HAYWARD

"Facebook's COO Sheryl Sandberg thinks we can have it all, Anne-Marie Savage [sic] thinks we can't have it all. All I can think is, what the hell? Have you ever heard a man wonder if he could have it all? So why are we saddled with so much guilt? I have enough Catholic and Jewish guilt, now I'm getting feminist guilt?"

...Is exactly the kind of boilerplate speech a Busy Busy Businesswoman would give at a meeting of Busy Busy Businesswomen, the Platonic ideal of what Busy Busy Businesswomen talk about, all the time. Aren't we all so Busy, fellow Businesswomen? For a show that locates its bona fides squarely in the realm of the most current feminist debate -- for a show who based an entire character last season on this Sandberg/Slaughter privileged white-lady nonsense, and managed to explain both sides better than either of them -- it's nothing if not a little discordant. A town hall meeting to discuss Basic Shit Everybody Here Already Understands. And I mean, things can be boring, I'm sure somebody somewhere has given this speech, but to have it just be the Whatever introduction to this lady, this important guest star, makes it sound like background noise. "Now you know everything about this lady you need to know for now. We've introduced a real live feminist into your shit, viewers! Stand back!" Okay, but so then like, what have we been doing the last three years?

Diane, after: "...Maddie!"
Maddie: "What. You're Diane, right? The lawyer."
Diane: "Maddie, you old so-and-so. Heard we're gonna be neighbors!"
Maddie: "Are we? Oh right, I bought you. You're in that building?"
Diane: "Three floors of it. We're a very Busy Business!"
Maddie: "Okay well, it was great talking to you about this."
Diane: "Look. I've never used the Good Old Girl network before. Is there a handshake or... Because we need relief on our payment schedule, and you're the landlord..."
Maddie: "How about you send a proposal to my team about this? Like you should have done in the first place? Instead of thinking we are menstrual mortgage sisters or whatever is going on here?"
Diane: "Whoa. Okay. That went bad. Nice speech, though! Very relevant to my struggles as a successful professional woman, like we both are."