S01.E04: Cracked Pot

[CheshireCat]

Quote

Franklin's marital indiscretions push Eleanor to socialize with more politically active women; a stubborn shoulder injury begins Betty's troubled history with pain medication; Michelle vows to put Chicago's inadequate health care system to task.

Air date: May 8, 2022

[Sir RaiderDuck OMS]

Wow. A doctor saying "Don't worry about mixing your narcotics with booze"??? The oldest son was right to just start calling everyone when Betty was likely about to get herself and her daughter killed.

Didn't know Franklin and Eleanor came that close to divorcing.

Viola Davis's weird mouth gestures continue to annoy.

[monakane]

15 hours ago, Sir RaiderDuck OMS said:

Viola Davis's weird mouth gestures continue to annoy.

And the weird eyebrows.  The stuff with Betty and the pills was exactly what happened to my mother.  They were giving her percodan, xanax and halcyon all at the same time.  Needless to say she struggled with addiction.  My mother, like Betty, believed that doctors were gods.  The good thing is Betty turned her suffering into a positive by shedding light on addiction and starting the Betty Ford Clinic.

[AnnMarie17]

I found Betty's scenes riveting...and thoroughly enjoyed Eleanor's scenes, as well.  Her heartbreak upon finding the letters was palpable, I even shed a tear.  I thought both Betty and Eleanor delivered this week and will keep tuning in for them! 

[4Sibes Redux]

I would have liked clarification on if the woman leading the dance class was supposed to be Martha Graham. If they gave this information, I missed it. 

[emmawoodhouse]

Yes, Betty was in New York and took lessons from Martha Graham in the early '40s.

[Marley]

Viola’s mouth movements were even worse. Somehow it seems like the way she’s speaking as Michelle got worse too. I also do not buy her as a younger Michelle in 2001. She looks like she should be Barack’s mom in those scenes.

Viola Davis is kind of ruining the show. She shouldn’t have pushed for herself to be Michelle if she couldn’t properly pull it off.

Eleanor really was ahead of her time.

Betty’s scenes were great too. Of course the dr back then said you can just mix booze and any pain meds. He was just making it rain with those prescriptions lol. Yikes with the boiling egg. That actually happened to me once but I was drunk no painkillers lol. I know she was all fucked up but Betty’s kids were annoying me just watching them lol.

[marinw]

Is Betty's doctor a really bad doctor or were his attitudes typical for the time? 

Edited May 10, 2022 by marinw

[cinsays]

18 hours ago, monakane said:

And the weird eyebrows.  The stuff with Betty and the pills was exactly what happened to my mother.  They were giving her percodan, xanax and halcyon all at the same time.  Needless to say she struggled with addiction.  My mother, like Betty, believed that doctors were gods.  The good thing is Betty turned her suffering into a positive by shedding light on addiction and starting the Betty Ford Clinic.

i have not even noticed the eyebrows, those lips are all i can see, sadly.

my husband was on a mix of drugs for years following a long stay in the hospital that left him very flat in demeanor.  finally, his primary asked me why he was taking all these drugs (he was present and no hipaa violations) and weaned him off most of them and he was a different person, so much more animated and happy.

18 hours ago, AnnMarie17 said:

I found Betty's scenes riveting...and thoroughly enjoyed Eleanor's scenes, as well.  Her heartbreak upon finding the letters was palpable, I even shed a tear.  I thought both Betty and Eleanor delivered this week and will keep tuning in for them! 

how dumb was he to have the letters in a box for her to so easily find???

 

[cameron]

Always have read about Betty's problems with booze and pills; but didn't know the extent of how bad.  She always did kinda talked with a slow, deliberate speech pattern when she was in the White House.  I attribute that now to her booze and pill dependency.

[monakane]

7 hours ago, marinw said:

Is Betty's doctor a really bad doctor or were his attitudes typical for the time? 

It was absolutely typical for the times.  

[marinw]

2 hours ago, monakane said:

It was absolutely typical for the times.  

