jmcgil22

Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce is Hollywood misogyny at its finest. I am embarrassed for everyone who is involved with this show. The show follows a group of obnoxious, narcissistic selfish, neurotic, and spiteful women who cannot keep it together on any level. None of the characters are likable at all, especially the lead character Abbey. And they all have disastrous personal and professional lives despite their endless supply of life coaches, gurus, shamans, housekeepers and nannies. They are also terrible parents with zero emotional connection to their annoying children. The story lines on the show range from highly implausible to simply ridiculous with cringe-worthy dialog, while the characters' personalities seem to change from one episode to the next. The token gay and minority characters have small roles that do not fit well into the show. Worse, they are sadly stereotypical and completely mundane. I am not sure why Hollywood finds it so difficult to create strong and interesting female characters who actually have it together; characters that would be more representative of the female adult population. Instead they continue to push the same tiring, nagging, hypocritical, intrusive, bitchy, crazy, promiscuous trainwrecks ad nauseam. Come on, Hollywood, try harder!

UPDATE: I just read that Janeane Garofalo left the show in the middle of the first season because of "creative differences". I have a lot of respect for someone who has enough integrity to walk away from this embarrassment, instead of showing up for a paycheck.

The first season was critically acclaimed, and with good reason... It had great acting, fascinating characters, and an intriguing storyline that drew you in and kept you interested. Admittedly, Season 2 had some big shoes to fill, but instead of continuing with their winning formula, the creators decided to make things exaggerated and overdone. The Season 2 characters are insincere, unlikeable and overdeveloped, with every possible problem, obsession and kink to make them appear edgy and dangerous. Instead they come off as silly and contrived. The acting is also atrocious, which is surprising coming from solid performers like Farrell and McAdams. Vince Vaughn is especially bad, and always appears as though he is doing a parody on SNL and will drop the punch line at any moment. Perhaps some of the bad acting can be blamed on the ridiculous script, particularly evident during the scene between Farrell's character and his attorney ("I welcome judgement."), and the one between McAdams and her father. You almost get the feeling that you are watching a B-movie worthy of Tom Sizemore and Steven Bauer, it's that bad. Even without high expectations, the second season is a big fail on all counts and will disappoint all but the undiscerning viewer.

This show is aimed at kids under 20 years of age. At least I hope that was the intended demographic, because if not, the creators are way off the mark. But even teenagers expect at least a minimal amount of entertainment value, which is completely lacking in this show. The lead actress is so bad, she must be related to the creator or one of the executive producers, because I cannot imagine a casting agent seeing her audition and thinking "Yes!! She's brilliant!!". The characters are not convincing, while the plot lines are light on imagination but heavy on predictability. The script is poorly written, with some truly cringe-worthy lines and scenarios. I cannot see this show attracting or keeping enough viewers. My prediction? Cancelled after the first season.