S01.10: Anna and the Unicorn

[ElectricBoogaloo]

MID-SEASON FINALE!

Quote

Wade is giddy, his daughters are amused and his friends are excited when he has his first crush since becoming single again. Grace and Natalie take advantage of their dad going on dates by having friends over and it starts to get out of hand.

Original air date: 12/12/19

Edited December 8, 2019 by ElectricBoogaloo

[Roaster]

With all due respect to the fans on this board, I am giving up on The Unicorn.  Too cutesy and artificial.  Too stilted.  The daughters are the only characters who feel authentic.

[HazelEyes4325]

One thing that I was worried about with this season is that it would be all about Wade's friends trying to run his life.  And...it's not!  I'm actually quite shocked that the show has successfully moved away from that and has given the friends their own stories.  I thought the whole thing with Delia being worried that Michelle would be threatened to be a bit over the top, but it was over the top in the way that Delia is over the top, so it worked.  However, Michelle and Anna bonding over the prospect of brunch made it all worth it.

I really like Anna.  But, that being said, I don't see how the Wade and Anna thing can last in the long run, at least successfully for this show.  I think as soon as they permanently pair Wade up with someone, that fundamentally changes things.  So, I've accepted that, at some point, Wade and Anna are going to go their separate ways.  I do wonder, though, if they are laying the ground work to keep Anna around as a platonic friend for Wade, a member of the found family.

[biakbiak]

25 minutes ago, HazelEyes4325 said:

don't see how the Wade and Anna thing can last in the long run, at least successfully for this show.  I think as soon as they permanently pair Wade up with someone, that fundamentally changes things.  So, I've accepted that, at some point, Wade and Anna are going to go their separate ways.  I do wonder, though, if they are laying the ground work to keep Anna around as a platonic friend for Wade, a member of the found family.

Lots of shows, particularly sitcoms, shift from their premise and are often better for it. This show very much reminds me of Cougartown which was always a stupid name but they abandoned Jules dating younger man very early and concentrated on the group of friends and her romance with a man her own age and I could easily morph into that and thrive.

Edited December 13, 2019 by biakbiak

[Harvey]

Delia was so adorable in this episode, I loved how happy she was about succesfully fixing up Wade. And she got her just desserts in the end.

The scene where Grace caught Wade kissing Anna was so wonderfully awkward, and I could feel Grace's shock/pain, Wade really shouldn't have let her see that. The actress playing Grace has talent.

[Bali]

Wade's dance in the kitchen made me fall for Walton Goggins just a little bit more than I already was.

I can't see Anna being the end for Wade because they have different priorities. She wants to go out every night. And he needs to supervise teenage daughters.  And that concert she took him to was just dreadful. I wouldn't be able to sit through that no matter how much I liked a guy. UGH!

But I loved Delia's workout. I loved that she was clumsy instead of all graceful. More like real people are when they start that stuff. And Forest, "I don't think that's right". ROTFL

Edited December 13, 2019 by Bali

[Harvey]

3 minutes ago, Bali said:

Wade's dance in the kitchen made me fall for Walton Goggins just a little bit more than I already was.

I can't see Anna being the end for Wade because they have different priorities. She wants to go out every night. And he needs to supervise teenage daughters.  And that concert she took him to was just dreadful. I wouldn't be able to sit through that no matter how much I liked a guy. UGH!

Yeah obviously this is the first on-screen relationship so it will not work out, but I also hope they don't go to a cliché route for when they inevitably break up. Maybe it would be cool if Wade realized he is not ready for a full-on serious commitment yet again? But that is just one possibility there is a lot they could do.

Anna seems really sweet and wonderful so it will be hard to make her the bad guy in the relationship.

[biakbiak]

37 minutes ago, Bali said:

I can't see Anna being the end for Wade because they have different priorities. She wants to go out every night. And

I don’t know that Anna does want to go out every night they talked about how both people in a relationship don’t reveal their true selves when they first start to date. Anna actually brought up the girls and that she understood he might not be able to go out at least once or twice. I mean she is a doctor it’s not like she is out partying all the time, I think she was just really into him and wanted to spend time with him and because he hadn’t told the girls about her hanging out with him meant going out. 

[HazelEyes4325]

30 minutes ago, Harvey said:

Anna seems really sweet and wonderful so it will be hard to make her the bad guy in the relationship.

This is why I think they are laying the groundwork of adding her into the friends group, which I would be more than okay with.  I can also see them being some sort of on-again, off-again thing throughout the series which, well, on paper sounds terrible.  However, this show sounds terrible on paper and it has become my favorite new show of the season, so I'm withholding any opinion on that. 

