Shepards Wives Club
This episode is basically about Louise and Alan Shepard here, which makes sense as Alan is the first American in space and that is basically what this hour is about (despite the fact that I think you could have done an entire show just leading up to his space flight. OR you could have started this show AFTER said flight and focused on the moon landing, which would have more organically lent itself to including more people. I told you I had notes.) ANYWAY, what we learn in this episode is that Alan is basically a rigid, uptight jackhole who cheats on his wife all the time, and SHE is rigid, uptight, and unfriendly because of how shitty her marriage is. (If I may editorialize.) I actually think Dominique McElligott is quite effective in this part -- her American accent was quite good, I thought (she is Irish) -- especially given that the Uptight Bitchy One Who Won't Let People In can be a tough role to make sympathetic.
Carpenters Wives Club
Rene Carpenter here is the gorgeous but blowsy Jayne Mansfield-y one who doesn't obey dress codes but is protective of the other women, and also sometimes matches her outfit to her desserts. (She's also, per Wikipedia, JFK's favorite wife, which...makes sense.) "Rene, ryhmes with peachy keen," is how she introduces herself to Louise (who is unimpressed) and I just want to say that her dress is great but whoever is doing Yvonne Strahovski's hair might hate her. Also: Hey, Wade. I'm not sure you're believable as an astronaut but it's hard to tell because every dude on this show with the exception of Alan "Sleeps Around" Shepard and Gordo "What Kind of Name Is Gordo?" Cooper is basically silent.
Glenn Wives Club
For example, John Glenn gets basically no lines and Annie Glenn is almost totally silent, although she does eyeball Shepard, and I swear to god, there was a scene in the beginning of the episode where it's clear that Shepard is nailing his secretary and I REALLY thought for nearly this entire episode that said secretary WAS Annie Glenn. But I don't think it was. So, in short...this show was a bit confusing without a flowchart. (We later learn that her silence is because she has a stutter, but early on, thanks to her similar appearance to the aforementioned secretary, I just thought it was coyness. I also think it might have been more fun to make up a fictional universe of astronaut wives, where they could all be having raging affairs without the fear of anyone getting sued.)
Cooper Wives Club
Ugh. Okay. Odette Annable is wearing a great dress here, and I don't dislike her in general, but I think she's quite bad in this part. She is Trudy Cooper, the Wife With Moxie -- because she's also a pilot and she and her husband appear to have a weird relationship where he's not allowed to grab her butt while they're dancing, and she makes a lot of statements about BEING MODERN and how she has A DEEP DARK SECRET and I seriously at one point Googled whether or not the real life Trudy Cooper turned out to be a secret lesbian because I COULD NOT figure out what was going on in this marriage, given that Gordo seems hot for her and she keeps telling him that his hotness for her is not "part of the deal." (Trudy is not a lesbian. Trudy and Gordon were getting divorced because he cheated on her, but then she decided it would be better for his career if they stayed married? If he's cheating on you, why do you care, Trudy?) But they keep having sort of Meaningful Phone Calls? I don't even know, you guys. SO much about these relationships got exposited in 45 minutes that ought to have unfurled over at least three or four episodes and it led to a general sense of confusion.
Grissom Wives Club
This is Gus Grissom's wife Betty, and she's so very very wholesome. You can tell because she didn't even have champagne at her wedding and she folds a lot of laundry! (Joanna Garcia Swisher is really likeable, though.)
Slayton and Aldrin Wives Club
Let me stay from the get-go that Buzz Aldrin's wife Joan (in the horribly dated white ensemble) seems like she might turn out to be more important than this show is acting, but whatever.* The other is Marge Slayton, who ALSO has a dark secret (it's either that she's divorced or her first husband is dead, which...who cares if it's the latter, but if it's the former, it's very weird that she later acts all shocked about Trudy almost getting a divorce. This show needed four fewer wives.)
I additionally need to note that Erin Cummings here looks SO MUCH like Katherine Heigl that I kept thinking she WAS Katherine Heigl and then thinking that, although Cummings is totally fine in this part, I wish Katherine Heigl WERE on this show, and actually Katherine Heigl probably needs to have been on this show for her career.
*Also, I was totally wrong; she's Wally Schirra's wife, Jo. Sorry. I TOLD YOU there were too many women in this show.
MAX CAPLAN REPORTERS CLUB
This is Max Caplan, a reporter for Life who actually introduces himself as "Max Caplan, Reporter." HE is not thrilled about having to follow about a BUNCH OF WIVES for a year, but his...boss? No, I think he's the boss of NASA....??? I don't know, but it's Charlotte's husband Harry Goldenblatt -- who convinces him that he HAS to take on this beat, FOR AMERICA and the president and also because he works for Life so I'm sure he does a lot of sort of fluffy reporting from time to time, so get over yourself.
