Unpopular Opinions Thread

[Guest]

2 hours ago, potatoradio said:

Toby cries and Kate tells him to leave her alone, damnit, this is HER special episode and it was HER DAMN CHICKEN NUGGET!!!

And don't forget the part where she spells it out to us all that she feels responsible for this yet another death in her family...

[CelticBlackCat]

My UO is that Kajagoogoo's "Too Shy" is too good for this show.  I have a special love for the band and this song is a great 80's hit.

2 hours ago, laurakaye said:

I actually want to print your post and put a check by everything you get right.

But wait....what kind of donuts??

Hostess Donettes Powdered Sugar Mini Donuts.

[Guest]

Is that what she binged on last time?  That's a weird thing to binge on.  If I'm blowing my diet with donuts it's going to be Krispy Kremes. 

[NutMeg]

Gosh, I love this thread, makes me feel right about my increasing snark. And I was very moved by the first season. But this clusterfork of lame and/or (insufficiently) reheated stories? Snark time! It's become a total soap opera, and as such, the fun is really in the snark. I think I might have to start watching the roundtable @laurakaye was writing about above, it seems that's where all the fun that's been drained from the series has gone!   

[ShadowFacts]

2 hours ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

And don't forget the part where she spells it out to us all that she feels responsible for this yet another death in her family...

Yeah and she has to say "You don't understand, I lost the baby, you didn't" even though before it was "we're pregnant." 

[CelticBlackCat]

1 hour ago, ShadowFacts said:

Yeah and she has to say "You don't understand, I lost the baby, you didn't" even though before it was "we're pregnant." 

I took this to mean that Kate believes she is the one suffering from the loss of the baby, at least physically, not Toby, however; we will see in the 11/21 episode if that is her attitude or if she blames herself for the miscarriage as Winston9 and Shadowfacts imply.  Will be interesting at least just for this aspect.

[Otherkate]

On 11/20/2017 at 8:26 AM, laurakaye said:

The roundtable might become my new favorite part of This is Us, actually.  The "Number One" was so unintentionally funny because after the exec producer or whoever she was stated with great gravitas that the show purposely ended that way, the other two panelists (Ken Olin and Josh Hartley) both did the slow nod, as if this idea was incredibly brilliant, whispering "Oh, wow..." in awed voices.  It was like an SNL skit.  They practically broke their own arms patting themselves on the back.

Omg, I need to start watching these. 

The experience of miscarriage is such an emotionally gutting event that is so rarely seen on popular TV shows and I'm sad that I'm already annoyed enough with this show that it'll be difficult for me to appreciate it. I was already irritated by them acting like it was so specific to Kate that she NOT BE ABLE TO TELL ANYONE SHE'S PREGNANT POOR KATE when she was only like 8 weeks pregnant. Hello, most people don't tell until 12 weeks for this very reason and most first-time moms are terrified until they hit the 12 week mark, it is not specific to Kate who CAN NEVER BE HAPPY ABOUT ANYTHING BECAUSE LIFE IS SO HARD FOR HER SPECIFICALLY. She told a lot more people than I did before 12 weeks and it was ill-advised imo. She annoys me so much that I've started to like Toby, damn it.

Ugh.

[laurakaye]

The roundtable discussion mentioned giving us a week's break from Kate's news because everyone has so much love for her.  Um.....?????

Still, halfway into season 2, I don't understand Kate enough to care about her.  I don't find her especially nice.  She's a physically beautiful woman but her personality makes her unattractive.  I don't understand her on-again/off-again desire to become a professional singer.  I don't know why she quit her job, or what she sees in Toby, or what she does all day long (shouldn't we see her at least taking singing lessons or something) or why her weight was a significant plot in season one but not in season two.  If I don't have a clue what motivates a character, then I can't bring myself to care what happens to that person.  Maybe This is Us thinks it's really clever to draw out the whole Jack thing for so long to hook us, but all it does for me is show me a bunch of shallow, not very nice people and give me little to no clue why they act as they do.  The danger in drawing it out so long is that, when the big reveals start to come, many of us won't care anymore.

Edited November 21, 2017 by laurakaye

[potatoradio]

20 hours ago, CelticBlackCat said:

Hostess Donettes Powdered Sugar Mini Donuts.

