S02.E07: Dumb Deaths

[shapeshifter]

33 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

Sam didn't make the connection that her coffee shop was named after Flower until after the article was written, because Flower didn't tell her Ira called her Daisy until the end of the episode. But in the flashback we saw in this episode Ira called her Flower. So I guess he only called her Daisy on special occasions. 

Ah! Thanks, @iMonrey.
So Jay was probably just trying to make sure it didn't sound like he considered someone named Flower a friend, even though she died 50 years ago.

[Driad]

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

I thought Hetty was acting a bit out of character here. She doesn't believe women should be able to vote or handle money or ride bicycles but suddenly she's power tripping after this female producer? I thought she should have been following her around criticizing her and protesting against her.

In Hetty's time, a lady was expected to be a firm manager of her household servants. Maybe the producer reminded Hetty of that part of her experience.

[Neptune]

Ghosts: Mathew Baynton On Becoming a Second Pete
https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/ghosts-mathew-baynton-on-becoming-a-second-pete/

[Zanne]

On 11/11/2022 at 11:43 AM, ams1001 said:

I thought she was shown in the early episodes to have much bigger slash marks on her upper back (normally hidden by her dress, I guess). That could have hit something pretty vital.

(Of course, I could be wrong and I can't find any image or video to back me up.)

I remember she had claw marks on her back, too. Ghosts wiki says her distinguishing characteristic is "Claw marks on the back of her right shoulder".

[ZuluQueenOfDwarves]

The more I think about it, the more surprising it is that Dumb Deaths was willing to portray Pete as being drunk while caring for young children. Since there’s no evidence that’s the case, and in fact they pretty easily proved it wasn’t (thanks Jennifer!), wouldn’t that open them up to a lawsuit for defamation of character? Especially since Sam made it clear that she knows Pete’s widow and isn’t happy with what they’re saying about him. 

Edited November 13, 2022 by ZuluQueenOfDwarves

[elle]

It took me until the end of the episode when they were watching the show to make the connection to CBBC’s Horrible Histories “Stupid Deaths”.

[Daff]

On 11/11/2022 at 12:06 PM, iMonrey said:

Those wouldn't have killed her and she seemed to have died instantly. 

One possibility, if she were really flaccid from the drugs, that one strike might well have broken her neck. Once she proved lifeless, the bear would have moved on.

[Daff]

15 hours ago, Driad said:

In Hetty's time, a lady was expected to be a firm manager of her household servants. Maybe the producer reminded Hetty of that part of her experience.

I saw it more as an indication that Hetty’s character is developing beyond her initial view that women should be seen, not heard in “acceptable society”. Every week, we see her being more vocal and demanding outside her home, as well as becoming more accepting of others’ views.

[possibilities]

...but she's still a snob who likes to lord power over others.

[KarenX]

I just love that by the end of the episode Isaac and Nigel can joke about their “special relationship.” They are very sweet. 
 

I was kinda glad to hear Nigel speak up for the crown. For all Isaac’s bluster, Nigel really is the braver one who is willing to take more risks. That said, this isn’t his first gay relationship. Isaac is still trying to figure out who he is in a partnership with an equal, focused solely on love (vs a husband over a wife, married for social and economic reasons).

[Annber03]

3 hours ago, KarenX said:

I just love that by the end of the episode Isaac and Nigel can joke about their “special relationship.” They are very sweet. 
 

I was kinda glad to hear Nigel speak up for the crown. For all Isaac’s bluster, Nigel really is the braver one who is willing to take more risks. That said, this isn’t his first gay relationship. Isaac is still trying to figure out who he is in a partnership with an equal, focused solely on love (vs a husband over a wife, married for social and economic reasons).

Yeah, I really like how they're exploring that tension and that element of their relationship. And I like how Isaac's insecurities about his place in history and his coming out story tend to overlap and touch on some of the same issues and struggles, it really adds some depth to his whole character and general storyilne. Thank goodness Nigel is such a patient, understanding guy :). 

