S03.E02: Arraignment Day

[Scarlett45]

Airs February 24, 2021

Quote

Callie receives some big news. Meanwhile, Mariana's app becomes popular with the wrong crowd. The Coterie members join BLM in taking a stand to free Malika.

 

[Aliconehead]

This, I assume was filmed pre 1/6, but there was a weird foreshadowing with the app and what happened to Parler.  While I understand his point and the show was not addressing the exact same situation, allowing people to harass others on said app would drive it out of the market it caters to. Being known as the app for white nationalist could kill the app.   
 

i liked Mariana Jerry Maguire moment. Also liked Callie realizing how to handle the judge.  Malika helping the other women was nice and showed some growth.  

Edited February 25, 2021 by Aliconehead

[circumvent]

4 hours ago, Aliconehead said:

i liked Mariana Jerry Maguire moment. Also liked Callie realizing how to handle the judge.  Malika helping the other women was nice and showed some growth.

It is nice to have a break from reality and go with the unlikely scenarios of those events you described. Malika's gesture was beautiful but the resolution was absolutely soap opera-ish. Prosecutors don't cave that easily, not that fast, to pressure. But it was nice to be able to punch the air while watching it.

Callie's "playing" the judge was also unrealistic. That woman would still be in jail because that's how the system works. Over 90% of prisoners in this country have never had a trial, just to give some context. Most people in jail awaiting trial will not have one, meanwhile their lives will be disrupted, their children scattered and they will sink into debt. It is a vicious cycle.

As for Mariana, she might be on the side of what is (should be) fair and just but Evan is right. Private companies should not censor users. Never. Censorship is useless, people find ways to organize and I prefer to know what hateful people are doing than being in the dar about their plans, what they think who supports them. It goes beyond businesses, it is about freedom of speech and hateful protest, sadly, is free speech.  Not to mention that, in the case presented, the hateful are more often than not financed by big money (in the show they were just a few people supported by the police, which should have been pointed out, imo). Social justice and equality activists don't have the corporate support, which translates into political support since politicians are bought and paid for.

[tennisgurl]

I am really glad that Malika is out, even if all seemed a bit easy after all of the build up, including her giving up her bail money to bail everyone else out of jail first. I know that this show will always go hard on the activism and social issues, as talking about social issues are a major part of the series and many of the characters lives, but I do hope that this season we could possibly have a bit more of characters having fun? Hanging out? Not having to deal with every single social issue ever one right after the other? That really became an issue with The Fosters, it was like this family was cursed to have every issue that could happen would happen to them or they would inevitably meet someone who would personify the issue, but they had so many issues they wanted to cover that they never really got to get really into them. Then the issue would go away and the person who personified the issue would disappear and we would move onto the next thing. Like, will we ever see those renters that Callie threw her relationship away for again? It would just be nice if we could focus on just a few topics as well as having some other things happen that don't all go around social issues so that we can really focus on those things and give them a lot of attention. Feeling like they have to do a billion different issues also means everyone is stuck in their own subplots and they hardly connect. I would really like to see more of everyone together at the house or doing things as a group. The whole premise of the show was about communal living, I would like to see them use that more. 

I don't really remember all of the details of Alice's weird love triangle, but I know she can do better than both of them. The biggest shock of the episode is that Suni actually did something nice that didn't benefit her at all. 

Its too bad that Mariana is leaving her job, they seemed to be on the verge of dealing with some interesting issues there. What do tech companies do when hate groups and criminals and such are using the platform they put up to spread their crap? How much can they be stopped before it infringes on freedom of speech? Its an interesting topic, and would mean that Mariana would get a different plot at work besides fighting against sexist nerds and having ill advised love triangles with her boss, so its disappointing they are apparently side stepping it. So are they having Mariana strike out on her own with her team to give her a new story of starting a new company, or is all of this so that she can date Evan without the boss/employee dynamic holding them back? 

Callie was at least less annoying this week, and Constance Zimmer being around gives her a story a lot more life. I have no idea if Callie playing the "nervous new lawyer who needs guidance" card would really do so well in real life, but at least we escaped another dull as dirt Callie speech about her issue of the week. 

I am really glad Malika is out, I was so not looking forward to watching her just be miserable for episode after episode. So where does she go from here? I really do hope she takes a bit of a break, spend some time with her hot as hell boyfriend, take a personal day. 

Seriously, why wont this show just tell a straight narrative? All of the jumping around is just confusing. 

[circumvent]

55 minutes ago, tennisgurl said:

What do tech companies do when hate groups and criminals and such are using the platform they put up to spread their crap? How much can they be stopped before it infringes on freedom of speech?

They don't stop, and they shouldn't. Private companies already rule our lives too much. They should apply the same aspirational rules as the government - freedom of speech is not to be violated unless it calls for violence against people (or whatever the actual words are). Besides, they are very happy to see more and more people using their platform, all the outrage is performative. The bigger problem is that the whole system benefits white supremacists, so any attempt to stop the hate groups will backfire because it will create more surveillance, and the powers of oppression will go after minorities no matter what. I mean, everyone knew what was going to happen on Jan/06. If BLM that planned a counter protest, the whole military apparatus would be posted on the streets.