Cheers Wives Club
Max Caplan: Reporter also greets the ladies with, "Hello, Astro-Wives," which was kind of great, and talks them into letting Life chronicle their lives for a $100,000 life insurance policy (which was probably quite appealing, given that you're probably uninsurable if you're shooting yourself into space) and half a million dollars to be split seven ways. Oh, also for propaganda, and America. "It's not like you ladies have a lot of bad habits, or big secrets," Max Caplan: Reporter adds. "OF COURSE NOT," Trudy says, in the manner of a soap opera villain who is about to start monologuing about her plans, believing that no one else can hear her because their backs are turned.
Photoshoot Wives Club
Get ready for a lot of phallic rocket imagery, as in this scene where Max Caplan: Reporter seems to fall in love with Louise merely because she's punctual, and Rene flouts the NASA memo about what they were supposed to wear. Now, two things: This show would be way more interesting if Max Caplan: Reporter DID fall in love with Louise and they had a TORRID affair, culminating in a LOT of angst when it perhaps seemed like her husband might die in space; and, also, the fact that we get SUCH quick hits on each character means you really have to draw your own assumptions from the smallest clues. Like, do the rest of the women think it's sort of amusing that Rene flouts the rules, or do they think she's a trashy floozy? If they think she's a trashy floozy, it makes it much more meaningful when, later, she steps into help out Annie Glenn when a reporter is harrassing her.
Cars Wives Club
Rene, at the very least, definitely gets the most INTERESTING outfits...
Cars Wives Club 2
...if a more boring car than her husband. The ladies get something sensible to tote groceries and kids, the men of course get this sweet sweet number that also, apparently, magically opens up TONS of parking spaces at Florida's finest beaches for optimum showing off during the scene in which we learn all the dudes are tomcatting around.
Pajamas Wives Club
In fact, Trudy overheads Alan's tomcatting when on one of her very congenial phone calls with Gordo. She then HANGS UP, because she's a moron. Even if she isn't in love with Gordo, they seem to like each other, so wait for your husband to get on the phone and ASK HIM WHAT IS HAPPENING AND GET THE DETAILS. But instead Trudy calls Harry Goldenblatt and suggests that all the wives come down to the Cape for the test launch, as a surprise, but clearly to blow up the Shepards. That is...pretty jerky, honestly. Also, it would have been more affecting if we'd had like three episodes building up to said test launch to really get to know these people. I can't help but compare this show to Manhattan, which is a very good show about building the atom bomb, and which really takes its time. The pacing here is insane and it is confusing. That said, I REALLY like Trudy's pajamas.
PAAAARRRTAY Wives Club
When they all arrive in Cape -- on what feels like the same night, but that's IMPOSSIBLE, so it must have just been...shortly thereafter? I don't know. The timeline on this show is very confusing. I'm sure shoving two years into this hour was tricky, and it seemed easier to just place a filmy veil over the timeline, but it kind of falls apart if you think about it too hard. ANYWAY, this is what is afoot. Swimming in a suit with a beer seems fun to me! There is a yacht in the pool, and Alan Shepard appears to be IN said yacht, banging a groupie, as is his wont.
BETRAYED Wives Club
Poor Louise.
Recriminations Wives Club
The next morning, she confronts him. Apparently everyone warned her he was a horndog, including his own family. "But I married you anyway. Because I love you. And I think you can be...amazing. So don't humiliate me. Not in private, but especially not in public," she says, and he apologizes, but he doesn't seem very sorry and also his entire performance is so closed-off and checked-out that he almost comes across as a robot. I think it can be hard to play someone brilliant and driven and stressed, but they're also not giving this character any time to breath.
Swimsuits Wives Club
Meanwhile, down at the pool, a reporter is harrassing Annie Glenn for a quote, and this is where we learn she has a stutter, which Rene here swoops in and covers by telling the reporter that he's got her so worked up she can barely speak, and kicking him out. Here, this scene sort of works because Yvonne Strahovski is innately really warm and likeable. But it's also not really clear on the fact that Annie Glenn DOES have an actual stutter (I only know because I looked it up) and isn't just freaking out under the pressure. Imagine, if we'd known she had a stutter before, how much more intense a scene of someone trying to force her to speak would have been. That said: These bathing suits are boss.
Explosion Wives Club
ANYWAY, they all go down to watch the test launch. It goes well....until the rocket expldoes. Everyone is obviously distressed at the thought of her husband being inside a rocket that burst into flames, and when it blows, Max Caplan Reporter gets this look on his face like, "shit, this might be a real story." The thing is, it IS a real story: The tension of having your spouse go up into space is MONUMENTAL -- which is why this episode's later scene where everyone is waiting to find out if Alan Shepard is alive in his rocket works really well -- and so so so dramatically rich. It's frustrating that this pilot doesn't manage to tap that. Anyway, Louise is like, "this is why they do tests. It's going to be fine," and everyone basically freaks out on her, and accuses her of being a martyr, and then Trudy gives a really stilted speech about how Louise isn't being very MODERN about her husband's infidelity. Shove it, Trudy. Louise essentially tells everyone that she and Alan are partners, "in our marriage and in this competition [to be the first man in space]. So may the best man and woman win." Then she walks off and tries not to cry. Poor Louise. Also, I really feel like we needed to devote more than twenty minutes to said competition. Although I will say that I think this shot is very well-composed in terms of visually communicating how all these relationships are going.
