What An Idiot: Stupid TV Moments

[Spartan Girl]

The Simpsons episode “My Sister, My Sitter”: Homer and Marge KNOW Bart is a horrible little monster that makes Lisa’s life a living hell every chance he gets. So why would they tell Bart that Lisa’s in charge instead of just lie and tell them they’re leaving them without a babysitter for the night?

Which in retrospect was also a stupid thing to do, but by telling him Lisa was his babysitter they practically were serving up an excuse to torture her on a silver platter. 

[Wiendish Fitch]

3 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

The Simpsons episode “My Sister, My Sitter”: Homer and Marge KNOW Bart is a horrible little monster that makes Lisa’s life a living hell every chance he gets. So why would they tell Bart that Lisa’s in charge instead of just lie and tell them they’re leaving them without a babysitter for the night?

Which in retrospect was also a stupid thing to do, but by telling him Lisa was his babysitter they practically were serving up an excuse to torture her on a silver platter. 

Oh, that episode is as frustrating as the science fair one I recently griped about. Honest to dog, nicer siblings than Bart would resent having their younger siblings look after them, and lash out accordingly! 

[Spartan Girl]

9 minutes ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

Oh, that episode is as frustrating as the science fair one I recently griped about. Honest to dog, nicer siblings than Bart would resent having their younger siblings look after them, and lash out accordingly! 

Seriously. And once again, Marge is most at fault for this because she should have known better. And this was back when she was The Only Sane Woman on the show and not the mealy-mouthed whinging twat she got flanderized into. For all the viweree complaints that Bart is supposedly neglected in favor of Lisa the “gifted child”**,  she always finds ways to coddle and enable her “special little guy.”

**And even if that were true, it’s STILL no excuse for all his crap behavior!

[Wiendish Fitch]

18 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

For all the viweree complaints that Bart is supposedly neglected in favor of Lisa the “gifted child”**,

It will always boggle my mind that people could actually think that. If Lisa suffered any more, she'd have it as bad as, if not worse than, Meg Griffin.

[Spartan Girl]

On 8/7/2023 at 9:20 AM, Wiendish Fitch said:

It will always boggle my mind that people could actually think that. If Lisa suffered any more, she'd have it as bad as, if not worse than, Meg Griffin.

The double standards fans hold Bart and Lisa to are infuriating. Bart can do a million shitty things to Lisa, and they’ll just shrug it off as “boys will be boys” sibling rivalry. But if Lisa ever retaliates or does something mean to him, then she’s the asshole.

[Spartan Girl]

There have been some pretty dumb characters on Law and Order—hi, Serena—but I think the douchey attention whore of a defense attorney Schwimmer in “Bodies” took the cake. He actually thought it would be a good idea to actually go to the location where his client told him he stashed the bodies of murdered girls, then licked them back up, making him pretty much an accessory after the fact, which came back to bite him in the ass.

Arthur summed it up brilliantly in this classic exchange, when Serena actually defended the sleaze when Arthur called him stupid:

Arthur: He listened to his client when he told him about fifteen other bodies?

Serena: Yes.

Athur: He then confirmed his client was telling the truth by taking a peek at those bodies?

Serena: Yes..

Arthur: Fine. What's dumber than stupid?

Edited August 18, 2023 by Spartan Girl

[Spartan Girl]

This moment from Ugly Betty is so mind-blowingly stupid, it still rankles to this day:

Betty finally confronts Matt about taking the new editor job at Mode just so that get can sabotage her career. Matt “apologizes,” which consists of a whiny, self-pitying rant whining about how he knows he’s terrible, but can’t stand to see Betty happy when he’s so miserable, and the worst part is how he knows everything he’s doing is destroying any chance they had of getting back together.

Uh….what?

He dumped her. He dumped her over kissing her ex and not coming clean about it right away, even though she apologized and still wanted to be the relationship. Then he turned around and took the Mode job out of pure spite, doing everything he could to make her look bad, humiliating her and slut-shaming her and accusing her of sleeping with Daniel to get ahead and shooting down every story idea she proposed…all because he secretly wanted her back? Instead of forgiving her and trying to make their relationship work when he had the chance?!

In what universe does that make sense, let alone be even remotely acceptable behavior?!

Even more stupid is that after ALL THAT, Betty actually forgives him and they eventually get back together. 

