Crime
Grosse Pointe Garden Society
The seemingly charming members of The Grosse Pointe Garden Society hide their involvement in a murder in NBC’s drama.
In the world of television programming in 1986, it’s dog-eat-dog. Sometimes, those dogs just happen to be unfathomably rich British aristocrats who despise each other.
Lord Tony Baddington is the head of Corinium, an independent television station. Rupert Campbell-Black is a power-hungry, womanizing equestrian-star-turned-politician. And the two of them can barely stand to be in the same room.
It’s slightly unfortunate, then, that Tony is pressured to invite Rupert onto his board to give Corinium some political sway. It’s even more unfortunate that Rupert declines, and Tony is forced to play cat-and-mouse with someone he’d much rather see crash and burn.
So begins a war of backstabbing, blackmail and vicious maneuvers, one in which everyone around them is caught in the crossfire – including Declan McKenna, a talk-show host who arrives at Corinium to find things much more complicated than he bargained for.
Nothing’s off the table for these two rivals…and that really does mean nothing. May the best stupidly rich socialite win!
If there’s anything at all worth giving Rivals credit for, it’s that it’svery upfront about the show it’s going to be. The opening moments of the pilot episode depict a graphic sexual encounter with very little left to the imagination, and the show doesn’t slow down from there. Several scenes of sexuality are shown, explicit dialogue is constant, and there are multiple instances of full nudity (both male and female). Just when you think, “Oh, well surely they won’t show that,” they do, indeed, show that.
To make matters even worse, redeemable traits are shockingly scarce among our characters. Men cheat on their wives, women flirt with their friends’ husbands, and those playing the Corinium power game are willing to lie, cheat, steal and step on anyone and everyone just to climb a little higher. It’s a bit like watching your two least favorite sports teams play a championship game. If you hate everyone on the field, why bother seeing how it ends?
The one slight upside here is that while some dramas hide their graphic content until the viewer is already invested, Rivals bears it proudly on its sleeve. Don’t worry about navigating a minefield with this drama series. You’ll set off an explosion just by hitting “play.”
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at [email protected], or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
Television tycoon Lord Tony Baddington is forced to convince his nemesis, politician Rupert Campbell-Black, to join the board of his independent station Corinium. Meanwhile, talk-show host Declan McKenna arrives to join the Corinium roster, only to immediately clash with his producer.
The episode both begins and ends with explicit sexual encounters. In the opening scene, Rupert has a liaison with a journalist in the bathroom of an airplane, and rear male nudity is shown. In the episode’s final moments, a montage is shown of various couples in sexual situations, including one same-sex couple. Graphic motion and female nudity are both heavily featured. Strong sexual dialogue persists throughout the episode, including references to pornography, homosexuality and genitalia. In one scene, Declan’s 20-year-old daughter Taggie stumbles upon Rupert playing tennis with a married woman; both are fully naked, and full-frontal male nudity is shown. The moment is brief, but extremely unexpected and jarring. The woman is also very briefly shown naked before she runs away.
Characters drink and smoke cigarettes throughout the episode. A Corinium executive gets drunk while having lunch with Declan. The O’Hara’s new neighbor Lizzie brings over a bottle of wine as a housewarming gift, and she and Declan’s wife promptly “get smashed.” Champagne and liquor are served at a garden party. Tony is partial to cigars, which he smokes throughout the episode.
Lizzie arrives at the O’Hara’s house carrying a Bible, and Declan’s daughters immediately assume she’s a Jehovah’s Witness. In reality, she found the Bible on their lawn, and they conclude that Declan must have thrown it out the window because he thinks it’s a “literary abomination.”
The f-word is used 22 times, while the s-word is used six. God’s name is taken in vain seven times. “B—-rd” is used twice, while “a–“, “b–ch,” “d–n” and “c—“ are each used once. A woman gives Rupert the middle finger after learning he’s been cheating on her.
Lauren Cook is serving as a 2021 summer intern for the Parenting and Youth department at Focus on the Family. She is studying film and screenwriting at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. You can get her talking for hours about anything from Star Wars to her family to how Inception was the best movie of the 2010s. But more than anything, she’s passionate about showing how every form of art in some way reflects the Gospel. Coffee is a close second.
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