S05.E08: Toy Drive

[Aulty]

Quote

Amy and Jonah help Mateo run a toy drive to make him look good for his immigration hearing, but they clash with a competing charity rep (Fred Armisen). Sandra and Jerry ask Glenn to officiate their wedding despite Dina’s protests. Cheyenne gets real with Garrett about his relationship with Colleen.

Original Air Date: 11/14/2019

Edited November 9, 2019 by Aulty

[jmonique]

I have no idea why I'm still watching this show. 

Are the writers purposely trying to make everyone horrible? 

[Ms Lark]

I think this was a particularly weak episode. Not as bad as the Mannequin ep in S1 (nothing is), but still pretty bad. Amy was not a good manager here, although the blocking off of the Samaritan was fun. I liked it better when Glenn was manager and Amy just had aspirations and was striving.

Not really a fan of Fred Armisen; I feel he tends to throw everything off and not in a good way. That's just me, I know he has many fans that love his work, but it's not my brand of humor.

I had hoped the ring of birdseed would bring back Dina's parrots, maybe as a tag. Darn.

[chocolatine]

It wasn't a great episode, but I got a kick out of Garrett being ghosted by Whatshername and "rejected" by Carol. He's been so full of himself lately, he needed to be brought down a peg.

Sandra and Jerry going from "nice" to making Glenn uncomfortable talking about their sex life was also funny. 

@Ms Lark, I feel the exact same way as you do about Fred Armisen.

[AnimeMania]

Maybe Amy could have cashed out all the gift cards so that Fred Armisen couldn't use them and used the video as evidence that they conned the store out of the toys and essentially stole them. I am pretty sure he confessed to the crime.

Didn't like the episode, but loved the customer gag, guy holding a large bag of ice, but the checkout line was so long, the ice is melting and his clothes are soaking wet and there is a puddle of water around his feet.

[Aulty]

Give the toy people a call and tell them that you'll have to postpone the toy drive for 24 hours fro whatever reason. They other guy was only there for the day anyway, wasn't he? Problem solved.

Amy is a horrible store manager, it isn't even funny anymore. So the way Cloud 9 is run, she will be made district manager by the end of the serason.

That whole Mateo story just makes me angry because he is such an obnoxious character. There needs to be an episode that reminds us why people are supporting him soon.

[Empress1]

6 hours ago, chocolatine said:

It wasn't a great episode, but I got a kick out of Garrett being ghosted by Whatshername and "rejected" by Carol. He's been so full of himself lately, he needed to be brought down a peg.

Sandra and Jerry going from "nice" to making Glenn uncomfortable talking about their sex life was also funny. 

@Ms Lark, I feel the exact same way as you do about Fred Armisen.

Thirded re: Fred Armisen. I'm never glad to see him. And I laughed when Carol was totally down for a three-way but when she found out it would just be her and Garrett, she was like " ... Nah."

Ghosting sucks, although if they had only been on a handful of dates there's a little more wiggle room. Still, send a text. (If they had been "official," I would say break up in person.) I had a man end a years-long relationship with me by ghosting. It sucks. But I think the worst ghosting story I've ever heard is this one.

Edited November 15, 2019 by Empress1

[Harvey]

St. Louis, you don't like the weather? Wait five minutes.

So true.

[ClareWalks]

Oof, that charity war was AWFUL. 

[joanne3482]

10 hours ago, Ms Lark said:

I had hoped the ring of birdseed would bring back Dina's parrots, maybe as a tag. Darn.

That would have been great! Especially if Dina wasn't outside to see them. 

10 hours ago, Ms Lark said:

Not really a fan of Fred Armisen; I feel he tends to throw everything off and not in a good way. That's just me, I know he has many fans that love his work, but it's not my brand of humor.

I loved him in Portlandia, but I generally feel like he uses that same humor in other shows where it isn't really a good fit. 

[Kip Hackman]

I thought Fred Armisen was pretty toned down, by his usual standards. That role could've been played by pretty much anyone, and it would've been the same. Not sure why they used him for that.

[tennisgurl]

I like Fred Armisen in certain things, but whatever it is has to have a certain tone for him to really work, and I dont think this really landed. A lot of the main plot was rather cringy. 

The subplots worked a lot better for me. Garret getting ghosted to his horror was cringy in a funny kind of way, especially as he has been so damn cocky lately. "No girl really has an aunt." Ghosting someone does suck to do though, even after just a few dates. Like, just send a text at the very least! 

I also continue to love Sandra and Jerry, they just work together.

[iMonrey]

I didn't use to like Fred Armisen either until he was on Last Man on Earth. He was pretty funny on that show. 

I did get a kick out of Garrett's naivete regarding being ghosted and Cheyenne having to explain it to him. The excuses his girlfriend was giving him just got increasingly absurd. "Oh, Garrett. Girls never have aunts."

[Guest]

I find Armisen's brand of comedy to be very distracting and self-indulgent (you can tell he thinks everything he does is hilarious and imo it's kind of obnoxious because it sucks the air away from his scene partners), so I wasn't thrilled to see him here. He brought out the worst in Amy. Mateo is also BEYOND insufferable.

