DearEvette

We watched The Daytrippers last night and it was so good. Anne Meara and Parker Posey were the stand outs to me. Plot synopsis: My husband and I both thought the exact same thing after watching, that it had a vibe similar to (although less hilarious than) Flirting With Disaster, another family based road trip movie with side quests and where Mary Tyler Moore was the standout.

I went back and watched this episode because I know I missed stuff on first watch, and yeah second watch of this scene took me out. They are all singing the song, jamming out.. Barbara is singing but looks worried. And then the shot goes to a talking head of Gregory saying something heartwarming. And then it goes back to them singing but the scene has gotten way more chaotic. O'Shon is jumping and dancing on a couch behind the main group, Jacob is now wearing Ava's coat, Melissa is drinking beer straight out of a large pitcher, Gregory is doing superhero poses, Ericka is just standing there sobbing with Janine is hugging her while Simon is outside the room watching, and Barbara is just straight up talking about how sad the lyrics are. It is pretty hysterical.

This! For me it feels like every book that comes across my feed feels like it is written explicitly just to include a trope (Fake dating! Grumpy vs. Sunshine! Only One Bed!)so the plot and characters are secondary. I recently read a book Text Appeal that was a fake dating book. There was NO REASON for these two to pretend to be dating. But the book wanted to be a fake-dating book. Dude if you don't want your ex-girlfriend to bother you, grow a pair and tell her to leave you the hell alone. Gah.

I do kinda feel bad for Ava. The only reason they got caught was because she felt bad for the other schools that weren't getting any resource money from the district and made sure to spread the wealth. Abbott already had all the stuff they needed. They were getting the one slice of the pie the district was giving out this year because of Janine's connections. Ava could have just kept her mouth shut, taken the money with smile, and her Soror nemesis would not have been any the wiser. But Ava gave up that slice so that other schools who were in need got the money. In the end, the real indictment should be on how poorly the district serves the students. Ava is a scapegoat for doing what the district should be doing. If they don't have the money to get the students the resources they need then they should come up with creative ways to get it. This has been a recurring theme in the show that started with the pilot. Which also demonstrates how much Ava's character has changed. In the pilot, all Janine wanted was a rug for her class. She got approved for the money to get the rug, but Ava pissed it away on stupid stuff. They finally did get the rug but only because Melissa 'knows a guy who knows a guy' who was working on the Eagles Stadium renovation and delivered Eagles rugs from the back of a van. I am sure there are correct ways to get resources, but I wonder if, say, a parent of one of the kids donated the bean bags or the scoreboard to the school or if they had done what they did in season one where they put their supplies list online and crowdsourced the things on the list, outside of the blackmail (which the district did not know about when they descended) how is this different? Is it the scale of the equipment -- computers vs. crayons? Is there a price ceiling? Is it the cover-up and not the crime?

I would be up for a revisit of these as well. It has been such a long time, but I do remember James being shoe-horned in every book. I think he was fine in -- I think it was Regina and Nicholas' book -- (which is still my favorite of all of them) but yeah you could tell he was a bit of a writers' pet. I am on the struggle bus with newer romances that I might just hunt up my old paperbacks of these and give them a re-read.

The show has been really cagey about what Ava's actual credentials are. I wonder if she has teaching credentials but never actually taught or only did student teaching? It feel like there has to be some adjacency there or even what her degree as in. Just out of curiosity I did a search for any PA principal jobs and all of them require a Principal Certification or provisional certification. Some of the Assistant Principal jobs I saw did not require the certification but required degrees in several related areas. So she could have gone that route. I can foresee the show doing something similar to what Brooklyn 99 did when Wunch got Captain Holt moved to an admin position out of the precinct. There was a revolving door of bad captains until Holt was able to return. It would be interesting to see if in her absence, everyone realizes that Ava, in her own way, did grow into being an actually good Principal that made Abbott work. Since the show has been good about involving parents, I wonder if there will be some community or parental fallout. Especially because of the spiteful way in which the district is punishing them. Not only removing the contraband but taking away the money they gave Abbott. It is a punishment of the students, not just of Ava. I imagine the parents had gotten a little used to the better tools and materials the students had access to and might not take it sitting down. It'll be interesting to see what they have in store for her and how they work her back in, because we know they will.