Edited September 2, 2023 by Spartan Girl

[magicdog]

28 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

He dumped her. He dumped her over kissing her ex and not coming clean about it right away, even though she apologized and still wanted to be the relationship. Then he turned around and took the Mode job out of pure spite, doing everything he could to make her look bad, humiliating her and slut-shaming her and accusing her of sleeping with Daniel to get ahead and shooting down every story idea she proposed…all because he secretly wanted her back? Instead of forgiving her and trying to make their relationship work when he had the chance?!

In what universe does that make sense, let alone be even remotely acceptable behavior?!

It's not acceptable!  In fact there's a word for it:  "Crazymaking".  Some might also use the term, gaslighting but the former term is just as fitting.  Only a complete psychotic must have written that script.

[Bastet]

It was absolutely batshit.  He saw her kissing her ex, and gave her several openings to tell him about it, but she didn't, and that's on her.  When he confronted her, she was apologetic and explained that it was a good-bye kiss (and he knew that was true since he stood there and watched them walk off separately).  If he wants to break up with her, more power to him, but the blistering trail of revenge he embarked on was beyond.  It wouldn't have been remotely appropriate had she well and truly betrayed him, never mind for one solitary kiss good-bye to a former relationship.  Treating her like shit personally (instead of just moving on with his life) was bad enough, but to take a job for the sole purpose of fucking with her fledgling career was nuts.

And then, yeah, she took him back!  Earlier in the series, she'd agreed to get back together with her first boyfriend, despite the fact he cheated on her (and was always a whiny, jealous, insecure jackass about her career).  While infuriating, that at least made some narrative sense, since her family pressured her into it and this was back when she was young and susceptible to that pressure, having been conditioned into accepting sexist double standards.  By the time of Matt, though, years had passed and she'd grown more worldly and confident.

[Spartan Girl]

9 hours ago, Bastet said:

 

And then, yeah, she took him back!  Earlier in the series, she'd agreed to get back together with her first boyfriend, despite the fact he cheated on her (and was always a whiny, jealous, insecure jackass about her career).  While infuriating, that at least made some narrative sense, since her family pressured her into it and this was back when she was young and susceptible to that pressure, having been conditioned into accepting sexist double standards.  By the time of Matt, though, years had passed and she'd grown more worldly and confident.

Yeah, but in many ways I blame Walter and her family for instilling that acceptance of shitty behavior under the guise of “people aren’t perfect stop being so judgmental” that went on to define her love life beyond Walter that she obviously couldn’t seem to shake, no matter how confident she grew. Why else, mind you, would she have been so desperate to try to get Gio to like her again after he was so bitter for not choosing him and then having the audacity to blame her for her trip getting ruined? Anyone else in that situation would have gladly told him toodle-oo, but instead Betty felt guilty and bent over backwards try to make nice, which is exactly how she handled the Matt situation, despite that one moment of growing a backbone.

If Matt truly felt remorseful, he would have resigned from that job so that someone else that actually wanted and earned it could have it, but instead he kept the power imbalance no matter how civil he resolved to be, and that was still a fucked up way to win her back. Especially when the words “I’m sorry” never came out of his mouth.

Edited September 2, 2023 by Spartan Girl

[Blergh]

While I agree that it's infuriating how Betty's family proved to be millstones in her progress and were contributing factors in her MO to be a people pleaser even to her own detriment (and they deserve to be called out for that as well as their own misdeeds against her) ,  she was a grown person  and had gained a great deal of experience in dealing with the outside world via her work. Thus,  ultimately, she proved to be willfully ignorant rather than genuinely ignorant of being able to throw off the acceptance of rotten behavior on others' parts.

 

On a far more comedic note, not just the Skipper but all the other Castaways proved to be idiots for thinking they could rely on Gilligan for ANYthing since he constantly messed up and blew even the simplest tasks from the very beginning! Seriously, it would have been better had they just taken divvied his tasks among the six of them and exiled him to the other side of the Island.

[Spartan Girl]

57 minutes ago, Blergh said:

 

On a far more comedic note, not just the Skipper but all the other Castaways proved to be idiots for thinking they could rely on Gilligan for ANYthing since he constantly messed up and blew even the simplest tasks from the very beginning! Seriously, it would have been better had they just taken divvied his tasks among the six of them and exiled him to the other side of the Island.

Well, if they stopped giving Gilligan chances to screw up, there wouldn’t be a show. 😂😂😂

[Wiendish Fitch]

Re: Gilligan's Island

I've always liked the theory that the castaways actually died during the storm and the island is Hell (or maybe just Purgatory).

