slowpoked February 17, 2015 Share February 17, 2015 Carol attempts to slow down the pace of her new relationship with Helen I didn't know they were doing a new episode last night. Was surprised when I saw On Demand already had 7 episodes on it. I love how the Carol-Helen romance is being written, but the seeds are being planted for their eventual demise: "Have you looked at her hair?" had me cracking up. And man, if looks could kill, Matt would have already killed Sean and Beverly twice. And talk about awkward. The two of them trying to stuff the tiramisu as fast as they can was funny as hell. Link to comment
Inquisitionist February 17, 2015 Share February 17, 2015 I didn't know they were doing a new episode last night. Was surprised when I saw On Demand already had 7 episodes on it. New episodes seem to hit On Demand the Monday before they first air on Showtime. Helen seems to be developing a jealousy of Bev. I don't see this ending well for the new series. How very Matt-like to assume that the only reason Sean would want him to read the script was to see if he wanted to star in it. 2 Link to comment
maraleia February 17, 2015 Share February 17, 2015 Sean gets his feelings hurt when Matt doesn't display any interest in his new show; Carol tries to slow down the pace of her new relationship with Helen. Link to comment
Dandesun February 17, 2015 Share February 17, 2015 Helen's sudden shift to 'Beverly's in love with you!' does suggest to me that she may very well start Merc-ing up the 'Opposite of Us' project. I get the very distinct feeling that when she gets wind of the fact that Sean and Beverly don't want to lock Matt into the script, that she WILL lock him in. Which will most likely be hilarious and, clearly, they've got to continue to have Matt, Sean and Bev connected but man... I can understand Bev's continued disgust with Hollywood in general and what they continue to do to screw them over. 3 Link to comment
Danny Franks February 17, 2015 Share February 17, 2015 Well, Sean was really asking for that wasn't he? Being so determined to get Matt to read the script, it was inevitable that he'd love it and want to do it. But other than them stubbornly holding to an old grudge, and Matt occasionally being a terrible human being, I'm not really sure why Sean and Bev are so horrified by him doing their show. If they ensured that they had creative control, then it would be fine. Matt is a funny man, and they both get on well with him, when they let themselves. But ultimately, they had an easy out that they didn't take (and the show won't let them take, because it's less dramatic and funny), and that would be telling Matt that all parts have to audition. They know Matt hates doing that, but I'm sure it's something that Helen would allow them to insist on. Though now I agree that it's likely Helen will cast Matt just to spite Bev. Alarm bells starting to ring with Helen, sadly. She is going way too fast, and got too offended too quickly when Carol freaked out. Then went right to jealousy over Bev. It's sad, because Carol really does deserve a healthy relationship with someone great. I like this show all the time, but I get a bit down when it's one of the uncomfortable or sadder episodes. 4 Link to comment
joelene February 18, 2015 Share February 18, 2015 Considering how fast Helen put the moves on Carol it makes sense she's already planning dogs and graduation trips. Poor Carol! This is spiralling fast and I can't wait for the last two episodes. Maybe she'll make them cast Morning as well? Heh. 2 Link to comment
calico February 19, 2015 Share February 19, 2015 Bev counsels Carol to be honest with Helen. Carol takes her advice which results in a major freak-out that will probably end with a shitstorm being brought down on Bev's head. Bev does not take her own advice and lies to Matt which incurs the Wrath of LeBlanc. The Clown Bus of Irony came a couple weeks early. So glad to see Episodes back to form. I'm pretending last week's episode didn't happen. 1 Link to comment
lucindabelle February 22, 2015 Share February 22, 2015 At dinner I thought it was wonderful that Matt figured it out, he's not stupid, they consistently underestimate him, And in Hollywood and even in theatre, if you hand an actor a script to read and there's any possible part for him or her in it, tis understood you're hoping they'll want it, that is more Sean's error than Matt being a narcissist. Plus I love Matt and why can't h be in it? It was hilarious when Bev said waiting.l.l for him to remember!!, heh. Deaf mommy cracked me up especially the gristle, and monas unspoken pregnancy. 1 Link to comment
