S04.E07: Tommy Dearest

[jewel21]

Quote

The 126 help a husband whose wife "dies" when she is not upside down. Grace takes a call from a pizza delivery driver who is in for the shock of his life. Tommy is worried Trevor's young daughter is a bad seed as she attempts to break them up. Paul is hesitant to go on a date with Asha, who knows him prior to his transition.

Airdate: 03/07/2023

[bilgistic]

Owen managed to make a Black trans man's journey about him.

[Lady Calypso]

Weird episode, I don't think I liked it all that much.

Tommy's feud with Melody was super immature. Tommy, be the adult, goddamn. Melody's a brat, for sure, and she should have been exposed to Trevor on her blackmail, but Tommy was super immature fighting a twelve year old. I did not like it at all. 

Paul getting a somewhat centric episode was nice (he had the B plot) and, yeah, I kind of expected that Owen would be involved somehow. But, yeah, Paul's transition became about Owen's 9/11 trauma which...was a choice. 

Ah, yes, the lawsuit that was dropped because, surprise, the couple who tried to scam the fire department didn't have their plan pan out! And that means Marjan quit for nothing and we may or may not see her for a while, depending if they'll follow through with her offscreen journey or if she'll be back next week, ready to get back to work. Or maybe she'll sue the department herself, who knows?

Not much else happened. It was a primarily Tommy vs a kid story, with Paul and Owen swapping histories and a little bit of Grace and Judd. 

This season continues to...not improve, even after the worst episode of the series from last week.

[possibilities]

They at least did one rescue, with the pizza delivery guy and the diabetic woman.

 

[iMonrey]

Quote

Tommy's feud with Melody was super immature. Tommy, be the adult, goddamn. Melody's a brat, for sure, and she should have been exposed to Trevor on her blackmail, but Tommy was super immature fighting a twelve year old. I did not like it at all. 

This was really stupid. Who writes this show? Did they get new writers? Bad ones? This season has just been awful. First of all, if Melody wasn't really sick before, she sure as hell would have been after drinking that drink. Second of all, if Tommy was going to break up with Trevor without telling him the truth about why, they why did she turn around mere seconds later and say to Melody - right in front of him - "you don't have to pretend anymore, you won, I just broke up with him?" I mean, talk about a giveaway! 

Tommy should have immediately gone to Trevor and told him what his kid said as soon as he turned his back. Then Trevor should have sat his kid's little ass down and told her she doesn't talk to grown folk that way and she doesn't run his life. 

I think the writers actually thought this was "cute." It was not.

I can sympathize with Paul, anyway. This woman remembers him as someone else and keeps wanting to bring up that time in his life, which was a painful and difficult time for him in may ways that he'd just as soon forget. She's a constant reminder of a bad part of his life.

[shapeshifter]

29 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

think the writers actually thought this was "cute." It was not.

At least the episode title was apt, referencing a not-cute personage:   
“Mommy Tommy Dearest”

[eel21788]

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

 if Melody wasn't really sick before, she sure as hell would have been after drinking that drink.

I was expecting her to puke all over Tommy as soon as she finished drinking it.

[eel21788]

13 hours ago, possibilities said:

They at least did one rescue, with the pizza delivery guy and the diabetic woman.

She should have been taken to the hospital, too. For Pete's sake, she had just been in a coma resulting from insulin shock. At least keep her in the presence of medical professionals until they could be sure her glucose level was stable.

As for the untrained delivery guy being talked through how to kick down a door: when my dad was trapped in the house, the fire department first took a sledgehammer to the doorknob until it was fully disengaged, then they kicked it in (leaving a size 12 boot print), and that door didn't even have a deadbolt to contend with. I'm not buying that the delivery guy could do it successfully on his second try.

[DearEvette]

God, there was so much dumb in this episode.  I hate that it splashed all over my favorites, Tommy and Grace.

First, I will say I did like the two rescues we got.  Yeah, unless Grace knew what kind of door that woman had it isn't as easy as that to kick it a door in or a woman coming out of an insulin shock almost coma and immediately being lucid and aware enough to grab a taser from a pile of other stuff and taze a guy.  But... we'll go with it for the tv-ness of it all.  But I liked the little wink of them naming a guy who delivers pizza from a company called 'Swords and Slices' Lance.

Also the upside down woman, hit the just wacky enough meter.  I like when we get those.

And I actually liked the ending where Tommy actually remembered she was the grown up in the situation and she and Melody had the very nice talk.