Liked the reveal of Sandra and Jerry as undercover horndogs, although the infantilization of their relationship is becoming creepy instead of sweet...they're not 10.

It did make me laugh that Garrett concocted this whole elaborate lie to bang the new woman without Dina knowing so he could look like the good guy when Dina comes back around but then New Girlfriend just wasn't into him.

[Harvey]

I wish they wrote Mateo off the show. He is sincerely a bad person. There is no reason for Amy and Jonah to give him so many chances and make so much effort to help him out. He does not deserve it and even after everyone coming together to help him out, he does not show humility. He continues to be mean-spirited with his annoying catty comments.

[bunnyblue]

I don't understand why Amy & Mateo didn't just reschedule their toy drive for another day, when Fred Armisen was NOT out front of the store seeking his own donations. Yes, he was an ass and not funny, but Amy did agree to let him ring his little bell so he had a right to be there. I feel like the writers didn't think this through, and it made for a flimsy unfunny plot.

I can't stand the term "ghosting" so the Garrett storyline annoyed me on that alone, LOL.

The only thing I found funny was finding out Sandra & Jerry have a robust sex life, and how uncomfortable that made Glenn.

[foxfreakinmulder]

20 hours ago, chocolatine said:

It wasn't a great episode, but I got a kick out of Garrett being ghosted by Whatshername and "rejected" by Carol. He's been so full of himself lately, he needed to be brought down a peg.

Sandra and Jerry going from "nice" to making Glenn uncomfortable talking about their sex life was also funny. 

I laughed when Cheyenne made Garrett buff and shirtless in that picture and said something like "look I've posted that you're traveling the world" and he said "yeah, cause I do that shirtless" or something like that. And Glen with Sandra and Jerry's sex talk.

I don't like Amy and I think she's a terrible manager. Instead of giving everyone a $5 gift card take all the money you used to purchased those gift cards and buy toys for the toy drive. Or just put toys in the bin to make it look like people donated for the video. Or now that she's making those "big" bucks buy some damn toys.

I hate Mateo.

[fishcakes]

"They're two people who look alike that are getting married. End of story."

[Commando Cody]

The only people I like on this show now, are Dina and Glenn.  

Amy has proven, week after week, that she's a terrible store manager.  This story line was so ridiculously bad.  I don't like Fred Armison either.  I believe when someone steals from you, you call the police and file a report.  Taking the toys was theft.  If she really wanted to screw with the kettle guy, she would have pressed charges. 

This show just gets worse every single week. I almost turned this episode off. I don't think I'm going to stick with this show. The writing has become so bad.  We will see if I can stick it out till the end of the season, but it's not looking good. 

[geauxaway]

Worst episode ever, hands down.  I don’t care for Fred Armisen, but they way Amy treated his character made me hate her more.  Why was she so hateful and smug?  The red kettles / bell ringers are pretty much an institution.  I would have shamed her on SM so bad for pulling that shit.  Watching it literally made me cringe.  
 

I hope this was not their Christmas show because it was really terrible.

[pennben]

Are we supposed to be rooting for Amy?

[possibilities]

Did all the show's writers die, and get replaced by Bad Place demon rejects?

[espiritlibre17]

Amy... where do we begin. She’s so self deluded and just... dumb. She can’t admit she forgot that she told the Samaritan guy he could be there that day. Instead, this episode escalated into pure nonsense. She is acting like a child and focused on getting revenge on this guy, WHILE WORKING- instead of managing the store. Why is Jonah going along with it? I expect Mateo to, but not Jonah. At this point, Amy cares about NO ONE but herself because someone got her feelings hurt and she had to act... I wouldn’t even say child. It’s ridiculous. How could she even be district manager? She’s got a lot of mean hate in her heart. Who cares that the Samaritan guy said she was a bad manager? Maybe that wasn’t needed- but it’s true, and the truth hurts sometimes. I won’t be continuing the show. She makes so many excuses for her crappy and immature behavior, like she’s self-righteous in some way, and she almost always needs validation because deep down she’s deeply insecure. 

[Empress1]

For some reason my DVR thought this episode was new last night (1/2/20) and recorded it!

[Harvey]

On 11/22/2019 at 7:31 PM, espiritlibre17 said:

Amy... where do we begin. She’s so self deluded and just... dumb. She is acting like a child and focused on getting revenge on this guy, WHILE WORKING- instead of managing the store. Why is Jonah going along with it? I expect Mateo to, but not Jonah. At this point, Amy cares about NO ONE but herself because someone got her feelings hurt and she had to act... I wouldn’t even say child. It’s ridiculous.  She makes so many excuses for her crappy and immature behavior, like she’s self-righteous in some way, and she almost always needs validation because deep down she’s deeply insecure. 

To be fair, the show is consistent in that way. Amy has been the same since season 1, but people are only starting to complain about now for some reason. Just think about the time she hazed Jonah back in season 1. That was very similiar to the events of this episode.

She was always self-righteous, and put down others in order to seem superior.