S01.E09: Feelings Are Hard

[Meredith Quill]

Quote

While Ginny and Georgia both find themselves caught between two men, Max and Marcus face painful situations of different sorts.

 

[Aulty]

The mom plot is a quick paced Nashville style drama. Whereas Ginny's story is slow burning, despite all the whirlwind action going on around her.

Of course they wanted us to believe that Georgia turned down the mayor's proposal, but it was too obvious. The real twist was Paul knowingly dandering down the power couple route with Georgia.

The revelation that Marcus was a virgin when he had sex with Ginny makes them not using protection even more unrealistic.

Edited February 25, 2021 by Aulty

[norcalgal]

On 2/25/2021 at 7:05 AM, Aulty said:

The revelation that Marcus was a virgin when he had sex with Ginny makes them not using protection even more unrealistic.

For me, the revelation that Marcus was a virgin was complete and utter eye-rolling bollocks!  We're supposed to believe he & Padma only played tongue hockey and nothing else in all the time they were together?!  AS IF!

[dubbel zout]

On 2/25/2021 at 10:05 AM, Aulty said:

The revelation that Marcus was a virgin when he had sex with Ginny makes them not using protection even more unrealistic.

I call shenanigans. Not that a teenage boy can't be a virgin, but the show set him up as something of a player. It feels dishonest to get this reveal. That said, I cracked up when he said he'd done some googling for "research."

[kieyra]

Ok, third rewatch of series, second time actually watching the Ginny/Marcus hookup. What is going on there, with the dry humping? I wouldn’t say I go out of my way to seek out shows with a bunch of sexy time, particularly teen sexy time, but in the last year I’ve seen, for example, Sex Education, Normal People, Euphoria. So the full gamut of porny comical, (sex Ed), hyper realistic with a world-class intimacy coordinator (Normal People), and Seriously Dark Shit (Euphoria). To say nothing of the full range of semi realistic to completely ridiculous adult sex scenes in various shows.

But I cannot figure out what I’m supposed to be taking away from this ... fully clothed ...extended grinding ... that they’re doing. Or at least, why it makes up 95% of their “climactic” sex scene. And like, almost zero kissing. Maybe the end of the show was filmed during COVID19? The show in general shies away from getting very explicit, which is fine, but this prolonged lap dance thing is just an odd thing to focus the whole encounter on. Particularly the lingering shots of Ginny’s butt. It’s like, too much and not enough at the same time.

Yes, I feel a little weird spending this much time thinking about it. It’s just strange and discordant. 

As far as it being a retcon or a cheat that Marcus was a virgin the first time, I don’t know, after a couple of rewatches, their first sex scene is obviously pretty awkward for both of them. But on the flip side, there are multiple mentions of him “hooking up” with Padma ... although those mentions happen later in the show. Don’t know.

(The lack of protection on both sides does make them both seem pretty dumb, for seemingly educated 21st-century kids.)

Oh, and can someone take a crack at explaining to me why Ginny is absolutely not allowed to date her friend’s brother? Why would this destroy Max, exactly?

[dubbel zout]

12 minutes ago, kieyra said:

Oh, and can someone take a crack at explaining to me why Ginny is absolutely not allowed to date her friend’s brother? Why would this destroy Max, exactly?

Because it would take away Ginny's attention from Max, of course. Max is exhausting.

[truthaboutluv]

On 3/26/2021 at 8:36 PM, kieyra said:

As far as it being a retcon or a cheat that Marcus was a virgin the first time, I don’t know, after a couple of rewatches, their first sex scene is obviously pretty awkward for both of them.

Just finished this episode and was just coming in to say this. On one hand, I get why some think it's bullshit to play up the misunderstood bad boy trope, but that first sex with him and Ginny was pretty cringeworthy and really quick, that I can almost believe he really didn't know what he was doing. Also, I think the reveal and his talking about the things he went through after his friend died, sort of suggested that Marcus was playing some kind of role. 

In other words the whole "bad boy" thing was kind of forced. I mean let's remember that before the accident, Mr. Bad Boy had a motorcycle that he actually didn't drive seeing as he wasn't allowed to. A real bad boy would drive that shit, license or no license. And he seemed pretty freaked out when Ginny took off on it in the earlier episode. Like Georgia said, "a Shawn Hunter wannabe". 

 

On 3/26/2021 at 8:36 PM, kieyra said:

Oh, and can someone take a crack at explaining to me why Ginny is absolutely not allowed to date her friend’s brother? Why would this destroy Max, exactly?

I think at this point it's the lying about it from Ginny's end. Like they may have worked it out and gotten past it if Ginny had been upfront right from the start, when she barely knew Max, that she had a crush or some interest in Marcus. But now Max will probably feel like all this time Ginny's supposedly been her good friend and lying to her about this whole romantic drama between her and Max's brother. Not to mention of course that a lot of this time all this was going down between her and Marcus, Ginny was supposed to be with Hunter. 

 

On 3/26/2021 at 8:51 PM, dubbel zout said:

Because it would take away Ginny's attention from Max, of course. Max is exhausting.

Now despite what I wrote above, this too is also true. Especially the exhausting part. Chile, I didn't blame Sophie. I'm just amazed she lasted as long as she did with Max.

