User Reviews

The Sterling Family arrives in a new province with some very interesting societal makeup. In a reverse of the Stepford Wives this province is a feminist paradise where women predominate where men sit at home and do the house work and provide breeding services.

Elaine Giftos is the local Gauleiter in the neighborhood that the Sterlings move into. She sees them as a subversive influence in her well ordered world.

The climax of the show has Tony O'Dell who keeps violating these laws they have about how men should behave and being put on an auction block. The society makes no provision for gay people. I would have bid on him.

The Sterlings nemesis Jonathan Banks also is subject to these rules and as a war hero in this dimension he's the last word in Alpha Male.

An interesting and even amusing story at times.

This is another one of my favorite episodes of the show. Seeing this episode now is interesting as it unfortunately is prolific on the problem with sexism in our present day, which has now gotten worse and completely out of control.

The whole episode is sort of an Ira Levin tale as it's a comical and wicked satire on the issue of sexism. It's pretty much you shoe on the other foot premise, nothing new but it's the execution that makes it stick out.

At first it seems funny as we see in one scene both Hal and Trace attend this Tupperware like party, yeah, it's sort of the old stereotype on women coming to their private party with Tupperware.

There is quiz game with some historical question, and we heard an unusual answer which surprising is correct and the guy wins a toilet plunger; yeah, not exactly tickets to Hawaii but on the upside it's something useful.

This little scene is funny but also a little sad at the same time as it really tells you a lot about this society, from that historical question and answer we hear it shows there's obviously something dirty going on in the province's government.

But also, how much the guys have been reduced to, most of them not just have little to no freedom but no ambitions and sense of destiny, to most of the males that live in this province materialistic goods like Tupperware and Plungers are as good as it's going to get.

Of course, the comedy of it all is terminated as the mom and Gina discover the nasty insects under the grass of this so-called utopia and Trace discovers more of the unjust laws the hard way. We see this is a world that is obviously proto fascist, from certain propaganda posters, the uniforms that the female officers are wearing much like Nazi uniforms.

But we see there are rights and privileges that are being denied and controlled, in one scene where Trace and his brother go into a elevator but get arrested because it's a elevator for women.

Much like how there were separate restrooms for people of different color, I always hated that rule because it's so stupid, doing your business in the John isn't a matter of choice no matter who you are, just as going up a building isn't either you must get up one way or another. This ridiculous rule was obviously constructed to keep people safe, but it doesn't because it makes them more susceptible to fear and bigoty; but also just simply another device for control from the corrupt.

What even more disturbing about this society is how slavery has become legalized as we see there is a catalog on men to buy for service and much more which also shows how the men have become objectified as they are not seen as people. This further shows how far the society's morals have truly sunk, most of the female populace have become the very things they hate.

However, June discovers that it's not all good for people in the same gender as her. From a colleague she talks to that not all of them really believe in this bigoted society and its ridiculous standards, but also that none of the women are free. Yes, they do have freedom and privileges but it's all false as it's not without the resignation of human rights, most notably the right to love.

The messages in the episode are on the importance of equality and the absolute stupidity of sexism and bigotry, how it only fuels fear and ignorance and never makes anyone the wiser nor either side of the spectrum benefit.

The ending is hopeful, from June's colleague and significant other helping them out but what they feel for each other. I feel it's a good sign that the society they live under won't last, as the path to true freedom always begins with a minority.

Rating: 3 and a half stars.