Well, if you can think of anything worse than being stuck with Gilligan for all eternity, I'd like to hear it!

[Blergh]

2 hours ago, Wiendish Fitch said:

Re: Gilligan's Island

I've always liked the theory that the castaways actually died during the storm and the island is Hell (or maybe just Purgatory).

Well, if you can think of anything worse than being stuck with Gilligan for all eternity, I'd like to hear it!

At least on the Island, the Professor and the Skipper got to enjoy being in the company of Ginger and Mary-Ann (who, in turn, enjoyed being in the Professor's company) while Thurston and Lovey got to enjoy being in each other's company. As for Gilligan himself? Well, he seemed to like the one-shot, unexplained Gladys the Gorilla's company more than the women Castaways' so go figure!

I can think of people and characters who'd be worse to be stuck with for all eternity besides Gilligan but I'd probably get reported if I started listing them.

[Wiendish Fitch]

1 hour ago, Blergh said:

At least on the Island, the Professor and the Skipper got to enjoy being in the company of Ginger and Mary-Ann (who, in turn, enjoyed being in the Professor's company) while Thurston and Lovey got to enjoy being in each other's company. As for Gilligan himself? Well, he seemed to like the one-shot, unexplained Gladys the Gorilla's company more than the women Castaways' so go figure!

I can think of people and characters who'd be worse to be stuck with for all eternity besides Gilligan but I'd probably get reported if I started listing them.

Ok, fair, and if I'm being honest, I can think of some people, too. We'll just quietly nod in agreement and go about our day.

[magicdog]

3 hours ago, Blergh said:

At least on the Island, the Professor and the Skipper got to enjoy being in the company of Ginger and Mary-Ann (who, in turn, enjoyed being in the Professor's company) while Thurston and Lovey got to enjoy being in each other's company. As for Gilligan himself? Well, he seemed to like the one-shot, unexplained Gladys the Gorilla's company more than the women Castaways' so go figure!

I'd always thought Gilligan and Mary Ann had couple potential (not to mention they were good friends in real life).  Then again, Gilligan was kind of like that eternal child who didn't know how to deal with girls.

7 hours ago, Blergh said:

On a far more comedic note, not just the Skipper but all the other Castaways proved to be idiots for thinking they could rely on Gilligan for ANYthing since he constantly messed up and blew even the simplest tasks from the very beginning! Seriously, it would have been better had they just taken divvied his tasks among the six of them and exiled him to the other side of the Island.

I remember Nick at Nite used to have a promo based on the Ton Loc song, "Wild Thing"  in which one of the lines was, "Gilligan is such a screw up, I think they'll probably kill him!"

[Spartan Girl]

Gilligan had a good heart, so despite his antics, there are worse people to be stuck on an island with.

Moving on to another stupid Law and Order moment:

Serena stands up for parents that took the hush-money from the celebrity that molested their son to pay for their younger son from a heart defect, saying that they couldn’t have possibly known he was a pedophile. Yet it turns out that they were paid BEFORE the attack, meaning that they knew and literally sold their son out. Despite this horrifying and disgusting revelation, Serena STILL defends them, saying that’s it’s a tragedy that the son they sacrificed their older son for will have to grow up without them.

Serena, if I found out the only reason I’m alive is because my parents let somebody rape my brother for money, I’d never want to see them again.

[Blergh]

4 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Gilligan had a good heart, so despite his antics, there are worse people to be stuck on an island with.

Moving on to another stupid Law and Order moment:

Serena stands up for parents that took the hush-money from the celebrity that molested their son to pay for their younger son from a heart defect, saying that they couldn’t have possibly known he was a pedophile. Yet it turns out that they were paid BEFORE the attack, meaning that they knew and literally sold their son out. Despite this horrifying and disgusting revelation, Serena STILL defends them, saying that’s it’s a tragedy that the son they sacrificed their older son for will have to grow up without them.

Serena, if I found out the only reason I’m alive is because my parents let somebody rape my brother for money, I’d never want to see them again.

I know that legally every suspect is entitled to a defense attorney but Serena defending such utter human toxic waste as that sure showed that one could have written her code of ethics on a bee's knee- and still had plenty of room left over for the Encyclopedia Britannica!

[Spartan Girl]

57 minutes ago, Blergh said:

I know that legally every suspect is entitled to a defense attorney but Serena defending such utter human toxic waste as that sure showed that one could have written her code of ethics on a bee's knee- and still had plenty of room left over for the Encyclopedia Britannica!

