S04.E17: 60 Minutes

[CrystalBlue]

1 hour ago, KaveDweller said:

Sophie didn't find out from the internet, Gary and Maggie told her last week. It was off camera but they had a scene of Gary and Maggie finding out, and being all "oh, no, Sophie!" Then the next scene was Sophie calling Eddie to tell him Peter was dead and asking about Anna.

Correct, it was just in this episode that Sophie received the email memorial notice via social media from her school where beloved teacher Peter taught.

[hoodooznoodooz]

23 hours ago, ams1001 said:

I bet he's told that other couple how annoying M&G are. If my doctor was being gossipy to me about other patients, I'd be wondering what he was saying about me.

Exactly!

[OpalNightstream]

On 4/28/2022 at 5:40 PM, marceline said:

One of the things I found interesting about Rome's class is that it seems diverse as hell. Gender, race, ethnicity, etc... the school seems a long way from the all-white prep school Rome attended as a kid.

 

On 4/28/2022 at 5:49 PM, Rootbeer said:

As soon as they showed the student onscreen, I was dreading the inevitable storyline that will be totally mishandled by the writers.  There is a place for a show about a transgender teen's journey; but it is not on this poorly written mess of a show.

Undoubtedly Rome will “rescue” this student too since it seems to be his thing. 

[JLaw]

On 4/28/2022 at 3:16 PM, marceline said:

Agreed. But the whole thrust of Rome's issue with the school has been his experience there as one of three Black students. 

This school isn't the same as it was and I think that should be acknowledged.

The issue wasn't their existence but how those marginalized people are treated.  Admittedly this show has so many spinning plates but it was how he was treated by administration that was the issue not that he was there

[Rootbeer]

18 hours ago, OpalNightstream said:

 

Undoubtedly Rome will “rescue” this student too since it seems to be his thing. 

Yes, I suspect that Rome will discover that, now that there is some racial diversity, the school has become a hotbed of LGBTQ prejudice which is why Maddox is not out at school.  And, Rome will probably champion their documentary about their treatment by classmates and end up with a bunch of 'don't say gay' type parents showing up and complaining to the principal and demanding Rome be fired immediately. Or, he will find out the school already has some sort of 'don't say gay' policy in place and he will protest it and end up losing his job but claiming the moral high ground in all cases.  Maddox' parents will undoubtedly be Neanderthals who will want them to go for deprogramming once they find out their child is trans and Rome will help them escape.

Edited April 30, 2022 by Rootbeer

[maggiemae]

How can Maddox's not know who he is at school? No parent-teacher conferences or report cards or confusion of names, clothes around the house, etc?

Or am I missing something?

[bybrandy]

15 hours ago, maggiemae said:

How can Maddox's not know who he is at school? No parent-teacher conferences or report cards or confusion of names, clothes around the house, etc?

Or am I missing something?

Maddox is still Madison (or whatever that name was) at school.  Maddox is in his head and his heart Maddox but he hasn't begun to transition publically yet.  This interview for Rome was the first time he'd told anybody about Maddox.  

[christie]

Leaving aside all the ickiness of Sophie running with Gary's sperm, would she even get to the doctor's in time? Gary's phone said that there were 6 minutes something left, then they had that talk about Peter and then Sophie started running; I fail to see how she could have made it on time.

Once again, the AMLT writers ignore the existence of permits; you need a permit to be able to park your foodtruck and sell food not to mention that any high school principal would come out and tell them to leave.

[chitowngirl]

14 hours ago, christie said:

Once again, the AMLT writers ignore the existence of permits; you need a permit to be able to park your foodtruck and sell food not to mention that any high school principal would come out and tell them to leave.

Are students allowed to just wander outside and get food from some random food truck? They would not be allowed to go out at our local high school. The doors are locked. Students can’t just come and go as they please. 

