S04.E21: Addicted To Love

[Primetimer]

Brandon enlists Kelly to pose as his non-carnal date for Task Force events because...wait, why?

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[Primetimer]

Brandon stares at various ladies for 15 years before the ad breaks, Steve enjoys vintage porn, and Brenda and Stuart something something oh who cares.

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[Soozie]

Love the Danny Drennan reference in the Visual Aids!

[TeeVee329]

Brenda reminiscing about the doomed trip to Baja in the car with Dylan was wrong from top to bottom.  She didn't lose her passport, she didn't have her license because it got stolen in the robbery.  It didn't happen on the drive down, it happened on the way back.  They did get in a fight in Baja, but it was about the chick Dylan brought down there during their breakup.  And I don't recall them laughing the whole thing off since that led to Dylan's falling out with Jim, them sneaking around for weeks, their doomed attempt at cohabitation, Brenda going to Paris, and the Summer of Deception.

Edited July 22, 2016 by TeeVee329

[gesundheit]

Ah, the dawn of Brandon and Kelly, the couple with competitive smug-offs who bring out the absolute worst sanctimony in each other (which is HARD when one of them is Brandon), aka the seasons I always skip during my many, many series re-watches.

[Picture It. Sicily]

What's with the sunglasses frame?

[FozzyBear]

There is such a weird retro grade Archie comics approach to Brandon's life in collage. The keep trying to sell Bradon as a BMOC and later he and Kelly as a power couple...these things do not exist at giant state schools. No one would be bringing a date to these things. In fact I doubt they would even be allowed to bring a date because catering cost money and they're teenaged students, not middle aged senators.

[SoupThrower]

56 minutes ago, gesundheit said:

Ah, the dawn of Brandon and Kelly, the couple with competitive smug-offs who bring out the absolute worst sanctimony in each other (which is HARD when one of them is Brandon), aka the seasons I always skip during my many, many series re-watches.

Kelly totally wins that. St. Kelly is the worst after Erica, Donna and Dylan. Oh and Pumpkin dude who sings like the same 3 songs. Kelly somehow imo out sanctimony Brandon which is more impossible than a tree eating someone. 

How long is that stare? We get the point. Just noticed no Jesse. 

[SoupThrower]

I'm just like whatever to this taskforce thing. It makes no sense, I'm not even going to bother to make sense of it. Also Dylan you're the worst. Also Josh, you're another of the worst for having a gigantic crush on Brandon for some reason. He's a freshmen for some reason you're writing about. WHY? Write about the Clippers, parking, Howard the radio dude getting arrested for drugs, or CU's basketball team or Lacrosse team or something that's not a freshman. 

Also I'm surprised that they couldn't get rights to piano songs that Brian Austin Green was playing (I'm on the belief he did play it cause I think there were some mistakes). Also Donna why the heck would you want to go back to David? Why? 

This episode suckeeedd but better than the stupid diary episode. 

Although I never knew that Chancellor Arnold was played by Joel's dad in Risky Business. Cool. 

[swanjun]

I have long believed that chickens are inherently funny!

[MyAimIsTrue]

Jerry Seinfeld's nana!  No wonder she was missing, she walked to Beverly Hills instead of her Manhattan bank.

[MyAimIsTrue]

1 hour ago, SoupThrower said:

Although I never knew that Chancellor Arnold was played by Joel's dad in Risky Business. Cool.

I can't believe I never realized that!

'Sometimes you have to say what the fuck...'

[ZeroDiscipline]

The Brenda/ Stuart stuff here has always made me sooooo uncomfortable, That guy is such a dick, I am glad Brenda broke up with him. And I was thinking about Andrea and her terrible hair and wardrobe. My theory is that Gabrielle Carteris is just really nice. You know Shannen and Jennie are in there bitching up a storm every time they try to dress them in clothes they don't like. I can see GC just going along with everything to be the lone cooperative actor of the group.

[Tooch]

Quote

Write about the Clippers, parking, Howard the radio dude getting arrested for drugs

Right? Howard was ostensibly a CU employee, right? He managed the radio station, which seems like it would be a full time job, and he was supplying student DJs who were barely 18 (remember chronologically David ought to be a high school senior right now) with methamphetamines so they could make it through graveyard duty. That's a huge scandal! But the EIC of the campus newspaper is following around a cockhead freshman who is the epitome of Mediocre White Man from that meme. America.

[Picture It. Sicily]

The Stuart stuff just seemed so contrived, as does every time Brenda suddenly declares she can't get over dylan.

[ZeroDiscipline]

The Stuart stuff just seemed so contrived, as does every time Brenda suddenly declares she can't get over dylan.

