Revenge of the Stepford Wives (1980). Made for TV. Shows in some places - no star power, production quality is through the floor, some performances are a bit ropey. However, they had a decent script and tried really hard to make a worthy sequel with a fraction of the resources. Good turn from Sharon Gless as Kaye Foster, a TV journalist investigating Stepford. Julie Kavner also does well as comic relief best pal Megan.

I'm talking more about this movie because I think it deserves defending. TV movies come with a list of caveats (see the second sentence of this very post), but the good parts shine through. Doesn't build much on the original but adds a couple of slasher-inspired sequences which were a fun surprise (hey, it's the 80s, after all!)

This wraps up my journey through The Stepford Wives. There are two more films — 1987's The Stepford Children, and 1996's The Stepford Husbands, but I predict they might be doing something different with the formula and this next thought has to do with women's liberation in particular:

1975 to 1980 is not a long time. During that time, the scope for what a woman could be had grown so much that the "dangerously liberated" amateur photographer Joanna must be replaced with Kaye, a career journalist with an estranged husband who travels alone, in order to feel similarly contentious to the conservatives of the day. Refreshing to see things running in the right direction, even if it was half a century ago.