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S02.E04: The Fall Ball


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The Boombastic scene made my life.  The creators/writers and I had a very similar childhood because they always seem to know exactly what songs to choose that mimicked my upbringing.  The choreography for the boys was amazing.  I loved their execution of it.

 

Constance Wu has such a beautiful face.

 

I only noticed at the end, when the grandmother was tickling Evan, how little he was in the episode.  Emery non-existent I guess.

Edited by Ms Blue Jay
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I love Eddie's group of friends--they were so cute figuring out their dance moves, getting haircuts (the frosted tips!), and generally supporting each other (or copying each other, in the case of Dave and the smallest kid).  And it was so sweet how Eddie got to dance (or mosh) with the girl from piccolo class.  Aww!

 

Interestingly, this was the one episode where I wasn't as interested in Jessica's plot line, though I found Honey really endearing in her love of horse murals and her sudden worry over her mom.

 

Loved the Jeremy Lin cameo, too!

 

BTW, did we ever find out the big announcement Louis wanted to make to his crew at Cattleman's Ranch?

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I love the Cubs and all, but their celebration took over FOTB and they didn't even show it afterward.  Based on the fact that there are four posts total, doesn't sound like I missed much.

Maybe there's only four posts because most of us fans are in the Chicago area? How freaky would that be? 

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"I don't speak Chinese, but I can tell by your tone that you're going to be okay." I love Honey. She was so sweet and supportive. As much as I love Jessica, it was nice to see someone call her on her crappy treatment of others. She was only being nice to her MIL to get her money and that's a jerk move. I like that Jessica made amends by getting her the long reach thing for the coins in the fountain. Also, I loved the grandma's 'let's go. The secretaries have been released." comment. She gets a lot good lines.

 

The boys' plot was cute. It brought on a lot of flashbacks from middle school. I don't mind Eddie and I like his relationship with Louis. 

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Honey is an adorable character and one of my favourites things about Jessica is that she's friends with her, despite sharing absolutely no value with her (unless you could Stephen King as a value, that is) and their being total opposite. That's very spot on and often happens in real life.

 

Jessica actually reminds me a lot of the mom is Malcolm in the Middle - except that I found the mom in Malcolm in the middle more warmhearted. It's not even that there is no warmth betweem Jessica and her mother in law, there is absolutely no communication. And the mon in M in the M would sometimes go to bat to defend her kids or husband against the world, while Jessica does it more often to get the world to be more realistic towards her kids or husband. 

 

The episode felt very Hallmark-y to me, which is nice but would not be my regular thing. Though I really did love the fun the dad was having at the dance, probably the best part of the episode for me!   

 

And the grandmother is another favourite of mine - I love her quirkiness, the fact that we don't see anything she does on a day to day basis and the glimpses at her actual life. And also the boombox statings with Eddie :-)

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I love the Cubs and all, but their celebration took over FOTB and they didn't even show it afterward.  Based on the fact that there are four posts total, doesn't sound like I missed much.

 

Whenever sports or Obama or weather or shootings occur that preempts programming, check the local network webpage.  I watched Agents of SHIELD and then went to the DVR for FOTB and found half an hour of Cubs celebration.  Immediately went to the ABC 7 site.  It said that the Muppets was going to air at 12:05 AM and FOTB at 12:35 AM.  I haven't checked the DVR this morning, but I had set it to record.

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So happy for the Cubs!

 

I too like that Honey is in the show more.  She is a good balance to the family.  The boys dancing was my favorite.  When "Tips" summoned the principal, and then shooed him back - LOL.

 

And I too am glad grandma called out Jessica on her treatment of people.  Another laugh when all grandma got was $7,000.  I had been thinking the whole time  "Just how much money did her boyfriend have?"  When my parents passed away, an asshole relative read on-line what their house sold for and said "You and your 2 siblings are going to split that?!"  I replied "After we pay off their credit cards and car payments."  Stupid people.  There is debt too.  He was fishing for the sum of my inheritance and he came up empty.

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Loved the Jeremy Lin cameo, too!

Where was that?

 

Cute ep. I loved Louis' excitement over the Fall Ball, esp the way he ran out of the restaurant.

 

Loved the dance moves where the kids move partners in (or out) of their orbits.

 

Dental Mentor = Dentor, and hobo melons were fun little jokes. "They have released the secretaries" was hilarious. I, too, am glad the grandmother called out Jessica on her selfishness and desire for the money. And I loved Honey being put in the go-between role then having to say that she doesn't speak Chinese.

 

It suddenly struck me that the principal looks like Lincoln Chaffee.

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Is the Chinese being spoken correctly on this show? I know some shows that use different languages, butcher it sometimes.

 

It is, and the translations are accurate.  Constance Wu has a bit of an American accent when she speaks, so I don't think she's a native speaker.  But Grandma's Mandarin is pretty legit.

 

That Shaggy dance by Eddie and his friends was everything!