OK, CBC, get out of my head. That's exactly what I was thinking. Why, I don't know, but maybe my grief counselor can explain it to me.  If it's a poppyseed muffin, though...

22 hours ago, laurakaye said:

I actually want to print your post and put a check by everything you get right.

I'm not responsible if you make it a drinking game, though. :)

The poster just above (sorry, can't figure out how to get quotes to work from multiple pages) is exactly right. We're supposed to be so invested in these characters that we get extreme feels when bad things happen to them, specifically. Because...well, they had a perfect dad and he died? Because they're Pearsons, damn it? Because they have a "clever/endearing" Big Three cheer? Because the promos tell us to? 

[Miasmomma]

I am so pissed at the writers,  I really liked this show in season one and now it has become so cliche and predictable.  Kevin become a full fledged addict in like 2 months and is stealing prescription pads?  Not likely, first he's a rich celebrity there is no way that he doesn't have people who can get this stuff for him and that he doesn't have people handling him so that he can get through the high school stuff with out making a scene.  Also I'm just not buying that it went that fast. And then, of course the fat girl can't have good things happen.  I would so love if they gave Kate just one thing to be great at.  She's an awesome doctor and sh'e fat or she's a great accountant and she's fat...or better yet she's an awesome mom.  

[chaifan]

When Rebecca found Kate's audition tape and first started playing it, am I the only one who thought it was awful at first?  It was crackly and off tune, at least to me.  It got better, but not what I would imagine as Berkeley level good.  I think adult Kate has a good voice, but (as the one band guy said in an earlier episode) nothing terribly special. 

[pianogirl73]

1 minute ago, chaifan said:

When Rebecca found Kate's audition tape and first started playing it, am I the only one who thought it was awful at first?  It was crackly and off tune, at least to me.  It got better, but not what I would imagine as Berkeley level good.  I think adult Kate has a good voice, but (as the one band guy said in an earlier episode) nothing terribly special. 

It was awful!

[CleoCaesar]

This show reaches new levels of awful every week. The level of histrionic speeches has almost surpassed any Shonda Rhimes show. These do not seem like real people. They are screaming, crying speech machines.

I watch it for two reasons (old teenage crush on Justin Hartley, and residual teenage fondness for Mandy Moore) and this week there was no Justin Hartley and Mandy Moore got one of those ridiculous screamy speeches. (Say "yellow onions" one more time. I dare you.)

I remember how I felt when I watched The West Wing – the writing was so good, and the acting was so good, that I would get sniffly during particularly intense scenes. It wasn’t even SAD most of the time, just the power of the writing and great characters whom I actually cared about that elicited some genuine emotion from me.

I have yet to so much as tear up during this show and its angsty, deliberate, manufactured "sad" scenes. I will never understand viewers like the lady who has an Amazon subscription to deliver tissues every Tuesday. Call me cold, but I don't find anything in this sappy, fake soap all that sad.

This Is Shit.

[ChromaKelly]

1 hour ago, chaifan said:

When Rebecca found Kate's audition tape and first started playing it, am I the only one who thought it was awful at first?  It was crackly and off tune, at least to me.  It got better, but not what I would imagine as Berkeley level good.  I think adult Kate has a good voice, but (as the one band guy said in an earlier episode) nothing terribly special. 

Yeah, it was bad, and that was not a good song choice.
OK, and I'm tired of TV acting like people can succeed in the arts and get into prestigious art/music/drama/dance schools without putting in any work, just on some "Wow!" audition. No, doesn't work that way. Was teen Kate in choir? Did she take voice lessons? Star in a musical? Nope, she's just going to send a shitty tape to Berklee and get in! She's a Pearson dammit!
I didn't hate Toby (TOBE) this ep, but his makeup looks really weird. OK I did hate the delivery guy I'm a big and powerful man thing, but other than that he wasn't too awful.

[AuntiePam]

I haven't watched any of S2.  Not revealing the circumstances of Jack's death in S1 was pure manipulation and it pissed me off.  If the acting and writing are good enough, we'll keep watching, and the producers should understand this, and stop with the red herrings and the teasing.  "Look for the clues!  There are clues!"  This isn't a mystery, for pete's sake!  I hate cliffhangers, even at the end of an episode.  End a season with a cliffhanger and I won't be back.  And even though we knew early on that Jack had died, we didn't know how.  It wasn't natural for that not to come out in the first season -- it was information that was deliberately withheld, a tease. 

