S05.E06: May 27, 2020

[PrincessPurrsALot]

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TBD

Original air date 2021.03.23

[Empress1]

The Talk with Blue was heartbreaking. Darla conveyed "I absolutely hate that I live in a world where I have to do this" so well. When Blue asked how he stayed alive and she just hung her head, I cried with her.

Nova always gets on my nerves, but for some reason the way Rutina has her speaking this season is driving me crazy. It's not just her language (although she doesn't really speak conversationally; she makes speeches*); it's her delivery. I remember her delivery being much more relaxed in previous seasons. More drawl, less clipped.

*Everybody was making speeches this episode - this was the episode of hard conversations - but Nova speaks that way all the time.

[Chick2Chic]

2 hours ago, Empress1 said:

Nova always gets on my nerves, but for some reason the way Rutina has her speaking this season is driving me crazy.

It felt like she was on a stage giving a monologue for me. I didn't hate her words to Calvin about shame and how Black folks get treated as a monolith in white America but the way it was delivered didn't seem natural at all.  

Like, it's not an opening for conversation from her but a declaration of condemnation and judgement. I don't fault Nova wanting to have that conversation but the way she does it is off-putting for me. It immediately puts someone on the defensive. 

[cheeky]

Rutina delivers lines like her character is center stage at a spoken word event.

I appreciate the content but the tone doesn't reflect a private conversation at home.

 

 

 

[gesundheit]

I feel like Nova is quoting thinkpieces rather than talking to people she lives with. The writing is off for her, I don't know how RW could make that conversational. It's a didactic show, but they typically fit that stuff in more organically. I'm curious if someone newer wrote the actual episode script, their credits aren't as clear as some others are. It's also possible that DuVernay or really any of the higher-ups had written those essays back over the summer and fine-tuned them till putting them in a script (very understandable). As in, picked the dramatic circumstance after writing out the points.

 

Where was RA and Darla's honeymoon? I couldn't catch where they were supposed to be or if they'd mentioned it last week or something.

 

They seem to have dropped all the indoor masking, or maybe I just can't keep track of which characters are in other characters "pods!"

[Empress1]

10 hours ago, gesundheit said:

I feel like Nova is quoting thinkpieces rather than talking to people she lives with. The writing is off for her, I don't know how RW could make that conversational. It's a didactic show, but they typically fit that stuff in more organically. I'm curious if someone newer wrote the actual episode script, their credits aren't as clear as some others are. It's also possible that DuVernay or really any of the higher-ups had written those essays back over the summer and fine-tuned them till putting them in a script (very understandable). As in, picked the dramatic circumstance after writing out the points.

 

Where was RA and Darla's honeymoon? I couldn't catch where they were supposed to be or if they'd mentioned it last week or something.

 

They seem to have dropped all the indoor masking, or maybe I just can't keep track of which characters are in other characters "pods!"

This article with Nic Ashe (Micah) says that the writers and Ava scrapped what they had planned for the season once the pandemic hit and chose to focus on 2020. The cast was quarantined and filmed in pods (except for the wedding and the protest scenes, maybe?). So I'm guessing it's Hollywood/Vi/Prosper, Micah/Charley, Nova/Calvin/daughter (I forget her name), and RA/Darla/Blue. I think for the wedding, the cast was masked around people not in their pods - they were all masked outside at the wedding, and I remember Micah was masked indoors with RA and Blue when he came to get them.

15 hours ago, Chick2Chic said:

Like, it's not an opening for conversation from her but a declaration of condemnation and judgement. I don't fault Nova wanting to have that conversation but the way she does it is off-putting for me. It immediately puts someone on the defensive. 

At dinner, she even tells him "I'd like you to tell me about [the incident from his rookie days]" like she's cross-examining him. Like you say, it's not the content necessarily - if you're Black and dating a white ex-cop, you're going to have to have some hard talks no matter what but especially in the age of Black vs. Blue Lives Matter - but the way she talks.

[gesundheit]

52 minutes ago, Empress1 said:

 The cast was quarantined and filmed in pods (except for the wedding and the protest scenes, maybe?). So I'm guessing it's Hollywood/Vi/Prosper, Micah/Charley, Nova/Calvin/daughter (I forget her name), and RA/Darla/Blue. I think for the wedding, the cast was masked around people not in their pods - they were all masked outside at the wedding, and I remember Micah was masked indoors with RA and Blue when he came to get them.

 

Ah, okay, it was Prosper being brought into the Hollywood/Vi pod that I had missed somehow! Thanks for the info.

