S03.E17: Anticipation

[Scarlett45]

Quote

Callie receives an anonymous tip during the trial; Mariana lands a big client at work; Malika explores new feelings toward a co-worker; Davia's physique has her slipping back into old habits, and Gael introduces Isabella to his family.

 

Air Date: August 25, 2021

[Brian Cronin]

This show tackles so many interesting topics, but it often takes bizarre shortcuts to get us there. For instance, the Davia stuff was excellent, but it was all started by a fashion company wanting to work with her, a noted "body positive" influencer on Instagram, and to do so, they sent her clothes that SHOULD HAVE BEEN TOO SMALL FOR HER. What company would do that? It was an absurd set-up for what turned out to be an excellent story overall (it's stunning how much better the supporting characters' plots are compared to Callie and Mariana's plots). 

Similarly, Mariana's plot has some interesting aspects to it, but in general, it is based on a set-up that is absurd and completely unrealistic. No one in the world would ever go to work for their former partners as an underling. And then complain about them not giving her a seat at the table? You specifically went to work for your former partners as an underling! Why would you think you would ever get made partner again? No one thinks like that! It defies all logic. We literally saw Mariana turn down a job that was similar to her initial gig because she was burned out by tech, but now she wants to be an underling for her old partners? That's not how people work! I am sure she's going to end up moving to this other start-up, and that's a good end result, but the path there is just silly. 

[circumvent]

This show is just becoming a huge cliché.

Malika, you didn't "come out as poly". To come out, you have to be in, and you didn't even know much about polyamorous relatioships until you got interested in a guy who is poly and decided to try. You are experimenting.

A few weeks ago (or months, I am never sure of the timeline in this show), the tech team didn't have money to pay rent or eat but now they are renting space in a state of the art building? Start ups, specially the ones that are mostly virtual, do work at home. They can rent a space for meetings, but they don't need to pay to sit on a pretty table in a glass walls building. Gee, do the writers live in the same world as I do?

Biggest TV cliché of all: every lawyer must drink at the office. And every gathering of friends needs to have wine. Seriously, most people I know might get something to eat after a hard day but usually they just want to eat, watch TV (even if just for the noise) and go to bed. But I guess this is not "sophisticated" enough for the show. 

Callie's story is back to office romance cliché. The courtroom story is so full of holes, how to those people are considered the best is beyond logic. But Constance Zimmer can deliver though.

[Brian Cronin]

4 minutes ago, circumvent said:

Constance Zimmer can deliver though.

I've enjoyed a number of the actors (especially the non-leads, although Maia Mitchell has a star quality to her, when given the opportunity), but yeah, Zimmer stands out in a BIG WAY. 

[circumvent]

I think Maia Mitchell has a good agent and excellent PR machine behind her. The star quality does not come from a special talent. she is pretty average, imo.

[possibilities]

7 hours ago, circumvent said:

 

Malika, you didn't "come out as poly". To come out, you have to be in, and you didn't even know much about polyamorous relatioships until you got interested in a guy who is poly and decided to try. You are experimenting.

I agree, but honestly I have seen this exact pretentiousness many times from people who make life choices on a whim but with great fanfare, expecting to be greeted with tremendous seriousness, and then change course and make another choice with equally blown up seriousness, and expect the rest of us to react as though we actually believe not only that what they are doing is a permanent and very important decision, but also to be breathless and excited by it every time.

It took me a while to realize that there are a lot of people who are not really clear on who they are or what they want, which is fine, and I support them in figuring that out by testing different options. But many of these people don't have the guts to just graciously accept that the struggles of others have given them the freedom to dabble til they figure it out, without also trying to claim that their explorations are some kind of hard fought revolutionary struggle, and not just the drafting off the rights won by others who are not really impressed by or interested in building monuments on their temporary declarations of certainty. Be happy, be grateful, enjoy your options! But keep it in perspective!

[circumvent]

47 minutes ago, possibilities said:

It took me a while to realize that there are a lot of people who are not really clear on who they are or what they want, which is fine, and I support them in figuring that out by testing different options.

100% agree. The writers could have done better, it would be even more realistic. I guess they are victims of their own desire of throwing every single sexual orientation/gender in the show. They used to be better are exploring the questioning part of the characters - at least they did in The Fosters, which maybe had different writers, although the show runners are the same so it is not a real excuse.

[yourmomiseasy]

15 hours ago, circumvent said:

This show is just becoming a huge cliché.

