S01.E08: Pilgrim Rick

[SanDiegoInExile]

9 hours ago, jeansheridan said:

I am beginning to wonder why the show bothered with the drama of having Rebecca know/see William in the past.  Isn't it dramatic enough that they adopted an abandoned child and that child eventually finds his formerly deadbeat father who is dying of cancer?  Why the extra soapy curveball?  May not bode well for the future of the show.  

I suspect that there is a WHOLE LOT of story that we don't know regarding the William-Rebecca interaction(s).  It moves into spoiler/speculation land, but I don't think this show does anything without there being a reason.  Aside from Season One and it's 18 episodes, most showrunners have mapped out a 4-5 year storyline, part of which is used to sell the show to the network and get it on the schedule. Not only will it add to the impact, but it will keep the (dying?) William around for multiple seasons.  Stage Four Cancer doesn't typically heal itself, so flashbacks will keep the actor in the cast.

I also suspect that "deadbeat" will be far from the reality.

[methodwriter85]

Quote

Did you mean "Kyle" is alive? Kevin is one of the surviving triplets. I something upthread along these lines too, and maybe I've missed something (sometimes I only scan - because by the time I get to the forum there are so many posts).

Yep, I meant Kyle. I think I got mixed up about the line about the poster who  joked that by season 4, it'll be revealed that Kevin and Beth had an affair that gets inadvertently revealed by Jack in a letter he wrote to Kate to be opened on her 40th birthday. LOL. I thought they meant Kyle coming back to life in some soapy twist bent on ruining the Big 3's lives, but they meant actual Kevin. LOL.

Quote

Definitely.  There were a couple semi-soapy deviations, but it certainly never jumped the shark the way Brothers and Sisters did.  But with that show, there was a clear reason for what happened: the series creator battled with the network to keep the show true to his original vision, and he was shitcanned.  So after the first season, it wasn't really meaningfully the same show.  The ousted creator lamented afterward: "I cannot help but dream about what my version of Brothers & Sisters would have looked like...I was naive, totally naive."  So in the case of This is Us, as long as we don't hear about anything similar happening, we're probably safe.

Interesting read. The funny thing is, if you don't count William as a main cast member, Sterling K. Brown is actually the oldest cast member, and the show has plenty of options to show off Mandy Moore and Milo as their hot 30-something young selves. It's kind of funny to think that Mandy Moore is actually 5-8 years younger than the adults playing her kids. (Chrissy Metz is the one closest in age to her, and it's still a 4/5-year difference. They wouldn't have even gone to high school together.)

I do think she's aiming for Diane Keaton feel (who actually played her mom in a romantic comedy that looked so dumb I refused to watch it), but I want to see more of 66-year old Rebecca to get a feel for her. The age make-up wasn't the best, but at least it wasn't as terrible as Miguel's. It's got to be a challenge for a woman in her early 30's to play someone in their mid/late 60's, but it's not that bad so far.

[bros402]

13 hours ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

I feel like all the network dramas get stupid after a season or two of goodness.  I just assumed the writers have no real long range plans and once they snare an audience with a good first season, they just phone it in with crap from then on.  That's why I'm a big fan of the mini-series or British model or anthology shows in place of the awful 'seven seasons of the same ol' shit' model.  

Is there a TV drama that didn't decline steeply after a season or two, besides Breaking Bad?  I think The Good Wife was known as having some stellar late seasons but that too got tired.  

Person of Interest got better after its first season and finished strong after 5 seasons. However, it depends on what kind of TV watcher you are - if you like overarching plots and an abandonment of a "case-of-the-week" format, you'd probably enjoy PoI

[wendyg]

66 is the new 34. 60-somethings vary hugely in their physical ability and mental state, a lot of it depending on health, life experience, and the company they keep. As for dropping in on people, if you know the person doesn't like it you don't do it. But one thing I really missed when moving to a larger city was that people mostly *don't* drop in because the effort of getting to your house is too great. I have dropped in on all sorts of people, and the rule is, you join in on whatever's happening: if they're painting, you help. I once turned up at a friend's house at 1AM (all the lights were on and they were students), and we all hung out for an hour watching their cat have kittens. But you have to have the right sort of friends/ family, and if you don't, you don't.

[Johnny Dollar]

"Shut up Miguel" should become this decade's "Shut up Meg".

[Clanstarling]

7 hours ago, methodwriter85 said:

ep, I meant Kyle. I think I got mixed up about the line about the poster who  joked that by season 4, it'll be revealed that Kevin and Beth had an affair that gets inadvertently revealed by Jack in a letter he wrote to Kate to be opened on her 40th birthday. LOL. I thought they meant Kyle coming back to life in some soapy twist bent on ruining the Big 3's lives, but they meant actual Kevin. LOL.