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This was one of my favorite episodes in the series so far.  I loved Jessica recognizing her behavior and making an effort toward Grandma.  I also loved Eddie in this episode.  I know the real Eddie was all about the swagger, but a little of that goes a long way.  I think his and Louis's relationship is a high point in the show and I loved that Louis accepted Eddie's style with "as long as you're happy, I'm happy."  "I don't think that means what you think that means" to Eddie's "Eddie Money" haircut LOL.

 

And the dance moves, I honestly don't know that song or if that was a real thing, but I was dying.  This episode showed a lot of both humor and heart, which is what I love in a family sitcom.

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Great episode.  I loved that there was a focus on Grandma and Jessica's relationship.  And more Honey.  Honey is a good friend to Jessica.  They seem like the unlikeliest of friends but their bond is great.  I guess Jessica and Honey must really have bonded over Jessica's stinky tofu.

 

And the dance moves, I honestly don't know that song or if that was a real thing, but I was dying.  This episode showed a lot of both humor and heart, which is what I love in a family sitcom.

Yes, it is a real song, it's called "Boombastic" and was a hit for Shaggy in the mid 90s.  Here is the video.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W5pq4bIzIw  The dance moves seem to include a lot of slow gyrating, so I'd say the kids got it right.  Their moves were hilarious.  I especially loved the fantasy sequence of how their moves would suck girls into their orbit, and then the principal was about to get sucked in by the large redheaded one, and he denied him.

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Minor thing that straight up killed me: the reactions from Louis and Eddie when Eddie's friend called Louis by his first name.

 

 

OMG that was hilarious.  Although I guess not as common as I once thought as far as kids not using adults' first names "back in the day" and I'm talking 60's/70's, not even 90's.  There was a particularly heated discussion on TWoP on that subject, since, apparently starting at the beginning of time kids have called adults by their first name in some regions of the country.  The look I would have gotten from any adult when I was growing up had I tried that would have mirrored Louis's in this episode LOL.

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I like this episode. My husband danced to Mr. Boombastic during the 90s too when he was in his tweens wtih the same slow gyrations and so the whole scene made him LOL'ed.

 

As much as I love Jessica's character, it's also nice to see someone call her on her meanness. Hopefully this isn't just a one time thing and we see more interactions from Jessica and grandma moving forward. 

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I have been disappointed with this season, but this was probably the one I liked the most and found the most amusing so far this year.  I liked seeing more of the grandma.  I thought it was hilarious her first English line was "You're not the droids I'm looking for".  I hope she speaks English more eventually... she was quite funny in "Desperate Housewives".  The turnaround in their relationship happened way too fast, but I guess this is a sitcom for a reason.  I hope the partnership doesn't ruin Jessica and Honey's friendship.

 

The dance stuff was cute.  I don't remember the dance trend of the kids pushing each other.  I don't see the school principal being okay with that. 

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The dance stuff was cute. I don't remember the dance trend of the kids pushing each other. I don't see the school principal being okay with that.

Mosh pits were HUGE, but I thought it was more of an eighties thing, especially when it was new like they indicated in this episode. As for the principal being okay with it, things were different then :) Edited by mansonlamps
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I was afraid that Louis' high expectations for the perfect dance would end up pushing Eddie to change himself too much so I really loved that he went out of his way to emphasize that the important thing was for Eddie to feel comfortable and confident and then make an effort with the girl. He let Eddie get his ridiculous Eddie Money haircut, he didn't object to the button down shirt under a basketball jersey, etc. and then he focused on finding ways for Eddie to interact with a girl (as opposed to Eddie's original plan to lean against a wall and hope she would just come to him).

 

I also liked that all the boys were already planning to go to the dance and had been working on their dance moves. Oh, The Grind. Eric Nies used to be so hot! Boombastic was the perfect song choice and the boys dancing in the living room was hilarious.

 

Minor thing that straight up killed me: the reactions from Louis and Eddie when Eddie's friend called Louis by his first name.

Ha, I loved that too. I am much older than Eddie and his friends and it still feels weird for me to call my friends' parents by their first names so I mostly avoid it. One of my oldest friends still calls my mom "Mrs. Boogaloo." On the other hand, I also know people (some of them older than I am) who were raised to call even their own parents by their first names.

 

While I think that Jessica's main motivation for being nice to her mother in law this week was the money she wanted to invest in flipping a house, I think the other part was because she felt left out. She seemed to accept not having a warm relationship with her mother in law when she assumed that everyone else's relationship with her MIL was the same way, but when she found out that everyone knew about her boyfriend she realized that she was the only one who had no clue about her MIL's personal life so she felt excluded.

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Agree about Jessica and her MIL, but I also think they meant to portray a measure of guilt on Jessica's part. She assumed that their poor relationship was all her MIL's doing because she was cold and unfeeling until Jessica was forced to take a look in the mirror and see her own part in their distant rapport.

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Creepy episode. No boys that age want to take dance advice from a dad. One of the kids at the dance reeling in ... the principal (who then looked disappointed when he was pushed back - ew). Louis telling his workers something big was coming and then never giving the news ... twice? Jessica knowing nothing about her MIlL's boyfriend when even the neighbor knew - and still wanting money?

 

Every time I started to get into the ep, something would happen that took the exact wrong turn for me..

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