Season 3 Discussion

[attica]

Preface this by re-announcing how old I am, and that things were different back in my day, but do college acceptances coordinate like what we saw here? Log on to [whatever site] and find out all the places that have taken you? That seems wildly well-coordinated... and therefore implausible!

[MyAimIsTrue]

I'm old like you, attica, and remember waiting by the mail box for acceptance letters (fat envelope = good).  From what I've heard and seen from friends with college bound kids everything is electronic and you sign into the college or university website to see if you were accepted so I had no problem with Zoe's scene.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

3 hours ago, attica said:

Preface this by re-announcing how old I am, and that things were different back in my day, but do college acceptances coordinate like what we saw here? Log on to [whatever site] and find out all the places that have taken you? That seems wildly well-coordinated... and therefore implausible!

You log into each school's result site separately.  (You have to keep track of different logins and passwords.)  That's what Zoe was doing.

Edited May 3, 2017 by ItCouldBeWorse

[attica]

But do they issue acceptances all on the same day/hour? Or was that dramatic license?

[DearEvette]

Nope.  My son is senior going in to College this year and he applied to six schools.  Only one of them exclusively  notified electronically and typically they email you.  They don't wait for you to log into the student account.  They want you to know as early as possible so you can commit.  The other five did both --snail mail and electronic.  And two of them accepted him in February, all the rest did it at different points in March.  

[ItCouldBeWorse]

5 minutes ago, attica said:

But do they issue acceptances all on the same day/hour? Or was that dramatic license?

The eight Ivy League schools all posted their results on the same day at the same time: March 30, 2017 at 5 PM ET

I looked up the actual days/times for Zoe's schools:

Brown:  March 30, 2017 at 5 PM ET

NYU: March 30, 2017 starting at 3 PM ET

USC:  Online March 26, 2017

Vanderbilt: March 28, 2017 at 5:30 PM CT

Which was the Florida school she was admitted to? University of Miami?  If so, rolling decisions starting about March 21.

Of course, some students apply binding Early Decision to one school, with an earlier deadline and earlier result, and the same for non-binding Early Action, although there you may be able to apply to more than 1 school early, but Zoey did not do either of these.

[jhlipton]

2 hours ago, DearEvette said:

Nope.  My son is senior going in to College this year and he applied to six schools.    And two of them accepted him in February, all the rest did it at different points in March.  

Congrats to you and your son!

[ItCouldBeWorse]

4 hours ago, DearEvette said:

Nope.  My son is senior going in to College this year and he applied to six schools.  Only one of them exclusively  notified electronically and typically they email you.  They don't wait for you to log into the student account.  They want you to know as early as possible so you can commit.  The other five did both --snail mail and electronic.  And two of them accepted him in February, all the rest did it at different points in March.  

I don't think too many schools send rejections by regular mail, only acceptance packets. They save a lot of money that way.

[TiffanyNichelle]

If this was the backdoor pilot for the spinoff, I'm not really that interested. I didn't like any of the proposed supporting characters (other than the Charlie appearance). I like Chris Parnell but he didn't work for me here. The girl was eh. The guy was annoying and seriously, Zoey having a crush on him when he was quick to being an ass to her? No. Pass on the spinoff.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

So, no housing application in May means no housing in the fall?  I doubt it. Also, parents don't fill out college housing applications (unless their kids want them to, for some weird reason) and they are done online, especially at a large school like "California University of Los Angeles" appears to be.  Strangely, we saw Zoey get admitted to USC, I thought, not this fictional version of UCLA.

The spinoff appears to be taking a different tone than Black-ish has.  And although Pops might have been right about steering Zoey away from Vanderbilt, in the deep South, her father might have done her a disservice by encouraging her to go to a college where the admittedly limited members of the black community we have met clearly see her as "black-ish."  I don't know if that is typical for CA or LA colleges, but I feel that at NYU,  she wouldn't have to make a decision about how black she should be to fit in, and could simply be herself.

Young Sarah Silverman has potential, but it's kind of sad to see how superficial both of them were claiming to be in order to impress each other (fat-shaming a potential roommate, etc.)  I wonder how seriously Zoey will take the academic side of things.  She probably wouldn't have liked Brown.

Edited May 4, 2017 by ItCouldBeWorse

[OnceSane]

Quote

In the Season 3 finale, Dre throws Bow's baby shower and wants it to be unforgettable, but his plans are put on hold when Bow stops by the OB/GYN with a headache and discovers she is having complications.

