S03.E07: Timing

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

Regina is faced with making difficult changes to keep Someday afloat during the COVID lockdown, while Eddie struggles to keep his secret drug addiction under wraps. Elsewhere, Maggie fears she may have revealed a bit too much on her podcast.

Airing Thursday, March 25, 2021.

 

[historylover820]

Interesting that the only communication these characters do is by accidentally uploading a podcast. For people who never shut up, they say nothing.

[ams1001]

These people are so exhausting. 

This is also the second show in as many weeks to do the "person who needs help logs into zoom support group meeting, looks like they want to say something, but changes their mind and closes the laptop" thing. (Iggy on last week's New Amsterdam, eating disorder group.)

Is 1,246 people listening to your podcast really a lot? I honestly don't remember their conversation enough to be able to imagine what would be so compelling.

I did like Katherine with her lawyer friend. They would make a cute couple.

[Miss Bones]

OMFG.  So I just started this episode and, I just have to say, the bullshit reaction Eddie just had to Katherine’s looking for aspirin could have been avoided by a simple:  “Aw babe, sorry, I took all the aspirin...you know, because I’m in a wheelchair...and I’m like totes sober, so I took the aspirin for pain relief.”  

But this is AMLT so, instead, it was “Err, umm, eh, erm— not sure what happened there... umm “ *K leaves room to look, while Eddie acts like a spaz, grabbing his claw thing to get the pill bottle down secretly before she returns*. “Oop, just casually actually just found the—umm, err—VERY last 2 convenient aspirins.  It was causal and breezy though!  Nothing noteworthy, really.”  And Katherine, the smart and educated attorney—none the wiser—thanks her ex-addict husband, finding nothing abnormal about the situation.  

Oh, AMLT...never change!

[Miss Bones]

And don’t get me started on the GIANT Target bags, and Darcy’s casual: “Gary loves the APP and CONTACTLESS PICKUP”.  I can’t believe it didn’t lead to our learning that Colin actually died, and us meeting Gary’s new dog, Spot. 

[KaveDweller]

6 minutes ago, ams1001 said:

Is 1,246 people listening to your podcast really a lot? I honestly don't remember their conversation enough to be able to imagine what would be so compelling.

I think it is a lot of your previously listeners were mainly your mom and your friends. But it's not a lot if you are trying to monetize the podcast or anything. It was only a compelling conversation if you know her or Gary and wanted gossip.

Eddie attacking Dakota was really cold. I know she jumped in to say she took the pills, but still. Eddie should have told Katherine that he took a couple pill for pain and was worried she wouldn't understand. I know Eddie is an addict, but surely Katherine would not leave him for needing pain pills after his accident? Now lying to her and steal meds? That she probably would.

[tennisgurl]

Why do I suddenly want to visit my local Target...

[bybrandy]

2 hours ago, ams1001 said:

Is 1,246 people listening to your podcast really a lot? I honestly don't remember their conversation enough to be able to imagine what would be so compelling.

It is absolutely not a lot if you are trying to make a living off your podcast.  But it was a HUGE spike compared to the previous numbers on the graph  and I think it is a relatively new podcast.  If you only had 100 listners before suddenly having 1000 is huge because you're going in the right direction and your next big jump will be even bigger.   So them being super excited for 1200 listeners made total sense.

It was a little gossipy and the sort of thing people might have told people about and tuned into on a super bored sort of way pandemic style.  I mean it isn't Tiger King.

[hoodooznoodooz]

I’m going to get the glasses with the lemons on them for my thank-you homemade lemonade ... Oh, no! Dad’s pills!

Snerk.

[Winston Wolfe]

So Rome and Regina are taken in again by another "lost" youth? Most gullible adults I have ever seen.  Eddie - I just can't anymore. I hope this is rock bottom for him. Katherine, clueless as she is, deserves someone better. Still not missing Delilah one bit.

 

[ams1001]

7 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Why do I suddenly want to visit my local Target...

I think there was some subtle product placement in there somewhere. It was easy to miss.

(I actually started a list yesterday for a Target run on my way home tonight. But that was before I watched this.)

[tennisgurl]

I actually thought that Gary was really sweet with Liam and his understanding of his worries was a nice moment. He also had a nice moment with Darcy at the end, but it all just makes me sad. We know they will put him back with Maggie and Darcy and Liam will just be left behind so that we can hear more about how perfect and wonderful Maggie is and how perfect she and Gary are together. Seriously, I am totally down for Darcy and Jaimie hooking up after the inevitable double dump, you guys can do better. 

