S07.E02: It's the End of the World, Worm Girl

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

Liza tries to settle into the next chapter of her personal life. Liza and Kelsey dig deep to win over Fupa Grünhoff, a teenage climate change activist.

Original air date: 4/15/21

Edited April 15, 2021 by ElectricBoogaloo

[Aulty]

Here is some heavy side-eye for writers doing a bad charicature of Greta Thunberg. Being passionate about the Millenial way of live is hip and cool. A Gen Z caring about the environment is fair game.
The writers should've cross-checked Fupa, which I doubt is a legit first name in Austria,  in the urban dictionairy.

Lauren is lucky she wasn't fired.

Edited April 15, 2021 by Aulty

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Ugh, really, Charles? His whole "I've had to do a lot of bending for you" was a crock of shit. Liza never asked him to do any of those things. Those were HIS choices which HE made on his own, so he doesn't get to blame her or guilt trip him about those choices. If the show is trying to make me happy about this breakup, mission accomplished.

But I think that Liza's suggestion that they both bend a little was absurd. You can't get a little bit married. You either do or you don't. You can't stay together in the hopes that one of you will change your mind. I mean, it does happen (I know someone whose boyfriend said he NEVER wanted to get married because his parents had a really terrible divorce but after a few years together, he finally came around to the idea and proposed), but you shouldn't stay together because you're both hoping that the other person will change their mind.

I was shocked by the name that they gave the Greta character. That couldn't have been a mistake. Given the over the top way the character was written, I guess the writing staff doesn't like her very much.

Part of me felt like I should be offended on behalf of Charles when Kelsey referred to him as a boomer. I don't know what his exact age is supposed to be on the show but Peter Hermann was born in 1967 which makes him Gen X. To put it in perspective, Ross, Joey, and Chandler on Friends were born in 1967/1968.

Edited April 15, 2021 by ElectricBoogaloo

[Aulty]

2 minutes ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

But I think that Liza's suggestion that they both bend a little was absurd. You can't get a little bit married. You either do or you don't. You can't stay together in the hopes that one of you will change your mind.

Swap marriage with having a baby and the same thing is true for Liza and Josh. Her relationships on this show are like an akward game of Pong.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

On a shallow note, it cracks me up whenever Liza and Kelsey hug because it just emphasizes the fact that Sutton Foster is like three feet taller than Hilary Duff.

[gesundheit]

Where did they shoot that C-LIT event?

 

It's very jarring to see this staged non-COVID NYC. I definitely did not want to see Younger's version of the virus, but knowing this was shot in the thick of it makes it feel weird to watch (in a way that something like SVU doesn't).

[retrograde]

I liked the other three episodes but this one was rough.

It's mean to satirize a kid (OK, Google says she's now 18 [whaaaat?!?] but still), Lauren's surprise congratulations powerpoint was so contrived (I know she's someone who acts first and thinks later, but c'mon, she didn't even try to confirm they're engaged?), the declarations of love at the meeting were mega inappropriate, Liza's "meeting halfway on marriage" was dumb and Charles' guilt trip about "bending" was also dumb.

I did laugh a C-Lit, though. 

[blueroses]

Who on the writing staff hates Greta Thunberg? That just made me uncomfortable. I like bringing Lauren into the office - she's probably my favorite character - but there's a lot of clumsy writing around it.

[Yeah No]

On 4/15/2021 at 10:23 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Part of me felt like I should be offended on behalf of Charles when Kelsey referred to him as a boomer. I don't know what his exact age is supposed to be on the show but Peter Hermann was born in 1967 which makes him Gen X. To put it in perspective, Ross, Joey, and Chandler on Friends were born in 1967/1968.

I've noticed that there is a tendency among Millennials to lump some of Gen X in with the Boomer generation.  I'm a later Boomer and from my perspective there really isn't much difference so I can see why they do that.  I'm sure there are some Gen X-ers that don't like being associated with the negative perception of the Boomer generation.  Also Millennials tend to call anyone a "Boomer" as an insult regardless of when they were born.  I actually think Charles is being written more like a Boomer than someone from Gen X.  They're making him so old fashioned and traditional that I almost feel like he's at least 5 years older than me instead of 9 years younger.  I am sorry but the "old" Charles of a few seasons ago would never have broken up with Liza over this. 

