S03.E15: Down To Clown

[jewel21]

Facing his anger management issues, Owen has a breakthrough in therapy. After a particularly devastating emergency call, Grace reaches out to a co-worker, but regrets when Judd offers more than she was planning. A clown has an emergency at a young boy’s birthday party. Tommy, T.K. and Nancy race to help a survivalist who has a painful encounter.

Airdate: 04/25/2022

[toodywoody]

Let's just make a damn show called Owen not 911.

I don't watch this show to watch the Owen and TK hour. 

Thank goodness for a spotting of Marjan. And Grace and Tommy having some girl time. 

This show needs less of Owen and his bs. Do we need to see his love life, his therapy, his everything, week after week? 

[preeya]

1 hour ago, toodywoody said:

This show needs less of Owen and his bs. Do we need to see his love life, his therapy, his everything, week after week? 

They got rid of his ex-wife so now we'll have to deal with his "ex-father."

[Lady Calypso]

I am tired of this being Lowe Star, but at least THIS Owen plot made me chuckle at points. Even though it was obvious to me that the clown was masking something else. I assumed issues with family, so it being his father makes perfect sense. I'm surprised we haven't learned much about Owen's parents until now. 

I didn't really enjoy the TK/Carlos/crocodile lizard or whatever plot. I just felt bad for Carlos for his boyfriend spontaneously bringing home a creature without consulting him. I'm just glad TK agreed to get rid of the thing.

The Grace/Judd/Dave stuff was alright. Again, like the TK/Carlos plot, Judd should have talked to Grace before bringing home someone for a week, so bad Judd. But I'm all for more Grace, and I do actually like Dave. They go from treating his character as comic relief to giving him a substantially emotional story, and it's weird. They transitioned to comedic music twice with his scenes.

[EllaWycliffe]

14 minutes ago, Lady Calypso said:

I am tired of this being Lowe Star, but at least THIS Owen plot made me chuckle at points. Even though it was obvious to me that the clown was masking something else. I assumed issues with family, so it being his father makes perfect sense. I'm surprised we haven't learned much about Owen's parents until now. 

I like Rob so I have no issues there. I am not seeing the dots between "Dad left us when I was 12" and "Clowns make me think of John Wayne Gacy and Pennywise and apparently my dad" so I assume this will either be a let down or Owen's dad is a monster.... 

17 minutes ago, Lady Calypso said:

I didn't really enjoy the TK/Carlos/crocodile lizard or whatever plot. I just felt bad for Carlos for his boyfriend spontaneously bringing home a creature without consulting him. I'm just glad TK agreed to get rid of the thing.

Don't care about TK at all and why am I not shocked that TK promises to take care of it and it gets loose? Carlos the doormat is getting old.

19 minutes ago, Lady Calypso said:

The Grace/Judd/Dave stuff was alright.

I was annoyed by it. Partly because another show I liked did the "obliviously rude house guest" trope and it was very similar except that on that show, the annoying guest was willing to concede being difficult. Dave was a rude, condescending asshole. He was a prick asshole upon his introduction and nothing has changed. I don't want to see more of Dave. I felt a smidge of sympathy for him when the poor bastard in the fire died and then he snots how he's never lost a caller to Grace and my sympathy died. Made worse with his revelation that he's such a perfectionist ass, he looked up the building plans and checked into renovations to make sure *HE* wasn't the one at fault over the poor man's death. Sorry, Dave's a rude asshole and he clearly knows how to manipulate the fuck out of people and its unpleasant to watch. 

[iMonrey]

Quote

I am not seeing the dots between "Dad left us when I was 12" and "Clowns make me think of John Wayne Gacy and Pennywise and apparently my dad" so I assume this will either be a let down or Owen's dad is a monster.... 

I didn't see the connection either. I did laugh when the little kid at the party pointed to Owen and said "that one looks scared."

Quote

This show needs less of Owen and his bs. Do we need to see his love life, his therapy, his everything, week after week? 

Well, Rob Lowe is the star of the show and arguably the biggest name associated with it. I'm sure the network expects to get their money's worth out of him. I understand some people would prefer this show be more of an ensemble but even 9-1-1 the OG relies heavily on its leads. We got plenty of Judd and Grace this episode, and Tommy too. Personally I see just enough of the supporting characters like Marjan and Paul, I don't need more of them. In fact they were leaning a little too heavily on Marjan the Superhero for awhile there. Complaining there's too much of Owen is sort of like watching Grey's Anatomy and complaining there's too much of Meredith. They're the stars of the show. Deal or bail.

