Good Girls - Can I be a feminist and still love a problematic ship?
Beth and Rio definitely bring the heat to NBC’s Good Girls, but can it ever be healthy to root for a toxic relationship?
Who doesn’t love a bad boy? Well, me, actually. At least, not the thirty-something me who’s now spent enough time in the self-help section to be able to spot emotional unavailability a mile off. It’s safe to say that it hasn’t always been this way. I’ve had my fair share of toxic relationships: the tortured artist to chose to cure his woes with other women; the arrogant city boy who never let me get a word in edgeways; and the workaholic who put everything and everyone else first. Luckily this isn’t just a tale of heartbreak, my taste in men has definitely improved with age. And as a proud feminist, these days I’m looking for a healthy, balanced and respectful relationship. No settling.
And just like my love life, my taste in TV couples has evolved over the years. Pairings that I was obsessed with in my teens and 20s have lost their edge with the benefit of hindsight. Where I once saw a romantic redemption arch in Buffy and Spike, I now see an emotionally and physically abusive relationship rooted in mutual depression. The heat of Gossip Girl’s Chuck and Blair has cooled, leaving behind a couple with serious communication issues, unhealthy power games, and a woman literally treated like property. Even Zack and Kelly - Saved by the Bell’s power couple - lose their sheen when you start to look underneath Zack’s charm and reveal a relationship built on manipulation, lies, and control.
Nowadays, I’d rather spend my Sundays binge-watching the shows that offer serious #couplegoals. True partnerships. Think Parks and Rec’s Ben and Leslie - respectful, openly loving, supporting, and equal. Or Modern Family’s Phil and Claire Dunphy, a couple that has conflicts but works through them, prioritising their marriage as well as family life, and still leaving time for role play. Even dystopian Danish drama The Rain offers the central pairing of Simone and Martin that’s built on trust, honesty, and respect.
So, why am I still a sucker for Brio?
If you’re not already watching Good Girls - and you really should be (it’s on NBC and syndicated internationally on Netflix) - you’re missing out on one of TV’s hottest ships. With three seasons under its belt, Good Girls follows three mothers in suburban Detroit - Beth (Christina Hendricks), her sister Annie (Mae Whitman), and childhood friend Ruby (Retta) - as they turn to a life of crime and quickly get drawn into the dark orbit of gang boss Rio. The relationship between Beth and Rio - known as Brio by fans - have fast become one of the show’s biggest selling points.
The first season saw an uneasy flirtation between the pair, which escalated into steamy hook-ups come season two. Beth (spoiler alert!) shooting Rio in the season finale definitely put a dampener on things in season three. But despite a reduced episode count thanks to Covid, hints of their spark were starting to emerge again.
But no matter how hot that bathroom sex scene was (and trust me, it’s worth a rewatch) Rio and Beth are undoubtedly toxic. They’re more likely to be pointing a gun at each other than trading sweet nothings. Power games are never-ending with both are constantly trying to outmanoeuvre each other each to gain the upper hand even when they’re ostensibly working together. And Rio is as quick to call Beth ‘bitch’ as he is ‘sweetheart’ or ‘darlin’’
Those facts alone should stop me falling for the ship. I’m too old for the bad boy, after all. But somehow, I find myself heading down a Tumblr rabbit hole and into YouTube fanvid marathons embarrassingly often.
I can’t rule out the pandemic effect. This is a time in my life when I’m more risk-adverse than ever before. Even just leaving the house to go to the local shop could have unforeseen consequences, so there’s definitely something seductive about watching a bored housewife (even one as undeniably glamorous as Christina Hendricks) get to live life a little more dangerously. It’s pure escapism; a look into a life I’m very unlikely to ever lead, with fictional threats that help distract from the all too real ones.
Even so, I have a sneaky suspicion that this couple would’ve caught my attention even without Covid. The X factor? Chemistry. Whatever it is - that elusive quality - Christina Hendricks and Manny Montana have it in spades. Beth and Rio might not have got physical under season two but their romance simmers under the surface from the pilot. States that last a second too long, a slightly raised eyebrow, a tense smile - every interaction they share feels charged with sex and danger. Good Girls is good, it’s well-paced and manages to navigate the delicate balance between darkness and humour, but it really lights up when Beth and Rio share a scene. It’s little wonder that many fans were frustrated by the lack of shared airtime between Hendricks and Montana in season three.
It’s not just heat (and Montana’s trademark smoulder) that makes Beth and Rio so appealing. Despite their many flaws, the couple do have positive interactions outside the bedroom. Beth has been mistreated for years by her cheating husband Dean, her intelligence has been undermined and her talents buried under a pile of laundry. Rio might be encouraging her into a life of violence and crime but he does encourage her. He sees her worth, recognises her potential and proves that he respects her more than once. Of course, he also pushes her to shoot FBI agents, clean dirty money and traffic drugs, but it still counts right?
Is it love? Dean certainly thinks so. In a season three scene that sparks a series of tragic events, he destroys a valuable printing cast and ignores Beth’s plea that Rio will kill her. His reason? “You don’t kill something you love.” Beth, on the hand, thinks that money is the only thing Rio loves. I think it’s more complicated than that.
In my rewatches, I think it’s clear that Rio has real feelings for Beth. His encouragement and leniency in response to her many slip ups do seem to indicate more than a purely professional interest. He even gets surprisingly emotional when learning that Beth ‘lost’ their baby. He’s also guarded, suspicious, and not the type to open up about his feelings - or admit he has them at all.
As for Beth, it’s hard to separate her feelings for Rio from her attraction to the danger and excitement his way of life provides. Would she be so interested in him if he wasn’t also offering her an escape from her everyday life? It’s impossible to tell. The lines are too blurred. And it’s that grey area that I think really made me fall for this pairing. Things are rarely black and white and I’ve come to really appreciate that nuance, especially now that the uncertainty of life is clearer than ever before.
That nuance isn’t something I was able to appreciate in the problematic ships of my teen years. You had to pick a side: Team Angel or Team Spike. The grey area is confusing, mysterious, unsettling and intoxicating. And while I might be not looking for the kind of grey area that comes along with characters prone to committing felonies and murder in my real life, it does make the lack of certainty we all face a little easier to accept. I’ll definitely be watching season four when it lands in 2021, I'll still be a feminist, and I’ll still be rooting for Beth and Rio.