Edited April 3, 2021 by truthaboutluv

[kieyra]

7 hours ago, truthaboutluv said:

Just finished this episode and was just coming in to say this. On one hand, I get why some think it's bullshit to play up the misunderstood bad boy romance but that first sex with him and Ginny was pretty and pretty damn quick, that I can almost believe he really didn't know what he was doing. Also, I think the reveal and his talking about the things he went to after his friend died, sort of suggested that Marcus was sort of playing a role. 

In other words the whole "bad boy" thing was kind of some "too cool for school" thing. I mean let's remember that before the accident, Mr. Bad Boy had a motorcycle that he actually didn't drive seeing as he wasn't allowed to. A real bad boy would drive that shit, license or no license. And he seemed pretty freaked out when Ginny took off on it in the earlier episode. Like Georgia said, "a Shawn Hunter wannabe". 

Yes to all of this. (I have a bunch of stuff I need to do today, but your post confirmed a lot of what I feel like the show didn't quite show us enough of, and it makes me want to sit around and work on fic instead.)

On that note, does anyone know if we ever catch what 'dead cancer friend's' name actually was?

(If not, maybe that's a little more evidence that they under-wrote Marcus a bit. Heck, I also think they under-wrote Joe, for that matter, given that he's obviously a tertiary love interest. Either they KNOW they're getting more seasons, or they wanted to make sure all the girls and women got a lot of screentime for a change. (Or both.) Can't argue too much there. Except Max. Max can get a little less screentime next season. JMO.)

[Ms Blue Jay]

On 3/26/2021 at 8:36 PM, kieyra said:

Ok, third rewatch of series, second time actually watching the Ginny/Marcus hookup. What is going on there, with the dry humping?

Marcus was providing foreplay to Ginny so that everything would feel better for her afterwards.  Unlike their first time.

I am in love with Brianne Howey.  I don't know if another actor could make me sympathize with her over the Mayor and FUCKING ZION fighting over her!

[Ms Blue Jay]

Does anyone else notice that everyone on this show is asking everyone, especially asking Ginny, how they're doing?  It happens every 5 minutes!  

I mean always asking "Are you okay?"  "Hey, are you okay?"  

[Niuxita]

Was Zion supposed to come off as a jerk in his conversation with Ginny? I hated how vague he was about Georgia's role in their future plans crumbling, when getting Ginny's hopes up and then dashing them was 100% on him. And now of course Ginny blames Georgia for everything, which is getting old.

On 2/25/2021 at 10:05 AM, Aulty said:

The real twist was Paul knowingly dandering down the power couple route with Georgia.

I know! Quite a welcome twist on the overdone love triangle trope. I was happy to find out Georgia accepted his ring instead of having the typical faux heartbreaking reveal wherein she says no to Paul and then comes home and is dumped by Zion as well. She always has a way of landing on her feet.

On 4/20/2021 at 6:14 PM, Ms Blue Jay said:

I am in love with Brianne Howey.  I don't know if another actor could make me sympathize with her over the Mayor and FUCKING ZION fighting over her!

Agreed! She makes Georgia such an interesting character. I know she's done fucked up things, and some of them to protect herself, not even to protect her kids (although I have a feeling Austin's dad really is a bad guy and she just doesn't want him in his life, hence the letter charade, but we'll see), but she makes me want to dig deeper into why she does everything she does and how much she calculates her every move. Ngl, I kind of cheered when we found out she'd gotten the drop on the PI and exhumed the body before they did. 

I can't say I'm particularly sad about the great love story of Max and Sophie inevitably coming to an end. I couldn't figure out what else they could possibly have in common beyond being in the play together, and no way would they have survived doing long distance for two years. Now Max/Abby can rise! 🎉

[Ms Blue Jay]

I could watch an entire movie about Zion and Georgia's chemistry (fans self) Oh my my my.

HOW COULD GEORGIA WANT A LIFE WITHOUT ZION?  NO, NO NO..... Sorry, second time watching this, I'm not buying it one bit!

I am curious what circumstances led to Georgia possibly wanting a kid with Austin's father though.  Unless it was against her will.

 

Edited August 7, 2021 by Ms Blue Jay

[Ms Blue Jay]

On 4/21/2021 at 11:07 PM, Niuxita said:

I can't say I'm particularly sad about the great love story of Max and Sophie inevitably coming to an end. I couldn't figure out what else they could possibly have in common beyond being in the play together, and no way would they have survived doing long distance for two years. Now Max/Abby can rise! 🎉

I don't think Sophie was in the play.  I think that she just helped Max run lines.

BTW, Sing Sing! is not a real musical/play, is it?

Edited August 7, 2021 by Ms Blue Jay

[Enginerd]

On 8/6/2021 at 9:07 PM, Ms Blue Jay said:

HOW COULD GEORGIA WANT A LIFE WITHOUT ZION?  NO, NO NO..... Sorry, second time watching this, I'm not buying it one bit!

I can see how she said no. Clearly there's passion there, but there's a long history of separating whenever things aren't blissful anymore, they don't want the same life at all, and Zion still basically expects his life to be on his terms and doesn't want to compromise. Georgia wants her idyllic small town life with a nice house with a garden. Zion wants them all to move to an apartment in Boston. It would make her kids move yet again, and they've made it clear they resent having their lives uprooted due to Georgia's relationship whims. I think Georgia also believes he'd start to feel trapped and resentful again after some time dealing with family issues day in and day out.

[Ms Blue Jay]

Georgia was the one who left Zion, not the other way around.  I just don't really think she feels much for Paul.