Sue Murphy

Sue Murphy holds the Murphy household together while her husband Frank comes home from the airport wound tighter every day. She's raising three kids in 1970s suburbia, smoothing over arguments, keeping the peace, and starting to wonder if there's more to her life than laundry and dinner on the table.

Laura Dern gives Sue a warmth that never tips into doormat; you can hear her clocking every unfair thing said to her even as she keeps smiling through it. The show lets her want something of her own—a job, a little independence—without turning that want into a lecture, and Dern plays the frustration underneath the sitcom-mom cheer with real precision.