Golden Girls: The Complete Second Season

Review by: Zak Santucci
ZakSantucci@TheCinemaSource.com

I could review this show as a normal person would, however I’d much rather be somewhat ridiculous and focus my review on the reason why I have fallen in love with The Golden Girls’ Estelle Getty. As Sophia in the show, she is magnificent. Honestly, I found myself wishing before I went to bed that she was 60 years younger so I could marry her. Her deal is that she is Dorothy’s (Bea Arthur) mother, despite the fact that in real life Estelle Getty is actually younger than Bea Arthur. She is from Sicily and always tells violent stories but also there’s no holding her back as she makes fun of anyone and everything with a sarcastic comment or two. She has now officially beat out Heidi Klum as my dream girl.

For those of you that are considering purchasing the DVD, I guess I have to put some normal stuff in there. The plot is that there are four old women living together, but the twist is that they’re pretty racy and solve their problems over a cheesecake every night. It’s a gorgeous premise. Sophia is the wise and unadulterated one, Dorothy is her sarcastic and reasonable daughter, Rose (Betty White) is the small town idiot, and Blanche (Rue McLanahan) is a super skanky ho. They all live in a house in Miami and have a lot of conversations about sex and make fun of each other. It’s the type of banter that sells sitcoms today.

The Golden Girls is honestly a really funny show, and this season hosts early appearances by Mario Lopez (of A.C. Slater fame) and even George Clooney. But the important thing is that I’m in love with Sophia. She is by far the funniest character. Rose is funny as well as the naïve and innocent member of the group and if you’ve seen Betty White’s profanity-filled role in Lake Placid, this show gives it much more meaning. And very racy, hell, the first 7 episodes topics go as follows: 1. Rose goes through menopause (and there are some pretty in depth period discussions), 2. The girls get arrested for prostitution, 3. Dorothy gets mad because she thinks Blanche is banging her ex, 4. A mean neighbor dies (lots of tasteless jokes about her death ensue), 5. Dorothy’s lesbian friend gets a crush on Rose (An Emmy-winning episode), 6. Blanche’s father marries a woman half his age, 7. Dorothy’s son and Rose’s daughter are caught having sex together by their respective mothers. This sounds like my type of show, huh? The episode with the neighbor dying and the lesbian friend are my two favorites, incidentally they have the same writer. And they’re the ones where Sophia gets to shine the best. Also the last episode of the season inspired the sitcom Empty Nest which I did not know was a spin-off before and sports one of my favorite tv show theme songs (right behind Ren and Stimpy, Dukes of Hazzard, and Magnum P.I.).

However, this show has a lot more to it. It’s a display of old people as just like everyone else and not caught up in old-fashioned ideas or really boring things ...