S01.E02: Powderpuff

[Snazzy Daisy]

Synopsis:

Quote

Evan brings in an old friend to help save a school performance.

Air Date: Sep 02, 2024

 

[SeanBug]

Just loving this so much. 

[Salacious Kitty]

Trixie Mattel! That made the episode for me. 

[Sarah 103]

I liked how into it the football players were from the start. They were totally up for doing an authentic drag performance. 

[Snazzy Daisy]

Trixie Mattel in da house! 👑

The boys performing their Powderpuff to The Warrior song is hilariously perfect. 

After 2 episodes, this show is watchable. Still warming-up to some of the characters though. One thing for sure, I love its upbeat soundtrack. 😘

 

[Irlandesa]

It's a worn out trope that women are obsessed with true crime but I still laughed that they recommended a 300 episode podcast about one serial killer to the football coach and that convinced him they needed self defense training. 

"Boom, chloroform, you're dead" was very funny.   

[possibilities]

This is a minor thing to focus on, but I liked that the drag perforrmance was not professional level awesome like so many teen shows portray a few rehearsals being enough to get a bunch of inexperienced teenagers to manage. It was enthusiastic, the attire was great, but they were a little out of sync and a little messy, too.

[SeanBug]

9 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

It's a worn out trope that women are obsessed with true crime but I still laughed that they recommended a 300 episode podcast about one serial killer to the football coach and that convinced him they needed self defense training. 

"Boom, chloroform, you're dead" was very funny.   

There are so many of the podcasts that it is a little worn out, but if we had a new true crime hit the national news, women would be all over it. 

Remember when Serial first came out, we were losing our minds. 

Loved how she didn't know anything about running plays but she knew every way a woman could be abducted and murdered.  We all know how to carry our keys, know where the car is in the parking lot, etc. 

 

[bilgistic]

22 hours ago, Salacious Kitty said:

Trixie Mattel! That made the episode for me. 

I was on the fence about the show until she showed up. We're big fans!

[buckboard]

I missed if there was any followup about the items that the drag queen stole.  I know the teacher retrieved some of the items from the trunk and the principal had a list of everything that was stolen, but is that the end of that story?

[possibilities]

I think they left it as a loose end, in typical sitcom fashion.

But there was some teasing of ... damn, I can't remember the main character's name (the English teacher)... by cute new teacher, about needing the use of a machine that was not available.

I am thinking they can't call the cops because then they have to admit they allowed someone access to the school without vetting them for criminality, which would be a huge scandal. The principal and the school district would not want that publicity.

Cute New Teacher is clearly going to be the love interest, very convenient now that Our Hero has promised not to date any faculty or staff as part of the saving his job agreement from the pilot.

 

[cardigirl]

I enjoyed this immensely, and as a former English teacher, could identify with the main character feeling like teaching English means something. Laughed a lot at the dialogue and situations, was disappointed that the drag queen was a thief, but liked how the entire episode played out.

It was fun! 😆

Edited September 5 by cardigirl

[Empress1]

Cute New Teacher is Jared from Insecure to me, one of Molly’s love interests that she fumbled when he confided in her that he’d fooled around with a guy once (he didn’t identify as bi, he just experimented, realized he didn’t like it, and closed the case). They were clearly making eyes at each other and Cute New Teacher is indeed cute, so I’m intrigued.

”I literally died for three minutes. I went to Hell.” “I told you to stop talking about that.” Girl, what? HA!

[Sesquipedalia]

On 9/4/2024 at 5:12 PM, possibilities said:

Cute New Teacher is clearly going to be the love interest, very convenient now that Our Hero has promised not to date any faculty or staff as part of the saving his job agreement from the pilot.

I didn't get why he agreed to that so easily. Do straight teachers have to agree not to date other faculty or staff? Why would he just accept that? But yeah, very convenient that Cute New Teacher is also forbidden fruit.

[Sesquipedalia]

On 9/6/2024 at 2:04 PM, Empress1 said:

”I literally died for three minutes. I went to Hell.” “I told you to stop talking about that.” Girl, what? HA!

This gave me Glee vibes, as did the coach bullying the students and even the main character gay guy not believing in lesbians. Everybody is kind of an idiot. Not sure who the voice of reason is supposed to be on this show.

[possibilities]

It does worry me that the coach was basically the one who saved the day in both episodes. It's like they are promoting him as the least surface likable but the most "deep down the best"-- I don't think that is a message I want to see every week. 

[Irlandesa]

53 minutes ago, Sesquipedalia said:

I didn't get why he agreed to that so easily. Do straight teachers have to agree not to date other faculty or staff? Why would he just accept that? But yeah, very convenient that Cute New Teacher is also forbidden fruit.

Because he wants to keep his job. I don't think he has much power to push up against it.  Perhaps it'll come up again but I don't think, in this instance, he's being unfairly punished given what we saw of his interaction with his boyfriend in front of the students.  Even a kiss between teachers, straight or gay, would raise some eyebrows and likely get a warning.  That full-on butt grab at school is a big no no.

[possibilities]

When I was in school in the 1970s, there were two teachers (1 male, one female) who were openly having an affair in front of the students. I had one of them as the supervisor for my study hall, and the other would come in and sit practically on his lap and they would do a crossword puzzle together and the hands under the table and the trembling and breathlessness indicated they were not merely doing a crossword puzzle. They were also not quiet, which all the students in the room were supposed to be. You'd get sent to detention if you so much as whispered to anyone, and they were murmuring to each other the entire hour.

So I guess the kiss and the butt grab didn't seem that much to me, and I took it to be only homophobia and not a general "no PDA in front of students" kind of thing.

