I am a bit of a TV junkie and was SUPER excited to watch the return of Homeland and SVU Law and Order this week.
But something started to irk me and that was the portrayal of my female super heroes.
In the short space between a season, Olivia Benson (Mariksa Harigaty) and Carrie Mathison (Claire Daines) became mothers.
I was very excited about this prospect. I was looking forward to seeing a new side to my favorite female roles and a fresh arena for their self exploration. On the season return, it seems that motherhood has been slotted in as a side show to the full time shooting of crooks. This gives me the shits.
Olivia (Law and Order, Special Victims Unit), had baby “John Doe” handed to her at a social services hearing (which happens all the time because adoption is so easy), and became an instant mother, after wistfully thinking secretly about babies for a long time.
She is now back this season as the captain of the squad, and we get snapshots of her undertaking her ‘mothering’ duties which include her handing the kid over to the nanny and running to the ER in a panic when she gets a call on her mobile phone that the child might be sick. (And hence we are swiftly reminded that she is a mother once again, because we did kind of forgot about this for the last 40 or so minutes.)
We last saw Carrie (Clare Daines, Homeland) who went from shooting people and protecting national security while six months pregnant straight to her posting in Afghanistan. Here she is undercovering a terrorism ring with a post baby body and no child in sight (except for a photo, again a reminder to the viewer that motherhood has recently occurred).
( I had to tell my husband, yes she was actually pregnant the last time we saw her and re -winded to show him said photo of the infant.)
Carrie soon finds herself in a car shoot out and we soon learn that her homebody sister and father are dutifully taking care of her newborn baby while she is busy fighting terrorists in the Middle East.
Carries sister says pleasantly over the dishes when she returns from Afghanistan that they need to ‘chat’ about the care of the newborn. Carries says yes to this conversation, then in the same breath takes a call on her mobile and runs of the house to comfort her CIA friend who is in distress after punching two people’s lights out at a diner.
See you can fit motherhood in!
It is easy!
Between arresting crooks, under covering a terrorism ring and being a good friend to your fallen comrades you can whip home, give the kid a snuggle and a feed, and go on to climb the ladder of the CIA.
Did I mention that you can do all this by yourself with no husband or partner in sight?
What I was looking forward to was seeing was two of my favorite female leads exploring their new role as mothers. I wanted to see them balance parenting and their careers while facing this challenge alone. (I still expected them to kick some butt! Because that is what they do!)
Hell, this sounds sadistic, but I would have even liked to see them opening the door to the delivery man with their boobies accidentally falling out or seen them sculling a wine while crying on the phone.
Even. Just. For. One. Episode.
But I guess that would not make good TV.
Are there any other TV fail examples of super mums you can think of?
Do you think shit will eventually going to get real for Olivia and Carrie?