Plus, they had to have known Shannen Doherty was leaving the show by this time. Why not marry her off to Stuart? WHO CARES? It's just as stupid as writing Gabrielle Carteris's real life pregnancy into the storyline when she was already 7 months along. Can't just work around it for a few more weeks? I am beginning to think these writers were lazy!

[FozzyBear]

10 minutes ago, ZeroDiscipline said:

Plus, they had to have known Shannen Doherty was leaving the show by this time. Why not marry her off to Stuart? WHO CARES? It's just as stupid as writing Gabrielle Carteris's real life pregnancy into the storyline when she was already 7 months along. Can't just work around it for a few more weeks? I am beginning to think these writers were lazy!

I don't think they did know for sure. Even in the season finale when they send her off to London, it was written in a way that makes me think they weren't 100% sure what was going to happen with her contract.

[ZeroDiscipline]

4 hours ago, FozzyBear said:

I don't think they did know for sure. Even in the season finale when they send her off to London, it was written in a way that makes me think they weren't 100% sure what was going to happen with her contract.

True dat. Wishful thinking maybe? That Shannen would stay on this sinking ship? I can't wait for the season finale of this mess, and for Valerie to show up, but oh do I feel sorry for the podcasters that they have to get through the animal testing storyline and lost diary from Woodstock nonsense.

[Lindsey]

Maybe the way the producers keep highlighting Lucinda's grant application is meant to imply that the psychological torture of applying for a federal grant has driven her insane. Otherwise I can't figure this character out. Why is this grown woman interested in a boy who isn't old enough to buy beer or rent a car and is Brandon? Why doesn't this university instructor know that Helen of Troy is fictional? Why does an alleged feminist think using Kelly as a beard would be cute? WHY?!?!

[marceline]

I'm a couple of episodes behind so apologies if this was covered in the podcast or in another thread but Shannen Doherty is still fighting breast cancer. She posted photos of her shaving her head.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/20/entertainment/shannen-doherty-cancer-shaves-head/

[atlanticslide]

The stupid, cutesy shenanigans while they're listening to David and Donna play the piano at the end (and sidenote, the replacement "song" they play legit sounds like someone just plunking randomly at the piano keys) drives me up the wall. Brandon snapping in Kelly's face - is that supposed to be charming? WTF is he even doing? And Andrea biting Jesse's hand and his over the top reaction - uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh I just hate it so much. I can't even articulate why exactly, except that they all look so dumb and obnoxious.

[atlanticslide]

Okay, what I'd really like to know is just what the hell Lucinda's class is supposed to be about. It seems like they just sit around spit-balling random facts (and fiction) vaguely related to women in any society anywhere in space and time. One class they're talking about quilting in the American old west, the next they're talking about polygamy in South American indigenous tribes, the next they're talking about how women using their sexuality to get what they want is a feminist act (what??), as evidenced by a Greek myth.

The thing that's always bothered me about the Brenda/Stuart storyline in this episode, more than Stuart's very abrupt 180, more than the fact that some hooligans managed to find Stuart's car in the middle of nowhere (seems like kind of an unsafe spot to camp if there are people around gutting cars out there in the middle of the night), more than the fact that Brenda's hand probably could have fit in the open part of the window, is that Stuart could very easily have just broken a window and then quickly gotten it fixed. He's loaded - what does he care about the cost of replacing a broken window?

[Princess Sparkle]

Tara's "CHANGE SCHOOLS!" made me laugh so hard that I woke up my cat. 

[Eldemarge]

Okay, what I'd really like to know is just what the hell Lucinda's class is supposed to be about. It seems like they just sit around spit-balling random facts (and fiction) vaguely related to women in any society anywhere in space and time. One class they're talking about quilting in the American old west, the next they're talking about polygamy in South American indigenous tribes, the next they're talking about how women using their sexuality to get what they want is a feminist act (what??), as evidenced by a Greek myth.

The thing that's always bothered me about the Brenda/Stuart storyline in this episode, more than Stuart's very abrupt 180, more than the fact that some hooligans managed to find Stuart's car in the middle of nowhere (seems like kind of an unsafe spot to camp if there are people around gutting cars out there in the middle of the night), more than the fact that Brenda's hand probably could have fit in the open part of the window, is that Stuart could very easily have just broken a window and then quickly gotten it fixed. He's loaded - what does he care about the cost of replacing a broken window?

Shannon Doherty would have hurled a tree stump or a television through the window to get the keys if this happened in real life.

[Eldemarge]

If this Task Force is such a big deal, they should all get matching berets.