Also, I can't help but love someone who names their dog Joyce.  Just sayin'.

[HazelEyes4325]

12 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

I don’t know that Anna does want to go out every night they talked about how both people in a relationship don’t reveal their true selves when they first start to date. Anna actually brought up the girls and that she understood he might not be able to go out at least once or twice. I mean she is a doctor it’s not like she is out partying all the time, I think she was just really into him and wanted to spend time with him and because he hadn’t told the girls about her hanging out with him meant going out. 

I can't quite buy Anna as a party girl either and I agree with what you are saying here, that she actually just wants to spend tine with Wade.  However, I can see the show teasing out the fact that Wade and Anna are just in different places right now and, no matter how much they like each other, it just isn't the right time.  I think that's a very realistic take, and this show has stuck close to realism.  I'm interested in seeing how they play this out.

Edited December 13, 2019 by HazelEyes4325

[luna1122]

1 hour ago, Bali said:

Wade's dance in the kitchen made me fall for Walton Goggins just a little bit more than I already was.

Agreed. He's long been a crush, but I never knew he could play sweetly adorkable so well. 

1 hour ago, Bali said:

I can't see Anna being the end for Wade because they have different priorities. She wants to go out every night. And he needs to supervise teenage daughters.  And that concert she took him to was just dreadful. I wouldn't be able to sit through that no matter how much I liked a guy. UGH!

I love the Drive-by truckers! Their former guitarist/singer Jason Isbell is just about my fave artist. 

I'm not buying that anna is young enuf for NKOTB to be her first concert. Or were they just naming embarrassing concerts or something? 

[Mrs. Stanwyck]

Quote

I'm not buying that anna is young enuf for NKOTB to be her first concert. 

If she is 40, she was born in 1979.  NKOTB had their first #1 in 1988/89.  She would only have been 9 or 10.  I don't think its that big of a stretch.

Deliah and her girl crush on Anna was giving me second hand embarrassment.  I did love the end when Michelle and Anna bonded over skipping the run to have brunch.  I also enjoyed Forrest and Ben's entrance to the party.

[meep.meep]

That's actually the perfect age for a first musical crush.

Ben and Forrest at the party drinking their mojitos while interfacing with Jenna's mom was perfection.

[eel21788]

19 hours ago, Roaster said:

With all due respect to the fans on this board, I am giving up on The Unicorn.  Too cutesy and artificial.  Too stilted.  The daughters are the only characters who feel authentic.

This was my first episode, and I was pretty unimpressed. Did they ever explain how the mother died?

It reminded me of the old Mutual Of Omaha commercial: I know the name of eight princesses. I'm an expert at softball and tea parties. I'll have more awkward  conversations than I'm equipped for, because I'm raising two girls on my own.

It's hard to get a successful tv show out of a commercial. Just look at Cavemen and Baby Bob.

15 hours ago, biakbiak said:

Lots of shows, particularly sitcoms, shift from their premise and are often better for it. This show very much reminds me of Cougartown which was always a stupid name but they abandoned Jules dating younger man very early and concentrated on the group of friends and her romance with a man her own age and I could easily morph into that and thrive.

I call that The Episode 14 Re-Vamp.

Edited December 13, 2019 by eel21788

[ShortyMac]

1 hour ago, eel21788 said:

This was my first episode, and I was pretty unimpressed. Did they ever explain how the mother died?

No, they've just said, "When Mom/Jill got sick..." More than likely, cancer.

[Dowel Jones]

I was surprised that the writers included a suicide joke from one of the kids.  It fell really flat to me, given real life. Wade put the brakes on in a hurry.

I too liked Ben and Forrest at the kids' party.  "No, we don't have any kids here, and I just happen to have an alcoholic drink, but we're friends with the two young girls who do live here."  Stop. Talking. Now.

[Harvey]

I wish Forrest was allowed to muddle his mojito to perfection. 🤒

[luna1122]

4 hours ago, Mrs. Stanwyck said:

If she is 40, she was born in 1979.  NKOTB had their first #1 in 1988/89.  She would only have been 9 or 10.  I don't think its that big of a stretch

I guess that's true. My math is probably wonky. I was putting her more at 45, and NYOTB at more mid 90s than late 80s, so I was figuring her first concert to be at 19 or 20. 

[hoodooznoodooz]

I need to figure out a way to work “mid-muddle” into a conversation.

Forrest, Ben and Noah are my favorite characters. 

[possibilities]

I really like Wade's daughters. The show has struck a good and unusual balance between sweet and bratty.

