S03.E15: Lunar New Year

[Scarlett45]

 Alice hosts a Lunar New Year celebration at the Coterie; Callie and Gael address their communication issues; Malika and Tanya forge a new relationship; Davia struggles with her feelings for Matt and Dennis.

 

Air Date: August 11, 2021

[KaveDweller]

Episodes where the Coterie all comes together for some event are always fun.

I like that Alice's parents aren't perfect, but they aren't actually terrible people. They seem to really love her and just don't quite know how to show it or how to help her. Constantly making jokes about her hands probably won't make her a stronger person, but they have good intentions. And liked her brother, even though I was expecting him to reveal those phone calls to end up being not about his job.

 But now I think Alice will run into trouble because her comedy friend heard she was dating Ruby.

I continue to be very impressed with how Callie, Gael, and Isabel are handling everything and getting along. I feel like this can't possibly last. Callie's suggesting of moving in with Gael was a very bad idea though, glad she realized that when she sobered up. Also, all the talk of parents made me hope they let Lena and Stef guest star and get to hear about Callie's situation.

 

[possibilities]

I liked this one. I think I just prefer to watch people be reasonably functional and not broody or recklessly stupid. They struck a balance between fuck ups and sensible behavior this week. People were trying, and not just being on autopilot. 

Not sure about the implication of the close up on Alice's friend from the comedy workshop-- after she talked about how much it meant to her to share the New Year with everyone, the camera lingered on his face and he looked unhappy? pensive? something. It was too long of a camera lingering moment to be an accident, so I guess they're setting something up with him.

Life is complicated sometimes and I think I really prefer to see people thinking about that than just making complications that don't need to be there, just because they're being thoughtless.

The pool always looks really well maintained. 

5 minutes ago, KaveDweller said:

 

 But now I think Alice will run into trouble because her comedy friend heard she was dating Ruby.

Ah! I didn't make that connection. 

[JustHereForFood]

7 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

I like that Alice's parents aren't perfect, but they aren't actually terrible people. They seem to really love her and just don't quite know how to show it or how to help her. Constantly making jokes about her hands probably won't make her a stronger person, but they have good intentions. And liked her brother, even though I was expecting him to reveal those phone calls to end up being not about his job.

I don't like Alice's parents. This was the same as when she came out and they told her they already knew and waited for her to tell them. Then why was her mother always trying to set her up with some guy? Why was she so stupid that she didn't understand how that would make her nervous and afraid to come out? I also don't think that parents should make fun of their children, unless they absolutely know it's ok with them, which clearly wasn't the case here. This looked like an obvious bullying to me and no amount of "But we love you"s can make up for it IMO. I like that Alice stood up for herself, it's always much harder with people that you have been around for a long time, who got used to being able to treat you terribly and don't see why it is suddenly a problem. It's not suddenly, it's just that people who are used to being bullied and treated like crap have a hard time with getting to be assertive.

I like Callie, Gael and Isabella acting like adults with the situation. I didn't like the pregnancy plot at the beginning, but now I am actually looking forward to how that develops, so I guess good one for the writers. I didn't really feel the rest of the episode, because I hate love triangles and this show is so fond of them, to an absurd degree. But I liked that Matt and Dennis got to be civil around each other and even seemed to get along. I am beginning to really like Matt and since I never liked Davia, I think he could do so much better. I hope he doesn't get too hurt, because it seems that Davia/Dennis is meant to be the endgame there.

Sumi seems much nicer than she was initially. I forgot, does she live at the Coterie with Lindsey? Because they both seem to hang there a lot. I don't mean this episode, it made sense that she would be there at the celebration even if she doesn't live there, but she was there a lot in previous episodes too. It seems a bit awkward, since she clearly is into Alice and Lindsey has clearly noticed.

[possibilities]

I agree about Alice's parents. They flat out TOLD her that no one else in the family can know she's gay, but now they are implying that it's her fault her brother doesn't know, because Alice somehow didn't have the guts to tell him? They TOLD HER not to tell him! It's like they're gaslighting her. I think Sumi had a total personality change, as did Isabella. I think the writers just decided to change direction, continuity be damned.

I like Matt. I don't know what Davia sees in Dennis. I think it would be a total TV shock if they decide the unreliable, impulsive, selfish, dysfunctional guy is NOT the ultimate true love, though. TV writers seem to have no idea how great a relationship can be with someone who's stable, available, devoted, and actually an adult. It's exciting to actually connect, but TV seems to think UST is hotter than actual intimacy. 

[JustHereForFood]

Speaking of Dennis, did anyone else think that it would be revealed at the end that Davia did something to the oven, so that Dennis could feel like he saved the day with his van, after Matt saved them earlier? I just immediately thought that, when they went to cook in his van and I think that Davia and Matt shared a suspicious look later, but nothing came out of it. I was so getting ready to feel angry at Davia for doing that, because I thought that would be a terrible thing to do, but then it felt anticlimactic when it didn't happen. It could have just been me looking for something to complain about, since I wasn't really feeling this episode apart from the Callie/Gael stuff.

