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Watching Dirty John: Betty, and Ouch! — it Hits Close to Home
It Might With Too Many Divorced Women
Millions of us are glued, tuned in to Dirty John Season 2: The Betty Broderick Story. I vaguely remembered the case from when I was a teenager, in high school. It was a woman scorned, who murdered her ex-husband after a nasty divorce case in California. The name, Betty Broderick, hung on the news as scandalous. It was equated with anger, psychosis, and jealousy.
But now, after watching the show, and seeing the manipulative game played by a savvy Dan Broderick (played by Christian Slater), it is all too easy to see what drove a scorned Betty to kill her former husband and his new wife. And what makes it worse is that, as an ex-wife myself, I can almost identify with her. I find myself nodding and muttering, “you go, girl,” at various points in the show.
Now, let me be clear: I haven’t wanted to actually, realistically kill my ex. But that’s not to say I haven’t briefly held images of true anger and rage. When Betty leaves message after message on his answering machine, I am in her corner even as I think, “Woman! Those are getting you nowhere!” This is because I’ve had those same thoughts; I’ve wanted to leave those same messages. Dan Broderick brings this reign of terror on himself by waltzing past his office receptionist with such bravado it’s…
