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By their very nature, women are strange … bonkers, even.
Clothing style, makeup, mannerisms, hair, shoes, body image, emotions, logic, methodologies, reactions … they’re all foreign, not only to their male counterparts but within their own gender.
Knowing this, I thought I would take the plunge, remove myself from my comfort zone and delve into Dietland, a series seemingly devoted to touching on many of these subjects, not to mention the curious #metoo movement.
Yeah, me: A full-blooded, heterosexual, gung ho male type who, more often than not, is and continues to be confused by just about every single item noted above concerning women. And … why not? I’m fond of saying you don’t learn from your successes, you learn from your mistakes. (And, even more so, from the things you don’t know.) So what better venue to learn from than AMC’s Dietland?
Granted, it’s a television show. But that doesn’t mean I can’t learn a thing or two about ‘the fairer sex’ and what they go through in a program such as this. It can’t all be fantasy and daydreams, right?
As predicted, the first two episodes did not disappoint.
We’re introduced to Plum Kettle (Joy Nash) who is a plus-sized, somewhat introverted, depressed and medicated ghost writer for Daisy Chain, a teen fashion and beauty magazine where she answers letters from write-ins who drone and query about their own personal life-stopping ails. Plum responds as the editor of the publication, Kitty Montgomery (Julianna Margulies), who parades her unearned haughtiness as if it’s constantly on display, and without a care in the world what others think of her. Kitty is one of those individuals who has no problem walking all over her subordinates – in fact, she revels in it. And with Plum, as one of those subordinates, involuntarily shines many of those stones in Kitty’s metaphorical tiara she flaunts so gaudily.
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The main subject of Dietland however is Plum and her inadequacies. Self-deprecating, admittedly fat and having stated she’s tried just about every weight loss program out there, she’s on a mission to surgically have her stomach stapled while also garnering enough money to have the resulting excess skin from her eventual weight loss removed, a difficult thing to accomplish in the field she’s in. But a once-famous diet guru has made an enticing offer to Plum, a recruitment, that will solve her financial woes and give her the ability to go forward with her surgeries with little worry. But underlying problems still exist for her; the fact she is an excellent baker as well as a food addict continually conflict with her goals. (She often has fantasies of herself as a cut-out figure fighting mountains of delicious foodstuffs and battling the confining career she’s mired in. Conversations with her mother don’t help, either.)
It’s pretty plain to see this show talks to a segment of today’s population who find themselves in similar predicaments. What AMC is ultimately trying to accomplish with the show has yet to be seen. But it’s talking to women whose buttons have been pushed time and again … and simply because they are women. It’s an easy attractant Dietland has conjured with resulting solutions and theoretical plans to deal with many of the unwanted plagues of being female. Plum’s journey will be a roller coaster’s twists and turns of adventures.
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Another component of the story line has a mysterious vigilante group – ‘Jennifer’ – doling out justice to those who abuse women from catcalling on up the chain. How this will fold into the tale of Plum, Kitty and the magazine will no doubt be revealed. And there’s little doubt the ramifications of Jennifer’s actions will impact all greatly.
*whew* See how all this could easily drive a man (me) to drink? And I have yet to get into the particulars of show itself. If nothing else, rolling down this road is going to open a lot of doors I’ve never before dared look beyond. But isn’t that half the fun of one’s willingness to plunge in head first?
I know: I’m borderline insane diving into something like this. But I’m forever the adventurous type, so …
Dietland airs Mondays at 9:00 PM on AMC.
What did you think of Dietland? Tell us in the comments below!
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