HBO's "Divorce"

From Professor Jeannie Suk Gersen (Harvard Law School), writing for the New Yorker:

Marking the start of a period in which divorce may well get more attention is the new HBO series “Divorce,” which began airing this month. Sarah Jessica Parker, the show’s star and executive producer, has explained that her desire to tell the story of an ordinary suburban couple’s divorce was motivated by fascination with the inside of a marriage. The show, written by Sharon Horgan, of “Catastrophe,” understands that how people divorce can reveal more about a marriage than anything one could see before its unravelling.

Nora Ephron once said, “Never marry a man you wouldn’t want to be divorced from.” I teach family law to students in their twenties, most of whom intend to marry and have children, and the life lesson of the course is much the same as that aphorism. Students must contemplate the legal rules of divorce—about custody, asset division, and financial support—as they consider whom to marry, and prepare to make consequential decisions, and sacrifices, regarding children, money, and work. This forces them to reflect on how the series of choices that makes up a marriage will shape what happens to them and the children if the marriage ends—a thought process that goes far beyond whether to enter a prenuptial agreement.

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