Paul got some face time.  Yay.

Judd and Grace giving solid advice to Tommy.

The stuff I did not like:

I didn't like the way the Tommy/Melody storyline played out.  I think the idea was great for a little girl to feel threatened by his father's new possible GF.  But I wish they had allowed Melody to act out in a more age appropriate manner.  They really leaned in on the bad seed stuff.  Her manipulation was too polished and her interactions with Tommy felt more mature than she was, and I felt some type of way about that.  Especially since this was supposed to be the first women her father dated since the divorce.  She came off as too prepared.  It is like they put the attitude and skills of a 30 year soap opera villan in a little girl.  Just sits with me wrong.  I am sure they thought it was funny but it really wasn't.

Also Grace literally just talked a guy into how to get a woman out of an insulin shock, you tell me she could not help a young girl through a stomach ache?  Or that her father, would assume she needed an ambulance with a 911 dispatcher right there?  or that he wouldn't even question the ingredients in that drink?  Just a lot of dumb splashing around.

And, dear me, does everything circle back to Owen's 9/11 trauma?

[eel21788]

8 minutes ago, DearEvette said:

Her manipulation was too polished and her interactions with Tommy felt more mature than she was, and I felt some type of way about that.  Especially since this was supposed to be the first women her father dated since the divorce.  She came off as too prepared.  It is like they put the attitude and skills of a 30 year soap opera villan in a little girl. 

It made me wonder how contentious her parents' divorce had been. Maybe she learned a lot of manipulation skills from her mother?

[possibilities]

They never should have given the kids veto power over the relationship in the first place. That was terrible parenting 101. "We want to do this if you are okay with it?" Are you nuts? And of course when one of them says she's not okay with it, they are unprepared because they really didn't mean it in the first place. Don't say stuff you don't mean. Don't leave adult decisions on the shoulders of children. And don't act like a child when a child acts out.

[dshgr]

OG 9-1-1 was on last night.  Lone Star is like the red-headed step child.

[iMonrey]

Yeah, it really made me realize how badly written this spin-off is. And it's not like the OG was Shakespeare either.

[izabella]

4 hours ago, DearEvette said:

I didn't like the way the Tommy/Melody storyline played out.  I think the idea was great for a little girl to feel threatened by his father's new possible GF.  But I wish they had allowed Melody to act out in a more age appropriate manner.  They really leaned in on the bad seed stuff.  Her manipulation was too polished and her interactions with Tommy felt more mature than she was, and I felt some type of way about that.  Especially since this was supposed to be the first women her father dated since the divorce.  She came off as too prepared.  It is like they put the attitude and skills of a 30 year soap opera villan in a little girl.  Just sits with me wrong.  I am sure they thought it was funny but it really wasn't.

I was so confused during all of this.  Because Melody did seem like she was very practiced at manipulation, and like she had done this many times before with previous women.  Then she said that Tommy was the first woman since her mom.  It didn't make sense, but I hated this entire story line from start to finish and thought none of it made sense.  

Tommy is an adult and would have talked with Trevor about it.  She may have been interrupted by Grace's call at dinner, but she would have talked with Trevor on the drive home.  Playing manipulation games with a child is beneath her.  IMAGINE if Trevor did something like that with her daughters.  I don't think Tommy would be pleased.  I don't think she'd trust him anymore.

Edited March 8, 2023 by izabella

[eel21788]

4 hours ago, possibilities said:

They never should have given the kids veto power over the relationship in the first place. That was terrible parenting 101. "We want to do this if you are okay with it?" Are you nuts? And of course when one of them says she's not okay with it, they are unprepared because they really didn't mean it in the first place. Don't say stuff you don't mean. Don't leave adult decisions on the shoulders of children. And don't act like a child when a child acts out.

Unfortunately, the Parenting 101 textbook from the mid-20th century was thrown out in a book banning and replaced with the stupid idea that you're supposed to get permission from your children for everything and give them choices even if no real choices actually exist.

I was on an airplane where a stupid mother asked her two over-tired preschoolers where they wanted to sit which resulted in a wailing and sobbing match because they both wanted to sit next to Daddy which was logistically impossible. Then the mother started whining to the dad "You're not helping meeeeeee! I need you to help me reason with them!" She was trying to secure permission from one or the other of them to let the other kid sit next to Daddy. I was so tempted to turn around and tell her "If they'd ever heard 'you sit where I tell you to sit, and that's the end of it' in their lives, this plane ride would be a whole lot more pleasant for everyone on board."