And that's the thing I'd read upthread (but couldn't remember) that confused me too. LOL. I often have to scroll (or go to IMDB) to remember character names - even the ones who are leads - because there are just so darned many of them.

[SlackerInc]

15 hours ago, Crs97 said:

I saw comedian do a bit about  unexpected visitors.  He talked about how when he was growing up, the sound of a doorbell brought cheers.   Everyone gathered around to see who was there, and they always had a special Entenmann's box of treats for the new guest. Nowadays, people hit the ground when they hear a doorbell and start army crawling around the living room, trying to figure out who left a light on that suggested someone might be home. It was pretty funny and felt true-to-life.

Hahahaha, I love this!  I don't (as someone in my early forties) really remember the "Entenmann's era", although I do remember when it wasn't alarming to receive an unexpected voice call on the phone, and to have no idea who was calling before picking up.

15 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

If there is such a thing as the cult of Seinfeld, and I think there is, there's a whole bunch of us out there who relate to the show and despise the "pop in".  People around my age all joke about this.  I live next door to my brother, and I've never stopped by without major notice.  And I'm next door!  And it's my brother!

My friends joke around that I need 2 hours notice.  Joke all you want.  Because I'm glad that they give me that!

Good friends, and a good brother.  :)  [ETA: You inspired me to Google the Seinfeld "pop in", and was tickled to find that the scene in question features a young Catherine Keener!]

15 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

Mileage varies. I don't believe being their mother gives me any particular dispensation to casually drop by my grown kids' homes. How we/they look is beside the point for us (that's a consideration non-family), it is more that we might be interrupting private moments - such as lovemaking, fighting, etc. In our family it applies both ways, for the same reasons. We always give each other a heads up, via text at a minimum, before dropping in.

Oh, good point.  I hadn't even thought of that aspect but it is definitely a big part of it as well.

15 hours ago, Enigma X said:

Ninety percent of my unexpected visitors don't get the courtesy of an answer. I do not answer the door. I also do not try to keep quiet or pretend like I am not home.

Oh, interesting.  That latter part takes some chutzpah, but it makes me think of a memorable case in my twenties when that might have been a better approach.  My roommate and I were growing weary of this guy who constantly did the "pop in", except he would stay for hours on end.  Nice guy, but just boring and not someone we wanted to devote hours a day to spending time with.  So one day we spied him coming up the walk and quickly turned down the TV or stereo and kind of huddled on the floor as there were places someone could peer in.  We figured he'd knock a couple times and give up.  But he just kept knocking and knocking and knocking, and calling out to us.  It was the weirdest thing!  I don't know what his endgame was, because obviously after a certain point it would have been incredibly awkward for us to come to the door.  It was all just so bizarre...would have made a good "cringe comedy" scene, come to think of it.

What is different about the other ten percent of "pop ins", just out of curiosity?

14 hours ago, JudyObscure said:

I think maybe part of the disagreement on just  how bad "dropping in" is has to do with age.  If we grew up in a small town, before crime was as bad as it is now, it was just more common for neighbors and family to pop in.

That must have been quite a long time ago, since violent crime is less than half of what it was 25 years ago, and it's been fifty years since it was significantly lower than it is now. 

18 hours ago, ShadowFacts said:

I agree with a statement in the article that it's a mistake to generalize about life-course patterns.  Individuals vary a lot.

Sure, but the comment I was responding to was itself a generalization ("Most people who are 60, more or less, are dealing with dead dreams. It comes with the territory of being 'old.' Like I said, it will happen to you youngsters in a few decades. Very few people end their lives satisfied"), and one that doesn't jibe with the social science research.

Edited November 28, 2016 by SlackerInc
Added a link

[Clanstarling]

8 minutes ago, SlackerInc said:

Oh, good point.  I hadn't even thought of that aspect but it is definitely a big part of it as well.

Amusingly enough, when I was a young'n, I watched an episode of The Waltons that dealt with this. One of the newlywed girls (I'm not sure which, but maybe Maryellen) was having trouble with the sibs, parents and grandparents dropping by all the time (the indelicato nature was hinted at as I recall). Their solution was the equivalent of the tie/sock on the dorm room door (a flowerpot on the porch).

But I wasn't aware of the parent issue of this until I, at 21, dropped by my parents house to announce my engagement. Fortunately, they locked the door. It took me awhile to figure out why they took so long to get to the door, because after all, they were ancient (Dad was 44).

