S02.E08: ... been Daisy Buchanan

[paulvdb]

Quote

Watching an ex with someone new tests Devi's resolve to be more mature. Fabiola struggles to stay true to herself, and grows concerned for Eleanor.

 

[shapeshifter]

I wish I had a Mr. K in my life when I was mired down in obsessing over exes. 
Excellent advice! 

But did Aneesa sabotage her debate team on purpose? Maybe because she still wanted to see Daisy/Devi convicted in the court of school? 

[Irlandesa]

I don't think it was intentional.  She just didn't seem to show much interest in the project and even missed some planning meetings. 

[shapeshifter]

10 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

I don't think it was intentional.  She just didn't seem to show much interest in the project and even missed some planning meetings. 

True.
I had thought Aneesa missed a project meeting as a plot contrivance to have Ben and Devi interact.
Bad me. I know that this show is written better than that.
It was a Chekhovian meeting miss!

[peachmangosteen]

31 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

I had thought Aneesa missed a project meeting as a plot contrivance to have Ben and Devi interact.

I mean, that was definitely one of the reasons for it lol.

[possibilities]

Group projects are hell for that reason. I don't understand why high schools are assigning them without any form of accountability or guidance for group dynamics.

[shapeshifter]

1 minute ago, possibilities said:

Group projects are hell for that reason. I don't understand why high schools are assigning them without any form of accountability or guidance for group dynamics.

Preparation for real life where 20% of the employees do 80% of the work?

[possibilities]

On 7/18/2021 at 12:39 PM, shapeshifter said:

Preparation for real life where 20% of the employees do 80% of the work?

Well, sure. But schools are supposed to teach kids not to be dicks. Maybe if they didn't get away with it and establish the habit early, more people would grow up into better people.

I know I need to have more sense of humor about it, but it's like the thing of asking rude questions of strangers-- I feel like the world is going to hell because people keep getting a pass on shittiness at an early age and it's become totally normalized by the time they're adults.

[GHScorpiosRule]

On 7/18/2021 at 12:39 PM, shapeshifter said:

Preparation for real life where 20% of the employees do 80% of the work?

That is not preparation; it's just teachers being lazy or giving the ones who clearly didn't put the work into the assignment, a free pass. For...reasons.

[shapeshifter]

45 minutes ago, possibilities said:

Well, sure. But schools are supposed to teach kids not to be dicks. Maybe if they didn't get away with it and establish the habit early, more people would grow up into better people.

I know I need to have more sense of humor about it, but it's like the thing of asking rude questions of strangers-- I feel like the world is going to hell because people keep getting a pass on shittiness at an early age and it's become totally normalized by the time they're adults.

I totally agree, and, yes, there was a Lot of sarcasm behind my: 

On 7/18/2021 at 12:39 PM, shapeshifter said:

Preparation for real life where 20% of the employees do 80% of the work?

I do believe the Group Work that took over school curriculums sometime around the 1980s has done more to contribute to the disparity of work loads in the office, lab, and elsewhere than to dispel it.

We saw it in Kamala's lab situation, which, as noted elsewhere on this board,

Spoiler

was pretty magically resolved.

^spoiler tagged because I think it happens later.

Edited July 19, 2021 by shapeshifter

[Irlandesa]

1 hour ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

That is not preparation; it's just teachers being lazy or giving the ones who clearly didn't put the work into the assignment, a free pass. For...reasons.

Group work is usually for larger projects like the one in this episode.  Let's say you're a teacher and ask students give a 5 minute presentation and it's a class of 30 students with a 50 minute class period.  It's 45 minutes if you get rid of the greetings.  Every presentation time slot will likely be closer to 7 to 10 minutes with set up and questions being asked.  At most, you're probably getting in about six presentations which means the whole week will be spent with them.  Most teachers don't have a week to spare considering what they're being asked to cover by state and school restrictions.  Or at least not very often.

The mock trial is the perfect "group work" activity.  A good teacher will have a mechanism for grading the work of individual contributors, though. 

 

[tennisgurl]

I really hope that the students were graded individually, while the "win" was mostly ceremonial. Of course Ben would be horrified by even losing an academic award that means nothing, school means so much to him. I think that this might be the beginning of the end of Ben/Aneesa, Ben might realize that he wants to be with someone who takes academics as seriously as he does...like Devi, as I am pretty sure that Ben/Devi are going to be end game. She did at least offer a real sincere apology to Ben for how she treated their relationship, and even though she hates that Ben and Aneesa are together, she is actually trying to be supportive. 

I am glad that Fabiola stood up for the robot club nerds, they might not be cool enough for Eve's friends and their plans to make a stand for LGBTQ representation, but they are still Fabiola's friends. It sucks that she feels like she has to change to fit in with Eve and her friends, I like Eve and she does try to tell her friends to knock it off when they say mean things to Fabiola, but she really should let Fabiola know that she likes her for who she is.  

