Don't know why they broke with their own naming convention and called this episode "Houston," the city wherein it takes place. Sarah Paulson as Alice is the unequivocal star of this one, and she's just fabulous. Almost half this episode is a hallucinatory experience had by Alice prompted by mixing stiff cocktails with a so-called "Christian Pill." After equal parts realization, revelation and a few nightmares, Alice's perspective becomes less contentious and combative and more contemplative and conciliatory. In other words, she "woke" from a fevered dream, both literally and figuratively. A great episode....
10 Reviews
Best so far
leacorner21 May 2020
Warning: Spoilers
My favorite episode so far; Sarah Paulson is so good! She evoked a whole range of emotions. I wish that Alice had seen the woman who gave her the "Christian pill" again and apologized to her, it would have been a nice way to complete her arc in this episode. I also think they should have named this episode Alice.
The best episode ever spiler
s-lomsadze23 May 2020
Warning: Spoilers
I am speechless the best episode, this episode actually show how same persomg can be underestimated and unappreciated and in another place loved and heard. The rejection makes any human feel like they don't belong and actually they really don't you never want to stay where nobody actually sees you and appreciates you. Yin love with this episode.
I found a better way to eat
theotherblonde6 August 2020
Happy to see alice finding her voice . Her singing and meeting all kinds of people was funny.i wonder who she is supposed to be.the info from the nun about the virgin mother's role in the church was super interesting wish they had giiven flo and. Midge their own episodes.i wished she could have stayed friends with her pink lady friend.maybe she was part of the dream to
Sarah Paulson deserves all the recognition she gets!!!!
rodrigues-3918919 September 2020
Sarah Paulson is absolutely brilliant, how she wasn't nominated for an Emmy is beyond me. Her acting is pitch perfect as always and she is polarizing to watch. The soundtrack, cinematography and direction this episode is phenomenal. My favorite episode of the entire series.
Sarah Paulson is perfect
shawelgebrail17 August 2020
Best episode of the series because of sarah and her character, i was disappointed to find that her character not a main one till this episode came and it's perfect, the writing, the wholesome scenes and the development of her character :)
Sara Paulson it is!
zoerigho23 June 2020
Alice falls down the rabbit hole
Techmama6821 March 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Definitely the best episode of this series, this fictional Alice represents all the women who had opposed the ERA because they believed the lies they were told, and came to realize over time that fighting the ERA was just a political power grab by religious fanatics. Amidst the rise of women actually creating careers with their college degrees, deciding if and when to have children with the birth control pill, and becoming independent with new laws that allowed them to own property and have credit cards without a man's permission, the Stop ERA movement dissolved into nothing more than a bible-thumpers' fond memory.
Sarah Paulson puts on a show in the best episode of Mrs America
babilichsasha1 October 2020
All the episodes before this show were too socio-political, which definitely pushed him away and literally forced him to refuse further viewing, which I wanted to do. But God, it's good that I didn't quit watching, because at the end of all the horror that came before this, this incredible episode awaited me, which should not have been called Houston, but Alice. He is not only the most beautiful visually and the best written, but also the best in the world of acting. Sarah Paulson shows just a brilliant performance (it's not fair at all that everyone received Emmy nominations except for her and Rose Byrne, who, by the way, have the brightest performances). Before that, her heroine appeared in a maximum of 1-2 scenes per episode, but here she is given all the time. We begin to better understand this hero, her motives. Sarah Paulson, thanks to this episode, became the only one of the entire cast who managed to outshine Queen Cate Blanchett.
