S05.E08: Of Missing Minds and Missing Fries

[andidante]

18 hours ago, Egg McMuffin said:

Laurie Metcalf is marvelous. Her performance in the first four or five seasons of the original series is something to behold. Jackie became cartoonish in the later episodes of the original series and that continues in the new series. Becky is cartoonish too. I know the actors are being directed to play it that way, but it’s a bit of a shame, because they are capable of better performances.

I loved Jackie in the original! I don't know why they think this version of her is better? I know she and her mother did not get along very well, but she seems over the top hateful now and it's not necessary in my opinion. 

[Wizardpatch]

The first interview guy sounded like he was open to Darlene convincing him that Bill Wellman was the one lying, but she just gave up on trying and went full sarcastic at the end.

[bybrandy]

My grandfather had non Alzheimer’s dementia and it can present on weird ways. He was a creature of habit and he did the same thing every day so long as he could shower and shave and feed himself. 

 If his routine got distrusted he was lost. my mom and I visited and we are in the kitchen one morning and my mom is in the bathroom and he is telling me how my mom never visits and I’m all I wonder who he thinks is in the bathroom. 

[kassa]

I just don't understand why they don't acknowledge Andy. Alienation from him for whatever reason could be a major plot point for Jackie (Metcalf could do it justice) but here was an episode custom made for returning to canon, and they just skip it. Jackie's excited for her mom to realize she's capable of getting married. Well she was married, and in Bev's eyes she definitely screwed it up, and she definitely wasn't a great mom to Andy ("good mothers put sweaters on their babies"). But instead we get a generic "you never thought I'd amount to anything" speech, like these aren't characters whose lives we watched unfold for YEARS.

At this point I'm surprised they even kept the Mark character instead of just saying Becky was unpopular in high school and started drinking because she couldn't get a date.

I don't care about Jerry, because to my mind he didn't actually move the plot in any way. But Jackie and Fred's relationship and marriage were very strong material for several years, and becoming a mother changed her relationship with Roseanne in fundamental ways (until the Gilligan transformation).

[bybrandy]

Because the showrunners are on record as saying Andy never happened.  I mean it is super weird because Andy was before everything got so bizarre and bad but the powers that be have been consistent about him not existing. 

[Pallas]

Andy did not appear in this episode, nor was he mentioned. Any further discussion of him should happen in The Conners Past and Present. Thanks!

[Lorna Mae]

On 11/21/2022 at 1:26 PM, bybrandy said:

My grandfather had non Alzheimer’s dementia and it can present on weird ways. He was a creature of habit and he did the same thing every day so long as he could shower and shave and feed himself. 

 If his routine got distrusted he was lost. my mom and I visited and we are in the kitchen one morning and my mom is in the bathroom and he is telling me how my mom never visits and I’m all I wonder who he thinks is in the bathroom. 

About ten years ago, my MIL paid me to declutter her friend’s house. (They’ve both since passed.) He seemed okay mentally, but physically he was in need of a visiting nurse. Except he was mortified to have someone he didn’t know see his house. Not a job for Matt Paxton, just that he never threw/put anything away. I got everything clean and organized, arrangements were made for a visiting nurse…and then he started getting disoriented. Red flag when he called MIL to grumble that the KFC he often walked to had disappeared. Musta closed up and reopened as a Dairy Queen, because that was all he could find. MIL finally figured out that he’d turned left instead of right at the end of his street. And there were other things that, from his POV, changed or disappeared overnight. And I can’t help thinking that this was the result of my changing his environment. The ratchet set spilling out of its case in the foyer, and the heap of empty water bottles in the kitchen corner had been his guideposts. Without them, he didn’t know which way to turn. He very soon went into assisted living, which was good in the long run; maybe I shouldn’t feel so guilty.

ETA: Since when was Dan’s father a drunk? He was a workaholic.

Edited December 1, 2022 by Lorna Mae