[Salacious Kitty]

I had a lesbian couple of English teachers in high school. They didn't seem bothered when kids figured it out. But I never saw any PDA either (and they were great teachers, I had one or the other all 4 years). 

[possibilities]

I do have one line I wished they had not written as they did.

They were talking about the drag performance as teaching boys to dress like girls. 

Listen, honey, that's not what girls look like. It's not a conflation limited to this show, but drag is not girls. It's not even most women. Look around the school. Do ANY of the girls or women look like drag performers? Maybe a few, but not most.

Drag is great. But it's not teaching boys about girls.

I realize our language is limited to too few pronouns. But they could have just referred to what they were doing as teaching the boys how to really cheerlead (and not parody it) or do authentic drag. After the "I can't believe lesbians aren't attracted to men" line, they are making me think Evan is actually kind of a dick when it comes to female identity as anything that actually exists out of his personal framing.

 

I'm probably alone on this hill, but I do think it matters.

[Sarah 103]

5 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

Because he wants to keep his job. I don't think he has much power to push up against it.  Perhaps it'll come up again but I don't think, in this instance, he's being unfairly punished given what we saw of his interaction with his boyfriend in front of the students.  Even a kiss between teachers, straight or gay, would raise some eyebrows and likely get a warning.  That full-on butt grab at school is a big no no.

The school I went to had multiple faculty couples. To clarify, these were straight married couples. I don't remember ever seeing husband and wife kissing at school. The way their schedules worked out and which part of the school they were teaching in may have made it difficult for them to see each other during the day. I don't remember ever seeing any of the faculty couples engage in PDAs (like hugging and kissing) during school hours/on school property. It doesn't mean it didn't happen/never happened, but I never saw it. 

[Irlandesa]

5 hours ago, possibilities said:

So I guess the kiss and the butt grab didn't seem that much to me, and I took it to be only homophobia and not a general "no PDA in front of students" kind of thing.

I went to school a few decades later and what you described in your post would definitely have been put a stop to where I grew up.  My parents were teachers (and I eventually taught as well). I knew of all the real-life couples.  Some were open about it to students.  Some students didn't realize people were together until they got married.  PDA just didn't happen during school events even with the married couples.

And for the years I taught, I can't even begin to explain how much scrutiny I felt even off campus.  I remember sitting at a restaurant's patio with a few other teachers early on and some of their students walked up.  The way everyone straightened up and tried to hide their very legal and not over-the-top alcoholic beverages was eye-opening.  All it'd take is for one parent to complain about "role models" for it to become a thing. Fair?  Nope but a thing in a suburban high school.

I think the thing that makes this show deceptively smart is that this situation has all of the things.

The mother complained because of homophobia.  The principal caved because he's weak and would rather do what's easy than put up some fight which, given his nature, is how I think he addresses most complaints. And Evan was shown to have a decided lack of judgment when it came to interacting appropriately with a significant other at work.

Edited September 8 by Irlandesa

[iMonrey]

18 hours ago, possibilities said:

Drag is great. But it's not teaching boys about girls.

I realize our language is limited to too few pronouns. But they could have just referred to what they were doing as teaching the boys how to really cheerlead (and not parody it) or do authentic drag. After the "I can't believe lesbians aren't attracted to men" line, they are making me think Evan is actually kind of a dick when it comes to female identity as anything that actually exists out of his personal framing.

This kind of bugged me too if I'm being honest, and I was a little confused about the point of them doing drag rather than traditional powerderpuff dress-up. It was just a weird concept. And I had a hard time buying these football players would really get into it. But then I'm many many years removed from high school aged kids. 

Still like the show though.

[Sarah 103]

On 9/9/2024 at 11:26 AM, iMonrey said:

This kind of bugged me too if I'm being honest, and I was a little confused about the point of them doing drag rather than traditional powerderpuff dress-up. It was just a weird concept. And I had a hard time buying these football players would really get into it. But then I'm many many years removed from high school aged kids. 

Still like the show though.

I think that because dressing as girls is something "forbidden," not tolerated, not accepted, the idea of getting to do something somewhat transgressive (like dressing as feminine girls) without any consequences or damage to their reputation/masculinity really appealed to them. They didn't care whether it was dressing up as cheerleaders or full on drag. 

From the start, the football players were really excited about powderpuff, and I'm willing to chalk it up to "it's TV and we roll with it."

[chaifan]

On 9/8/2024 at 4:32 PM, possibilities said:

But they could have just referred to what they were doing as teaching the boys how to really cheerlead (and not parody it) or do authentic drag.

I thought the whole point of the "we don't mark it, we go full out" comment was to say that they were trying to do authentic drag.  Granted, a 2-3 rehearsal high school boy version of it, but that is was what they were going for.

Yes, I agree, Evan saying that Shazam was there to "teach you how to dress like a girl" was weird.  I chalked it up to Evan constantly saying things just off enough to be the wrong thing. 

But the whole point of the "authentic drag" was to get the LGBTQ student group to rescind their objection to the boys' participation in the powderpuff game.  So that's why they dropped mock cheerleading and went with drag.

The part about Shazam stealing all the office equipment...  I sort of expected Evan to hold all the outfits, shoes, wigs, breastplates hostage in exchange for the return of the printers, etc.  The drag stuff probably is worth a lot more than used office supplies.  Actually, it would have been great if the new teacher came up with that idea, and saved Evan's ass.  A little 'knight in shining armor' to add to the already simmering connection there.

I loved all of Gwen's "Boom!  You're dead!" lines.  That was a hilarious sequence.  Strangely spot on and rather depressing, but still funny as hell. 

I'm really liking this show.  Trying not to binge it too fast.