The other reason I stopped was because of Crissy Metz.  I worry about her health (yeah, I know, it's silly, I don't even know her), but I think the reason she's not losing weight is because of this role.  If I watch, it feels like I'm enabling her, even encouraging her.   As an actress, she's average, not a standout personality-wise, unlike other large women -- Conchata Ferrell, for one, Melissa McCarthy for another.   I hate to think that that Metz is endangering her health to keep a role in a run-of-the-mill family drama, and that's what (apparently) this show has become. 

[pennben]

I think they had to give Kevin the quick addiction and Kate the out-of-nowhere ten minute pregnancy this season because they planned this trio of episodes focusing on the individual adult kids and then belatedly realized that they hadn't given them any real character development (especially Kate) in the first season to make us care about either of them for a full episode's focus.  I felt nary a thing most of this episode (aside from rage at Toby with his "I'm big and powerful" nonsense at the fed ex place) because I don't really know Kate at all.  I was happy to see Rebecca get a good moment....the thing that had me shut down this show last season was how she had been made into almost a bad guy folks were rooting against, so I guess there's that. 

Edited November 22, 2017 by pennben

[Amethyst]

I hated Toby's "I'm a big and powerful man" speech.  I get that he was in grief and we saw a similar scene later with Rebecca.  But in Toby's case, what would have happened had the guy said "get lost"?  Would Toby have beat him up?  Yelled at him or gotten him fired?  That whole scene didn't sit right because it felt like Toby was taking advantage of a clearly smaller guy.  And the guy was just a service rep, we're not talking about a manager or anything.

[SunnyBeBe]

I keep having to change the channel because I just can't stand to watch certain things. This is weird.  Part of why I get uncomfortable with these new episodes is that I dread seeing Jack get killed.  It's now something that I don't want to see. It's just too dreadful and it makes me anxious. 

Then, there are the silly things that Kate says that really annoys me.  She's really insufferable.  Oh well, I do have empathy about the miscarriage, but, it was so contrived.  Too much for my taste.  And then I think the show either made fun of Kate or really screwed up.  OR maybe, they were trying to point out that Rebecca really doesn't know her daughter at all.  When Kate wanted to shower, but, couldn't, due to the shower curtain being torn down, her mom said she could draw her a bath.....think about it.  That would not work.  That's all I have to say about that.  

[Marley]

Randall is ruining the show for me. He is such a know it all prick and I hate his non stop speeches and the way he talks. I hope everyone laughs in his and Beth’s face when they try to get Deja. They can’t just decide they are keeping her after a couple months.

O and one more thing I hate is how they continue to make William a saint through flashbacks and stuff. That is not how the character was until he became more of a fan favourite so they started changing things I feel like.

[SunnyBeBe]

I hope the show doesn't make the process of filing for custody one in which it's totally against current law.  We'll see.  Generally, foster parents are able to adopt foster kids, when and after the county has found that reunification with the parents has not worked AND a court has ruled on it AND parental rights have been terminated.  The judge rules on this after months or even years and after many opportunities for the bio parents to comply with the Reunification Plan.  If not, the county seeks to terminate the parental rights and free the child for adoption.  You have to have standing to file in any lawsuit .The thing is....I'm not sure that I'm invested enough to really follow that story.  I'll probably keep changing the channel.  lol 

[chaifan]

10 hours ago, CleoCaesar said:

This Is Shit.

Am I the only one who found this comment especially funny coming after an episode titled "Number Two"?  hee.

[PRgal]

1 hour ago, SunnyBeBe said:

I hope the show doesn't make the process of filing for custody one in which it's totally against current law.  We'll see.  Generally, foster parents are able to adopt foster kids, when and after the county has found that reunification with the parents has not worked AND a court has ruled on it AND parental rights have been terminated.  The judge rules on this after months or even years and after many opportunities for the bio parents to comply with the Reunification Plan.  If not, the county seeks to terminate the parental rights and free the child for adoption.  You have to have standing to file in any lawsuit .The thing is....I'm not sure that I'm invested enough to really follow that story.  I'll probably keep changing the channel.  lol 

And this is why many families don't want to go the foster-to-adopt route.  Especially with older kids like Deja (not that younger children DON'T have attachment issues).  I often wonder how kids like Deja must feel - ones who have spent time in very privileged homes like the Pearsons.

