S03.E08: Trust

[circumvent]

Callie and the team take on a murder case; Mariana and the FCG struggle with their pitch; Malika reveals her feelings towards Dyonte; Davia comes to a realization about Matt; Gael struggles with an assignment; Alice tries to take control.

Air date: 04/07/21

[circumvent]

A little better than the last episode. I like Gael's story but still don't know if The Artist wants to challenge him or use him. Maybe that's the plot, lol.

Not really interested in another Mariana drama. Still not interested in Alice's story because I still can't with Stand up comedy. 

As long as Constance Zimmer is in the show, I can care about Callie's story, although I am not sure what the writers are doing with Jamie. Is he going to be the bad guy now, gossiping about others to get Callie in trouble? I wish I knew how many episodes Constance Zimmer signed out for.

Malika's story is also silly. The show runners are really intent on shedding light on every single minority issue and so far the story is not working for me. Malika wants to have a relationship with Dyonte, but she hasn't even met with the other girlfriend, then she just ambushes Isaac at a therapist's office - which seemed a little odd, that the therapist agreed with that. 

 

 

[Aliconehead]

Malika is the type that wants to explore HER feelings for another guy but she will end up getting jealous of any female that Issac pursues. She has too many jealousy issues to have a healthy poly relationship.  
I still think they screwed up the Callie/Jamie break up.  They should have had Callie finding the information from a different source, Jamie thinks it was from his files, breaks up with her, loses his job, and then finds out how she got the info. We still get the angst and the break up with out Callie being wrong. I just can’t deal with her right now. 
I felt that the other female coders were a little attacky towards Mariana.  All the others were one critique one compliment, Mariana got slammed (not saying she didn’t deserve it) and I felt a little bad for her. 

[KaveDweller]

1 hour ago, Aliconehead said:

Malika is the type that wants to explore HER feelings for another guy but she will end up getting jealous of any female that Issac pursues. She has too many jealousy issues to have a healthy poly relationship.  
I still think they screwed up the Callie/Jamie break up.  They should have had Callie finding the information from a different source, Jamie thinks it was from his files, breaks up with her, loses his job, and then finds out how she got the info. We still get the angst and the break up with out Callie being wrong. I just can’t deal with her right now. 
I felt that the other female coders were a little attacky towards Mariana.  All the others were one critique one compliment, Mariana got slammed (not saying she didn’t deserve it) and I felt a little bad for her. 

I agree. The other critiques were all things you'd say when asking a weakness at a job interview. "I have a hard time letting go of old projects because I care so much about what I do." Mariana's was just an outright flaw. But the whole.....go around in a circle and give each other feedback did not seem like the smartest idea.

Maybe I'm just old, but I don't really get their app. Do I really need an app to tell me when I am going to run out of shampoo? I can see the bottle every time I take a shower.

I'm also not understanding how being polyamorous is different than just being in an open relationship. I always thought the term "poly" meant when you had a relationship among more than two people, not just one person dating multiple people. I see no issue with either option if all parties agree, but it did not look like Isaac is going to.

[Aliconehead]

58 minutes ago, KaveDweller said:

I agree. The other critiques were all things you'd say when asking a weakness at a job interview. "I have a hard time letting go of old projects because I care so much about what I do." Mariana's was just an outright flaw. But the whole.....go around in a circle and give each other feedback did not seem like the smartest idea.

Maybe I'm just old, but I don't really get their app. Do I really need an app to tell me when I am going to run out of shampoo? I can see the bottle every time I take a shower.

I'm also not understanding how being polyamorous is different than just being in an open relationship. I always thought the term "poly" meant when you had a relationship among more than two people, not just one person dating multiple people. I see no issue with either option if all parties agree, but it did not look like Isaac is going to.

My understanding, as I am not poly I could be wrong, poly you have relationships with others while open is more you have “relations” with other people but don’t form bonds.  

Edited April 9, 2021 by Aliconehead

[KaveDweller]

27 minutes ago, Aliconehead said:

My understanding, as I am not poly I could be wrong, poly you have relationships with others while open is more you have “relations” with other people but don’t form bonds.  

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks.

[gesundheit]

I love Alice so much, so I kind of wish they'd just never show her stand-up. I enjoy good stand-up comedy! She doesn't do good stand-up comedy. I just feel sad for her every time. I'd absolutely believe them if they just told me she was a brilliant comic and we always just caught her right the applause.

5 hours ago, Aliconehead said:

I felt that the other female coders were a little attacky towards Mariana.  All the others were one critique one compliment, Mariana got slammed (not saying she didn’t deserve it) and I felt a little bad for her. 