It wasn’t even her job to defend them, she was part of the D.A.!

Her ignorance really showed when she had the gall to say that at least both children were still alive. Yeah, check again with the oldest son in a couple more years, Serena: a lot of molestation victims wind up committing suicide because they can’t come to terms with what was done to them. And how can she not think the younger son won’t be scarred for life when he finds out the truth that his parents chose his physical health over his brother’s mental well-being? No amount of therapy can ever make that okay.

[andromeda331]

9 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Gilligan had a good heart, so despite his antics, there are worse people to be stuck on an island with.

Moving on to another stupid Law and Order moment:

Serena stands up for parents that took the hush-money from the celebrity that molested their son to pay for their younger son from a heart defect, saying that they couldn’t have possibly known he was a pedophile. Yet it turns out that they were paid BEFORE the attack, meaning that they knew and literally sold their son out. Despite this horrifying and disgusting revelation, Serena STILL defends them, saying that’s it’s a tragedy that the son they sacrificed their older son for will have to grow up without them.

Serena, if I found out the only reason I’m alive is because my parents let somebody rape my brother for money, I’d never want to see them again.

I hated Serena from that moment on. It's just so insane that she's defending parents' who allowed their son to be molested for money. When Jack and Arthur don't agree with her she thinks it's because she doesn't have kids. Ah, no Serena, you don't have to have kids to know how wrong and messed up it was what the parents did.  

[Spartan Girl]

Friends: Carol inviting both Susan AND Ross to be at the sonogram was a stupid and insensitive move on her part. Expecting your ex to stay in the same room with the person you cheated on and left him for is A LOT to ask. Especially when Susan could barely bring herself to be civil to Ross.

Come to think of it—and this might be slut-shaming, but screw it—it was stupid that Carol let herself get pregnant in the first place. When you’re cheating on your husband and planning to leave him, it’s prudent to at least make sure your birth control is foolproof (or you know, not sleep with two people at the same time) so you don’t wind up bringing a child into your fucked-up situation in the first place! 

[Ceindreadh]

3 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Friends: Carol inviting both Susan AND Ross to be at the sonogram was a stupid and insensitive move on her part. Expecting your ex to stay in the same room with the person you cheated on and left him for is A LOT to ask. Especially when Susan could barely bring herself to be civil to Ross.

Come to think of it—and this might be slut-shaming, but screw it—it was stupid that Carol let herself get pregnant in the first place. When you’re cheating on your husband and planning to leave him, it’s prudent to at least make sure your birth control is foolproof (or you know, not sleep with two people at the same time) so you don’t wind up bringing a child into your fucked-up situation in the first place! 

Well, at least she didn't have the usual soap opera issue of not knowing which of her partners had gotten her pregnant!

[Bastet]

I only watched Friends sporadically in the early years (and then not at all later), and absolutely could not stand Ross, but the way Carol and Susan treated him was ridiculous.  Like because the affair was with a woman, it wasn't supposed to be that bad.  Grace & Frankie, about two couples where the men confess they've been having an affair for 20 years and are now leaving their wives so they can marry each other, explicitly addressed this, with the adult kids telling the dads they feel like they're not allowed to be angry with them because they were closeted all those years and are now free to be out, but if they'd been fucking around with other women all this time, no one would expect them to come have dinner with the new couple and act like everything is hunky dory.

I have no idea if anything was ever said about this on Friends, but it was clearly at play, because no one would have expected him to be okay if it was Carol's new boyfriend, with whom she'd cheated, at the sonogram appointment acting like he's a third parent.

[Blergh]

Larry Tate of Bewitched (1964-1972), every time Darren/s get antsy, agitated or paranoid due to some witchy stuff that Endora,etc. have pulled around the office, Larry seems to react as though this is the very first time he's ever seen Darren not be as cool as a cucumber. Why?! Darren's ALWAYS been as levelheaded as Baldar Conehead! Even if Larry never understands the cause of it, this is Darren's normal MO - not OOC moments!

[Spartan Girl]

Does anyone remember the 2005 Hercules miniseries with Sean Aston and that snack Paul Telfer?