[Enigma X]

35 minutes ago, SlackerInc said:

What is different about the other ten percent of "pop ins", just out of curiosity?

My mother never did the "pop in." We always went to her, but I can see myself not turning her away.

The 10% whose appearance I would acknowledge usually depends on if I feel I really wanted to see them more that day than be annoyed at their unannounced pop in. I always mention that they should have checked first though.

[Ms Blue Jay]

1 hour ago, SlackerInc said:

Good friends, and a good brother.  :)  [ETA: You inspired me to Google the Seinfeld "pop in", and was tickled to find that the scene in question features a young Catherine Keener!]

LOL, why is my brother good?  I'm the one who's being considerate.  But I guess, maybe you thought I was a male?  LOL.

[Ms Blue Jay]

1 hour ago, SlackerInc said:

That must have been quite a long time ago, since violent crime is less than half of what it was 25 years ago, and it's been fifty years since it was significantly lower than it is now.

One of the major things I learned about in Criminology is that the news is always sensationalizing crime so that most people who watch the news and don't question it believe crime is always at the worst point it's ever been.  When you actually look at statistics and facts, it's not true.  And people think smaller towns have less crime than big cities.  Not per capita.  For example, in Canada, the more sparse the population in a place, the higher the crime rate per person in that space.  I really do know people who believe crime is constantly getting worse and the only way you can escape it is to move to a small, picturesque-looking town.  

[JenE4]

23 hours ago, jeansheridan said:

I am beginning to wonder why the show bothered with the drama of having Rebecca know/see William in the past.  Isn't it dramatic enough that they adopted an abandoned child and that child eventually finds his formerly deadbeat father who is dying of cancer?  Why the extra soapy curveball?  May not bode well for the future of the show.  

Randall was always Rebecca's favorite, and now she has a strained relationship with Kevin and Kate because of it (and the weight stuff, etc). It's a really big deal for Randall to now feel betrayed by Rebecca, and she's going to have a crappy relationship with all three kids that she's going to have to work to mend. I know most of you all are down on Miguel, but I'm pretty anti-Rebecca right now. She's actively damaged her kids emotionally. Miguel's only crime so far is not being Jack and wanting to do the fun tradition for the grandkids. 

[izabella]

I am not anti-Miguel, party of one!  We have not seen him do anything terrible, certainly not to this family.  And if he is terrible?  Rebecca married him, so what does that say about her?  That's what I don't get about the hostility we've seen from Kevin and a bit from Randall - they love Rebecca but are anti-Miguel, so either they have a double standard (we can hate horrible Miguel but aren't anti-mom even though she married horrible Miguel), or maybe Miguel is not really so bad.  Makes me think they just would be upset about anyone marrying their mom after Jack died.

[Clanstarling]

24 minutes ago, izabella said:

I am not anti-Miguel, party of one!  We have not seen him do anything terrible, certainly not to this family.  And if he is terrible?  Rebecca married him, so what does that say about her?  That's what I don't get about the hostility we've seen from Kevin and a bit from Randall - they love Rebecca but are anti-Miguel, so either they have a double standard (we can hate horrible Miguel but aren't anti-mom even though she married horrible Miguel), or maybe Miguel is not really so bad.  Makes me think they just would be upset about anyone marrying their mom after Jack died.

Party of two.

[GodsBeloved]

Regarding Miguel wanting to do Pilgrim Rick for the grandkids. I'm not seeing that, not in the it was all about the grandkids sense. Unless we find out the kids requested that he do it, I think it was mostly if not all about Miguel. He wanted to do it for his sake, not the kids'. They seemed perfectly happy with their uncle entertaining them and that should have been enough for Miguel if it was all about the kids.

Edited November 28, 2016 by GodsBeloved

[Crs97]

Can I please make it a foursome?

[chocolatine]

1 hour ago, JenE4 said:

Randall was always Rebecca's favorite, and now she has a strained relationship with Kevin and Kate because of it (and the weight stuff, etc). It's a really big deal for Randall to now feel betrayed by Rebecca, and she's going to have a crappy relationship with all three kids that she's going to have to work to mend. I know most of you all are down on Miguel, but I'm pretty anti-Rebecca right now. She's actively damaged her kids emotionally. Miguel's only crime so far is not being Jack and wanting to do the fun tradition for the grandkids. 

Why does it have to be a mutually exclusive thing? We can be down on Rebecca for keeping crucial information from Randall AND down on Miguel for trying to horn in on a family tradition that the Big Three associate with Jack.