I wondered about that too, but I think the friend's perceptions weren't all that accurate since her stepdad was drugging and gaslighting her. She was wrong about why Whitney was looking through her purse, so she could have been wrong about whether or why Whitney told others about the hospitalization. I think when Will said 'You are a Hero!' he was giddy about having had a breakthrough with the because that was one of my favorite Will/Whitney interaction. They did that hand slapping thing and Will said: "Whitney, you have hidden depths!' "Did someone say Redemption Arc?" But yeah, I think the resolution of the murder put into perspective a lot of what they learned about Whitney especially from Tasha. Up until Tasha, the most negative stuff about Whitney was your basic Queen Bee High school girl stuff. Gossiping, trash talking. The guy she was trying to date said she had a lot of enemies because she wouldn't let people play in her face and gave smoke if she got it. Which... isn't necessarily a bad thing imo. And one girl was mad at Whitney because she posted a selfie where the other girls' eyes were closed and she didn't like the lighting. To me that doesn't rise to the level of monster, just penny ante high school bullshit. But when we get to Tasha, it sounds more ominous. She said she confided in Whitney that she had been in the Hospital and then the next day 'everybody knew about it.' She assumed it was Whitney who told. And then she said she saw Whitney going through her bag. And then there is Ms. Potts who told Will that Whitney was blackmailing her to let her stay in Belle Rose. But in the aftermath of the finding her murderers, it debunked totally the worst things Whitney is accused of: trashing Tasha's reputation and bullying her, possibly stealing from her, and blackmail. If Ms. Potts and Tasha's stepfather were trying to get a conservatorship over her, then it is in their best interests to make people believe she is unstable. And Since Ms Potts was around the kids all the time, she could have easily started the rumor. I don't think anything Tasha said about Whitney could be considered reliable because the stepfather gaslit Tasha when it came to Whitney, constantly poisoning her opinion of Whitney. And after Whitney was murdered, they went so far as to try to cast suspicion on Tasha of Whitney's murder. And we found out that Ms Potts lied that Whitney was blackmailing her. Will, Faith and Amanda realize that Whitney had been snooping around Tasha's house. That is most likely when Whitney discovered Ms. Potts and the Stepfather's affair (and possibly their plan?) and recorded them having sex. So instead of blackmail about the fake college transcript, she actually confronted Ms. Potts with her suspicions that she and the stepfather were drugging Tasha. I also think it is interesting that Elijah, who was also in the position to know a lot about the students he was around all the time, had nothing negative to say about Whitney. But then again, the man was smart enough to insist that the door to his office stayed open all the time. LOL.

Will's inner conscious as played by Whitney was fun. The actress was excellent playing off of Ramon. I loved her dry asides. "You were going to MIT" "A dream deferred.. but anyway.." She had a lot of good one-liners in there. The actress that played Tasha plays teenaged Gabi on Found. I head wank that Mark-Paul Gosselaar told her to say 'hey' to everybody for him. Ok, Elijah. I see you. I already like him better than Luke (but still wish Faith had actually had a romance with the Dr. He was all kinds of hot!). But Elijah is a snack. Faith looked gorgeous in that dress! Ahhh...memories. I was a deb when I was in Jack and Jill. I had the white dress, the ball and everything. That is one part of African American culture tv rarely shows. I actually liked Marion this episode. The Ormewood/Angie B-plot was light (for a murder). I liked it.

Yeah that was Taylor from last season. Yes, you can sometimes figure out race and ethnicity based on voice/accent etc. but that only helps if that race/ethnicity matters... which it sorta did for Garrett (Taylor's husband). But that doesn't tell you if the person is thin (hi Shake!) or meets your own personal criteria of attractiveness/prettiness if race/ethnicity doesn't matter. Anecdotally, and from what I've read over the years from the cast doing interviews etc., it always seemed like it was the guys who were trying to figure out how the women looked. The women by and large tried to stick with the conceit of the experiment.