Well, a lot of stupid moments in that show, but the one that rankles involves Megara, who unfortunately like almost all of the female characters in this version was an evil bitch. Long story short, Megara hates Hercules and even after she’s forced to marry brings up their kids to hate him too. She and her lover Eurystheus plot to kill Hercules by getting their kids to stab him while he’s drugged, while wearing animal masks no less. Unfortunately, in his drugged state, Hercules thinks he’s being attacked by monsters and….well, you can probably guess what happens. Eurystheus and Megara become king and queen and sentence Hercules the labors, and Megara, playing the aggrieved mother to the hilt, stops at nothing to try to kill Hercules.

But…for as much as she claimed to love her children, she never stopped to consider that sending them to kill Hercules—a fucking DEMIGOD of legendary strength—was putting them in danger?! Especially when he was drugged out of his rational mind?!

Yeah, I don’t feel sorry for her. She manufactured the circumstances of their murder. Whether she was just stupid or maybe hoping it would happen just to have another excuse to hate him, it’s shitty parenting, and unfortunately, even when Hercules finds out the whole truth, nobody calls her out on her part in the tragedy.

[janie jones]

On 9/4/2023 at 11:52 AM, Bastet said:

I only watched Friends sporadically in the early years (and then not at all later), and absolutely could not stand Ross, but the way Carol and Susan treated him was ridiculous.  Like because the affair was with a woman, it wasn't supposed to be that bad.

I agree. They treated him like he was the interloper. Susan treated him like an uppity sperm donor, rather than the person whose wife she had been having an affair with.

[DearEvette]

On 9/4/2023 at 2:52 PM, Bastet said:

Like because the affair was with a woman, it wasn't supposed to be that bad.  Grace & Frankie, about two couples where the men confess they've been having an affair for 20 years and are now leaving their wives so they can marry each other, explicitly addressed this, with the adult kids telling the dads they feel like they're not allowed to be angry with them because they were closeted all those years and are now free to be out, but if they'd been fucking around with other women all this time, no one would expect them to come have dinner with the new couple and act like everything is hunky dory.

I loved that scene in Grace and Frankie because it was true.  There is that sort of feeling where you are supposed to feel ok because they are living their true selves after so much oppression but they still  did a really shitty thing.  Something similar happened on 9-1-1 where there is this great scene of Athena angry mashing potatoes (to a Mary J. Blige song, no less!) where she is making dinner to welcome her ex's new man.  That he cheated on her with.  And she rightfully says 'no one would require this of me if that was a woman he slept with.'

[Bastet]

1 hour ago, DearEvette said:

I loved that scene in Grace and Frankie because it was true.  There is that sort of feeling where you are supposed to feel ok because they are living their true selves after so much oppression but they still  did a really shitty thing. 

It remains one of my favorite scenes of the entire series, and I appreciated that it happened early on (episode three).  And it fits the thread, because Robert and Sol taking until the kids lay into them to realize "it's too soon" is an astoundingly stupid thing:

 

[Spartan Girl]

3 hours ago, Bastet said:

It remains one of my favorite scenes of the entire series, and I appreciated that it happened early on (episode three).  And it fits the thread, because Robert and Sol taking until the kids lay into them to realize "it's too soon" is an astoundingly stupid thing:

 

Yeah, no fucking shit it was too soon, you idiots!

SVU is another show that could win this thread. The constant stupidity from Olivia Benson alone is enough to give you a nosebleed.

[Mabinogia]

1 hour ago, Spartan Girl said:

SVU is another show that could win this thread. The constant stupidity from Olivia Benson alone is enough to give you a nosebleed.

But...but...she's a saint who can do no wrong!!!! 

Excuse me while I go take medication for an eye roll induced headache. 
While I did like SVU for a long time, the more it became the Olivia Benson show the less I watched. She is one of my most hated characters in a show I watched. 

[Blergh]

Speaking of characters considered hated . .or at least a significant number of the public wondering why they kept said character around.  Let's go back to classic Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952-1966) who had the alleged comic relief character of Wally Plumstead (Skip Young (1930-1993)- born Ronald Bix Plumstead) hanging around as  Dave and Rick's mooching and lazy fellow frat member with a rather annoying laugh . .for eight years! Yes, even though both David (1936-2011) and Rick (1940-1985) aged past having any need for maintaining ties to their college frat house, somehow even after they each got married and had jobs & apartments away from the frat house, they kept hanging around and specifically letting themselves get caught up in his constant mishaps (with Harriet passively letting Wally stuff his face at her house the whole time)- and all of them had long since pegged him as being  sneak, and a sponge yet didn't tell him to buzz off! Even more amazingly was that he had a steady girlfriend Ginger (Charlene Salerno [1938-1986]) who herself constantly complained of his cheapness and mooching- and even openly called him 'Fatso' -yet never seemed to permanently dump him!  And that's not even considering that performer was in his mid 30's and yet somehow was supposed to be the contemporary of not just the Nelson Bros but even Rick's then-wife Kris Harmon Nelson (1945-2018) who started on the show when she was still seventeen!