[luna1122]

I'm not anti-Miguel yet, tho he seemed a little skeevy about his secretary. But maybe that was just innocent flirting and not evidence that he was a cheating cheater who cheated. Obviously, the ambiguous nature of this show, with its propensity for twists and surprises, is lending itself to folks not liking him, as we project all kinds of plotlines and twists and characteristics to him: always in love with his best friend's wife, even while married to another. Maybe had an affair with best friend's wife, prior to best friend's death. Swooped in to snag the widow as soon as best friend WAS dead. etc. I'll hold out on hating him til I know if any of the above is true.

His aging makeup IS bad, but at least he looks older. I might have a lousy TV but Rebecca/Mandy's face does not, on mine, even appear particularly aged. There should be SOME lining, some sagging, some slackness. If it's there, I'm missing it. She does not, to me, look like a very well preserved 66 year old. She looks like a 30something in a boring wig.

Edited November 28, 2016 by luna1122

[ShadowFacts]

6 minutes ago, luna1122 said:

His again makeup IS bad, but at least he looks aged. . I might have a lousy TV but Rebecca/Mandy's face does not, on mine, even appear particularly aged. There should be SOME lining, some sagging, some slackness. If it's there, I'm missing it. She does not, to me, look like a very well preserved 66 year old. She looks like a 30something in a boring wig.

So true.  The wig is the worst.  I get we are not supposed to see that she has a smooth forehead, but come on, that is unimaginative.  Some layers, some waves, or even long and up, but not that.  I hope they get some better hair and makeup now that the show is renewed and is supposedly the hit of the fall for NBC.  Spring for it already.  If she's going to be an ongoing presence in the present day, I will be taken out of those scenes, when she practically looks like her kids' peer. 

[izabella]

12 minutes ago, luna1122 said:

His again makeup IS bad, but at least he looks aged. . I might have a lousy TV but Rebecca/Mandy's face does not, on mine, even appear particularly aged. There should be SOME lining, some sagging, some slackness. If it's there, I'm missing it. She does not, to me, look like a very well preserved 66 year old. She looks like a 30something in a boring wig.

Maybe she's into fillers and botox, lol.

[OtterMommy]

42 minutes ago, GodsBeloved said:

Regarding Miguel wanting to do Pilgrim Rick for the grandkids. I'm not seeing that, not in the it was all about the grandkids sense. Unless we find out the kids requested that he do it, I think it was mostly if not all about Miguel. He wanted to do it for his sake, not the kids'. They seemed perfectly happy with their uncle entertaining them and that should have been enough for Miguel if it was all about the kids.

I agree.  The way it was presented to us, it seemed to be all about Miguel.  Who knows, maybe a line of dialogue was cut that made it about the kids, but I doubt it.  And, really, who do you think the kids would rather have do a ridiculous performance just for them?  Their Uncle, who they have been expecting to do it, who was the "Manny" and is an actor of at least some ability, or their step-grandfather, who has never done this ridiculous charade and we don't really know why he wants to do it.

Also, I think the girls are old enough to know that their Dad and Uncle do this thing because THEIR dad did it, and like every other (delightfully) quirky thing about their Thanksgiving, is a tradition loaded with a lot of emotion.  I think even they would think Miguel suddenly playing Pilgrim Rick would be strange, to say the least.

[saber5055]

And on a completely different topic, did anyone else think it strange the isolated gas station was open on Thanksgiving as was Pilgrim Rick's creepy motel, both 3.4 miles away from anywhere? It all had a Bate's Motel vibe to me. Plus not a single car passed them on their more-than-one-hour walk? Back in those days, it was pretty safe to hitch a ride with strangers. Trust me, I did it many times after a car breakdown.

If you guys would pull out the old box sets using antenna tv and put those HDTVs away, you wouldn't notice any of those wigs or makeup. I'm lucky I can even identify individual characters on my ancient set. I have no complaints about anyone's makeup or hair!

[OtterMommy]

23 minutes ago, saber5055 said:

And on a completely different topic, did anyone else think it strange the isolated gas station was open on Thanksgiving as was Pilgrim Rick's creepy motel, both 3.4 miles away from anywhere? It all had a Bate's Motel vibe to me. Plus not a single car passed them on their more-than-one-hour walk? Back in those days, it was pretty safe to hitch a ride with strangers. Trust me, I did it many times after a car breakdown.

If you guys would pull out the old box sets using antenna tv and put those HDTVs away, you wouldn't notice any of those wigs or makeup. I'm lucky I can even identify individual characters on my ancient set. I have no complaints about anyone's makeup or hair!

Yep, totally the setting for a horror movie...and haven't I seen Pilgrim Rick in horror movies?