[Artsda]

Wow that was bad.

The kid was a blackmailing brat and the secret tiktok is Tommy going to ignore that? 

The HR lady and Austin FD should be all over the news with a PR disaster after that video Marjan posted.  Yet she's acting like this lawsuit going away is great. 

[cmfran]

I was hoping they'd amp up the bonkers rescue situations with this season, and despite doing a bit of that, we're now back to the boring character stuff. Without the crazy rescues, it's just a crappy, poorly written drama. 

[Msample]

Part of me wonders if the lack of rescues this season is a budget issue. Its a lot cheaper to film some snotty kid blackmailing Tommy than a 4 alarm fire in a building. 

[DearEvette]

49 minutes ago, Msample said:

Part of me wonders if the lack of rescues this season is a budget issue. Its a lot cheaper to film some snotty kid blackmailing Tommy than a 4 alarm fire in a building. 

I know it is not super exciting tv, but I remember reading somewhere that fires are actually only about 3-4% of the calls fire fighters get.  The vast majority are Emergency Service calls.  Even false alarms outnumber fire calls.

So they could still showcase a bunch of different rescues without breaking the bank.  One of my favorite rescues they did from season 1 was the grain silo rescue.  I also liked Grace going on Dominatrix on that one guy to so he could get help for his mistress.  And for a show called 911 they could at least expand some of the personalities in the call center.  I thought they were going there when they introduced Dave.  And the two rescues this episode were nice.

[I Want My MBTV]

On 3/7/2023 at 8:15 PM, possibilities said:

They at least did one rescue, with the pizza delivery guy and the diabetic woman.

Maybe they should call the show 911 - Lone Rescue!

[Msample]

1 hour ago, I Want My MBTV said:

Maybe they should call the show 911 - Lone Rescue!

Maybe they can rescue someone from eating shitty pizza, like Greek style or pizza with pineapple/ham. 

 

I get actual fires are a low %, but a car accident, cat in a tree, whatever. The personal drama, weekly TK torture porn, etc are not what I watch the show for. At least some of the rescues have humorous bits to them. 

[Ceindreadh]

On 3/8/2023 at 7:27 PM, possibilities said:

They never should have given the kids veto power over the relationship in the first place. That was terrible parenting 101. "We want to do this if you are okay with it?" Are you nuts? And of course when one of them says she's not okay with it, they are unprepared because they really didn't mean it in the first place. Don't say stuff you don't mean. Don't leave adult decisions on the shoulders of children. And don't act like a child when a child acts out.

I don't think they were wrong to ask if their kids were okay with it. 

I think they were wrong to ask them in a group setting like that.  Tommy and Trevor should have each sat down with their own family and explained the situation to them.  And then maybe Melody could have expressed her doubts - I'm not saying that Trevor should have let her veto the relationship, but he could at least have considered her feelings on the matter.  (If your kid isn't happy with something, you need to listen to them and try and understand why)

But putting Melody on the spot like that, even ignoring the 'bad seed' trope, after everybody else has said "Yay" to the relationship, how is a kid, even with legit doubts, going to feel able to speak their mind. 

 

[shapeshifter]

5 hours ago, Ceindreadh said:

Tommy and Trevor should have each sat down with their own family and explained the situation to them. 

And, ideally, Tommy would talk to each twin separately, so they could freely express their own concerns.

5 hours ago, Ceindreadh said:

I'm not saying that Trevor should have let her veto the relationship, but he could at least have considered her feelings on the matter.  (If your kid isn't happy with something, you need to listen to them and try and understand why)

Exactly. It's much easier to talk about a big change of living situation (location or school or people or pets) before it happens than to deal with a blowup after the fact. 

 

[possibilities]

I think talking with them about their feelings and addressing their concerns is good parenting. But Tommy saying "we want to do this if you're okay with it" to me was a huge mistake. It puts the kids in a terrible bind, even if you do it one on one. They have to either be okay with it, or disappoint their parents and risk resentment. And how should they know if it's a good idea? It also reverses the adult role, putting the kids in charge of the adults, and also conveys that the adults think there might actually be some reason why the relationship might be bad for the kids and that the parents can't handle family matters without the kids making the big decisions.