Ooh, I like the burgeoning messiness of Naomi suing Bill's firm. That guy is a nasty piece of work. How gross do you have to be to try to have 'locker room talk' about a man's niece and his wife right in front of him? So older, about to retire cop is basically phoning it in, probably takes some money under the table from time to time, waiting for retirement. His reaction to Jacob was probably because he didn't want to be partnered with someone young and still full of energy and wanting to do the job so he was immediately hostile, probably trying to scare him off. Yeah, he gon' die. You know, I kinda want Eva to be Ted's daughter now and it is all because of Kat. This storyline just keeps giving and giving. It has the potential to be an 'All about Eve(a)' story. Where Eve quasi takes over Kat's life: She is revealed as Ted's, the family accepts her, she gets Tomas (in the short term)... and Kat is actually the more hostile one, not Eva. Eventually waaay down the road Eva and Kat will become friendlier and even acknowledge each other as sisters, possibly after some shared traumatic moment (Leslie kidnaps Kat or something...). There are so many places this can go. I am enjoying it the most. "If I get in trouble you can get me off, multiple times, if necessary". Mmm-hmmm. That was super flirty and pretty dirty. LOL. Yeah... Eva is coming for Tomas. And probably to piss of Kat more than anything. There were some really funny moments too. Of course Hayley being ignored. Honey maybe don't wear stripper day wear for breakfast. Bill and Hayley are exhausting. Yeah, force respect. That'll work. I also liked them all staring at Tomas in unison. And even though I think he is kinda an asshat, older detective's description of Jacob was kinda funny. I love how they all refer to it as just 'The Gown' when taking about the First Ladies gown Chelsea is supposed to wear. We know you talking about Michelle's gown. LOL. Oh Dani. Sigh.

I am wondering if the purpose of Ashley and Derek is that they are just two angles of what is supposed to be an old fashioned love triangle with Andre and the audience is supposed to root for one or the other? Which makes sense. Love triangles are a soap staple. But Ashley and Derek are just too boring to care about. And they didn't build out the Ashley/Andre backstory in such a way we could be convinced he really likes her. We really never saw their supposed long time friendship so it doesn't hit like it should. I am not in any way invested in any version of this relationship. I would much rather spend more time with Kat and Tomas and see where they are going. In the few minutes they were on screen they had a ton more chemistry than Ashley/Derek or Ashley/Andre. And as much as the Dani/Hayley/Bill story is their major front burner story, I wish they'd let it breath. It feels like they are rushing all the beats. Case in point, why not let Bill and Hayley notice the little off things the next day or a few days down the line when Dani thinks she is in the clear? You have just had a long, complicated planes/trains and automobiles type of trip back home complete with sweaty sex in the back of a limo. And Hayley at least, should be a bit low key disappointed her honeymoon lasted a nanosecond. And there should be some jet lag since it is Italy is 5 hours ahead of EST. They should be too exhausted to notice the little things that Dani messed up the second they step in the door. And even then, does Hayley just relax at home with her new husband? No she high tails it to Dani's house to force yet another confrontation. Slow your roll, show. I will say, Dani just standing there with a stone face as Hayley made her accusations and then playing dumb was a great move and really showcases, imo, my Karla is so fun to watch. I will also say, I do I think they are doing the Sherri/Leslie/Nicole/Ted story perfectly. It it fun to see all the shifting beats. Of course, Nicole would wonder about Sherri. Eva inserts herself to sabotage it. And we have her eavesdropping and denying Leslie's calls. Yeah, I am enjoying this. I also kinda like the messy situation with Martin and Smitty and their family. I agree that Tyrell might be bullied. I wonder if whatever is going on with him we'll find out that it causes Martin flashbacks or something that caused him to do whatever he did? The scene where Tyrell fobs them off wit the lame calculus excuse and Martin is all 'Welp, that is that then' is yet another brick in my 'Martin is the worst' wall. LOL.

