S04.E09: Welcome to the Splurge

[jewel21]

Quote

Calvin decides to splurge on an expensive jacket, then worries it's too special to risk wearing outside the house. Also, Dave and Gemma worry their new friends' daughter is a bad influence on Grover.

Airdate: 12/06/2021

[SoMuchTV]

Just to get a little nitpicky here, 1) the jacket on display at the store just happened to be Calvin-sized? And 2) yeah, $800 is more than I would probably spend on a jacket, but I wouldn’t think that was LA-expensive. I was expecting some kind of 4-figure weather-sensitive leather jacket. 

Okay, that’s out of my system. Fun show. Carry on. 

[Browncoat]

It was a very sharp jacket, though.  On Calvin.  Not so much on Dave.

I kind of wanted to chuck that little girl through the (closed) window -- along with her parents.

[CrazyDog]

Between worrying about the jacket and that horrid kid, this episode raised my blood pressure, lol.

This is basically Thatcher(?)'s villian origin story. Ugh.

I would've loved seeing more of the party with Calvin and Tina there, but not at the expense of Calvin's jacket.

[Empress1]

13 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

yeah, $800 is more than I would probably spend on a jacket, but I wouldn’t think that was LA-expensive. I was expecting some kind of 4-figure weather-sensitive leather jacket. 

Me too. Calvin has $800. A good winter coat will run you a few hundred, so $800 isn’t “it cost HOW much?!” for a coat, IMO. (I liked that whether he could afford it was never a question.)

I cannot STAND parents like Thatcher’s. Just letting your kid act a fool is not good parenting. Tina saying she’d fight a fifth-grader was gold.

Edited December 7, 2021 by Empress1

[DanaK]

That kid was a nightmare and her parents not putting a stop to at least her vandalism showed what horribly bad parents they were. A kid calling adults by their first names without their permission is a little more iffy and can depend on one's culture. Dave and Gemma tried to be understanding but their patience ran out. And it was actually fun to see a liberal couple trying to handle way too permissive parents

[Empress1]

54 minutes ago, DanaK said:

A kid calling adults by their first names without their permission is a little more iffy and can depend on one's culture.

One thing I like is that Grover calls Calvin & Tina Mr. Calvin & Miss Tina. Culturally, Black elders are not typically called by their first names. Miss/Mr. Firstname tends to connote more of a closeness than Mr. & Mrs. Butler, so it stands to reason that that’s what he calls them. It’s a small thing but I appreciate it.

[MaryMitch]

Sorry, but I thought that coat was ug-ly.

That little girl was awful, but I'll bet the actress was having a blast!

[Harvey]

Marty was the MVP of this episode. His delivery was so good on multiple occasions. I really liked the brothers storyline and how passionate they were about their petty little argument.

And how would I know that? Did you put a post-it on my pillow!?!?🤣

[HurricaneVal]

I liked how they introduced the idea of the out of control little girl fairly slowly.  At first it was Thatcher and Grover playing with the foam swords, and knocking over the vase.  That's something that could happen even with good kids getting carried away with having fun, breaking out of their play area into the area where the adults are and causing an accident.  That's a "Whoa....slow it down" moment, but when the little girl was like "Whatevs!" you got an inkling of what a little monster she really was with the interplay with her parents.

The thing is, Gemma is a school principal, right?  I'm sure she's seen that kind of parenting before through work.  So for her to be so shocked that a child and parents could act that way was a little off.  I can see how she'd be shocked that all that would be happening to her house--the spray paint on the front door was a particular "WTF!!?!" moment--but shocked that such behavior exists just doesn't ring true for a principal, whom I'm sure has seen a full spectrum of parenting from tiger moms through laissez faire all the way to whatever the hell that was.

I also liked that Tina and Calvin respected boundaries and didn't just light into the other parents.  As soon as they walked in I was cringing and expecting Calvin and Tina to take over the situation, which had so clearly lost control.  But they didn't, they wanted to, you could see, and it even looked like Gemma might have been signaling "HELP!" but they said a few things, then escaped.  I gasped when Tina essentially fell on the grenade and blocked the stream of, what, ketchup?

I wonder if Calvin's jacket was a really soft suede, the buttery, almost velvety kind that even raindrops will stain.  Hell, just brushing up against something will make the nap go the wrong way and look bad.

[possibilities]

Not teaching your kids to respect other people is just breeding bullies and sociopaths. It's not just about property damage. It's about the entire attitude of meanness and not caring at all. That child was WAAAAAAY over several lines. I've seen some bad parenting, though, so nothing surprises me anymore. I agree Gemma should have had more of an ability to deal with it, from her experience being a principal. But they don't really make her very savvy about things related to her job most of the time, either.

[Court]

14 hours ago, Empress1 said:

Me too. Calvin has $800. A good winter coat will run you a few hundred, so $800 isn’t “it cost HOW much?!” for a coat, IMO. (I liked that whether he could afford it was never a question.)

I cannot STAND parents like Thatcher’s. Just letting your kid act a fool is not good parenting. Tina saying she’d fight a fifth-grader was gold.

Yes, I died and she took her earrings off!

[Kiddvideo]

I didn’t like the coat’s blazer cut but thought the materials were beautiful. The shirts Calvin was wearing didn’t do the coat justice — something like that needs to be worn as part of an ensemble not something you toss on to fetch coffee when it gets chilly.

Am I the only one who would’ve been pissed off at Dave? I splurge on a statement piece, and my friend goes out and buys the same thing? Maybe men don’t care, but to me it feels like proposing at someone else’s wedding.

[Harvey]

1 hour ago, Kiddvideo said:

Am I the only one who would’ve been pissed off at Dave? I splurge on a statement piece, and my friend goes out and buys the same thing? Maybe men don’t care, but to me it feels like proposing at someone else’s wedding.

This is an interesting take. Maybe Calvin was not too happy about it either since he slammed the door on him.

[Pamela]

On 12/7/2021 at 6:18 PM, HurricaneVal said:

I gasped when Tina essentially fell on the grenade and blocked the stream of, what, ketchup?

I think it was fruit punch.

Fun fact: The actor who played Thatcher is Max Greenfield’s real-life daughter, Lilly.

[theredhead77]

On 12/6/2021 at 8:37 PM, SoMuchTV said:

Just to get a little nitpicky here, 1) the jacket on display at the store just happened to be Calvin-sized? And 2) yeah, $800 is more than I would probably spend on a jacket, but I wouldn’t think that was LA-expensive. I was expecting some kind of 4-figure weather-sensitive leather jacket. 

 

On 12/7/2021 at 8:54 AM, Empress1 said:

Me too. Calvin has $800. A good winter coat will run you a few hundred, so $800 isn’t “it cost HOW much?!” for a coat, IMO. (I liked that whether he could afford it was never a question.)

Same. I also liked that they avoided the "pissed off wife" trope "you spent how much?? Take it back!" even if they could afford it.