Malika, you didn't "come out as poly". To come out, you have to be in, and you didn't even know much about polyamorous relatioships until you got interested in a guy who is poly and decided to try. You are experimenting.

Thank you!  I was coming here to say the same thing.  And I don't think this is the first time she's said she came out as poly.  I mean I guess it isn't my place to question her truth or whatever, but as presented by the show, she didn't so much come out as arbitrarily decide on a whim.  I think it really does a disservice to those that are poly and those that have had to come out as anything to present it in the way the show has.

[Brian Cronin]

5 hours ago, yourmomiseasy said:

Thank you!  I was coming here to say the same thing.  And I don't think this is the first time she's said she came out as poly.  I mean I guess it isn't my place to question her truth or whatever, but as presented by the show, she didn't so much come out as arbitrarily decide on a whim.  I think it really does a disservice to those that are poly and those that have had to come out as anything to present it in the way the show has.

Yeah, her attitude is 100% SUPER realistic, but it's super realistic AND a negative attribute in people, so it's a bit disappointing to see the show pretty clearly NOT treating Malika's behavior as uncool. 

[JustHereForFood]

Why did I expect that something bad would happen when Malika turned her phone off one time. I agree with what you all say about her poly relationship, but I am getting more concerned about her taking all of this work on, never letting herself relax. I hoped when she started therapy that we would see more about that, but she ended up talking to her therapist only about her relationship. I get that it was important to her at the moment, but I wish we would see more about how her activist work affects her, dealing with her recent arrest and how it all relates to her past with her mother.

I liked the stuff with Gael's family. His father is still clueless, but at least he seems to try a bit and his mother seems to have accepted Jasmine now, which is great. His grandfather continues to be awesome and I am glad that they all accepted Isabella immediately. And I am not blaming them for being confused about their lack of relationship, since one doesn't often see two people expecting a child after one night stand with no romantic relationship whatsoever and both still being this involved. At least I think it is not that common.

I liked Callie's talk with her boss. They pointed out exactly what I thought would be a problem, that Callie would often have guilty clients and that it would conflict with her idea of justice - as she immediately pointed out, doesn't the victim's family deserve justice? (I am on her side btw and can't see how some defense attorneys can overcome that). I think she would be more suited for her previous job. And I am sort of still interested in how that case with those tenants was resolved.

[possibilities]

I am confused by how, after not getting the grant, Malika is still continuing with the same job, same project, nothing was really affected by not getting the funding. I thought the whole point of the grant was that the organization would have to lay off either Malika or Deyonte, that they couldn't afford to keep them both, and since Deyonte got the grant, he was the one they were going to choose.

[KaveDweller]

On 8/26/2021 at 2:22 AM, Brian Cronin said:

This show tackles so many interesting topics, but it often takes bizarre shortcuts to get us there. For instance, the Davia stuff was excellent, but it was all started by a fashion company wanting to work with her, a noted "body positive" influencer on Instagram, and to do so, they sent her clothes that SHOULD HAVE BEEN TOO SMALL FOR HER. What company would do that? It was an absurd set-up for what turned out to be an excellent story overall (it's stunning how much better the supporting characters' plots are compared to Callie and Mariana's plots). 

Similarly, Mariana's plot has some interesting aspects to it, but in general, it is based on a set-up that is absurd and completely unrealistic. No one in the world would ever go to work for their former partners as an underling. And then complain about them not giving her a seat at the table? You specifically went to work for your former partners as an underling! Why would you think you would ever get made partner again? No one thinks like that! It defies all logic. We literally saw Mariana turn down a job that was similar to her initial gig because she was burned out by tech, but now she wants to be an underling for her old partners? That's not how people work! I am sure she's going to end up moving to this other start-up, and that's a good end result, but the path there is just silly. 

The clothing company could have sent the smaller size clothes because either they didn't guess her size right, or they know their clothes run big and that a smaller size would fit Davia. It wasn't clear to me if she had actually lost weight beforehand or the clothes just happened to fit. I get Davia's perspective, but it seems crappy to publicly announce she was sending back the clothes. With influencers, isn't the idea that they get free stuff and post if they like it? If they don't like it, isn't protocol to just not post about it, rather than make negative comments? I agree with her message, 

Now, as for Mariana, I agree it is ridiculous that the Bulk Beauty team is renting that big office space. I guess it is kind of a We Work type place, so maybe not super expensive, but still unnecessary. How much did they get in their settlement from Evan? But I have not seen them making smart business decisions all along. And they totally fumbled when they had their chance to pitch that influencer. It seems they need someone like Mariana who is good at the people stuff.