wendyg February 22, 2015 Share February 22, 2015 The script requires actors that can play two roles, so what's needed is presumably character actors who can obviously make clear immediately the differences between the two. We have seen actors with successful track records fail at this - Sarah Michelle Gellar in Ringer, for one example. If all you'd seen Morning do is PUCKS, and all you'd seen fMatt (fictional Matt) do is PUCKS and FRIENDS, you might well think they were wrong for something that required such delicate nuances. I thought it was an easy miscommunication error: Sean wanted Matt to read it as a friend; Matt doesn't read unless it's for work. *We* have an advantage Sean and Beverly do not: we have seen Matt LeBlanc play fMatt *and* Joey, and they are quite different. 2 Link to comment
Ailianna February 22, 2015 Share February 22, 2015 I get Sean wants Matt to take an interest in him as a friend, but I think this was the wrong way to do it. As mentioned above, Matt clearly thought they wanted him for a part, as opposed to Sean who just wanted his friend to care about something important to Sean. But they definitely made it worse by not clearing up the misunderstanding immediately. And then lying about it when Matt started to figure it out. Usually I come down on the side of Sean/Bev versus Matt (how can you not?) but in this case, I have to be on Matt's side. Yes, they reminded us of Morning's reaction to being told she wasn't being considered, but that was still better than actually hurting someone, and while I don't think Bev likes Matt much, Sean does, and so he hurt a friend with his unwillingness to discuss an unhappy truth. 4 Link to comment
Danny Franks February 22, 2015 Share February 22, 2015 Yeah, well I think that with both Morning and Matt, Sean and Bev are cutting off their noses to spite their faces. They had a bad experience with Pucks, and so they attach anyone involved with it to that experience. Sure, Matt was one of the reasons the show's premise was changed, but that was early on when he had no friendship with them and they weren't really able to talk to him like they do now. And Morning had nothing at all to do with the changes. She just showed up and did her job. So them being so set against working with either person again just seems petty and stupid of them. This has been perhaps the least sympathetic they've both been, since the show began. They don't want Matt and Morning because... I bet even they couldn't give a valid reason other than thinking the grass is greener. Sean does like Matt, and he does like Morning, but he's burning those bridges because of that selfish desire for something 'better'. Bev doesn't really have a friendship with Morning because Bev is difficult and overly snarky, and not many people seem willing to put up with her. Just Sean, Carol and Matt himself. And even then, Bev has been pretty self-centred in her dealings with both Matt and Carol, who is supposed to actually be her friend. The more I look at it, the more I realise that Beverly is just not a very nice person. She's funny, but she's not very nice. 2 Link to comment
lucindabelle February 22, 2015 Share February 22, 2015 You forget bed doesn't like morning because morning slept with her husband... Link to comment
Danny Franks February 22, 2015 Share February 22, 2015 You forget bed doesn't like morning because morning slept with her husband... She already disliked Morning before that. Remember her catty comments about Morning's suspect age in the first season? And Sean only slept with Morning after Bev had slept with Matt, which broke up their marriage. Also, it's a bit hypocritical of Bev to use that as a reason to dislike someone, when I believe she slept with Sean while he was still married to another woman. 1 Link to comment
Ailianna February 22, 2015 Share February 22, 2015 I think Bev made and continues to make a certain number of assumptions about Morning. That she is "Hollywood shallow" and that there's no substance to her. And while of course Morning's age and obsession with looking young are part of her personality, and part of the humor of her character, she has also been shown to be smart, hardworking, and diligent. And for her to still be getting parts after ... forever...she has to have some talent. I suspect she can do a lot more than they've seen on Pucks. But I think Sean thinks of her as a sex bomb and Bev thinks she only has her looks, and between them they've overlooked something good. 2 Link to comment
