S05.E07: Hate It or Love It

[jewel21]

Quote

Hustling to manage the fallout after some shocking news, Spencer reaches out to Billy for help while Jordan contemplates where his priorities are. Olivia feels conflicted about how to balance feelings about work and family. Layla helps Patience with a professional crisis after hitting a major social media landmark. Meanwhile, Coop’s first day of auditing law classes doesn’t go as she thought it would.

Airdate: 11/28/2022

[KWalkerInc]

I'm sure the writers thought the twist with Billy was going to be shocking, but they're pretty good at telegraphing things a good deal of the time.  At least in this case, there had been a few opportunities to have him go back to coaching Spencer and Jordan in the past (like when Toledo State offered the assistant's job), so they restrained themselves for a while.  If he takes the job, I hope he will make sure that Preach will still be okay, especially in the position he's in right now. 

I'm glad that Spencer wasn't really angry about Jordan transferring, especially considering the number of times he has changed schools or commitments to find the right fit (not just the one that Grace mentioned).  I'm guessing Jordan will stay, because it would be interesting for him to play against his dad, but it seems like the made-up school that starts with a W was the one he was considering more than Coastal, and that would probably be far away and keep him from being on the show.

It was funny at dinner when no one expressed any surprise at all about Coop putting her feelings ahead of the facts on her first day.  It's nice that they helped her and she wasn't defensive or anything.  I figured Sky would pop up even though she was gone half the season and only mentioned once.

I like Patience, but this storyline wasn't interesting me most of the episode.  But at the end, it seemed like Clay was right about Layla and Gia making her very uncomfortable.  She doesn't want to say anything because she's becoming more successful.  (Of course with Clay being the one to notice, Layla can just dismiss it because he's a jerk.)

Did Olivia buy herself the cupcake to show that she can celebrate her success?  I think that's what happened, but I wasn't sure if I wasn't paying attention for a second and her mom had given her the box or something.

And good job, Jaymee, staying totally out of the episode so that you wouldn't die!  (Plus there were minimal amounts of Asher.)

[Lonesome Rhodes]

The NCAA would never actively pursue GAU as a major offender - not until some major new facts were presented (Right, Professor?).  Whomever said it was about potential bowl ineligibility was correct.  Given that they would never be a bowl team next year, there would be no real sanctions.  The real liability would be from the lawsuits filed by the victims of bountygate.  I seriously doubt any insurer would cover that sort of misconduct.  

We finally got a small piece of the pecking order amongst the players when the upperclassmen told the Freshmen to stifle.  Loved it.  

I was rooting for Jordan to leave.  That's where his growth would be.  Also, the character is a walking cliche now.  The show desperately needs new blood.  By the way, when did he become the next great thing as a QB?  He barely made it on a roster.  He suffered crippling head trauma which forever labels him as damaged goods.  Now, he is a surefire All America?  He improved, yes.  Breakout year?  Not even close.

Olivia was being foolish and demonstrating she has no business being a muckraking journo.  She might could be a writer, or better yet, a local MMJ (multi-media journalist) whose job is to basically smile purty and promote the community, and sponsors.  Not one staffer touched the cake?  Trust me, they would have descended on that thing.

It was odd for the prof to circle back to the Renner? case.  Typically, they fly through tons of cases which 1) Gives a broad exposure to that area of law, and 2) Helps weed out the student pretenders from the contenduhs.  Coop could have sought him out after class or in office hours, though.  

Time to say buh bye to the beach condo.  Oh well.

If Billy took the gig, he would have almost literally zero time for any other purpose.  Establishing a program from such a place of weakness is all consuming and draining.  As it is, he sure seems to have a very unrealistic amount of personal time with the gig he now has.

All in all, a pretty meh half-season.  

[FnkyChkn34]

OF COURSE the Athletic Director offered the job to Billy.  Because Billy is the best coach ever!  Forget the fact that HE has no college experience whatsoever, and the wide receivers' coach DOES, let's just be a hypocrite and go back on everything he said about everyone else...  If anyone didn't see this "twist" coming from a mile away, congratulations on picking this episode as your first ever time to watch All American. 

[mojoween]

On 11/29/2022 at 1:14 AM, KWalkerInc said:

I figured Sky would pop up even though she was gone half the season and only mentioned once.

I was fine never seeing her again.

The song in the Amazon commercial with Romeo and Juliet’s families, which I am sure is famous but I know nothing about music made after like 1996, sounds so much like Patience I wish it were actually her singing it.

Asher sucks, some more.  Why the Montes family thinks he’s so damned important is beyond my capabilities of knowing.

[KWalkerInc]

Until Coop said something about Sky in the premiere, I assumed they had broken up because of Coop sleeping with Patience.  But I guess all she did was tell Coop to resolve things and they stayed together.  I don't know why they had Grace have to give approval, or why Coop just can't be single when they didn't have Sky on until now anyway.

At least Asher's facial hair is no longer on the show.  Even though it was very distracting last season, I had completely forgotten about it until this episode, when I think it was gone in the premiere.  I thought I had imagined it, but there was visual proof and discussions of it when I searched.

Ratings were down to the point that the episode was only a hundredth ahead of Homecoming in the 18-49 demo.  If new ownership of the network doesn't want to keep the show, hopefully they will tell them soon enough to wrap it up properly.