Season 2, Episode 2. By now Ellen (Patricia Clarkson) and Scott (Brendan Gleeson) have had one session of marital counselling. It doesn't seem to have done them much good. Ellen still wants a divorce. But for Scott divorce seems to be unthinkable. What's his problem? Maybe he holds onto the old-fashioned view that for a man to agree to a divorce is an admission of personal failure.
Sure, he fooled around a bit, quite a bit, but that was years ago. And it's been quite a few years since they actually lived together. The audience is getting impatient - these two people don't want marriage guidance counsellors, they need a couple of legal counsellors, lawyers!
Ellen has become part of a Quaker community. So Scott talks stoopid. A Quaker must be someone who "quakes." So let us make a big deal out of that. Really. Yes, you erudite readers, a Justice Bennet at Derby, England, called the members of the Religious Society of Friends "Quakers" because their founder, George Fox (1624-91), told them to quake at the word of the Lord. I looked it up. Something to keep in mind if you're ever visiting the city of William Penn, Philadelphia.
This episode looks too much like a ten-minute lecture on how to be a marital counsellor. But most of us don't want to be marital counsellors, and this dialog in "State of the Union 2" reminds us why we don't.
Sure, he fooled around a bit, quite a bit, but that was years ago. And it's been quite a few years since they actually lived together. The audience is getting impatient - these two people don't want marriage guidance counsellors, they need a couple of legal counsellors, lawyers!
Ellen has become part of a Quaker community. So Scott talks stoopid. A Quaker must be someone who "quakes." So let us make a big deal out of that. Really. Yes, you erudite readers, a Justice Bennet at Derby, England, called the members of the Religious Society of Friends "Quakers" because their founder, George Fox (1624-91), told them to quake at the word of the Lord. I looked it up. Something to keep in mind if you're ever visiting the city of William Penn, Philadelphia.
This episode looks too much like a ten-minute lecture on how to be a marital counsellor. But most of us don't want to be marital counsellors, and this dialog in "State of the Union 2" reminds us why we don't.