Edited May 2, 2022 by chitowngirl

[tennisgurl]

Was it supposed to be a surprise that Rome's student was trans? Not only is it this show, who must have realized that they hadn't dealt with trans issues yet and needed to mark that off their checklist, but I thought it was quite obvious. I am sure that this issue with be handled with this shows usual tact and respectfulness, with the subtle of a sledgehammer, and this kid will disappear like all of the other characters that exist to teach us an important lesson about some social issue. I do actually like Rome as a teacher though, he seems to be really enjoying it and he really was engaging with the students. Asking the students what story they have in them was a good way to start a documentary class. 

I don't care about Val or her relationship with her daughter, why is this minor and not very interesting character taking so much screen time? I was on the daughters side about parking their food truck right in front of her school, who ambushes their estranged teenage daughter with a food truck at her school? Its really taking this clearly tough emotional situation and putting this girl on the spot. Although this was apparently Regina's dumb idea, so this one is on her. Of course she listens to her mom and Tyrell gets her to talk to her, because its this show and what else would happen? Can you even park a food truck by a high school without the schools permission? 

Katherine is flailing about so much in this relationship, she almost feels like a different character. She should have told Eddie that Greta had moved in, bipolar or not he has the right to know if someone is living in the same house as his son, especially someone that neither he or Katherine knew that well, and she should have talked to Greta before telling Eddie and Theo about her mental health. This whole thing is weird, and that's not not even getting into Greta and Theo wearing matching dinosaur pajamas, possibly the wildest thing that has happened this season. What even is that? Did they all go shopping? Did Katherine buy matching pajamas for her girlfriend and her twelve year old son? What twelve year old wears matching dinosaur footie pajamas with their moms girlfriend willingly? Its like if Ralphie from A Christmas Story really wanted to wear that hideous bunny outfit he got for Christmas! And Ralphie was nine! The mind boggles.  

Eddie and Katherine still have such great chemistry, I know that it would be really lame, but I am sort of hoping for them to reconcile after their respective relationships implode. Greta will teach us an important lesson about mental health, and Anna will teach us about slipping into alcoholism, then hopefully they disappear because neither of these relationships seem to be heading in a healthy direction. Eddie should in no way be in a relationship with a woman dealing with the early stages of alcoholism so soon after falling off the wagon. 

Sophie meanwhile runs around with Gary's semen while also dealing with Peter's death, the tonal whiplash was strong. So now Gary is sterile, which I clocked right away and almost laughed about, it was so predictable. So drama surrounding surrogacy? Adoption? 

[circumvent]

24 minutes ago, tennisgurl said:

I do actually like Rome as a teacher though, he seems to be really enjoying it and he really was engaging with the students.

Yes, I liked that too although I am sure the writers are going to mess this up in no time. 

26 minutes ago, tennisgurl said:

So now Gary is sterile, which I clocked right away and almost laughed about, it was so predictable

I hadn't thought of it but of course, another blunder. Maggie gets pregnant once, without trying, has an abortion - and again I am going to rant about people in seemingly every show having unprotected sex with multiple partners, although I guess she was in a that relationship for some time. Who knows in which dimension, time-space context that happened. Then she wants to have a baby and "needs" fertility treatment/counseling because she is concerned about getting pregnant after chemo. Yes the same woman  who had a surprise pregnancy now thinks she needs a fertility booster. But Gary also had chemo and nobody ever questioned how it could have affected his fertility. Logic in this show only exists when it is convenient.

[CrystalBlue]

2 hours ago, circumvent said:

Yes, I liked that too although I am sure the writers are going to mess this up in no time. 

I hadn't thought of it but of course, another blunder. Maggie gets pregnant once, without trying, has an abortion - and again I am going to rant about people in seemingly every show having unprotected sex with multiple partners, although I guess she was in a that relationship for some time. Who knows in which dimension, time-space context that happened. Then she wants to have a baby and "needs" fertility treatment/counseling because she is concerned about getting pregnant after chemo. Yes the same woman  who had a surprise pregnancy now thinks she needs a fertility booster. But Gary also had chemo and nobody ever questioned how it could have affected his fertility. Logic in this show only exists when it is convenient.