Of course, all the above characters weren't as idiotic as Wally's never-depicted parents who seemed to have had no problems throwing their monies down a rathole to keep paying his tuition and frat house fees  at least eight years- despite him never even seeming to attempt to look for work(or study)  much less graduate ! All I can think of is that they were REALLY desperate to get him out of their house but they thought dumping him in the frat house made a better excuse for their Christmas letters than just dumping him out on his ear.

[Zella]

Since we're bitching about SVU, I have to mention the scene I talk about every few years that enrages me. 

It's the episode where they're dealing with a perp who's in witness protection. He's a scumbag for sure, but Benson and Stabler are both warned to stay away from him because he's in, you know, witness protection for a reason-he's a witness for an upcoming trial. But they don't listen because they're Benson and Stabler, and that's what they do! By the end of the episode, the witness and a US Marshal are dead, and the big case the witness was going to testify in is now completely blown. They both also become subject to an internal affairs investigation because of what they did. When all of this is explained to both of them, they're absolutely gobsmacked.

Actual still shot of Benson and Stabler having all of this explained to them:

How either of them has a badge after that is beyond me. 

And what gets me the most is the last line is one of them telling the incredibly frustrated prosecutor if she needs anything, let them know. Like she ever wants to see or speak to these two fucking morons again!

[Spartan Girl]

Then there was the episode “Burned” where the ex wife was accusing her ex of raping her. Olivia was going-ho on believing her even though there was evidence that she was lying to get so custody of their daughter. Things escalate, the ex wings up setting her on fire for revenge, after he was arrested she sticks to her story and dies moments later….and then they find out that she DID lie.

Olivia: She knew she was dying whyyyyyyy would she lie to me?!

Dumbass, you just answered your own question!

[MadyGirl1987]

22 hours ago, DearEvette said:

I loved that scene in Grace and Frankie because it was true.  There is that sort of feeling where you are supposed to feel ok because they are living their true selves after so much oppression but they still  did a really shitty thing.  Something similar happened on 9-1-1 where there is this great scene of Athena angry mashing potatoes (to a Mary J. Blige song, no less!) where she is making dinner to welcome her ex's new man.  That he cheated on her with.  And she rightfully says 'no one would require this of me if that was a woman he slept with.'

 

20 hours ago, Bastet said:

It remains one of my favorite scenes of the entire series, and I appreciated that it happened early on (episode three).  And it fits the thread, because Robert and Sol taking until the kids lay into them to realize "it's too soon" is an astoundingly stupid thing:

 

I feel the same way about Ross on Friends with Carol and Susan. They really treat him poorly, basically as a sperm donor.

[andromeda331]

1 hour ago, MadyGirl1987 said:

 

I feel the same way about Ross on Friends with Carol and Susan. They really treat him poorly, basically as a sperm donor.

They really did. He was the father not some deadbeat, he wanted to be part of the experience and part of his son's life and they both treated him like shit. Especially Susan. Carol always seemed surprised when Ross would be upset about her and Susan discussing baby names and other stuff. Ah, because he's the father and has made it clear he wants to be part of it all. Susan and Ross get into fight when Carol goes into labor Susan bitches about how having no place in the baby's life because she's not the mother or father. Even though she's living with Carol who does and contiunes to have primary custody and from everything we seen will be making decisions and treated like she's the child's other parent instead of Ross. I'm honestly surprised Carol told Ross she was pregnant at all.

[Blergh]

Of course, while I agree that Carol and Susan were idiotically unfair (and mean) to Ross re how they related to him as Ben's father, it needs to be said that Ross himself behaved somewhat idiotically by being so incredibly passive about his son's fate and welfare re these two.

Imagine if Ross had been Rose who found out that she'd just  conceived a child with Carl who'd having an adulterous affair with someone else (regardless of gender so I'm terming the co-adulterer Sandy) and Rose's reaction Carl's insistence raising the child fulltime with Sandy because Sandy was infertile- and Rose's reaction to put up virtually zero resistance to Carl and Sandy's edicts then just spending virtually all her time with her pals and a research animal before virtually dropping out altogether  of that child's  life within a couple years , would anyone think Rose was anywhere close to being a good mother- to say nothing of being unidiotic?! I don't think so!

