drama eventually does hold the female lead accountable and acknowledges that her husband was not the monster she had constructed in her mind. That is no longer my main problem with the series.
My problem is worse: this is an old story told mediocrely, artificially inflated with tragedies that it mistakes for depth, while constant tonal shifts destroy any sense of emotional continuity.
The Awful Truth understood this formula in 1937 and needed less than 90 minutes.
This drama has had six episodes and is still trying to convince me why I should care.
Dropped for good.
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