S01:E08 Science Fair

[AgentRXS]

Quote

After seeing Dean bullied by Michael after school Lillian goes to confront his parents and learns he needs more compassion than discipline. Much to Dean’s dismay, she takes Michael under her wing and helps him with his project for the science fair – an event where Dean typically excels.

Original Air Date: November 17, 2021

[ProudMary]

What Dean did was wrong, but Lillian should never have told Dean that Michael's mother had been sent to a mental hospital. I'm sure Michael expected that info to be confidential. 

On a lighter note, the second "Keys" at the dinner table had me laughing out loud.

[QQQQ]

Lillian's response to Dean revealing the secret about Michael's mom seemed a lot more like today's parenting (i.e. gentler) than how my parents would have reacted. I would have been shamed publicly, privately, and definitely forced to apologize. (I'm about 15 years younger than Dean)

Edited November 18, 2021 by QQQQ

[Sarah 103]

In the first episode it seemed like Dean was trying to fit in and figure out what he was good at, but here it seems that's always been great at science. I'm okay with small inconsisitencies in long running series, but this is only the 8th episode. 

I could relate to the way Dean was getting upset when Lilian kept refering to Michael as his friend. I grew up decades after this series takes place. It drove me crazy when my parents would assume I was friends with everyone in my class. 

[Yogisbooboo64]

Lillian was so fucking annoying in this episode.  Michael’s upbringing is not her concern, if anyone bullied my son like that he’d be dealing with me in a different way and not by bringing him home and feeding him, damn that.

While Dean was wrong in what he blurted out at the science fair, Lillian should have apologized to Michael, as she shared something with the family that Michael shared with her in confidence….from what I saw, he was more hurt by what she did than by what Dean said.

[Browncoat]

I'm not too mad at Dean.  I mean, he shouldn't have said what he did, but an outburst was not unexpected.  He'd just gone to Michael to be nice, then there Michael was, laughing along with the rest of the crowd.  I suppose it was too much to ask that Michael have grown a little, and maybe even come to Dean's defense.

 

[Bookish Jen]

I like this episode, but I wasn't too enthused with Lillian bringing Michael home and coddling him even though he was bullying Dean. And she probably shouldn't have revealed Michael's mom being in a mental institution either. 

And that brings me to another thing. Why is it whenever someone acts like a bully it's because he or she has a rough home life? Can't someone just be a jerk?

However, I did crack up every time Bill asked for the keys back when it was found out Kim was doing something she wasn't supposed to be doing.

[possibilities]

I think Lillian and Dean were both wrong.

I was okay with her trying to help Michael, but she also should have been more supportive of Dean with respect to him being bullied. She also should not have told Dean about Michael's mom, but I think she trusted her kid not to be a jerk about it, and was trying to each him a lesson in perspective, so I will forgive that. But then she should also have apologized and reached out to Michael after the incident and made it more clear that Dean's behavior wasn't cool. In fact, the entire school staff was pretty much useless when the laughing and yelling started. No wonder kids act like shit when adults don't model anything better and everything from beating kids up in the halls on a chronic basis and verbal abuse are tolerated.

Dean was obviously wrong to blurt like that and be a jerk at the science fair. But we do need to teach kids better how to handle failure and humiliation, so they don't default so often to horribleness that's modeled all around them. And I don't blame him for being upset by having his bully treated as a treasured guest while his mom ignored the beatdown he'd received.

Edited November 19, 2021 by possibilities

[ItCouldBeWorse]

21 hours ago, ProudMary said:

What Dean did was wrong, but Lillian should never have told Dean that Michael's mother had been sent to a mental hospital. I'm sure Michael expected that info to be confidential.

This is the 2nd time that Dean has repeated in school something he was told at home, with unhappy results (the first was the girlie magazine episode) and it was obvious that it was only a matter of time before he would do so after Lillian broke Michael's confidence.

At the most, Lillian should have said that Michael's mother was too sick to care for him.

I didn't get the transition to the final scene, when the family was amassing a box for Goodwill. It's a nice thing for the family to do, but how was it supposed to make up for Dean embarrassing Michael, or for him not having a great science fair experiment? How did it fit into the comic book superhero framing device of the episode?

Edited November 18, 2021 by ItCouldBeWorse

[Arcadiasw]

7 hours ago, Yogisbooboo64 said:

Lillian was so fucking annoying in this episode.  Michael’s upbringing is not her concern, if anyone bullied my son like that he’d be dealing with me in a different way and not by bringing him home and feeding him, damn that.

