S01.E11: Blackout/Parchawi

[DanaK]

"Al fears the worst when he doesn't hear from his family in Afghanistan for a few days. Also, Riley realizes how hard it must have been for his own family while he was deployed”

 

[SmithW6079]

20 hours ago, DanaK said:

"Al fears the worst when he doesn't hear from his family in Afghanistan for a few days. Also, Riley realizes how hard it must have been for his own family while he was deployed”

 

Better get out the tissues now. 🤧

[DanaK]

On 6/9/2021 at 9:00 AM, SmithW6079 said:

Better get out the tissues now. 🤧

Certainly for the PSA at the end. Good episode, with equal parts pathos and humor

[Grizzly]

It was sweet when Hazel played frisbee with Al. And a punch to the shoulder means I love you. Could have done without the rich jerk. Those scenes brought the episode down. Must have been another way to show how out of his mind Al was.

[nelroy78]

Art goes and sticks up for Al and the heartless jerk still didn’t give him another chance. Comparing family in Afghanistan to a toilet is just pathetic. Loved the frisbee scene.

[DanaK]

40 minutes ago, nelroy78 said:

Art goes and sticks up for Al and the heartless jerk still didn’t give him another chance. Comparing family in Afghanistan to a toilet is just pathetic. Loved the frisbee scene.

I almost wanted to see Art stick that racist jerk’s head into the toilet

[Annber03]

1 hour ago, DanaK said:

I almost wanted to see Art stick that racist jerk’s head into the toilet

Same! Good on Art for standing up for Al like that :). Funny, I just saw the guy who played the rich jerk on a "Monk" rerun earlier today-seems every time I've seen that actor pop up on a show, he's played someone smarmy or hyperactive or both :p. 

Oh, Al :(. My heart went out to him with how worried he was, the poor guy. I don't blame him one bit for getting snippy with the rich guy as he did. Even though I figured his family would be fine, I still actually breathed a sigh of relief when he heard from them at the end. I liked the way Riley's family related to his fear, by recalling how they felt when he was away. 

I too loved the frisbee scene. And I also really loved the ending with Al introducing Hazel to his sister :D.  That was so cute and sweet. I like her. I'm glad we're getting these occasional glimpses of his family here and there, and I'm all for continuing to see more of them as time goes on. I also chuckled at Al's mom confusing Ohio and Oklahoma :p. 

Good episode, this :). 

[tennisgurl]

Oh, I would pay an extra viewing fee to see Art stick that jerks head in the toilet.

Poor Al, he was having such a rough time of it. I cant blame Al for losing it on the rich guy as he whines about his toilet while Al is afraid his whole family is dead, but at least Riley and his family were all there to support him. Hazel playing frisbee with him was a really sweet scene, and while I figured that Al's family would be alright, I was really relieved when we found out that they were fine. I also liked Al introducing Hazel to his sister via Zoom, I like that they keep checking in with his family back in Afghanistan. I also thought tying it into how hard it was for Riley's family when he was serving was a really good idea too. 

The show continues to do a great job at mixing humor and very genuine pathos. 

[theredhead77]

The actor playing Al really nails the nuances of being terrified and putting on a brave face. I love that Al doesn't treat Hazel with kid gloves and that the family does their best to keep the situation at an age appropriate level when she's around. She's a tween, her dad spent a lot of time there, she's not stupid. 

I adore her matchmaker spirit, something completely tweenish to do. The actress is really good at nailing that age, probably because she is that age.

10 hours ago, Annber03 said:

I also chuckled at Al's mom confusing Ohio and Oklahoma :p. 

That cracked me up. I'm from CA but my mom is from Northeastern Canada. Whenever there would be an earthquake remotely close* to where we live we'd get a call, no matter what time of day or what size it was.

*remotely close = anywhere in the entire state of California, the Pacific ocean, or Nevada

Edited June 11, 2021 by theredhead77

[needschocolate]

I like the episode and am glad that Art stuck up for Al and no one in the family held it against Al for losing the job.  

I also appreciate that the house that Al's sister was in looked like a regular house and wasn't some dark, concrete hovel like homes in Afghanistan usually look like on TV.  

[Annber03]

10 minutes ago, needschocolate said:

I also appreciate that the house that Al's sister was in looked like a regular house and wasn't some dark, concrete hovel like homes in Afghanistan usually look like on TV.  

Yes! I noticed that, too :)! 

[Snow Apple]

Before cell phones, I use to go crazy when family members are hours late. It must be million times worse for people in Al's situation.

I wanted to smash the rich racist dude's face in, or at least smash his freaking toilet to dust.

[SmithW6079]

This episode didn't get to me as much as I thought it would, and I say that as someone who's teared up in almost every episode thus far. I guess I figured Al's family wasn't really in danger because that would be going very, very dark only a few episodes in. 

Of course the homeowner was an evil bastard. He's Smoothie (from "Happy!" that absolutely batshit crazy show that was on SyFy a couple of years ago, with Chris Meloni & Patton Oswalt). 

On 6/11/2021 at 4:57 PM, needschocolate said:

I also appreciate that the house that Al's sister was in looked like a regular house and wasn't some dark, concrete hovel like homes in Afghanistan usually look like on TV.  

I guess this is my Western prejudice showing, but I was a little surprised that the house looked as nice as it did, but maybe that's because the family lives in Kabul. According to these website, there are two types of housing in Afghanistan:

Housing in Afghanistan and How Afghans Live

[Sarah 103]

On 6/11/2021 at 1:24 AM, Annber03 said:

I also chuckled at Al's mom confusing Ohio and Oklahoma 

I didn't think she was confusing the two. I thought the issue was that she had no idea where the two in relation to each other. The joke still works.