Mariana should take the job with the competitor company, but I bet she won't. She wants to work her way back up to partner, which seems like she is asking for lots of hurt. 

Also, I still don't get why you need an app to track when you run out of your beauty products.

23 hours ago, possibilities said:

I am confused by how, after not getting the grant, Malika is still continuing with the same job, same project, nothing was really affected by not getting the funding. I thought the whole point of the grant was that the organization would have to lay off either Malika or Deyonte, that they couldn't afford to keep them both, and since Deyonte got the grant, he was the one they were going to choose.

It was two different things. The organization has to decide who will get a full time job in the near future. The grant was to help fund their individual projects as part of the current internship/job they have. Having the grant may give Deyonte an advantage when they are picking who to hire, but it was not the deciding factor.

Malika already had some funding for her project, she was looking for more to expand, that is why she can keep working on it. I think most of what she's doing is based on volunteer work/donations. 

[possibilities]

I don't understand what the Bulk Beauty team IS good at. They choke when they get a pitch opportunity they were anticipating. They need Mariana for that. They also need Mariana to do the coding. AND for that matter, it was Mariana who got them the settlement from Evan.

I do not give Mariana a pass for the lying and other BS she's pulled. But I don't think she's hitching herself to the right wagon. She should cut her  losses, make new friends, acknowledge she burned her bridges with these women on that front, and then separate her grief over that from her professional aspirations. 

[circumvent]

11 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

Also, I still don't get why you need an app to track when you run out of your beauty products.

Me neither. It is a pretty useless app in my opinion

[bybrandy]

I think the idea is that it would anticipate when you were about to run out and send you more before that but.... 

[possibilities]

I think it's more of a way to sell more stuff and keep people buying the same brand, than it is an actual help to the consumer. If your stuff arrives before you go buy more, you won't get distracted by the competitor's product and try it while you're browsing. I can't imagine why anyone would find that helpful other than the sellers.

It's really annoying to me that they've set up this group of women as having emotional/interpersonal drama, a stupid project in the first place, AND they're not even really good at their jobs. It's like if they had a bunch of guys start a company and one of them was kicked out for going behind their backs, and then they rehired him because they couldn't do their own coding or marketing and the kicked out dude wanted to win their hearts back, and also they were selling... body wash? shaving cream? shampoo? I don't know. It's embarrassing.

[tennisgurl]

The Bulk Beauty ladies are so embarrassingly incompetent, no matter that want Mariana back. Mariana is pretty well known for making poor life choices, but at least she gets things done, these three stooges are too scared to even talk to an influencer they presumably see every day to ask if she wants to talk about a partnership and need to hire they're former friend they dramatically ousted a month ago to do basic coding. I also just realized that I already have an App that basically does what Bulk Beauty does, helps find sustainable and eco friendly products and you can opt to have them sent to you at regular intervals, just that its way more convenient than what Bulk Beauty sounds like. Makes everyone going on about how awesome and unique their idea is seem even more silly. I guess its hard to come up with an amazing new App idea in a show when there are so many Apps in the real world already. Mariana should take the other job ASAP. 

This whole story with Malika has been such a disappointment, I would have been interested in her exploring an open or poly relationship if it didn't feel like she just wanted to bang this new guy she met without looking like the bad guy or having to dump her perfectly lovely boyfriend, and is now having second thoughts. I also don't like how she is trying to make Isaac out to have been the bad guy in all of this, that seems pretty unfair. Yeah maybe he should have talked to her more instead of leaving town right after their split, but she was the one who sprung all of this on him in a pretty crappy way, if he isn't into being in this sort of relationship he shouldn't be treated like a jerk for it. 

I am glad that Callie's boss pointed out that Callie is going to have to defend guilty people sometimes if this is what she wants to do, and she is just going to have to deal with it. Not everyone a defense attorney will defend is going to be a totally innocent woobie or someone who did do it but is really just a poor abused victim of the uncaring system, she is going to have to figure out if she's alright with that. 

