Debbie's Got a Gun

Cochran's special gift is her ability to wring laughs from her characters' behavior, from the mundane to the absurd. The director is at her best when she trains her keen, ironic eye on the curious details lurking just beneath the familiar surface of suburban life. Gerald shoots himself with the gun he bought at Irwin's suggestion and contracts botulism in the hospital from an egg salad sandwich Irwin brings him, yet his first reaction is to blame Debbie for his plight. Upon hearing the news that his wife has been treated for a stab wound to the arm, Gerald curses himself for not picking out a more stain-resistant upholstery for their car. Irwin and Myra's wedding is interrupted by a crazed gunman and a celebrity's drug overdose, yet the ceremony continues as if nothing happened. In scene after scene Cochran demonstrates her intuitive grasp of the unwritten code of the suburbs: ignore the unpleasantries and maybe they'll go away.