S03.E06: ...had a breakdown

[dubbel zout]

Chasing Ivy League dreams and his dad's approval, Ben ignores warning signs of burnout until the stress of his jam-packed workload builds up—literally.

[Aulty]

The boys helping each other out was nice. I would have preferred a Kamala centric episode instead of another Ben-episode. The Ben-Paxton-Devi Triangle has gotten really stale, really fast and I am not really interested in Ben and his shitty attitude anymore.

[twoods]

I always love the Ben-centric episodes. Ben and Paxton was a nice surprise. It was nice they each helped each other, and Ben and his dad was nice as well. 

[peachmangosteen]

It got a little dusty in my house during this ep lol.

[ProudMary]

I thought this was an excellent episode. The Ben/Paxton scenes were both touching and funny. As I'm not a teenage boy, I normally find scatological humor annoying, but that hospital scene had me 🤣.

I honestly expected the scene between Ben and his dad to be revealed as a dream. I'm glad they didn't go that route and cop out. It was great to see Ben finally be given affirmation by his father.

I like that even Trent is being written with more layers this season.

[dubbel zout]

LOL at Paxton carrying Ben to the hospital.

Someone needs to tell Ben that no one is going to care where he went to college once he gets his first job. And even then, only certain places care.

[Irlandesa]

17 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

Someone needs to tell Ben that no one is going to care where he went to college once he gets his first job. And even then, only certain places care.

Right.  Especially since he'll probably get into a very good school, appears to be very smart and works very hard.  So even though he's a "rich kid" whose father can buy his way into USC, having a work ethic will be good for him in life.

[memememe76]

As a Canadian, I never quite understand why so many American kids are soooooo focused on one school, whether it is Devi and Princeton or Ben and Columbia. If Ben did not get accepted into Columbia but got into Yale, he would consider himself a failure? This is fiction and all, but I have to think it’s an exaggerated version of some type of reality since it’s a pretty common plot line.

[dubbel zout]

The thing is, the hardest thing about a highly competitive school is getting in. Plenty of state schools, for example, have tough courses and excellent resources. Where the highly competitive schools might have an advantage is their alumni networks and that type of access. But the vast majority of people do just fine in life not having attended an Ivy League school or someplace like Stanford. The idea that you can't succeed otherwise is ridiculous and harmful.

[twoods]

Yes but that’s how a lot of high achieving high schoolers are- Ivy League or bust. It’s a mind set they’ve grown up with, either from their parents or self pressure. California has wonderful state schools, but even those are very difficult to get in (UCLA and Berkeley), so even sometimes the safer state schools aren’t a guarantee. 

[Irlandesa]

53 minutes ago, memememe76 said:

As a Canadian, I never quite understand why so many American kids are soooooo focused on one school, whether it is Devi and Princeton or Ben and Columbia. If Ben did not get accepted into Columbia but got into Yale, he would consider himself a failure?

A lot of students have their dream schools.  Ben's obsession was related to his father, though.  He wanted his dad to be proud of him by going to the same school he did. 

I think after their conversation in this episode, he still wants to go to Columbia but is less obsessive about it.  I'm sure he'd feel okay going to a backup choice.

[shapeshifter]

The Ben-Paxton scenes really made me LOL, and I don't usually laugh at TV.
The 2 actors should go do a bro/dude movie together (which I'd never watch). 
But I would watch a show where they were PIs starting their own business or something like that.
 

About Ben's obsession with Columbia -- as well as Devi's obsession with being academically best:
In the 90s I was the librarian at a private college prep high school.
There was a student who took 5 AP courses in one semester (and was on the Debate Team and had many other extracurriculars) and had a psychiatric break due to sleep loss. After that the school limited the number of AP courses a student could take per semester to something like 2 (I don't recall the exact number). 
Another student was pretty close to a total meltdown over only getting into Berkley instead of MIT. Or maybe it was the opposite? I think it was because of something like the high school not giving A+'s, so her 5.0 GPA could compete with 5.5 GPAs?
I wish I remembered their names so I could see how they're doing now. 

[dubbel zout]

I never wanted to go anywhere but my state school's flagship campus. I was all but guaranteed acceptance, so that took a lot of the angst out of things. This was also back in the Jurassic Age, when college admissions weren't the insanely pressured event they have become.

I'd like to see Ben get into Columbia but decide to go somewhere else. 

[twoods]

I couldn’t stop laughing at the clip of Ben screaming in Mandarin at Des. It was a nice callback to him speaking in Mandarin in season one when Devi wanted to switch Model UN with Chinese Club. Kudos to the writers. 