[Lady Calypso]

7 hours ago, Marley said:

O and one more thing I hate is how they continue to make William a saint through flashbacks and stuff. That is not how the character was until he became more of a fan favourite so they started changing things I feel like.

I really, really wanted to see more flaws to William. We barely get to discuss those flaws before they handwaved away by his good heart or good intentions. He still abandoned his son. He still did drugs. He still abandoned his boyfriend when he went to live with Randall. I just wanted to see the show acknowledge more of his imperfections instead of clouding them by his good heart. 

I agree about all things Randall. I need him to take a backseat at some point next season, especially since Kate and Kevin had to in season 1 due to Randall needing the prominent storyline. 

I also wish they hadn't given Randall the foster kid storyline. I think it could have worked well with Kate and Toby for season 3 if they went that route. Now, any kid storyline for Kate is tainted by Randall's Deja storyline for me. Plus, Randall has two great daughters who have gotten zero focus. Why does he need more time with a foster kid who will likely disappear at the end of his centric episode? And I do believe that Randall and Beth won't get to keep Deja. This show is schmaltzy, but still likes to give their characters a lot of angst to deal with and after having Kevin's story end with him still hiding as an addict, and Kate's story ending with her starting to move past her grief from her miscarriage, Randall's could end with Deja leaving. At least, that's the hope. I can't imagine what else Randall's centric story would be about. His entire storyline this season is about Deja.

[Katy M]

12 minutes ago, Lady Calypso said:

And I do believe that Randall and Beth won't get to keep Deja.

I should certainly hope not.  Even if the courts decide to sever her mother's parental custody (which I doubt they would do) Deja would hate Randall and Beth forever for being the ones that fought for that. She clearly loves her mother.  There has been no abuse as far as we've been told.  Her mother just needs to make better life choices.  Heck, if Randall wanted to be a really stand up guy, he'd invite Deja and her mother to come live with them after the mom gets custody back.  But, no, he just wants to steal someone else's kid in order to feed his hero complex.

[ChromaKelly]

12 hours ago, Amethyst said:

I hated Toby's "I'm a big and powerful man" speech.  I get that he was in grief and we saw a similar scene later with Rebecca.  But in Toby's case, what would have happened had the guy said "get lost"?  Would Toby have beat him up?  Yelled at him or gotten him fired?  That whole scene didn't sit right because it felt like Toby was taking advantage of a clearly smaller guy.  And the guy was just a service rep, we're not talking about a manager or anything.

Yes, I was cringing the whole time. I also felt uncomfortable with the dynamic of Toby being white and the delivery guy being Latino.  Did Toby mean he's a big and powerful man physically? Or was he trying to imply that he was someone important? I really hated that whole scene. How is the guy supposed to know Toby's not just trying to steal someone's package?

[Wings]

11 hours ago, Marley said:

Randall is ruining the show for me. He is such a know it all prick and I hate his non stop speeches and the way he talks. I hope everyone laughs in his and Beth’s face when they try to get Deja. They can’t just decide they are keeping her after a couple months.

O and one more thing I hate is how they continue to make William a saint through flashbacks and stuff. That is not how the character was until he became more of a fan favourite so they started changing things I feel like.

Yep, I agree.  It doesn't help Randall that the actor who plays him is not very attractive.  He cannot help how he looks and I am wrong for even bringing physical appearance into it.  Bad dog.  

 

1 hour ago, ChromaKelly said:

Yes, I was cringing the whole time. I also felt uncomfortable with the dynamic of Toby being white and the delivery guy being Latino.  Did Toby mean he's a big and powerful man physically? Or was he trying to imply that he was someone important? I really hated that whole scene. How is the guy supposed to know Toby's not just trying to steal someone's package?

