S03.E02: It's the Sixties, Man!

[lucindabelle]

I call BS on not knowing the words to white Christmas. It was HUGELY popular and back in the day would have been sung in public school.

 

(I’m a decade younger and we sang Christmas songs in school in 70s)

 

also of course written by the very Jewish Irving Berlin.

 

[aradia22]

Was that first joke a dig at the audience because everyone since season 1 has been talking about how Midge doesn't seem to care about her kids? Maybe the writers of this show genuinely thought we all hated children and wouldn't notice. 

"Irregardless?" Woof. She is uneducated.

I haven't seen Devin Bostwick in anything since Being Erica.

Why are they introducing these young leftists if they're immediately going to start mocking them for butter cookies? Everyone is just performatively woke but happy to exploit the actual labor class? I don't get this show sometimes. I miss when stuff seemed to matter.

How is it Suzy's fault about the photo in the paper? 

God, Midge is childish. This episode was so irritating to sit through.

Oklahoma was intriguing from the start. It was the only plot of the episode with stakes. I get Rose taking a stance but I wish she'd opted for a legal solution to getting a position on the board. Not enough was made about a business started by a woman being taken over by men. Taking a moral stance and giving up money is not a win. Fighting for your place and taking the money and position you are entitled to is a win.

Joel should have been happy they blocked off the wall so no one would be running through his place anymore. Instead he bashed it in with a bat?

Nancy Anderson! Love her

Sterling K. Brown was great. With This Is Us, I doubt he'll be much of a presence this season. But it was nice to see a black character with a personality on this show. In that short interaction I think he already had more lines than that one girl from B. Altman's.

Mei is great. Finally a character with some life. 

I appreciate that Miriam finally stopped being so selfish (about one thing) and put her ego aside for Suzy's well-being. Even if she did act like it was a huge personal sacrifice and not a completely normal thing.

Also, that last line showed some self-awareness, even if this show still 100% has issues with race. 

[aradia22]

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Rose is elegant and filthy rich? I wonder what she saw in a self centered weirdo like Abe?

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I never got the vibe that Rose was from Oklahoma. She strikes me as a definite East Coast person. She seems more likely to be from Providence, Rhode Island than Providence, Oklahoma. I guess the writers thought this was a quirky little back story but it felt off to me. In fact, the whole show seems a little off to me. I was really excited for season 3 and now I find myself checking the clock to see how much time is left in each episode.

I agree about Rose's backstory seeming off (as well as these hour-long episodes feeling like a slog). But it would explain the appeal of Abe. Even after they gave up on Paris and certain bohemian ideals, I think she would appreciate the cosmopolitan setting and prestige of being a Columbia professor's wife after growing up in Oklahoma (on an oil field?). I can see her going for someone who made her feel like she'd left her old life behind. 

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In a side note, season 1 was about a very Jewish girl. Almost every episode was infused with Midge's Jewish heritage. I think that is what made it so funny and unique and such a true period piece. Somewhere along the way, that aspect of this series became diluted and lost the way. 

I miss that too. We've also gotten away from her developing her jokes. Does she have a consistent set? Is she working out new material on the fly? Wasn't it important that she learned to not improv her jokes in seasons 1 and 2?

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 It just seems like they are asking us to erase everything about Rose from early in season 2 and now she's back to being a rigid trust fund lady who lunches.

Not just you. I completely agree with this.

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It certainly never occurred to me that there were Jewish people in Oklahoma in the first part of the 20th century. Cursory research doesn't reveal much. I wonder if it was going to be Providence, Rhode Island, and they switched because of similarities with real life persons. 

Not sure about Oklahoma but in Guy Branum's book he explains how his mother's side of the family ended up farmers with thick rural accents. I forget exactly where in the US they settled before California but I'd recommend the book regardless. 

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Although, she sticks to her cultural upbringing (i.e. pushing Midge to return to Joel, then pushing her to marry Benjamin, because what is a woman without a man?), I think there is a lot of change on the horizon for Rose  She is growing more sure of herself, seeing more value in herself (hence, her Parisian expedition) and it will be a slow journey, but it is happening. 

I'm of two minds. One is that Rose's Oklahoma backstory doesn't quite feel right. I don't think Paris Rose would be that thrown by a woman being independent and I don't think she'd be that content to be a doormat. She's never been a subservient wife. She has big Emily Gilmore energy. I feel like the focus on a husband is the understanding that it would be hard for a woman to make her own way in the world at the time. How many women were really making a living as doctors, lawyers, scientists, etc.? Some but not a lot. Mostly women were secretaries, teachers, childcare providers, maids, etc. That's not a salary that can easily support two children, especially the way Miriam is used to living. It'll be interesting to see what happens going forward. Will Joel step in to fill the void of her parents or will Miriam actually have to pay to rent an apartment and pay for childcare?

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And I hope he has an affair with May -- she would eat him alive.

I hope not. She deserves better. Every woman who has hooked up with Joel deserves better. Even that secretary... Penny?

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For me, the misogyny was so firmly entrenched in Rose's family that I actually could see her losing her temper and refusing to take any more money from them. 

It was weird to me that the misogyny was not specifically tied to their Jewishness yet everyone at the table was wearing a yarmulke. Were they more Orthodox and thus more strict about a woman's place? Or does she just have a lot of male relatives who are used to shutting women out? I wasn't sure where they were going and why they were so dismissive of her. Certainly we've seen retrograde attitudes but they treated her more like a pet than their sister and it wasn't clear why.