What also struck me is how the Doc didn't perscribe any sort of phsiotherapy or exercise. Depending on the problem, swimming can be great for shoulders. As a  dancer, Betty could have been receptive to that cource of action.

My eyes rolled into the ceiling when Michelle marched into a hospital, gave a self-rightous if ultimately factual dressing-down to Kate Mulgrew (she's getting around!), and got a new job. From what I remember of Becomming, it didn't happen that way. I suppose some dramatic licence is allowed, but I still found that  scene hard to fathom.

Edited May 10, 2022 by marinw

[Demian]

6 hours ago, marinw said:

My eyes rolled into the ceiling when Michelle marched into a hospital, gave a self-rightous if ultimately factual dressing-down to Kate Mulgrew (she's getting around!), and got a new job.

That was bad, but all of the ham-fisted references to Franklin Roosevelt's legs during that dinner scene were worse.  The writing on this show is depressing.

7 hours ago, monakane said:

15 hours ago, marinw said:

Is Betty's doctor a really bad doctor or were his attitudes typical for the time? 

It was absolutely typical for the times.  

Completely.  My 73-year-old grandmother got addicted to Valium around that time, which had been prescribed by a similar pill-farm hack to "calm her nerves."

[monakane]

14 hours ago, Demian said:

Completely.  My 73-year-old grandmother got addicted to Valium around that time, which had been prescribed by a similar pill-farm hack to "calm her nerves."

Same with my mother.  She was addicted to xanax and percocet.  When I was younger, I remember her being given "diet pills" by the doctor as well.

[Goshengir1]

I enjoyed this episode, as I am enjoying the series because I am a sucker for bio pics and I love Gillian Anderson. Finding those letters must have been so devastating for Eleanor, and that attitude of 'boys will be boys' from his mother and a divorce would ruin his career.  UGH. I did give a little chortle at the mother saying there had never been a divorce in the Roosevelt family and it wasn't going to start now, because while FDR and Eleanor stayed married there were about 15 marriages between their 5 kids so that no-divorce trend didn't last much longer!

My nit-pick of this episode was when Eleanor said she was tired after she and Franklin arrived back in New York from France, and that it was 2 am in Paris like she was jet lagged.  Good grief, it was 1919!  They would have sailed by ship and taken 4-5 days to get back, there was no jet lag involved in travel at that time.

My mom told me about the Feminine Mystique and how big of a deal that book was when it came out.  I enjoyed that scene with the society ladies passing it around like it was pornography.

[MMEButterfly]

On 5/10/2022 at 6:08 AM, marinw said:

Is Betty's doctor a really bad doctor or were his attitudes typical for the time? 

Pretty common. There were women in my family who took such a combination of prescribed pills. Some added alcohol and and some didn't. The added alcohol really did some in too early. 

[Demian]

On 5/30/2022 at 7:51 PM, MMEButterfly said:

The added alcohol really did some in too early. 

Two of my mother's friends from high school ended up accidentally drowning in the bathtub (y'know, like Whitney Houston) because they mixed overly prescribed prescription drugs with wine.

[luvthepros]

On 5/9/2022 at 10:29 PM, Marley said:

Viola’s mouth movements were even worse. Somehow it seems like the way she’s speaking as Michelle got worse too. I also do not buy her as a younger Michelle in 2001. She looks like she should be Barack’s mom in those scenes.

Viola Davis is kind of ruining the show. She shouldn’t have pushed for herself to be Michelle if she couldn’t properly pull it off.

Eleanor really was ahead of her time.

Betty’s scenes were great too. Of course the dr back then said you can just mix booze and any pain meds. He was just making it rain with those prescriptions lol. Yikes with the boiling egg. That actually happened to me once but I was drunk no painkillers lol. I know she was all fucked up but Betty’s kids were annoying me just watching them lol.

Late to the party........I also thought Viola Davis looked like the baby's grandmother. She is not passable as a young Mom.