S1.E01:

[statsgirl]

Quote

With the department facing budget cuts and low enrollment, Ji-Yoon vows to make some changes as chair while one professor struggles to keep it together.

 

[shapeshifter]

A-? I think if I give the first episode a B+ I might hurt its feelings.

But at least watch the first minute and 36 seconds or so to see a pratfall joke with a setup to rival any that inspired it.

Having been more or less forced into early retirement as a librarian at an institution with some older buildings that could easily double for those in the opening scenes, I was immediately predisposed to like the show.

However, to me, the sexual jokes seemed unfunny and shoehorned in for HBO, but I guess that's to be expected.

[Cloud9Shopper]

I was excited for this based on the trailer but I’m not sure if I’ll stick with it. The drunk professor who played the YouTube video in class was an immediate turnoff for me.

I do like Holland Taylor, though. (I keep thinking of her as Elle’s first professor in Legally Blonde.) So maybe I’ll come back to it but I may keep looking to see if something else hooks me before I watch another episode of this. 

[stealinghome]

I watched the first two episodes tonight and think it's solid but not spectacular so far. The hot mess professor isn't as funny--or endearing--as the show wants him to be, but Ji-Yoon's travails at the department meeting made me LOL (all too true that faculty meetings are like herding cats) and the enrollment problems/antiquated professors problem is all too real. This is definitely written by someone who is familiar with academia!

You can see coming from a mile away that the fusty Melville scholar is going to tank Yaz's tenure case. Too. Real.

"What was the last time you looked at your course evaluations?" "1987." and "The first 8 weeks of your syllabus say TBD" were amazing lines.

[Back Atcha]

4 hours ago, stealinghome said:

The hot mess professor isn't as funny--or endearing--as the show wants him to be,

He actually RUINED Episode 1 for me.  There's no need for slapstick in this series.  Almost every scene of his was irritating.  This show could be good; why do they have to go for laughs where not needed?

4 hours ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

The drunk professor who played the YouTube video in class was an immediate turnoff for me.

They need to do SOMETHING to save this character or his storyline.  He'll sink the entire series.

Edited August 21, 2021 by Back Atcha

[Back Atcha]

 

6 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

However, to me, the sexual jokes seemed unfunny and shoehorned in for HBO, but I guess that's to be expected.

For me, so did most physical comedy, although I agree with your "pratfall" comment. Did they think they were too female-skewed?

WHY does our main character need an adopted child of a different ethnicity?

Edited August 21, 2021 by Back Atcha

[Back Atcha]

 

4 hours ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

I do like Holland Taylor, though. <snip> So maybe I’ll come back to it but I may keep looking to see if something else hooks me before I watch another episode of this. 

I'm disappointed in Episode 1, but told myself I'd give #2 a chance.  I always like Holland Taylor too...and was surprised to see her looking her age.  I'm three years older and am impressed by how "put together" she is in every part she plays...also, that she's the partner of Sara Paulson.  

[burghgal]

I liked this, but I live in Pittsburgh and my brother went to school in the location it was filmed, so I may be biased.  I agree about the drunk professor, it quite frankly is boring and I just hope they have him turn around.   It takes away from what I think is a really interesting premise of older/middle-age faculty dealing with students in this new generation, especially in a subject such as English.  I am the exact age as Sandra Oh's character is meant to be and I totally see the inter-generational conflict she is dealing with as Dept head, and hope that will the focus of the show.

[shapeshifter]

For me the highlight was Holland Taylor's character who may be out of touch with some of the nuances of social interactions and employment developments of the 21st century, but her brain function is seemingly higher than many of those who are more attuned to modern life. 
I hope they don't go to the onset of senility story with her character.

I actually LOL'd at the physical comedy with the golf cart and the Segway. 

 

10 hours ago, Cloud9Shopper said:

The drunk professor who played the YouTube video in class was an immediate turnoff for me.

The naked pregnant wife video in front of the class made me cringe a lot, but the actor's face then seemed to indicate that he really just missed his late wife. 

 

10 hours ago, stealinghome said:

You can see coming from a mile away that the fusty Melville scholar is going to tank Yaz's tenure case. Too. Real.

I'm hoping that instead, this will be the motivation for Sandra Oh's character to put the old fart out to pasture with his cushy pension funds.

 

In a just slightly alternate universe, Sandra Oh's character could be my former "work daughter" while I would be Holland Taylor's character.
Except I can't imagine ever not caring about how the students respond in the classroom. But then I only taught library instruction a couple of dozen times each semester rather than hundreds.
Still, if Holland Taylor's character said she stopped doing student evaluations in 1987, and she's been there 30+ years, doesn't that mean she stopped doing evals after her first year? Probably they just meant she stopped doing evals after she got tenure.