[Marley]

Zoey on her own was pretty meh. She works better with the rest of the fam.

I also hate being forced to watch something that wasn't what I chose to watch. 

Hard pass on the spinoff.

[MadyGirl1987]

I was not expecting this to be a back-door pilot for a spinoff. While it wasn't bad, it wasn't great... Just meh...

While I like Zoe, the supporting characters didn't do anything for me. I thought the love interest was a jerk. I hate when people say someone isn't "insert race/gender/sexuality/socioeconomic status" enough to be accepted by their peers. Just because Zoe has a different experience then you doesn't make it any "less real" then yours.

With Zoe going to college, I am hoping they follow the Middle's lead in aging their child actors, having them go through college while still having them part of the show, rather then Modern Family, which creates manufactured situations to keep the kids at home(i.e. Hayley being kicked out of college and Alex having mono and having to take a break from college for a semester).

The best part of the episode was Professor Charlie. I would watch a series of him teaching.

Edited May 4, 2017 by MadyGirl1987

[wales260]

Because of the obvious parallels to A Different World, the potential roommate read to me as Marisa Tomei instead of Sarah Silverman (especially if those two end up in the black dorm). Based on that, I'd give it more time to breath to flesh out the other characters should it come to pass.

It's also super-weird to watch this a whole 4 days after binging on Dear White People, which took huge amounts of time to discuss things like the existence of a black dorm in a mixed campus. I'm not sure how many colleges are really hemming about 1 dorm that skews toward one affinity, but I went to a tech school; all we got was Real Genius.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

7 minutes ago, wales260 said:

Because of the obvious parallels to A Different World, the potential roommate read to me as Marisa Tomei instead of Sarah Silverman (especially if those two end up in the black dorm).

I was primarily influenced by her announcing that she was Jewish.

7 minutes ago, wales260 said:

I'm not sure how many colleges are really hemming about 1 dorm that skews toward one affinity,

I'm pretty sure the dean mentioned a bunch of other affinity dorms, too.

3 hours ago, TiffanyNichelle said:

The guy was annoying and seriously, Zoey having a crush on him when he was quick to being an ass to her? No.

He was cute.  She's been shown to be highly superficial.  Maybe we're supposed to remember that there were very few black kids in Zoey's high school besides herself and Junior, so she's had limited opportunities to meet cute black guys?

Edited May 4, 2017 by ItCouldBeWorse

[paulvdb]

I always love Charlie, so I'll watch the college spin-off if he is going to be in it. But I could do without most of the new characters that were introduced in this episode.

[luckyroll3]

I was not feeling that at all.  It just wasn't that funny; blackish always makes me chuckle for the entire 30 minutes.  I think I gave a half-hearted "heh" twice, maybe 3 times.  I would however watch a show about professor Charlie teaching prostitutes to be advertising and marketing geniuses.  Still actually laughing at "What's the single most important aspect of your job?" "Hygiene?" Lol!

[charmed1]

I love Chris Parnell so I'm going to give it a chance, but I'd say this spin-off needs a serious Debbie Allen cleansing. The Marisa Tomei girl looked 40 years old. 

[Nalan]

Eh.  Didn't love it, didn't hate it.  I was interested enough, though, to see the pilot in the fall.  So that's something.

Backdoor pilot though it was, I think I'd have preferred at least brief appearances from Junior, Jack, and Diane.  Maybe Pops and Ruby, too.

[Nalan]

Oh, good.  No "gimmick" episode for the finale.  Just a regular episode.

[Madding crowd]

Didn't like it, especially the scenes with the college president and professor who both seemed like buffoons. I loved Charlie's class with the retired prostitutes-I'd go to the class, even at 12am!

[atiyah9369]

EHH, I could have missed watching this episode. Nothing about it would make me watch a show with just her.  Wait I take that back I would watch if we got to see Professor Charlie LOL.

Edited May 4, 2017 by atiyah9369

[DearEvette]

Man, this was a dud episode.  Not funny at all.  Only the Charlie stuff was funny.  While this team can mine comedy from family drama, it really struggled with college comedy. 

8 hours ago, wales260 said:

It's also super-weird to watch this a whole 4 days after binging on Dear White People, which took huge amounts of time to discuss things like the existence of a black dorm in a mixed campus

It is a shame that a plot point here is also the same as a plot point  in DWP because I also couldn't help but compare the two and DWP gets the college comedy down perfectly an manages to be biting at the same time. 

