When it comes to the characters in The Couple Next Door, it’s Becka I feel the most for. She did nothing wrong when it came to her private life, and only Alan is to blame for her current work situation.
Throughout The Couple Next Door season 1, we watched as Alan stalked Becka. He went to her yoga class, he used a telescope to keep an eye on her, and he broke into her house for private things. When he realized that she wasn’t interested in him at all, he decided revenge porn was the best course of action.
Revenge porn should never happen. There are reasons this is against the law. It’s even worse when Alan had to break into Becka’s house to get the videos to then attempt to shame her.
Becka has nothing to be ashamed of in The Couple Next Door
There is still a lot of stigma against the conventional monogamous marriage. Women who are sexually fluid or enjoy a private life that isn’t considered the norm are often shamed for it. It’s a misogynistic way of thinking. After all, the men aren’t shamed for their actions. Instead, they’re applauded, or it’s passed off as a “boy’s thing.”
We can see it in The Couple Next Door. It starts with the moms from school, but then all of Becka’s clients leave her. They don’t want to be associated with her due to the video.
Maybe part of that is because they thought she put it up. Maybe if they knew someone did it against her to shame her, the other women wouldn’t have turned their backs on her. However, Becka got a good look at the women who are her friends. Nobody is a true friend if they walk away like that.
Yet, Becka has nothing to be ashamed of. She wasn’t hurting anyone by getting into the swingers lifestyle. There are a lot of jokes about that lifestyle, but Becka and Danny had a mature view of the lifestyle and their marriage. They both enjoyed it, but they had boundaries and rules. Now yes, Danny broke the rules, but Becka never did. She is one of those genuinely into that lifestyle but still loves her partner deeply, and we need to see more of that on TV.
Alan is a small-minded man. He’s one of the “nice guys” who turn out to be terrible people just because they don’t get something they think they deserve because they were “nice” once.
I actually liked that we have Becka’s character on the show. It gave the swingers lifestyle a fairer look. Just because people don’t understand it from the outside, doesn’t mean that it’s shameful or wrong. I’m glad to see Becka owning the lifestyle in the end. By knowing that Alan was the one to leak the video, she was able to find her voice and power again.
The Couple Next Door is available to stream on STARZ.
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