Informative Magazine Covers Club
Hey look! The race to be the first man in space is down to three dudes: ONE DUDE we've spent all this time with, and TWO DUDES who haven't had more than one line of dialogue. WHO WILL GET IT? (It's hard to care if you haven't even met the other two people.) And yes, the answer is Alan Shepard.
Makeup Case Wives Club
Everything is going great until Harry Goldenblatt comes in and announces, "IT'S THE RUSSIANS." They've gotten a dude into space before the US did, and they want a statement from Alan about it. NASA does, I mean. The Russians are not awaiting comment. But Alan doesn't seem to care? He literally says as much. That's...it's hard to get invested in a character who doesn't care about things, and also isn't he supposed to be super ambitious? I don't remember how this went down in The Right Stuff. But regardless of the fact that he might be a robot, when Louise leaves to go home (it's never explained why anyone is anywhere or why), she basically tells him not to die in space and he's like, "mmkay." A) This is such rich emotional fodder, I wish we FELT SOMETHING. and B) Why wouldn't you have him say something romantic and swoony to her here (or at any other moment) so that we at least GET why she loves him, as she claims? Finally: I LOVE that makeup case.
Wives Klatch Club
The day of the launch, all the other wives come over to keep Louise company. Marge: "Hi. It's us." No shit, Marge. It's nice of them to come see her but we don't know WHY they've decided to do this, really. We have no sense of their relationships, really, or if they're doing this out of guilt, or...look, I didn't think I was going to be this critical of this show, because it wasn't an unenjoyable experience, watching it. But this pilot needed to be like three or four episodes, because NONE of the emotional beats in it feel earned AND it's kind of confusing, which is a rough twofer. If you're making people go along with your emotional beats, you can't also confuse them about actual story points. ANYWAY.
"Just because NASA doesn't let wives down at the Cape, doesn't mean you should be alone," Betty says. "No one can really know what you're going through, but hopefully we're the next best thing. I MEAN THAT," Trudy says. Thanks for assuring us that you're not just bullshitting, Trudy. And Louise is like, "I don't wanna hang out," and then Trudy basically tells Louise that Alan is PROBABLY GONNA DIE, so now is not the time to turn up her nose at "a little human kindness." Then Louise says, "if you want to be kind, you'll respect my privacy," and then shuts the door on them. Well. That WAS kind of harsh.
So she goes into and watches alone with Max Caplan: Reporter, sadly without trying to make out with him, and everyone else goes back to Betty's (?) house and watches the launch together and it IS tense and fascinating, because you can imagine what it would be like to watch this sort of thing, in real time, involving someone you know. This is why Space Movies are so effective and it was for sure the best part of this hour, and totally why ABC bought this show.
Mission Control Club
The costumer luckily did not forget to put all these dudes in short sleeves and ties and horn-rimmed glasses and Alan makes it out alive, and there is cheering.
Back at Louise's, Max Caplan: Reporter presses Louise for a comment, and she almost faints. She then tells him that NO ONE can know she was scared, before going out onto her front stoop to give her statement to all the other newsfolk gathered there. She basically says she's glad her husband is alive and YAY AMERICA! Which is kind of the only thing she COULD say. She can't be all, "meh, I'm kinda over that guy. Whatever."
NO BONING? Wives Club
The Shepards get to go to the White House and then end up in this glorious hotel room, where Louise jumps, gleefully, on the bed. "You did it!" she says. "You were amazing. Now we can take step back and just breathe." Alan is like, "except JFK asked me to go to the moon, so..." He is also taking a "transpo plane" back to Cape that night to get to work bright and early, and I don't mean to generalize, but I do feel like if you are the first man in space and are ensconced in a gorgeous hotel room after meeting the president, and there is no banging...there is potentially a MAJOR problem in your marriage. Louise's face seems to agree with me. Especially because Alan just goes back to the hotel where all the dudes are living and literally starts chasing tail anew. Poor Louise.
Awkward Unearned Dance Party Club
Meanwhile...now Louise is home again? Sure. Okay. I don't know. Anyway, she goes over to Trudy's house and finally admits she needs some human kindness. "I can't change who I am, Trudy, but we're going to the moon. The moon. We wives are going to need each other." And this somehow leads into an impromptu Wives Dance Party at Trudy's, where Louise all of a sudden is announcing that none of them are alone. I...feel like that was sort of a hard right turn, but you know. It's a pilot. Let's see how it hangs together next week, and hope that the trip toward the moon landing gets some room to breathe. Me, I'm just here for the Jell-O molds.