Well, the 5 and a half - or was it six and a half? - hour long MILDRED PIERCE just ended and it's truly amazing. If she isn't one of literature's stupidest characters, I don't know who is! Jane Austen's heroine of NORTHANGER ABBEY is awfully stupid, as is DAVID COPPERFIELD's "child bride" who dies far too late in the novel to suit me, but Mildred is an enormous idiot at times, completely clueless.
I loved every minute of it, but her co-dependent relationship with her daughter Veda can be a trial: Mildred gets a kick out of suffering over Veda and Veda gets a kick out of putting her mother down. Unlike the Joan Crawford version, in this one, Veda gets the last turn of the screw and it's a goodie! Those DRs waiting for the DVD are in for a treat.