Also this show did the same thing every single tv show set on college does, it has the President of the college involved in administrative minutiae no college President would even bother with.  Housing?  No way would a President get involved in any way with a student having no housing.  If something like that came across his desk he'd basically make his assistant pass it on to the Housing office where some administrator in that office would deal with it.  But like I said, every show does that.  I got a cackle at The Quad when the President of that college went to visit an athletic prospect at his home.

[luna1122]

Wow, clearly minority opinion here, but my guy and I really liked this. It felt fresh and funny, especially the stuff about Zoey's utter lack of interest in joining and learning the correct pronouns to use for the girl who was trans/queer/bi/pan etc. Sure, it was very A Different World-y, but I thought it worked on its own. It's very possible that I just did NOT miss Anthony Anderson or Ruby at all, too. I so hate Ruby. Anyway, I'd give this spin off a chance, if it happens.

[RedHawk]

Anyone know at what time and in which park Charlie's teaching that kickboxing class? 

[charmed1]

I wonder what the prerequisites and reading lists are for Charlie's courses. Probably lots of Donald Goines and Iceberg Slim.

So does every member of the Johnson family have the Buick truck? I'm not complaining. I'd much rather them advertise the Bluetooth enabled Siri connection in the script than in an annoying commercial, I guess.

I wonder if this is the same fictional California University that the kids from West Beverly went to. If so, beware of John Sears.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

1 hour ago, DearEvette said:

Also this show did the same thing every single tv show set on college does, it has the President of the college involved in administrative minutiae no college President would even bother with.  Housing?  No way would a President get involved in any way with a student having no housing. 

True, but he thought he was meeting with a representative of the all-black dorm, and that was something he might get involved with as he was instituting a campus-wide policy . Plus, his Dean, Chris Parnell, is resentful of his appointment and is therefore involving him in conflicts that a more knowledgeable college president would avoid.

I would be more interested in a snarky college-based workplace comedy involving the administration and occasional student interaction. However, it's hard to judge based on one episode.

[Joimiaroxeu]

Sigh, I wanted to like it but right now it doesn't look to me like Zoey can carry her own show. I think they're going to need some strong co-stars to balance her low-key affect. However, I would watch a show about Professor Charlie immediately.

Also, this campus had much the same look as How to Get Away with Murder's now that it's filming its campus stuff on the west coast. Wonder if Zoey or Charlie might ever run into one of the Keating Five?

[Traveller519]

I obviously don't read enough Industry Periodicals, as I hadn't realized there was a spin-off, much less that they'd be doing the back door pilot. I'd thought it was just going for a similar concept to "Being Bow-racial" with giving someone else the primary perspective. That I can get behind. I always enjoyed when Scrubs had those episodes. 

 As far as pilots go, it was good enough. I'd assume they wouldn't ask Yara Shahidi to carry so much of the plot in future episodes, especially early on. Especially when you have talents like Matt Walsh to exploit. The Charlie's class stuff was great, and I saw a couple of the points they were trying to hit, but they're really going to need to build out the students to get it to take.

Now, why the hell is it the parents responsibility to fill out housing forms? That seemed completely contrived. Zoey was obviously on top of everything else with respect to her education. But housing is somehow her parents' job? Even the campus tour organizer said it was her parents' responsibility. Ugh.

[AyeshaTheGreat]

I knew this would be a backdoor pilot when I read the description so the episode didn't catch me off-guard.  However, I never really thought much of Zoey's character on this show so it seems like a bit of a stretch to see her as the lead of another series.  While this may be modeled as the 21st century, west coast version of A Different World, it gave me heavy Dear White People and I have only seen the movie version.

The college president and dean seem like Stevens and his merry band of idiots.  Charlie continues to flip between being good at his job and not even belonging there.  It is not far off that Charlie, a marketing executive at a prominent firm, would be an adjunct professor at a local university.  But of course, this being Black-ish, Charlie has to teach a ridiculous class at the most ridiculous time.

As for the trio of students, I am not surprised by the way the young guy was acting towards Zoey.  If the show goes forth, I believe he will walk back some of his opinion of Zoey.  Plus, he seems to be a young person who just learned about some Black history and now wants to act like he's been "woke" all his life.  Lastly, I generally like Trevor Jackson so I am okay with him here.

[RedHawk]

21 minutes ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

However, I would watch a show about Professor Charlie immediately.