[WoodyCee]

15 hours ago, atlanticslide said:

Okay, what I'd really like to know is just what the hell Lucinda's class is supposed to be about. It seems like they just sit around spit-balling random facts (and fiction) vaguely related to women in any society anywhere in space and time. One class they're talking about quilting in the American old west, the next they're talking about polygamy in South American indigenous tribes, the next they're talking about how women using their sexuality to get what they want is a feminist act (what??), as evidenced by a Greek myth.

The thing that's always bothered me about the Brenda/Stuart storyline in this episode, more than Stuart's very abrupt 180, more than the fact that some hooligans managed to find Stuart's car in the middle of nowhere (seems like kind of an unsafe spot to camp if there are people around gutting cars out there in the middle of the night), more than the fact that Brenda's hand probably could have fit in the open part of the window, is that Stuart could very easily have just broken a window and then quickly gotten it fixed. He's loaded - what does he care about the cost of replacing a broken window?

My husband and I had to break a window once because we locked the keys in the car. I was thinking about that during that scene. Break the window dummies! 

[StatMom]

At least with Lucinda's so-called grant application, they didn't bother throwing out specific dollar amounts like they did with the apartment rent. A few years later, Friends did a storyline with Ross applying for some "huge research grant" for a total of... $25,000. As if. Maybe TV writers just think numbers/dollars are scaled differently in university settings.

[FozzyBear]

My guess is that TV writers go over board trying to normalize money. Most writes live in expensive cities, but most audience members don't. I think they just overcompensate trying to come up with universal dollar amounts. So when they're sitting around thinking "Ok, the beach apartment is really nice, but if we put fair market Santa Monica value to it then people watching in Indianapolis will think we're going over the top. So what would a really nice Indianapolis apartment rent for?" And then they come up with weird-o story lines about 3 bedroom beachfront apartment with wrap around decks renting for next to nothing.

[MerBearStare]

Unpopular Opinion (maybe?): I always liked Brandon and Kelly together. He's always been terrible and she eventually becomes as terrible, but two negatives make a positive, so...it works for me. I agree that the task force storyline is ridiculous, but I work with an organization that has a few task forces and none of them do anything (literally so useless), so at least that aspect is realistic, though I'm sure they didn't do it on purpose.

I recently read Dave Holmes' book (which is hilarious and fantastic) and he talks about his coworker back in the early/mid-90's who was obsessed with 90210 and had to take the rest of the day off when it was announced that Shannen Doherty was leaving 90210.

[dmc]

Omg the task force...only Brandon would think this would be a productive way to spend time in college

[FozzyBear]

10 hours ago, MerBearStare said:

Unpopular Opinion (maybe?): I always liked Brandon and Kelly together. He's always been terrible and she eventually becomes as terrible, but two negatives make a positive, so...it works for me. I agree that the task force storyline is ridiculous, but I work with an organization that has a few task forces and none of them do anything (literally so useless), so at least that aspect is realistic, though I'm sure they didn't do it on purpose.

I recently read Dave Holmes' book (which is hilarious and fantastic) and he talks about his coworker back in the early/mid-90's who was obsessed with 90210 and had to take the rest of the day off when it was announced that Shannen Doherty was leaving 90210.

I agree. They were one of my favorite couples on the show. Well to clarify, they annoyed the living piss out of me, but I always felt like they made sense as a couple. Plus they were one of the few times that a couple was primarily built on having things in common as opposed to conflict. By the time they get together Kelly and Brandon had a ton in common. They're both uptight, middle aged, judgmental assholes completely obsessed with themselves. I joke, but I kind of don't. It actually felt organic to their characters to be those idiots that think of themselves as a power couple at 19 years old. As much as they are 2 of the most irritating people on earth, it was nice to have 5 minutes of a couple building on having similar goals and expectations instead of another opposites attract fight fest.

[Petunia13]

This episode was very creepy to me

[CurlyATX]

On ‎7‎/‎24‎/‎2016 at 0:31 PM, FozzyBear said:

I agree. They were one of my favorite couples on the show. Well to clarify, they annoyed the living piss out of me, but I always felt like they made sense as a couple. Plus they were one of the few times that a couple was primarily built on having things in common as opposed to conflict. By the time they get together Kelly and Brandon had a ton in common. They're both uptight, middle aged, judgmental assholes completely obsessed with themselves. I joke, but I kind of don't. It actually felt organic to their characters to be those idiots that think of themselves as a power couple at 19 years old. As much as they are 2 of the most irritating people on earth, it was nice to have 5 minutes of a couple building on having similar goals and expectations instead of another opposites attract fight fest.

