S2.E01: Mia Hines

[shantown]

Quote

Marcus Watkins begins to question his marriage as he develops a unique friendship with the magnetic Mia Hines.

Available now on HBO Max

[arc]

re episode logline, is "unique friendship" what they're calling it now? =) I guess "emotional affair" would have been a spoiler.

Her boyfriend's always traveling... because he's a superstar NBA player! ROFL. Well, technically a declining superstar who retired from the NBA in July 2016, then played overseas for a bit.

Speaking of 2016, what a jolt of unpleasantness to bring back Magnus, Darby's shittiest partner from the first season.

I really liked the connection between Marcus and Mia. It's fun and flirty. But it's obviously a fun emotional affair because Mia and Marcus don't  currently see themselves as having a real future together.

And I'm curious to see where his professional relationship with the young firebrand author goes.

On a production note, big congratulations to the production crew and writers for making the texts and emails convincing, even the ancillary ones that don't matter to the episode, and even to the point where the onscreen typing was accurate. As a personal preference, I like it a lot more when characters' texts are shown as non-diegetic onscreen overlays, rather than making the audience look at a phone.

I didn't even know iMessage put that much synchronization between one's phone and one's ipad/Mac. Marcus probably should have installed a burner app on his phone, but I guess then he'd have to admit to himself that he was cheating.

[chaifan]

Damn damn damn.  I was so looking forward to this.  I am a huge fan of William Jackson Harper.  I liked (did not love) season 1 with Anna Kendrick, and thought WJH's season would be fabulous.  But...

This is going to sound really judgmental and rather prudish, but I have a hard time getting into a rom-com series that starts with a married person cheating.  Or trying to cheat, have the intention to cheat, emotionally cheat, whatever you want to call this.  I mean, if we're going to see WJH bounce from relationship to relationship like AK's character did, and supposed to be rooting for him to find love, I just have no sympathy for someone who finds themself single because they cheated on their wife and was stupid enough to be texting shit about her with the other (potential) woman.  That's just shitty behavior, and it doesn't sit well with me that that's they way they're starting off Season 2. 

Also, while I agree with @arc that the side bar text is much better than showing someone's phone, I couldn't actually read any of Mia's texts (blue bubble with white text) and Marcus's texts went by too fast to catch most.  I know, I can pause it, but I shouldn't have to. 

On a positive (and rather shallow) note, damn, WHJ looks good! 

 

[Ms Blue Jay]

I agree that it's better on screen than looking at a phone, but I was cooking and doing stuff when I was watching.  I'm not going to sit at a couch and peel my eyes open and try to read that text.  Sorry.  I just said fuck it and continued on.  I don't even feel like I missed anything.

This isn't "Lord of the Rings".  The writers shouldn't demand THAT much of viewers.  I just want something fun and casual to watch.  I realize I'm being a spoiled brat, but it's 2021.  Who sits down and concentrates that heavily on such a light show these days?

[arc]

They put a lot of work into Marcus’ phone life! There’s snippets of emails we don’t read in fully and bits of text conversations from earlier, all supporting the illusion that Marcus is a real person with a real online life.

For what it’s worth, I found it fairly easy to follow but I’ve never been great at partially watching something; either I’m watching with full attention or I’m not watching at all.

[Jillybean]

On 10/31/2021 at 9:02 PM, chaifan said:

Damn damn damn.  I was so looking forward to this.  I am a huge fan of William Jackson Harper.  I liked (did not love) season 1 with Anna Kendrick, and thought WJH's season would be fabulous.  But...

This is going to sound really judgmental and rather prudish, but I have a hard time getting into a rom-com series that starts with a married person cheating.  Or trying to cheat, have the intention to cheat, emotionally cheat, whatever you want to call this.  I mean, if we're going to see WJH bounce from relationship to relationship like AK's character did, and supposed to be rooting for him to find love, I just have no sympathy for someone who finds themself single because they cheated on their wife and was stupid enough to be texting shit about her with the other (potential) woman.  That's just shitty behavior, and it doesn't sit well with me that that's they way they're starting off Season 2. 

Also, while I agree with @arc that the side bar text is much better than showing someone's phone, I couldn't actually read any of Mia's texts (blue bubble with white text) and Marcus's texts went by too fast to catch most.  I know, I can pause it, but I shouldn't have to. 

On a positive (and rather shallow) note, damn, WHJ looks good! 

 

I just finally decided to try Season 2 last night, and I had much the same reaction (except that I'm not familiar with the lead actor). I didn't even make it all the way through this episode because it was about two people in committed relationships...come on. I was watching in bed on a 42-inch TV and couldn't make out many of the texts at all (apparently those of us over 40 aren't in the target demographic...maybe those with younger eyes or larger TVs could make out the texts). I doubt I will go back and re-watch on the 65-inch TV in the living room because I just wasn't invested in these two. And now I've lost interest in S2. 

Edited December 29, 2021 by Jillybean

[SilverLake0315]

I was so excited when I saw this episode on my DVR, but I ended up bored by it. Like someone above said, starting this story with someone emotionally cheating was not a great plan.

Also, I DETEST being expected to read texts/emails on the screen. Maybe it was my tv, but I couldn’t read 99% of these. I stopped trying pretty quickly.