 

I also vote for a Charlie spinoff. International Man of Mystery and adjunct college professor who teaches kickboxing on the side? Bring it. Also, we might once again see Eustace!

[luckyroll3]

17 minutes ago, Traveller519 said:

Now, why the hell is it the parents responsibility to fill out housing forms? That seemed completely contrived. Zoey was obviously on top of everything else with respect to her education. But housing is somehow her parents' job? Even the campus tour organizer said it was her parents' responsibility. Ugh.

If you are under 18, every form has to go through your parents.  I had that problem until I was a Junior in college - I couldn't even request another dorm without a parent signature.  So that Andre and Bow were taking care of that didn't seem too contrived to me.  

I actually like/prefer superficial, mean girl Zoey with a hint of cultural naivete.  And it makes sense to me that she would find someone with a similar perspective to befriend.  Although word to whoever said the friend looked hella-old!  When they first started handing out, I said out loud to myself, "Is she a 27-year old freshman?"

I definitely was not a fan of the love interest.  Jerk-off, people don't tend to know what you're talking about when you're speaking in acronyms because they can mean anything.  

[DearEvette]

57 minutes ago, luckyroll3 said:

If you are under 18, every form has to go through your parents.  I had that problem until I was a Junior in college - I couldn't even request another dorm without a parent signature.  So that Andre and Bow were taking care of that didn't seem too contrived to me.

That is not universally true though.   Every school does stuff differently.  At the school my son is actually attending, all his housing selection stuff is done completely online through his student portal.  I had no involvement at all.

In fact, under FERPA a student's record become his/hers (not automatically available to parents) regardless of age as long as they are enrolled in a post-secondary (college level or higher) institution.  So in reality, my son as a 17 yo freshman could bar me from getting information about his grades and that would be his legal right and the school would have to comply.  Now, FERPA does have a loophole.  If my child is legally my dependent (I claim him as a dependent on my taxes) , then the school may give me information without my son's consent.  They aren't required to do so, but if they do they are protected from litigation or liability.  But the burden of proof is on me.   Usually that means providing tax returns.  Every school complies differently and has different standards.  Most will cooperate (even without me having to prove it, only by virtue of the fact that my son claimed me as a parent in all his application material)  because that is where the money is coming from, but some schools are hardliners and interpret the law very strictly. 

[tom87]

I found it boring.   She is way to low key for me to be the lead character in a comedy.

[tennisgurl]

So this is our Zoe spin-off and backdoor pilot. It wasn't bad, but I didn't really leave me wanting more. I like Zoe, but I'm not really sure how well she will do as the lead character of her own sitcom. The cast is alright so far, we have your standard college characters. Clueless, money obsessed administrators, Charlie as the weird but wise professor, her different race best friend/side kick, and hot but jerky love interest. Basically, its a watered down Dear White People with a dash of A Different World mixed in there. However, I do like the cast of adults they've gathered, and, like I said, I like Zoe alright, so I'm sure I will give it the time to find its feet.

You know, I get what Zoe was talking about, with people wanting to stay with people they can connect with culturally, but...is it really a good thing for college students to live mainly with people of their own race or religion? I can get wanting a space where people of similar backgrounds can get together and connect with people who have similar beliefs and experiences, but I also think that college is a time to try to get to know people who are different than you, instead of sticking with people who are as much like you as possible. Which I a guess what will happen with Zoe and her new friend, but still, its a complicated issue, and I just don't know if its answer sat right with me. I have no idea what its like to be a black student at what I assume is a predominantly white school, so its fully possible I'm missing something, but when I was in college, I was roomed with students of all kinds of backgrounds, and we learned a lot about each other, and it made me a MUCH more open minded person, but maybe its different for other people.

So, not really a super funny episode, but it was alright.

[GHScorpiosRule]

4 hours ago, AyeshaTheGreat said:

The college president and dean seem like Stevens and his merry band of idiots.

THIS! And I didn't like them at all. Stevens can sometimes be funny or amusing, but the dean and president were totally UNFUNNY, and NOT amusing at all.

And for a backdoor pilot, I didn't like it at all. I know I won't be watching it.

[BoogieBurns]

1 hour ago, tennisgurl said:

I have no idea what its like to be a black student at what I assume is a predominantly white school, so its fully possible I'm missing something, but when I was in college, I was roomed with students of all kinds of backgrounds, and we learned a lot about each other, and it made me a MUCH more open minded person, but maybe its different for other people.