The show doesn't give a good real sense of time. But it was the second meeting and it feels implied it was the next day. In the first meeting, Kaya is in uniform and Elsbeth is wearing a pink Chanel-like jacket with a pink bow. We then cut to (presumably) the next day, and Kaya is now in her new suit and Elsbeth is wearing a purple Chanel-like jacket. I assume it is the next day because now that Kaya has gotten the promotion and her badge, why would she wait several days to put on her new suit? They are meeting with Jill Eikenberry's character who says something about Marilyn and that gets both their Spidey senses tingling. That sends them right back to Marilyn on the same day. I don't doubt that a skilled fraudster would have some deep research methods to prime their marks. But with this, admittedly, imprecise timing she would have had less than 24 hours to research Elsbeth. A woman who is of an age not to have lived her entire life online or not rich and famous enough to have a lot written about her and readily available. I am also still stuck on the fact that the show is a child of Columbo and has a schtick. We have seen when Elsbeth has the perp thinking they lied successfully to get her off the trail and she starts to leave but does that 'Oh and another thing..' which lets them and, more importantly, us know she wasn't fooled. The only reason I think the show is trying to suggest that Marilyn may not be completely a charlatan is because we never got that moment definitively. So in my mind it isn't about what is probably the real case about a person like Marilyn, it is what the show wants to leave us thinking about Marilyn. They didn't conclusively debunk her. If they wanted to do that, they would have had Elsbeth say 'Oh and by the way, my grandmother called be Bethie.' This is network tv they aren't trying to be too cryptic. I also think they left it inconclusive to get that last scene in there, so that both Elsbeth and the Captain -- who both know the Judge is out to get Elsbeth -- could feel legitimately alarmed by her warning. As I said before, they could still debunk her later, but for now they want the audience to believe she might be somewhat legit.

It's nice to see them from the beginning but I need some couples with angles. Two people just into one another and dating is kind of boring to me. Where are the 'just friends' or 'just coworkers' people with chemistry? Or the charged enemies bound to be lovers? They are two very pretty people who look pretty together! I agree they need a little something though. But I wonder if this is the start of building the foundation to create a super couple? Something will happen to pull them apart, make them long for each other, misunderstandings, a scheming woman getting between them... maybe Eva? I'll bet it won't be smooth sailing. But for now I am liking them though. I agree it is nice to see the start of a new romance. Their date was really cute, I liked their banter. As much I love crazy Dani, I do need her to step back and get some sense. It is getting pathetic now, not fun. George is most definitely an idiot, but I can't lie I loved his little scene with Dani. It was funny watching him trying to not say 'wedding' and 'honeymoon.' Speaking of, I am howling that poor Hayley probably only got to step foot in the airport in Italy before having to turn back around. Bill does not care about this woman. He wanted someone who needs to depend on him. I hate him. LOL. I swear he is like... what expression should I have today... Oak or Maple? He looks like Will Ferrell doing an SNL sketch called 'Expressionless Man.' For all I think Ashley is boring, she is doing all the work.

I imagine what a lot of people see in someone they are initially attracted to, their looks, something about a vibe that calls to you. The first date is the opportunity to get to know the person a bit and whether you want to spend more time with them. And theirs went dismally at first and he was right to call a halt to it when he did and to say why. But we've been given tons of context clues about Ava's personality over the last 4 seasons. She isn't just a horrible person. She is fantastic with the kids which says a lot about a person. She is prickly and snarky, but that is mostly with people who try to be nice to her or who try to show her they care. Her relationship with Janine, imo, mirrors her relationship with O'Shon in some ways. We've seen her be mean to Janine, but she has come through for Janine and even spoke nicely about Janine when Janine wasn't around to hear it. In the last Christmas episode she went to hang with Janine and Gregory for no reason that we could discern but it was heavily implied she wanted to be with people that she might consider family, but the minute they started to act that way toward her and kinda suss onto her motives, her walls came up and she got mean again. I think Janelle James is a highly underrated actress. She does a lot of face acting that contradicts what comes out of her mouth. You can see that in a lot of the scenes where Ava needs to shift into another gear. And you can see it throughout the date.

