“Adoption was only my last resort anyway,” Katherine says. When the case worker sternly suggests there are some issues with Katherine’s plan to adopt - namely, that there is no plan, and that Katherine is treating it as an obviously undesirable option - Katherine compares this woman’s hygiene negatively to that of her dogs. She tells a case worker that she would take any child “whatever the age or drug problem” “just get us a baby,” demands Olive. Katherine, giving up her hopes of conceiving with her ex, decides on a whim to pursue adoption, an option treated as a convenient backstop for baby procurement.

Even the show’s one seemingly worthy character, a boyfriend played by Steen Raskopoulos, is eventually revealed to be cruel in a moment when he mistreats young Olive, providing Katherine an opportunity to prove herself - she may be awful, but she’s never not correct.įor all this, the show is manageably toxic up until one extended scene in which it truly loses its grip. Everyone on the show is always worse than Katherine, so her outbursts are always the correct response. It’s a half-joke whose punchline is “wouldn’t it be crazy if someone were this arrogant?,” less shocking than wearying.Įlsewhere, Ryan is careful to always provide a justification for Katherine’s actions: To wit, when she calls her daughter’s schoolmate a “tasteless little ditch pig,” she swiftly explains that she’s just a protective parent.

This, like the rest of Katherine’s antics, puts nothing on the line, and indeed is intended as a fluffy bit of self-congratulation. It’s never commented upon or developed further. Everything about her character is carefully calibrated to scandalize, starting with her outfit in the show’s first episode: She walks her daughter Olive (Kate Byrne) to school in a sweatshirt reading “World’s Smallest Pussy,” with marabou fringe. Once she's seen the man beneath.Ryan represents her onscreen avatar as a badass rebel doing things her own way - vainly missing the point that an antihero is supposed to, you know, be something other than a hero. They will have dinner together every evening. Once she's pregnant with his heir, they need never share a bed again.īut Emma is no pushover. They will be husband and wife by night only.

When Emma Gladstone, a vicar's daughter turned seamstress, appears in his library wearing a wedding gown, he decides on the spot that she'll do.

He needs an heir-which means he needs a wife. Since his return from war, the Duke of Ashbury's to-do list has been short and anything but sweet: brooding, glowering, menacing London ne'er-do-wells by night. When girl meets Duke, their marriage breaks all the rules. IsPublicPerformanceAllowed False languages OverDrive Product Record readingOrder 1 images

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