 

 

5 hours ago, Bookish Jen said:

I like this episode, but I wasn't too enthused with Lillian bringing Michael home and coddling him even though he was bullying Dean. And she probably shouldn't have revealed Michael's mom being in a mental institution either. 

And that brings me to another thing. Why is it whenever someone acts like a bully it's because he or she has a rough home life? Can't someone just be a jerk?

 

THIS!! I hate these tropes so much. 🤦‍♀️ So what if they have a rough life? It's not an excuse for them to be a jerk. There are others who have a rough life but they are not bullies or take it out on others. 

 

Lillian was wrong to tell Dean what's going on with Michael’s mother and as she was kind to him, she could've told Michael to stop bullying and hitting her son. 

[andromeda331]

4 hours ago, Arcadiasw said:

Lillian was wrong to tell Dean what's going on with Michael’s mother and as she was kind to him, she could've told Michael to stop bullying and hitting her son. 

This yes! Why did Dean have to do everything. She told Dean to be nicer to Michael and explained how bad his home life was. Why didn't she also try to teach Michael that its not an excuse to be a jerk to everyone? Why didn't Michael have to apologize for how he treated Dean? Couldn't he learn a lesson too? Especially since he doesn't have anyone around him to teach him?

Edited November 19, 2021 by andromeda331

[andromeda331]

10 hours ago, Bookish Jen said:

And that brings me to another thing. Why is it whenever someone acts like a bully it's because he or she has a rough home life? Can't someone just be a jerk?

4 hours ago, Arcadiasw said:

 

THIS!! I hate these tropes so much. 🤦‍♀️ So what if they have a rough life? It's not an excuse for them to be a jerk. There are others who have a rough life but they are not bullies or take it out on others. 

Yes! Not all bullies have it rough. Most of them are just jerks.

[possibilities]

It's like the people who wrote this episode were bullies trying to justify themselves.

[OLynn33]

The episode had echoes of the Blind Side for me especially with the kid being named Michael. The movie Michael however was a protector, a kind hearted person, and an example of not letting your circumstances define you. I saw no redeeming qualities in this kid especially when he laughed at Dean's science fair fail. 

6 hours ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

I didn't get the transition to the final scene, when the family was amassing a box for Goodwill. It's a nice thing for the family to do, but how was it supposed to make up for Dean embarrassing Michael, or for him not having a great science fair experiment? How did it fit into the comic book superhero framing device of the episode?

I took it as the family acknowledging their good fortune in light of Michael. I didn't understand the comic book superhero framing either or the last line of dialogue thanks to CTV and their wonderful channel substitution.

11 hours ago, Bookish Jen said:

However, I did crack up every time Bill asked for the keys back when it was found out Kim was doing something she wasn't supposed to be doing.

I don't remember which time it was but I had to rewind and relisten 3 times to understand what Bill said. I've had to do this in other episodes as well with this character.

A large aspect of the original series was the friendship between Kevin and Paul and how their relationship evolves over the years. And also of course Winnie. I feel like I hardly know Dean's friends. Hope the show will move more in this direction soon although I understand the cultural perspective is important here. 

Edited November 19, 2021 by OLynn33

[Cherpumple]

8 hours ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

I didn't get the transition to the final scene, when the family was amassing a box for Goodwill.

Yeah, that was weird. I actually rewound my DVR because I was convinced I missed a scene. At first I thought they were boxing up things to give to Michael and his brother, but then they mentioned Goodwill and I was confused.

1 hour ago, OLynn33 said:

I took it as the family acknowledging their good fortune in light of Michael.

This makes sense, but it was definitely a clunky transition for me, since the "be thankful for your awesome family" message had been superseded by Dean's outburst by that point.

1 hour ago, OLynn33 said:

A large aspect of the original series was the friendship between Kevin and Paul and how their relationship evolves over the years. And also of course Winnie. I feel like I hardly know Dean's friends.

Totally agree. The Kevin-Paul-Winnie combo was the heart of the show for me (possibly because I was their age), but now we're eight episodes in and I couldn't tell you any of Dean's friends names.

[Bookish Jen]

7 hours ago, possibilities said:

It's like the people who wrote this episode were bullies trying to justify themselves.

Thank you. There is always this idea that it is those who are being bullied who need to be understanding and change our  behavior. I hate it. 

