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S01.E09: Rule #32: F-You, Rob Frumpkis!


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Abby is asked to write an article about her dating experiences and must go on a whirlwind two-day dating spree. Meanwhile, Jo's daughter arrives from New York, and Delia worries that her affair with Gordon Beech will come back to haunt her.
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Another painful ep, with a few moments that were surprisingly OK.  It's what is soooo frustrating bout this show.  There are some good actors here (well, a few at least) & some good acting (not much, but some).  But I blame the piss poor writing & the terrible miscasting, that veers this show off into an unwatchable direction.

 

First off, I said it on another thread for an earlier ep, but Delia is a kinda interesting character & the actress who plays her is actually really good.  She should be on another (much better) show.  To have her be a victim of some sleazy rich guy is shitty, lazy writing.  She deserves a better storyline.

 

Same can be said for Jo.  The actress is not bad.  There were a few scenes with her that were good and her character is sorta interesting, but her intense anger is too much like Janeane was.  And she seems yet another one on this show who's being "victimized" by "bad" men.  Yawn.  The producers of this thing may be trying for a Sex and the City vibe & those gals did date a lot of jerks, but the diff there was the women were jerks themselves -- probably more often than they were "victims" of jerks.  So there was some balance.  This ep, they were all victims of the shitty behavior of the men in their lives.  Kinda hated it.

 

And there was Lisa, with that endlessly annoying-as-fuck smiling.  Ugh.  That is, until the "young" guy she's so hooked on, who I swear still looks 45, asked her to pass his book (which he just happened to be carrying around with him) to her publisher -- right after he banged her.  Yeah, there's an ego boost for her.  I think she finally stopped smiling, but I'm not sure.

 

Phoebe is still a waste of time.  I couldn't figure out her storyline for shit.  Maybe someone can help explain.  No, scratch that.  I don't give a flying fuck about her.  She can be easily written out.  I guess the writers/producers think an adult woman who is an idiot & lives her life like an aimless airhead is adorable & charming.  It isn't.

 

Lisa on the various dates was supposed to be hilarious, right?  It wasn't.  Just fell flat.  The scenes with the brother & his husband are nothing other than painful & uncomfortable to watch.  And there's the average-looking brother attracting the overblown attention of what looks like the only hot-looking (& actually young) guy we've ever seen on this show.  It just makes me scratch my head yet again why anyone would go nuts over the brother, let alone some hot guy -- unless he was expecting the brother to pay him.

 

Jake was only in this one for about 2 minutes.  Big plus to me.  The actor must be taking ugly pills cuz he seems to be getting more unattractive with each passing ep.  And Abby's snotty kids just keep getting snottier.  Not even sure why I'm still watching, cuz the show gives me absolutely no reason to.  I'm bored by all the characters & storylines are all going nowhere.

Edited by ScoobieDoobs
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I'm kinda scratching my head over why a female showrunner seems so determined to take women who, on the surface at least, are strong go-getters and turn them into pathetic victims. I don't know. I was really uneasy about last night's ep.

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And there was Lisa, with that endlessly annoying-as-fuck smiling.

 

You said it, Scoobs. She has a few different smiles, all equally annoying. She has the full smile, and the uneasy smile, and the I'm sad, but I'm still smiling smile.

 

I'm guessing that someone, somewhere, told Lisa that she has a great smile, and she ran with it, marathon-style.

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Ugh. My problem with Jo isn't that she's so angry, it's that she's irresponsible in the same way Lyla was, not thinking about the potential consequences of her actions. Lyla didn't care about how a DUI would affect their children and Jo can't stop and think about how yelling in a house would create a problem for others.

 

Phoebe's story was stupid. First she can't carry vegetables for two hours to the point where he back is bothering her so badly she's begging to go home but a few yoga lessons later she can work three hours without showing the slightest bit of discomfort?

