S01.E08: Let's Meet

[peachmangosteen]

Quote

As Hazel meets Byron face-to-face to sign divorce papers, Herbert and Judiff scramble to prevent a potential disaster. Is it really goodbye, or is it a trap?

Airs April 15th.

[Nellise]

I really wish I hadn't finished this series. This was one of the most awful and pointless shows I've ever had the displeasure of watching. Only excuse I can give for finishing it is that I hoped there would be some twist that would explain why none of the people in the show acted like real humans, that they were robots or something, but no. Instead I watched a show about a woman who finally escapes the man who essentially kidnapped her and then abused her for 10 years and then goes back to him.

I have no idea what this show was trying to be. It's not funny, it's not a drama, it doesn't have action. Maybe it's horror, but it's not played like one, and I'm only giving that idea any weight because that's the only explanation for this finale. There might have been something here if Hazel and Byron actually had a real relationship that deteriorated and we saw the fallout of that, but they never even knew each other before he trapped her so there's no emotional stakes about what she should do.

[cmahorror]

I really enjoyed this show, especially the last episode. Yes, she went back but it was to save her father's life. Was that her decision to make? No, but it also reflects that she would go to great lengths to save someone she loves, just like Bryon thought he was doing for her all those years. Byron was wrong for what he did and Hazel, no matter how altruistic the reason, is wrong to do this to her dad. You cannot force someone to live the life you want them to live without them resenting you for it.

I wonder if the reason Herbert decided not to fight to cancer was because he didn't think anyone would care if he died. He hadn't seen his daughter in a decade, his wife was dead, the only person who would have cared was Judiff but he broke up with her, probably to spare her the pain. He was hurt when Hazel said she would rather him die than go to the hub but that may have also reinforced his decision to not fight the cancer.

Did the medicine get slipped into his pancake batter? How long will it be before Herb finally figures out what is going on and how will he react? I really hope we get a second season because I have a lot of unanswered question.

[Frisson]

This show was very different and interesting to me. It did make me sad that it was a Black-Mirror style abuse story. I’m very intrigued by the characters and could never predict what would happen next with them, even though their decisions did make sense, in-story. I would also like to see more. Kind of bummed few others here seem to like it. 

[peachmangosteen]

18 hours ago, Frisson said:

Kind of bummed few others here seem to like it. 

Yea, I’m bummed it doesn’t seem to be very popular. I really enjoyed it. I can understand people being put off by it since it really is kind of strange but I liked the strangeness. And the actors are all fantastic. I too hope it gets another season. 

On 4/15/2021 at 10:06 PM, cmahorror said:

Did the medicine get slipped into his pancake batter?

No, they showed Hazel putting it in his beer.

[Chicago Redshirt]

The trouble with this series in my book is it asks us to buy in to a lot of things that just don't make sense and I don't know what its point of view is supposed to be, or what sort of point of view we are supposed to have about it.

Hazel's relationship with her dad never seemed to be all that warm. In fact, she had cut him out of her life for the last 10 years, and despite having married into fabulous wealth, he was still living in the same shitty town that they had grown up in. Is that because she didn't care about him, because she didn't dare ask Byron if he could maybe spare a few hundred grand for dad, or what? 

Were there signs all along that Dad had cancer? Or was that grafted on to  make Hazel choose to stay with Byron? And does that choice even make sense? Even supposing Byron could be trusted and he will devote money and energy to keeping Dad alive, he's not a god. Does she jet as soon as he passes away. 

I don't think it was medicine that got slipped in the drink, but rather something to knock him out so that the Gogol minions could transfer him into a cube at the Hub. Which of course raises its own set of moral issues and practical issues. It doesn't seem like they could keep up the facade of it being the real world for very long. Eventually, he's going to want to go shopping or drinking or talking to some other people or doing things that can't be duplicated easily in the cube. Hazel knocking him out and essentially putting him in the same position that she's been in -- nonconsensual, ignorant prisoner and victim of Byron's misguided, creepy, patronizing whims, is not a good look.

Hazel was willing to commit suicide to get out of Byron's manufactured world. It just seems too dark that she is willing to go back to this existence for the sake of a father she isn't particularly close to. 