Also, I just don't see Liza as going back to her "YOLO" attitude.  I thought she had gotten living for today out of her system when she moved to NYC, had a relationship with a 20 something and posed as a 26 year old, and her journey over the past 6 seasons had led her to a point of being ready to settle down again.  It doesn't make sense that she would adopt that attitude again unless she was looking for a way out of the relationship with Charles, but they're not writing her that way.  They're making her look like she's still 100% invested in the relationship.  So it just doesn't feel realistic.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

23 hours ago, Yeah No said:

I'm sure there are some Gen X-ers that don't like being associated with the negative perception of the Boomer generation.

I"m Gen X and I don't like being lumped in with Baby Boomers because I have almost nothing in common with people who were born 35 years before I was. For a long time, I could barely stand being labeled Gen X either because I was born at the tail end of it so as a teenager, I couldn't relate to people who'd already finished college, gotten married, had kids, and were 5-10 years into their careers.

[Yeah No]

2 minutes ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I"m Gen X and I don't like being lumped in with Baby Boomers because I have almost nothing in common with people who were born 35 years before I was. For a long time, I could barely stand being labeled Gen X either because I was born at the tail end of it so as a teenager, I couldn't relate to people who'd already finished college, gotten married, had kids, and were 5-10 years into their careers.

I hear you.  As a late Boomer I never felt like a Boomer.  People born 10 years before me might as well have been born 100 years before me because they grew up in the 1950s while I grew up in the 1960s and 70s, which were incredibly different.  It was a time of very rapid social change, especially for women.  I was too young to be a part of the "hippie" generation, the Vietnam war and all of the things commonly associated with the things that defined Boomers.  In fact, someone came out with the idea of another generation between Boomers and Gen X, and called it "Generation Jones".  Basically if you're the age of any of the kids on "The Brady Bunch" you're part of this generation and everything I read about it resonates very much with me.

[MissLucas]

Well, I'm Gen X and I'm quite happy to belong to the forgotten generation when it comes to battles about parting hair and using the wrong emoticons ;)

The coat game in this episode was strong, stronger than the humor. The Greta Thunberg caricature was jarring - I certainly think you can make fun of her but you need to know where you are going with this. Obviously they introduced her as the next frontier in the war of generations. And some of her lines - especially the one about adults giving her advice - worked. But her treating her mother like a slave made no sense and it wasn't funny. I'm also quite sure Greta does not own a pink hardshell suitcase. I do admit the bracelet blessed by Baby Yoda's main puppeteer made laugh.

I can't get worked up about Charles and Liza. They both have good arguments and should just move on. Bringing in the kids in the last scene was a good reminder that it's not just about them though. No idea where the writers are going with this. At this point I watch out of a sense of completion and for the outfits. That black and white stripped dress was a beauty.

[mamadrama]

Yikes on the Greta caricature, giggle at the "von Trapp children but hangry" line.

I don't know where I fit in. I was born in 1980 to parents born in the 40s and grandparents in the late 1800s. Our first car had an 8 track player, as a kid I bought the Dirty Dancing soundtrack on a 45, only a few friends had cable, PCs were almost unheard of until we were in our teens, I owned an Atari and the first Nintendo, Saturday morning cartoons were a thing, we had to rent VHSes AND VCRs from the video store, and I didn't access the internet (or have a computer in my home) until my freshman year of college. I'm too old to be a Millennial but too young for X. 

My 14yo and I have been binging the show. I spent 30 minutes explaining to him that Liza, Diana, and Quinn are all Broadway stars; Kelsey had her own show as a kid; and that the 'M" in MTV used to stand for music. 

[MissLucas]

1 hour ago, mamadrama said:

I don't know where I fit in. 

Strictly speaking you'd still be Gen X but you can confuse everybody outside social sciences by claiming to be one of the following (per Wikipedia):

Quote

Individuals born in the Generation X and millennial cusp years of the late 1970s and early-to-mid-1980s have been identified as a "microgeneration" with characteristics of both generations.[77] Names given to these "cuspers" include Xennials,[78] Generation Catalano,[79] and the Oregon Trail Generation.

 

[mamadrama]

1 minute ago, MissLucas said:

Strictly speaking you'd still be Gen X but you can confuse everybody outside social sciences by claiming to be one of the following (per Wikipedia):

 

Microgeneration. I dig it. 

Do I get to microdose with that? 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

3 hours ago, mamadrama said:

as a kid I bought the Dirty Dancing soundtrack on a 45

I think you mean a 33. 45 records were singles. 33 records were the bigger albums that soundtracks were released on. [/fellow old person]

[Gothish520]

On 4/15/2021 at 10:23 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Part of me felt like I should be offended on behalf of Charles when Kelsey referred to him as a boomer. I don't know what his exact age is supposed to be on the show but Peter Hermann was born in 1967 which makes him Gen X. To put it in perspective, Ross, Joey, and Chandler on Friends were born in 1967/1968.