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Lisa needs to go back to playing drama roles. She just can't pull off the funny or the cute. Even with that smile. Talk about bad casting.

She was always miserable in House. Maybe all the smiling is to counter that. I'm still struggling with her as the lead TBH. She's not quite good enough IMHO. Maybe it's just the show.

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Ugh. My problem with Jo isn't that she's so angry, it's that she's irresponsible in the same way Lyla was, not thinking about the potential consequences of her actions. Lyla didn't care about how a DUI would affect their children and Jo can't stop and think about how yelling in a house would create a problem for others.

 

And Jo doesn't know, at 40-something years old, not to bang some random guy on the couch of the home you're a guest in, when there are kids in the house?  Was this supposed to be hilarious too?  Am I supposed to think she's utterly charming & adorable for doing this?  It was gross.

 

OK, Lyla was angry to the point of looking insane.  The way Lyla was written, she was so ridiculously over-the-top in her anger, it made completely no sense.  In the real world, she'd have no job & no friends & she'd either be in a loony bin or in jail.  But Jo is written just as poorly.  Again, she's way, way, way too over-the-top.  Blame the writers.  They suck.

Edited by ScoobieDoobs
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OK, Lyla was angry to the point of looking insane.  The way Lyla was written, she was so ridiculously over-the-top in her anger, it made completely no sense.  In the real world, she'd have no job & no friends & she'd either be in a loony bin or in jail.  But Jo is written just as poorly.  Again, she's way, way, way too over-the-top.  Blame the writers.  They suck.

That's because Jo is Lyla 2.0. Same character, same sucky writing.

 

Otherwise, I don't have much snark. Not that the show's getting any better, but this ep seemed pretty innocuously bland (which equals lethal for what this show is trying to be).  All the ex parte contact between Delia and her client/boyfriend's wife seems really inappropriate (especially when it results in the resolution of a major deal point), but as discussed in last week’s thread, this show seems to have its own unrealistic legal reality. 

 

And the 10 Dates In 2 Days story line - not fun or funny.  

 

Samantha, er, Phoebe's man-cation lasted for as long as it took her to stumble across her lost kids (don't get me started on her maternal skills).  Who didn't see that one coming...

 

The writing really is insipid.

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The producers of this thing may be trying for a Sex and the City vibe

 

They're trying, and failing.  Reminds me of the countless Friends wannabes, most of which never made it past a 3-ep tryout.  

 

Dear Showrunners: You can't just start with a group of middle-aged women, add expensive shoes, cute men, & wacky sexual hijinks, and expect it to succeed.  The thing that worked about SATC and Friends? smart writing and exceptional casting.  And we liked those characters, so even when they did shitty stupid stuff, we forgave 'em.  

I'm just hanging onto these eps for the art direction and the purses.

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The twentysomething guy is cute but the actor isn't and doesn't pull off twentysomething.

 

I hoped when JG left the show it was a matter of the writers realizing where Lyla went wrong but they gave us a slight variant on Lyla, though this one has a vague career so her money doesn't seem so ridiculous.

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Speaking of the lack of cute men, I've just read an article where they said they're keeping Jake around and they might put him and Abby back together at some point. JEEEEEEEZ! I was hoping he and Phoebe would both be hit by a car, or at least pull a Lyla and run away never to be seen again.

Part of me is hoping that if it actually manages to get a second season that they have a mass re-cast or move on to a different set of characters who are going through divorces. In theory I think this show could've worked, but about 90% of the cast just aren't doing it for me, including Lisa 'I smile more than The Joker' Edelstein. The writers need a kick up the ass too.

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hoped when JG left the show it was a matter of the writers realizing where Lyla went wrong but they gave us a slight variant on Lyla, though this one has a vague career so her money doesn't seem so ridiculous.

 

 

Are you referring to Jo?  Just what is her career anyway?  Other than being a screaming angry loon, that is?  Guess there are several careers where you can earn a living doing that.

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