Right? Everyone else was "well, you have this tiny flaw but it's only because you're amazing at ______" while Mariana's was "you're great big picture, but damn you're sloppy and you make a ton of mistakes!" So much for offering a compliment to cushion the blow of the critique!

We going to have another season of Davina encouraging a man, I guess?

[tennisgurl]

So wait, what just happened? Did Malika bring Isaac to her therapist to sell becoming poly to him? He looked pretty surprised, did she say that this was going to be some kind of couples counseling without telling him what she wanted to talk to him about? I am not poly so I'm not an expert or anything, but what I have been told by other people who are, its a bit different for everyone, usually dating multiple people with the consent of all parties involved, or people all dating each other, but the big things are trust and everyone being on the same page. Its a decent idea to explore, but I feel like Malika isn't doing this the right way. It seems like she has rather ambushed Isaac with this because she has a crush on this other guy, not because this is a new avenue of herself she wants to explore with Isaac, the way that exploring being poly the way that I feel like it should be. Was her therapist really cool about this? Does she want her therapist to help talk Isaac into this? Because that seems pretty questionable for both a therapist and a girlfriend. 

Speaking of things I am not an expert on but am questioning, I am not involved in the LA comedy scenes, but is that really all that sells for people of color? Its all unfunny cliché ethnic stereotypes that were embarrassing in 1997? Because I have seen a decent amount of stand up comedians of color, and none of them based their acts around that and they seemed to be doing pretty well, but again, what do I know what goes on behind the scenes in the comedy world. The bigger problem for me is that its just not very interesting, and I find myself wishing that they would give Alice better stories. Or at least a better love interest. 

So Callie knows that her boss is being investigated by the federal government, and has just decided that she doesn't care? I guess its because I don't think that Jamie is as much of a dick as Callie thinks he is, but I have no idea why Callie trusts her boss who she just met over the guy she seriously dated for years and has kept her secret about stealing info from him that got him fired. 

I like that they are taking a bit of a break from being all activism all the time, even if that is still a major part of the show, and are focusing a bit more on other things like careers and romance to shake things up. 

So what exactly is Marianna's App? It sounds like it a shopping app that focuses on products traditionally marketed to women that are eco friendly, but I am pretty sure that apps like that already exist. Mariana's group seems to be having so many problems that they will totally break apart when they realize that Mariana is hiding dating Evan. 

[DearEvette]

This is the one where every story sort of flatlines for me, except maybe Gael's.

I was gratified with how well the snotty artist worked with Davia's students.  He was warm, personable and engaging.  I like it when shows give you another side of a previously one-sided character that doesn't come off like a plot maneuver.  I also liked that even in his interactions with the students, his other self peeked through in his insecurity and even then he managed to keep that tamped down in front of the younger set.

I know it is a tv show and plot. but LA is a big place with a LOT of lawyers and yet here is Callie and Jamie on the same case! on opposite sides!  Mere months after their breakup!  What are the odds!  I am pretty over-saturated for life on tv-law stuff.  Constance Zimmer is the only thing that makes this storyline even halfway interesting.  But even so it is beginning to pall.

Mariana and her crew just feel utterly incompetent to me.  And dysfunctional.   This storyline has no real substance anymore  Their idea is half baked, the scenes of them 'working' feel amateurish.  Right now nothing about the progression of this plot leads one to believe they can succeed.  Of course plot will dictate that but it would have been nice to see them really kicking ass and making their walk-out feel earned.

Oh Malika, Malika, Malika.  Yup Isaac looked completely ambushed.  Malika just wants Dyonte and since he implanted the shiny new idea about a poly relationship she wonders if she can have him without blame from Isaac and still keep Isaac.   But she really has no idea what his poly relationship looks like.  I think she has this idea that she can go off and have her thing with Dyonte and then come back and have Isaac as her main boyfriend. But what if Dyonte's poly isn't built that way? 

Poly's take all forms -- from a committed throuple to a "go out and have your fun but don't give me details"  to each one having a second equally committed partner on the side and they are all aware and friendly with each other.  So many permutations.  But the foundation is that it has to have boundaries, consent, agreements about what it will look like and above all trust. What if in Dyonte's poly they expect each other's other friend to have some sort of friendly or cordial relationship with all of them?  What if they all get together and have Sunday dinners together and she has to witness Dyonte being affectionate toward his GF in her presence?  What if Malika isn't built for poly at all and can't handle seeing Dyonte with his GF and starts to catch deeper feelings for him?  What if Isaac starts seeing someone else?  She has clearly not thought this through or done any real research.