From the start it felt like they just wanted Hazel to have a bunch of misadventures rather than just do what I'd imagine the typical person would do if they found themselves in her situation, which is take things to the press or a real set of attorneys. He had made a public announcement about Made For Love. The notion that he put this chip in her brain without her consent has got to be a criminal act. Or at least a path to the freedom she wants. Yes, I know he was able to blackmail that one rando lawyer. But it would be way harder to do with a big law firm and get away with it, or with the Wall Street Journal. 

[peachmangosteen]

10 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

Were there signs all along that Dad had cancer?

Yes. I figured out he was sick several episodes ago. I can't remember the specific clues but they were definitely there.

The show is absurd and not realistic but I don't care. I mean, that's kind of what makes it enjoyable to me.

[Ms Blue Jay]

20 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

Hazel was willing to commit suicide to get out of Byron's manufactured world. It just seems too dark that she is willing to go back to this existence for the sake of a father she isn't particularly close to. 

Byron does not give a tiny fuck about Hazel or he would use his money to save Herbert regardless if Hazel moved in with him.  The entire plot makes no sense.  Hazel should have blackmailed Byron into saving Herbert, not the other way around, which is Byron somehow gets to blackmail Hazel.  What the fuck?

Byron is saying stay with me or I'll let your father die.  ????  Why doesn't Hazel say I'll let you stay in my life at arm's length if you save my father......  So she agrees to be Byron's prisoner even though he's fucking evil beyond belief to let her father die like this.....and to use Herbert's sickness to keep her......

I like Cristin Miloti but Billy Magnussen does absolutely zero for me.  I wish Byron was played by a different actor.

[Maysie]

It took us a while to warm up to this, and we almost quit watching, but I’m glad we stuck it out. It’s different and I’m curious about how it turns out.

I’m not hung up on realism at this point-the whole idea of a virtual reality hub is (thankfully) still ridiculous, so it’s easy enough to not worry about what Hazel should or should not do. I think they packed a lot of information into eight episodes-we get the broad strokes about what happened with Hazel’s mother (dead), how things went with her dad (drunk), how Hazel coped (hustler and a party girl), and why Herbert turned to Diane (sick but lonely). As for how she ended up with Byron in the first place, I figure Hazel imagined she’d be the one getting the most out of the relationship with Byron, and because she was a good time girl, figured why the hell not? She never imagined there’d be a hub. I can see where she decided to go back to the hub to save her dad. She was out for a few weeks and was gaining a greater understanding of him, and while not over their past, I think she was coming to terms with it. Her life was a hot mess before Byron, but it was her hot mess. 

I noticed that both Judiff and Fiffany have some interesting names, particularly f instead of t-is that a funny coincidence? I’m curious about how things go with Hazel and  Herbert stuck in the hub together, what happens in the pasture and how Judiff saves the day-because I have great confidence in Judiff!

[cmahorror]

On 4/18/2021 at 6:24 PM, Ms Blue Jay said:

Byron does not give a tiny fuck about Hazel or he would use his money to save Herbert regardless if Hazel moved in with him.  The entire plot makes no sense.  Hazel should have blackmailed Byron into saving Herbert, not the other way around, which is Byron somehow gets to blackmail Hazel.  What the fuck?

Byron is saying stay with me or I'll let your father die.  ????  Why doesn't Hazel say I'll let you stay in my life at arm's length if you save my father......  So she agrees to be Byron's prisoner even though he's fucking evil beyond belief to let her father die like this.....and to use Herbert's sickness to keep her......

I think Hazel knows that if she gave Byron the other ultimatum, save my father and I'll stay in your life at a distance, he probably would lie to her and then take advantage of her being distracted by her father's failing health to take her back to the Hub. In her mind, at least she is deciding to return to the Hub on her own terms and saving her father's life at the same time. Byron is a control freak megalomaniac - he would never agree to help her father unless she came back to the Hub and she knew that.

To Hazel, I think this was the lesser of two evils. Despite their estrangement, Hazel does love her father and at least she has a chance to be with him and time to rebuild their relationship by agreeing to Byron's terms. If she had refused or tried to bargain for her father's life and lost, his death would haunt her for the remainder of her life and Byron would have no problem reminding her every chance he could that she was responsible for her dad's death, that she could have saved Herb if she had only swallowed her pride and come home with him.