I do think Ronen Rubinstein is very limited as an actor but at least TK's story was comic relief this week instead of more tragedy.

[marceline]

Add me to the list of people tired of Owen. I'm just not interested in his emotional issues.

I appreciated the dinner with Judd, Grace, and Dave. That was a terrible loss and Judd recalling the fertilizer factory fire. That was a lovely bit of storytelling. Unfortunately they ruined it all because apparently they wanted this story to be funny.

I think Carlos and TK have one of the dreariest apartments I've ever seen. Everything is gray or brown without so much as a pop of color.

2 hours ago, EllaWycliffe said:

I was annoyed by it. Partly because another show I liked did the "obliviously rude house guest" trope and it was very similar except that on that show, the annoying guest was willing to concede being difficult.

Call the Midwife?

[kwnyc]

It was the alligator lizard that got to me! I could see why they needed to bring it in with the idiot who stabbed himself in the leg, but to bring a wild animal home is really irresponsible! 

We've had beautiful lizards at our house, so I immediately got on the internets to see if people keep alligator lizards as pets Turns out that they DO, but as every responsible exotic pet owner knows, you don't just take them from their habitat!

And it would be better if they returned it to the spot where it originally was. (I don't know if the lizards are territorial, but if they are, it needs to be on its own turf.)

Also: they really are biters. I wouldn't want one. 

And, it turns out, they are endangered! (Thank you Smithsonian/National Zoo).

Edited April 26, 2022 by kwnyc
More info.

[shapeshifter]

Fear of Clowns? Really? That's what they're going with for Owen's anger issues??????
 

[EllaWycliffe]

Marceline yes it was Call The Midwife. There it was funny and yes, the person involved had a small clue that they were irritating. Dave has just been a self involved ass since he was introduced.

 

[eel21788]

4 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

I didn't really enjoy the TK/Carlos/crocodile lizard or whatever plot. 

That was the worst part of the episode for me.

[gonzosgirrl]

2 hours ago, kwnyc said:

It was the alligator lizard that got to me! I could see why they needed to bring it in with the idiot who stabbed himself in the leg, but to bring a wild animal home is really irresponsible! 

Until last night, I thought alligator lizards were something that whoever wrote Ventura Highway (America) made up while high on whatever they were smoking in the 70s. Huh.

[shapeshifter]

17 minutes ago, gonzosgirrl said:

Until last night, I thought alligator lizards were something that whoever wrote Ventura Highway (America) made up while high on whatever they were smoking in the 70s. Huh.

Having never before heard of alligator lizards, I assumed it was a baby alligator.

[tennisgurl]

I quite like lizards and they can make excellent pets, but alligator lizards are hardly regular house pets. If you own an exotic pet you have to really know what your doing, you cant just take it home and let it wander around, especially without telling your partner who you live with what your doing. What the hell, TK? Really, every subplot felt like some kind of 80s sitcom. Someone gets a weird pet that gets out of its cage? Annoying house guest that stays too long? Clowns? is there a studio audience lurking around in the background?

The best part of Grace, Judd, and their houseguest was Judd talking about losing his own station, I am glad that they brought that up again. While Judd has obviously healed a lot from that tragedy, its not like its something he will ever stop being affected by. 

I don't hate the focus on Owen, he has always been the main character, and I like that they are dealing with his anger issues, but I wish they would find more ways to connect him with the rest of the non TK cast. If he had more plots with the rest of the cast it probably wouldn't feel as much like his personal drama is eating up the show. I guess its surprising that we have never really talked about Owen's parents before, I guess that is one dramatic avenue we haven't strolled down yet until now. I admit I did enjoy the clown stuff, its just all so weird. When Owen thinks about Pennywise, he thinks about his absentee dad? Is his father an alien spider child killer?

Edited April 26, 2022 by tennisgurl

[BooksRule]

5 hours ago, marceline said:

8 hours ago, EllaWycliffe said:

I was annoyed by it. Partly because another show I liked did the "obliviously rude house guest" trope and it was very similar except that on that show, the annoying guest was willing to concede being difficult.

Call the Midwife?

