S05.E07: Under Pressure

[paulvdb]

Quote

Greg ropes Katie into a double date with Principal Ablin and Maria in an attempt to further his political aspirations. Meanwhile, Anna-Kat’s newfound popularity at school proves to be overwhelming.

Airdate: January 27, 2021

[Kiddvideo]

I don’t like Mean Girl Katy.

[LakeGal]

I am not sure I am going to keep watching this show.  Katie is just mean and I don't like watching her.  They didn't even have Tripp and Cooper on last night to entertain me.  I think the only laughing moment we had was remarking that Greg was wearing Steve Kornacki pants.  

[JenLily]

I giggled at Anna-Kat calling herself and Franklin "Franna-Kat" and Franklin saying something along the lines of, "You've been sitting on that the whole time while I've been saying Anna-Kranklin like an idiot?"

Katie mentioned Angela in passing last night. She clarified that Doris is in Hawaii but in their world, where is Angela?

[Harvey]

It is nice that the show touched on Katy feeling isolated and lonely - something many of us had to deal with lately. I continue loving the scenes with Oliver at teen help line. His co-worker is just hilarious.

[bybrandy]

20 minutes ago, JenLily said:

Katie mentioned Angela in passing last night. She clarified that Doris is in Hawaii but in their world, where is Angela?

I think Angela's in world location/situation was mentioned in the first episode this season but I don't remember how they wrote her off.   

A show without Cooper or Tripp is a show without sunshine.

But Franklin had a moment and the story between Oliver and Taylor was nice.

[iMonrey]

Quote

Katie mentioned Angela in passing last night. She clarified that Doris is in Hawaii but in their world, where is Angela?

In the season opener, Katie said Angela was on a business trip in Baltimore. 

Have they established where Tripp is? Did he and Taylor break up and I just forgot?

Overall, pretty weak episode but I got a kick out of Anna-Kat saying all the other girls added "Kat" to their names, including Katherine. "That's just Kat-Kat!" Also Greg coming into her room on cue talking about his nerdy socks. 

[possibilities]

Didn't Katy's mentor friend just move in nearby? Why is Katy suddenly friendless and lonely when her BFF was introduced as being in the neighborhood just last week?

I also noticed Tripp and Cooper were missing.

I hope everybody's healthy and no one is missing for covid reasons.. 

[Bobbin]

Evan (Franklin) and Daniel (Oliver) have shot up like trees. I like Oliver on the Teen Help Line. He really has taken it seriously, not just a community service credit for his college applications. The one who doesn't take it seriously is his clueless mentor. LOL. Who hasn't had a co-worker like that?

I suspect the other two boys may have at least been exposed to the coronavirus and are being kept off the set in quarantine.

[possibilities]

I like that Taylor is taking her studies more seriously now than in high school but I wish they would give a clue about what changed her. I actually thought her trying to help Oliver was pretty funny, but also she wasn't totally wrong, for a change.

[Harvey]

4 hours ago, possibilities said:

I like that Taylor is taking her studies more seriously now than in high school but I wish they would give a clue about what changed her. I actually thought her trying to help Oliver was pretty funny, but also she wasn't totally wrong, for a change.

Yeah it's pretty clear that the episode that explained Taylor's personal change and how she got into college would have been included in one of the 2 episodes of last season that were not shot because of the virus. I don't get why doesn't the show just do a flashback scene or come up with another explanation for the difference. They just pretend we actually saw those episodes.

[ams1001]

Dinner with principal Ablin was just weird and not funny. 

7 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Overall, pretty weak episode but I got a kick out of Anna-Kat saying all the other girls added "Kat" to their names, including Katherine. "That's just Kat-Kat!" Also Greg coming into her room on cue talking about his nerdy socks. 

lol...my best friend's niece's name is Kathleen and they always called her Kat-Kat (though now she mostly just goes by Kat; she turned 21 today and I'm still trying to figure out how that happened..!). 

[readster]

2 hours ago, ams1001 said:

Dinner with principal Ablin was just weird and not funny. 

 

Everything with Ablin since season 2 isn't funny and goes from weird to just plain sad. That man be ran out of education in a heartbeat.

[Aryanna]

I found myself being really curious to know how Julia Butters would've played it in this episode. I would really like to have seen how she handled the popularity. I just feel like she would've given the lines a more deadpan reading whereas this actress played it more frantic and that's just not Anna-Kat.

[possibilities]

On 1/28/2021 at 7:57 PM, Harvey said:

Yeah it's pretty clear that the episode that explained Taylor's personal change and how she got into college would have been included in one of the 2 episodes of last season that were not shot because of the virus. I don't get why doesn't the show just do a flashback scene or come up with another explanation for the difference. They just pretend we actually saw those episodes.

I know nothing about this. Is there info floating around, about what those episodes would have shown us? I'd love to know what they said.

[Yeah No]

I enjoyed this episode despite agreeing with most of the complaints about it above.  I think my state of mind has changed with the pandemic and I'm seeing this as comforting and nostalgic for the way life was before.  Plus its farcical aspects are a welcome bit of fluff to offset some of the grimmer aspects of reality right now.  Because of that I'm able to forgive it for now.  So far nothing has offended me that much and the characters are still pretty true to themselves in spite of Ana Kat's portrayal not being optimal.  I also agree that principal Ablin gets more distasteful all the time and that's no bueno.  Judging from what I have read about other shows, I'm considering it a major feat that this show hasn't lost most of its mojo due to all the restrictions and Covid-related challenges shows like this have to deal with just to film during the pandemic.

[readster]

3 hours ago, Yeah No said:

 Judging from what I have read about other shows, I'm considering it a major feat that this show hasn't lost most of its mojo due to all the restrictions and Covid-related challenges shows like this have to deal with just to film during the pandemic.

Actor Dennis Quad was talking about how filming is just "much slower" since COVID and if someone on the set ends up turning positive or something it really shuts things down for a whole day of any type of filming. One of the main reasons why a lot of shows which are on hiatus for another month. They can't film scenes as fast or as constant due to the fact and why all shows will have shorter seasons this year and why you get non-stop episodes for over a month and then nothing. One of the main reasons we rarely see Doris and only on video conferences is not only due to restrictions, but apparently the actress has a long time condition and if she caught COVID, it be a very bad thing. 

[SnarkySheep]

On 1/28/2021 at 12:07 PM, JenLily said:

Katie mentioned Angela in passing last night. She clarified that Doris is in Hawaii but in their world, where is Angela?

I just Googled "Ali Wong health" to see if maybe the actress has some sort of medical condition that might make her extra cautious about returning to work on set (she is pretty candid about personal things, such as when she miscarried twins, so if she had some chronic condition IMO she would also be pretty open about that). But no, I found nothing.

I then Googled "American Housewife Doris," and there are a couple of articles posted within recent days, about fans speculating about this. It boils things down to three possibilities: that AW has some sort of COVID concerns as I thought; that AW is somehow part of recent cast shakeups and they're trying to phase her out; or that AW is simply really busy with other projects and not able to devote as much time to this show as before. At this point, it seems that nothing has been confirmed either way.