S02.E03: Straight Outta Lagos

[jewel21]

Quote

Bob is excited to show off Abishola at his industry awards gala, but ruins the evening when he doesn't let her speak for herself. Also, Douglas tries fitting in with Goodwin and Kofo as one of the blue-collar guys on the warehouse floor.

Airdate: 11/30/2020

[Kiddvideo]

I thought Bob seemed nervous to be meeting the Spanx guy which is why he was verbal vomiting and mansplaining Abishola's life to them. They both needed to be a little more and a little less sensitive. I couldn't care less if they sleep together and would rather presume they have sex and not discuss it.

Doug and the floor guys, I dunno. I liked Doug being a stoner not a douche.

[Winston Wolfe]

I liked this episode a lot, it may have been the series' best so far. For the first time Abishola seemed like a three-dimensional person. She smiled more in this episode than all the others combined. And for the first time the two of them seemed like a real couple.

What is really starting to wear on me is Kofo and Goodwin having protracted conversations in their native language in front of Douglas. It seems so rude and disrespectful and they should be called out on it at some point.

So next week we circle back around to Bob's weight issue. I remember Billy Gardell guesting on the View when Barbara Walters was still a co-host. When she announced him, the entire studio audience, 95% of which were women, gave him a standing ovation. Being a husky guy like BG that moment always stuck with me, not sure George Clooney ever got a standing O from the View's studio audience.

Edited December 1, 2020 by Winston Wolfe

[jewel21]

I liked seeing Douglas being productive on the factory floor and actually working for once. He's showing he's capable of it and hopefully can move up in a year, and not two, like Dottie mentioned. 

I liked Olu's excitement at Bob winning the award and I laughed when she ran off to get the tie, heh. 

Other than that, I thought the episode was fine but nothing to really write home about. 

[Yeah No]

The best part was at the end when Abishola wants to spend the night at his place, although the way it was handled made it feel too awkward and out of nowhere for me to do anything but cringe.

[Harvey]

It was funny when the only compliment Kemi could come up with for Abishola was that she is tall 😄 .

The discussion about Abishola being like each first lady was also cute, and it was nice to see Abishola be happy for once. I agree that this was a really good episode.

Edited December 1, 2020 by Harvey

[DoYouLikeMutton]

23 hours ago, Kiddvideo said:

I thought Bob seemed nervous to be meeting the Spanx guy which is why he was verbal vomiting and mansplaining Abishola's life to them. They both needed to be a little more and a little less sensitive. 

Agreed. 

It seems like Bob and Abishola hardly know each other.  To be at the "lets get married" stage is far-fetched.

[shapeshifter]

40 minutes ago, DoYouLikeMutton said:

It seems like Bob and Abishola hardly know each other.  To be at the "lets get married" stage is far-fetched.

TV comedy is often "far-fetched," and perhaps Lorrie shows even more so (based upon having watched every episode of TBBT live).
That said, FWIW, the Pilot episode aired September 23, 2019, so we *could* say that they met over a year a year ago, and Bob fell in love at first sight/listen.

Both my parents and my inlaws had short "courtships" and stayed married for 6 decades.

Edited December 2, 2020 by shapeshifter

[tennisgurl]

This was a pretty good episode, it was a really nice episode for Abishola. She seemed way more happy than usual, and when she got upset she actually did have a reason to be upset other than being grumpy, and she got over that pretty quickly. Abishola testing out different first lady vibes via cleavage was really fun especially. 

Olu was more excited than anyone about that award! That must be one hell of a tie.

I am glad that Douglas is actually doing good work on the floor, even if his mom is just trying to make some kind of point. 

[nilyank]

11 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

TV comedy is often "far-fetched," and perhaps Lorrie shows even more so (based upon having watched every episode of TBBT live).
That said, FWIW, the Pilot episode aired September 23, 2019, so we *could* say that they met over a year a year ago, and Bob fell in love at first sight/listen.

Both my parents and my inlaws had short "courtships" and stayed married for 6 decades.

Not only has it been close to a year, but they see each other almost every day at their bench in the park and even more so when she was assisting his mom after her stroke. 

[possibilities]

But we didn't see much of that. It's an odd choice to make, to not show the audience how their relationship progressed.

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, possibilities said:

But we didn't see much of that. It's an odd choice to make, to not show the audience how their relationship progressed.

Yeah, but even if we just go by what we’ve seen, we missed at least 6 days out of every 7 and, in the first year, we only saw 20 days out of 365. 
Does that help?

 I‘ve never been a daily soap opera watcher, and I don’t watch those Bachelor-type shows that air several days per week, and my real life didn’t have any successful romantic relationships, so I probably watch Bob and Abishola’s  relationship from a more detached perspective than most. 
My touchstones are (a) Jane Austen novels of 18th century romances that blossomed in spite of the morés of marrying for financial convenience, (b) 1950s and 60s Disney fairytales, and (c) my father and mother falling in love at first sight
—all of which explains why B❤️A seems pretty normal to me, 😝.