 

[tennisgurl]

What a weird episode, I cant believe that we spent so much time on Tommy getting into a petty rivalry with her boyfriends preteen delighter. How would she not know that she should talk to Trevor right away at how Melody is clearly not alright with their relationship? I'm surprised that Tommy was the first woman her father has dated after the divorce, her whole routine seemed pretty calculated, I could buy a kid being upset about a parent dating someone new just being sullen or obviously being unhappy, but she was basically a bad soap opera villain in the body of a kid, just with a brattier attitude. It made Tommy look like a total idiot, and they even had to drag Grace into this, no way do I buy that Grace would have bought that kids fake stomach ache story. Not only is she a professional at diagnosing medial problems but she knows what this kid is up to, she's too smart to be taken in by this obvious manipulation. 

I was at least with Melody on how weird it is that Tommy slept with her dead husbands brother, that was super creepy and I am so glad that the show pulled back on that whole mess.   

Of course Paul finally gets a story and it ends up being all about Owen and his 9/11 angst. Why am I not surprised? 

At least we got two rescues, I especially thought the one with the pizza guy and the diabetic women was cute. I miss having rescues on this show so much, they don't have to be huge expensive set pieces they can just be small quirky ones like these. 

[KeithJ]

I didn’t understand Paul’s reason for not wanting to date what’s her name anymore.  “She knows everything” because they went to grade school together?  What about all the time between grade school and now?  She doesn’t know any of that.

[possibilities]

He meant she knows things he wants to forget.

[yanksno1]

Did we know Paul was trans before this ep (and I just never picked up on it, which is entirely possible heh)?

[anna0852]

46 minutes ago, yanksno1 said:

Did we know Paul was trans before this ep (and I just never picked up on it, which is entirely possible heh)?

Paul being trans was established in the pilot and has come up several times since.

[shapeshifter]

5 hours ago, yanksno1 said:

Did we know Paul was trans before this ep (and I just never picked up on it, which is entirely possible heh)?

4 hours ago, anna0852 said:

Paul being trans was established in the pilot and has come up several times since.

Yes, but Paul being trans hasn't been mentioned in a while, which fits with his not wanting his friend from high school to bring up the way he was. 
And now that I think about this, it may be the most sensitive writing they've done in a series that had lots of potential for these kind of stories, but never really succeeded. 
Or maybe I'm giving them credit for a coincidence of plots?

 

Edited March 16, 2023 by shapeshifter

[yanksno1]

Thanks guys, I prob just missed it in the pilot.

[EVbookworm]

Wow, did this ever make me sad. OK, so first off, Melody and Tommy. Actually, never mind, we don't need to have a play by play of that. But the speech Owen gave? Here's what bothered me. a) Owen can't give those kinds of talks because he's a horrible person and he does not know better than anyone except an axolotl. b) this has nothing to do with you. You don't know anything about his journey, you don't know what he's been through, you can't relate or even imagine what he's been through. c) I couldn't stop thinking through the entire speech, YOU DIDN'T GO TO YOUR CHILD'S CONCERTS FOR 4 YEARS BECAUSE YOU'RE SO SELFISH ALL YOU COULD THINK ABOUT WAS YOUR OWN GUILT? My friends who also watch the show think TK's a bit needy and a bit selfish, but honestly, with the father he had, he kinda needs to balance out the love and validation he apparently didn't get as a child. Plus, while TK's actually super sweet and would do anything for his friends, I do get that he can seem a bit needy, but he really just needs to know he's loved and I don't think he fully gets that on an emotional level.

[EVbookworm]

Wow, did this ever make me sad. OK, so first off, Melody and Tommy. Actually, never mind, we don't need to have a play by play of that. But the speech Owen gave? Here's what bothered me. a) Owen can't give those kinds of talks because he's a horrible person and he does not know better than anyone except an axolotl. b) this has nothing to do with you. You don't know anything about his journey, you don't know what he's been through, you can't relate or even imagine what he's been through. c) I couldn't stop thinking through the entire speech, YOU DIDN'T GO TO YOUR CHILD'S CONCERTS FOR 4 YEARS BECAUSE YOU'RE SO SELFISH ALL YOU COULD THINK ABOUT WAS YOUR OWN GUILT? My friends who also watch the show think TK's a bit needy and a bit selfish, but honestly, with the father he had, he kinda needs to balance out the love and validation he apparently didn't get as a child. Plus, while TK's actually super sweet and would do anything for his friends, I do get that he can seem a bit needy, but he really just needs to know he's loved and I don't think he fully gets that on an emotional level.