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S01.E03: Anouk


Tara Ariano

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Man, that was so boring.  So very boring.

 

Was that the same Rosie at the restaurant as last episode ?  Where did the unhinged nutcase go ?  She appears to have been replaced by Susie homemaker who is just delighted to send Harry to jail and ruin his life for slapping her son.

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Well Uma Thurman and Blythe Danner certainly acted the shit out of that episode, and Uma had surprisingly good chemistry with Penn Badgley.  Nevertheless, there was a serious lack of slap-related plot developments in this episode of The Slap.  What gives? 

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Yeah, Uma's kind of underrated as an actress. I thought she and Blythe and Penn all did a good job this episode. I kind of wish we had more development on the main storyline, though, because this was kind of a throwaway episode. It made me like Anouk, though, and Hector's wife. Even Rosie didn't bug as much as she has the previous two episodes. I mean, I still don't like her, and I don't see how they can be her friend with as weird as she is, but...they limited her TV time so I was cool with it.

 

While Anouk wasn't very tactful in the restaurant with Rosie, I totally agreed with her when she said Rosie should teach her son that swinging a bat around and almost hitting another kid is just as bad as getting slapped. Because yeah, it is, and had Harry not stepped in to defuse the situation, he very well could've walloped another kid with that bat and possibly sent them to the hospital with a bruise or concussion or worse. And fixing that would've cost a lot more than that stank ass chair Harry broke last week.

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While Anouk wasn't very tactful in the restaurant with Rosie, I totally agreed with her when she said Rosie should teach her son that swinging a bat around and almost hitting another kid is just as bad as getting slapped.

I forgot this show existed and watched it today just to have something on.  I was going to change the channel because the show was boring me, but when she said that I immediately decided I hated it no longer.

 

What did Anouk see in her mom's browsing history?  I wasn't looking.

Edited by janie jones
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She saw that she had some incurable condition, I think it was a brain tumor. 

 

This whole episode seemed like filler. I was bored and I think Uma and zero chemistry with Penn. What did anything have to do with the slap? 

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I can't take the name Anouk seriously. It reminds me of Nanook. 

 

A C+ episode for me. There were some very good scenes between Bylthe and Uma toward the end. Excellent stuff. 

 

But... very little related to the slap. Rosie somehow switched from being a screaming banshee in episodes 1/2 to somewhat rational in episode 3. I got the impression that she was going to drop the lawsuit by the end, but we know that's not going to happen.

 

These characters exist as a string of cliches. That dinner at Anouk's mom's was howlingly terrible- they tried to stuff in every single bad cliche they could pull out of the book about academics. 

 

I wish they'd just cancel it and stick the episodes up on Hulu so I can power through them and get it over with. 

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This whole episode seemed like filler. I was bored and I think Uma and zero chemistry with Penn. What did anything have to do with the slap?

 I thought the same thing.  It was almost like "we need X number of episodes, let's see...."

 

I picked up a book half way through it.

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I was also very much Team Anouk after she told off Rosie in the restaurant.  I wish she hadn't gone back to Rosie for that "you love your babeh!!" speech at the end of the episode.

 

These characters exist as a string of cliches. That dinner at Anouk's mom's was howlingly terrible- they tried to stuff in every single bad cliche they could pull out of the book about academics.

 

The scene that pissed me off was the one where Anouk asked for the abortion doctor referral.... leaving aside one's personal views on abortion, the cliche of "but we all know this silly woman wants the baby deep down and just needs to be talked out of it" was SO predictable.  Actually, everything about the pregnancy was like the writers went to TV Tropes and decided to run down the list of pregnancy tropes.  I thought the actors managed to bring some humanity to it, but it was still a big eyeroll.

Edited by Malbec
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Agreed, Malbec and we also saw on the computer that Anouk's mother had about 10.5 months to live and then her assistant walked in and said, 'It's very early in the cancer."  So we know Anouk just barely has time to give her mother that grandchild before she dies. They might as well show us that birth/death-bed tear jerker right now.

 

Okay,  I know I'll cry, no matter how trite, but I thought the premise of this show was how a small domestic incident can escalate and ruin friendships and families, now it's "Call the Midwife," and I'm all off track.

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So in the Australian version the Anouk story was second. I'm glad that they changed that order because it was boring then and it's boring now. I think the only thing it's supposed to do is set up that Rosie, Anouk and Aisha are really good friends and so that adds to more conflict. And Hector and his FREAKING JAZZ! I will never be able to look at Peter Sarsgaard without seeing his jazz face (which now has new meaning to me, thanks to this week's Broad City. lol)

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Yeah, I'm not sure why we spent so much time with Anouk.  I noticed she said a couple of times that this situation would impact the group of friends forever, but she was entirely ignored.  I guess she is supposed to be the Cassandra in this drama? 

