2 l May
31 - June 6, 2020
Northeast Oregon TV Weekly
BY JAY BOBBIN
Amanda Peet and
Christian Slater
Betty Broderick exacts
marital fury in second
‘Dirty John’ series
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As the adage says, hell hath no fury like a
woman scorned ... and Betty Broderick is a
textbook example.
Played by Meredith Baxter in two early-
1990s TV-movies, Broderick famously
wrought vengeance on her San Diego-lawyer
husband Dan after he left her for another
woman. What initially seemed like immature
vandalism eventually became something
much more lethal, and the true story gets a
new and very detailed dramatization over the
eight episodes of the second season of “Dirty
John,” which USA Network debuts Tuesday,
June 2 (after the first, podcast-inspired “Dirty
John” series ran on Bravo).
Amanda Peet (“Brockmire,” “Togetherness”)
and Tiera Skovbye (“Riverdale”) portray
Betty at different ages, as she supports Dan
(Christian Slater, returning to USA after his
“Mr. Robot” run) through his medical and
legal schooling and the starts of their family
and his career. The union disintegrates rather
rapidly once he meets Linda Kolkena (Rachel
Keller, “Legion”), prompting Betty to strike
back – a situation that ultimately results in a
double homicide.
Playing Broderick as alternately high-
spirited and desperate, and sometimes both at
once, Peet says that the project gives “a very
complex psychological portrait that allows
for the idea that there probably was mental
illness, but also that there were incidents in
the marriage and the legal system made it
very difficult for her to remain healthy.”
The Betty Broderick-themed season of
“Dirty John” boasts an all-female team of
directors, including its writer and executive
producer, Alexandra Cunningham. Peet
admits that she didn’t know much about
Broderick before reading Cunningham’s
teleplay, “and I think that was probably a
good thing. It seemed to me to just be an
intimate portrait of someone who, after so
many years of suffering, sort of snapped.”
Depicting that required Peet and Slater to
be very much in sync, with the series’ timeline
going back and forth continually. “I just can’t
rave about him enough,” she says. “Besides
being a brilliant actor, he’s a class act as a
human being, really fun and so considerate. I
can’t believe he’s been a star for this long and
is so thoughtful and kind ... no offense to
anyone else!”
After writing two stage plays, Peet currently
is working with her writer-producer husband
David Benioff (“Game of Thrones”) on
Netflix’s forthcoming, Sandra Oh-starring
university comedy-drama “The Chair.” Peet
co-created it and is doing the bulk of its
scripts, but she’s still grateful to land acting
parts including Betty Broderick (who has
been denied parole three times, and is next
eligible in 2032).
“To have a role like this at age 48 is a gift
and an honor,” Peet reflects. “And the fact
that Alexandra picked me for it still blows my
mind.”