S15.E03: The Gang Buys a Roller Rink / S15.E04: The Gang Replaces Dee With a Monkey

[Lantern7]

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In the past, an innocent Dennis learns the horrifying details of Frank's business; a truly sweet Dee is excited to head off for Hollywood while Charlie and Mac's jobs at the roller rink are in jeopardy.

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When the Gang suspects Dee is menopausal, they scramble to find a new employee for Paddy's Pub; Dee decides to put her acting career on hold in order to mentor young actors.

 

[Joimiaroxeu]

E03
1998: the internet is a fad for nerds and mobile phones are fads for yuppies. They'll never catch on. And in 20 years everyone will have a beeper.

2021: yeah, no, not so much, Mac. Did Mac ever get any of his predictions right?

Lol, Dee's head-on collision when she was skating completely altered her personality. If only Charlie hadn't loosened her skate nuts. Her life may have been so much different.

E04
So acting like a Karen = going through menopause. Okay then, fellas. 🙄

Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach run a scam like Dee's with all the worst acting advice. Then they become Hollywood managers and take 35% off the top. 🤑

Bartender monkey was descended from Fatty Arbuckle's monkey. OMG. That monkey saw some stuff. What a reference.

I thought the monkey was probably peeing in the beer. Am glad to have been proven wrong though what the monkey did do to them was arguably much worse. (But Mac seemed to like having gotten orally sodomized by a monkey. 🤯)

I'm not much of a drinker but isn't whiskey and beer actually a thing? Why was the gang acting brand new about it?

[iMonrey]

Having binged this show over the summer, it's as if I've seen them all age 15 year in just a few months. So it's sort of weird to see them doing a flashback episode where they are trying to look younger, because they really did look younger - to me - not that long ago. Here? Not so much. It's kind of cringe to see actors in their 40s dressed up like teenagers and college-aged kids.

Dennis having to watch Frank have sex with a prostitute was classic Sunny, and I got a kick out of Dee's horrible acting advice, although I was kind of surprised at the end she actually knew it was just a scam. 

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(But Mac seemed to like having gotten orally sodomized by a monkey. 🤯)

Heh, I caught that too.

[Amarsir]

I enjoyed these both more than last week. They were ridiculous in a way that wasn't afraid to take risks.

Kaitlin Olsen had a major skull fracture when she was 12. Interesting choice to say that Dee's personality is based on a head injury. Is there anything we know about her in high school that would contradict the idea that she was actually a sweet person?

I thought 40-somethings playing 20 added to the absurdity, so I was fine with that. But Kaitlin's look has really changed over the last few years, likely from cosmetic work, and it just stands out as different every time I see her.

[DoctorAtomic]

Mac having the long hair in 1998 was exactly how I would have thought he'd look. Charlie didn't seem as dim as he is in the present. More naive than anything. 

They definitely played I Got 5 On It for me. However, not I'm Just A Girl.  

Wow if they're going to bomb this season with the c word, I love it. 

Is Mac wearing just loud shirts this season? 

I always like when actors have to act like bad actors! Kaitlin cracks me up. I liked that she had her own thing going on from the guys. 

The guys were all playing mildly drunk really well. I figure I'd get reasonably drunk if a monkey was serving me drinks. That ended not so good. 

I liked the second one more because I was spoiled for them going to Ireland, and this is the most ridiculous way it could have happened. 

 

[iMonrey]

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Charlie didn't seem as dim as he is in the present. More naive than anything. 

Well he hadn't started huffing yet. It was spraying the shoes that got him started on that. He's lost a lot of brain cells since then. It would have been interesting to see if he was able to spell back then.

[Amarsir]

The AVClub hated the roller rink episode. While I disagree, they did have some good points about the thing that bothered me - Dee's continuity.

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Dee Reynolds once made Rickety Cricket eat a dog turd in high school. Dee Reynolds was never the overly-peppy preppy looking out for the feelings of her roller-dancing team and politely hell-bent on following her acting dreams while admonishing the guys about making off-color jokes. Dee switched to acting after flunking out of her psychology studies at UPenn, where she memorably got committed after setting her roommate on fire that one time.

 

[DoctorAtomic]

Rob also looked like he was going to lose it when Charlie started tip toeing on the roller skates. He kind of just drops his head down and looks at the ground for an extended time. 

[DrSpaceman73]

21 hours ago, Amarsir said:

The AVClub hated the roller rink episode. While I disagree, they did have some good points about the thing that bothered me - Dee's continuity.

 

Yes this bugged me a bit too.  Not just with her but Dennis as well. We've seen from high school reunion their characters haven't changed much since high school so this episode did not seem consistent.  

 

On the other hand this is the gangs memories and we've seen before how wildly inconsistent their memories are from how things actually happen, so some of it I can write off to that. In fact the skate routine by Dee reminded me of them dancing in high school reunion before the reveal of what everything actually looked like. 

Loved the second one can't wait to see them in Ireland 

On 12/9/2021 at 1:43 PM, Joimiaroxeu said:

E03
1998: the internet is a fad for nerds and mobile phones are fads for yuppies. They'll never catch on. And in 20 years everyone will have a beeper.

2021: yeah, no, not so much, Mac. Did Mac ever get any of his predictions right?

Lol, Dee's head-on collision when she was skating completely altered her personality. If only Charlie hadn't loosened her skate nuts. Her life may have been so much different.