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Man, that was so boring. So very boring.

Was that the same Rosie at the restaurant as last episode ? Where did the unhinged nutcase go ? She appears to have been replaced by Susie homemaker who is just delighted to send Harry to jail and ruin his life for slapping her son.

I think we're supposed to be getting a picture of Rosie as someone with some significant emotional issues. Possibly a personality disorder that causes everyone to be very careful about how the treat her.

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When he correctly identifies the obscure opera reference (ugh) that inspired the name of Jamie's stupid band (uuuuuugh): "I spend a lot of time alone."

While this show is absolutely a hatewatching gigglefest for me - this was a bit of a headscratcher because Useless Precautions isn't a fake opera within The Barber of Seville, it's the second half of the title.  I couldn't figure out if Hector was being Super Ironic or if the people who write the show don't give a shit either.  As far as that goes I can't regard any reference to the Barber of Seville as very obscure as opera references go - Chuck Jones parodied it in a goddamned Bugs Bunny cartoon, for christs sake.

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A lot of this Anouk stuff was unique to this American version. The biggest difference is that in the Australian version, she has the abortion. I had a feeling they wouldn't go with it in the US version and I was right. Le sigh. 

 

As I recall, she also loses her big-time TV-soap writing job, too, in the Aussie version.

Edited by MiamiGuy
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So she did not have the abortion, I gather?

What is this, will it be all about one person each episode?

What does any of this have to do with the "case"?

There are bunch of people who need slapping here...Anouk for babying Rosie, Rosie just because, the child molester/husband, what's his name, playing with the babysitter...and of course the kid, every day.

I can't imagine how the AU version can be good, but obviously better than this, just because US remakes are the worst...

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The Australian version is very good. And, yes, in it -- and in the novel -- there are eight chapters and each chapter is devoted to a different character who has a different view of "the slap" based on where they are in their lives. For example, one of Hector's friends at the party in the Aussie version is an Aboriginal man who converted to Islam and his white Australian wife who has also converted. Though neither of them is one of the eight main characters, their outlook on life is different from hippie-ish Rosie and her husband or John Galt-wannabe Harry.

 

I posted in the Slap in the Media board a good piece on why the US version is inferior the original if anyone is interested in differences between the two.

Edited by MiamiGuy
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Decent episode but every thing was so predictable. From the way the pregnancy was introduced to the brain tumor/selling of the apartment. I love Uma as an actress and would love to see more, it's the writing that is killing me.

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So we get to know more about Anouk.  Meh! Needed more actual slap related material.  Based on the previews for next week, I am now totally convinced that Aisha just plain dislikes her husband's family.

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The scene that pissed me off was the one where Anouk asked for the abortion doctor referral.... leaving aside one's personal views on abortion, the cliche of "but we all know this silly woman wants the baby deep down and just needs to be talked out of it" was SO predictable.  

SO MUCH WORD.  Having watched the last episode of Girls, in which a character gets an abortion and isn't conflicted about it, I was hoping this show might also show us something new and different.  But no, it's network television so the woman must realize she wants the baby after all and then she'll live happily ever after except we won't see her life after she has the kid.  Barf.

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I too was wondering if they would stick to the other version and have her get an abortion but sadly it seems that American viewers can't handle women getting abortions. What is wrong with a woman not wanting to be a mother? The rest of the story was pretty ho hum as they just seemed to have changed all of Annouk's story.

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It was obvious she wasn't going to have an abortion when she went to see Aisha about it; she knew exactly what her friend would say. Needing a "referral" was just an excuse to be convinced. A woman with money living in NYC has many options, if she wants them.

 

Speaking of Aisha, I cannot stand this character. That she is good friends with Rosie & her husband tells me all I need to know about her.

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I felt white-hot rage at the pregnancy-not-abortion story. We know Anouk knows how to use a computer, so she can look up abortion providers online. Go to Planned Parenthood. Ask a young woman on the show.

Recoiling at children and saying "I don't want this" means kids aren't for you. (I know because I'm one of those women.) Aisha telling Anouk to "come back tomorrow" smacked of the 24-hour waiting period in some states after abortion counseling until one can get an abortion. Just revolting.

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I loved Jamie but hated Anouk. What does he see in her?

I also hated the 24 hour waiting period changing her mind. If the writers wanted her to keep it, they should have had her more on the fence in the first place. It was like propaganda for women not knowing their own minds and just needing to be talked out of abortions.

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It is network TV, prime time Sunday night...reaching out to the beloved ( by networks) Mid Western market. This was as close are you are getting to abortion for the most part. It was cowardly and written for a pregnant teen, at best. Not an adult woman who dislikes children in general. And if she really has a baby to show her mother before she dies, that is pathetic. But will appeal to those Midwesterners...