Speaking of making me sad, I hate that this is what they decided to do with Eddie being in a wheelchair. They had so many avenues to explore with him and his family having to adjust to this huge change, especially during COVID, but instead they did this tired prescription addiction story. Not only is it played out, its ruining all of the development Eddie has had since season one and the work he and Katherine have put into their marriage. They used to be my favorite story, but now they're my least favorite. Katherine is getting all these nice scenes with her lawyer friend now, is she going to get with him now? I cant blame her at the moment but after all the time spent on her and Eddie reconnecting it just makes everything before this feel so pointless. 

Oh yeah I'm sure that everyone is totally rushing to hear Maggie's certainly long rambling podcast. What is it even about, just her life? I admit the episode about her fake organ donor friend would be interesting, but I cant imagine Maggie is such a brilliant story teller that she can make her personal stories that interesting. I guess people are so bored stuck inside that this sounds interesting. 

So do we think the kid that Rome is adopting is lying about having a mom, or that his mom is real but will die of COVID? I am guessing that she isn't really around and he lives on his own so that Rome can finally have that troubled teen to mentor. This is what he wanted anyway, I never really got why he and Regina insisted in adopting a baby, so I guess he will be one of our arc characters who will teach us an important lesson and then disappear. 

[ams1001]

9 minutes ago, tennisgurl said:

I actually thought that Gary was really sweet with Liam and his understanding of his worries was a nice moment.

I liked that, too. It was nice that Gary finally realized the kid was having major anxiety, which clearly he was, too, what with the wipes and washing and don't touch anything earlier (which I can't criticize because I was the same way at that point in the pandemic, though I mostly kept it to myself (then again, I live alone)). But even if it was just a normal new-boyfriend-meeting-son day he went way overboard with the hockey and the ice cream and everything. Dial it back, dude.

[hoodooznoodooz]

12 hours ago, ams1001 said:

[Gary] went way overboard with the hockey and the ice cream and everything. Dial it back, dude.

I took some acting classes at HB Studios in the West Village a long time ago. They were really fun and hilarious. After, we would all go to the White Horse Tavern, and it was like we were on steroids. (I actually felt bad for whoever had to wait on our table.) But even we would have told Gary to dial it back.

Edited March 27, 2021 by hoodooznoodooz

[Madding crowd]

What was the scene about with Jamie saying you have to wait 3 minutes for the pregnancy test and then Maggie not waiting , just saying nope not pregnant. You can’t know a second after taking the test. Was she lying ? It was just an odd scene. Gary was way too over the top in meeting Liam, just be low key at first!

[Winston Wolfe]

50 minutes ago, Madding crowd said:

What was the scene about with Jamie saying you have to wait 3 minutes for the pregnancy test and then Maggie not waiting , just saying nope not pregnant. You can’t know a second after taking the test. Was she lying ?

Jamie/Maggie were all kinds of annoying last night. The peeing in front of someone, not flushing, and not washing your hands??? Really nasty Maggie, just when I was starting to think you were kinda cute. And Jamie? Charming Brit accent or not, get some boundaries dude. Stop digging through Gary's stuff. It's beyond rude. Not a big Gary fan, but when he finds out about the ring (and he will) I hope he tosses both your sorry asses out onto the Covid-infected street.

Edited March 26, 2021 by Winston Wolfe

[hoodooznoodooz]

16 hours ago, historylover820 said:

Interesting that the only communication these characters do is by accidentally uploading a podcast. For people who never shut up, they say nothing.

Could Maggie have really made this mistake? She forgot to hit the stop recording button. But after they were done discussing Gary, she uploaded it. She would have to hit the stop recording button then, before uploading, wouldn’t she?

[circumvent]

1 hour ago, hoodooznoodooz said:

Could Maggie have really made this mistake?

I am almost sure she couldn't have. Before uploading, she would have seen that it was still recording and be able to edit it. Besides, it is a lot of people but if she deleted it, most new people would just not find it and probably give up. It is not like she is so famous everyone in the interwebs would be talking about it

I hated the episode. Don't care about Eddie's story, done, done again, and again, and again. So boring. As far as I am concerned he can just drug himself into oblivion, whit Theo and free Katherine to live her life.

Rome wasn't so annoying and I like the kid so it can be interesting (what am I saying. It was a fluke, the writers are not that good to get a decent story in this show)

I have a theory that Jon committed suicide because he was tired of dealing with a bunch of teenage-like friends. There isn't one adult person in that group - Katherine can pass, barely - and it is so ridiculous that situations that are non-issues become a huge problem because everyone needs to lie and deceive, and plot and then apologize, just to do the same shit again.