I think the show left it deliberately open ended though. If they really wanted us to know she was a complete fraud, they would have taken pains to debunk her. One of the hallmarks of the show is a reveal and explanation. They never did that with her. Now, that doesn't mean they might not do it later since the show is great with callbacks. But I think that especially with how the scene with her read on Elsbeth was crafted, they wanted it to go beyond the idea of a just skilled reader. It piled on too many specifics -- Grandmother specifically instead of just 'maternal figure', including the nickname 'Elly' when the name Elsbeth has a lot of nickname possibilities.

Matty -- the woman who managed to, undetected, get herself into the building, onto the floor and into a meeting where all the top lawyers in firm the were discussing their strategy for a negotiation-- is relying on Julian's key card to determine who went where when?

This was a good episode and pretty fascinating. Of course we knew Marilyn was the killer. But it was nice to leave the how of it as part of the reveal. I think they did it that way so we got to watch Kaya's detective skills in action. Also, Right?? She looked so lovely!! Regarding Marilyn... it was fascinating the way they crafted her character. I like the idea of her having a real authentic paranormal talent on the one hand, but also being a grifting charlatan for money as it benefits her. Maybe the act of the grift snuffs out her talent and she can't get a real read when her motive is completely mercenary? Using the 'murder of crows' at that exact moment was a nice way to exit the scene right into the credits that included crows in the title noticed the crows flying around in the title sequence. I wondered if it was the first time the title sequence was tied to the plot of the episode. I checked back about 6 episodes and only one other of the last six had something different and it was the 'Tearjerker' episode with Jordana Brewster. In that one, the title sequence, which always includes a cartoon rendering of the NYC skyline, had a very tall building swaying in the wind.

On my personal 'Ugh!' meter for the day, Martin retains the top spot. Why are you sabotaging your husband so? And yes, I agree he is afraid Smitty will find out his secret. Hell, at this point, I am expecting Leslie to discover his secret. Somebody. This is gonna come out (hopefully) in the worst way and time. I really want Dani to be stronger than this, but I can't lie -- I have known too many people to stalk and ex's social even if they aren't still into them. Some of it might come from a little wish to see if they are struggling or aren't doing as well without you but some of it might come from simple nosiness. So I can't fault her too much. I am loving the Eva/Leslie stuff. Leslie is just such a perfect soap villainess. She really is. But they are doing a really good job with having Eva straddle a line. All she wants is to become part of the family. She is not trying to blow up anything. And she is willing to turn some of Leslie's tactics back on her to get her goal. I am here for the mess! There is literally no reason for Kat to be missing Nicole's big night except that is serves future plot somehow. And it probably has to do with her finding out Eva wore her dress. And that will spiral out to there being some sort of family drama about Kat being mean to poor Eva. As usual, everyone looked real nice.

Between that and dunking her poor phone in her gin, electronics see Dani coming and get real nervous.

Fair.

I can't stand Martin. What type of marriage do they have the Smitty needs Martin's permission to have a job. Damn. And yeah, the sexy times Smitty offered had a whiff of the transactional. For all that Dani is a loose canon, Martin seems like the real problem child of the Duprees. Run, Smitty, run! His kids were chill, tho. Yup. Vanessa and Doug feel like strangers, not an estranged married couple. They have no character chemistry at all. The most interesting thing about Doug is Joey. And as much I think she is boring, Ashley was doing all the heavy lifting in that hospital scene with Derek. It feels like Eva is beginning to like working with Nicole and is treating this as a real job that she enjoys. She is as manipulative as Leslie. She wants that award ceremony to go off without a hitch because she had a hand in planning it. I would love to see how Leslie crashes out if Eva begins to really waver on the plan. I really don't want Ted to be Eva's father because so far, outside of Anita and Vernon, I like Nicole the best and I don't want her marriage to be on a rocky foundation. Is it possible there is more to the story? His dead brother maybe? And he paid her off to protect his bro? They sure mention Andre's dead parents a lot. Has Andre ever tried to mack on Eva? If not thre might be a reason.

