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Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story Offers a Careful Study of a Woman Scorned - Vulture

Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story Offers a Careful Study of a Woman Scorned - Vulture

Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story Offers a Careful Study of a Woman Scorned - Vulture
Jun 02, 2020 1 min, 24 secs

America, and now even more blatantly in Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story, on the USA network.

In the second season of the anthology series, series creator Alexandra Cunningham shifts the focus to the well-known case of Betty and Dan Broderick, a couple that seemingly “had it all,” until their tumultuous divorce led to the murders of Dan and his second wife, Linda, by Betty, in 1989.

Unlike the more recent Meehan case, the Broderick case has been covered in the media over multiple decades: in the news, in books, and even in a two-part CBS TV movie back in 1992 that starred Meredith Baxter as Betty Broderick.

For these reasons, The Betty Broderick Story may not be quite as suspenseful as the first Dirty John.

The Betty Broderick Story jumps around chronologically, following the testimony presented at both of Broderick’s murder trials (spoiler: one ended in a mistrial), Betty’s early life as the child of chilly parents and, later, the loving wife of Dan (Christian Slater), whom she supports through medical school as well as law school when he decides to seek a second degree at Harvard.

During the 1980s, when the series first introduces Betty, she does seem erratic, depressed, and often unhinged, especially once she and Dan are separated and he takes custody of their kids.

Dan Broderick, is much more thinly drawn than the other characters, coming across as the stereotypically vapid, unlikable Other Woman, though that could be because the series chooses to lean toward Betty’s perception of her.

This kind of story can tip into Lifetime movie territory very easily, and there are times when The Betty Broderick Story gets perilously close to doing that.

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