[possibilities]

I imagine that having no or very few options, and knowing this may persist for eternity, night make a person more patient than usual.

[ZuluQueenOfDwarves]

Wasn’t it during the Halloween episode that Pete tried telling Isaac there were plenty of fish in the sea, only to conclude that Isaac’s options outside of Nigel are the fife player, possibly Thor, or eternal celibacy?

[iMonrey]

I've harped on this in other threads so I might as well harp on it here too. 

When the actor playing Pete first arrived, he told a PA to put away her phone because it wasn't period-correct for the 80s and he was trying to stay in character. Along those lines, he asked if someone would get him a Tab.

Tab (the soft drink) has been increasingly used by TV writers as shorthand for "this is in the past." They did it on Stranger Things, they did it on La Brea, and they did it on at least one other show I watch. However, in every instance they've gotten the decade wrong.

Pete died in 1985. By then, Diet Coke had largely displaced Tab as the diet soft drink of choice. While Tab was still available it's highly unlikely anyone would have asked for one in 1985. But the writers know Tab means "the past" whereas "Diet Coke" does not. Unfortunately, Tab is more specific to the 70s. And its primary consumers were women who were trying to diet. 

So, Tab? Ha ha, get it, "the past." Wrong decade though.

[The Crazed Spruce]

Well, the actor playing Pete was an idiot....

[KerleyQ]

On 11/25/2022 at 9:57 AM, iMonrey said:

Pete died in 1985. By then, Diet Coke had largely displaced Tab as the diet soft drink of choice. While Tab was still available it's highly unlikely anyone would have asked for one in 1985. But the writers know Tab means "the past" whereas "Diet Coke" does not. Unfortunately, Tab is more specific to the 70s. And its primary consumers were women who were trying to diet. 

So, Tab? Ha ha, get it, "the past." Wrong decade though.

Maybe it was regional, but it was still very much a thing throughout the 80's in my small midwest town. During high school (86-90), I worked concessions stands for my old junior high's athletic events, and we always had to have Tab, or the moms would be pissed. And in the late 80's and early 90's, I worked for a local store, and we sold it at a pretty good clip there, definitely more than we sold Diet Coke. We had some customers who knew what day of the week we got our delivery, and they'd be in that day to get multiple cases as soon as it hit the shelves. When it was out, if I told people "but we do have some Diet Coke," they were not pleased. I always found it funny when Diet Coke became THE diet drink at the top of the heap, because I still remember how disgusted customers would be back then when we suggested it as an alternative when we were out of Tab. Even Diet Rite was outpacing Diet Coke in our town back then. 

[iMonrey]

One other thing - Trevor said when football came up he'd change the subject to something non-controversial "like the Cosby Show or Woody Allen movies." Except that Woody Allen had already become quite controversial by 2000, when Trevor died. He married Soon-Yi in 1997 and that whole story was all over the tabloids and it was quite the scandal.

[Stats Queen]

On 11/25/2022 at 10:57 AM, iMonrey said:

I've harped on this in other threads so I might as well harp on it here too. 

When the actor playing Pete first arrived, he told a PA to put away her phone because it wasn't period-correct for the 80s and he was trying to stay in character. Along those lines, he asked if someone would get him a Tab.

Tab (the soft drink) has been increasingly used by TV writers as shorthand for "this is in the past." They did it on Stranger Things, they did it on La Brea, and they did it on at least one other show I watch. However, in every instance they've gotten the decade wrong.

Pete died in 1985. By then, Diet Coke had largely displaced Tab as the diet soft drink of choice. While Tab was still available it's highly unlikely anyone would have asked for one in 1985. But the writers know Tab means "the past" whereas "Diet Coke" does not. Unfortunately, Tab is more specific to the 70s. And its primary consumers were women who were trying to diet. 