I agree.  Kelly kept cheating on him with Dylan though.  Do you think that as a child of an alcoholic she was subconsciously doing things that would create drama. At the end, they had that non-wedding and didn't Brandon just leave?

[atlanticslide]

On 7/24/2016 at 2:16 AM, FozzyBear said:

My guess is that TV writers go over board trying to normalize money. Most writes live in expensive cities, but most audience members don't. I think they just overcompensate trying to come up with universal dollar amounts. So when they're sitting around thinking "Ok, the beach apartment is really nice, but if we put fair market Santa Monica value to it then people watching in Indianapolis will think we're going over the top. So what would a really nice Indianapolis apartment rent for?" And then they come up with weird-o story lines about 3 bedroom beachfront apartment with wrap around decks renting for next to nothing.

The problem I have with this, though, is that the 90210 writers could never seem to decide how normal these kids were. Are they rich kids leading glamorous lives in one of the ritziest zipcodes in the country? Or are they just normal teenagers who live in cheap apartments when they go off to college and do their own laundry like everyone else? It's like the high school years were all about showing how rich and privileged these kids were, but then as soon as they went off to college we were supposed to believe that they were all leading average lives and Dylan was the only rich kid. 

[heshy]

In college, i joined many stupid committees and organizations -- FOR THE LUNCHEONS. They were normally a few steps up from the Hungarian goulash or whatever nonsense they were serving in the cafeterias.

Also, alcohol.

[psychoticstate]

On 7/22/2016 at 11:59 AM, ZeroDiscipline said:

Plus, they had to have known Shannen Doherty was leaving the show by this time. Why not marry her off to Stuart? WHO CARES? It's just as stupid as writing Gabrielle Carteris's real life pregnancy into the storyline when she was already 7 months along. Can't just work around it for a few more weeks? I am beginning to think these writers were lazy!

Going back to my season 4 DVD (don't judge) and interview with Charles Rosin, he said that SD told them during or after season 3 she wanted to leave.  They asked her to stay for 1 more full season and she agreed.  So they certainly would have known and could have had her marry Stuart if they chose. 

I would guess they wanted to leave the door open for a possible return, not knowing she would be on Charmed. 

There is no excuse for GC though.  Another poster here said that she wanted her pregnancy written into Ohhhhhhn-drea's storyline but that ended up limiting the character.  And was just stupid when she was so far along anyhow. 

On 7/24/2016 at 0:07 AM, MerBearStare said:

Unpopular Opinion (maybe?): I always liked Brandon and Kelly together. He's always been terrible and she eventually becomes as terrible, but two negatives make a positive, so...it works for me. I agree that the task force storyline is ridiculous, but I work with an organization that has a few task forces and none of them do anything (literally so useless), so at least that aspect is realistic, though I'm sure they didn't do it on purpose.

I recently read Dave Holmes' book (which is hilarious and fantastic) and he talks about his coworker back in the early/mid-90's who was obsessed with 90210 and had to take the rest of the day off when it was announced that Shannen Doherty was leaving 90210.

I have always thought Brandon was far less douchey when he was with Kelly.  Still a tool but not quite as bad.  

 Watching season 5 . . . it's just insane.  Kelly gets with B.  She is suddenly a model - -cover girl for Seventeen, no less - -then gets in the frat party house fire, is burned,feels guilty about Alison, forgets about Alison, joins a cult . . . I mean, this is just over halfway thru the season.  Were the writers meeting in the stairwell to slam Red Bulls before hashing ideas for Kelly?  Slow down . . .

And she starts becoming the same whiny PITA with Brandon that she did with Dylan.  Seriously, Kelly is the worst.

As far as Brenda goes, the show wasn't the same without her.  And not in a good way.

Edited July 26, 2016 by psychoticstate
because ti is not the same as to

[Ions Earring]

On 7/22/2016 at 10:37 AM, TeeVee329 said:

Brenda reminiscing about the doomed trip to Baja in the car with Dylan was wrong from top to bottom.  She didn't lose her passport, she didn't have her license because it got stolen in the robbery.  It didn't happen on the drive down, it happened on the way back.  They did get in a fight in Baja, but it was about the chick Dylan brought down there during their breakup.  And I don't recall them laughing the whole thing off since that led to Dylan's falling out with Jim, them sneaking around for weeks, their doomed attempt at cohabitation, Brenda going to Paris, and the Summer of Deception.

They certainly werent laughing it off. There's a good chance I would've been vomiting inside out or trying to hang myself in lieu of dealing with my dad--these two were ready to have a Mexican Border Fug as Jim entered into the holding cell or whatever.

