S01.E09: I'm Going To The Beach With Josh And His Friends!

[SeanC]

I agree.  When Rebecca said she got an A (which made me laugh a lot), it made perfect sense that she had taken it.

The best part of that joke was that she only got graded because she asked the instructor to give her one.

[Eyes High]

The best part of that joke was that she only got graded because she asked the instructor to give her one.

 

Kind of like The Simpsons where Lisa, faced with a teachers' strike, begs Marge to grade her: "Grade me...look at me...evaluate and rank me! Oh, I'm good, good, good, and oh so smart! GRADE ME!"

[HawaiiTVGuy]

I personally don't find Valencia THAT attractive to me personally, but I can understand how she can be considered "hot". And I also think that her personality/character has a lot to do with whether we as an audience perceive her looks. Like if she had a nice, warm personality who genuinely smiled a lot, I think a lot more people would think she was attractive or "hot", which, as I pointed out, can be different to different people.

[Sara2009]

On January 29, 2016 at 0:13 PM, Eyes High said:

 

On the one hand, I don't want to bag on an actress' looks too much, and it seems especially wrong in a show that wears its feminism on its sleeve, but on the other hand, you have a point. I have to admit that I have trouble believing that Gabrielle Ruiz, aside from the "hot" signifiers (big hair, fit figure, etc. etc.), was the most beautiful person they could have found to play the hot mean girl. I get that they were looking for someone with a musical theatre background who was not only Latina (assuming that Valencia's ethnicity was a non-negotiable aspect of the character) but who could also dance and sing very well, but it's not as if Broadway isn't incredibly lookist (looksist?), especially when it comes to women. You'd think that there'd be lots of gorgeous, young triple threats to choose from, and if they needed gorgeous, young Latina triple threats, you'd think the productions of In The Heights making the rounds would provide a large supply. Other Broadway actresses and actors who have crossed over to TV like Aaron Tveit, Jonathan Groff, Laura Osnes and Sutton Foster aren't exactly hideous monsters. 

 

On the other hand, maybe they were looking for a very tall, willowy type, which is not a body type you see all that often on powerhouse singers. It seems to me that a lot of powerhouse Broadway singers, even the skinny minnies like Laura Osnes, have big barrel chests and relatively short, thick waists. If they decided they wanted a tall, willowy type--to contrast with Rachel Bloom's more compact build--they might have had to rule out a lot of candidates.

 

 

Josh gave as his reason for dumping Rebecca in high school that she was "dramatic and weird." It will be interesting if that comes back into play.

There was also " Glee," which was filled with attractive Broadway people.

 

With that being said, I think Gabrielle Ruiz is definitely beautiful enough to play the " hot girl." 

Edited July 21, 2016 by Sara2009

[femmefan1946]

Having watched the re-run last night, I was wondering if Valencia being the 'hot' girl has as much to do with her own confidence in her looks as in her actual looks.

And having watched my friends as they aged, Valencia's cheekbones, carriage, and elegant nose will still be handsome in her seventies and eighties.

In the show, she also matured earlier than her classmates,giving her a few months edge on 'sexiness'.

But her attitude to other women, not only in the song and to Rebecca but in the story about wedding of Josh' (sister? cousin?) shows her insecurity.

[DianeDobbler]

I have been binge-watching on netflicks. I've looked at Gabrielle Ruiz's youtube videos and she totally suits this role. She is totally a glamour model type, not a supermodel or fashion model type, and both Ruiz and Valencia could easily get glamour model work if they wanted (though maybe not a big market in West Covina). You know, the hot girl who advertises something else - the car dealership, a dating service - or participates in a Tropicana bikini contest.  I knew a guy who dated nothing but Gabrielle Ruiz types, one of whom went on to become a successful actress.  Her body is proportionate, she's wicked toned, she has the most important requisite for being photogenic, which is a clean, sharp, absolutely defined jawline and long neck. The softer shape of her lips offsets her angular face. She's also like a couple of girls I know (not many) who just do not leave the house unless they're done to a tee. Every hair in place, and they monitor everything from their teeth to needing to go to the spa to get a depilatory on everything but the hair on their head, and they are very competitive on that level, often out of naked insecurity. It is a high maintenance look and the girls I know who are like her tend not to be dating the high status guy unless they were born into it somehow.  It's also not a look you run into in Scarsdale, NYC or the Ivies, so I could see a girl like Rebecca being absolutely at a loss in how to compete. I also believe Josh's guy friends don't like Valencia. That happens. You can not like someone's boyfriend or girlfriend for years but just go along to get along. Everything about her screams control freak, including her looks, but Josh is so mellow this probably doesn't bug him the way it bugs the other guys. I get the feeling Josh does what he wants most of the time and lets a lot of her suggestions and demands roll off his back, especially if she's not 100% direct. He can just not get it, or pretend not to get it. Whereas a more easily irritated guy wouldn't last long.