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Of course, as has been pointed out here, if she really just wanted an abortion, there were any number of ways she could go about getting one, especially as a woman of means in Manhattan. Instead, she went to her best friend, whom she must know would want her to take her time and might even try to talk her out of it, and essentially set herself up to be talked out of it. She's shown to be very wishy-washy about her relationship with Jamie (I think about breaking up with you 10 times a day; Yeah, but you don't), and not particularly stalwart in her relationship with her mom. I think she wanted to be talked into something, so that if it goes badly she has someone to blame. I wasn't sold on her dislike of children, by the way, given her reactions to the various children. She definitely seemed like someone who had little interaction with kids, and wasn't sure what to do with them, and probably no interest in other people's kids, but who hadn't ever actually thought about her own kid, and just assumed she didn't want one. I don't get the feeling she thinks deeply about much in her life. Instead, she melodramas a lot, and does some superficial angsting, but I'm not sure she even knows herself, and that's why she changes her mind about every major relationship she has during the course of her episode.

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I actually thought the way she interacted with Hector's kids was an example of her being good with kids. Was it supposed to be the opposite? They obviously love her and feel conortable around her.

I'm ok with her wanting to be talked into it but then they should have had her say something like "I'm thinking about an abortion, I'm not sure what to do" not being all like I definitely don't want this, I definitely want an abortion, and then being talked out of it.

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(edited)

Blythe Danner's British accent was very bad. I'm fairly sure that the word "rotted" isn't pronounced like "rawted" in any of the dialects. I suspect Danner's spent a lot of time with her daughter over in the UK so I'm surprised it was so awful.

I do like, from a storyline aspect, that Anouk might decide to keep the baby so that her dying mother might feel comforted by the idea of the continuation of generations. It's obviously not the case here. Anouk's motivations in this version aren't clear at all. And I don't blame Thurman. I blame the writing.

Edited by TimWil
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(edited)

Maybe, Anouk, if you're trying to keep your surprise internet-history-espionage visit to your Mom's a secret... exit out of the Google search window.

 

"My bookworm boy is looking at porn. He forgot to delete the internet history." -Aisha

He forgot? Is deleting the search history in your home as habitual as putting the toilet seat down?

And did anyone else immediately think the porn must be Hector's?

Edited by Drogo
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Blythe Danner's British accent was very bad. I'm fairly sure that the word "rotted" isn't pronounced like "rawted" in any of the dialects. I suspect Danner's spent a lot of time with her daughter over in the UK so I'm surprised it was so awful.

I do like, from a storyline aspect, that Anouk might decide to keep the baby so that her dying mother might feel comforted by the idea of the continuation of generations. It's obviously not the case here. Anouk's motivations in this version aren't clear at all. And I don't blame Thurman. I blame the writing.

Every time I hear Blythe Danner affect a British accent, I think "Now I know why Gwynyth seems so pretentious".

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Awful, awful hair aside, I think Penn's character is a good guy. He's obviously young, but seems pretty genuine to me. The scene where he was watching cartoons actually endeared me to him. The hair though, my god.

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It is network TV, prime time Sunday night...reaching out to the beloved ( by networks) Mid Western market. This was as close are you are getting to abortion for the most part. It was cowardly and written for a pregnant teen, at best. Not an adult woman who dislikes children in general. And if she really has a baby to show her mother before she dies, that is pathetic. But will appeal to those Midwesterners...

I'm confused as to the point here; first of all, the show is not on Sundays. And, as a Midwesterner, is there some assumption out there that we're all opposed to abortion? I didn't know that, and anecdotally I know very few people who would be offended by an abortion story line.

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Whoops, Thursday night. Which is even more of a "prime" TV night of late.

I think it is pretty fair to say that a lot of states in the middle of the country are overall, pro-life...maybe not each individual, but as far as their laws, dedication to religion, etc...but anyway jmo. Network tV has always been leery of offending middle America (used as a term, maybe not geographically) and abortion is probably the hottest issue in the country as far as having definite opinions. How many network shows are there that have gone through with an abortion involving a major character? A couple?

I hated that her friend gave her a "speech". But did she go to her as a friend or as a patient? And then...after all that, I find I don't even care. This show has not sucked me in and this episode was enough for me to move on.

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After watching this episode I cancelled future recordings.  It is just boring beyond belief.  This episode had so little to do with THE SLAP, one could conclude it is from a different show.  One less thing to clog up my DVR.

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Ugh, I can't bear much more than to have this show on in the background while I'm browsing the Forums. Like some of the other posters here, I was beyond annoyed at Anouk being talked out of the abortion. Such a cliché - obviously, we all want children deep down, and we're just scared to admit it!

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