Edited December 3, 2020 by shapeshifter

[Sassyone]

On 11/30/2020 at 10:47 PM, Winston Wolfe said:

. I remember Billy Gardell guesting on the View when Barbara Walters was still a co-host. When she announced him, the entire studio audience, 95% of which were women, gave him a standing ovation. Being a husky guy like BG that moment always stuck with me, not sure George Clooney ever got a standing O from the View's studio audience.

I wouldn't read anything into that. I've been in the studio audience for The View (they used to give out really great swag -- now not so much!) and the audience does what they are directed to do by someone near the stage. Before the show starts, they even have you practice laughing, clapping, standing up, etc.. His standing O was directed by the show staff.

[Winston Wolfe]

15 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

and my real life didn’t have any successful romantic relationships,

Thanks for that, feel better knowing I'm not the only one...😑

Edited December 4, 2020 by Winston Wolfe

[CrazyMoon]

I've been married twice...once for 10 years (we were young & stupid, but got fabulous kids!)...the second time for 30+ years, blended family and all...I fell so hard, so fast and apparently he did too...engaged after 8 months, married 8 months later...never had a second thought...so it does happen. He passed away 6 years ago...or we'd be still happily moving along. 

Bob is 'every man'...the absolute trifecta for smart confident women...he's smart, funny, successful...looks are (or should be) a bonus. He has personal integrity.

[CarpeFelis]

What was up with the “Spanx guy”? Spanx was started by Sara Blakely.

[floridamom]

Posters experiences here with short courtships are one thing...you all state that BOTH OF YOU fell for each other quickly and hard. That is not the case with Abishola. She has continually showed no interest, or hesitation at best in most of the episodes we have seen so far. For these two to be engaged already makes no sense to me. We have not seen their relationship OR Abishola's feelings for Bob grow on any consistent basis. I still don't believe that she cares for him nearly as much has he has fallen for her. Bob also doesn't know her; so he has fallen for 'an idea'. She doesn't open up to him; evident in Bob telling her about that special eat outside restaurant he took her too...she started to comment about her husband leaving her and the U.S...then she shut down and he had to pry her statement out of her. He said if we are to be a couple, we should be able to talk about these things (their exes)...she sheepishly and cautiously spoke about it briefly. How can that be a couple, who are grown ass adults ready to be married? Not in my opinion.....yet.

[CrazyMoon]

6 hours ago, floridamom said:

Posters experiences here with short courtships are one thing...you all state that BOTH OF YOU fell for each other quickly and hard. That is not the case with Abishola. She has continually showed no interest, or hesitation at best in most of the episodes we have seen so far. For these two to be engaged already makes no sense to me. We have not seen their relationship OR Abishola's feelings for Bob grow on any consistent basis. I still don't believe that she cares for him nearly as much has he has fallen for her. Bob also doesn't know her; so he has fallen for 'an idea'. She doesn't open up to him; evident in Bob telling her about that special eat outside restaurant he took her too...she started to comment about her husband leaving her and the U.S...then she shut down and he had to pry her statement out of her. He said if we are to be a couple, we should be able to talk about these things (their exes)...she sheepishly and cautiously spoke about it briefly. How can that be a couple, who are grown ass adults ready to be married? Not in my opinion.....yet.

That's what an engagement period is supposed to be...the serious 'getting to know you before we get married'. You become exclusive, talk about anything and everything. Abishola is very deep & reserved...yet once Bob pried it out of her she was able to let her feelings expand. They both reject any idea other than commitment. It will be a wild engagement...

[possibilities]

I guess I thought you do that stuff before you get engaged. 

[CrazyMoon]

On 12/6/2020 at 4:26 PM, possibilities said:

I guess I thought you do that stuff before you get engaged. 

Historically no...more modern culture has skewed traditional courting rituals. Having sex was either saved for marriage or happened much farther into the relationship than the first date. You didn't live together before marriage, you either committed or you didn't. We're seeing a more traditional courtship with Bob & Abishola...which is probably foreign to those born after 1980. 

[possibilities]

I was born in 1965. I am not even thinking about them having sex, I'm just talking about getting to know each other. 

 

This conversation has gotten circular, though, so I'm dropping it.

[Yeah No]

On 12/10/2020 at 12:37 AM, possibilities said:

I was born in 1965. I am not even thinking about them having sex, I'm just talking about getting to know each other. 

I agree with you - It's not even about sex with them.  I was born in 1958, and my "courtship" was only 8 months before we got engaged, but at least it was a courtship, complete with romance and traditional dating, whereby we got to know each other first before getting engaged.  And I'm not even talking about sex either, although that was a part of it too.  With Bob and Abishola, we're being asked to fill in a lot of blanks that aren't being presented to us on the show.  From what they've shown us, it feels like they're still at the "cordial" dating phase, not the phase where you get engaged.  And that's not even dependent so much on how much time elapses as it is on how close the couple has become in that time.  Even 100 years ago when my father's parents got married they went through this phase first before getting engaged so it's not like it's a new thing.  On the Italian side of my family, my mother's parents' marriage was arranged so the romance and getting to know each other happened after the engagement, but Bob and Abishola are not an arranged couple.  I don't know why the show had to rush the engagement but it's not really working so well for me.

[Sigmagirl]

I wanted to see the tie.