S01.E08: Diet Crap

[chitowngirl]

Tensions rise when Georgie intrudes on Mandy's new sales gig; Audrey's conflicted when Jim makes it a point not to coddle Connor.
 

Airdate January 30, 2025 on CBS

[Dimity]

Are they deliberately trying to mirror the tension that used to exist between Mary and George over Sheldon?  Because I gotta say there's a huge difference between conflicts over raising a child/teenager with the kinds of challenges Sheldon has as opposed to having an adult living in your home and apparently not in school and not working or otherwise contributing to supporting himself.

[shura]

On 1/29/2025 at 8:22 PM, Dimity said:

Are they deliberately trying to mirror the tension that used to exist between Mary and George over Sheldon?  Because I gotta say there's a huge difference between conflicts over raising a child/teenager with the kinds of challenges Sheldon has as opposed to having an adult living in your home and apparently not in school and not working or otherwise contributing to supporting himself.

Apparently not, they are not trying to do that.  I liked what they did with Connor here.  Yes, he can do all these things, but if someone else is doing them for him and nobody asks him to do them, why would he?  It’s just common sense.  And if he is asked, there is no drama, just “sure, I’ll do it. Done.”  I don’t think I’ve seen this before.

And wow, Audrey coming off as a reasonable person?  That’s new too.  It helped that Mandy was being unreasonably unreasonable, of course.  But still, go Audrey!  Totally, those overweight Texans aren’t buying diet products not because nobody tries to sell them any, it is because they don’t care to buy them.

Loved seeing the librarian lady.

[Tom Holmberg]

14 hours ago, shura said:

Loved seeing the librarian lady.

I thought the way they presented her here was different than her YS personality, more seriously bitter and not self-deprecatingly bitter.

Edited January 31 by Tom Holmberg

[appositival]

Does Connor always eat standing next to the sink?

I was glad to see that Mandy learned to sell to her 'friends' and learned to make friends in order to sell diet crap, but I wonder how long that process can continue.

Those sideways looks when she was selling to the woman in the apartment were somewhat over the top.

[ProudMary]

1 hour ago, Tom Holmberg said:

I thought the way they presented her here was different than her YS personality, more seriously bitter and self-deprecatingly bitter.

Yes. I was pleased to see the character, but not the way she was being portrayed. That was disappointing. 

The episode was okay.  For a character being mouthy about having a communications degree, Mandy sure did fall for scammy advertising quickly.

[Magnumfangirl]

Mandy's whining about not making more money than Georgie was stupid.  Plenty of people without degrees make more money than those with degrees.  🙄

[shapeshifter]

3 hours ago, appositival said:

I was glad to see that Mandy learned to sell to her 'friends' and learned to make friends in order to sell diet crap, but I wonder how long that process can continue.

Didn't Penny on TBBT have a similar gig for a bit?

[AD35]

30 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Didn't Penny on TBBT have a similar gig for a bit?

Pharmaceutical sales rep, and pretty successful at it too for like the 2nd half of the show's run. And long before that, very early during the BBT run there was an episode devoted her entrepreneurial potential ("The Work Song Nanocluster"). But that seemed to play into Penny's strengths. This particular development on the other hand doesn't seem to play on Mandy's particular strengths, whatever they are, or at least her original approach.

Edited January 31 by AD35

[Dimity]

2 hours ago, Magnumfangirl said:

Mandy's whining about not making more money than Georgie was stupid.  Plenty of people without degrees make more money than those with degrees.  🙄

True but on the other hand she's 30 something and he's 19 and doesn't even have a high school diploma.  I can see her not being happy about this but it's hardly Georgie's fault. 

[shapeshifter]

I would like this show a lot more if Mandy got a job as a weather person on TV again. 

[iarwain]

I guess Mandy doesn't have Penny's flirting skills.  It was nice that she was eventually able to figure out her problem without Georgie's help though.  

They seem to have toned Audrey down to the point where she is tolerable, and that's a good thing.

[Dimity]

Mixed feelings on this one.  I agree with others that they seemed to have calmed Audrey down so that's a plus, but otherwise I didn't find this episode particularly funny.   I remember when Young Sheldon came out I really didn't think it would work, but the first few seasons especially, were must see TV for me.  Not with this show.  It's not bad.  But it's not all that good either. 

ETA: Ghosts follows this show and I just finished watching this week's episode.  It may have been a mistake because now I think this episode was actually pretty bad.  In future assuming I keep watching it won't be back to back with Ghosts!