[Catfi9ht]

I continue to love everything about this show. Wade's relationship with his daughters and Wade's relationship with his friends actually feel like real people.

Ben and Wade's conversation about being cool and saying cool too much was just snarky enough to sound exactly like something I would say to my friends.

Although, I think Forrest is my favorite character. Rob Corddry is fantastic.

[hoodooznoodooz]

19 hours ago, Catfi9ht said:

Although, I think Forrest is my favorite character. Rob Corddry is fantastic.

He’s so talented. Perfect timing, always. Subtle reactions. Love. 

Have you ever watched “Children’s Hospital”? He is very funny in that. (The series starts to take a dive after about the first season, though.)

[possibilities]

I like that the couples like each other and seem well matched. I'm so tired of every story being about married partners who basically hate and resent each other and where you wonder why they don't just get divorced and stop tormenting themselves.

[hoodooznoodooz]

Right? I like how Ben is usually working alongside Michelle, slicing vegetables, helping to prepare dinner. And it’s clear they like each other, even when they disagree.

[tennisgurl]

I continue to adore the relationships between Wade and his daughters, its very sweet but also realistic. I especially liked the beat this week where Grace saw Wade and Anna kissing, it wasnt overly dramatic and she wasnt yelling or crying, but you can tell that Grace was shocked and that while he knew her dad was dating and supported him, actually seeing it was a real shock, and the talk they had after was really lovely. 

Anna seems great and she and Wade have nice chemistry, but I think that what might end up breaking them up is that they have different priorities right now. She likes going out and he has his daughters to look after, and that could lead to them breaking up without anyone really having to become the asshole. 

Delias work out was hilarious, and I love that Forrest knew right away why Delia was being weird about having a new friend. I really enjoy every character pairing, they all really work for me. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I like that Grace is a nice kid who wasn't throwing keggers the second her dad left the house. The party was something that got out of control in an understandable way.

I'm not sure how many 14 year old girls would be as supportive as Grace was right after seeing her dad kiss someone else, but I like that she didn't immediately scream at him or flounce off. I had to laugh when they followed up the Grace/Wade bonding moment with Natalie interrupting them with "What are you two fart heads talking about?"

Forest and Ben strolling over the house while drinking their mojitos and then saying all the wrong things to Jenna's mom amused me too.

I really liked that Michelle is not threatened by Delia's friendship/crush on Anna, but it was sweet to see her finally pretend to be for Delia's sake. But I'm with Michelle and Anna - no thanks to a 5K. I'd rather go eat.

I wish Wade hadn't apologized for not being able to send every night with Anna. You can date someone and not see them every single night. Lots of people do it, especially people who have kids, work weird hours, etc. Just because you don't have time to go out to different places every single day doesn't mean you have to break up.

Edited December 18, 2019 by ElectricBoogaloo

[bros402]

This show is so odd. It still does not feel like a CBS show at all. It feels like an ABC comedy through and through. I liked this episode. I like the character of Anna - Wade & Anna obviously have to break up at some point, but I hope it is amicable and she gets added to the cast (even on a recurring basis) since she is a fun character. Will the relationship be platonic between Wade & Anna afterwards, or will it be an on-again off-again kind of thing?

[paigow]

On 1/3/2020 at 2:59 AM, bros402 said:

This show is so odd. It still does not feel like a CBS show at all. 

Because Dick Van Dyke is not the Unicorn...Angela Lansbury is not his pushy matchmaking buddy....nobody has been murdered in a charmingly quirky manner for Gary Sinise to  investigate...

[bros402]

5 hours ago, paigow said:

Because Dick Van Dyke is not the Unicorn...Angela Lansbury is not his pushy matchmaking buddy....nobody has been murdered in a charmingly quirky manner for Gary Sinise to  investigate...

It's like it got switched at birth with an ABC show.

[love2lovebadtv]

On 12/13/2019 at 12:49 PM, luna1122 said:

Agreed. He's long been a crush, but I never knew he could play sweetly adorkable so well. 

I love the Drive-by truckers! Their former guitarist/singer Jason Isbell is just about my fave artist. 

I'm not buying that anna is young enuf for NKOTB to be her first concert. Or were they just naming embarrassing concerts or something? 

I'm not familiar with the actor who plays Wade and I can't imagine him playing anything but a sweet dork. I will have to check out his other work.

I do think Anna is young enough for NKOTB to be her first concert. I don't remember if her exact age was mentioned but if she is 40, then she would have been around 10. If she's more like 45, she would have been around 15. It seems realistic to me. 

Edited November 11, 2020 by love2lovebadtv