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S01.E14: East Side Story


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Brandon's luring of Carla (Karla with a K, really?) up to his bedroom under false pretenses and the opening speech has all the hallmarks of a date-rape-in-action. I mean, she's just the maid's niece, who's gonna notice?

How did I not hate Brandon with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns when I watched this series? Bad teen self, bad!

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(edited)

Brandon's luring of Carla (Karla with a K, really?) up to his bedroom under false pretenses and the opening speech has all the hallmarks of a date-rape-in-action. I mean, she's just the maid's niece, who's gonna notice?

How did I not hate Brandon with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns when I watched this series? Bad teen self, bad!

Oh he is about 10,000 different levels of asshole in this episode and he gets called on maybe 1/100 of a way he's an asshole! The way he acts at the party. Oh my God. My parents would have found 10 reasons to kill me before the guests even got there. FOR STARTERS I would have gotten a lecture roughly the length of War and Peace about how rude it was to imply that there is anything shameful about what Anna does for a living RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER! And after they had let me out of their dungeon for self righteous teens (I'd guess sometime next week and I'm 39) and I had written notes of apology to anyone who even hear tale of that evening, they likely would have given Anna about a week off with pay while I did her job and used the meditative nature of waxing floors to think about what a little shit I was and how I could improve my character enough to one day be the type of person who is trustworthy enough to cater-waiter fancy parties. As I said, we haven't even gotten to the actual party because there is no way Brandon would have lasted that long in my house. Asshole. Jim and Cindy should find a nice boarding school in Siberia. Let their spoiled, ungrateful little spawn freeze to death.

But seriously, why were the Walsh twins written as such disrespectful brats? They're supposed to be the good ones! Were other people allowed to talk to their parents they way they do? I'd still be scared to take most of the tones they take now and I'm fucking middle aged! What was supposed to be the takeaway from our plucky little twin heros being such rude jerks?

Edited by FozzyBear
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Wow. I do not remember this episode AT ALL. I mean, reading the description of it at the top of this page sounds vaguely familiar, with the using the Walsh address, but... I'm totally blanking out. So bizarre.

Then again, it has been how many years since this show has been on? And I stopped watching it well before it finished as a series. I got so sick of the soap opera drama. :)

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Great podcast. It never occurred to me there was no reason for this party to be at their house other than for plot reasons. Random. I also somehow missed Anna speaking perfect English now. Did she pick it up around the Walsh's or just pretended not to speak it until such a time as they stopped wanting to fire her?

My main problem with Brandon this episode is, he didn't just fly off the handle without having all the facts. He would get worked up with ONE fact. Like, Anna is talking to the parents inside the living room. They must be trying to fire her and Brandon should raise his voice with his mom about it immediately. What?

There was also the thing where he asked Carla a bunch of questions about the guys going to work in East LA. Like, I know this is supposed to be the lesson of the week or whatever, but it's weird how Brandon also uses his girls to interview them about issues like having a baby in high school or oppressed minorities. I know she ended up answering him but I think she also could've said, "I don't know where they are coming from and where they work. I am a high school girl and don't know every Latino in LA."

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This was brought up on an earlier edition, but this episode really made me think there's something to the thought that Jason Priestley was just incapable of portraying anything other than anger/condescension/lecturing in scenes involving the slightest amount of conflict. It would explain why we didn't see the apologies he claimed to have made; if he couldn't even reference them without a snotty "what more do you want me to do," how could they have played as convincing or sincere?

 

Oh, and his kick in the heart to Ohhhhhndrea at the end seems to suggest that (a) Brandon's completely ignoring the fact that he drunkenly kissed her only a few eps ago, and (b) not only did Brenda not spill the not-a-slumber-party revelation that Ohhhhhndrea wants to bone him -- dubious -- but none of his male friends have mentioned Ohhhhhndrea's crush to him despite it being so glaringly obvious that even uncaring seniors have taken note of it.

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(edited)

Manuel and Pepe. Shout out, boys.

 

Also, it's pretty hilarious that they Latin-ized the theme song of the show. Mexican guitar 90210 theme.

Edited by Pogojoco
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THANK YOU, sarastella. Yes, Pomona is on the east end of LA County (were you thinking of Fresno, being "halfway to Sacramento"?), making the various plot points of this episode plausible (if not still ridiculous). And the Claremont Colleges are real, too, including my alma mater, Harvey Mudd College - from which we drove into downtown LA many times.

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THANK YOU, sarastella. Yes, Pomona is on the east end of LA County (were you thinking of Fresno, being "halfway to Sacramento"?), making the various plot points of this episode plausible (if not still ridiculous). And the Claremont Colleges are real, too, including my alma mater, Harvey Mudd College - from which we drove into downtown LA many times.

Also Sacramento in north of San Francisco. But I'll give a pass on that one because I've lived in CA my entire life and every time I look at a map and see Sacramento north of San Francisco I'm slightly surprised. It feels like it should be south, but there you go. Geography, whatyagonnado?

Anyway, if Karla is in witness protection why are the Walshes involved? Couldn't the LA County DA get permission to enroll her in any school they want if need be? And in all honesty, this whole plot line would make more sense if our intrepid podcast-ers were correct about Pamona being part of the great San Joaquin valley (can I get some Central Valley pride in the house? Woot! Woot! It's a dry heat, people. A dry heat.) instead of 30 minutes away from the Walsh house. Although with traffic it might be quicker to drive to Sacramento. But shouldn't she be in a safe house or something? And was she actually living with Anna in, I think, Echo Park or just pretending to live with Anna and going back to Pamona at night? And knowing that Karla is basically a rich kid too (yes I said TOO Brandon! Stop trying to convince me you're even middle class!) makes her rant about how nice BH kids have it Brandon-level obnoxious. You do know you're not actually from the ghetto right?

