S03.E08: Ice Chips

[Yeah No]

Wow, I didn't expect most people to love this episode. I didn't love it at all and felt it was tedious and didn't get to the point fast enough. I would have liked it much better had it been only half as long if that and was interspersed with other plots/scenes more central to the restaurant theme. I think it went a little too far for my taste. I'm not a big JLC fan to begin with, although I get that she is doing some great acting here, I just detest the character and can't get past that. It doesn't relate to my experience at all either which doesn't help. And to be honest I'm in this show for the restaurant and the foodie/cheffy stuff, not for Sugar and her relationship with her mother. I might be more interested if it was about Carmy and his relationship with her. An entire episode about this was way off topic as far as I'm concerned. I loved "Forks", "Napkins" and at least a few other episodes but this one was too far off the main topic for me.

I do agree with a lot of posts here about this season in general not being as good as the two before it. I hope that's not a trend. And yes to let's scale back a lot on the Faks. Enough already. Matty M. is exec. producer so he is literally like that family member you have to put up with, I guess. But he is not even a real family member so that's stretched a little thin.

As far as JLC's wrinkles go, even with the makeup in the photo above you can see that she has a lot of wrinkles. I do think they have been accentuated on this show for a reason, though. They want to make her character look worse because she drinks and doesn't take care of herself. Although I do think JLC has a lot of wrinkles for someone her age. I am a few months older than she is and I have a lot less but I guess that's just a heredity/lifestyle thing. I got lucky with that but I would have loved to be as thin as she is, so there you go!

I haven't seen the last episode of the season yet. I'm taking my time because I know it will be a while until a new season comes out.

[jalady]

If I never have to see a “woman going through childbirth” scene again, it will be too soon.  Enough already!

[Yeah No]

1 hour ago, jalady said:

If I never have to see a “woman going through childbirth” scene again, it will be too soon.  Enough already!

I'm another woman now feeling better about not having children!

[ProudMary]

IMO, the childbirth portion of this episode was relatively mild. What we saw on screen was labor. The actual birth of Natalie's child was an off-screen event after Pete arrived. To me, the intensity of the episode was the dialog between Natalie and Donna.

[Yeah No]

4 minutes ago, ProudMary said:

IMO, the childbirth portion of this episode was relatively mild. What we saw on screen was labor. The actual birth of Natalie's child was an off-screen event after Pete arrived. To me, the intensity of the episode was the dialog between Natalie and Donna.

As someone that hasn't had children I felt that what we saw of the labor was bad enough all by itself! The dialogue brought it over the top.

[jalady]

49 minutes ago, ProudMary said:

IMO, the childbirth portion of this episode was relatively mild. What we saw on screen was labor. The actual birth of Natalie's child was an off-screen event after Pete arrived. To me, the intensity of the episode was the dialog between Natalie and Donna.

I’m just tired of watching labor scenes in movies and on television.  They may be accurate but, to me, it’s just a bunch of screaming and grunting with some dialogue in between. 🤷🏽‍♀️

[paramitch]

I liked this episode, but didn't quite love it. I felt like it was a little over the top and self-indulgent, and I'm kind of torn on JLC, because part of me thinks she was terrific (and she certainly was, at times), but I also thought she overacted her ass off, and the direction enhanced that. Someone needed to rein her in, but instead they just set her loose and for me it was too much.

Like, Jesus God, there were so many many extreme close-ups of JLC looking tortured and teary-eyed and loving all at the same time! As a result, many of the character notes felt repetitive to me, not cumulative. I was very tired of seeing the same sad twisty loving teary expression on Donna's face over and over again. Like, show, I get it. She's sorry.

I would have preferred for Donna to show up and try to have her shit together a little more, and to hold back on the constant tears/almost tears until the big conversation with Sugar about how hard her childhood had been, and how scarred she was -- how sick that had made her. For me, JLC's emotion would have had far more impact if it had built up over the episode. Instead it just felt like Donna arrived amped up at 11 and stayed there the entire time. There was no buildup at all.

I also do not buy for a second that Nat wouldn't have acknowledged Donna as she left, even given Pete's arrival momentarily distracting Nat. I just felt it was needlessly saccharine for her to slip out. She should have lightly kissed her daughter on the head, said goodbye and that she would be in the lobby if they needed her. Leaving without a word just felt like more needless drama creation, more "look at me and how self-sacrificing I'm being."

On 6/28/2024 at 12:38 PM, BC4ME said:

I just read the only reply so far and I feel stupid for feeling this way but I thought it was the most beautiful episodes of TV I've ever seen. After having been absolutely terrorized during the Christmas episode over the Jamie Lee Curtis character, this was believably amazing. Maybe it just spoke to me because my mother was kinda crazy like that. Yet, she did love us and although it never happened like that for me, I can imagine that it could've. When push came to shove, she had it in her to show up for me and really be the mom I needed. The mom I wanted. My mom is dead now and there are no more chances for such a thing to happen similar to what I just saw, so I really needed this episode. It helped me.

I can see why this would powerfully move so many other people, and I'm glad it did, even if it didn't make me feel that way. And I'm so sorry about your Mom.

On 6/29/2024 at 3:00 PM, peeayebee said:

I wondered when Nat said she made herself sick for Donna what exactly that meant. Do we know?

I love both my parents but there was also abuse, alcoholism, and neglect across years, depending on our circumstances. The result was that I was Anxiety Child (and became Anxiety Adult). I wanted to fix everything and everyone. I was a people-pleaser. I was a Sugar, constantly trying to assess how everyone else was feeling, was everyone else all right, what could I do to make things smoother, easier, better? My own feelings didn't matter. My own health or wellness didn't matter as much as everyone else's. I'm much better in middle age after a lot of therapy and adjustment, but it wasn't easy. I felt so deeply for Nat in "Fishes" and here, and was glad she was honest with Donna about the cost on herself.

On 6/29/2024 at 3:12 PM, SnapHappy said:

And no doctor is going to get crash info on another infant right in front of a laboring patient.  Bad medical research there.  A nurse would have pulled him in the hall.

Yeah, I used to work for a hospital and that bothered me too. No way any OB would ever, ever do that.

On 7/3/2024 at 2:46 PM, Avabelle said:

I’m due my first baby in three weeks so this episode was… terrifying. 

I know it will go great for you! Sending you all the good thoughts and virtual hugs for an easy and joyful experience.

On 7/15/2024 at 7:24 PM, pasdetrois said:

I assume she's talking about the adult child of an alcoholic syndrome. A big part of that can be codependency and a desperate urge to please people and be the peacemaker or adult. Yet never feel you are getting there no matter how hard you try. Anxiety-inducing.

This!! Exactly.

On 7/17/2024 at 3:11 PM, possibilities said:

I guess the exec producer gets to be in as many scenes as they want, because nobody will tell him his character is annoying and nobody believes he would actually be allowed in the dining room with customers, the way he acts.

Matheson has been a producer since day one, moving up to executive producer in season 2. I cannot stand how the show has expanded the focus on Fak, and it just feels smug and pandering. He's not a good actor, he mugs and pulls focus, he looks like he hasn't bathed in decades, and the character is increasingly immersion-breaking for me. This season, he is working my last nerve.

However.

I did like the Faks sitting with Donna at the end, holding her hand. Even though I was very confused that nobody else from the Bear was there--? I mean, that's just weird to me. I would have thought Carmy and Richie (and Marcus and Syd) would have raced over ASAP. But at least it was a Fak moment I didn't actively hate.