ItCouldBeWorse

Honestly he does come across pretty stupid. I loved when Tim and Heather were calmly talking to them about paying rent and Clementine was like "why are they screaming at us?" Lol. I guess he'd have to be pretty dumb to want to make a life with someone else who's pretty dumb. Otherwise, he should know that he would eventually be bored by her.

Agreed. He needs to recalibrate his thinking. If you're not going to accept bodyguards, NEVER leave the baby. I wouldn't even feel safe with a babysitter.

After the news about the triplets, when Jack was at the table looking over their finances and Rebecca asked him what he was doing, he gave her a non-specific answer. Later, when showing her the house, he told her that they had had more money than he had thought, or words to that effect. Clearly, Rebecca had no clue as to the specifics of their finances and left it all to Jack to handle, including apartment rental and house purchase. That was probably how her parents did it, and since Jack was the one earning the bulk of the family income, that's how they did it, too.

If Tyler is that oblivious about credit cards, etc., don't his well-educated parents bear some responsibility for not having explained such things to him at some point? Or is he really too stupid to learn?

Why wasn't Navabi with the others so that she could have protected Maggie? Why didn't the bad guy shoot Aram? Why would the "connected" African believe that Red would ever really have trusted an underling who betrayed his own boss? What if Red needs the cleaners during regular business hours? And, since, unlike Mr. Kaplan, these cleaners apparently live on the grid, pay taxes, etc., how can they spend twice the huge salary they were likely already receiving without attracting notice? Do they have no qualms about disposing of evidence in cases that their police co-workers may be working on, or that might lead to exonerating innocents falsely accused of crimes? Finally, if Lizzie is so recognizable and oblivious that a mom with no special skills can follow her home from the grocery store, then Agnes definitely requires 24 hour per day protection!

Manny should not choose a college just because Luke is going there. College is the time to meet new people who don't have preconceived notions concerning who you are. That is true for both of them. This is the chance for Luke to shed his "dumb" label and for Manny to meet people who won't find him effete. That's hard to do when you're hanging out with your childhood "homey" (for want of a better word.)

They did that with Alex as well. You're right, they did, but I guess they felt they couldn't realistically sustain it. Does anyone recall any sitcoms where characters who grew up and went to college were successfully still integrated into the show? The Cosby Show spun off A Different World so that Denise could be followed once she went to college (and so they could have a second successful show) and Family Ties manufactured a reason for Alex P. Keaton to live at home and commute to college, but I can't recall how any other shows besides The Middle, which I mentioned above, have handled the college situation. Blackish will be dealing with this issue very soon, and I'm betting that eldest child Zoey will not be attending Brown like her in-show mother, unless the actress attends college in real life and needs to spend time away from the show.

No blazer to discuss this week. Perhaps that was only for season 1.

The Middle has two characters at a college close to their home. They return home a lot, but the show also spends a fair amount of time at their college. However, they represent 2/5 or 40% of the main cast. Modern Family has 6 adults and 4 teenagers in their main cast, so Alex's character is only 10% of the cast (even less if you count Lily or Joe.) The writers can't afford to spend too much separate time on only 10% of the cast, so they brought her home. When Haley was at college, they tried to keep her in the storyline by having her Skype in. Then they had her drop out in order to be more fully integrated into the storyline. They couldn't do that again for Alex, so they gave her mono so that she would have to take a leave of absence. It's either that, have her missing from most episodes.

I also didn't see a boy on stage. Where was the iPad lady's son? Did he run on and then off? Was he dressed in a tutu? I don't think that was what they were implying.

Was anyone a little bit bothered that the parents encouraged JJ to do something that was very likely to break his chair? One could say that they would likely allow Dylan or Ray to do something equally dangerous that might result in a broken bone, but in our world, it's easier to get a bone set than to replace a good wheelchair.

You are correct. I think that "fifth" is also somewhat difficult to pronounce, but you are right!

I would agree with you if this was said in a serious conversation, but she was flirting with her husband to get him into the tub with her. The sexual preference was an innuendo/play on words, not an actual discussion on the subject of sexual orientation. I mean, you may be right, and some of the writing may be tone deaf due to lack of LGBT folks on the writing staff, but I don't think this is a real representation of that. Exactly. Randall is likely quite familiar with Beth's sexual orientation by now. "Preference" would seem to refer to a specific something concerning the bath. Yes. They both kept their secrets to protect members of their family. Rebecca might have been upset about the possibility that Jack's father might come into their lives, had she known the origin of the money.

Jack's behavior towards his father essentially said "I hate you and don't want you in my life in any way, but I'm happy to take a large sum of money from you because I failed to prepare financially for starting a family". YMMV, but that's not right. I could agree with you about everything but "because I failed to prepare financially for starting a family". How many people are financially prepared for the possibility of natural triplets? It's not the same as having that third child you can ill afford.

By "happy" I meant "willing". In my book, if you hate someone and want nothing to do with them, you don't take money from them. It's hypocritical. I understand that he did it to make Rebecca happy, but it still doesn't sit well with me. I see what you are saying, but at least Jack was able to extract something useful from his awful father, while protecting his family from any contact with him. An action can be both hypocritical and justifiable.

I don't think he was happy to take money from him. He saw how scared and miserable Rebecca was, and made the choice to grovel before his father rather than have her suffer.

Yes. I guess they thought it would appear morbid?

Brooklyn 9-9 has done it much better with everyone but Jake being able to correctly pronounce the name of Boyle's son, Nicolai. No, Nicolai. But in Brooklyn 9-9, I thought the joke was that only Boyle could hear the difference in how others pronounced Nikolaj, whereas "Keifth" is almost impossible to pronounce because to get from the "f" directly to the "th", you would have to touch your teeth to your lip, and then immediately put your tongue between your teeth, all in one syllable, which is not done in English (technically, you would be going from a voiceless labiodental fricative to a voiceless dental fricative, I believe.) Linguists, feel free to correct me.

Why doesn't Minnie have a job, or take care of the house? She could renovate as easily as he could. Three kids in school full time, they both could do it. Except the pilot explained they rarely stay in one place for any amount of time, so I don't think they bother flipping their houses. They don't commit, and expect to move on again. Would be sweet if over time, now that this environment is working for both JJ and the family, that we see little improvements here and there, as they cautiously decide to lay down a few roots. Jimmy does have a job, as was seen in a later episode.

I think there was some comment from Joan about there having been some additional parties before the honeymoon?

Wasn't there a Barkley in Claire's office in a recent episode?

Gloria's $40,000 stash will almost cover tuition in a California state college, but probably not any other 4 year school, and certainly not room & board. When she was a single mother (and probably would have qualified for financial aid if there were no savings) Manny attending a CA state college and living at home was an entirely reasonable and admirable goal. Now, Gloria should know better to think that $40,000 would cover Manny's aspirations, although, for the sake of the show, I would not be surprised to find Manny living at home and attending a local college next season. Or perhaps, he will take a gap year in order to stretch out his time at home.

I think Phil did say that as he was growing older, his tolerance for crazy rides was diminishing. Wasn't there also an episode with Luke with the same theme? I'm not sure. Very true, but he looked extremely thin.

Can you watch it on PBS.com? It was the best part of the show, in my opinion.

I don't think a father should be confiding in his teenage son about his sex life or lack thereof.