[possibilities]

2 hours ago, DearEvette said:

Poly's take all forms -- from a committed throuple to a "go out and have your fun but don't give me details"  to each one having a second equally committed partner on the side and they are all aware and friendly with each other.  So many permutations.  But the foundation is that it has to have boundaries, consent, agreements about what it will look like and above all trust. What if in Dyonte's poly they expect each other's other friend to have some sort of friendly or cordial relationship with all of them?  What if they all get together and have Sunday dinners together and she has to witness Dyonte being affectionate toward his GF in her presence?  What if Malika isn't built for poly at all and can't handle seeing Dyonte with his GF and starts to catch deeper feelings for him?  What if Isaac starts seeing someone else?  She has clearly not thought this through or done any real research.

I agree with all of this, so much! I was shocked that the therapist made that leap so fast, and that Isaac was brought into the discussion so soon and in that particular way. I have been in poly relationships and know other poly people, and Ye Gods, I wanted this show to tackle that topic, I thought they might be well-equipped and familiar enough with the issue to do it justice, but this was a terrible beginning. 

[KaveDweller]

13 minutes ago, possibilities said:

I agree with all of this, so much! I was shocked that the therapist made that leap so fast, and that Isaac was brought into the discussion so soon and in that particular way. I have been in poly relationships and know other poly people, and Ye Gods, I wanted this show to tackle that topic, I thought they might be well-equipped and familiar enough with the issue to do it justice, but this was a terrible beginning. 

The therapist really seemed to be pushing the idea of poly. I get wanting to support different lifestyle choices, but I thought therapists were supposed to ask questions to get at what you want. Not talk you into things.

[gesundheit]

1 hour ago, KaveDweller said:

The therapist really seemed to be pushing the idea of poly. I get wanting to support different lifestyle choices, but I thought therapists were supposed to ask questions to get at what you want. Not talk you into things.

The therapist pretty much implied "you're a liar and a bad girlfriend if you don't tell your man you want to be with this other man as well," which was... quite a thing to imply!

[circumvent]

On 4/9/2021 at 10:45 AM, tennisgurl said:

So wait, what just happened? Did Malika bring Isaac to her therapist to sell becoming poly to him? He looked pretty surprised, did she say that this was going to be some kind of couples counseling without telling him what she wanted to talk to him about? I am not poly so I'm not an expert or anything, but what I have been told by other people who are, its a bit different for everyone, usually dating multiple people with the consent of all parties involved, or people all dating each other, but the big things are trust and everyone being on the same page. Its a decent idea to explore, but I feel like Malika isn't doing this the right way. It seems like she has rather ambushed Isaac with this because she has a crush on this other guy, not because this is a new avenue of herself she wants to explore with Isaac, the way that exploring being poly the way that I feel like it should be. Was her therapist really cool about this? Does she want her therapist to help talk Isaac into this? Because that seems pretty questionable for both a therapist and a girlfriend. 

That's why I called it an ambush

 

On 4/9/2021 at 10:45 AM, tennisgurl said:

So what exactly is Marianna's App? It sounds like it a shopping app that focuses on products traditionally marketed to women that are eco friendly, but I am pretty sure that apps like that already exist. Mariana's group seems to be having so many problems that they will totally break apart when they realize that Mariana is hiding dating Evan. 

It is a terrible plot and the writers seem to be stuck with it and trying to find a way out. Not working for me. We all know the partners will find out about Evan, so why delay this any longer? They also need a better idea because the app seems to be too shallow and pointless to me.

[SnarkEnthusiast]

Malika's storyline is interesting, but very poorly executed. You don't ambush your partner with your therapist to pressure them into accepting polyamory. The bigger issue is that she lied to Isaac multiple times about being attracted to Dyonte, so that's already starting with an atmosphere of mistrust.

So Alice tries to take Davia's advice and play hard-to-get with Ruby, only to be dumped. Why can't she ever win?

I'm very bored with Marianna and the tech ladies. I wish they'd get the Evan reveal over with so we could see where things will actually go, but I think they're saving that for the finale.

 I'm guessing Gael will get upset with the artist for using/claiming his work.

[possibilities]

Mariana's entire team comes across like junior high school kids, not adults (at best). It's embarrassing. The writers of this show seem to think adult women behave like immature tweens. It's humiliating that this even got to air. If anyone actually takes it seriously as even a vague approximation of representation, it would set back women in the workplace by .. I was going to say "several generations" but I couldn't think of ANY era in which women typically behaved or were portrayed as behaving with such incompetence and immaturity. Maybe 9 year olds trying to start a lemonade stand?