S06.E09: Manifesting, Marriage Testing And Cheeseballs

[DanaK]

Quote

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 8:00-8:30 p.m. EDT

The Conners relish national cheeseball day as a family. Meanwhile, Harris falls behind in her work duties at the Lunch Box, and Darlene and Ben must figure out how to spend time together despite their two separate schedules.

 

[Annber03]

"Yellowstone. It never ends."

"There's so many prequels, eventualy it's just going to be cavemen in Montana."

I've never even seen a second of Yellowstone, and that exchange made me laugh XD. 

Becky not have much luck with trying to give advice tonight, huh :p? But yeah, Darlene really doesn't need to freak out about her and Ben - yeah, the schedule will be tough for them to work around, but many couples do it every day and manage just fine, so as long as they figure out a method that works best for them, they'll be fine, too.

I can understand where Harris would have a panic attack, after all she's been through. Glad she was able to get some help for that, hopefully that makes things easier for her going forward. 

[Ottis]

The moment Hartis said in the kitchen she was having trouble finishing hamburgers I knew it would end at ADHD. This family always has an excuse.

They *were* funnier in cowboy hats. 

[Bastet]

"You're already in your Leave Me Alone pajamas?" made me laugh.

How early was Ben closing before that staying open an hour past the chains (which would mean 11:00 here) is this huge shift in his and Darlene's routine?  Are Ben and Dan the only ones who work there?  This seemed all so much ado about very little.  And Louise acting like Dan should never have to work a closing shift was ridiculous; if the hours at your workplace change, some of your shifts are going to change. 

Jackie was driving me insane with her stupid vision board and manifesting crap, and I love that Harris said the doctor told her the first thing to do was stop listening to a psych student and a life coach.

[StaceyNotStacie]

The Yellowstone jokes made me laugh. 
 

Isn’t there some sort of conflict of interest with Harris providing food to the college?  You’d think that they would have some food service company delivering food to the college for the cooks to prepare. 

[wonderwoman]

10 hours ago, StaceyNotStacie said:

Isn’t there some sort of conflict of interest with Harris providing food to the college?  You’d think that they would have some food service company delivering food to the college for the cooks to prepare. 

the whole premise is beyond stupid. there’s no functioning management structure in place for food service at a community college? please! 

but, like virtually everything else on this show: examine the details too closely and the whole thing falls apart like a cheap sweater.

[Janie430]

I'm getting really sick of the food service storyline in general.  First, the idea that a food service place even at a community college has no structure is ridiculous, but also, community colleges do have grievance structures - in real life, she'd have been in HR with a complaint about her manager in two seconds for pulling the "I'm firing you for bothering me".

More than that, I'm annoyed that Darlene is basically expecting everyone else to sacrifice for her choice to work in food service/Mark.  Yes, Harris/ the Lunchbox are getting paid, but she's the one guilting her child to save her job and has never volunteered to go over and help Harris out.  Now she's guilting her father to work extra shifts and take time away from his wife because she and her husband have changed their hours.  This is a prime example of the family's basic co-dependency - there's helping your family, and then there's setting yourself on fire to solve someone else's problems.  In Darlene's case, it's setting everyone on fire to save Mark and her.

[iMonrey]

35 minutes ago, Janie430 said:

I'm getting really sick of the food service storyline in general.  First, the idea that a food service place even at a community college has no structure is ridiculous, but also, community colleges do have grievance structures - in real life, she'd have been in HR with a complaint about her manager in two seconds for pulling the "I'm firing you for bothering me".

It's not a community college. It's supposed to be a regular state college or university (which makes it even dumber, I know). If you recall, back when Darlene was scrambling for a way to pay for Mark's college, we were all yelling about how he could just go to community college for a couple of years and get some required courses out of the way while living at home. But no, Darlene insisted community college wasn't good enough for Mark and he simply had to have to full benefit of the real college experience. Including living in the dorms.

[Colorado David]

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

It's not a community college. It's supposed to be a regular state college or university (which makes it even dumber, I know). If you recall, back when Darlene was scrambling for a way to pay for Mark's college, we were all yelling about how he could just go to community college for a couple of years and get some required courses out of the way while living at home. But no, Darlene insisted community college wasn't good enough for Mark and he simply had to have to full benefit of the real college experience. Including living in the dorms.

agreed. the whole storylines are centering on Darlene making stupid decisions for her and Mark and Harris. Yay lets get Mark thru a 4 year college, but ignore poor Harris who seems dead-ended and headed towards a cr*ppy future. And now ADHD on top of the rest of the garbage.  The show is slowly losing me wanting to watch it.