 

On 4/17/2021 at 10:01 PM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I"m Gen X and I don't like being lumped in with Baby Boomers because I have almost nothing in common with people who were born 35 years before I was. 

 

On 4/19/2021 at 6:19 AM, MissLucas said:

Well, I'm Gen X and I'm quite happy to belong to the forgotten generation when it comes to battles about parting hair and using the wrong emoticons ;)

Freaking Gen X, never getting the blame for anything in the Boomer/Millennial war, lol!

For those who might not know, here is the latest generation breakdown according to Wikipedia:

Baby Boomers: 1946-1964

Generation X: 1965- 1980

Millennials: 1981 - 1996

Generation Z:  1997 - 2012

[mamadrama]

On 4/19/2021 at 9:00 PM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I think you mean a 33. 45 records were singles. 33 records were the bigger albums that soundtracks were released on. [/fellow old person]

My mistake was actually the word "soundtrack" when I meant "song." I actually did mean the '45. It had the theme song and "She's Like the Wind." I also had the "Hungry Eyes" single from the movie. The B side was "Make Me Lose Control" which I still maintain is a better song. I eventually did get the entire soundtrack but it was on cassette. I hated cassettes and wasn't sad to see them go. The best thing about them is that if you had one you didn't like you could tape over the holes at the top and make your own. 

[MissLucas]

12 hours ago, Gothish520 said:

Freaking Gen X, never getting the blame for anything in the Boomer/Millennial war, lol!

He! The Tik-Tok battles I listed are actually fought between Millenials and Generation Z but your point holds.

Edited April 23, 2021 by MissLucas

[Refresh]

On 4/17/2021 at 7:12 PM, Yeah No said:

I was too young to be a part of the "hippie" generation, the Vietnam war and all of the things commonly associated with the things that defined Boomers.  In fact, someone came out with the idea of another generation between Boomers and Gen X, and called it "Generation Jones".  Basically if you're the age of any of the kids on "The Brady Bunch" you're part of this generation and everything I read about it resonates very much with me.

I think of this/yours as the Wonder Years generation. (Sorry if that’s simplistic!)  Kevin Arnold’s age on that show, seeing so much change but also removed from it because you’re not an adult. I’m GenX, close to the actors age not the characters age, so that show had a lot of impact on me.

My parent are the very tail end of the Silent Generation (1928-1944) and you never hear about them (ha, joke) but there’s a similarity with Gen Z in that they were both born in a time of war and economic collapse. 

I was reading some report that said many Gen.Z feel they’re the first generation to take climate change seriously and have their voice heard about the environment. Not sure I agree they’re the first. (Technology has certainly enabled their voice to be heard louder.) But to that point Im trying to see the notGreta character as a generational composite. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Liza and Kelsey get dirty

 

After show

 

[Feline Goddess]

Greta is passionate and doesn't tolerate any nonsense, but I never got the impression she was an outright bitch - so their version of her didn't work for me. 

Why couldn't Miriam Shor be on set? I miss Diana. 

I like Lauren morphing into Diana via statement necklaces, but I also don't understand why she'd be given the job - even temporarily. It's the same silly plotpoint as Jane on The Bold Type being offered editor-in-chief. 

Except for the purple dress at Diana's wedding, I do like Liza's clothes - especially the black & white long dress. Kelsey's wardrobe on the other hand is mostly hideous.  

I hope Liza and Josh don't reunite. He was fine as a fling. Maybe having Gemma with Claire has satisfied his need to have a child so it wouldn't be an obstacle for being with Liza.  But still .... no.  

Peter Hermann if F-I-N-E. Mariska Hargitay is a lucky woman. 

Debi Mazar hasn't done anything noteable in the first couple of episodes, so for now I'll reserve judgment on Maggie.

 

[dubbel zout]

On 4/16/2021 at 7:27 AM, blueroses said:

Who on the writing staff hates Greta Thunberg? That just made me uncomfortable.

Same. The whole thing felt very cheap. The show is usually sharper with its satire.

On 4/15/2021 at 10:23 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Ugh, really, Charles? His whole "I've had to do a lot of bending for you" was a crock of shit. Liza never asked him to do any of those things. Those were HIS choices which HE made on his own, so he doesn't get to blame her or guilt trip him about those choices.

He even says Liza didn't ask him to do any of that stuff! Shut up, Charles.