And I am really tired of the PTSD veteran stories that every show needs to have. I know it is real and it is heartbreaking but if they are going to insist on this type of story they could at least be more creative and have, instead of a redemption "it is not your fault you killed a kid" line, have the "it is absolutely your fault and you did this because you started dehumanizing the other side, and this is because of  imperialism that makes soldiers become monsters, and forget their best instincts. Yes, your fault, you have to live with it so let's try to send a message that you were not supposed to be the monster that invade villages and killed children until the government sold you a lie. Let's protest, let's blow whistles, show the reality of wars" type of story. 

[KaveDweller]

7 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

So do we think the kid that Rome is adopting is lying about having a mom, or that his mom is real but will die of COVID? I am guessing that she isn't really around and he lives on his own so that Rome can finally have that troubled teen to mentor. This is what he wanted anyway, I never really got why he and Regina insisted in adopting a baby, so I guess he will be one of our arc characters who will teach us an important lesson and then disappear. 

There is definitely no mother and he definitely will end up living with Rome and Regina at some point.

7 hours ago, ams1001 said:

I liked that, too. It was nice that Gary finally realized the kid was having major anxiety, which clearly he was, too, what with the wipes and washing and don't touch anything earlier (which I can't criticize because I was the same way at that point in the pandemic, though I mostly kept it to myself (then again, I live alone)). But even if it was just a normal new-boyfriend-meeting-son day he went way overboard with the hockey and the ice cream and everything. Dial it back, dude.

Gary has a lot of irritating things about him, but he is good with kids. He's always been really great with Danny as well, especially when he was coming out.

[Snazzy Daisy]

Great chemistry between Katherine & Alan Kay, still not interested in Eddie’s storyline, the writers have ruined Katherine & Eddie’s characters that were well developed in season 2. Just wrap up this story ASAP. Rome/Gina story, boringgggggg! Nasty, nasty Maggie... lack of boundary, not washing hand, not flushing, euwww! 
Questions - Where is Delilah? Where is Colin? 
Btw, season 2 Liam is way cuter than season 3 Liam. Season 3 Liam looks older than Theo when they’re supposed to be in the same age. 
 

Edited March 27, 2021 by SnazzyDaisy

[ams1001]

1 hour ago, SnazzyDaisy said:

Btw, season 2 Liam is way cuter than season 3 Liam. Season 3 Liam looks older than Theo when they’re are supposed to be in the same age. 

To be fair, Theo does not seem to have aged at all (physically or emotionally).

[hoodooznoodooz]

3 hours ago, circumvent said:

I have a theory that Jon committed suicide because he was tired of dealing with a bunch of teenage-like friends. There isn't one adult person in that group.

I’m mostly kidding when I say Eddie is an addict because Theo is so annoying.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I like Katherine's new lawyer friend. It's also nice to see someone in this codependent little group have friends outside the same handful of people. I hope they keep him as just a platonic friend. I don't want to see Katherine have an affair and then have to beg Eddie for forgiveness.

I also like that they've shown Gary to be consistently great with kids. I excused his initial try hard attitude with Liam as being so concerned with getting this kid to like him that he just wasn't reading the room, but yeah that was painful to watch. He sounded like one of those divorced dads who hasn't seen his kids in six months and is trying to make the most trivial things into THE BEST THING EVER. Once he finally paid attention to Liam and figured out what was going on with him, he dialed it back and was the regular Gary who is the best one of the group at talking to kids.

I'm guessing the kid who's been getting sandwiches is on his own due to all his awkward attempts at lying about his mom. Maybe she abandoned him or died? Either way, you know that Rome and Regina are going to end up taking him in.

Can Delilah stay in France forever? Please?

[Snazzy Daisy]

1 hour ago, ams1001 said:

To be fair, Theo does not seem to have aged at all (physically or emotionally).

While Danny has grown into a young man in AMLT world, Theo & Charlie aren’t, such a special breed... 😂

[ams1001]

36 minutes ago, SnazzyDaisy said:

While Danny has grown into a young man in AMLT world, Theo & Charlie aren’t, such a special breed... 😂

I snark (I mean, why else would I be here, right?) but to be fair, there's not much they can do about Theo's physical growth; I guess the kid playing him is a bit of a late bloomer (he'll be 12 in a couple months, according to the show's fandom wiki), but they could stop writing his character like he's six years old half the time. 

I assume they're having trouble with the whole baby on set with covid thing so I'm sort of trying to just ignore Charlie's apparent age. I have absolutely no clue how old she should even be at this point.

But she and Theo are half-siblings so maybe it's genetic.

[Clanstarling]

On 3/25/2021 at 8:12 PM, ams1001 said:

I did like Katherine with her lawyer friend. They would make a cute couple.

