This week, I watched Sirens, the latest admission into the collection of shows about rich white ladies who need less money and more therapy. I turned it on as one does with most Netflix content — as background noise — and yet found myself moving aside windows containing time-sensitive and more important tasks so I could more clearly witness the micro-expressions flitting across the luminous porcelain face of a very suppressed Julianne Moore. Sirens is the latest show to objectify, scrutinize, and project onto the lives of Nantucket women. The writer of the series, Molly Smith Metzler, accomplishes this by recognizing how sinister it is to witness a menagerie of members of the ruling class draped in the textiles of Lily Pulitzer... Metzler adapted the series from a play, which is especially impressive considering how seldom one is at a play thinking: "This could be longer.." But apparently (!) it could be, and three times longer at that, and its adapted form is lengthened without feeling arbitrarily extended (although admittedly I've never seen the play; maybe it was perfect). Maybe it’s that Milly Alcock and Meghann Fahy really look like they could be sisters or that Meghann can do no wrong in my eyes, but I found the show to be more interesting than purely soapy. The women in it are fabulous and fucked in equal measure and for once a woman being simultaneously responsible and completely careless with herself feels interestingly portrayed rather than her just being parked in the land of Hot Mess, where she is doomed to languish until she finds inspiration or a man or a drug trip and is Forever Changed. Julianne Moore has really grown on me as an actress, since my initial reservations were formed around the age of eleven, stemming from my parents' complaints about her "horrible" Boston accent on 30 Rock, and growing when I witnessed her surely inaccurate German accent in Maggie's Plan (solid film). However, I have since decided I want her to play my mother in a film so if you're reading this Julianne, forgive me! I don't mean a word of it! This is a great part for her because when she seems cold and bizarre and distant it rings true and when she appears kind and grounded and emotionally generous, it also seems accurate. Ultimately, Sirens is a meditation on the fact that just because a woman is weird and kind of a bitch doesn’t mean she’s a villain. All in all, I enjoyed it and even recommended it to a friend. The bird stuff seemed unnecessary, but whatever! Rich people are weird! And to conclude, and also somewhat change the subject, I'll add I found it ridiculous when Milly Alcock kept being asked during press for Sirens “what was going on” when she was giggling on stage during the 2023 Golden Globes. She was drunk, baby! Ever heard of it? Sirens is out now on Netflix — let me know if you love it or hate it or were completely bored by it. x