Well, IMO, the above applies to Ross as a father and and idiot!

This was but one reason I  started to loathe the show and after even Phoebe (the last likable regular) got turned into a solipsistic pod person, I gave up the show entirely and will NEVER watch another second of it as long as I live!

Edited September 16, 2023 by Blergh

[Spartan Girl]

Any time someone accepts a drink from someone they know isn’t trustworthy and winds up drugged. It happens in more shows than you think, pick one.

[JustHereForFood]

On 9/24/2023 at 7:53 PM, Spartan Girl said:

Any time someone accepts a drink from someone they know isn’t trustworthy and winds up drugged. It happens in more shows than you think, pick one.

Sadly, that happens regularly in real life too.

[magicdog]

I caught an episode of Hazel called "How to Lure and Epicure" (1962).  In the episode, a new Italian restaurant opens up in town and the owner desperately wants a fancy food critic (the kind who makes or breaks places) to give him a good review.  He tries a meal there and didn't seem impressed.  Hazel and her friends go to work, cooking or reworking many of the dishes and succeed and getting the critic's attention.  Something goes wrong and he ends up not giving the good rating after all and leaves.  Then, the owner's worried about closing, but  when the Baxter family go for one last meal at the place (expecting it to close soon), the see a line out the door!  The owner informs them that a local critic wrote up about the restaurant in the local paper so rather than focusing on tourists, he'll focus on local clientele.

Now, it just doesn't make sense to advertise for tourists when as far as we've seen, the town the series takes place in is not a touristy sort of place (it was shot at the Columbia Ranch street where you'll find the house from Bewitched and Leave it to Beaver among many other familiar exteriors).  It's essentially a suburb, not a tourist trap,  it would make sense to seek out locals to eat out at the restaurant not reach out to tourists from out of town!!   

[Spartan Girl]

Did it ever occur to Christopher on Gilmore Girls that he didn’t automatically have to marry Sherry just because she was pregnant? That it was possible to be there as a father to the new baby while committing to a relationship with Lorelei (and not breaking his promise to Rory)? This option never occurred to him while whining about how “unfair” the situation was?! 

Then again, this is Lorelei “Can’t Think About Someone Else For More Than Five Minutes At A Time” Gilmore. We know she doesn’t handle things like this well (see season 6). I guess it was also too much for her to have to gumption to tell Christopher that he couldn’t just drop her and Rory again if he wanted to be a part of their lives.

[magicdog]

2 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

Did it ever occur to Christopher on Gilmore Girls that he didn’t automatically have to marry Sherry just because she was pregnant? That it was possible to be there as a father to the new baby while committing to a relationship with Lorelei (and not breaking his promise to Rory)?

THIS!  I haven't seen GG in forever (didn't even make it to the bitter end) but that plot development should not have happened!  I thought it might have been nice that Lorelei and Christopher finally got together as adults.

[Shannon L.]

I just started Season 4 of Gilmore Girls.  When I posted in a thread after the 1st episode that I couldn't believe Loralei did something, someone mentioned that there were a lot of those moments in the series and said "Don't get me started on Loralei Gilmore!".  I've only posted one other time about the show so far, but if I wanted to, I could have written many, many, posts by now. That member wasn't kidding!

[Spartan Girl]

1 hour ago, Shannon L. said:

I just started Season 4 of Gilmore Girls.  When I posted in a thread after the 1st episode that I couldn't believe Loralei did something, someone mentioned that there were a lot of those moments in the series and said "Don't get me started on Loralei Gilmore!".  I've only posted one other time about the show so far, but if I wanted to, I could have written many, many, posts by now. That member wasn't kidding!

That was me.

 

For the record, I couldn’t stand either of them and as a couple they were nauseating, but that was just a stupid reason for their fallout in season 2.

Just you wait for what’s coming in season 6.

Edited October 2, 2023 by Spartan Girl

[Shannon L.]

@Spartan Girl , I thought maybe it was you! Rory bugs me, but for now, I'm giving her a bit of leeway given her age, the tiny town she grew up in and the fact that she was raised by a mother who treated her more as a best friend than a daughter.   I'm guessing that becoming an adult in a large university like Yale isn't going to make her any better, though, right?