[DearEvette]

For one brief, shining episode we actually had linear storytelling.  Now we are back to this show's inexplicable love for the jumping around.  Gah!

I love the re-emergence of Callie's expensive suit.  Nice call back.

I swear Constance Zimmer will always play this type of person.  One thing I did like was her speech to Callie about creative your own narrative and not just arguing facts.  I recently learned that the movie My Cousin Vinny is actually taught in some law schools as a great example of criminal law procedure.  It is often cited by many lawyers as the one movie about the legal profession that is pretty accurate.  One law prof talks about how Vinny works the jury because you are not arguing to the judge, you are working to convince the jury.  A lot of the same lawyers also cite Johnny Cochran's  'it it doesn't fit, you must acquit'  as an example of how the prosecution made an rookie error of evidence procedure that the defense then used brilliantly for their own purposes.  So I thought her speech was right up there with what I've heard lawyers talk about wrt to courtroom theater.

I felt so bad for Malika and loved the scene with the women being so supportive.

Alice "I can't not be here to support my best friend"

Kelly "I thought I was your best friend"

Alice "I don't believe in labels."     LOL!

So cute young activist is into Malika.  I am semi-ok with that.  Normally I would be all about Isaac because he has been an exemplary boyfriend, but he also played Dro on Insecure and Dro was a triflin' ass.  So I have some residual Dro feelings about him.  LOL. 

I honestly wish the show would dial back on the activism all day all the time.  It is a lot of work to watch sometimes.  It didn't start out this strident.  There was a much better balance of the activism and just silly/sexy personal stuff especially in season 1.  It really does need more of a balance of more the of sill/sexy stuff.  I am woke, but damn I am not wallowing in it 24/7.  Where are the love triangles?  The cheating?  The unrequited pining?  The pregnancy scares?  The terrible boyfriend?  pout fights?  Come on, I need some soap in this opera.

[KaveDweller]

Good for Mariana for quitting when Evan wouldn't shut down the app. I'm not sure I disagree with Evan's choice, a tech company shouldn't say only some people are allowed to use it, but I can see how Mariana couldn't stay after that. I had been prepared to say how ridiculous it was for her to hide all that from Evan, since the media would obviously be talking about something like that. So I am glad that didn't last long.

Also, good for the show for surprising me. After last week's insane "let's date in secret" I thought I knew exactly where Marian's storyline was going to go this year. Clearly not.

Things that made no sense to me - 

Constance Zimmer said they needed to do arraignments to pay the bills. How are they getting much money from those cases? And why would she have started her own firm without knowing she had at least some paying clients?

If they raised $250,000 for Malika's bail, and that one woman's bail was only $500, shouldn't they have been able to afford to bail out a lot more people?

How can everyone drop everything for a protest on a weekday afternoon? Don't they have jobs? I mean, we saw Davia and Mariana at work and then they just left to go protest and no one cared?

How did I watch an entire episode and not see Callie make any poor decisions or make any big speeches about a cause. I am not used to that.

[Zima]

7 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

I know that this show will always go hard on the activism and social issues, as talking about social issues are a major part of the series and many of the characters lives, but I do hope that this season we could possibly have a bit more of characters having fun? Hanging out? Not having to deal with every single social issue ever one right after the other? That really became an issue with The Fosters, it was like this family was cursed to have every issue that could happen would happen to them or they would inevitably meet someone who would personify the issue, but they had so many issues they wanted to cover that they never really got to get really into them. Then the issue would go away and the person who personified the issue would disappear and we would move onto the next thing. Like, will we ever see those renters that Callie threw her relationship away for again? It would just be nice if we could focus on just a few topics as well as having some other things happen that don't all go around social issues so that we can really focus on those things and give them a lot of attention. Feeling like they have to do a billion different issues also means everyone is stuck in their own subplots and they hardly connect. I would really like to see more of everyone together at the house or doing things as a group. The whole premise of the show was about communal living, I would like to see them use that more. 

 

 

4 hours ago, DearEvette said:

I honestly wish the show would dial back on the activism all day all the time.  It is a lot of work to watch sometimes.  It didn't start out this strident.  There was a much better balance of the activism and just silly/sexy personal stuff especially in season 1.  It really does need more of a balance of more the of sill/sexy stuff.  I am woke, but damn I am not wallowing in it 24/7.  Where are the love triangles?  The cheating?  The unrequited pining?  The pregnancy scares?  The terrible boyfriend?  pout fights?  Come on, I need some soap in this opera.

Totally agree with both of you, and couldn't have said it better. 

[possibilities]

I'm the opposite. I hate the soapy supposedly sexy storylines. 99% of tv is that. What's worse is that it makes the characters seem like total idiots. They come across even more pathetic than the teens on The Fosters did. It's like they've matured backwards. And the show lays it on so thick! I'm trying to laugh so I don't puke through most of those stories. 