Miss Higgins sharing Nonnatus House with the nuns and midwives was the first thing I thought of!  

 

The mention of alligator lizards made me start singing (in my head) '...alligator lizards in the air' ('Ventura Highway' by America).

 

And finally:  'It's like Mrs. Doubtfire.  But with a clown.'

Edited April 26, 2022 by BooksRule
typo

[Kleav]

8 hours ago, marceline said:

I think Carlos and TK have one of the dreariest apartments I've ever seen. Everything is gray or brown without so much as a pop of color.

Yes! I attribute it to bad lighting, but either way it looks awful.

[Bruinsfan]

That horrible polished concrete floor doesn't help, though I suppose it is the ideal flooring if you expect to have wild animals running free or mad arsonists trying to burn the place down.

[shapeshifter]

17 hours ago, marceline said:

I think Carlos and TK have one of the dreariest apartments I've ever seen. Everything is gray or brown without so much as a pop of color.

IIRC, so far Carlos and TK's scenes in their apartment have all had at least some notes of tragedy or menace hovering over them, so the apartment colors are probably just there to emphasize all of their plot arcs, rather than being Chekhovian colors to hint at the demise of one or the other of them (although that could happen too).
For example, in this episode, there was no cute bonding moment between Carlos and the lizard.
And I don't consider make-up hugs after a serious falling out in a relationship as being happy moments.

Edited April 27, 2022 by shapeshifter

[Bulldog]

Except for the hot water usage, I didn't really think that Dave was that bad of a house guest.  Free child care and breakfast cooked every morning sounds like a pretty good deal to me. 

[Toothbrush]

 

Quote

 

The mention of alligator lizards made me start singing (in my head) '...alligator lizards in the air' ('Ventura Highway' by America).

 

I’m not sure what I thought that lyric was, but it wasn’t lizard related lol 

About 7 years ago my then 7-year old somehow spilled a sealed container of our bearded lizard’s food - ROACHES!!! NIGHT.MARE. I can still feel my elevated heart rate & blood pressure. After that she spent the rest of her life as a strict vegetarian and lived to be 8 or so. RIP Stella. 
 

I feel like I would recognize my husband  in clown get-up. And how did Mom know to call Zippy? Usually you find out about birthday party venues/entertainment from other moms &/or parties your children attend. #nitpicking

TK & Carlos have no chemistry & even when there’s !drama! they’re boring. 

Charlie is one beautiful baby 💕

I didn’t mind the Grace, Judd, David story, but thought Dave was going to turn out to be a part of the clown story since one of his desk tchotchkes is a clown. 

Not looking forward to Owen daddy drama. 

 

 

Edited April 30, 2022 by Toothbrush

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, Toothbrush said:

Charlie is one beautiful baby 💕

According to:   
9-1-1.fandom.com/wiki/Charlie_Ryder   
—the babies who portray Charlie are Kobe Melton and Kodi Melton.

 

[WinJet0819]

Well, it wasn't ALL the Strand show this time. Grace, Judd and Dave did have a solid B-plot to give some focus on the 911 Center. Though it still should be more. The Carlos/TK stuff just seemed thrown together. But once again, while we saw that Matteo, Marjan, and Paul are still around, they just seem to make up the background. It seems it's only going to be more of the same since, of course, the show is going to delve into Owen's daddy storyline, with Lowe's brother guest starring (ugh). This is a prime example of why a show will have underdeveloped characters. When just 2 or 3 characters get the bulk of the storylines, it leaves very little focus for the others. And prior to this season, the show didn't appear to be going down this path, save for Owen investigating the arsonist last year. Oh, well.

[Bruinsfan]

I did love Carlos' reaction to finding out TK brought home a lizard that had burrowed into someone's flesh. Not the sort of pet I'd be open to keeping around either!

[Kel Varnsen]

I was just disappointed that Owen's therapist wasn't named Dr. Richard Nygard.

Also the 911 shows sure love to do calls where social media people get injured on camera (this has to be at least the 3rd time I have seen it). I am just surprised the lizard guy wasn't live streaming his video.

[juliet73]

This episode was awful!  Just like everyone else, I'm really tired of the show being all about Owen's (and TK's) personal lives.  Normally, Grace and Judd keep me watching, but their storyline was totally stupid this week too.  I don't understand how two of the same shows can be so vastly different - one good and one bad...and getting worse every week.