[JustHereForFood]

19 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

Did it ever occur to Christopher on Gilmore Girls that he didn’t automatically have to marry Sherry just because she was pregnant? That it was possible to be there as a father to the new baby while committing to a relationship with Lorelei (and not breaking his promise to Rory)? This option never occurred to him while whining about how “unfair” the situation was?! 

Then again, this is Lorelei “Can’t Think About Someone Else For More Than Five Minutes At A Time” Gilmore. We know she doesn’t handle things like this well (see season 6). I guess it was also too much for her to have to gumption to tell Christopher that he couldn’t just drop her and Rory again if he wanted to be a part of their lives.

If I remember correctly, he wanted to marry Lorelai when she got pregnant, so I guess he saw this as his second chance to have a "normal" life with a wife and new baby.

[Spartan Girl]

49 minutes ago, JustHereForFood said:

If I remember correctly, he wanted to marry Lorelai when she got pregnant, so I guess he saw this as his second chance to have a "normal" life with a wife and new baby.

Yeah but he didn’t want to be with Sherry by that point, and spent a great deal of time whining about how terrible it was that he had to do this right when he finally had a shot with Lorelei. Uh, maybe this all could have been avoided if you broke up with her when knew you didn’t live Sherry instead of continuing to have sex with her.

Is it any wonder why Sherry eventually dumps his ass?

[Blergh]

The Brady Bunch (1969-1974) kids weren't famous for their brain power. However, too many times, they would do rather stupid stuff to sabotage themselves. One of the dumbest moves had to be in 'To Move or Not to Move' (1970) in which, after whining about being too cramped and having to share a bathroom for six, the Brady parents heed their offspring's pleas and put up Casa Brady for sale, However,  soon afterwards, the kids and even Alice claim to be encountering spooky sights and sounds. Of course, it turns out that, rather than just level with their parents that they've changed their minds about moving, they've been faking paranormal encounters to scare off prospective buyers (and poor Alice) . They ALMOST succeed when  they send Bobby and Cindy. ...  to attempt to scare them off wearing bedsheet ghost costumes in full view of Mike and Carol (and said buyers). I can't imagine even CINDY having been so dumb to have thought this would have worked (much less Greg or Marcia who'd planned it) ! D'UH!!!!

I hope they were satisfied keeping their bladders on standby the next four years until Greg moved out instead of just letting their folks move into a house with one bathroom for each  gender of sibs!

[Madding crowd]

On 9/15/2023 at 4:29 AM, Blergh said:

Of course, while I agree that Carol and Susan were idiotically unfair (and mean) to Ross re how they related to him as Ben's father, it needs to be said that Ross himself behaved somewhat idiotically by being so incredibly passive about his son's fate and welfare re these two.

Imagine if Ross had been Rose who found out that she'd just  conceived a child with Carl who'd having an adulterous affair with someone else (regardless of gender so I'm terming the co-adulterer Sandy) and Rose's reaction Carl's insistence raising the child fulltime with Sandy because Sandy was infertile- and Rose's reaction to put up virtually zero resistance to Carl and Sandy's edicts then just spending virtually all her time with her pals and a research animal before virtually dropping out altogether  of that child's  life within a couple years , would anyone think Rose was anywhere close to being a good mother- to say nothing of being unidiotic?! I don't think so!

Well, IMO, the above applies to Ross as a father and and idiot!

This was but one reason I  started to loathe the show and after even Phoebe (the last likable regular) got turned into a solipsistic pod person, I gave up the show entirely and will NEVER watch another second of it as long as I live!

It wasn’t a family sitcom though, it was about the friends and I think the show showed enough of Ross with Ben to make me think he loved his son. Emma was always with Rachel’s mom in the last season but I don’t think we were supposed to assume her parents didn’t love her-just that the show was about adults.

[Spartan Girl]

Everything Norma did in Bates Motel. EVERYTHING. I don’t think I need to elaborate.

[Laura Holt]

4 hours ago, Madding crowd said:

It wasn’t a family sitcom though, it was about the friends and I think the show showed enough of Ross with Ben to make me think he loved his son. Emma was always with Rachel’s mom in the last season but I don’t think we were supposed to assume her parents didn’t love her-just that the show was about adults.

I loved the way they handled this on Big Bang Theory.  We never (until the very last episode) even saw Howard and Bernadette's children.  They were always in a crib or car seat or conveniently napping or visiting grandma. The show wasn't about the kids even if some episodes were about how the adults dealt with being parents.