In this episode, I think a big difference between Heather and Valencia is Valencia was passive aggressive and bitchy, while Heather is direct, but there's no malice behind what she's saying.

As I watch, Greg is incredibly distracting to me because he seems so much older than anyone else. Rebecca is meant to be mid-late twenties (going by Rachel Bloom's age and also Rebecca talking about her camp romance with Josh as 10 years in the past). He might be that same age but a lot of the time he reads much older than his supposed peers.  This distracted me during a lot of Greg episodes, particularly the one where he visited his family. He seemed miscast for the "I'm still being bitchy about my mom leaving my dad". That's how someone much younger than Greg would roll. I think a guy Greg's age would be more dry, but I guess we're meant to think he's as young as the others.  I liked him in this episode but I thought he stuck out like a sore thumb age-wise, more like the older guy still hanging out with the younger guys. He also does have that sour Ross Geller deal going on (Chandler was endearing, IMO, at least when younger, and genuinely funny - and very self-deprecating.)

The pole dance was horrific. I definitely think Rebecca talking about the pole dancing class as being a "feminist" pole dancing class was a straight up send-up, just the way she did in that song 'Be hot for yourself." But my God, it was horrifying in a hilarious way. I guess if you're going to do something that outrageous, it's not going to work unless you push it to the max. I just started laughing by the time White Josh and Darryl began to react, particularly the upside down twerking, and I still laugh when I think about it. The outfit, the shorts, the camera angles - my God. But I also think we learned a whole lot about Rebecca because of it.

Edited February 14, 2017 by DianeDobbler

[DianeDobbler]

On 2/14/2017 at 2:43 PM, DianeDobbler said:

 

P.S. - I think some of the casting in CEG just plots along the same line she took in her videos, or at least just evokes people she worked with on youtube. In "Cheaters", the Nicole Shabtai character (Casey) is totally a Valencia type. Valencia types, the physical type, show up on CEG a lot. Rachel Grate (Audra Levine) is a Valencia type. Just grow the hair and lose the corporate drag. Among the campers in the camping episode, there's a Valencia type (in fact one of the recappers on another site seems to think it's Gabrielle Ruiz herself, but it's not). Even more strangely, there's a youtube video sketch comic actor named "Greg Burke" who is totally a Greg type. In fact, it makes me wonder if the character of Greg in CEG was based on the characters Burke played on youtube, and that's why Greg was called Greg. Similar physical type, including looking just a bit older than his supposed peers, even though he might be the same age.

Edited March 5, 2017 by DianeDobbler

[LadyAmalthea]

On 2/15/2017 at 6:13 AM, DianeDobbler said:

As I watch, Greg is incredibly distracting to me because he seems so much older than anyone else. Rebecca is meant to be mid-late twenties (going by Rachel Bloom's age and also Rebecca talking about her camp romance with Josh as 10 years in the past). He might be that same age but a lot of the time he reads much older than his supposed peers.  This distracted me during a lot of Greg episodes, particularly the one where he visited his family. He seemed miscast for the "I'm still being bitchy about my mom leaving my dad". That's how someone much younger than Greg would roll. I think a guy Greg's age would be more dry, but I guess we're meant to think he's as young as the others.  I liked him in this episode but I thought he stuck out like a sore thumb age-wise, more like the older guy still hanging out with the younger guys. He also does have that sour Ross Geller deal going on (Chandler was endearing, IMO, at least when younger, and genuinely funny - and very self-deprecating.)

I think Greg is meant to be the same age as Josh - they went to school together.  Santino and Vincent are both 34 playing characters in their late twenties but I suppose Josh reads a bit younger because of his immaturity/bro-ishness.