This did not bother me.  He was trying to be important, his ego is fragile.  :)  

I had an experience similar.  FEDEX did not try to deliver a package even though tracking said they did and no one was home.  I was home all day waiting for it.  I called.  The person on the phone gave me the number to call the facility where it was, directly.  She was not supposed to give that out, I found.  I called to give them a piece of my mind about the lie (FEDEX is known for this shit).  The man who answered said, "how did you get this number?"  his tone was menacing.  I said, "I am connected in ways you do not want to know but you will find out if this table is not delivered tomorrow."  I got the table the next day.  lol 

I had not planned the threat and I am not connected at all!   After hanging up I said to myself, wow that was good, where the hell did that come from?!  The man I spoke to was Hispanic and it did not figure in to this picture at all!

Always use UPS.  All delivery people are employed by the company.  FEDEX uses jobbers and they often don't care to go out of their way at the end of the day or if they have plans so driver posts 'not home.'  Everyone seems to think they are better and that is all about the name, logo and colors.  It is more attractive than all brown.  Seriously!  

Sorry to digress but that scene brought this to mind so I totally understood where Toby was coming from!  

Edited November 22, 2017 by wings707

[ShadowFacts]

3 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

I really, really wanted to see more flaws to William. We barely get to discuss those flaws before they handwaved away by his good heart or good intentions. He still abandoned his son. He still did drugs. He still abandoned his boyfriend when he went to live with Randall. I just wanted to see the show acknowledge more of his imperfections instead of clouding them by his good heart. 

I saw it differently -- I thought plenty of flaws were presented, and not hand-waved.  In the end, when dying, he even said that he had not had a happy life, made many mistakes, but that the beginning and ending were good.  His mother, and his son.  He lived alone, was impoverished, struggled with sobriety.  That he wrote poetry and was musical were gifts he had and probably gave him some comfort along the way, but he paid the price for drug abuse and giving up his son. 

[laurakaye]

29 minutes ago, wings707 said:

Yep, I agree.  It doesn't help Randall that the actor who plays him is not very attractive.  He cannot help how he looks and I am wrong for even bringing physical appearance into it.  Bad dog.  

This is interesting.  I initially started watching This is Us because of Sterling K. Brown's nuanced, smoldering, barely-contained rage/passion when he played Chris Darden in the OJ Simpson mini-series.  I couldn't take my eyes off of him whenever he was onscreen.  He had a scene with the actress playing Marcia Clark that nearly set my television on fire.  His performance was incredible, and I was all -- sign me up for this new show!  But you're right - in this show, he's not attractive.  Same guy, different looks?  Well, no - but the way his character is written - as a know-it-all, entitled smugman, he's definitely not attractive.  SKB is hot, but I can't stand Randall Pearson.

Edited November 22, 2017 by laurakaye

[Wings]

34 minutes ago, laurakaye said:

This is interesting.  I initially started watching This is Us because of Sterling K. Brown's nuanced, smoldering, barely-contained rage/passion when he played Chris Darden in the OJ Simpson mini-series.  I couldn't take my eyes off of him whenever he was onscreen.  He had a scene with the actress playing Marcia Clark that nearly set my television on fire.  His performance was incredible, and I was all -- sign me up for this new show!  But you're right - in this show, he's not attractive.  Same guy, different looks?  Well, no - but the way his character is written - as a know-it-all, entitled smugman, he's definitely not attractive.  SKB is hot, but I can't stand Randall Pearson.

I didn't see the OJ series so I have no point of comparison.  I agree that Randall is off putting and probably the cause of seeing the actor as ugly.  

Edited November 22, 2017 by wings707

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

I really, really wanted to see more flaws to William. We barely get to discuss those flaws before they handwaved away by his good heart or good intentions. He still abandoned his son. He still did drugs. He still abandoned his boyfriend when he went to live with Randall. I just wanted to see the show acknowledge more of his imperfections instead of clouding them by his good heart. 

I was tired of the show playing William as the victim, especially in that 'most disappointed man' monologue.  Nothing that happened to him is really outside the range of 'happens to us all' (e.g., parent dies) or 'brought on yourself' (drug-related gf death, abandoned son).  

1 hour ago, wings707 said:

Yep, I agree.  It doesn't help Randall that the actor who plays him is not very attractive.  He cannot help how he looks and I am wrong for even bringing physical appearance into it.  Bad dog.  

