S05.E07: Welcome to the Working Week

[jewel21]

Quote

When Calvin hires Grover to work part-time at his business, he soon realizes the pre-teen is not a good fit. Also, Marty and Necie reconsider their living situation.

Airdate: 11/14/2022

[AnimeMania]

[DanaK]

I can’t believe Dave and Gemma never taught their son how to sweep. And the boys need to make their parents understand that they need to knock first before entering their home or better yet, call first; I don’t think Marty and Neicy quite made that particular point to Tina

[Empress1]

55 minutes ago, DanaK said:

I can’t believe Dave and Gemma never taught their son how to sweep.

I would be embarrassed if my 12-year-old didn’t know how to sweep.

Dave spouting Calvin’s Black parent phrases cracked me up. When he caught himself saying “I brought you in this world, I’ll take you out,” I fell out. 

[possibilities]

Yeah, Dave and Gemma are at fault for not raising Grover to know basic things, like: how to sweep, how not to goof off at work, not to spill something and just leave it on the floor for someone to slip and fall on. 

[Harvey]

Between this and the baseball episode, they are really working overtime making Dave and Gemma look like bad parents. And what's up with Gemma's "I don't want my kid on the internet" schtick? As if it was possible to prevent that. Kids live their lives online these days. There is no stopping that. If she shelters Grover too much that will just make him weak in the long run.

I'm glad that in the end Gemma & Dave came around and that Grover ended up being useful. And Grover's "I'm not cool like you dad" line was so funny 😃

The Marty B-Plot was on fire too, a really strong episode in general.

[EtheltoTillie]

10 hours ago, DanaK said:

I can’t believe Dave and Gemma never taught their son how to sweep. And the boys need to make their parents understand that they need to knock first before entering their home or better yet, call first; I don’t think Marty and Neicy quite made that particular point to Tina

Gotta hand wave the no knock rule. It’s sitcom 101. They’ve been doing it since Lucy and Ethel. Then Seinfeld. Sheldon on BBT was the exception that proves the rule. 

[Katy M]

I get that Grover ended up doing a good thing, but I still wish he had gotten his phone taken away for a week.  

1. He knew he wasn't supposed to be posting videos to that site and he did it anyway.

2. While recording a video when he was supposed to be working, he threw a wrench into someone's face (accidentally, I know, but that's really not cool).

3. He posted a video with Calvin and identified without his permission.

It's great that everyone ended up happy (except maybe the guy that Grover kept injuring), but there should be consequences to his behavior.

I did kind of get a laugh when Calvin told him to try sweeping and Grover dumped what he had already done onto the floor so he could sweep it again.

Edited November 15, 2022 by Katy M

[HurricaneVal]

Once again, the brothers (and Niecey) are the best parts of the episode.  I really like how they've shown Marty and Malcolm to be growing and maturing--even though they already were adults.  Yes, Marty has a great job, and he had his own apartment, so appeared to be all grown up, yet he really wasn't.  Early on, he was goofy and nerdy and immature, but he's had some serious growth once he figured out what he really wanted in life.  I don't think it was Niecey maturing him, I think he matured and that's what made him attractive to Niecey.  I like their relationship.  I also love that Malcolm is still teasing his younger brother, and has included Niecey in the mix.  She was annoyed at his using her body wash, but annoyed in the little sister/roommate exasperated way, not in the enraged "crossed my boundaries" way.

Sigh.  The Grover bit.  I think we've seen a definite softening of Calvin, because he took the whole shenanigans in his garage very well.  He wasn't mean to Grover, but he also didn't yell at Dave.  Grover definitely needed some punishment for doing all that stupid stuff--the wrench swinging was particularly egregious--as well as openly defying his parents.  Yes, he's good on "Paddywhack" but he should still see some consequences from that.  The show really side-stepped internet security concerns by implying "Paddywhack" was OK because it was from Korea.  Tik-Tok has security issues, so it was an interesting way to skate past those issues. 

The show is called "The Neighborhood" so of course Marty and Niecey are going to buy the cute little Craftsman house around the corner!

[callie lee 29]

I can completely believe Gemma and Dave haven't taught Gorver to sweep. There's never been real evidence that the kid has been taught any chores at all. I like Gemma and Grover but man she babies that kid. He's 12, not 5. Sure you monitor internet usage but "no internet" is just not realistic. They really need to start showing him some basic life skills or he's going to be in a lot of trouble later on. 

[zoey1996]

Tina was over the top with her just coming over whenever and giving gifts that were her taste without checking if Marty/Niecy/Malcolm were OK with them. I think she’ll back off, but it may not happen easily.

And yes, Grover’s 12, plenty old enough to be doing some household chores and obeying basic rules. I think the ones his folks spelled out were reasonable at the end.

[mansonlamps]

Honestly I think this show would improve a LOT if they switched the focus to Marty, Malcolm and Neicy.  I personally find them to be the stronger actors (haha the "mama's thong" scene was epic) and the premise of "sheltered white family moves to black neighborhood" was dropped this season anyway in favor of showing gentrification. And OMG the Grover character is painfully bad,  like robotic kids from 50's sitcoms bad. If they need to center stories around that kid I would definitely be out of this series.

[Empress1]

On 11/16/2022 at 9:24 PM, mansonlamps said:

“sheltered white family moves to black neighborhood" was dropped this season anyway in favor of showing gentrification.

Also the Johnsons have lived there for 4-5 years at this point so they’re used to living with Black people - the whole “fish out of water” thing isn’t a thing anymore. And the families are officially friends, so the whole “Calvin is a curmudgeon about Dave” thing is done. He still teases Dave but he and Dave are close.

I love Tichina and Cedric though.