On to episode 2!

Edited August 21, 2021 by shapeshifter

[stealinghome]

8 hours ago, Back Atcha said:

He actually RUINED Episode 1 for me.  There's no need for slapstick in this series.  Almost every scene of his was irritating.  This show could be good; why do they have to go for laughs where not needed?

I think the issue I’m having with his character (I’m two episodes in) is that they have him indulge in caricature-ish behavior but then want him to also be a “real” character like Ji-Yoon. But the other characters who are caricatures are treated by the show as just that: full-on caricatures. So there’s some mixed signaling the character is suffering from: “don’t take him seriously…but also take him super-seriously!”

[Back Atcha]

1 hour ago, stealinghome said:

So there’s some mixed signaling the character is suffering from: “don’t take him seriously…but also take him super-seriously!”

I'm always disappointed when one of the Duplass brothers is a featured actor (I've learned to avoid their "own" productions).  At least I'm not subjected to MARK this time.  Do they draft contracts allowing them to insert their own "quirkiness" wherever they wish?

[dubbel zout]

12 hours ago, Back Atcha said:

WHY does our main character need an adopted child of a different ethnicity?

They explain this in episode 5.

[chocolatine]

I was really looking forward to it, but didn't like it at all. From the preview this looked like a satire but the actual show has more of a dramedy feel. I *hate hate hate* that it seems like Sandra Oh's character has a thing with Jay Duplass's character. Such a tired cliche that an accomplished woman can't help but be attracted to a man who's a hot mess. Also, I can only handle either of the Duplass brothers in very small doses. 

The other storylines that were set up were also tropey: academia budget cuts, old white men with their outdated views, sexism/Title IX issues (at least Holland Taylor is still compelling to watch despite the trope), etc. And it looks like, with the students filming Duplass doing the Nazi salute, we'll also get cancel culture.

I'll watch a few more to see if it gets better.

[preeya]

On 8/20/2021 at 11:31 PM, Back Atcha said:

They need to do SOMETHING to save this character or his storyline.  He'll sink the entire series.

Not only the character, but the actor as well. I abhor the Duplass brothers.

[EarlGreyTea]

On 8/21/2021 at 11:50 AM, Back Atcha said:

I'm always disappointed when one of the Duplass brothers is a featured actor (I've learned to avoid their "own" productions).  At least I'm not subjected to MARK this time.  Do they draft contracts allowing them to insert their own "quirkiness" wherever they wish?

This explains a lot! I had no idea he was a Duplass. Who knew Mark was the more appealing one? I have to agree with what was said about his character in this episode (don't remember his name, don't care). It's rare that I dislike a character so quickly right off the bat, but here we are. Hot messes usually need some kind of charisma or appeal to keep them interesting to me, but all they've given this guy is slapstick college humor (which is appropriate, I guess, given the setting). No thanks. 

Ji-Yoon is too good for him and they have no chemistry. Next!

[Back Atcha]

22 hours ago, preeya said:

Not only the character, but the actor as well. I abhor the Duplass brothers.

The CREEPINESS of Mark makes me forget this other one's name.

[Back Atcha]

On 8/21/2021 at 2:15 PM, chocolatine said:

Such a tired cliche that an accomplished woman can't help but be attracted to a man who's a hot mess. Also, I can only handle either of the Duplass brothers in very small doses. 

Knowing there's more than one makes me want to become a monk...in Tibet.   I'm an 81-year-old woman who looks good in orange.

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, Back Atcha said:

On 8/22/2021 at 7:39 PM, preeya said:

Not only the character, but the actor as well. I abhor the Duplass brothers.

The CREEPINESS of Mark makes me forget this other one's name.

I tried Googling:
     Why do people hate the Duplass brothers?
But all the results were things like NPR interviews.
Am I missing some key pop-cultural moment with them from the news?

[Back Atcha]

4 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I tried Googling:
     Why do people hate the Duplass brothers?
But all the results were things like NPR interviews.
Am I missing some key pop-cultural moment with them from the news?

I didn't realize--until this new series--that ANYONE shared any of my feelings about the Duplass brothers.  My opinion was formed seeing movies that they produced.  Sometimes I didn't like anything about the presentations; often I thought some would have been fine IF ONLY for a different male lead (a Duplass).  I was surprised and uplifted when I read the negative comments here.  It IS weird.  I don't HATE them, I just don't want them wasting my entertainment moments.  OH!  I don't know any key pop cultural moments involving either of them.