[EtheltoTillie]

5 minutes ago, Colorado David said:

agreed. the whole storylines are centering on Darlene making stupid decisions for her and Mark and Harris. Yay lets get Mark thru a 4 year college, but ignore poor Harris who seems dead-ended and headed towards a cr*ppy future. And now ADHD on top of the rest of the garbage.  The show is slowly losing me wanting to watch it.

You have shown remarkable patience!  I no longer "want" to watch, but I'm limping along to the finish.  All the characters are awful now, the writing is terrible, and the acting is stilted.

[ams1001]

8 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:

You have shown remarkable patience!  I no longer "want" to watch, but I'm limping along to the finish.  All the characters are awful now, the writing is terrible, and the acting is stilted.

Ditto. I just wanna see how it ends.

Gee, is it too much work for a 20-something kid to run a restaurant and play caterer for a college cafeteria that apparently has no contracts with actual vendors who have the capacity to supply places like cafeterias serving hundreds of meals a day? I wonder...

Is this the same day as when we left off last week or is this another order of hamburgers?

Um, Darlene, cheap earbuds don't drown out a conversation happening less than ten feet from where you're sitting. Especially since everyone on this show half-yells their lines.

Harris needs something like this:

Edited April 26 by ams1001

[needschocolate]

When Darlene was detailing all the tough times Ben has been through - losing the magazine, his failed podcast, sleeping in the storage rom of the hardware store, etc... I was really hoping Ben would add "And that time my girlfriend cheated on me with her ex-husband."

But, of course, despite treating everyone like crap, always expecting everyone to do things for her, but not helping anyone else, and generally making every situation worse, the audience is supposed to think Darlene is always the hero and/or the one we are suppose to have empathy for in every scene. 

11 hours ago, Janie430 said:

I'm getting really sick of the food service storyline in general.  First, the idea that a food service place even at a community college has no structure is ridiculous, but also, community colleges do have grievance structures - in real life, she'd have been in HR with a complaint about her manager in two seconds for pulling the "I'm firing you for bothering me".

But, but, but Darlene is the manager - because there wasn't one before.   (which makes no sense). But, if Darlene is the manager, who is the "they" that told her she has to be there are 5 am?  And she has to be there because someone else can't be trusted because of whatever - but las week they said there is no schedule. 

Gah - they really need to drop this storyline. It makes no sense, even in TV fantasyland.  And nothing about it has been funny.  The only reason I think they even have the cafeteria storyline is so that Darlene can be the martyr and everyone else will have to work harder and mess up their lives up so she can look unselfish. 

Don't know if anyone has noticed, but I really don't like Darlene.  

 

[andidante]

I 

9 hours ago, needschocolate said:

 

 

Don't know if anyone has noticed, but I really don't like Darlene.  

 

I don't like her either and they focus too much on her. I would rather see anyone else at this point. I honestly hope this is the last season! LOL

[emmyG]

10 hours ago, needschocolate said:

When Darlene was detailing all the tough times Ben has been through - losing the magazine, his failed podcast, sleeping in the storage rom of the hardware store, etc... I was really hoping Ben would add "And that time my girlfriend cheated on me with her ex-husband."

"... with her actual husband who she was still technically married to at the time which she NEVER TOLD ME." (iirc)

yeah, darlene not big on taking responsibility for things!

[Wizardpatch]

 

On 4/25/2024 at 1:06 PM, Colorado David said:

agreed. the whole storylines are centering on Darlene making stupid decisions for her and Mark and Harris. Yay lets get Mark thru a 4 year college, but ignore poor Harris who seems dead-ended and headed towards a cr*ppy future. And now ADHD on top of the rest of the garbage.  The show is slowly losing me wanting to watch it.

To be fair, Harris seems like a lost cause at this point. She almost married a weirdo and was kinda happy that some even worse guy got her pregnant.

Edited April 26 by Wizardpatch

[chitowngirl]

I used to work at the HS cafeteria, which had over 1,000 kids. That’s not how this works…it’s not how any of this works!

Edited April 26 by chitowngirl

[iMonrey]

9 hours ago, andidante said:

I don't like her either and they focus too much on her. I would rather see anyone else at this point. I honestly hope this is the last season! LOL

I think once Roseanne left the show it was retooled to make Darlene the new Roseanne. The show definitely revolves around her. But the show has really run out of ideas and is running on fumes. The writers don't really seem to have a grasp on what made the original "Roseanne" show work. They are playing everything for laughs at the expense of the characters' integrity and don't seem realize it or care. And they don't even put in a modicum of effort to make it realistic. Like Ben's puny little hardware store is going to compete with Home Depot if he stays open an hour later? Please.

