S01.E14: True Colors

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

Paul is shocked to hear from his estranged mother who wants to visit for Rainbow's 13th birthday; Rainbow sees turning 13 as a huge turning point in her life and wants a big birthday party.

Original air date: 1/28/20

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Requisite musical reference:

 

[AnimeMania]

Poor Rainbow staring in that fun house mirror at the body of a 30 year old woman who has had 5 kids.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I totally get that Alicia was trying to make up for all the birthdays that Rainbow missed while they were on the commune but she later told Dee Dee that she wished their mom had made that kind of effort for her own birthdays which pointed more toward fulfilling her own childhood dreams. I'm glad she finally listened to Rainbow and Dee Dee. When you're in middle school, the last thing you want to do is wear a floral dress exactly like the one your much younger sister is wearing.

I totally cracked up when Alicia said that Rainbow was acting like a baby and rainbow obliged by acting like an actual baby.

Meanwhile Paul was having his own mommy issues. He had some deep resentment towards his mother for abandoning him, which is understandable. She left him and never gave him an explanation or an apology, which is pretty fucked up. I'm glad they finally came to an understanding because that was a long time coming.

[LucyEth]

I thought this was another good episode.  Enjoyed Jane Kaczmarek as Paul's mother.  I just still find it hard to think that the Alicia and Rainbow in this series is supposed to be the same people in Blackish.  Alicia especially seems so much nicer and tolerant than how she is portrayed on Blackish.

[DearEvette]

This was a fun episode.

I liked Jane Kazmareck as Paul's mother.

I liked how oblivious they all were about her being gay.  LOL. 

I loved Gary Cole's line delivery when he said he knew she was gay because "she didn't want all of this.." 

I loved how they called her 'White Grandma."

I loved Santi's epic little sister flop.  "She hit me...." when Rainbow was nowhere near touching her. 

[possibilities]

I had no idea teens thought the keytar was cool in the 80s.

And I was a teen in the 1980s!

[ElectricBoogaloo]

4 hours ago, DearEvette said:

I loved Santi's epic little sister flop.  "She hit me...." when Rainbow was nowhere near touching her. 

That was a classic little sister move!

[AnimeMania]

When Rainbow was able to dress the way she wanted, I thought Prince might have been her influence and I think he had a keytar player in his band.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

5 minutes ago, AnimeMania said:

When Rainbow was able to dress the way she wanted, I thought Prince might have been her influence and I think he had a keytar player in his band.

My question was where she got that awesome outfit! I fanwanked that Aunt Dee Dee took her shopping because it was clearly not something that Alicia and Paul would have bought her.

[AnimeMania]

1 hour ago, possibilities said:

I had no idea teens thought the keytar was cool in the 80s.

And I was a teen in the 1980s!

From Prince's Gold video of 1995

Prince's 1999 Concert Film Rave Un2 the Year 2000 for PBS

Here is a picture from 1985 of Herbie Hancock performing Chameleon, Dueling keytars! Baby!

[tennisgurl]

Poor Paul, it was really hard watching him be miserable while his mom goes on and on about how awesome her life is without ever apologizing or even acknowledging that she left him for several decades and only appeared now. Its a tough situation, because its understandable that being a lesbian in the 50s would be really hard and that she would want to leave a marriage that could never really make either of them happy, but...she still seemed to leave Paul without ever looking back when he was a kid, and that must have hurt. Glad that they seemed to come to more of an understanding and she finally apologized and explained a bit more about why she did what she did. 

I can also understand Alicia wanting to give Bow all the birthdays she never got to have, but Bow is also 13, and most 13 year old girls arnt going to want clowns and matching clothes with their little sisters. Denise for the win!

I have no idea if people were that comically clueless about gay people in the 80s, but no one picking up on the increasing obvious about Paul's mom and her "companion" was hilarious.

[Joimiaroxeu]

White Grandma.

Were/are 13th birthday parties actually a thing, at least outside of the Jewish religion? I thought it was 15th or 16th.

Mr. Bunny what? (And what is the "turtle method"?)

I don't see how Bow wouldn't know who Rick James was. Were she and her siblings not allowed to listen to the radio or watch TV?

So did they move Santamonica into her brother's bedroom? That doesn't seem fair to him.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

3 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

Were/are 13th birthday parties actually a thing, at least outside of the Jewish religion? I thought it was 15th or 16th.

I had a birthday party every year (including my 13th).

[Joimiaroxeu]

Quote

I had a birthday party every year (including my 13th).

Okay. But on the show they made it sound like something extra special, like a quinceañera or a Sweet 16 party. Is it maybe a California thing?

[CaliforniaLove]

51 minutes ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

Okay. But on the show they made it sound like something extra special, like a quinceañera or a Sweet 16 party. Is it maybe a California thing?

No, besides the whole "I'm officially a teenager" thing, there was nothing special about any of my friends 13th birthday parties that I can recall (Southern CA native).

[angora]

3 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

Okay. But on the show they made it sound like something extra special, like a quinceañera or a Sweet 16 party. Is it maybe a California thing?

For Bow, the special part was just that she'd never had a birthday party before, and for the other kids, it seemed more about officially being teenagers - less about a HUGE/lavish party a la a quinceañera or Sweet 16, more about it being cool/grown-up instead of a "little kid" party.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

9 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

Okay. But on the show they made it sound like something extra special, like a quinceañera or a Sweet 16 party. Is it maybe a California thing?

No, it was Alicia feeling guilty that none of the kids had ever had birthday parties on the commune so she said that she was going to celebrate all of the birthdays that Rainbow missed. She had different things set up to represent each birthday. She mentioned that she got Rainbow store bought mittens for her sixth birthday present.

[AnimeMania]

On 1/31/2020 at 4:03 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

No, it was Alicia feeling guilty that none of the kids had ever had birthday parties on the commune so she said that she was going to celebrate all of the birthdays that Rainbow missed. She had different things set up to represent each birthday. She mentioned that she got Rainbow store bought mittens for her sixth birthday present.

It was kind of strange because it seemed like Alicia gave Santa Monica the same presents and it wasn't her birthday. But, I guess you can't give somebody 13 presents without giving Santa Monica something or Santa Monica might burn the house down.

[possibilities]

I think it's true that they didn't have TV or radio on the commune. So all the kids are probably missing many pop culture references.

I wasn't raised on a commune, but my mother did think TV "rots your mind" and she didn't let us watch it very often. I remember I had no idea at all what my class mates were talking about most of the time.