So, Tab? Ha ha, get it, "the past." Wrong decade though.

My college roommate in 1983 drank Tab every morning. Tab was not longer popular, it was definitely on the decline. I think die hard fans kept it going for several years. 

[The Crazed Spruce]

On 11/29/2022 at 12:29 PM, iMonrey said:

One other thing - Trevor said when football came up he'd change the subject to something non-controversial "like the Cosby Show or Woody Allen movies." Except that Woody Allen had already become quite controversial by 2000, when Trevor died. He married Soon-Yi in 1997 and that whole story was all over the tabloids and it was quite the scandal.

As I recall, it was considered creepy but not career-killing at the time, because they were both adults when the news came out, and the concept of "grooming" wasn't really prevalent back then.

[ams1001]

On 11/25/2022 at 10:57 AM, iMonrey said:

Pete died in 1985. By then, Diet Coke had largely displaced Tab as the diet soft drink of choice. While Tab was still available it's highly unlikely anyone would have asked for one in 1985. But the writers know Tab means "the past" whereas "Diet Coke" does not. Unfortunately, Tab is more specific to the 70s. And its primary consumers were women who were trying to diet. 

So, Tab? Ha ha, get it, "the past." Wrong decade though.

When I was in fourth grade - 1984-1985 - my friend and I were sent to the teachers' lounge every morning to get our teacher a Tab.

[ZuluQueenOfDwarves]

So, I don’t have social media, but this felt like an appropriate place to post—one of my students is very advanced, and today I let them run spelling class (a worksheet that the class did as a group) and I could see my own mannerisms in the way they were differentiating for their peers, making sure everyone got a fair amount of turns, and pumping them up. I imagine it’s the real-life version of how Pete felt watching Jennifer correctly apply what he taught her forty years ago. 

[PaulE]

Rewatching Isaac and Nigel's argument about the Stamp Act tonight made me think about what I was taught about the relationship between Britain and the colonies. When I was in school, it was all Britain's fault and King George III was a tyrant.  Today I think students are given a more nuanced view: the Brits did mismanage things but they also had their own points of view and some of these--such as Nigel's about the reasons for the Stamp Act--weren't entirely unreasonable if you think about it.  And although the king supported his government, by the latter part of the eighteenth century it really was Parliament who was calling most of the shots, not the king.  In fact, when John Adams presented his credentials as the first American ambassador, the king told him that though he was the last person to agree to the separation, since it did happen he'd be the first to be friends with us.   When you read some of the British and American primary sources from the revolutionary period, you start to realize that both sides were talking at, rather than to, each other.  I think if it were happening today, with modern communications, there'd still be a split eventually but probably not a war.  Even though this is a goofy sitcom, it's nice that the writers incorporated a revised view of history.  It also makes Nigel more sympathetic: not so much a "filthy redcoat" as a patriotic Englishman doing his duty.

[PattyorSelma]

Upon watching the rerun, my favorite line is actor Pete muttering, “ Why am I saying howdy? Who am I? Jonathan Wayne?” 
He was much funnier the second time around.  The first time, he was much more annoying.😁

[Orbert]

As we become more familiar with the characters, we get used to their little quirks which might have annoyed but now are just part of the characters.  I'm constantly impressed by the commitment to the characters by all of the actors.  There's often half a dozen or more of them on screen, and they always respond to things in character, whether it's a throwaway line like that or just an expression or physical reaction.

[Mabinogia]

31 minutes ago, Orbert said:

I'm constantly impressed by the commitment to the characters by all of the actors.  There's often half a dozen or more of them on screen, and they always respond to things in character, whether it's a throwaway line like that or just an expression or physical reaction.

It makes rewatching so fun because it is hard to watch them all at once the first time, so on rewatch you can see all those little moments of reaction, or even just standing around listening to the main scene. While there may be characters I like more than others, I think the actors are all absolutely perfect in their roles. Whoever cast this show deserves an EMMY.