And of course they're going to go there. The guy would be better for Katherine anyway (unless he has some deep dark secret, which AMLT's specialty)

On 3/26/2021 at 6:56 PM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I also like that they've shown Gary to be consistently great with kids. I excused his initial try hard attitude with Liam as being so concerned with getting this kid to like him that he just wasn't reading the room, but yeah that was painful to watch.

And Darcy wasn't reading the room either. You'd think she'd get right away that this was too much for her son, after all, she's the one who knows him best.

There was an odd shot of Gary looking at game controllers - but that went nowhere.

I don't mind the addiction storyline - it fits with Eddie's past. That being said, I hope it doesn't eat up the entire season.

Maybe it says something about me, but I never liked Katherine more than when she came into the garage angry and on a mission. I liked her having a legitimate response to what she figured out, until she accepted the gaslighting too easily.

[circumvent]

On 3/26/2021 at 10:56 PM, ams1001 said:

I have absolutely no clue how old she should even be at this point.

It is whatever age you choose, just to be consistent with the writers. Maybe next time we see Charlie she is spending the summer in France before she goes off to college or something - while Danny is still going through high school drama. They all live in alternate universes anyway.

[CarpeFelis]

What the hell, Eddie?! Dakota threw herself under the bus for you and you wouldn’t own up to Katherine that it was really you?

It would serve him right if Katherine left him for her lawyer friend.

[bamlou]

On 3/26/2021 at 5:05 PM, circumvent said:

On 3/26/2021 at 3:28 PM, hoodooznoodooz said:

Could Maggie have really made this mistake?

I am almost sure she couldn't have. Before uploading, she would have seen that it was still recording and be able to edit it.

Not only that, but I would assume that most people who have a podcast - even amateur beginners - wouldn't just immediately upload it right after recording it. You give it an edit to add in music for the intro and outro, check that your audio levels sound okay, test how it plays when a listener starts and ends the episode etc.; at the very least just check that it even recorded properly before choosing to upload it. But again, this is Maggie, so maybe I shouldn't be surprised how careless she is and how she just assumes people are going to be interested in her lazily produced podcast which still somehow attracts 1000+ people to listen.

I also don't really get why Dakota covered for Eddie - her motivation should be to keep Eddie around so he can continue to help produce her music (it's the explicit reason we were told last week when she chose to enable his addiction), so I don't see how taking the fall for him accomplished that since it barrs her from coming around and Eddie from working with her. Maybe she would have been found out anyway if Eddie came clean that Dakota gave him her pills, but in either case I don't get what she got out of covering for him. Their friendship has been very transactional so I can't really see her doing it because she cares or wants to protect him (and well, if she did, then she wouldn't have given him the pills in the first place!)

Edited March 28, 2021 by bamlouie

[circumvent]

41 minutes ago, bamlouie said:

But again, this is Maggie

And this is AMLT and their alternate universes.

44 minutes ago, bamlouie said:

I also don't really get why Dakota covered for Eddie - her motivation should be to keep Eddie around so he can continue to help produce her music (it's the explicit reason we were told last week when she chose to enable his addition), so I don't see how taking the fall for him accomplished that since it barrs her from coming around and Eddie from working with her. Maybe she would have been found out anyway if Eddie came clean that Dakota gave him her pills, but in either case I don't get what she got out of covering for him. Their friendship has been very transactional so I can't really see her doing it because she cares or wants to protect him (and well, if she did, then she wouldn't have given him the pills in the first place!)

Right. That is also a TV trope that is tiring. Eddie is the "main" character, the world revolves around him, everyone else needs  to understand his struggles and give him time to work things out, never mind people around him have their dreams destroyed, their lives upended. Eddie needs people who are loyal to him. at some point he will apologize, and Dakota will thank him for it but her plans are probably shattered. Katherine will tell him he is so brave for coming clean. Since she is not a main character, she is just an object of Eddie's plot. TV trope.

[hoodooznoodooz]

13 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

And of course they're going to go there. The guy would be better for Katherine anyway (unless he has some deep dark secret, which is AMLT's specialty).

 

There was an odd shot of Gary looking at game controllers - but that went nowhere.

They’re both Asian. The actress is not quite 11 months older than the actor. They kind of already went there with the Sophie/PJ storyline, but Katherine will probably find out that Alan is her separated-at-birth fraternal twin.

I noticed that, too! It was weird. It was a long moment. Maybe they wanted us to observe Gary considering suggesting a video game, but the breeding-ground-for-bacteria controls helped him realize Liam was freaking out about Covid. I have no idea.