Edited April 26 by iMonrey

[ams1001]

20 hours ago, needschocolate said:

But, but, but Darlene is the manager - because there wasn't one before.   (which makes no sense). But, if Darlene is the manager, who is the "they" that told her she has to be there are 5 am?  And she has to be there because someone else can't be trusted because of whatever - but las week they said there is no schedule. 

Who even hired her if there's no manager? She hadn't actually met the person who who runs the whole department before she got promoted, right?

2 hours ago, chitowngirl said:

I used to work at the HS cafeteria, which had over 1,000 kids. That’s not how this works…it’s not how any of this works!

And high schools don't have to serve three meals a day! My whole college was about 1500 students. (My freshman class was "the largest freshman class ever" at just over 400 (396 by the time we graduated, if I recall correctly)...until the next year when the next freshman class was the largest ever.... lol. The options at any given meal were a hell of a lot more than one main and two sides. And no small restaurant in town was prepping any of it.

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

I think once Roseanne left the show it was retooled to make Darlene the new Roseanne. The show definitely revolves around her.

Well, Sara Gilbert is the executive producer, isn't she?

[jcbrown]

I like Sara Gilbert, I like Lori Metcalf, and I love John Goodman. Only Goodman manages to transcend his character on this show enough to be likeable in the part, IMHO.

[emmyG]

1 hour ago, ams1001 said:

Well, Sara Gilbert is the executive producer, isn't she?

that's a small overstatement. she's one of a large number of executive producers. she's not the person primarily in charge of the show, but she does have a big voice. so she could probably veto anything she really didn't like and they can't really make the show without her, but it's not all about her either.

[qtpye]

On 4/25/2024 at 10:59 PM, needschocolate said:

But, but, but Darlene is the manager - because there wasn't one before.   (which makes no sense). But, if Darlene is the manager, who is the "they" that told her she has to be there are 5 am?  And she has to be there because someone else can't be trusted because of whatever - but las week they said there is no schedule. 

I imagine a college cafeteria manager might have at least an associate's degree in some sort of hospitality science.

In "The Middle", which is another show about a family that is always on the verge of being broke, the husband is a quarry manager.  Some posters looked it up and that type of job needs an advanced degree in Geology and pays very well.

They are not representing the hard work necessary to do those types of jobs.

Also, Darlene hates people by her own admission...so, how the hell is she going to handle the staff and demanding students in a hospitality-related job?

A college cafeteria will have more complexities than a small business like Jackie's lunchbox.

Just like quarries blast through the earth it would be dangerous to have someone in charge with no scientific knowledge about such things.

Edited April 29 by qtpye

[iMonrey]

11 hours ago, qtpye said:

A community college cafeteria will have more complexities than a small business like Jackie's lunchbox.

Again . . . not a community college. 

[Colorado David]

On 4/26/2024 at 2:07 PM, Wizardpatch said:

 

To be fair, Harris seems like a lost cause at this point. She almost married a weirdo and was kinda happy that some even worse guy got her pregnant.

Thats true, but she is still young in the show right? My early 20s I effed up big time more than once. But I turned it around as i got older....I hope her character has that arc. Early 20s is too young to give into 'my life is garbage' mentality. And I find the actor 10x more interesting than Mark's actor.

[Bastet]

There's plenty of hope left for Harris.  She has massive issues from her dad's abandonment, which manifested in a series of creepy relationships with older men, but at least the last loser was age appropriate.  She hasn't been dating at all that we know of, has a job in which she wants to do well and take pride and now has a doctor who can help her with the tools she needs to deal with the ADHD-induced stumbling blocks to that, she's still young.  I mean, she's a Conner, so she's got a lot of institutional barriers and is genetically pre-disposed to making some dumb choices within those, but I'm certainly not writing her off. 

[ofmd]

On 4/25/2024 at 7:12 PM, EtheltoTillie said:

You have shown remarkable patience!  I no longer "want" to watch, but I'm limping along to the finish.  All the characters are awful now, the writing is terrible, and the acting is stilted.

Tbh, I've been hate-watching this show for several seasons now... most seasons... I'm not proud of it, but here we are.

And I hate pretty much all the characters equally, with the exception of Louise (blink if you need us to get you out, hon!).

Edited April 28 by ofmd

[CrystalBlue]

4 minutes ago, ofmd said:

Tbh, I've been hate-watching this show for several seasons now... most seasons... I'm not proud of it, but here we are.

And I hate pretty much all the characters equally, with the exception of Louise (blink if you need us to get you out, hon!)

All of this, and is it just me, or does Louise seem tired of it all now that the non-honeymoon is over?

[ofmd]

14 minutes ago, CrystalBlue said:

All of this, and is it just me, or does Louise seem tired of it all now that the non-honeymoon is over?

I think so too, but it might just be projection!