Also last week Darla took her mask off for her virtual bridal shower while Charley was standing right behind her (or the other way around? I can't quite remember) and it was just an odd little moment. By and large, though, they're a million times better than any other TV show that's acknowledging the pandemic.

[Empress1]

2 minutes ago, gesundheit said:

Ah, okay, it was Prosper being brought into the Hollywood/Vi pod that I had missed somehow! Thanks for the info.

Prosper moved in with Vi and Hollywood two episodes ago - everybody was concerned about him being home alone and basically shut in, so Vi asked him to come stay with her (which I thought was lovely). That episode, Hollywood was out of town seeing about his mother. That's why I found it odd that he wasn't at the wedding - like, Vi was just like "OK, bye!" and left him at home? It's not like he doesn't know the couple.

[bichonblitz]

18 hours ago, Chick2Chic said:

Like, it's not an opening for conversation from her but a declaration of condemnation and judgement. I don't fault Nova wanting to have that conversation but the way she does it is off-putting for me. It immediately puts someone on the defensive. 

She shouldn't have done it in front of his daughter. Immature and in very poor taste. 

[tennisgurl]

I went into this episode knowing that Nova was going to go full Nova, and I was expecting the speeches and the hard talks with Calvin about his past as a cop, but I agree with several people here that Nova just sounds so performative when she talks that it feels off. I don't know if its the writing or the way that Rutina plays her, but Nova so often sounds like she's performing spoken word poetry at a show instead of just talking to people. Even when I agree with what she's saying, she sounds so judgmental, overly theatrical, and covered in self importance that its hard to really listen to what she's saying, her way of speaking is just so off putting. Even in her talk with Calvin, she sounded like a prosecutor delivering her closing statement to the jury, not his girlfriend having a hard but necessary talk about his past. I also don't like that Nova told Calvin's daughter what he told her about the horrible beating he watched as a rookie and didn't stop.  

The rest of the hard talks were a lot better, even if Micah, who just barley squeaked out of an arson charge because his parents are rich, is probably not the person who should be cheering burning buildings down. I especially thought the talk that RA and Darla had with Blue was very real and very sad. RA also showed a lot of growth not taking a swing at that gas station creep, he absolutely would have just a few seasons ago. 

[Sheenieb]

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I also don't like that Nova told Calvin's daughter what he told her about the horrible beating he watched as a rookie and didn't stop.  

Yeah, I wasn't crazy about that, either. It would've been one thing if Calvin brought it up when Nova asked him about feeling ashamed in regards to George Floyd, but putting him on the spot wasn't cool. 

While I agree with what Nova said about white people having the luxury of distancing themselves from bullshit that their fellow man does, she's so preachy that it was hard not to roll my eyes.

This episode felt like a stage play. I wasn't mad at it, but I miss seeing Charlie and Parker outsmart each other. I want to go back to the main plot. 

[Artsda]

Nova is the worst. Her tone and attitude. Attacking people in her own house, she knew Calvin was a white cop with a past from season 1. She picks and chooses when she wants to attack and remember it?  She called out something Calvin told her in confidence in front of his daughter and get judgy? This is same person who put Blue's story in the press not caring about her own family.

Did Hollywood really need to call RA on his honeymoon he waited so long to marry Darla for? They had phones and a tv. 

 

[Joimiaroxeu]

Ditto comments upthread, Nova is annoying me so much right now--way more than she usually does. I think she's on the verge of going full hertep.

Lol, RA just hung up on Hollywood. What was that? So rude! 🙄

I guess Darla and RA went on a honeymoon cruise in the Gulf? The show seemed to make a point of letting us see the expanse of water outside but I don't recall hearing a mention of where they were.

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At dinner, she even tells him "I'd like you to tell me about [the incident from his rookie days]" like she's cross-examining him. Like you say, it's not the content necessarily - if you're Black and dating a white ex-cop, you're going to have to have some hard talks no matter what but especially in the age of Black vs. Blue Lives Matter - but the way she talks.

No sympathy for Calvin because I think he knew Nova's imperious tendencies were part of the price of admission. However I wonder how long he's going to put up with being her stand-in for all White cops? This will be probably the hardest test of their relationship. (Also, I think this episode made it clear why Calvin's "woke" daughter was introduced. IMO she's there to take some of the heat off Nova and make Calvin seem less like the hapless victim of the Angry Black Woman.)

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Did Hollywood really need to call RA on his honeymoon he waited so long to marry Darla for? They had phones and a tv. 

Maybe that's why RA hung up on him. It just cracked me up what a pointless moment that was.

Edited March 30, 2021 by Joimiaroxeu

[jrzy]

Performative, that's a perfect word for how Nova speaks.   A real-life Nova would be exhausting!