S02.E08: Pre-Frosh Weekend

[peachmangosteen]

Airs December 8th.

[emma675]

I loved that Leighton's dad excused himself from the table after she came out, not because he was upset she was gay, but he was upset at himself for not knowing his daughter better. He's a mess (the whole thing about not going down because of her mom's charity fraud cracked me up) but I think he's a good dad to Leighton. I'm not sure how I feel about Alicia coming back, though. 

Lila was once again the best. Her glee over leaving the dorm party to watch Bella fight with Priya in the woods was hilarious. 

And Jackson showed surprising depth with Kimberly. Maybe he's not just a hot bod and a good lay? Who knew!

[Irlandesa]

This was another good episode.  I do not want Alicia back.  The Twincest still has mileage. 

The scenes with Leighton, Tatum and their dads was good and heartwarming. 

My favorite bit was Canaan coming across Whitney and her lab partner having sex in the library and him going "I was just looking for a book...(grabs random book)....on Reagan. "

[DearEvette]

Maybe because I am a lowkey Canaan-Kimberly shipper, but I thought I felt a little more than teasing when he and Lila were talking about  when he was talking Jackson. 

Priya is really, really  pretty. 

Ok the dads made me like Tatum/Leighton this episode.  I liked the come out scene and her convo with her dad a lot.

1 hour ago, Irlandesa said:

My favorite bit was Canaan coming across Whitney and her lab partner having sex in the library and him going "I was just looking for a book...(grabs random book)....on Reagan. "

Yeah.  I cracked up. 

Also, Lila had some great lines, as usual.

[Irlandesa]

1 hour ago, DearEvette said:

Maybe because I am a lowkey Canaan-Kimberly shipper, but I thought I felt a little more than teasing when he and Lila were talking about  when he was talking Jackson. 

Oh I totally noticed his reaction seemed more exasperated at first than excitedly mocking like Lila.  Plus, his reaction to catching Whitney inflagrante was not what I'd consider bothered.

[Cranberry]

I hope the writers don't try to force a love triangle with Leighton, Tatum, and Alicia. If that's what they're doing, they misstepped by casting Gracie Dzienny as Tatum; the fans on Twitter are going nuts for her in a way they didn't for Alicia (Gracie was half of a beloved f/f ship on Chasing Life and was one of the fan favorite characters on lesbian vampire show First Kill, so she had an advantage with the WLW section of the fandom coming in). That includes "Leighton" herself, heh. Compare her tweets about the two love interests:

No relationships last long on this show, though, so I don't think there's any point in getting invested in any one couple. I'm just in it for the ride.

[absnow54]

1 hour ago, Cranberry said:

No relationships last long on this show, though, so I don't think there's any point in getting invested in any one couple. I'm just in it for the ride.

Yes. It's making it really difficult to get invested in any of the "long term" relationships. Whitney hooking up with her lab partner is one thing, because it's very much framed in the narrative of "temporary." But pairings like Jackson and Kimberly or Tatum and Leighton, which are getting actual development seem like a waste of time at this point, because you know the show is just going to break them up within 5 episodes (see Whitney/Canaan, Kimberly/Nicco, and Bela/Eric.) I feel like they're missing out on a lot of story potential by cycling through decent love interests so quickly. Let them breathe, Mindy! 

[DearEvette]

2 hours ago, Cranberry said:

No relationships last long on this show, though, so I don't think there's any point in getting invested in any one couple. I'm just in it for the ride.

Right?  Tatum has been on the show for 2 episodes and the show messaging per Whitney's friend Willow is that it is just a phase to date yourself when you first come out. 

1 hour ago, absnow54 said:

I feel like they're missing out on a lot of story potential by cycling through decent love interests so quickly. Let them breathe, Mindy! 

I think Season one was a bit smarter in how it looked at the 'Sex lives."  Each girl was a bit different.  You had Whitney who had a very taboo romance with her coach.  Then you have Leighton who was deeply closeted and was having secretive hook ups that nobody could know about.  And then you had Kimberly who had the boyfriend at home but was pining for Nico.  And Bela who was the hook-ups girl.  They all had a different tension. 

Now all of them seem to be in just random mode.  And they are burning through story a bit imo.  For instance, It would have been nice to see Canaan start to like the new co-worker and Whitney noticing it in increments while even she herself was starting to like lab bro so their break up could have come a little later and had a better impact.  We haven't even seen the super cool, what was her name again?  Simone?  In 4 episodes. 

[aghst]

3 hours ago, absnow54 said:

Yes. It's making it really difficult to get invested in any of the "long term" relationships. Whitney hooking up with her lab partner is one thing, because it's very much framed in the narrative of "temporary." But pairings like Jackson and Kimberly or Tatum and Leighton, which are getting actual development seem like a waste of time at this point, because you know the show is just going to break them up within 5 episodes (see Whitney/Canaan, Kimberly/Nicco, and Bela/Eric.) I feel like they're missing out on a lot of story potential by cycling through decent love interests so quickly. Let them breathe, Mindy! 

2 hours ago, DearEvette said:

Right?  Tatum has been on the show for 2 episodes and the show messaging per Whitney's friend Willow is that it is just a phase to date yourself when you first come out. 

I think Season one was a bit smarter in how it looked at the 'Sex lives."  Each girl was a bit different.  You had Whitney who had a very taboo romance with her coach.  Then you have Leighton who was deeply closeted and was having secretive hook ups that nobody could know about.  And then you had Kimberly who had the boyfriend at home but was pining for Nico.  And Bela who was the hook-ups girl.  They all had a different tension. 