Edited February 1 by Dimity

[andidante]

I found Mandy to be insufferable this episode! And $1200.00 was so much money to have to spend for this. Not very smart on either of their parts.

[Driad]

3 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

would like this show a lot more if Mandy got a job as a weather person on TV again.

She said she had been a "weather girl."  AIUI, that is an attractive young woman who dresses provocatively and reads the forecast (written by an actual meteorologist) off the teleprompter.  I don't think I have ever seen one; the TV stations I watch emphasize the meteorology credentials of their people who present the forecasts. 

[iarwain]

1 hour ago, Dimity said:

otherwise I didn't find this episode particularly funny.  

I'm not sure if any of the episodes have been particularly funny.  But it may grow into itself, and I am rooting for Georgie.  I guess we know how he turns out though.

[Yeah No]

1 hour ago, Driad said:

She said she had been a "weather girl."  AIUI, that is an attractive young woman who dresses provocatively and reads the forecast (written by an actual meteorologist) off the teleprompter.  I don't think I have ever seen one; the TV stations I watch emphasize the meteorology credentials of their people who present the forecasts. 

Perhaps there weren't as many female meteorologists 30 years ago as there are today.

[Yeah No]

2 hours ago, Dimity said:

Mixed feelings on this one.  I agree with others that they seemed to have calmed Audrey down so that's a plus, but otherwise I didn't find this episode particularly funny.   I remember when Young Sheldon came out I really didn't think it would work, but the first few seasons especially, were must see TV for me.  Not with this show.  It's not bad.  But it's not all that good either. 

Yeah, I agree completely. It's not bad enough to stop watching and I do enjoy the characters but it's still not all that funny, especially this episode.

[Magnumfangirl]

14 hours ago, Driad said:

I don't think I have ever seen one; the TV stations I watch emphasize the meteorology credentials of their people who present the forecasts. 

Real meteorologists doing the weather on local TV is relatively new.  There was one in my market in the mid-90s.  I remember because it was a huge deal that the station bragged about constantly (and we had one of the worst tornado outbreaks in state history).  Now every TV station has real meteorologists giving the weather.  

Edited February 1 by Magnumfangirl

[chitowngirl]

On 1/31/2025 at 9:05 AM, Tom Holmberg said:

I thought the way they presented her here was different than her YS personality, more seriously bitter and not self-deprecatingly bitter.

Could be her audience. She was speaking with Georgie adult to adult. In YS, she was the adult speaking with students.

[MollyMelrose]

Never would have guessed Young Sheldon Mandy had a college degree. Thought her "weather girl" qualifications were a) physical appearance; b) tight-fitting clothing; and c) dating the boss. And when C ended, so did the job.

A college degree does not magically enhance a piss-poor attitude or questionable work ethic.

 

[Shrek]

28 minutes ago, MollyMelrose said:

 

A college degree does not magically enhance a piss-poor attitude or questionable work ethic.

 

I 100% agree as I don't have one but as I found out you have to get the job first & not having a worthless degree puts you way back at the end of the line for an interview, at least in the USA.

 

[shapeshifter]

4 hours ago, Magnumfangirl said:

Real meteorologists doing the weather on local TV is relatively new.  There was one in my market in the mid-90s.  I remember because it was a huge deal that the station bragged about constantly (and we had one of the worst tornado outbreaks in state history).  Now every TV station has real meteorologists giving the weather.  

I would love to see Mandy get a meteorology degree. In the 90s I was able to get a BS by "attending" classes at a state university via a TV hook-up in a room at the local community college in a rural area. It was possible to get advanced degrees the same way.

Maybe the riddle of "Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage" will be that they need to divorce so she can get financial aid for college.

They didn't mention her credit card debt for nothing either in this episode. I'm not sure how that's going to play out plot-wise in the future, but it could also lead to a divorce of convenience.  

[iarwain]

They're kind of scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as guest stars from Young Sheldon with the librarian, but it was still nice to see her.  Maybe in the future we'll get a Pastor Jeff or Dr. Sturgis.

[HyeChaps]

It was funny when Connor brought a beer to his father. 

[shapeshifter]

45 minutes ago, HyeChaps said:

It was funny when Connor brought a beer to his father. 

Was it?

[Yeah No]

22 hours ago, Magnumfangirl said:

Real meteorologists doing the weather on local TV is relatively new.  There was one in my market in the mid-90s.  I remember because it was a huge deal that the station bragged about constantly (and we had one of the worst tornado outbreaks in state history).  Now every TV station has real meteorologists giving the weather.  

That's the long version of what I said above.

[Dimity]

18 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I would love to see Mandy get a meteorology degree.