Edited July 27, 2016 by switchitup420

[Sarah D. Bunting]

^ This username/avatar combo is THE shit.

[Ions Earring]

19 hours ago, psychoticstate said:

Watching season 5 . . . it's just insane.  Kelly gets with B.  She is suddenly a model - -cover girl for Seventeen, no less - -then gets in the frat party house fire, is burned,feels guilty about Alison, forgets about Alison, joins a cult . . . I mean, this is just over halfway thru the season.  Were the writers meeting in the stairwell to slam Red Bulls before hashing ideas for Kelly?  Slow down . . .

I cannot wait for that season! Getting to see the Kelly meltdown justified me sticking around past Brenda's arrest/woodstock episodes and UGH David's blind piano teacher episode.

Edited July 27, 2016 by switchitup420

[AndySmith]

In a small voice: I...liked the Woodstock episode.

[Ions Earring]

On 7/22/2016 at 0:09 PM, swanjun said:

I have long believed that chickens are inherently funny!

Agreed. The live chicken is by far the best comedic prop - past or present. 

[Sarah D. Bunting]

#Davidscreech "ANDYYYY!!"

[CurlyATX]

On ‎7‎/‎28‎/‎2016 at 0:09 AM, AndySmith said:

In a small voice: I...liked the Woodstock episode.

From what I remember... me to!  Doesn't Donna finally sleep with David who then dumps her?  And Brandon is in love with Kelly and a total right wing nut-job.

[Cekrypton1]

True story: I listened to this one while visiting my in-laws in Minnesota (!!) where they keep the keys to their car in the ignition, when it it is parked in their almost always open garage.

[AndySmith]

Quote

Doesn't Donna finally sleep with David who then dumps her?  And Brandon is in love with Kelly and a total right wing nut-job.

Yes but you need to add quotation marks around everybody's name ;)

[Maherjunkie]

I thought she bangs him after graduation?

[AndySmith]

Yeah, they finally do The Sex, but at least real David doesn't dump her right after.

[CeeBeeGee]

On 7/22/2016 at 11:40 AM, FozzyBear said:

There is such a weird retro grade Archie comics approach to Brandon's life in collage. The keep trying to sell Bradon as a BMOC and later he and Kelly as a power couple...these things do not exist at giant state schools. No one would be bringing a date to these things. In fact I doubt they would even be allowed to bring a date because catering cost money and they're teenaged students, not middle aged senators.

Right?! Who TF cares about a couple of freshmen??? This is a huge campus, the football team is what unites them. 

On 7/22/2016 at 2:08 PM, Tooch said:

Right? Howard was ostensibly a CU employee, right? He managed the radio station, which seems like it would be a full time job, and he was supplying student DJs who were barely 18 (remember chronologically David ought to be a high school senior right now) with methamphetamines so they could make it through graveyard duty. That's a huge scandal! But the EIC of the campus newspaper is following around a cockhead freshman who is the epitome of Mediocre White Man from that meme. America.

It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

On 7/22/2016 at 7:28 PM, Lindsey said:

Maybe the way the producers keep highlighting Lucinda's grant application is meant to imply that the psychological torture of applying for a federal grant has driven her insane. Otherwise I can't figure this character out. Why is this grown woman interested in a boy who isn't old enough to buy beer or rent a car and is Brandon? Why doesn't this university instructor know that Helen of Troy is fictional? Why does an alleged feminist think using Kelly as a beard would be cute? WHY?!?!

THIS. Oh my God that opening sequence was fucking torture to watch. He is so. fucking. SMUG. I want to punch him through my computer screen. He has had exactly two sex partners before he got together with Lucinda--Emily and Cheryl--and he cannot possibly be that good in bed.

On 7/23/2016 at 2:20 AM, atlanticslide said:

Okay, what I'd really like to know is just what the hell Lucinda's class is supposed to be about. It seems like they just sit around spit-balling random facts (and fiction) vaguely related to women in any society anywhere in space and time. One class they're talking about quilting in the American old west, the next they're talking about polygamy in South American indigenous tribes, the next they're talking about how women using their sexuality to get what they want is a feminist act (what??), as evidenced by a Greek myth.

Also--arguing that Helen of Troy was a proto-feminist is...iffy. She was objectified quite a bit, literally a prize to be fought over--in The Iliad about the only thing she actually does (IIRC) is to review the troops for King Priam. I guess you could argue she was able to woo Menelaus back and that was her using her sexuality but...Medea seducing Jason would've been a better choice.