[tinderbox]

6 hours ago, hoodooznoodooz said:

.....l noticed that, too! It was weird. It was a long moment. Maybe they wanted us to observe Gary considering suggesting a video game, but the breeding-ground-for-bacteria controls helped him realize Liam was freaking out about Covid. I have no idea.

 

I agree.  It was the thousands of germs on the controls that changed Gary’s mind about offering video games as a possible suggestion to Liam.

[Clanstarling]

9 hours ago, hoodooznoodooz said:

They’re both Asian. The actress is not quite 11 months older than the actor. They kind of already went there with the Sophie/PJ storyline, but Katherine will probably find out that Alan is her separated-at-birth fraternal twin.

I noticed that, too! It was weird. It was a long moment. Maybe they wanted us to observe Gary considering suggesting a video game, but the breeding-ground-for-bacteria controls helped him realize Liam was freaking out about Covid. I have no idea.

At first I didn't get what you meant about them both being Asian, but the twin thing is a possibility. I hope not.

Ahh, that's a good explanation. Incredibly subtle for the show. Or incredibly slow of me.

[Miss Bones]

Also, I wanted to add that this episode confirmed that the writers do think that we viewers are morons, because when Theo dropped the pills, they had to do a flashback to the moment--FROM THIS SAME EPSIODE--of Eddie giving Kath the aspirin.  I yelled at the TV "Yes, we know!!  We were there!"  As I already mentioned in one of my previous posts, it is not like they were subtle about the whole aspirin situation in the beginning of the episode, so they really didn't need to beat us over the head with it.

Then again, there were so many problematic things packed in that one little scene.

1) Theo says it is his first time making this special lemonade, so what are the chances that they have special lemonade glasses, and that he knew exactly where to find them?  

2) Where are the contrived lemonade glasses located?  Behind a bunch of pill bottles, of course!  Why not just store them in the medicine cabinet?

3) The safety cap on a narcotic would have prevented the pill bottle from popping open, IRL.

Ugh, this effing show.

[Lady Calypso]

Yeah, this episode was...frustrating in so many ways. Then again, I've been hate watching since the very beginning and it's only the comfort that I can hate watch with a bunch of people, and the fact that I'm not hate watching enough where it makes my blood boil, that keeps me going.

Well, they have ruined Eddie once again. Again, it's the fact that all of Eddie's storylines have geared toward him being the biggest douche to ever live that doesn't make this storyline interesting. If he had been a likeable character before, or if he had had better storylines where he was more sympathetic, this pill addiction storyline would actually be decent. But because Eddie's been an ass all throughout season 1 and parts of season 2, that him being an addictive ass this season isn't appealing in any way. 

Dakota covering for Eddie was stupid. What the hell did she think was going to happen when she blurted out that she stole the pills? Did she really expect an addict like Eddie to say "no, Dakota, don't cover for me. I took the pills"? She should have taken the opportunity to just leave two minutes earlier. Let Eddie figure out how to deal with his messed up life. 

I'm down for Katherine and her lawyer friend. He's much more fun and the actor is great. I liked getting to see Katherine actually laugh. She doesn't laugh much on this show because she has to deal with two toddlers.

And yeah, ok, fine, I'll jump on the anti-Theo bandwagon. I feel bad for the actor, who is still young and probably doesn't realize yet how this role is going to have an impact on his future jobs. The actor is doing the best he can, but I fault the show for putting his character in this direction. But, my god, show, let Theo act his age and not a stupid 4 year old. Jesus, he's supposed to be 10 or 11 by now. 

Gary's attempt of bonding with Liam wasn't as well done as I had hoped. This show isn't too good at casting child actors, besides Danny, but also the fact that the writing for this show is so piss poor that the bonding scene just was so weird to me. 

Jamie/Maggie is still cute, but...very weird for Maggie to be so open, enough to go to the bathroom in front of him, and also for Jamie to be snooping in an apartment that is not his NOR is it Maggie's! But this show has their characters constantly invading people's boundaries so I guess Jamie fits right in! 

 

[historylover820]

I'm going to defend Jamie a little bit--

I understand him snooping.

I don't do this myself, because I respect privacy, but I know people will look in medicine cabinets if they're at someone else's place and use the restroom. I do think it's just sheer human curiosity. And Jamie has the additional idea of "This apartment is Maggie's ex-boyfriend's... I wonder what he's like?"

So, I kind of understand where he's coming from. At least at first. Him constantly doing it is definitely invading.

Now, Maggie... nope. No one is that open. 

[Miss Bones]

That little Liam dweeb made the Theo actor look Oscar-worthy.  My, was he terrible!