S02.E05: My Prerogative

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

Paul wants to crash Denise and Alicia's neighbourhood spades match, so they teach him about the cultural and racial significance of the game; Santi, Johan and Bow learn about divorce after watching a movie.

Original air date: 2/23/21

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Requisite musical reference:

 

[DearEvette]

Paul: ‘It’s just a Game."

Dee: “Don’t speak to me for the next five Minutes.”  Looks at Alicia  “Alicia do something.”

I have to admit, this episode triggered me.  I am terrible at Spades.  My family mocks me mercilessly.  My younger sister is a beast.  My cousins are titans of the trash talk.  My own mother will cut a bitch at Spades.  Me.  I am a shameful blot on my house.  LOL. 

Again a nice ep centering on the Paul/Alicia.  But I have to admit, I got second hand embarrassment watching Paul trying to be down. It was full of cringe. 

I also liked the divorce subplot, it was good to see Harrison with the kids.  But I am gonna need some good Dee/Harrison scenes pretty soon.

 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I totally get that Paul loves Alicia and wants to be part of her fun activities, but I'm glad that he finally realized sometimes she needs to be in a different space without him. I think sometimes he tries so hard to prove that he supports her Blackness that he goes overboard in wanting to be perceived that way. I think that there were several lessons for him to learn here, one of which is that it's okay for spouses to love each other and be best friends and still have separate activities/hobbies.

To me, Alicia going to play spades with her Black neighbors is along the same lines as Alicia spending some alone time with her sister or Alicia taking Rainbow on an outing that's just the two of them. It's not that the intention is to specifically exclude Paul, just that sometimes you need to give a certain relationship your undivided attention for a few hours. Loving your sister or daughter doesn't take away from loving your husband and those other relationships should be encouraged to develop separately from him.

On top of that, Paul being at that gathering shifted the general attitude for everyone present, and not for the better (heh, although I am here for watching Zach Morris awkwardly dancing to the Beastie Boys). It's important for people to feel relaxed and like they can be themselves. And it's not like they were saying Paul could never go over to the neighbors' house to socialize. He just needs to let them have spades night without intruding.

I know it's not exactly the same thing but it kind of reminded me of the time one of the members of my book club invited her husband along to our monthly meeting without telling us ahead of time. We'd all met him several times before and he was a perfectly nice guy, but his presence definitely altered the usual vibe (we had other social gatherings where everyone's spouses were invited so it's not like we were opposed to hanging out with them).

The Happy Meal toy collection was pretty amazing!

[tennisgurl]

Nice to see an Alicia/Paul story, even with the serious amount of second hand awkwardness. I can understand Paul wanting to do things with his wife as much as he can, or even feeling left out that she has this thing she enjoys that he knows nothing about, but its also very understandable that Alicia wants to do some things just with other black people who can understand that part of her better. I like that whenever Paul and Alicia fight its not something where one of them is being a jerk or overly critical, its usually things that are done unintentionally that gets handled quickly when they actually talk. Its not like in a lot of sitcoms where the couple seem to actually dislike each other and seem to always be trying to start a fight, their disagreements are based on established aspects of their personalities and while they can snap at each other they usually talk it out quickly and are open to listen to what's bothering them.  

I always love Harrison and the kids, and I am glad to see both their neighbors and Paul's slightly sad sack friend. "The guy said that this will be the best technology is ever going to get." You would think that the kids would know more about divorce though, don't they know that Paul's mom and dad are split up? There was a whole episode where Paul's mom came back after not seeing her for years. 

I really hope we get a story from the office soon, Harrison and Dee at work together just writes itself. 

[possibilities]

I think Paul is trying to prove something, because he has his friend who lives in the garage and he goes to hang out there without Alicia. It's not that the always socialize together, it's that he wants too much to muscle his way into her space, and prove he's "down." Icky. 

Bow is really changing lately. 

[txhorns79]

On 2/24/2021 at 1:01 PM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

The Happy Meal toy collection was pretty amazing!

I think I had the Fraggle Rock toys.  I also looked them up, and apparently they were not actually released until 1988.  Also, Harrison referenced Over the Top, which did not come out until 1987, and remains the best (and perhaps only?) movie ever made about arm wrestling.

Is it just me, or has the show kind of undergone a reset this season?  I feel like last season heavily focused on Bow and her teenage angst, while this season, the kids have been moved more into the B-storylines.

[TiffanyNichelle]

I would like them to figure out what to do with Santamonica and Johan that isn't them falling something silly that Dee or Harrison tells them and spend the whole episode working on whatever it is. Last week it was going to hell and this week it's rooting for divorce. I wonder if they are doing less with the kids because of covid. Can't do a lot of school scenes I guess.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

9 hours ago, txhorns79 said:

I think I had the Fraggle Rock toys. 

I'm going to hear the Fraggle Rock theme song in my head for a week now!

[luckyroll3]

13 hours ago, txhorns79 said:

Also, Harrison referenced Over the Top, which did not come out until 1987, and remains the best (and perhaps only?) movie ever made about arm wrestling.

I love Over the Top! Such a great movie. But for some reason, as a kid, I thought it was a sequel to the Rocky movies. In my head, Rocky got too old/injured to box anymore, so he had to become a truck driver to continue to make ends meet and started arm wrestling competitions in his free time. I think I was damn near 30 when someone told me that it was a completely separate movie that had NOTHING to do with the Rocky Franchise! 

I didn't grow up in the states, so I never actually learned how to play spades. But my family used to play a card game called Trump, all the time, which I was really good at (it's similar to spades, except you only play with 3 people, and any suit can be "the spades" based on the dealer's choice (the trump suit). So when my friend's family invited me to a spades game, I told them I didn't know how to play. They laughed and scoffed, and then explained the game. I realized it was like Trump and ended up winning quite a few games. Of course they tried to say I was cheating! Lol! But generally, I stay out of spades games cause some people take it too damn seriously! 

[JakeyJokes]

My family played Trump, too! We called it “Hale “ and you have to bid how many tricks you plan to get before the first play. This episode made me miss my grandparents (who are still with us, but we haven’t seen them in person because of COVID).

Christina Anthony said on Twitter that the EZ-Cheese was really gross, so good on her for sacrificing for her art.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I still remember the day that my aunt's boyfriend taught my sister and me how to play Spades. At the time, the only other games I knew that had cards were Go Fish and Uno so my little mind was blown!

8 hours ago, JakeyJokes said:

Christina Anthony said on Twitter that the EZ-Cheese was really gross, so good on her for sacrificing for her art.

I remember years ago during one of the anniversary articles about Cheers, the actors who played Norm and Cliff talked about an episode where there was some kind of party (or maybe it was Coach's funeral?) so there was a table full of food. They were supposed to walk over, pick up some little hors d'oeuvres, and eat them while talking to each other. One (or maybe both) of them HATED whatever the food was and they had to do multiple takes and were miserable.

[Joimiaroxeu]

Spades. Uh, what about bid whist? Is Spades more of a CA thing than bid whist?

I really liked Alicia's fuchsia sweater top.

Paul knows where the kitchen is. He's Teena Marie down.

And then Paul went too far. "You people." Yikes. I cringed on his behalf.