I thought Jamie from Oxford is who got Maggie up the duff (British slang) and then she really didn't want a baby at that time because the timing was inconvenient to her plans, so she came up with the Wait! I Had Chemo excuse for something could be wrong with the baby.  No tests were ever done as to the viability of the pregnancy or having a healthy baby.  Jamie was her supposed platonic roommate in Oxford which was a surprise because it was supposed to either be Jamie was a woman or Maggie became Jamie's new roommate at the last minute because the previous one fell through, something like that.  They didn't really have a girlfriend-boyfriend relationship, they just had sex on the spur of the moment.

[KaveDweller]

2 hours ago, CrystalBlue said:

I thought Jamie from Oxford is who got Maggie up the duff (British slang) and then she really didn't want a baby at that time because the timing was inconvenient to her plans, so she came up with the Wait! I Had Chemo excuse for something could be wrong with the baby.  No tests were ever done as to the viability of the pregnancy or having a healthy baby.  Jamie was her supposed platonic roommate in Oxford which was a surprise because it was supposed to either be Jamie was a woman or Maggie became Jamie's new roommate at the last minute because the previous one fell through, something like that.  They didn't really have a girlfriend-boyfriend relationship, they just had sex on the spur of the moment.

It was definitely an inconvenient time, but it was also portrayed as being a health risk. I don't remember them saying anything about there being something wrong with the baby, but they were suggesting that a pregnancy put Maggie at risk somehow? I don't know if that is accurate, but this show is not known for that.

There was also the issue that Maggie was due for a cancer screening and she couldn't have them during a pregnancy.

[circumvent]

10 hours ago, CrystalBlue said:

I thought Jamie from Oxford is who got Maggie up the duff (British slang) and then she really didn't want a baby at that time because the timing was inconvenient to her plans, so she came up with the Wait! I Had Chemo excuse for something could be wrong with the baby.  No tests were ever done as to the viability of the pregnancy or having a healthy baby.  Jamie was her supposed platonic roommate in Oxford which was a surprise because it was supposed to either be Jamie was a woman or Maggie became Jamie's new roommate at the last minute because the previous one fell through, something like that.  They didn't really have a girlfriend-boyfriend relationship, they just had sex on the spur of the moment.

 

7 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

It was definitely an inconvenient time, but it was also portrayed as being a health risk. I don't remember them saying anything about there being something wrong with the baby, but they were suggesting that a pregnancy put Maggie at risk somehow? I don't know if that is accurate, but this show is not known for that.

There was also the issue that Maggie was due for a cancer screening and she couldn't have them during a pregnancy.

I remember the story, vaguely, but the fact is that she did get pregnant, seemingly easily, and didn't need any fertility treatments. If the risk was to the baby, there is no reason for her to go a fertility doctor. If she is worried about what are the risks for the baby, she shouldn't be trying until she knows, and there would be no need for Gary to be tested. It's a million little nonsensical things

[KaveDweller]

15 hours ago, circumvent said:

 

I remember the story, vaguely, but the fact is that she did get pregnant, seemingly easily, and didn't need any fertility treatments. If the risk was to the baby, there is no reason for her to go a fertility doctor. If she is worried about what are the risks for the baby, she shouldn't be trying until she knows, and there would be no need for Gary to be tested. It's a million little nonsensical things

The fertility doctor part has never made any sense to me. Going to her oncologist to ask about risks made sense. But the fertility doctor part was weird, especially for her and Gary to go back when they'd been trying for like a week. Do these people just have too much money and are looking for ways to use it up? Or are they that desperate to avoid work?

[SunnyBeBe]

I can’t recall Gina’s friend’s name, but the show seems to  be saying that the daughter is being unreasonable for being standoffish with her mom. Her daughter’s apprehension  seems reasonable to me. She was in prison for a long time, messed up in prison, stayed even longer,  though she has a good excuse. 🙄 After getting paroled her mom then suddenly quit a steady job in her city, moved to Florida, then quit that job, moved back to town, then started working in a food truck!  I mean, it screams instability.  It would be better if she demonstrated her improved life, instead of tracking her daughter down and telling her.  

[circumvent]

8 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

Or are they that desperate to avoid work?