Edited July 21, 2021 by tennisgurl

[love2lovebadtv]

On 7/20/2021 at 11:50 AM, tennisgurl said:

I really hope that the students were graded individually, while the "win" was mostly ceremonial. Of course Ben would be horrified by even losing an academic award that means nothing, school means so much to him. I think that this might be the beginning of the end of Ben/Aneesa, Ben might realize that he wants to be with someone who takes academics as seriously as he does...like Devi, as I am pretty sure that Ben/Devi are going to be end game. She did at least offer a real sincere apology to Ben for how she treated their relationship, and even though she hates that Ben and Aneesa are together, she is actually trying to be supportive. 

I am glad that Fabiola stood up for the robot club nerds, they might not be cool enough for Eve's friends and their plans to make a stand for LGBTQ representation, but they are still Fabiola's friends. It sucks that she feels like she has to change to fit in with Eve and her friends, I like Eve and she does try to tell her friends to knock it off when they say mean things to Fabiola, but she really should let Fabiola know that she likes her for who she is.  

I also saw Ben's face fall when Aneesa didn't seem concerned about not winning. We know she's smart, likeable, and a good soccer player. But the show didn't mention anything about her academics. Maybe Ben assumed, until he had to work with Aneesa, that because she's smart, she's also academically competitive.

I adore Fabiola and I think she and Eve are cute together so I hope Eve stands up to her friends and says enough is enough. Fabi is great just as she is. 

Also, I am realizing that both Fabi and Eleanor have strong interests in something specific and they seem to have friend related friend groups outside of the three of them. Devi was introduced as a harpist but I haven't heard that mentioned lately and even when it was, I haven't seen her interact with any other friends. This could be because of plot since Devi is the main character and the show has so much to do with her family and crushes. Just something I noticed. 

[dubbel zout]

"Because I can't read another paper about the symbolism of the green light..." Hee.

On 7/19/2021 at 1:18 PM, possibilities said:

it's like the thing of asking rude questions of strangers

I am always astounded at what people think they can ask strangers.

[meep.meep]

I loved this episode.  Mostly because I can relate.  In high school back in the '70s, as a sophomore I got put into an advanced placement Civics class filled with brainiac seniors.  There were four sophomores to 25 seniors.  We did a mock Supreme Court and all of us sophomores were in one group facing off with four seniors.  We won and the look on those seniors faces was exactly the look on Ben's face.  The thought that they wouldn't win in an academic setting was inconceivable to them.

So good for Paxton!

[truthaboutluv]

Quote

and even missed some planning meetings.

Wasn't it just one meeting and that was due to her having an away game?

Honestly, at one point, I found Ben and Anessa so over the top in their interactions around Devi that I almost wondered if they were faking as a way to bug Devi. Like maybe it was some weird ploy on Ben's part to either get back at her for the two timing or a way to get her back. It just seemed much based on his and Devi's obvious history. 

I'm not sure what to make of Anessa's presentation. While I can buy that she may not be as academically competitive and intense as Ben and Devi, nothing we've seen till then gave the impression she wasn't at least an involved student. And it wasn't so much that she seemed to not care about the assignment but her presentation made it seem like she got flustered and maybe was even uncomfortable with public speaking assignments. But this is the girl who won people over in barely a minute when introducing herself. So it was just odd. 

I continue to find Ben's face very punchable and therefore continue to not care about him and Devi as a pairing. I laughed at Paxton's obvious deep sigh when passing Devi and deciding to reverse. Like you could tell how pained he was over feeling bad to ignore her obviously crying on the street but at the same time was just exhausted at the thought of dealing with more of Devi's drama. Her advice to him was good. That it's not enough to just do the bare minimum if you really want to excel. 

Based on the comments, I see no one cared about Eleanor's being a douchebag friend to Fabiola and Devi over her loser boyfriend. Thing is, as frustrating as Devi is, Eleanor has always had plenty of the annoying in her as well. So this was not so surprising. Although when she was dragging Devi over her lackluster love life, all  I was waiting for, was her to add, "you're a virgin who can't drive,"

[Niuxita]

I'm probably Missing The Point/Taking It Too Seriously, but I was a bit uncomfortable by the whole "blaming Daisy Buchanan for Gatsy's death as a fun classroom activity" thing. I mean, within the universe of the show, it makes sense for a male teacher to come up with that, given how society tends to find ways to blame women for everything and it's a pretty pervasive way of thinking, but given that Mr. K is not a real person and someone actually came up with this storyline, I would have thought Mindy Kaling would have been above that. Anyway.

Loved Kamala being a supportive cousin and bringing in Nirmala to help alleviate Devi's discomfort re: Ben and Aneesa. The family dynamics between the those two + Nalini have always been my favourite part of the show.

On 8/28/2021 at 6:03 PM, truthaboutluv said:

Based on the comments, I see no one cared about Eleanor's being a douchebag friend to Fabiola and Devi over her loser boyfriend.

Yeah, I was surprised to see no one comment on that. I don't mind Eleanor, and the friend-group dynamic with her, Fab, and Devi is always great, but yeah that was extremely shitty. Obviously they're leading up to a big eye-opening moment for Eleanor where she'll hopefully apologize for being a shitty friend, but that they went there in the first place with her seemed a bit unnecessary/unrealistic.