I like the activism stuff.

[SnarkEnthusiast]

22 hours ago, DearEvette said:

I am woke, but damn I am not wallowing in it 24/7.  Where are the love triangles?  The cheating?  The unrequited pining?  The pregnancy scares?  The terrible boyfriend?  pout fights?  Come on, I need some soap in this opera.

There's a lot of soap, it just doesn't feel like it because the social justice is always blasting at 11 and everyone is always depressed so it's not as fun. Malika and (maybe?) Alice are in love triangles. Mariana just got out of one and Raj was technically pining for Isabella, though no one really cares for either character. I think they could also be setting up a triangle with Callie (ugh) in the form of new lawyer douche vs. Jaime or new lawyer douche vs. Gael. And now they have Isabella as a kind of free floating ambiguous villain. But yes, everything is drowned out by dire doom and gloom. Malika can't even flirt in peace, she has to be in and out of jail and her crush has to be engineering her release, lol. 

Are they setting Alice up for a triangle/throuple with two people who are constantly awful to her? Please no.  Bring back the cute judge girl. I don't know why the writers constantly use Alice as a punching bag. And everyone's "stand up" is atrocious.

Davia trying to interact with race/class issues is always so uncomfortable and they've given her this exact plot several times, but it looks like she's the designated white guilt/intro to white privilege character.

Now that Mariana left the company, I guess that resolves the ethical issue of dating Evan, but now she's going to compete with him. So she was unbearably horny for him for months, cheated on her boyfriend for one round of silent robot sex, and is now infuriated by the sudden discovery that he's a Zuckerberg? I feel like she could've figured that one out during the countless hours they spent working together.

Callie can be...tolerable? Who knew? Although I did laugh at "out of my way, queer teen client I met 5 seconds ago, I need to talk to my friend who you're sharing a cell with!!!"

[DearEvette]

But it isn't just the soapy stuff though.  Each episode the main plot for each character centers on something pretty heavy.  The other stuff is just flavor in the background.  Even the relationship stuff is worked into the social justice stuff.  Callie blew up her relationship with Jamie over her social justice work.  Mariana's relationship with her boss is tinged by MeToo stuff.  Davia and Dennis' entire romance is mired in his depression and psychological issues.  I think only Alice still gets a little bit of just because... storyline.

In Season 1 Callie and Mariana dealt with their different flavors of workplace drama.  We got scenes of all of them just hanging at the coterie.  There was one entire episode of just them partying for Davia's birthday.  Or one episode where the main plot was Mariana, Davia, Malika and Alice choosing online dates for each other that they have to go out on.

I like the social awareness stuff it sets it apart from a lot of shows targeted toward this population, it is just that these are people in their 20s whose entire days seem to be all about anxiety.  They don't really let go all that much anymore or show that there is a balance in their lives.

[possibilities]

I guess I know a lot of people whose lives are full of the things that this show portrays. Lots and lots of people are dealing with sexism and other stressors at work, police harassment, families that reject them for being queer, economic anxieties, depression, etc. I don't think I know anyone-- now or in my 20s-- who just drifted through life having birthday parties and obsessing about their dating lives to the exclusion of larger issues. Most shows seem to sanitize life to romantic concerns or major crimes/mystery-solving, but this show portrays the actual mid-sized things that people deal with.

[JustHereForFood]

On 2/26/2021 at 7:39 AM, possibilities said:

I'm the opposite. I hate the soapy supposedly sexy storylines. 99% of tv is that. What's worse is that it makes the characters seem like total idiots. They come across even more pathetic than the teens on The Fosters did. It's like they've matured backwards. And the show lays it on so thick! I'm trying to laugh so I don't puke through most of those stories. 

I like the activism stuff.

I agree with this 100%. I watch the show for how they cover all sorts of issues that people, especially minorities, have to deal with that are not usually covered on TV outside of documentaries. I'm not at all interested in all of these romantic plots that make all the characters look like stupid teenagers. I especially loathe love triangles, so I was debating whether to even continue watching this show, since they seem to like them so much. But I'm glad I came back, because when they concentrate more on the activism and legal issues, the show is very good (even if sometimes hard to watch). I guess I will just keep rolling my eyes through all the soap stuff.

 

One thing that I totally cringed at in this episode was Alice's stand-up at the courthouse. I don't really get stand-up in general and I never found anything Alice or any of the other comedians on this show said to be funny, but there is a time and place for such things. I think that it was completely inappropriate to start doing stand-up at the courthouse. I mean, people actually work there. When that emo woman from Coterie (sorry, I forgot her name) started shouting and Alice started climbing on furniture, I expected that the security guy from earlier will come and escort them out, which I would be totally fine with. I can't even believe that those ladies that organized the protest were OK with it. They were there to protest a serious issue and this made it all look like they are not taking it seriously, IMO. I'm surprised that it didn't ruin the whole thing.