E04
So acting like a Karen = going through menopause. Okay then, fellas. 🙄

Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach run a scam like Dee's with all the worst acting advice. Then they become Hollywood managers and take 35% off the top. 🤑

Bartender monkey was descended from Fatty Arbuckle's monkey. OMG. That monkey saw some stuff. What a reference.

I thought the monkey was probably peeing in the beer. Am glad to have been proven wrong though what the monkey did do to them was arguably much worse. (But Mac seemed to like having gotten orally sodomized by a monkey. 🤯)

I'm not much of a drinker but isn't whiskey and beer actually a thing? Why was the gang acting brand new about it?

It's not the menopause scene that got her the job and the angry American milf Karen.  It was her rant afterwards at the casting director, when they turned her down. If you watch the scene where the director calls her, that's what he was watching. 

Edited December 11, 2021 by DrSpaceman73

[DrSpaceman73]

On 12/9/2021 at 1:43 PM, Joimiaroxeu said:

E03
1998: the internet is a fad for nerds and mobile phones are fads for yuppies. They'll never catch on. And in 20 years everyone will have a beeper.

2021: yeah, no, not so much, Mac. Did Mac ever get any of his predictions right?

Lol, Dee's head-on collision when she was skating completely altered her personality. If only Charlie hadn't loosened her skate nuts. Her life may have been so much different.

E04
So acting like a Karen = going through menopause. Okay then, fellas. 🙄

Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach run a scam like Dee's with all the worst acting advice. Then they become Hollywood managers and take 35% off the top. 🤑

Bartender monkey was descended from Fatty Arbuckle's monkey. OMG. That monkey saw some stuff. What a reference.

I thought the monkey was probably peeing in the beer. Am glad to have been proven wrong though what the monkey did do to them was arguably much worse. (But Mac seemed to like having gotten orally sodomized by a monkey. 🤯)

I'm not much of a drinker but isn't whiskey and beer actually a thing? Why was the gang acting brand new about it?

Whiskey and beer mixed is a boilermaker.  

Half Iced tea and half lemonade is an Arnold Palmer.  Total non sequitur but made me think of it.  

[Joimiaroxeu]

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It's not the menopause scene that got her the job and the angry American milf Karen.  It was her rant afterwards at the casting director, when they turned her down. If you watch the scene where the director calls her, that's what he was watching. 

Okay but I was referring to the top of the episode when the guys at the bar assumed Dee was menopausal when she was basically just being a Karen. They had no idea she was in character for a role.

[DrSpaceman73]

Just now, Joimiaroxeu said:

Okay but I was referring to the top of the episode when the guys at the bar assumed Dee was menopausal when she was basically just being a Karen. They had no idea she was in character for a role.

I guess I just attribute that to Dee's bad acting 

[DoctorAtomic]

The gang if anything are not reliable narrators. I do think though if a show is on over 10+ years, then rigid continuity can be relaxed. The entire episode was worth it for Dee berating the guys. 

[Night Cheese]

I actually thought menopause was a fair take at the beginning of the episode. She was yelling about being too young and then being hot and I thought they were going for mood swings and hot flashes. I even said to Mr Night Cheese before Frank said it was menopause, "wow are they really going to have 40-something Dee go through menopause? That's an interesting storyline choice."

I loved everything about Dee becoming an acting coach and wished they'd kept that. She's just so ridiculous and everything she was teaching her students was gold. Those poor unsuspecting people.

[Lantern7]

"The monkey got us drunk, assaulted us, robbed the bar, and possibly fucked our mouths!”

That might be the most "Sunny" quote ever. Even in context, it's bizarre as hell. And as someone who doesn't drink alcohol (which would probably get me kicked  out of Paddy's), I fully expected the monkey to have been spunking into the guys' beers. No, it was whiskey. Um . . . that's a relief? Maybe?

The guy that reviews IASIP for AV Club lit up the first episode. I didn't think it was that bad, but I don't think we needed an origin episode AND an explanation as to why Dee stopped being sweet. Also, Dennis not being the worst is .  . .odd. Not as unsettling as the sex faces from last week, though.

"Monkey" was better. Nice swerve that Dee didn't actually meet her replacement, even if that meant that she managed to establish and run an acting class while the guys fell in love with and got drunk/assaulted/robbed/possibly mouth fucked by the monkey. Also, they planned a vacation, dreaming about monkeys running the bar. If you tell me that you didn't think "The Simpsons" and "monkey butler," I'd call you a liar.

"WHISKEY BEER ISLAND OF DRINK AND FIGHT" Even if the teasers hadn't spoiled the trip to Ireland, what else could it have been?

Edited December 12, 2021 by Lantern7

[DanaMB]

I’m confused but admit my memory is crap.  I thought Dennis and Dee grew up with a different man as their father and only in the second season learned Frank was their real father?

[callie lee 29]

2 hours ago, DanaMB said:

I’m confused but admit my memory is crap.  I thought Dennis and Dee grew up with a different man as their father and only in the second season learned Frank was their real father?

Just the opposite. Frank raised them and as adults found out that Stephen Collins (can't remember the characters name) was their biological father. 

[DanaMB]

4 hours ago, callie lee 29 said:

Just the opposite. Frank raised them and as adults found out that Stephen Collins (can't remember the characters name) was their biological father. 

Thank you! It’s coming back to me now. 

[incandescent]

Oh, how I've missed Kaitlin's old Sweet Dee voice!

These people have run a bar for 15+ years and can't tell the taste difference between beer and a boilermaker. Incredible.