‘Good Girls’ Gives Retta the Breakout Role She Richly Deserves

There are two moments that define Parks & Recreation‘s Donna Meagle for me: her hysterical, high-pitched “someone shot my car” squeal in Season 2’s “Hunting Trip,” and the instantly iconic “Treat Yo Self” montage from Season 4’s “Pawnee Rangers.” Donna may have started out as a background actor on Parks & Rec, but she became a full-on scene-stealer thanks to moments like those. From that point on, Parks could always cut to Donna to undercut a moment, bring home a joke, or inject some surprise heart into a scene (like April finally figuring out that Donna is a cat!).

I saw her summon Mjolnir and praise the sexiness of those Dothraki guys, but while Parks & Rec slowly let Donna grow over seven seasons, she never became the star of the star-studded show. And because of that, I just thought I knew everything Retta was capable of doing. After all, I spent seven years watching her play Donna! I loved Retta and I laughed at Retta, but none of that prepared me for Good Girls.

NBC’s new must-watch crime dramedy combines the in-charge wit of Retta with the burn-it-down intensity of Christina Hendricks and snarky edge of Mae Whitman. These are three women that I have loved individually for yeeeeears, and I would watch literally anything they did together. Me loving Good Girls was a foregone conclusion, but what I did not see coming was just how good Retta is. Like, Emmy-worthy good and career-redefining good. In just the few episodes that have aired, Retta has gone places Donna Meagle never dared–and she’s absolutely crushed it.

As my colleague Lea Palmieri has said, Good Girls can be summed up as the Breaking Bad of the #MeToo movement. The show stars three women in desperate need of cash who knock-off a grocery store one time in order to get the money they need to keep their house/fight a custody battle/buy medicine for their sick kid. Things don’t end there, though, as they end up with way more cash than they expected and have to deal with the rapey store manager that knows what they did. They get in deep, way deeper than any suburban mom would want.

Every single player in Good Girls is perfect and deserving of their own post. But I’m singling out Retta because, again, she’s proving to be so much more than Donna. Retta plays Ruby, a wife and mother who works pretty much nonstop in order to pay her daughter’s ever-increasing medical bills. When we first meet Ruby in the pilot episode, she’s silently cheering her preteen daughter on while she gives a burn-the-patriarchy book report in front of teachers, students, and other parents. The next time we see Ruby, though, she’s in a crowded doctor’s office, trying her hardest to get the doc’s undivided attention. She gives us proud and she gives us afraid in these two scenes, absolutely nailing both of them. She breaks, screaming at the doctor to listen to her, and it is the most intense thing I’ve ever seen Retta do. It’s all there on her face, a face weighed down by panic and anger. Contrast that to a scene after the good girls get the money, when Retta can afford to take her daughter to a specialist and get the medicine she previously couldn’t afford. The relief on Ruby’s face–Retta cries on command in this scene! It’s the absolute best scared-mom acting I’ve ever seen, we’re talking Winona Ryder on Stranger Things-level realness here.

If that was all Retta did on Good Girls, she would have wowed me enough into writing this article. But never forget, Retta is a comedian. She’s hilarious. Good Girls is a crime show, duh, but it knows when to play this wacky-yet-serious scenario for laughs. Retta still brings that no-nonsense Donna Meagle directness to Ruby, making her a fantastic foil to sisters Beth (Hendricks) and Annie (Whitman). Like in episode two when Ruby sees the aforementioned rapey store manager tied up in Beth’s kid’s playhouse and screams, twice, “What am I even looking at right now?!” Good Girls lets Ruby be the voice of reason, but it also lets her get her hands dirty (like when she comes up with the plan to ransom that manager’s ass).

Whereas Beth is struggling to keep her prim and proper image up and disaster-prone Annie is just trying to keep her head above water, Ruby occupies the fascinating middle. She’s got a level-head on her shoulders (making infinite lasagnas for her family so they’ll be fed should she get offed by a criminal) but she also brings the levity (who even is the Secretary of State right now?). And again, Retta does it all. She brings the tears, she dunks one-liners, she grounds the action and moves the plot forward. If Beth is the Good Girls’ head and Annie is the guts, then Ruby is the heart.

When you watch Good Girls, and you absolutely should be watching every episode of Good Girls, keep your eye on Retta. If all you know of her is Donna Meagle, then treat yo’self to Retta’s superstar turn as Ruby.

Where to stream Good Girls