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If, perhaps, it just sprouts forth from the land, perfectly sliced.
The scene lasts less than two minutes.
The way she calls her children, at various times, Dolly.
Shes a nicknamer, a pincher, a squisher, and a noodge, too.
She frets over how other Jews might judge her actions or lifestyle.
She eats with a wild focus either consuming with abandon or pushing her food off her plate.
(Ali goes dairy-free for an episode and ordered tofu spread instead.)
To control food is to control life not just hers, but those around her, too.
At times I felt she was slighted, or made to play the clown in the Pfeffermans universe.
The scene tracks Maura in the mirror, looking at herself, knowing that she is over this dynamic.
We know how Shellys body reacts she has an orgasm, a big one but we know how Maurafeels.
(Whats so interesting about a Jewish mother, anyway?
Everything, I say.)
She spits, I dont want you to call me, I want you to behere.
But as I saw Shelly, she had just as far to go and grow as anyone else.
Shelly is given more agency when her boyfriend Buzz shows up toward the end of season two.
Ponytailed, easygoing Buzz perhaps feels to Shelly like her last chance at happiness.
That he is spending all her money and is kind of a con artist is a depressing reveal.
But I felt like I knew Shelly best in the scene where she discovers his betrayal.
Were done, Buzzy, she says with a dismissive hand and a wry laugh.
The camera finally stays on her for a nice long stretch.
I have started to live the truth of my existence, she says.
To really open up for the first time in my life.
And I want that for her, desperately for her to emerge.
I want her to fly.
It feels like a cruel bit of mockery.
By the fourth season, when she begins an improv class, I thought:Enough already.
The Pfeffermans take the family cruise together, minus Buzz, and everyone treats Shelly like shit.
Her wig taut and makeup subdued, she glitters in a jeweled jacket.
Theres a hint of Carole Channing in her voice.
Lights graceful bones are perfectly lit.
The scene is all hers, and what a relief it is for all of us.
At the end of season four, Shelly takes her maiden name back.
Shes had a heavy-handed season, finally revealing her own childhood molestation to her family.
(Understandable with these kids, with that husband, with this world.)
Now shell be a Lipkind again.
She reclaims the version of Shelly that was the last time I was truly myself, she says.
It gives me hope for her future and for the final, musical episode of the show.
Who could she be if given half a shot?
Shell be fine, fine, fine.
