S03.E09: Bulletproof

[sugarbaker design]

On 5/31/2024 at 1:33 PM, chaifan said:

I love Ava's progression over the 3 seasons.  Not just her career, but HE does such a great job with Ava physically.  She holds herself differently, talks differently, she really is a different person.  Same with wardrobe, hair, etc. 

For a second there, I was thinking who is 'he'? And why is 'he' capitalized?  😉

[cpcathy]

I’m starting to really love Hannah, she was so good this season.

FYI, her first special is on Max, it’s pretty great.

[paramitch]

I thought this was terrific, and I was really blown away by the writing and performances this episode -- especially Hannah and Jean, as always.

I feel like every season ends on a new exploration of love and betrayal. Season 1 for me was about sort of mutual love and betrayal -- it's complicated and toxic, but it ends on a really sweet note, which lulled me into this idea that the love between the two women would always be the thing that saved them.

Then we got season 2 with the two women's mutual love and support just being strengthened right up to that ending -- with Deb actually doing something beautiful and altruistic for Ava, but of course in the cruelest way possible. Because that's how Deb rolls. She does everything in ways that are easiest for her. It didn't matter if she destroyed Ava by going no-contact. It was "easiest" for her. I still think it was poignant and moving and weirdly generous, but also so sad and upsetting.

But -- well, now we've had this gorgeous season where Deb apologized, Ava came back, and the two women's relationship continued to strengthen, both professionally and personally. I loved the way this season demonstrated that while there's some definite built-in toxicity, Ava is good for Deb. She expands Deb's point of view, and has made her a visibly better person, as seen in the colonoscopy and town hall episodes.

Deb has had her moments in return this season, and I've loved that. She's done her best to be a better friend, and a better employer, to Ava. But I loved the finale and its revelations -- Deb's lie to Ava -- because that's Deb. She is always going to pivot to serving herself in the end. Yeah, it's cowardly and disappointing, but I think it goes beyond that. It's who she is, and she doesn't understand why Ava doesn't get that. There's friendship and then there's business. And, well, Deb doesn't have any friends.

Each season I feel offers a new lesson to Ava. I feel like Ava, for all her own flaws (and for all of Deb's insistences), is NOT Deb. She is able to love fairly easily, and she's generous with her love. She doesn't understand that Deb's love is real but it's also ALWAYS transactional. Deb assigns value to love on both sides and she uses that to her own advantage, and in ways that would never even occur to Ava. Until Deb does it first -- which is why those scenes with her sister were so incredibly important. Deb loves to list all the ways people fail her, but her sister was absolutely right in the fact that Deb's betrayals were even worse, and nobody ever calls her out on that. (Also, no shade on Linda Purl, but J. Smith-Cameron was perfect recasting as Deb's sister -- she has a similar brittle quality to JS in the role, and I thought she was fantastic.)

So after Deb's cruel-to-be-kind gut-punch of last season's finale, we get the one-two punch of Deb's betrayal of Ava, and Ava's very calm, cool "I see your total betrayal and I raise you." I hated that Ava had to do it, but I totally cheered when Ava used her knowledge of Deb's one-nighter to get the position she deserved. I even think Deb admired it.

But it's still tragic for me -- tragic for Ava, and tragic for their friendship, which will now have this little asterisk attached. And tragic for Deb, in a weird way, because there is no relationship she won't absolutely destroy in order to serve herself.

But wow -- best season of the three so far.

Meanwhile: I still hate Kayla, but for the first  time, I will admit that she was at least almost bearable this season. A few moments here and there. Then it was all ruined when she was made a full partner because she had a few decent ideas this season. Never mind that she is utterly incompetent and has no social skills -- she's still getting special treatment. Ugh.

I was disappointed we didn't get more Helen Hunt, whom I adore. But at least she got a paycheck for what, 3-4 episodes? And it's always nice to see her.

I can't wait for season 4. Which I know will find new ways to inspire me and make me laugh and break my heart when it comes to these two.

[Love2dance]

On 6/18/2024 at 8:17 AM, sugarbaker design said:

For a second there, I was thinking who is 'he'? And why is 'he' capitalized?  😉

I did too! Read it over several times! 😂

[ItCouldBeWorse]

On 5/30/2024 at 9:12 PM, txhorns79 said:

And yeah, it is seriously messed up to move the remains or bodies, while letting your sister continue to go to the site to mourn them.

Not to defend Deborah, but she wasn't in touch with her sister at all during those years, and probably had no idea if her sister visited or not.  But yes, even if she paid for the whole burial, etc. she had no right to unilaterally move them.