As a black student who went to an HBCU for one year, and finished at a predominantly white university, I totally didn't need the culture from my roommates. I spent one semester at the PWU with a white roommate, and the rest of the time choosing my own roommates who all happened to be black females. Zoe is around so many white people in Sherman Oaks, and it's not a long shot to assume many of the other black students are in a similar position. I spent ALL of college around black folk, on purpose, with plenty of non-black and non-white races sprinkled in there. Got my share of white people in grades k-12 and in all of my classes, plus at work during college. 

Living with anyone who wasn't family is the new experience of college. Being a minority means there are less of us, so it's nice to go to college and see there are more than you think. My two cents.

[tennisgurl]

2 minutes ago, BoogieBurns said:

Living with anyone who wasn't family is the new experience of college. Being a minority means there are less of us, so it's nice to go to college and see there are more than you think. My two cents.

Thanks for the two cents, that totally makes sense :) That honestly makes more sense to me than what they were saying on the show.

[fishcakes]

Zoey's new friend didn't look old to me, but she looked so much like Lucy from Dre's office that I found it distracting.

This episode wasn't bad, but I find it hard to believe that someone who got into Vanderbilt and NYU would choose to go to what looks like the surest thing when it comes to safety schools. I mean, I love Charlie, but if he's your professor, then you are not attending a quality institution. That said, I will probably only watch this show if Charlie is a regular on it.

[peeayebee]

Ugh. I wasn't interested in Zoey's new show before watching this, and I'm certainly not interested in it now. Charlie's great, but he's not enough to pull me into this.

[Dee]

I laughed longer than I should have at Andre getting stuck in his sweater.

[Perfect Xero]

14 hours ago, RedHawk said:

Anyone know at what time and in which park Charlie's teaching that kickboxing class? 

Eustace, is that you?

[BoogieBurns]

11 hours ago, fishcakes said:

That said, I will probably only watch this show if Charlie is a regular on it.

Deon Cole sure is in high demand. When he left blackish to film Angie Tribeca the show suffered, and when he returned, so did many viewers. Now we also need him to carry the spinoff. He's hilarious on AT as well. 

[RedHawk]

Just now, BoogieBurns said:

Deon Cole sure is in high demand. When he left blackish to film Angie Tribeca the show suffered, and when he returned, so did many viewers. Now we also need him to carry the spinoff. He's hilarious on AT as well. 

I was just thinking that he must not want his own show/spinoff because surely the networks see he could carry one. If they watch social media and chat sites like this, they can't have missed how popular he is.

[Quickbeam]

2 moments made me laugh: the Elliot Yamin poster discussion and Charlie. He's fantastic. 

College in the 70's here. Was placed in a "black dorm" because the other dorms were filled. Learned not to flip my hair (seen as aggressive) and to reset my parameters as to party hours. Ended up in a Black Theater company since they always needed a white social worker or prostitute. Learned a ton. Later they closed down the option and placed students throughout. So I was fascinated that this is coming back. 

[BoogieBurns]

17 minutes ago, Quickbeam said:

Learned not to flip my hair (seen as aggressive)

Interesting... I've been black my whole life and I never knew this one!

[Quickbeam]

Just now, BoogieBurns said:

Interesting... I've been black my whole life and I never knew this one!

I have very long hair, past my waist. I got beat up and locked in a closet for hair flipping (by which I mean taking hair that landed in front of me and shoving it to my back). I was schooled on it pretty vividly. It was interpreted as a provocative and hostile act.  This was 1972; maybe not so much any more? I'm still super careful about it! 

[BoogieBurns]

18 minutes ago, Quickbeam said:

I have very long hair, past my waist. I got beat up and locked in a closet for hair flipping (by which I mean taking hair that landed in front of me and shoving it to my back). I was schooled on it pretty vividly. It was interpreted as a provocative and hostile act.  This was 1972; maybe not so much any more? I'm still super careful about it! 

Locked in a closet? My goodness. Can I start the hashtag #NotAllBlackPeople? I flip my hair like Willow Smith all the time. Hopefully it stopped in 1972. 

[mtlchick]

The good: Charlie, Dre blaming everything on the McRib and Zoey's kimono jumpsuit (I need that immediately.)

The bad: everything else.  I like Yara overall and I think she's got big things ahead of her.  It's not the lead of a sitcom right now.  And I think the spin off would waste Chris Parnell. 

[mansonlamps]

Oh please, a form that had to be filled out by parents and mailed to the school.  That was really flimsy.