[Sarah 103]

19 hours ago, Bookish Jen said:

Why is it whenever someone acts like a bully it's because he or she has a rough home life? Can't someone just be a jerk?

This comes from watching a ton of 1980s/1990s teen movies: If the bully is poor, he/she has a rough home life. If the bully comes from a wealthy/wealthier background than he/she is just a total jerk. 

[tennisgurl]

Lillian and Dean both made mistakes here. Dean throwing out Michael's moms illness for everything to laugh at was a terrible thing to do, but Lillian shouldn't have even told Dean about the details, she should have just said that she was sick and unable to be a parent to him right now, that's not her secret to tell. The bigger lesson for Dean should be about learning to accept defeat with grace and learn from his mistakes, which was sort of there, but it was mostly about Dean not being mean to Michael. 

Which was probably the most frustrating part of the episode, I don't like that Lillian expected Dean to just be totally cool with Michael bullying him because his home life sucks. Its terrible that he has such a messy home life and no parental figures and I can see why Lillian wants to show him some kindness, but that doesn't make it alright to beat up other kids and its not fair for Dean to just be alright with it because now he knows his home life is rough. If Lillian wants to be a mentor to Michael, she should talk to him about not taking his anger out on innocent kids, not how to do a science project. This shouldn't all have to be on Dean, he isn't even the one who's instigating things. Although, given the narration about superheroes, this does make all of this line up pretty accurately with a lot of superhero media, as well as plenty of other shows and movies of similar theme. Bad guys can do whatever terrible crap they want, but as long as they can produce a sufficiently sad backstory we were all supposed to forgive whatever they do instantly, but if a hero ever does even one thing wrong, they're the most terrible people ever and must bow and scrape for forgiveness.

The "keys" exchange was the funniest part of the episode. 

Edited November 19, 2021 by tennisgurl

[txhorns79]

On 11/19/2021 at 1:51 AM, OLynn33 said:

A large aspect of the original series was the friendship between Kevin and Paul and how their relationship evolves over the years. And also of course Winnie. I feel like I hardly know Dean's friends. Hope the show will move more in this direction soon although I understand the cultural perspective is important here. 

The show does handle it a little strangely.  In the original, the parents were definitely more in the background, while here they have a larger role.  And maybe part of it is that Dean, as currently written, isn't a particularly interesting character? 

[Racj82]

On 11/18/2021 at 11:12 AM, Sarah 103 said:

In the first episode it seemed like Dean was trying to fit in and figure out what he was good at, but here it seems that's always been great at science. I'm okay with small inconsisitencies in long running series, but this is only the 8th episode. 

I could relate to the way Dean was getting upset when Lilian kept refering to Michael as his friend. I grew up decades after this series takes place. It drove me crazy when my parents would assume I was friends with everyone in my class. 

TV shows often have the most deviation from pilot to every other episode of the series. They are technically still tweaking the show at that point and the pilot is done months in advance of series writing. So, the length of the shows run so far doesn't really mean anything. 

[Ailianna]

I never watched the original, so I'm not engaging in any comparison or wanting it to fill some other script. I like the show and I like the family and its dynamics. I'm also willing to give it time to grow.

[OLynn33]

16 hours ago, txhorns79 said:

The show does handle it a little strangely.  In the original, the parents were definitely more in the background, while here they have a larger role.  And maybe part of it is that Dean, as currently written, isn't a particularly interesting character? 

I feel this show is being written a lot for Dule Hill. There were some good story arcs in the original involving the dad with respect to Wayne and Karen especially (Wayne wanting to enlist was one of my favourites) but the centre of the show was clearly Kevin. But speaking of Wayne, I am hoping this show brings Dean's older brother more directly into the show. I think adding that dynamic would help and be interesting with respect to Dean.

[Scarlett45]

On 11/19/2021 at 10:47 AM, tennisgurl said:

Which was probably the most frustrating part of the episode, I don't like that Lillian expected Dean to just be totally cool with Michael bullying him because his home life sucks. Its terrible that he has such a messy home life and no parental figures and I can see why Lillian wants to show him some kindness, but that doesn't make it alright to beat up other kids and its not fair for Dean to just be alright with it because now he knows his home life is rough.

That was my biggest problem. It would’ve been a different thing if Michael was just an unpopular (or weird) kid who needed some kindness, he was ACTIVELY and repeatedly bullying and picking on other kids. Including Dean!