There is a beefcake spread of Milo, Justin and SKB in this week's People, due to it being the 'sexiest man alive' issue.  I think most people find Brown hot.  But I agree, Randall is a little offputting and it mitigates it.  

[laurakaye]

5 minutes ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

There is a beefcake spread of Milo, Justin and SKB in this week's People, due to it being the 'sexiest man alive' issue.  I think most people find Brown hot.  But I agree, Randall is a little offputting and it mitigates it.  

There might be something wrong with me because I struggle to find any man on this show attractive.  Josh Hartley's jaw-clenching brings to mind a young (pre-crazy) Tom Cruise, but since Kevin is such a jerk, I find him to be a vapid pretty-boy instead.

I think this was mentioned somewhere on this thread, but I wonder if appearing on this show is going to limit the other gigs these actors get in the future.

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

I really, really wanted to see more flaws to William. We barely get to discuss those flaws before they handwaved away by his good heart or good intentions. He still abandoned his son. He still did drugs. He still abandoned his boyfriend when he went to live with Randall. I just wanted to see the show acknowledge more of his imperfections instead of clouding them by his good heart. 

Oh hey. What's it like living in my brain?  

It's ridiculous. I feel like the writers didn't want him to be a cliched person who would abandon a baby at a firehouse, so they decided to pain him as a great person.  Then they went so far that a lot of fans decided he was perfect, so they went with it.  

[Lady Calypso]

3 minutes ago, deaja said:

Oh hey. What's it like living in my brain?  

It's ridiculous. I feel like the writers didn't want him to be a cliched person who would abandon a baby at a firehouse, so they decided to pain him as a great person.  Then they went so far that a lot of fans decided he was perfect, so they went with it.  

I just wanted to see Randall get mad at him. I wanted William to answer to his choices more. Hell, they could have shown him in a more negative light in the flashbacks if they really wanted to promote the idea that he was a better man before he died. But the show went out of its way to avoid showing William in any negative light. Randall forgave his biological father almost instantly, especially after finding out he was sick. He didn't even get mad at him later on. Randall got to be pissed at Rebecca for a few episodes, but not at William.

I remember it being a gripe during season 1 but I was hoping that maybe they were going to do it later on. But then The Most Disappointed Man episode happened, and reminded me why I was never that much of a fan of William. He can still be a good man now and still acknowledge and take responsibility for his actions. I know they had a scene with William telling such to Randall, but it didn't feel like it was enough for me. Even Jesse forgave William quite quickly after he had left him. 

The show basically made William into his perfect father figure for Randall in season 1. They only talked about the bad things he chose to do without actually showing them onscreen, or dealing with the ramifications. I think that's what got me so irritated.

[methodwriter85]

I really, really rolled my eyes so fucking hard when they showed William reuniting with his mom in heaven. Even if it was meant to be just a final death vision it was just too cheesy to believe, and it served to underscore the "Saint William" narrative. It makes me positive that there will be a future episode where Rebecca dies and she sees Jack escort her to heaven.

[Wings]

1 hour ago, deaja said:

Oh hey. What's it like living in my brain?  

It's ridiculous. I feel like the writers didn't want him to be a cliched person who would abandon a baby at a firehouse, so they decided to pain him as a great person.  Then they went so far that a lot of fans decided he was perfect, so they went with it.  

It is all about invoking tears.  He had to be a great guy, why would anyone cry when he died otherwise? 

[CelticBlackCat]

4 hours ago, ChromaKelly said:

Yes, I was cringing the whole time. I also felt uncomfortable with the dynamic of Toby being white and the delivery guy being Latino.  Did Toby mean he's a big and powerful man physically? Or was he trying to imply that he was someone important? I really hated that whole scene. How is the guy supposed to know Toby's not just trying to steal someone's package?

Toby declaring he's a big and powerful guy.  Was that supposed to be physically powerful, as in I'm going to beat you up if you don't do what I say, or as in I'm a powerful man around town, i.e., the mayor, etc.  Being a bully either way = No.  Then he redeems himself by giving Carlos the baby bath thing.  Typical BS on this show.