Jacob wins Karaoke night for me just based on everyone's reaction. I especially liked Simon and Mr. Johnson rocking out to it. Janine's face was great! Of course Mr. Johnson's Karaoke song is "It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp." Hysterical that Erika and Simon ended up being Barbara's back up after she dragged their singing. Their volatile relationship was really fun background flavor. How apropos that Janine and Gregory did "Always on Time." And Janine's Ja Rule voice was ... not great. I am dying that Zach's one man show is called 'Got Out' which feels like a play on Jordan Peele's 'Get Out.' Yeah Zach is still pretty salty about the break up. That was fantastic. I actually liked the writing for Ava this episode. Yes she was a terrible date but I think between the writing and the acting it really showed her insecurities and the mask she hides behind. She is so uncomfortable with anything real that she hides behind flippant jokes and a little bit of mean girlness. It is interesting because she is the same way with Janine. O'Shon was fantastic. Not only is he handsome, smart and nicely nerdy he comes off as very authentic. I liked the scene of them as the valet brought his car around. It was a great contrast in the really fun joking insult (his car) as compared to Ava's snottiness earlier. That type of joking is their thing. So yeah I thought was was a really good character showcase for Ava and a nice beginning for her and O'shon.

I think the show needs another family rather than the one off characters like the Nurse and Shady Doug. Right now the Duprees seem to the be sun that everyone seems to be rotating around. The Leslie/Mona/Jan scenes show that there is another possible dynamic. Middle class people who aren't always on display and who have other concerns and their own story hook. Yeah Leslie is an adjunct story to the Duprees but at least these scenes round her out a bit and make her less of a one note character. I imagine the show will expand out that way at some point and build out another full on family. I think if they had another fully fleshed family with their own drama away from the Duprees, it would feel like some of the pressure could be taken off of the Dupree family and especially Dani to maintain the drama and would be more of an interesting hook than what they are giving us with Nurse and Doug.

I LOVED Dani treating her mug shot like a high fashion photo shoot. IRL her obsession with Bill makes a lot of sense and I think @Badsamaritan breakdown is a good example of why it does. I get it. It is also a classic case of people from the outside seeing something you can't see for yourself. But this is a soap and we want things to move faster. But for all that the narrative has made it seem that Dani is the ine that won't let go, this episode made it clear that Bill is as much an active participant in this drama. I don't know what is going on with him, but he seems to have a real axe to grind with the Duprees and is using Dani as the whetstone. So yeah Martin is a hot head with anger management issues. How long have he and Smitty been married so that Smitty has not seen this side of him before? I am frustrated with Naomi getting so upset with Jacob, instead of realizing he is right. Dani was gonna get arrested no matter what. If someone else had done it it wouldn't have been as respectful as the way he did it. She should know better. Dana/Leslie/Sherry may be crazy but she is also crazy like a fox. I kinda love her actually. I would love to see her and Bill clash. LOL. But it would be smart for Teddy Bear to just confess and take the wind out of her sails. But this is a soap and that just won't happen. But I am liking the cracks already forming between her and Eva. I would feel sorry for Hayley having her new life so hijacked if she weren't so trifling as to sleep with the father of her BFF and the woman who took her in and treated her like family. Oh well. The nurse's storyline and Doug's storyline. Why? What is the engine driving their stories? I can't understand what make them necessary as cutaways? They have no plot line. And they're boring. I will say everybody's coat game was on point this episode!

Oh I think sardines would be a good sub for anchovies. But I think miso would completely change the flavor profile.