[circumvent]

I am finding this half of the season quite boring. Maybe they changed writers, maybe they just ran out of ideas.

This show has thrown almost every single social issue in the mix, sometimes doing it really well, a few times missing the point and doing it only for the virtue signaling. But one thing I felt they missed was more nuance. Things were thrown out too fast, and some issues got resolved equally fast. It was like they had a checklist that they just wanted to finish and be done with. I don't think that's the case, but that's how it felt sometimes.

Knowing Mariana's and Callie's background, since the show is supposed centered on them, I wish they would use more of their lives, their experiences as young kids to shape more of their lives. It didn't have to be all consuming, but at least some. Mariana was adopted quite young, so I could give her a pass, although she seems to be lost her drive after the statr up debacle. TV life makes things too rosy for the character that suffer a blow back. She should be struggling to find her feet. Instead, she is comfortably playing detective and attending parties.

Callie had a lot of trauma until she was adopted and even all the love in the world doesn't erase that trauma. But she has turned into a "liberal wine drinker in stilettos" who seems lost in her profession. I would like to see her really doing the hard work of being a social justice attorney, the one in the awful nitty gritty of bureaucracy. If you know people in real life doing this work, they don't have time or money to go around in stilettos and pantsuits, then come home for wine. Those events are actual events, not a daily life thing. TV glorifies everything and the character is lost in its own history. She is very annoying when trying to fix everything but at least it was in character. Now she is just another elitist who is not really doing much to justify her drive to help based on her own experience with the system

Unless this is a critique of neoliberalism that the writers are trying to insert in our heads, I think the show is slowly losing its appeal.

The other characters have their moments but the stories are equally boring, imo. Just an unending cycle of sameness.

 

[JustHereForFood]

36 minutes ago, circumvent said:

This show has thrown almost every single social issue in the mix, sometimes doing it really well, a few times missing the point and doing it only for the virtue signaling. But one thing I felt they missed was more nuance. Things were thrown out too fast, and some issues got resolved equally fast. It was like they had a checklist that they just wanted to finish and be done with. I don't think that's the case, but that's how it felt sometimes.

I have never felt that this show or The Fosters was being preachy or just checking boxes with social issues. It always seemed organic to me and true to characters and their experiences. This episode was actually the first time that I have felt like being lectured, with Alice's speech about being Asian American. I understand that it is a hot topic these days, even more so a few weeks/months ago when they probably shot this, but it seemed to come out of the blue in the episode and I thought that the show could do better with it. I just groaned when it started and almost expected Alice to finish with something like "Asian Americans are awesome too, did you all get that?" Maybe it would make more sense to me if the culture was not represented in this episode mostly by Alice's mother bossing everyone while she was a guest and making Alice completely stressed, making me question what were we supposed to find so awesome about that. Again, maybe it is just me being sour because I didn't really like this episode and if others liked it, good for them.

[gesundheit]

On 8/11/2021 at 11:50 PM, KaveDweller said:

Episodes where the Coterie all comes together for some event are always fun.

I like that Alice's parents aren't perfect, but they aren't actually terrible people. They seem to really love her and just don't quite know how to show it or how to help her.

Agreed. Too many of these shows make the parents out to be monsters instead of just parents who have some failures but aren't cartoon villains.

I seem to always be the lone voice in liking Dennis but the jury's still out for me on that haircut. It was definitely getting too long, but isn't there a happy medium??

 

I guess that's good that Malika was able to talk to her boyfriend's other girlfriend about how she's scared of getting hurt? This really feels like more of a throuple thing than polyamory, at least from my experience. (Well, my second-hand experience.)

[SnarkEnthusiast]

Well, at least Alice is finally in the middle of a triangle? Her and Sumi have good chemistry, but I'm tired of constant Alice/Lindsay tension. Sumi's outfit was amazing!

I also find Malika's dynamic with Deonte's girlfriend odd. Their scenes are uncomfortable. Half the time it's like a boss talking to an intern and the rest of the time I'm convinced they're going to make out. I wonder if they're laying the groundwork for a throuple.

I think Davia/Dennis have kissed more in fantasy sequences (like once an ep!) than in reality. Still, watching Dennis randomly kiss Isabella was interesting. I don't buy Davia being in love with Matt. They've been on max two dates and sadly for him, he feels very much like a placeholder boyfriend to soothe her ego while she waits for Dennis. That love declaration came out of nowhere.

I'm getting kind of bored of the pregnancy stuff, but I guess they're setting up tension for Callie to start up a triangle between Gael and Jaime, ugh. Jaime would NOT want her back after ruining his career, but...manic pixie dream girl time! And I assume Gael will be conflicted about Isabella. Triangles for everyone!

Meanwhile, I'm enjoying watching Marianna lean into stagnating in life. Next week's preview was hilarious.

[Scarlett45]

Awww I love getting the red envelopes for Lunar New Year. What a fun party- I miss parties y’all!

 

I think Dennis looks nice with the shorter hair. Fresher and younger. But I think Davina should give Matt a chance. Dennis was so careless with her feelings and I think Matt really likes her.