Has she ever really expressed an interest in this area though? My impression was she wanted to be on TV and this was the way it happened for her.  I feel bad for Mandy because she's 30, married to a teenager, living with her parents and stuck doing jobs she feels are beneath her.   She's got a university degree there has to be something she can do with that but I guess the writers aren't going to give her a good job as long as they can make this all about Georgie being successful and Mandy, not so much.

Edited February 2 by Dimity

[iarwain]

6 hours ago, Dimity said:

 She's got a university degree there has to be something she can do with that but I guess the writers aren't going to give her a good job as long as they can make this all about Georgie being successful and Mandy, not so much.

Sounds like a Chuck Lorre formula, although at some point on Big Bang Theory they reversed it, with Penny and Bernadette out-earning their husbands.  Problem was, they took it a little too far, and started portraying Leonard and Howard as paupers.  They seem to think there is some sort of comedy to be found in financial imbalances.

[anna0852]

23 hours ago, Dimity said: I feel bad for Mandy because she's 30, married to a teenager, living with her parents and stuck doing jobs she feels are beneath her.   She's got a university degree there has to be something she can do with that but I guess the writers aren't going to give her a good job as long as they can make this all about Georgie being successful and Mandy, not so much.

I don’t feel that bad for her. She’s in a situation of her own making. Georgie too. Georgie at least is trying to make the best of it. Mandy on the other hand, simply seems content to whine about it and fight with her mother. So we are rapidly devolving into a typical Chuck Lorre show.

[Dimity]

53 minutes ago, anna0852 said:

I don’t feel that bad for her. She’s in a situation of her own making. Georgie too. Georgie at least is trying to make the best of it. Mandy on the other hand, simply seems content to whine about it and fight with her mother. So we are rapidly devolving into a typical Chuck Lorre show.

I see your point and I agree with you, especially about this being a typical Chuck Lorre show.  Someone always gets thrown under the bus and it's usually the woman.  They seem to be walking back the worst of Audrey but if anything they're making Mandy almost completely unlikable.

[proserpina65]

On 1/31/2025 at 9:24 PM, Driad said:

She said she had been a "weather girl."  AIUI, that is an attractive young woman who dresses provocatively and reads the forecast (written by an actual meteorologist) off the teleprompter.  I don't think I have ever seen one; the TV stations I watch emphasize the meteorology credentials of their people who present the forecasts. 

They do now, but back in the early 90s, I remember a few weather girl types on the local news in my area.  Glad they moved away from that.

 

[ItCouldBeWorse]

On 1/31/2025 at 10:04 AM, appositival said:

Does Connor always eat standing next to the sink?

Yes; when we've seen him eat, he does.

I wonder what would happen if Jim asked him to get a job. (We saw him get one on the road trip.)  If he can clean bathrooms at home (assuming he somehow knows what items to use where), he could do it for pay.

Audrey should be able to satisfy her need to care for a baby through CeeCee, not Connor.

Edited February 5 by ItCouldBeWorse

[iarwain]

20 hours ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

I wonder what would happen if Jim asked him to get a job. (We saw him get one on the road trip.)  If he can clean bathrooms at home (assuming he somehow knows what items to use where), he could do it for pay.

That does seem like the logical next step.  We'll see if it happens, or if they just drop the whole of idea of Jim asking him to do things.

[Dimity]

Are we ever told why he doesn't have a job or go to school?  I know he's younger than Mandy but he's somewhere in his 20s?  I get that Audrey babied him but that still doesn't make sense.  I may have missed when they explained things though.

[kav]

1 hour ago, Dimity said:

Are we ever told why he doesn't have a job or go to school?  I know he's younger than Mandy but he's somewhere in his 20s?  I get that Audrey babied him but that still doesn't make sense.  I may have missed when they explained things though.

My theory is he is on the Spectrum.

[iarwain]

1 hour ago, kav said:

My theory is he is on the Spectrum.

That seems to be the suggestion.  But they don't want to come out and say it, because then they would be responsible for how they "represent" him.  Similar to how they handled Sheldon.

[kav]

It would be interesting if they explored him not knowing or being diagnosed later in life.

[Prairie Rose]

On 2/6/2025 at 12:56 AM, kav said:

It would be interesting if they explored him not knowing or being diagnosed later in life.

Agreed, because that does happen. In the 1990s (when this show is set), people were just starting to learn about autism at large. 

[Driad]

Didn't some episode show Connor using music recording equipment in his room?  Maybe he could work at a radio station or recording studio, especially if the employer would not require him to interact much with the public.