Which work? 

[Rootbeer]

15 hours ago, KaveDweller said:

The fertility doctor part has never made any sense to me. Going to her oncologist to ask about risks made sense. But the fertility doctor part was weird, especially for her and Gary to go back when they'd been trying for like a week. Do these people just have too much money and are looking for ways to use it up? Or are they that desperate to avoid work?

The fertility specialist never made sense since Maggie got pregnant without trying only a year or so ago.  Most would send her away and tell her to come back in 6 -12 months if she wasn't pregnant. Now, if she'd seen a specialist prior to chemo to look into freezing some eggs or she'd had a brief consult and the doc did some blood work to evaluate her ovarian reserve (not very accurate, but not much else to do) after she finished chemo, that would make sense.

For that matter, Gary should've been counseled as to the possibility of freezing sperm before he started chemo way back when.  I have a friend who had Hodkin's disease as a teen and whose mother insisted he go to the sperm bank even though he really didn't want to.  Lo and behold, almost 20 years later, his sperm got thawed out and he had a son.   This all started nearly 40 years ago, freezing sperm has been a thing for a long, long time.

In real life, no way these two are seeing a fertility specialist and having serial ultrasounds to monitor her eggs or any other such nonsense.  Amongst other things, even if she has insurance coverage for infertility treatment (many people don't), the insurer isn't going to pay for anything unless there is documented infertility.  At Maggie's age, it is one year of trying without success although, her history of chemotherapy might let her slip by after 6 months.  

This show has some of the worst medical storylines out there.  I'm still waiting for Eddie to be 'cured' of his paralysis.  I just know they'll do it.

[SunnyBeBe]

Didn’t they hint of Eddie getting some feelings back in his legs during that pool scene with Roman?  

Edited May 4, 2022 by SunnyBeBe

[LeisureTime]

On 5/4/2022 at 2:37 PM, SunnyBeBe said:

Didn’t they hint of Eddie getting some feelings back in his legs during that pool scene with Roman?  

No, not really.

I generally liked this episode. The Greta and Katherine plot was done really well, I thought. Because they both had good points and both could have acted better and in the end they both realized  it.  I do not care about Anna's supposed drinking problem, but I will happily watch Eddie guide her to sobriety or watch their relationship implode if it means the "How did Peter die?"/Anna and Eddie's lies and Sophie's podcast drama can be dead right along with him now.  And I do not care about Val or her kid or their relationship. But Tyrell really is growing on me.

I really liked Rome's plot. I mean, those kids were total asshats at first, and I would not have handled them as well as Rome did, But him figuring out how to get through to them was nice. Like most, it seems, I thought Madison was a trans girl and that, while it was incredibly obvious to me, in-universe it was supposed to not be and coming out would be part of the plot. Which was fine. 

So the Maddox reveal wasn't what I expected, but I'm appreciative. Maybe it's just my perspective but I feel like it's only in the past couple of years that that trans male characters have begun to make inroads in mainstream stories. As for Maddox's voice, my first thought post reveal was that the show was really dedicated to hiring a trans actor for the trans role. I'm not going to complain abut that. His voice is just a logistics thing for which we have to suspend our disbelief.

And I might be in the minority, but I thought the Gary and Sophie scenes were cute. Do we know if Gary's back problems were because of something going on with James Roday Rodriguez? It seems like it was laid on awfully thick with all the moaning and groaning, so I'm not quite over being worried about Gary. But it could just be that JRR was really hurting that much or he was just playing it up for laughs, too.

[Suzn]

9 hours ago, LeisureTime said:

So the Maddox reveal wasn't what I expected, but I'm appreciative. Maybe it's just my perspective but I feel like it's only in the past couple of years that that trans male characters have begun to make inroads in mainstream stories. As for Maddox's voice, my first thought post reveal was that the show was really dedicated to hiring a trans actor for the trans role. I'm not going to complain abut that. His voice is just a logistics thing for which we have to suspend our disbelief.

That is probably right, but I found it confusing at first, since I noticed the voice immediately.