ETA:

I usually don't comment on this show, plus I repress what's happened almost instantly, but now I'll name a few of my lowlights:

-  another unfunny "Darlene-trying-to-improve-her-sexlife" storyline

- Dan sitting next to Louise talking to Darlene, pretending to want to spend time with Louise while really wishing to be dragged into his daughter's private stuff

- Husband starts to work more hours. Wife is told she  has to work more for the relationship bc otherwise he will stray

If I didn't know who co-produces this show, I'd be convinced they hate women (and poor people, but that's a given).

/ok, rant over

PS: For me it's the writing, not who /whom?) the show revolves around. If the central character was Ben, or Dan, or - God forbid - Jackie, I would feel the same.

PPS: OMG, I forgot the worst moment of all: Becky mentioning washing her hair in the restaurant kitchen sink!

Edited April 28 by ofmd

[Rocknrollzombie]

Hold up, she washes her hair in the restaurant sink! God gross 

Edited April 28 by Rocknrollzombie

[qtpye]

9 hours ago, Colorado David said:

Thats true, but she is still young in the show right? My early 20s I effed up big time more than once. But I turned it around as i got older....I hope her character has that arc. Early 20s is too young to give into 'my life is garbage' mentality. And I find the actor 10x more interesting than Mark's actor.

I went back and fixed it.

Sorry, I had community college on my mind.

I should have realized that would make way too much financial sense for this family.

I remember when Harris got accepted to a crappy college and she pointed out to Darlene that she would get nothing out of the place but a mountain of student loan debt.

 

[ESS]

Loved this episode!! Dan & Louise's outifits were so cute!! Cheesball day was funny I loved that and Dan was funny at the ending tag there and Louise coming of their bedroom asking "Who are you talking too?"

Spoiler

I'am so ready for Louise to start her campaign!

 

[qtpye]

On 4/28/2024 at 12:41 PM, iMonrey said:

Again . . . not a community college. 

Didn't get all of them....

[iMonrey]

On 4/28/2024 at 3:26 PM, ofmd said:

If I didn't know who co-produces this show, I'd be convinced they hate women (and poor people, but that's a given).

Who do you mean, Sara Gilbert? I'm not sure how much say she has in the writing. Then again I don't think it's so much that the writers hate women and/or the working class, I just think they're lousy writers who go for easy, cheap jokes and don't seem to understand the damage they are doing to the integrity of their characters. 

Whichever co-producer you are referring to, I think they are just inside the bubble and don't see it either, or don't care.

[EtheltoTillie]

I think we can't ignore the effect that Roseanne herself had on the original show.  Whatever we might think of her and why she got bumped, she probably had a better sense of the characters and would not have put out this hollow shell of a former self. 

[chediavolo]

Harris/Emma really needs to get a proper bra fitting now that she has gained more weight.

[ofmd]

On 5/1/2024 at 5:32 PM, iMonrey said:

Who do you mean, Sara Gilbert? I'm not sure how much say she has in the writing. Then again I don't think it's so much that the writers hate women and/or the working class, I just think they're lousy writers who go for easy, cheap jokes and don't seem to understand the damage they are doing to the integrity of their characters. 

Whichever co-producer you are referring to, I think they are just inside the bubble and don't see it either, or don't care.

I don't know any of the other producers, I guess I just assume that Gilbert doesn't suffer from internalized misogyny or wouldn't work with misogynists. Big assumptions, I guess.

The bolded is definitely true, no matter what.

I'm bad with multi quotes, the following refers to the post below:

That's probably true for the old show, at least most of the seasons (repressing lottery win etc) but I was decidedly unimpressed with the reboot.

I think it is simply a matter of good writers.

On 5/3/2024 at 2:36 PM, EtheltoTillie said:

I think we can't ignore the effect that Roseanne herself had on the original show.  Whatever we might think of her and why she got bumped, she probably had a better sense of the characters and would not have put out this hollow shell of a former self. 

Edited May 5 by ofmd

[mostlylurking]

I’m pretty much a Connors apologist at this point because I still find the show funny for the most part but the Darlene and Ben story was beyond stupid.  Their marriage can’t survive his working a few extra hours?  And if Darlene is too tired for sex Ben just heads out to the bar?  What about just watching a show together?  You don’t have to be jumping each others bones every night.  What if Ben had a job where he traveled all the time?  I mean these are two middle aged people. They aren’t in their early twenties.  They shouldn’t be so insecure.  And don’t get me started on couch sex when you have a six year old child and your sister (in law) living with you.  I did get a laugh out of Becky giving Darlene and Ben “privacy” by going to sit at the table 6 feet away from them.

I don’t understand the food service story at all and I’m not even going to try.