S01.E04: Once Upon a Time in Havana

[Trini]

Percussionist Alma wants to be accepted by her tight-knit Cuban family, but to understand why they disapprove of her musical career, she must revisit their history.

Airdate: August 31, 2021

[seasons]

Interesting that there is just one guest this week.

[kathyk24]

53 minutes ago, seasons said:

Interesting that there is just one guest this week.

I loved this episode. My grandfather died when my mother was young so I loved the idea of meeting their younger selves. I think they only had one guest so the story could focus on Elaina and Ruby. I think the episodes are being shown out of order. Last week Ruby ordered a passion friut Daquiri this week they added it to the menu.

[AnimeMania]

3 hours ago, kathyk24 said:

I think the episodes are being shown out of order. Last week Ruby ordered a passion friut Daquiri this week they added it to the menu.

I believe you are right, from what little research I did, this should have been episode 3.

I am not sure how I feel about the girl being 15 years old in a bar drinking beer and driving. But I guess Ms. Roarke makes the bestest fake I.D.s.

Where did her mother think she was all those days, seems pretty lax for a woman described as chaining her daughter to the nightstand.

Edited September 1, 2021 by AnimeMania

[MsTree]

So Alma's mother didn't want her to have a career in music because her uncle shot someone and her grandfather took the fall??? 🤷‍♀️

[Johannah]

9 hours ago, MsTree said:

So Alma's mother didn't want her to have a career in music because her uncle shot someone and her grandfather took the fall??? 🤷‍♀️

Well, she didn't know that.  What she was told was that her musician grandfather cheated on her grandmother and got in a fight with the other woman's husband and killed him.  That story was used to convince the grandmother to leave and not pine for her husband.  I guess the grandmother decided to blame the fact that her husband was a musician for the infidelity and she passed that prejudice onto her daughter.  They dropped that prejudice pretty quickly, though, when they saw Alma playing the drums - even though it looked like the grandmother was remembering her husband.

So, Rose is going to have her lesbian relationship this lifetime with the doctor.  Funny, but it seems less like cheating on Mel if it's with a woman.  More just that she's pursuing the other road not taken.

[izabella]

14 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

I am not sure how I feel about the girl being 15 years old in a bar drinking beer and driving. But I guess Ms. Roarke makes the bestest fake I.D.s.

I'm pretty sure she was 10 years older when she gets to Fantasy Island, and then Cuba.  The show started with a flashback to her teen years.

[AnimeMania]

29 minutes ago, izabella said:

I'm pretty sure she was 10 years older when she gets to Fantasy Island, and then Cuba.  The show started with a flashback to her teen years.

OMG! you are right, 10 years later and nobody takes her seriously as a musician, it is about time that she hung it up. Maybe her fantasy was to have people believe she was a good drummer, that would make more sense.

[tvfanatic13]

I thought that this episode was an absolute snooze. I am losing interest quickly. 

[Trini]

I thought the main story with the drummer was good for the most part; I wish there had been a better resolution between her and her mother and grandmother. They didn't really do much with that.

Kinda loving the fashion choices, in this one especially.

I guess they wanted a subplot to flesh out/focus on Ruby, but I was bored with it.

I have no idea what Elena's subplot was about?? She has a boyfriend(??) in the past ... okay?

I do appreciate that minority characters/actors and stories are getting the chance to be highlighted in this show.

[I Want My MBTV]

22 hours ago, tvfanatic13 said:

I thought that this episode was an absolute snooze. I am losing interest quickly. 

Right there with you.  I like Rosalyn Sanchez and wanted to like this Fantasy Island but it's just not doing anything for me.  I keep feeling like something is missing.  On the OG I remember there was like a Twilight Zone sort of feeling to the fantasies where these are all pretty run of the mill.  I liked the first episode well enough but the rest zzzzz  .  I'm also finding Ruby boring and don't know what her role on the island is supposed to be or why she's even there.  She doesn't add much.  That's  nothing against the actress just the character.  I hope things pick up.  

[tomorrowgirl]

  I forwarded through a lot of this episode.  It just didn't hold my interest.

[Joimiaroxeu]

Cupcake dress, lol.

Flashback Alma seemed a lot older than 15 to me, especially when they put her in a scene with actual kids.

Loved all of Roark's clothes in Cuba.

[mythoughtis]

So, Elena had a fiancée that we haven’t met..:the pilot/ transportation director loves her, and now she has a casual boyfriend in Havana of the 1960s. 

Im glad someone caught the flashback at the beginning of the episode, because I didn’t.  Explained a lot. 

I’m know I’m supposed to feel like the musician learned a lot….but all I felt was an urge to wring the great uncles neck  for breaking up his brothers’ family. Plus…. the grandma and mom are excited about her being a musician  after hearing her play?  They’d never heard her play before? Even though she grew up with a drum set in her room? 
 