[chocolatine]

15 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I tried Googling:
     Why do people hate the Duplass brothers?
But all the results were things like NPR interviews.
Am I missing some key pop-cultural moment with them from the news?

No cultural moments for me, but I keep seeing them cast in romantic roles and I don't find either of them remotely attractive. And their "quirkiness" or whatever it is they're going for gets old after a couple of minutes.

[Alexander Pope]

On 8/24/2021 at 8:50 AM, chocolatine said:

No cultural moments for me, but I keep seeing them cast in romantic roles and I don't find either of them remotely attractive. And their "quirkiness" or whatever it is they're going for gets old after a couple of minutes.

Jay Duplass was brilliant in TRANSPARENT I thought--but then the role was for a quirky/narcissistic/deeply screwed up character.

[chocolatine]

27 minutes ago, Alexander Pope said:

Jay Duplass was brilliant in TRANSPARENT I thought--but then the role was for a quirky/narcissistic/deeply screwed up character.

I found everyone on Transparent insufferable except for Judith Light. :D

[Alexander Pope]

49 minutes ago, chocolatine said:

I found everyone on Transparent insufferable except for Judith Light. :D

She was great but she was the one who drove me crazy!! :)  too on the nose.

[possibilities]

I actually agree about the offensiveness of butt exposure in the office. And I was raised sucking on the teat of Title IX. 

I think it's an annoying trope that a competent woman is trying so hard to support men who don't give a crap (drunk prof and condescending prof) at the expense of her own career and her commitment to another woman (put your butt away prof). 

I like enough else about this, though, to keep watching. I hope they quickly course correct on some of the crap, but they don't have much time to do it since there aren't that many eps in total. Don't waste them!

I think the media wants us to sympathize with and find it cute that a drunk guy is so pathetic.Hapless but brilliant is not my cup of tea. It's the flip side of how we're supposed to think dim bulb women are attractive, as lon as they have nice boobs and a sparkly smile. I guess some people like their love interests to be non-threatening, not by being trustworthy, but by being helpless. HINT: you can have better intimacy with a person who's fully present, trustworthy, and honest than with someone who's "vulnerable" and non-threatening because they can't function.

Edited August 25, 2021 by possibilities

[Back Atcha]

8 hours ago, possibilities said:

I think the media wants us to sympathize with and find it cute that a drunk guy is so pathetic.Hapless but brilliant is not my cup of tea. It's the flip side of how we're supposed to think dim bulb women are attractive, as long as they have nice boobs and a sparkly smile. I guess some people like their love interests to be non-threatening, not by being trustworthy, but by being helpless. HINT: you can have better intimacy with a person who's fully present, trustworthy, and honest than with someone who's "vulnerable" and non-threatening because they can't function.

What's odd is that I expected this to be produced from more of a strong female perspective.  Guess not.

[Back Atcha]

On 8/24/2021 at 8:50 AM, chocolatine said:

No cultural moments for me, but I keep seeing them cast in romantic roles and I don't find either of them remotely attractive. And their "quirkiness" or whatever it is they're going for gets old after a couple of minutes.

I can only think that they continue to cast THEMSELVES ... or they have something bad (really, really bad) on those who hire them.  And that not "remotely attractive," isn't simply the physiognomies.

[statsgirl]

I finally got to watch this.  I can see why Sandra Oh wanted to do it, a Korean-American woman in a position of authority.  She's very good with physical comedy too.

On 8/21/2021 at 2:31 AM, Back Atcha said:

He actually RUINED Episode 1 for me.  There's no need for slapstick in this series.  Almost every scene of his was irritating.  This show could be good; why do they have to go for laughs where not needed?

I haven't seen the actor in anything before but Bill really is a dead weight on the show.  I don't think the character is interesting or amusing and his students deserve better as does Yi-Joon

On 8/21/2021 at 8:15 AM, shapeshifter said:

The naked pregnant wife video in front of the class made me cringe a lot, but the actor's face then seemed to indicate that he really just missed his late wife.

Even though he had been having an affair with Yi-Joon.

[Back Atcha]

3 hours ago, statsgirl said:

I haven't seen the actor in anything before but Bill really is a dead weight on the show.  I don't think the character is interesting or amusing and his students deserve better as does Yi-Joon

Jay Duplass does more executive producing than acting.  He and his brother, Mark, team up on many projects.  I think they're an acquired taste and I don't want to keep trying.

[Lone Wolf]

On 8/27/2021 at 10:43 PM, Back Atcha said:

Jay Duplass does more executive producing than acting.  He and his brother, Mark, team up on many projects.  I think they're an acquired taste and I don't want to keep trying.