Edited August 30, 2021 by tennisgurl

[Brian Cronin]

On 8/28/2021 at 6:29 PM, KaveDweller said:

The clothing company could have sent the smaller size clothes because either they didn't guess her size right, or they know their clothes run big and that a smaller size would fit Davia. It wasn't clear to me if she had actually lost weight beforehand or the clothes just happened to fit. I get Davia's perspective, but it seems crappy to publicly announce she was sending back the clothes. With influencers, isn't the idea that they get free stuff and post if they like it? If they don't like it, isn't protocol to just not post about it, rather than make negative comments? I agree with her message, 

 

But that's the point, if you're ever going to guess bigger, size-wise, it would be with a "body positive" influencer, right? We saw that an outfit that didn't fit in the beginning of the episode DID fit her later, so she definitely was losing weight, which allowed her to fit into the clothes. So it was a really absurd plan by the clothing company to give her clothes too small for her when she's specifically a "body positive" influencer.

[sara416]

I've noticed Davia losing weight over the past several episodes, which I thought was actually the actress losing weight. Then again, I've seen some other pictures of her and I'm wondering if she was wearing padding when she was being her plus sized, body positive self. Her face has looked a lot thinner this whole season. It's not a criticism, she can weigh what she wants and look how she wants. As someone who struggled on and off with eating disorders for a long time, I do love that they had her talk about this before it became a too thin/passing out/needing hospitalization storyline. You can have an ED at any size, and even though she isn't underweight, she still said that she HAS an eating disorder, not HAD. I applaud this show for it. Davia continues to be wonderful. 

I knew they were going to go there with Maika, and I have to say, I'm bored. I'm bored with storylines of people meeting someone of the same sex and all of a sudden "discovering" that they are queer in some way. I feel like this is a trope and while this show does so many things well, this is a cheap place to take her story. 

[yourmomiseasy]

Is she all of the sudden going to discover it or come out?

[Scarlett45]

On 8/26/2021 at 1:22 AM, Brian Cronin said:

This show tackles so many interesting topics, but it often takes bizarre shortcuts to get us there. For instance, the Davia stuff was excellent, but it was all started by a fashion company wanting to work with her, a noted "body positive" influencer on Instagram, and to do so, they sent her clothes that SHOULD HAVE BEEN TOO SMALL FOR HER. What company would do that? It was an absurd set-up for what turned out to be an excellent story overall (it's stunning how much better the supporting characters' plots are compared to Callie and Mariana's plots

Yes. Being a SM influencer then companies she works with would’ve had all her sizes, and a more likely plot would be been being sent the clothing and it being too big. The fashions looked really pretty on her though. 
 

I enjoyed Davia’s storyline a lot. The actress did a really good job with the material. I think Dennis does care about her, but I think he’s too self centered right now to be a good boyfriend to her. I like her with Matt so far. 

[Scarlett45]

On 8/28/2021 at 5:29 PM, KaveDweller said:

I get Davia's perspective, but it seems crappy to publicly announce she was sending back the clothes. With influencers, isn't the idea that they get free stuff and post if they like it? If they don't like it, isn't protocol to just not post about it, rather than make negative comments? I agree with her message,

It seemed that the box was like a stitch fix- she was to wear it and see if she liked it. Often influencers post about things they don’t like as well, helps build authenticity, and it might just be that the box was poorly curated and that she didn’t like the style (although she looked good) and was just getting a high from being in a smaller size. 

On 8/29/2021 at 10:25 AM, bybrandy said:

I think the idea is that it would anticipate when you were about to run out and send you more before that but.... 

Yeah it’s like auto ship without you having to calculate and adjust the shipping intervals. 

[Scarlett45]

On 8/30/2021 at 11:06 PM, sara416 said:

I've noticed Davia losing weight over the past several episodes, which I thought was actually the actress losing weight. Then again, I've seen some other pictures of her and I'm wondering if she was wearing padding when she was being her plus sized, body positive self. Her face has looked a lot thinner this whole season. It's not a criticism, she can weigh what she wants and look how she wants. As someone who struggled on and off with eating disorders for a long time, I do love that they had her talk about this before it became a too thin/passing out/needing hospitalization storyline. You can have an ED at any size, and even though she isn't underweight, she still said that she HAS an eating disorder, not HAD. I applaud this show for it. Davia continues to be wonderful. 

Thank you for sharing that. I too had noticed that the actress was slimmer, I didn’t know if she was prepping for another role or just slimmer because (most adults don’t say in the exact same 5lbs range for years on end, plenty of people gain and lose weight just because of life changes without it being a symptom of something serious). 
 

You never know why or how someone is losing/gaining weight so I keep my mouth shut unless I know them very well and they are comfortable discussing that with me.