On 5/30/2024 at 9:12 PM, txhorns79 said:

We never saw him actually quit his job with Deborah, or any discussion between them over his yelling at her in the last episode. 

He told Damien that he hadn't told Deborah yet.  And Deborah was distracted when he yelled at her. She probably doesn't even remember that he was mad at her, because, as he said, she doesn't really listen.

On 6/1/2024 at 11:28 PM, Souris said:

Damian yelling at Marcus "I don't want to talk to VENDORS!" had me in stitches.

Deborah would be crazy to give Marcus' job to Damien, if Marcus really leaves.  He doesn't have the skills to manage her business affairs.

 

[shrewd.buddha]

It was a very good season - the show deserves all its Emmy awards.
Ava can be annoyingly preachy but she does get checked for some of that - in amusing ways.

It is hard to imagine a 70-year-old wanting to endure the stress and strain of a nightly talk show - but that is probably a dilemma for another season.

The scene on the plane with Kayla was funny.  But I'm not sure it justified all the incompetence of Kayla that preceded it. 

I appreciate the show acknowledged the phenomena of comedians getting cancelled.  There are arguments for both sides and the show sort of managed to walk the fine line. 

[sistermagpie]

Really glad to be caught up with the show for the next season! I did not see that end coming, but it was great. I completely bought why Deborah would have pulled what she did, and it's still interesting to know that despite Ava blackmailing Deborah, it's still for the good of them both.

Per my thoughts on the last ep, though, I still think Deborah's sister is a piece of work, despite Deborah's comically evil antics. It feels like she was just waiting her chance to tell herself she'd made up for what she did so she could go back to thinking she was the good one and blow Deborah off. Helping your husband steal your sisters money, try to steal her kid and tell the entire world she's an arsonist is not "one bad thing." I'm not even clear how she's been trying to "make amends" all this time by just being happily married and living well and justifying her actions. If she doesn't want to spend time with Deborah she doesn't have to.

I think that's the thing about Deborah as a character. On one hand she's awful and it's satisfying to see her called out--but only by characters who also get called out. Kathy seems more like she just hides behind Deborah's terribleness while Deborah's saving grace is how often she can get torn down and not only take it, but listen and make some corrections. 

Likewise, it's funny how work is so important on the show, yet we have Kayla causing serious problems by being terrible at her job and failing upward based on a lack of social skills. Here's to the next season!

Edited October 14 by sistermagpie

[snarktini]

On 7/22/2024 at 7:42 PM, ItCouldBeWorse said:

Deborah would be crazy to give Marcus' job to Damien, if Marcus really leaves.  He doesn't have the skills to manage her business affairs.

I assume two things -- that Deborah would never trust Damien with that job long term AND that Damien is panicking because he may not know that. He's afraid it's going to land on him and he knows he doesn't have the skills or interest. Still as Deborah's PA he will almost definitely have to step in and take on calls/tasks until she hires someone new and then help the next Marcus get up to speed. (And possibly do that over and over, since she's horrible to work for and who's going to stick around like Marcus? He at least had the opportunity to build the empire.) Her team has to really work together to cope. So, some panicking is warranted!

The scene was written for the comedy, but IRL a Marcus type would just write all that stuff down in a binder. He would know that Damien isn't going to remember a slew of verbal instructions like that.

 

[Kel Varnsen]

On 5/31/2024 at 10:29 PM, tljgator said:

Headwriters / showrunners are EPs -- Executive Producer is actually a writing credit, most often, because of Guild Rules. There's no way she won't be credited as such.

The actual "Producer" gets a "Produced by" credit, which she wouldn't merit since she's not doing actual production work.

Late night shows are different than regular TV shows though. Seth Meyers has a Showrunner and he has a head writer(and because I am such a nerd I know who both of those people are). And Lorne Michaels is the show runner of SNL but clearly not the head writer. I guess that would make the storyline too complicated though to tell Ava that she could be head writer but but there would be another boss above her.

I did like Biff Cliff's talk about luck though. When Mike Schur was on Conan's podcast he talked about how important luck is in his career and how a lot of famous people get upset if someone suggests that there career was because of luck (as if it takes away from their hard work). But he recognized that as much as he was a talented writer with a good resume if he hadn't been picked to write for The Office, out tons of writers who applied and were also talented, his career wouldn't be anything like it actually became.

I did like that Jimmy realized that Kayla is a terrible assistant but an important asset to the company though. It seems like that kind of should have been obvious though that she shouldn't be dealing with appointments and other admin stuff though.