Inquisitionist February 23, 2015 Share February 23, 2015 Pucks is a stink-bomb that Bev and Sean thought they had escaped. I have NO PROBLEM with their wanting a complete disassociation between that show and their new series, which is their dream child. 2 Link to comment
lucindabelle February 23, 2015 Share February 23, 2015 I admit I et confused as to who slept with who first. But didn't Bev think Sean had slept with morning before she slept with Matt? Morning doesn't seem like she'd have the range to do two roles. I can see them not wanting her. Link to comment
Danny Franks February 23, 2015 Share February 23, 2015 I admit I et confused as to who slept with who first. But didn't Bev think Sean had slept with morning before she slept with Matt? Morning doesn't seem like she'd have the range to do two roles. I can see them not wanting her. She thought Sean had slept with Morning. She was wrong. But Beverly never admits to being wrong, so I guess it's understandable that she'd blame Morning for that. Link to comment
wendyg February 23, 2015 Share February 23, 2015 Beverly isn't wrong that often. And Matt did a certain amount to obfuscate the issue because he saw he had a chance at sex with her. He only told her clearly afterwards that Sean hadn't done it. (She did, however, rush to judgment and storm out of the house rather than stop and listen.) I'd be friends with Beverly in a heartbeat. She's direct and says honestly what she thinks and what she thinks is generally consistent and on a straight path, unlike almost everyone else on the show except Sean. If few people like her, that's because she, more than Sean, can't really adapt to the surroundings where everyone is full of pretense. She's the sort of low-bulls**t person that not everyone will like but who will be deeply valued by the people who do like her. She and Carol have an interesting friendship where they critique each other - Carol to get Beverly to soften the way she conveys her judgments, Beverly to get Carol to be less self-absorbed. 7 Link to comment
Sakura12 February 23, 2015 Share February 23, 2015 (edited) Bev slept with Matt first, that broke up her marriage to Sean, then Sean slept with Morning. From all that I can see why they wouldn't want the two people they slept with to be in their new show. Obviously something has to be wrong with Helen. She's possessive and moves at lightening speed. Two weeks and she's already giving her a key and thinking about getting a dog. To get back at Bev for giving Carol good advice she's probably going to tell Matt and Morning they got the parts just because Bev doesn't want them. I hope they don't do that and at least make Helen good at her job. But then again it wouldn't be Hollywood if everyone wasn't in it for themselves. With the Matt, Bev and Sean thing. Matt does have every right to be mad at them. They probably should've told Matt he need to audition to see if they can handle duel roles. Not every one is Tatiana Maslany and he's never done that type of role before. Edited February 23, 2015 by Sakura12 2 Link to comment
RedHackle February 23, 2015 Share February 23, 2015 Not every one is Tatiana Maslany and he's never done that type of role before. Nice. :) My beef with most TV shows in general and sitcoms in particular is how often a simple, two second explanation would just solve the whole thing. Episodes has been pretty good so far about avoiding clichés and has been outstanding with character reaction. So I can give them one for Sean being so momentarily excited about the new show that he'd have a complete brain cramp and want Matt (pretty much his best friend, really) to read it, without thinking through the consequences. And then, once he and Bev realize, going into vapor lock and not being able to say a thing to fix it. (I have done this.) I want the writers to heal this - I like Sean and Matt as friends and even Bev and Matt as occasional allies. Remember the ep where Matt solved their problem by buying them a new bed? He's a sweetheart. (Mostly.) I want this to get fixed. Link to comment
lucindabelle February 23, 2015 Share February 23, 2015 Their multiple apologies as they left were hysterical. "We must do this again" What is wrong with you?" I love Bev. That is all. 1 Link to comment
Thog February 23, 2015 Share February 23, 2015 I admit I'm naive to how these things work. Do the writers of a show even get to unilaterally decide who's going to star in it? It seems like they could easily have deflected and said they had to bring it to the network so a casting committee could decide (or, as others have said, insisted that he audition). I know they did try to claim Helen had vetoed it, but they made her vote seem more like a second opinion rather than the normal channels. 1 Link to comment