All this Duplass discussion connects a few dots for me...this show was created and executive produced by Amanda Peet, who starred in Togetherness, which was created, written, etc. by the Duplass brothers, so there's that.  

Don't have much else to add at this point point, other than that I agree with pretty much everything everyone's said so far.  I could see this pretty quickly morphing into Hate Watch TV for me, and from there to Just-Finish-Out-The-Season-To-See-What-Happens. 

[Bobcatkitten]

I gotta be honest. I don't like any of the profs except the chair. The drunk one whose life is a complete mess is not entertaining at all. And to think this accomplished, smart woman would be interested in that? 

 

Also am I supposed to be rooting for the three older profs on the chopping block? They clearly have no desire to connect with their students at all; don't listen to feedback and are terribly stuck in the 1950s. No wonder enrollment is down. Get rid of them all. 

[Back Atcha]

13 hours ago, Lone Wolf said:

All this Duplass discussion connects a few dots for me...this show was created and executive produced by Amanda Peet, who starred in Togetherness, which was created, written, etc. by the Duplass brothers, so there's that.  

There's been so much past Peet-Duplass association, I thought she was married to one of them.  I'd heard she was married to "some guy in showbiz."  Turns out her husband is MORE than that (and NOT a DuplASS).  He's the creator/producer of "Game of Thrones," among other tidbits.

[qtpye]

On 8/21/2021 at 2:36 AM, Back Atcha said:

 

For me, so did most physical comedy, although I agree with your "pratfall" comment. Did they think they were too female-skewed?

WHY does our main character need an adopted child of a different ethnicity?

 

On 8/21/2021 at 7:13 AM, burghgal said:

I liked this, but I live in Pittsburgh and my brother went to school in the location it was filmed, so I may be biased.  I agree about the drunk professor, it quite frankly is boring and I just hope they have him turn around.   It takes away from what I think is a really interesting premise of older/middle-age faculty dealing with students in this new generation, especially in a subject such as English.  I am the exact age as Sandra Oh's character is meant to be and I totally see the inter-generational conflict she is dealing with as Dept head, and hope that will the focus of the show.

 

On 8/21/2021 at 11:00 AM, stealinghome said:

I think the issue I’m having with his character (I’m two episodes in) is that they have him indulge in caricature-ish behavior but then want him to also be a “real” character like Ji-Yoon. But the other characters who are caricatures are treated by the show as just that: full-on caricatures. So there’s some mixed signaling the character is suffering from: “don’t take him seriously…but also take him super-seriously!”

 

On 8/25/2021 at 6:18 PM, possibilities said:

I actually agree about the offensiveness of butt exposure in the office. And I was raised sucking on the teat of Title IX. 

I think it's an annoying trope that a competent woman is trying so hard to support men who don't give a crap (drunk prof and condescending prof) at the expense of her own career and her commitment to another woman (put your butt away prof). 

I like enough else about this, though, to keep watching. I hope they quickly course correct on some of the crap, but they don't have much time to do it since there aren't that many eps in total. Don't waste them!

I think the media wants us to sympathize with and find it cute that a drunk guy is so pathetic.Hapless but brilliant is not my cup of tea. It's the flip side of how we're supposed to think dim bulb women are attractive, as lon as they have nice boobs and a sparkly smile. I guess some people like their love interests to be non-threatening, not by being trustworthy, but by being helpless. HINT: you can have better intimacy with a person who's fully present, trustworthy, and honest than with someone who's "vulnerable" and non-threatening because they can't function.

I hate that we have the trope of the useless white man who is coddled by all the women in his life because he is so brilliant and handsome. The fact that he is a Duplass is just salt on the wound.

We do not need another Dr. House.

I will stay on because I like the main actress and have had experience with academia.

Edited August 30, 2021 by qtpye

[EdnasEdibles]

On 8/29/2021 at 4:44 PM, Bobcatkitten said:

I gotta be honest. I don't like any of the profs except the chair. The drunk one whose life is a complete mess is not entertaining at all. And to think this accomplished, smart woman would be interested in that? 

 

Also am I supposed to be rooting for the three older profs on the chopping block? They clearly have no desire to connect with their students at all; don't listen to feedback and are terribly stuck in the 1950s. No wonder enrollment is down. Get rid of them all. 

That was my feeling. I used to work at a college and I knew men like that and they are horrible and lazy. It's not just "Oh they're old, get rid of them" it's "Oh, that man stopped trying 30 years ago and he's mean and he's lazy and he's sexist and dismissive and he has created a morale problem that has gone unchecked and uncorrected for decades but everyone is afraid to get rid of him because of ageism."

But those guys were terrible and to watch Sandra Oh's character trying to save them? Nope.