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Also Sacramento in north of San Francisco. But I'll give a pass on that one because I've lived in CA my entire life and every time I look at a map and see Sacramento north of San Francisco I'm slightly surprised. It feels like it should be south, but there you go. Geography, whatyagonnado?

[...] (can I get some Central Valley pride in the house? Woot! Woot! It's a dry heat, people. A dry heat.) instead of 30 minutes away from the Walsh house. Although with traffic it might be quicker to drive to Sacramento. But shouldn't she be in a safe house or something? And was she actually living with Anna in, I think, Echo Park or just pretending to live with Anna and going back to Pamona at night? And knowing that Karla is basically a rich kid too (yes I said TOO Brandon! Stop trying to convince me you're even middle class!) makes her rant about how nice BH kids have it Brandon-level obnoxious. You do know you're not actually from the ghetto right?

C-Cal! And yes, where Sacramento is located is a source of constant confusion. I grew up in Fresno and one of my co-workers asked me how far that was from Sacramento. My response was "like an hour? 90 minutes?" Ha. Not so much. 

 

On topic, the Walshs' insistence that they're not rich irritates the fuck out of me. You live in Beverly Hills. Shut up.

 

On a technical note, all of my episodes of Again With This just redownloaded with slightly different titles. Using Instacast on an iPhone. 

Edited by Edna Crandall
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C-Cal! And yes, where Sacramento is located is a source of constant confusion. I grew up in Fresno and one of my co-workers asked me how far that was from Sacramento. My response was "like an hour? 90 minutes?" Ha. Not so much.

On topic, the Walshs' insistence that they're not rich irritates the fuck out of me. You live in Beverly Hills. Shut up.

On a technical note, all of my episodes of Again With This just redownloaded with slightly different titles. Using Instacast on an iPhone.

I'm a Fresnen too! Fresno! Or should I say FresYes! And yes, Sacramento is somehow not where it should be. It's similar to the way that Q comes way too soon in the alphabet.

So anyway. Walshes: salt of the earth middle class family. No! That house is huge and beautiful and in Beverly Hills and Jim is a major accounting executive! They are so not even middle class. They may be more conservative with money, but they have buckets. I wish the show would acknowledge that instead of trying to play them off as simple folk in the midst of rich. I would even be satisfied if it was played off as the promotion and move to BH being a big jump in income and lifestyle to them that they hadn't adjusted to yet, but every time the show presents Brandon and Brenda as anything other than rich kids I get annoyed.

PS how far is Sacramento from Fresno? 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Why? Because Fresno is 2 1/2 to 3 hours from EVERYTHING! LA, San Francisco, Sacramento, Monterey, London, Timbuktu. Everything. It's like a Narnia wardrobe that way.

Edited by FozzyBear
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That house is huge and beautiful and in Beverly Hills

 

And yet in future episodes we will discover that there's only three bedrooms and no family room or den.  All guests have to sleep on the living room couch!

 

(Unless they're dating one of the kids in which case they'll bunk down with their sweetie.)

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I love how Brandon gives Carla faking her address a pass, likely because she is no threat to his basketball aspirations. You'd think he'd want to keep that moral high ground so as to be closer to the basket.

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I totally cracked up when Dave mentioned the workers coming from the pan flute factory. The music was so silly. Brandon was so annoying about Karla working at the party. He made it sound like she was prostituting herself. Shut up Brandon. Anyway, thanks for making me laugh out loud at work.

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He made it sound like she was prostituting herself. Shut up Brandon. Anyway, thanks for making me laugh out loud at work.

 

So much this. My mom/grandparents kind of regularly used to have to throw these sort of "fancy person from work coming over" type cocktail parties and my friends were always the people that they hired to help out. Because it's nice to say "hey kid in high school, want a not terrible job for one day where at the end I give you cash?" I mean... it just seems so dumb to be mad about that. Of course it is Brandon so I don't know why I'm even trying to use logic. 

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On 7/30/2015 at 5:01 PM, StatMom said:

Brandon, here is a whole sack of SHUT UP, just for you. He is INSUFFERABLE. Gahhhhhd.

Brandon is out of control in this episode. Brandon is rude to his parents, Carla, Chick Snyder. He should be grounded.

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On 7/30/2015 at 5:44 PM, gpgurl50 said:

I also somehow missed Anna speaking perfect English now. Did she pick it up around the Walsh's or just pretended not to speak it until such a time as they stopped wanting to fire her?

Hah! I mentioned this very thing in the Seasons 1-3 thread! How Amazing that in about two months, Anna was able to speak flawless English. Because you know, plot. Plus the writers thinking we were idiots and wouldn’t remember the pilot or the second or third time Anna showed up and Cindy still couldn’t communicate with her without sign language.😒

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Just rewatched this episode—given our current situation, Brandon’s previously merely intolerable Bransplaining has become EXCRUCIATING to watch. 
 

It is, however, entertaining to see how the girls’ normal, everyday clothes (not fancy Designer Man’s duds) were actually fairly spot on. Similar clothes were available at the local Contempo Casuals, and one could go Full Brenda if one really wanted. 

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