ganesh February 27, 2015 Share February 27, 2015 The plot for this one was very forced to me. I would have preferred Matt willing to audition and actually being good for the part, or if not a lead, then having to make a decision to take a supporting role on what's seemingly going to be a good show. This was too sitcommy. How very Matt-like to assume that the only reason Sean would want him to read the script was to see if he wanted to star in it. That's the thing though. If I'm an actor and someone wants me to read a script, it's 99.9% of the time to see if they have interest in working on that. I can't fault Matt here. Alarm bells starting to ring with Helen, sadly. She is going way too fast, and got too offended too quickly when Carol freaked out. I didn't get the 'she's in love with you.' Although, the "she doesn't even like me most of the time,' was a great comeback. It seemed to come out of nowhere. They have been moving fast and Carol was right to voice her feelings. Isn't that what relationships are about? It's a fanwank, and a pretty thin one, that Helen is possessive and a jealous type. They don't want Matt and Morning because... I bet even they couldn't give a valid reason other than thinking the grass is greener. And for her to still be getting parts after ... forever...she has to have some talent. Yeah, I was going to say, Morning's been getting steady work since the Hindenburg. There's probably a reason why. At this point MLB's isn't even a 'name' in this show universe. I can buy that Sean and Bev want to start "fresh." And, I could see that critics might pan the show if two of the actors from Pucks were on the show again. For two people with a hit UK show, and with the hottest script in Hollywood, Sean and Bev were pretty stupid. Just say, "this is our show, everyone auditions. No exceptions. Take it or leave it." 1 Link to comment
wendyg March 1, 2015 Share March 1, 2015 (edited) I don't think Sean and Beverly know Matt is dead set against auditioning. When it came up before, it was because he refused to audition for Andrew Leslie, and then the Leslie crowd blinked and booked him anyway. I don't think he ever discussed with Sean and Beverly how he got that part. Edited March 1, 2015 by maraleia no need to sign your posts...thanks! Link to comment
ganesh March 1, 2015 Share March 1, 2015 Telling MLB he has to audition for the new show washes Sean and Bev's hands so to speak. It's irrelevant to whether he would or not. They need to put their foot down. They don't want network interference for their new show, but they aren't acting like they're in charge. Link to comment
lucindabelle March 1, 2015 Share March 1, 2015 I'm pretty sure mlb is going to end up in that show. Link to comment
iMonrey March 2, 2015 Share March 2, 2015 I still think something is going to happen with Pucks that will force them all to keep making that show. The thing is, by his own admission, Matt thought he was going to have to do another "shit show" just for the paycheck, before he even read The Opposite of Us. So why did it never occur to him to read the script until Sean practically forced him to? Frankly that doesn't make a lot of sense. He was well aware of the bidding war over that script and the attention Bev and Sean got for it, plus - let's face it - Bev and Sean are virtually the only friends he has. This would have made sense if he had decided he was not going to do another TV show no matter how badly he needed the money, but since he had already resigned himself to taking a job on any show he could get it doesn't make any sense he wouldn't have thought about getting on Sean and Bev's new show. As to whether he or Morning or anyone else is right for a part, we have no idea who the characters are on the new show so it's impossible to say whether Sean and Bev are avoiding any further connection to the Pucks cast simply because of the bad experience, of it's because neither Matt nor Morning comes anywhere close to being the right types for the characters in the new show. 1 Link to comment