Now all of them seem to be in just random mode.  And they are burning through story a bit imo.  For instance, It would have been nice to see Canaan start to like the new co-worker and Whitney noticing it in increments while even she herself was starting to like lab bro so their break up could have come a little later and had a better impact.  We haven't even seen the super cool, what was her name again?  Simone?  In 4 episodes. 

Seems like they want the girls to have a lot of experiences with little consequences moving on.  They don't get heartbroken or have long funks, it's onto the next.

Few consequences, Canaan breaks up with Whitney, she's not too broken up.  Leighton gives some chlamydia, still gets into the sorority, but for now is settling in with Tatum.  I forget Kimberly's reaction to getting Nico in trouble and he has to go to another school but she's moved on.  Bela was jealous, then wanted to date Eric ,which lasted a couple of minutes and got told off.  But she'll move on, not dwell too much on what she did.

Maybe towards the end of the series, when they're suppose to be on the verge of graduation, one or two of them will settle with someone they think is there lifelong partner or something.

Or maybe actually have some consequences for awhile.  

College isn't just some guilt-free sexual romp for all.  Some have deep heartbreak, some bond, some actually have growth.

[Pike Ludwell]

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Edited December 9, 2022 by Pike Ludwell

[peachmangosteen]

21 hours ago, emma675 said:

Lila was once again the best. Her glee over leaving the dorm party to watch Bella fight with Priya in the woods was hilarious. 

"She's gonna go slap a little girl in the woods!"

19 hours ago, DearEvette said:

Maybe because I am a lowkey Canaan-Kimberly shipper, but I thought I felt a little more than teasing when he and Lila were talking about  when he was talking Jackson. 

I had the same feeling.

[DearEvette]

3 hours ago, aghst said:

Seems like they want the girls to have a lot of experiences with little consequences moving on.  They don't get heartbroken or have long funks, it's onto the next.

This makes total sense.  But I guess I have to stop thinking logically and trying to apply real time to this show.  Because ... unless we skipped over Christmas and final grades, they have only been in school for 3 - 3 1/2 months?  Whitney and Canaan got together after family  weekend which typically happens in October-ish.  So they would've been 3 weeks together max?  I guess it explains why he didn't think of her as a full blown girlfriend yet.  And wasn't heartbroken by her moving on.  But yeah the show doesn't even let them get a nice flirt on first. 

At least they got the soccer schedule right.  Collegiate soccer season is short.  Runs late Aug - Late Oct.

[gesundheit]

I'm not so into Tatum (nothing about her in particular is bad - I just get bored of the twincest thing beyond a comic beat) but she could be worth it to me if her total disinterest in Greek life moves the girls away from framing that as the only social scene worth paying attention to. (Speaking of which, odd that that still do that anyway especially after Leighton's whole non-Greek awakening last season.)

3 hours ago, DearEvette said:

This makes total sense.  But I guess I have to stop thinking logically and trying to apply real time to this show.  Because ... unless we skipped over Christmas and final grades, they have only been in school for 3 - 3 1/2 months?  Whitney and Canaan got together after family  weekend which typically happens in October-ish.  So they would've been 3 weeks together max?  I guess it explains why he didn't think of her as a full blown girlfriend yet.  And wasn't heartbroken by her moving on.  But yeah the show doesn't even let them get a nice flirt on first. 

I think we actually did move really fast because I'd been wondering the same thing -- but it sounded to me like maybe a new trimester began after they came back from Thanksgiving (which is why there were new students and they started new classes) and it now actually is springtime. Plus of course we jumped a couple months by the timing of Kimberly's egg harvesting. Previews next week talk about it being the end of freshman year. I wish they'd been clearer about the passage of time, it's been so confusing! Are we in the final trimester or the middle one right now?? (Judging from the outdoor scenes it better be the final trimester of the academic year because come on, it's Vermont. There's no green in March/April.)

[Empress1]

On 12/9/2022 at 1:26 PM, aghst said:

College isn't just some guilt-free sexual romp for all.  Some have deep heartbreak, some bond, some actually have growth.

One of my male friends in college got his heart shattered by a woman he thought he was going to marry. And she moved on pretty quickly (she got a new boyfriend when she studied abroad and was with him at least until grad and she’s now married to someone else we went to college with, a real sweetheart) and he was straight up pining for a while. (He’s married now.) Me and my college friends did a bit of everything, but freshman year was pretty hook-up-ish - and this was pre-apps.

On 12/9/2022 at 9:30 AM, absnow54 said:

But pairings like Jackson and Kimberly or Tatum and Leighton, which are getting actual development seem like a waste of time at this point, because you know the show is just going to break them up within 5 episodes (see Whitney/Canaan, Kimberly/Nicco, and Bela/Eric.)

I actually really like Jackson and Kimberly - he’s very sweet to her. He kisses her goodbye publicly, his gesture with the Chinese food was nice, he makes an effort to try out stuff she likes. I like them together but as you say, they’re probably not long for this world.

[emma675]

On 12/9/2022 at 4:37 PM, DearEvette said:

But I guess I have to stop thinking logically and trying to apply real time to this show.  Because ... unless we skipped over Christmas and final grades, they have only been in school for 3 - 3 1/2 months? 

I rewatched the season last night and I finally figured out they are in late spring/coming up on the end of their freshman year. They kind of glossed over Christmas and any kind of holiday or spring break but the last two episodes have been in the spring.