We’ve come to the end of the saga following Sarah Jessica Parker’s Frances and Thomas Haden Church’s Robert on their post-marriage adventures. It was a whirlwind from start to finish, but I’m glad I got the chance to be along for the ride. Watching these characters change and evolve has been so much fun these past couple years. While other HBO shows may have found the wrath from viewers over the finale, I think this is one bow we can neatly tie-up and walk away. Which is what we’ve been trying to watch Frances and Robert do for the last three years anyway.
Frances decides that now that the renters are out, she’s thought about it and is ready to sell their old house. Robert is gung-ho but also has some reservations. This the house where their kids grew up, where Frances nursed them, where their family thrived. Any house like that is going to be hard to let go of after spending so much quality time and love there. Jackie (Becki Newton) is however not feeling the love and she wants out. She feels like Robert will always choose Frances first, back her first. And Jackie wants out. TBH, Jackie, I think you’ve never had a long term relationship of any kind and aren’t even giving it a shot. Robert was married to Frances for 20 years. You’re a blip on that radar. Get over it. 
Frances is working really hard to be happy. At work, she’s challenging them to grow and stop being such sticks in the mud. With her friends, she’s trying to get them out of their own heads for a minute. Dallas (Talia Balsam) has had an ethics complaint from one of her patients, so she’s now worried she’ll lose the career that literally defines her. Though she bravely defends herself in the meeting, she finds herself at a foster care center asking for a teen kid. And even though Dallas had troubles with her son, he’s a good kid. She could be the love these troubled kids need. And Diane? Well, Diane (Molly Shannon) is over the damn bunches and gaps on her clothing racks. She quits and decides to be Gordon’s kept lady. But she denies the knock? Diane, you literally know he could just call the cops and have you removed for trespassing, right? I’m sad not to see some better character development. That was a disappointment to see Diane end her story that way. I was hoping she would have grown a little bit more.
In the end, Robert is back in their old house and Frances is still on to bigger and better things. They are happy and the kids are happy. In the end, that’s all you can ask for really. It’s been such a journey and Sarah Jessica Parker and Thomas Haden Church had amazing chemistry together on the show. I’ll miss their bicker bantering. I’m glad even with Jackie’s exit that there wasn’t a last-ditch attempt to have Frances and Robert end up back together. It would have felt so forced. They have grown beyond each other and even though the love won’t ever go away, that doesn’t mean they are in love with each other. They’ll go on to live their lives and do their things, but always know that they can manage with each other. As a child of split parents, that’s all any kid can ask for. Just be civil. It makes a world of difference.
You can now find Divorce, the complete three seasons, parked on HBONow/Go.
2 comments
”Kept woman”, really? How about NOT using such degrading insulting words? What’s wrong if man provides for your family, how come it became something diminishing? Female empowerment is not necessary about money or providing for herself – it’s about the FREEDOM TO CHOSE, to do whatever she wants, including to NOT provide for herself. You are not for empowerment if you namecall women for not working (not all actually can or even want, THEIR choice/coircumastances, not yours). You should be more professional and less subjective. Actually REVIEW the series instead of recaping your own feelings about it. And this ”You’re a blip on that radar. Get over it” – hello, would you say this to a woman in REAL life? That she should resign to being ”just a blip” and have no self-worth and be always in the shadow of her man’s first marriage??? I mean, it’s one thing to tell her to understand that her man comes with a past and will always be connected to his first wife… But it’s another thing to call her ”a blip” totally devaluing her own story she had with him. So what if it did not last a while – it doesn’t mean it meant nothing and she deserved nothing. GET OVER IT and be more empathethic towards people, fictional or not. You don’t get to namecall or devalue anyone for them falling short of your expectations. YOU have some growth to do.
Sheesh, it’s just a TV show and all opinions regarding such are valid. And, I guess you’d be happy to know, that the writer of this piece is no longer with us.