Rev iews
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 70 AUGUST 21, 2019
DUNST: COURTESY OF SHOWTIME.CARNIVAL: JAN THIJS/AMAZON. EVANS: DAN MACMEDAN/GETTY IMAGES.BROTHER: MONTY BRINTON/CBS. CULKIN: KEVIN MAZUR/GETTY IMAGES. MARIA: ALEXANDER TAMARGO/GETTY IMAGES.Te l e v i s i o n
ethical corners will take her, and how far she’ll
go to support her family.
It’s a familiar prestige-TV antihero trope
infused with some freshness — if you pre-
tend that Showtime’s Weeds never happened
— via the gender inversion. Familiarity
abounds by the time the almost obligatory
premium-cable violence and grittiness kick in,
but the darkly comic tone is handled adroitly
and the focus on multilevel marketing is still
reasonably new.
My enjoyment peaked with the fifth
episode, set around a Founders American
Merchandise retreat at Obie’s compound and
later at the wonderfully named Wham Bam
Thank You FAM 37th Anniversary Jam, awash
in bizarre rituals and behaviors. One pilot
incarnation was going to be directed by The
Favourite helmer Yorgos Lanthimos — Charlie
McDowell (The One I Love) replaced him — and
the mind boggles at the oddities he might have
uncovered. In general, the show could prob-
ably use around 20 percent more weirdness.
What makes it worth your time is Dunst.
Krystal starts from a place of malaise, but
the series makes space for the big and small
moments that bring her joy, whether it’s
coaching poolside exercise or revisiting her
pageant talent. In those scenes, Krystal goes
from beaten down to radiant, and Dunst’s love
for the character — a woman rediscovering
who she was before marriage, childbirth and
economic distress — is palpable. It’s an un-
self-conscious beauty of a performance.
The supporting cast does right by her.
Pellerin pushes Cody to pathetic brinks and
then locates likable beats. Rodriguez carries
what may be the show’s most substantive
arc, as Ernie plays Pied Piper bringing newly
arrived Spanish-speaking residents to FAM
and exposing a system of exploitation. And
Levine delivers a study of vocal nuance juxta-
posed against outsize physicality.
On Becoming a God in Central Florida estab-
lishes its foundation well and, especially
early on, the payoffs are steady and some-
times surprising. Even if the conclusion and
tease for the second
season underwhelm,
Dunst, Levine and
the vividly sketched
details of this strange
world will very
likely keep you from
feeling scammed.interest through an inconsistent second half
of a still-quite-good 10-episode first season.
Dunst plays Krystal Stubbs, menial
employee at Orlando-adjacent Rebel Rapids
water park, devoted wife to Travis (Alexander
Skarsgard, memorable in a brief role) and
mother to Destiny. Travis has gone all-in on
Founders American Merchandise, a pyramid
scheme driven by the cult-like methods of
Obie Garbeau (Ted Levine) — and doesn’t real-
ize he’s being rooked until it’s too late.
Krystal is left to pick up the pieces, spurred
on by the impatient urging of Travis’ sniveling
boss, Cody (Théodore Pellerin), and with the
help of her neighbor and co-worker Ernie (Mel
Rodriguez). Initially, her aspirations reach
no higher than a water aerobics class she
can teach at $2 a head, but she’s about to see
how far her gumption and willingness to cutThe American Dream is alive and well in
Florida, at least on cable this summer. Or,
rather, as represented on shows like TNT’s
Claws, Pop’s Florida Girls and Showtime’s
new hourlong dramedy On Becoming a God
in Central Florida, the American Dream is
accessible through an alligator-filled swamp,
patrolled by organized-crime lords and popu-
lated by tourists, swarms of mosquitoes and
lots and lots of Spanish moss.
Creators Robert Funke and Matt Lutsky
have stuck with their show from its first
intended home on AMC to its second intended
home on YouTube Premium — and now on
to Showtime, where this pitch-black portrait
of multilevel marketing is finally emerg-
ing as a tremendous star vehicle for Kirsten
Dunst. Powered by that superb lead turn, the
series also boasts enough twists to maintain
On Becoming a God
in Central Florida
Kirsten Dunst is a total delight in Showtime’s vivid and darkly amusing,
if slightly uneven, dramedy about Florida pyramid schemes By Daniel Fienberg
AIRDATE 10 p.m. Sunday,
Aug. 25 (Showtime)
CAST Kirsten Dunst,
Mel Rodriguez,
Beth Ditto, Ted Levine,
Théodore Pellerin
CREATORS Robert Funke,
Matt LutskyKirsten Dunst plays an Orlando-area single mom and water park
employee struggling to make ends meet.