Alice's Adventures in Feminism
Cineanalyst26 May 2020
"Mrs. America" is an entertaining slice of American history overall, focusing on the women's liberation movement of the 1970s and including a stellar cast headed by Cate Blanchett as Phyllis Schlafly, the right-wing anti-feminist who led the movement that stopped the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, but for this comment, I want to focus on episode eight, "Houston," of the mini-series. Initially, I thought it a weak run-up to the series upcoming conclusion--not least because the wonderful Blanchett is barely in it, nor the underappreciated Margo Martindale. In the episode, the STOP ERA movement, absent Schlafly, crashes the 1977 National Women's Conference to little effect, with most of the focus this time being on the fictional character Alice played by Sarah Paulson, who has a drug-induced introduction to second-wave feminism. I suppose this is a way for the show's makers to glorify the women's movement despite the main protagonist being the woman who prevented the most-publicized piece of the movement, the ERA, from being ratified. After all, despite a sometimes sympathetic, or complex, view of Schlafly, there's no doubt as to the show's left-wing leanings, as reinforced by 40-plus years of progress taking place on other issues covered in the series--gay rights most of all. Note the fictional character's name of "Alice," though, and the source of this episode's ficitonalization of history may become apparent.
Although, it may just be because I see Lewis Carroll's influence in all sorts of unexpected rabbit holes since reading his Alice books. Nevertheless, the housewife Alice in this show faces difficulty adjusting to the political world she finds herself in, which is akin to reading the Alice books as a child's view of the absurdity of adulthood--constantly struggling with what appears to her to be nonsense. Ditto the Alice here, who flubs a TV interview and fails to deliver a speech she planned to give, or to do anything really to aid her organization's cause. She even must room with ERA-supporting African-American females. She, then, drinks some pink booze and takes a "Christian" pill. Just as Carroll's Alice drank and ate, including mushrooms, to make herself larger and smaller, so to do the drugs this anti-feminist Alice consumes alter her perspective. They lead her down a rabbit hole of feminist focus groups and gatherings. She receives communion from a woman, which Alice says isn't allowed, but she nonetheless consumes more food and drink here, as well as at a film screening and a singing of a "socialist" and "patriotic" song with lesbians. She even meets Gloria Steinem (as played by a chic Rose Byrne).
Appropriately, Alice only escapes this trip via a dream--of the Queen of Hearts herself, Schlafly, admonishing her. Alice wakes up to Schlafly further speechifying on the boob tube, before she travels to Schlafly's counter-conference "Pro-Life, Pro-Family Rally," where Schlafly really admonishes her, but for the relatively trivial, to fix her face. None of this makes for a particularly enlightening history lesson--fictional narrative motion pictures usually don't--but I found it a surprising, yet rather fitting, transmutation of Carroll's text, from stuffy English Victorian childhood to groovy 1970s America adulthood and the fight over feminism.
Although, it may just be because I see Lewis Carroll's influence in all sorts of unexpected rabbit holes since reading his Alice books. Nevertheless, the housewife Alice in this show faces difficulty adjusting to the political world she finds herself in, which is akin to reading the Alice books as a child's view of the absurdity of adulthood--constantly struggling with what appears to her to be nonsense. Ditto the Alice here, who flubs a TV interview and fails to deliver a speech she planned to give, or to do anything really to aid her organization's cause. She even must room with ERA-supporting African-American females. She, then, drinks some pink booze and takes a "Christian" pill. Just as Carroll's Alice drank and ate, including mushrooms, to make herself larger and smaller, so to do the drugs this anti-feminist Alice consumes alter her perspective. They lead her down a rabbit hole of feminist focus groups and gatherings. She receives communion from a woman, which Alice says isn't allowed, but she nonetheless consumes more food and drink here, as well as at a film screening and a singing of a "socialist" and "patriotic" song with lesbians. She even meets Gloria Steinem (as played by a chic Rose Byrne).
Appropriately, Alice only escapes this trip via a dream--of the Queen of Hearts herself, Schlafly, admonishing her. Alice wakes up to Schlafly further speechifying on the boob tube, before she travels to Schlafly's counter-conference "Pro-Life, Pro-Family Rally," where Schlafly really admonishes her, but for the relatively trivial, to fix her face. None of this makes for a particularly enlightening history lesson--fictional narrative motion pictures usually don't--but I found it a surprising, yet rather fitting, transmutation of Carroll's text, from stuffy English Victorian childhood to groovy 1970s America adulthood and the fight over feminism.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
