Shrill: Shrill, season 2
January 31, 2020 1:27 AM - Season 2 (Full Season) - Subscribe

Annie starts the season on a high. She has faced her demons head-on—her mom, her boss, and her troll—and she’s feeling pretty good. She also has her boyfriend Ryan by her side. But the high doesn’t last long.
posted by catch as catch can (7 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I binged both seasons over the last couple of days, and really truly loved (most of) it. I'm glad we got a bit more character development for Fran (and omg, she has got some pipes! that karaoke scene was everything!), and I also liked the way the show seemed to be leading to a redemption arc for Ryan, and then it just ended with Annie's realisation that no, he wasn't capable of changing all that much and it wasn't her job to make that happen. God, that scene where he pleads, "Just tell me what to do and I'll do it!" - that is so familiar and crushing to me.

Other highlights for me:
- Patti Harrison as Ruthie was just fantastic in every way; I loved that she called Amadi out for his assumptions about her background
- I know it was cringey as heck, but I actually really enjoyed John Cameron Mitchell's Bowie rendition at the party; I had forgotten he was Hedwig!
- the whole episode with the WAHAM conference was just... *chef-kissy-fingers* Hundreds of white women selling tools of the patriarchy to each other and calling it radical - I have been in spaces like that so often, and the ep perfectly captured the absurdity of those moments and weird confusing shameful feelings that bubble up while trying to navigate those spaces.
posted by catch as catch can at 1:52 AM on January 31, 2020 [2 favorites]


Cringy as heck describes the whole show. It's almost unwatchable for me, a show about a woman who's such a trooper despite getting constantly shit on by just about everybody, including herself. Annie's successes are so few and fleeting. But when they happen, they are sweet. She can navigate, barely, around a prima donna boss and his vicious prima donna lackey, deal justice to a vicious anonymous troll, and yet inexplicably go back to babysit a hopeless moron boyfriend. I thought it was interesting that Ryan's most intelligent display in two seasons was his passive aggressive assholery at the party. Up to that point, Annie had a surprising level of commitment to that relationship. That she was willing to be seen anywhere with such an idiot just boggles the mind. I almost couldn't take it anymore. It seems like a victory and a relief that she dumps him after that incident. But what amount of awfulness did it take for her to get there!
posted by 2N2222 at 3:24 AM on January 31, 2020 [1 favorite]


Oh good! I was getting ready to start this page up myself, partly in hopes that someone here will know somethingabout Ruthie’s outfit from the skating party. That jumpsuit is amazing. 

Highlights of the season for me:
- Seconding the WAHAM episode, directed by Natasha Lyonne, which struck a lot of amazing notes. More pointed satire than the show usually hits? The horrible, cynical, Goop-ish grift, the self-hatred built into that grift (“you’ll have the confidence of a woman whose disgusting leg skin is covered up!” has made me laugh queasily for days), and the genuine pleasure & community some of the attendees find there—it’s a complicated story! (Which Annie then writes up, with, as far as I remember, the only actual editorial assistance Gabe has offered in the entire show.)
- Peter Smith’s astonishing version of “God Only Knows” at the close of Episode 2 (best of a lot of good singing scenes this season—Fran at the karaoke bar, Annie and Ryan singing Celine Dion in the car, and Gabe’s amazing turn at his salon, which I loved exactly because it was so uncomfortable & cringey, his guests were mortified)
- Basically every scene with Maureen (Jo Firestone, sad and bizarre and hilarious) or Ruthie (Patti Harrison, vicious and bizarre and hilarious)
-Again, that mod jumpsuit, why will no one tell me more about the jumpsuit
-The irony of Gabe’s decision to make Amadi a “bad cop” in the office, because Amadi is probably the gentlest, nicest person in this whole universe (catch as catch can, I also really liked that scene where Ruthie calls Amadi out on his assumptions)   
posted by miles per flower at 11:28 AM on January 31, 2020 [1 favorite]


Huh, I don't think I knew that Lindy West had written about Goop before. Here's 'Gwyneth Glows Like a Radioactive Swan'--my day at the Goop festival (Guardian, 2017), which I guess is the basis of that WAHAM episode. And which makes the episode feel like a reasonably accurate portrayal and not so much like over-the-top satire, eek.  
posted by miles per flower at 11:41 AM on January 31, 2020 [2 favorites]


From miles per flower's linked article: In mice, faecal transplants have been found to make fat mice thin, and anxious mice calm. Oh, my God, I realise. Paltrow is going to start selling her own poop.

How has this not happened yet?!
posted by Emmy Rae at 6:22 PM on January 31, 2020 [1 favorite]


I am so, so glad that Annie finally dumped Ryan. I mean, sure, he's sweet-natured and he really loves her. But he's nothing like as intelligent as her, and he's an unbelievably clueless manchild who will do nothing with his life, while she's going places. He's like a grubby, ratty security blanket, and it was a relief when Annie finally realized she needed to let go of him and seek out better men.

I loved the scene where Annie and Gabe work together on finding the right angle for her article, and I want to slap Gabe for not being that kind of inspiring, brilliant editor all the time. He could be guiding his writers to new heights, which would be good for both his magazine and them, but no, he spends all his time being an asshole poseur.

I loved the musical moments, and also Fran's family wedding. Oh my God is her family awful, but at the same time insanely great.

I am so looking forward to season 3.
posted by orange swan at 7:32 PM on February 17, 2020


I love this show but I really struggle with Ryan. I dread every scene he might be in and then when he started working with her, I was so frustrated. I am usually a big re-watcher of shows and I haven't really revisited Season 1 because of Ryan. Her pathetic accommodation of him, his bumbling stupidity - I truly can't stand it. Looking forward to Season 3 with a new, wonderful Fran and Annie hopefully free of Ryan interference.

I kept wishing this was posted in episodes because 2/3 of the way through the season I wanted to come on here and comment on how Fran apparently has the funniest, coolest friend ever with time to just chill with her and call her on her bullshit in a supportive way so a) what is her job and b) how can I also be her friend and now they're together! <3

Fran's issues with her mom seemed a little too easily resolved, but I appreciated that episode. Annie is at some of her best when backing up Fran. Shout out to Fran's perfect suit at that wedding.

Was it ever previously stated that Ruthie is trans? I was very surprised by the scene between her and Amadi - based on her general outlandish meanness and trying to stir stuff up, I thought she was going for one of those "oh yeah, well I'm going to tell HR that I'm trans and you're discriminating" type of threats that make no sense. I think I need to rewatch the scene for it to land because now I kind of understand what was going on.

Jo Firestone's character Maureen is like a modern Portland version of Phoebe from Friends in a really great way.
posted by Emmy Rae at 7:15 AM on February 19, 2020


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