[tennisgurl]

I have been expected Ben to have a breakdown all season, he's clearly been overdoing it even by his usual standards, so while I would have killed for a Trent episode, this one was fun too. I like that Paxton and Ben bonded, I continue to really like how they have mixed up pairings a lot this season, and I am really glad that Ben got his nice moment with his dad. I was really worried that it would turn out to be a dream sequence, so I was relieved when it was real. 

Trent tossing a can at Ben and then giving him a huge hug was great, I am so happy for all of the quality Trent content this season, even with no Trent episode. 

[festivus]

Oh, I knew what was gonna be wrong with Ben. I feel cheated out of my promised fart though. I do feel like the show wants me to love Ben but I don't care much. Paxton is more interesting to me and I like his sweet nature. I think Ben and Devi are funny as rivals that are friends but I don't want or need more than that.

[Ilovepie]

I think my favorite moment is when the teacher caught Ben reading something else, but when she moved the book away it was AP Latin and she rolled her eyes and let him carry on.

I do think it's time to let Ben mature a little and stop being such a tool if the end game is for him and Devi to be together. I do like that Ben & Paxton realized that Des is basically a blend of both of them.

[Paloma]

On 8/14/2022 at 9:00 PM, dubbel zout said:

The thing is, the hardest thing about a highly competitive school is getting in. Plenty of state schools, for example, have tough courses and excellent resources. Where the highly competitive schools might have an advantage is their alumni networks and that type of access. But the vast majority of people do just fine in life not having attended an Ivy League school or someplace like Stanford. The idea that you can't succeed otherwise is ridiculous and harmful.

That's all true in general (as you said, for the vast majority of people), but which undergrad school you went to may make more of a difference if you want to be a lawyer, especially if you aspire to the big corporate law firms. I'm assuming that Ben wants to be a successful lawyer like his father, so he may think that going to Columbia is necessary in order to follow in his father's footsteps. In reality, I'm sure Ben would get good offers if he goes to any Ivy League school or even another school that is almost as competitive, because his father's connections would likely help him get a good start in his career.

On 8/14/2022 at 9:07 PM, twoods said:

Yes but that’s how a lot of high achieving high schoolers are- Ivy League or bust. It’s a mind set they’ve grown up with, either from their parents or self pressure.

Back in the Stone Age when I went to high school, we didn't have that kind of pressure (or maybe it was because it was a school in a relatively small town), but I witnessed this pressure firsthand when my daughter was in high school in the 1990s. She was in a magnet program, and most of her friends felt that they had to get into an Ivy or something close (and many of them did). They loaded up on AP and IB courses, were very anxious, and got very little sleep. My daughter felt the same academic pressure but had a different goal because she wanted to be a professional dancer. Although the pressure she felt was mostly self-imposed (especially the dance part), my husband and I did insist that she go to college in case dance did not work out. We didn't push for any particular schools, but we were happy that the ones she decided to apply to (which all had good dance programs) included an Ivy and another highly selective private university, as well as her dream arts school. She ended up going to the arts school and having a dance career, but I admit that I sometimes wish she had gone to one of the prestigious academic schools so that she might be better prepared for life after dance.

[chediavolo]

On 8/19/2022 at 5:17 PM, festivus said:

Oh, I knew what was gonna be wrong with Ben. I feel cheated out of my promised fart though. I do feel like the show wants me to love Ben but I don't care much. Paxton is more interesting to me and I like his sweet nature. I think Ben and Devi are funny as rivals that are friends but I don't want or need more than that.

They tend to show people holding their left side before an appendicitis diagnosis, when the appendix is on the right. Although it can happen it’s not common. So I figured it was stomach problems also. Do teenagers not know that something is wrong if you don’t poop for days. Never mind weeks?!

[dubbel zout]

Just now, chediavolo said:

Do teenagers not know that something is wrong if you don’t poop for days. Never mind weeks?!

Teenagers are dumb, even the smart ones. And talking to a doctor about pooping can be very embarrassing. Also, this is a TV show. If Ben resolved things on his own, there'd be no drama.

[twoods]

Some kids don’t realize they haven’t poop in over a week unless you ask them. Then they think about it and tell you, and there is a look of horror on the parent’s face. They are busy with school, sports, friends, social media, or whatever it is they do and don’t even think about things like that. I thought it was pretty realistic, especially since all Ben ate was those disgusting meat sticks. Paxton muttering “Oh my God” was perfect.

[Scarlett45]

Highlights of the episode-

1. when the  Principal told Ben “don’t call me baby!”

2. When Paxton scooped up Ben like a sack of potatoes in a very emasculating way!