[JudyObscure]

I wanted Kate to eat that Chinese food.  Yes, I did.  She was going through a unique, hopefully once in a lifetime, moment of grief and food is nature's tranquilizer.  Plus Kate, in particular, has sought comfort from food all her life.  This one time wouldn't have made a big difference.  Other women have miscarriages and take a few Prozac or get drunk, why not let Kate have a big plate of food?

[Blakeston]

5 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

I just wanted to see Randall get mad at him. I wanted William to answer to his choices more. Hell, they could have shown him in a more negative light in the flashbacks if they really wanted to promote the idea that he was a better man before he died. But the show went out of its way to avoid showing William in any negative light. Randall forgave his biological father almost instantly, especially after finding out he was sick. He didn't even get mad at him later on. Randall got to be pissed at Rebecca for a few episodes, but not at William.

I remember it being a gripe during season 1 but I was hoping that maybe they were going to do it later on. But then The Most Disappointed Man episode happened, and reminded me why I was never that much of a fan of William. He can still be a good man now and still acknowledge and take responsibility for his actions. I know they had a scene with William telling such to Randall, but it didn't feel like it was enough for me. Even Jesse forgave William quite quickly after he had left him. 

The thing with Jesse felt like a half-hearted effort to avoid making present-day William seem too perfect. "Hey, look, he walked out on his significant other! He's not magical! Now let's get back to how amazing he is."

And frankly, I didn't buy that the William we'd been shown would just drop his lover without any explanation or goodbye. I could see him ending things suddenly, given the circumstances, and leaving Jesse feeling abandoned. But flat-out ghosting him didn't seem to fit the character at all.

[mochamajesty]

3 hours ago, JudyObscure said:

I wanted Kate to eat that Chinese food.  Yes, I did.  She was going through a unique, hopefully once in a lifetime, moment of grief and food is nature's tranquilizer.  Plus Kate, in particular, has sought comfort from food all her life.  This one time wouldn't have made a big difference.  Other women have miscarriages and take a few Prozac or get drunk, why not let Kate have a big plate of food?

It was unrealistic.

Kate obviously eats in a disordered way, and this is the one time that she can resist - during what must be one of the most devastating times of her life?  Not believable at all.

And did Kate look bigger, or was it my TV? (I know, I am a bitch).

Yeah, the "I'll run you a bath" comment made me LOL. 

I must have said, "Toby is SO extra!" a thousand times tonight.  He makes any situation worse.

I also said, "People do not act like this" a thousand times too.  Toby in the warehouse? The liability issues alone would prevent that. What if he got hurt or he stole something? 

[TwoGrayTabbies]

7 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

I just wanted to see Randall get mad at him. I wanted William to answer to his choices more. Hell, they could have shown him in a more negative light in the flashbacks if they really wanted to promote the idea that he was a better man before he died. But the show went out of its way to avoid showing William in any negative light. Randall forgave his biological father almost instantly, especially after finding out he was sick. He didn't even get mad at him later on. Randall got to be pissed at Rebecca for a few episodes, but not at William.

I remember it being a gripe during season 1 but I was hoping that maybe they were going to do it later on. But then The Most Disappointed Man episode happened, and reminded me why I was never that much of a fan of William. He can still be a good man now and still acknowledge and take responsibility for his actions. I know they had a scene with William telling such to Randall, but it didn't feel like it was enough for me. Even Jesse forgave William quite quickly after he had left him. 

The show basically made William into his perfect father figure for Randall in season 1. They only talked about the bad things he chose to do without actually showing them onscreen, or dealing with the ramifications. I think that's what got me so irritated.

You’v given me an idea.  When Randall told Rebecca that the time he had with William was “enough” time to know that William loved Randall and vice versa, I was unconvinced.  Knowing that William was so totally amazing could only make Randall angrier that Rebecca’s secrecy denied him more time with with St William, right?  

Or maybe Randall felt his time was “enough” because more time would have forced him to confront William’s failings.  

[Guest]

One nit I have is when shows act like babies come with a date stamp of when they'll take their first steps, so you can set up the camcorder and sit around and go "Go, Kate, you can do it!"  Same for deaths.  

Also, wiping the dog.  WTH?  Have the writers never had a dog?  

And buying baby goods in the first trimester.  And what the heck is a Swedish tub?  A baby bath is a plastic bucket you pick up at Target for about $10 and it not only fits in tubs it fits in a kitchen sink or on the countertop, so no one has to measure anything.  Or kneel at the tub.

