JeanJean

It was totally worth sitting through the whole thing for the last sketch's line about a rhinoplasty. Not that the rest was awful. It was okay. Some funny stuff here and there. I really, really liked Black Lotus. But the rhinoplasty line cracked me up. I also really liked Bowen's George Santos.

Gwen or Yara should host the next tell-all. Shaun seems like she's a lovely person in real life, but she sucks at hosting. It took Gwen to shut Ed up. God, I hope Ed's run is over.

I loved "Ya know, there's a type of nap that's actually named after cats."

Whups, I thought Abbott was just elementary, which these days goes up to 4th grade. I totally agree that kids can be wiseasses and have inherent comic ability. It's just occasionally, things the Abbott kids say seem too advanced for their ages, like the Shakespeare and political disses. I taught those ages for a bit (and so loved it) but the wiseassery (??) was never that advanced, although they could be hysterically funny. (A lot of times it came out of them being unintentionally funny and just from their kids-eye view of the world.) On the other hand, the kid saying, "Suck it, boomer" worked for me because that's something easily picked up via social media or via an older sibling who picked it up via social media. That's all just me, though. And I do realize kids are more sophisticated these days because of the internet. I also usually like each episode better on the 2nd (or sometimes 3rd) viewing, because then I can catch all the funny stuff I missed originally due to my old ears. And after my 3rd viewing of this episode (and with some closed captions), I love it. I also loved Henry and hope we see him again.

The kids seem to be in danger of becoming too precocious, which I don't like. It kind of undercuts the realism. Case in point: The student who said "What's the difference?" about Jacob being liberal or progressive. Or the student using Shakespeare in a cutting remark - these are only elementary students, not high school. On the other hand, the little girl asking if Barbara and Ava wanted to pinch her cheeks was realistic to her age and cute. Has anyone else noticed that Melissa's aide is gone...? Because I'm old, I wish they would talk a bit slower. (Too bad they can't do that and make the show 40 minutes to get everything in.) I miss some things the first time around. Not my favorite episode. But even "not my favorite" for Abbott is good. And I did love it from the "Ava owns the school" scene on. That happens to me a lot with the show, which says a lot about how good the build is.

Good episode! And I love that Jeanine had a good talk with Barbara and that she realized her pattern. I have this weird pattern with Abbott. A lot of times, I'm "meh" for the first half and by the end I realize it was a very good episode. One thing -- doesn't Jeanine teach 1st grade? Because her kids seem kind of verbally advanced for that age, and I really don't want this show to go the precocious kids route. (I had a couple of students a year older who hated each other and they were nowhere near as good at verbal sparring.) Maybe with all the internet, kids are more advanced, though. I really appreciated that in the second half, the scenes were really allowed to breathe. I wonder if that's been a pattern all along, and that's why the episodes grow on me.

I think Andrei's speaking style (not just the swearing) is abrasive but I don't dislike him. Can't stand Libby's family, though. I wonder if there's a vocal coach that could help Andrei with that and if some of it is conversing in a second language.

I really want Liz to get away from Ed and have a happy life. He is a horrible person.

Did Kara and Guillermo have their baby?

So according to the preview, Loren's dad asks who gets the babies if Loren and Alexei both die? So wrong. And the babies go to whomever L&A want them to go to. Her parents are awful.

Their poor kid! Mom has to bless every room and car she enters and Dad thinks there are witches who eat babies to fly.

Also, she's been in NYC a long time - surprising she doesn't have a rent stabilized apartment. They can certainly climb up in cost, but it shouldn't be that much if she's stayed in one for years.

Is Danielle (the blonde teacher with Yohan) paying her spiritual mentor? Because paying someone to tell you can't eat peanuts unless you have an allergy is a bigger waste of money than eating them. (Granted, the markup for minibars is insane - even Ross Gellar knows that.) Why don't they live in the DR, she can tutor over the internet and be paid well? She'd be happy living there and there'd be extra money for his family.

I thought it was more she was appreciative of being somewhere where she can understand what people are saying. (She really has had some time, though, to learn some Indian.) Who's that woman with Angela? Why does she always need a wing woman? I am so sick of her. If other people besides Libby's family had a problem with Andrei, that would be one thing. But as annoying as Andrei can be, I put it all squarely on Libby's family's shoulders. I'm pretty sure Charlie would have been an alcoholic/cokehead with or without Andrei in the family. Ditto for Meghan as an overage high school mean girl. And the others.

I watched another episode about Mayan speaking Spanish and the "Es una Karen!" line did make me laugh.

Watched for the first time tonight. It can't hold a candle to the original George Lopez show, at least not the episode I saw (Christmas episode). Seems like the actors (and the laugh track) are being forced to overact to compensate for poor writing.

I've always loved that song.

How does Angela have access to Michael's messages and texts? I missed that.

You can just tell that Charlie's nutty little bully of a wife made lots of nice kids' lives hell in high school and before that. And oh, God, not another Angela scream-all.

Truly, dumb can be funny. I guess for me it was much less funny than some of their others. And yes to your second point. Good point.

Thought the PDD sketch was dumb. They've done funnier stuff. I always enjoy watching Bowen, so that it was him doing it made Krampus enjoyable for me. He cracked me up in the Marzipan sketch, which was otherwise "eh." The Weekend Update aunt thing kind of sucked. I think the show benefited a lot from holiday energy. I'm going to look for Lizzo's song for my itunes Christmas playlist - it was lovely. I love Cecily. I'm doubly glad Kari Lake didn't win, because who else could have nailed her the way Cecily did? I think she's been one of the best cast members ever (and definitely the best singer, at least during her run). And you can tell she's a lovely person to work with.

I really liked Lizzo's Christmas song.

Seriously, that's what a little girl would do with her dad. Emotionally, Natalie is very young, probably the age when her father abandoned her and her mother. She needs therapy very badly.

Unlike most of the Pillow Talk crew (although Robert got it when Debbie went off on Tanya), when there's a toxic relationship between a parent and child, I tend to give the (adult) child the benefit of the doubt until it's proven otherwise. Kids want to love their parents. Mothers aren't sacrosanct just because they're mothers. Debbie may be a little old lady now (I'm one, too) but once upon a time she was younger and for some years she was taller than Colt, and we aren't privy to what went on during all those years.

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