Dandesun March 2, 2015 Share March 2, 2015 Sean wanted validation because they've been getting screwed over regarding 'Pucks!' due to network meddling and now he's got a script out there that people are fawning over. And Matt he does actually consider to be a friend, so he wanted his friend to read it and pat him on the back. That's Sean for you. If Matt hasn't realized that Sean and Beverly don't follow Hollywood 'rules' at this point, that's kind of on him. He made an assumption about getting handed a part because he only thinks of himself and Sean just wanted his friend to share in this and pay him a damn compliment. Sean probably should have known better but Matt can be as snitty as he wants... this is the same guy who teamed up with Merk to ravage what Sean and Bev had written and turn it into 'Pucks!' and then, when it tanked, asked Sean and Bev to kill his character off so he could go be on whatever show Andrew wrote. Turns out, I don't feel so bad for Matt getting his sizable ego bruised again. 2 Link to comment
whiporee March 3, 2015 Share March 3, 2015 The other thing to remember about MLB in this was the way he was talking at dinner, already setting it up as a star vehicle for himself -- saying "him and an ensemble" and talking about funny hair and bald caps. You could start to see Bev's cup theory starting to come true, even when Matt was not trying to do it, he can't help but put himself as the center. He'd already had his agent contact Helen about money -- he was in the process of trying to take it over. And he didn't even get that he'd be playing two roles . You can understand S&B's reluctance to even broach the subject with him. That said, Matt's not wrong to think if they wanted him to read, they wanted him in it. And he doesn't see himself as a shitty actor or see his behavior as unprofessional -- he's just doing what stars do. 1 Link to comment
xaxat March 3, 2015 Share March 3, 2015 I think one of the great things about the show is how the Matt character flips between being a self centered, misogynistic, materialistic cad to being a person that genuinely cares about the people in his life. It happens in his relationships with his father, his ex and Sean and Beverly. Matt Le Blanc (the real one) does a really impressive job making it work. 4 Link to comment
iMonrey March 3, 2015 Share March 3, 2015 If Matt hasn't realized that Sean and Beverly don't follow Hollywood 'rules' at this point, that's kind of on him. He made an assumption about getting handed a part because he only thinks of himself and Sean just wanted his friend to share in this and pay him a damn compliment. Actually, Matt made that assumption based on Bev and Sean's reaction - not solely on being asked to read the script. He obviously wanted the part, but he started by asking them if he could "put a good word in for someone." Then clarified he meant himself. Sean and Bev were trying to be polite and they didn't shut down that idea right there and then, so it's really kind of their own fault they let him go off thinking they'd cast him. 2 Link to comment
whiporee March 4, 2015 Share March 4, 2015 I wanted to add this -- Matt LeBlanc really did some great work in this one. It's one thing to play a caricature of yourself, because none of it's really real, and you can be assholish and over-the-top without consequence. But in that scene he played himself being rejected by people he considers friends, and you could honestly see pain in his face in "what did you have me read the fucking thing for?" because even though it wasn't really him, it was still Matt LeBlanc being told he wasn't good for a part. 1 Link to comment
ganesh March 5, 2015 Share March 5, 2015 Is show-MLB considered a shitty actor? I thought he did really well in the audition for Andrew's show or no? Link to comment
Ailianna March 5, 2015 Share March 5, 2015 I think show Matt is considered a one-hit wonder. He made it big with Friends, but that outside that specific context with those writers and those other actors, he hasn't got much. That's kind of based off his real career, I think, in that this is his first successful project since Friends, and that was what? 15 years ago? I don't believe he actually auditioned for Andrew Leslie's show. I think they offered him the part over drinks, when Andrew was still starting to feel powerful and godlike, and before he started to realize how much influence he could really have. I think he liked having a "name" and just said yet. But I don't think anyone else at the show wanted him; especially in light of the conversation Bev and Sean had with Andrew when they went to his office. "The network won't have him." Link to comment
iMonrey March 5, 2015 Share March 5, 2015 I thought he did really well in the audition for Andrew's show or no? Matt refused to read for the part, he felt it was beneath him. That was a major part of the storyline. Link to comment
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