And Kate's questions for the doctor.  You'd think she can't read.  

[ShadowFacts]

35 minutes ago, mochamajesty said:

Kate obviously eats in a disordered way, and this is the one time that she can resist - during what must be one of the most devastating times of her life?  Not believable at all.

I agree, but the only way I can make sense of it is that when confronted with a pretty big shock, you sometimes think you want to eat but find, nope, you are not able.  I don't think they were going for this, however, it was more like she is beginning to master her screwed up relationship with food, and that wouldn't happen at that particular moment after a trauma. 

[Pallas]

15 hours ago, JudyObscure said:

Other women have miscarriages and take a few Prozac or get drunk, why not let Kate have a big plate of food?

Because it seems Kate's addicted to food -- or rather, to the dopamine rush provided by bingeing -- as a way to counter pain and anxiety. The dopamine surge is soon followed by a withdrawal reaction of shame and self-loathing, which can quickly become circular. And more shame and self-loathing is the last thing Kate needs to trowel onto her brittle ego. Far better what she discovered instead: that she can experience pain and survive it, and survive it best by connecting with other people (her mother, her fiance), rather than by bingeing alone. 

[Conotocarious]

9 hours ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

And Kate's questions for the doctor.  You'd think she can't read.  

Or use google.

[Katy M]

57 minutes ago, Conotocarious said:

Or use google.

Google is not the best place to get advice for your high-risk pregnancy.

[ShadowFacts]

2 minutes ago, Katy M said:

Google is not the best place to get advice for your high-risk pregnancy.

Right, but it could set one on a path to ask informed questions and get proper advice from the practitioner.  I think the questions could have been better but maybe they were just showing how awestruck and earnest she was being about pregnancy.  Then boom, game over. 

[Conotocarious]

12 minutes ago, Katy M said:

Google is not the best place to get advice for your high-risk pregnancy.

Of course it isn’t but it’s super realistic to be using it all the time. Otherwise it wouldn’t be a hard and fast rule to “never use Dr. Google”. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Conotocarious said:

Of course it isn’t but it’s super realistic to be using it all the time. Otherwise it wouldn’t be a hard and fast rule to “never use Dr. Google”. 

Yeah, Babycenter.com is where I lived for a few years, and I think it's still heavily used.  If I had stupid questions like 'is kundalini yoga good for pregnancy' I'd for sure be researching that myself, not expecting my OB to take the time to address every crazy thought that crossed my mind.  

[Lady Calypso]

15 hours ago, JudyObscure said:

I wanted Kate to eat that Chinese food.  Yes, I did.  She was going through a unique, hopefully once in a lifetime, moment of grief and food is nature's tranquilizer.  Plus Kate, in particular, has sought comfort from food all her life.  This one time wouldn't have made a big difference.  Other women have miscarriages and take a few Prozac or get drunk, why not let Kate have a big plate of food?

I can personally see why she wouldn't want to. For Kate, food is a drug. I think it's been heavily implied that after Jack's death, Kate turned to food to deal with her grief, which led her to not stop. So for her to lose the baby, it's another loss that she wanted to turn to food for the comfort. However, she knows it's a slippery slope for her. Much like Kevin with his addiction to drugs that is leading down a slippery slope right now, Kate knows breaking her diet and all her hard work would be worse for her. She could feel like she might not get back on track, and for her, that's a scary thought. Not only would she have lost her baby, but she would have derailed her plans to lose weight. I think her choosing not to binge eat was a turning point for her. 

Personally, I'm glad she chose to find another way to deal with her grief that wasn't about binge eating. I actually thought that was smart character progression. I would have been depressed to see Kate slip like that. 

[OtterMommy]

My UO for The Number 2 episode:

I wanted to like this episode much more than I did (unfortunately, I can relate to it).  And there were things that I did like but, when all was said and done, it felt like it was all a ploy to make Toby more likable...and that really pissed me off.

What pissed me off even more is that, for me, it kind of worked.  I mean, I thought Toby behaved in a realistic and caring way and, yeah, I came away with a more positive feeling of him....but a much more negative feeling for the show for pulling this stunt.