Why does Ruby often  sound 75?  Her voice should be in her 20s since her body is. I don’t mean her maturity.  I mean the actual sound of her voice. 

 

Edited September 3, 2021 by mythoughtis

[LakeGal]

I admit I was bored this week.  The show is missing something.  They don't even show the plane bringing in the guests.  That is probably because we only get one guest a week.  I would enjoy more than one storyline per episode.  I have not warmed to Ruby.  Maybe this show is not working for me.  I keep hoping it will get better.    

[Johannah]

13 hours ago, mythoughtis said:

...   . Plus…. the grandma and mom are excited about her being a musician  after hearing her play?  They’d never heard her play before? Even though she grew up with a drum set in her room? 
 

 I think it was because she was playing the bongos, which is what her grandfather played.  Not sure if she played bongos at the house or just the drum set.  Either way, it was still pretty silly, since I think it was the "cheating" grandfather being a musician that made her mother and grandmother not want her to also become a musician.  You would think playing the bongos would intensify that feeling.

[DanaK]

1 hour ago, LakeGal said:

I admit I was bored this week.  The show is missing something.  They don't even show the plane bringing in the guests.  That is probably because we only get one guest a week.  I would enjoy more than one storyline per episode.  I have not warmed to Ruby.  Maybe this show is not working for me.  I keep hoping it will get better.    

Most of the episodes have mainly been one fantasy, or one major and one minor. It makes me wonder if the problem is a low budget or Covid protocols or both

[Trini]

Some things could be better, but I'm enjoying the show for the most part, and I'm willing to keep watching to see if it finds its footing. This is in the 'fluff' category for me, so my expectations are low.

[rollacoaster]

On 9/1/2021 at 11:36 PM, Trini said:

I do appreciate that minority characters/actors and stories are getting the chance to be highlighted in this show.

I appreciate that, too. It was great that the show actually portrayed the Afro-Cubans. 

[SherriAnt]

This was just Disney's Coco with real people, and way more boring.

[ketose]

On 9/2/2021 at 7:47 PM, I Want My MBTV said:

Right there with you.  I like Rosalyn Sanchez and wanted to like this Fantasy Island but it's just not doing anything for me.  I keep feeling like something is missing.  On the OG I remember there was like a Twilight Zone sort of feeling to the fantasies where these are all pretty run of the mill.  I liked the first episode well enough but the rest zzzzz  .  I'm also finding Ruby boring and don't know what her role on the island is supposed to be or why she's even there.  She doesn't add much.  That's  nothing against the actress just the character.  I hope things pick up.  

Making Roarke a real person takes some of the supernatural out of it. Also, OG Fantasy Island would have two fantasies, one was more comedic that the ones on the new show, and one would be more dangerous, or have more of a Monkey's Paw element to it.

Ruby is the new Julie.

 

On 9/3/2021 at 1:13 PM, Johann said:

 I think it was because she was playing the bongos, which is what her grandfather played.  Not sure if she played bongos at the house or just the drum set.  Either way, it was still pretty silly, since I think it was the "cheating" grandfather being a musician that made her mother and grandmother not want her to also become a musician.  You would think playing the bongos would intensify that feeling.

In Cuba, her grandfather was saying she was a great drummer, but needed a lot of work on the bongo drums, so she didn't work as much on the family musical style.

[statsgirl]

On 9/1/2021 at 1:30 PM, Johann said:

Well, she didn't know that.  What she was told was that her musician grandfather cheated on her grandmother and got in a fight with the other woman's husband and killed him.  That story was used to convince the grandmother to leave and not pine for her husband.  I guess the grandmother decided to blame the fact that her husband was a musician for the infidelity and she passed that prejudice onto her daughter.  They dropped that prejudice pretty quickly, though, when they saw Alma playing the drums - even though it looked like the grandmother was remembering her husband.

I got the impression that the mother was bitterly against her father but the grandmother looked so delighted when she was Alma playing, that it looked like she was happy that her granddaughter was a musician. The mother reluctantly went along.

I think Alma's story has been my favourite of the Fantasy Island episodes so far, olde school Fantasy Island where the awareness was less superficial than the first three episodes. I just wish that Raul had come clean to Lily about the truth when they got to America or even now. Tino did not deserve his daughter hating him when he sacrificed himself for his family.

I liked Rourke's love interest, he seemed a good match for her. Ruby's story continues to feel like filler.

[AnimeMania]

2 hours ago, statsgirl said:

I liked Rourke's love interest, he seemed a good match for her. Ruby's story continues to feel like filler.

I didn't, she could have anybody from anytime and anyplace. He seemed like a nobody, she could have pretended to be any anybody, Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, Mata Hari, etc. They could have portrayed the romance as something epic.