The Mysteries Of Laura Is Horrible And Hacky, But Still Kinda Nails Motherhood

debraIt’s not so much that NBC’s new working mom/cop dramedy The Mysteries of Laura is terrible as it is hellishly boring. It’s an hour of Debra Messing making flustered facial expressions while wearing sweat pants, and it’s hard to stay focused on a storyline that has the energy and excitement of a snail taking a dump. Reviewers tore Mysteries 1000 new a-holes; Vulture went so far as to title their review: “The Mysteries of Laura Is a Bad Show. It’s a Bad, Bad Show.” So you get what we’re working with here.

The first thing we learn about Laura, an NYPD detective, is that she drives a Volvo station wagon with a siren on top. The front seat is filled with crushed Goldfish crackers and sippy cups, and it’s a cliched and groan-worthy introduction to the main character. And yet, a tiny voice in my head spoke up. “That looks like YOUR car,” it said.

And it did. Like, exactly.

The show is an hour of goofy mom moments intermixed with a dull mystery that Laura eventually solves, since that’s the title of the show and all. It is so incredibly dumb that the only thing worth mentioning is that it’s a murder mystery that goes down in the real upper-middle class suburb of Westchester, which – in TV New York – is filled with Downton Abbey style mansions. Unlike many other scripted women Laura is actually good at her job, and Messing is still able to show off her comedic chops despite working with medicore material. Thus these stupidly cliched Mom-ents, while still dumb, were often funny and human.

  • Laura shoots a criminal who’s got a gun to another man’s head, and and then gingerly wipes the blood off the hostage’s face with a tissue.
  • Laura pulls an old sandwich from under a newspaper, sniffs it, and eats it!
  • Laura’s messy desk at work is covered in succulents because she’s most likely a Basic with a Pinterest account and a dream of a more serene life.
  • Laura tells her boss her nighttime plans are: “Laundry, bath, martini.” Sounds nice.
  • Laura is angry her estranged husband brought home Nerf guns for her sons even though she’s a cop with a gun because: Motherhood!
  • There is a cake eating scene. SHE LOVES CAKE because: Woman!
  • Laura makes a stress-eating joke!
  • Laura jokes about the selection at Target. She shops at Target!
  • She calls her husband before an important preschool interview wearing Spanx shorts, strapless bra and Uggs.
  • Laura gives her horrible rambunctious kids cough medicine to calm them down for said interview. They fall asleep, waking only to barf on her mid-interview and shoot the school headmistress with the aforementioned Nerf gun.

But while I was watching this goofy, hacky mess of a show I kept quietly relating to everything Laura was going through. Just because a character is outrageously one dimensional and cartoon-ish doesn’t mean there’s not some truth behind her actions. I often clean up people I don’t know – I’ll pick a hair off of a stranger’s shirt while waiting in line at Target because, yep, I also love shopping at Target. I have plopped planters of succulents all over my house to make it look more cozy, most of them are now dried up and dead. I eat stale chips when I find them under the couch. I march around my house half-naked yelling at people. I’ve considered doping my kids up with Dramamine so they zonk out on long flights. And of course, I turn down for cake.

The scene that clicked with me the most is when Laura, panicked that her sons have just been kicked out of their (absurdly fancy and unrealistic) preschool, declares: “I just need somewhere my kids can go from 8AM to 5PM.”

“YAS GURL,” I muttered, nodding my head vigorously. The childcare struggle is real, even when scripted.

“I’m a terrible mother,” Messing says at the end of the episode. This is the trope of the show; she’s another yet frazzled mom trying to lean in and have it all while wearing sensible shoes and balancing work, life, marital problems, and Spanx. But there’s truth in those moments, and that’s what gives this show its only glimmer of hope.

(Photo: NBC)

 

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