It was totally a plot contrivance, but the rest of the show (other than Toby and Miguel) worked for me, so I'll over look it.  I'll probably also do the hotdogs with cheese and saltines next year.....

[Crs97]

2 hours ago, OtterMommy said:

I'll probably also do the hotdogs with cheese and saltines next year.....

But that is Jack's tradition!!  How dare you think you can just step in like that.  Know your place!  (Finding my inner Kevin) :-)

[SlackerInc]

4 hours ago, luna1122 said:

His aging makeup IS bad, but at least he looks older. I might have a lousy TV but Rebecca/Mandy's face does not, on mine, even appear particularly aged. There should be SOME lining, some sagging, some slackness. If it's there, I'm missing it. She does not, to me, look like a very well preserved 66 year old. She looks like a 30something in a boring wig.

I thought her neck had some wattles and whatnot going on.

I don't mind, nor particularly like, Miguel.  He's just kinda there.

[izabella]

2 hours ago, saber5055 said:

And on a completely different topic, did anyone else think it strange the isolated gas station was open on Thanksgiving as was Pilgrim Rick's creepy motel, both 3.4 miles away from anywhere? It all had a Bate's Motel vibe to me.

Hell yes, deserted, poorly lit, creepy, and then freaking Pilgrim Rick!  And Jack left them in the motel room to go wandering around by himself in the dark!   It's like every slasher movie cliche rolled into one, except no one died. 

[JudyObscure]

10 hours ago, SlackerInc said:

That must have been quite a long time ago, since violent crime is less than half of what it was 25 years ago, and it's been fifty years since it was significantly lower than it is now. 

Well this  conversation started based on Rebecca and Miguel popping in on Randall and, if they are in their sixties, then, yes,they grew up about 50 years ago, when according to your link violent crime was less than half what it is now.

[ShadowFacts]

2 hours ago, izabella said:

Hell yes, deserted, poorly lit, creepy, and then freaking Pilgrim Rick!  And Jack left them in the motel room to go wandering around by himself in the dark!   It's like every slasher movie cliche rolled into one, except no one died. 

Sad to say, I have actually been in motels like the Pinewood Lodge, and they smell really bad - some combination of wood and mildew and who knows what else. 

[Tiger]

Mandy's wig is pretty bad, but it's miles better than the wigs that Once Upon a Time makes poor Ginny Goodwin and Bobby Carlyle wear.

Edited November 29, 2016 by Tiger

[sasha206]

On 11/22/2016 at 10:20 PM, DearEvette said:

I guess Olivia's overriding personality trait is utter rudeness?  "You're the adopted one."  To Randall, um... really? And then "How does it feel to die." To Wiliam.  Seriously.  Who says that to a stranger?  She was uniformly terrible.

I hate her character.  And het magical breakthrough scene to make her run to kiss Kevin.  Also the scene on the plane when het bitchy passenger suddenly blurts out her life in 5 seconds.  Too pat.

And Randall driving 2 hours for the Thankgiving tradition to set up the discovery of the note also seemed to defy credulity.  Nevertheless, the acting in that final scene was superb.

Edited November 29, 2016 by sasha206

[sasha206]

On 11/23/2016 at 8:18 AM, DrSpaceman73 said:

I am wondering if the mention of his mom not recalling the name of his play is just evidence of the distance between the two of the them or is a hint that she could have a medical problem, like the beginnings of dementia. 

 

 

I thought the same thing -- that Rebecca is likely going to end up with dementia.  That just didn't feel like a throwaway line.

[sasha206]

On 11/24/2016 at 7:49 AM, JudyObscure said:

 

Randall had a two hour drive home to think of some of these possibilities, Beth had even longer, and Rebecca probably hadn't answered her calls because she wanted to talk to Randall in person.  Confronting Rebecca in that prosecutorial manner in front of everyone and  not giving her a chance to answer,  was like him telling her and Miguel "Thank you for not calling first."  Not how you treat your mother who has cherished and adored you all your life. 

But this is a woman who he now knows has been lying to him his entire life and now his only chance to know his father is shorly before he dies.  His mother may have cherised and adored him, but it doesn't change the fact that she knowingly and willfully lied to him his entire life and denied him a relationship wih his biological dad.  

Edited November 29, 2016 by sasha206

[sasha206]

On 11/25/2016 at 0:40 PM, jeansheridan said:

Kate doesn't seem enchanted by her mother.  I can't point to a specific example, but when she was telling Toby all about her football traditions, it was all about dad. And I think she does say she doesn't talk to her mother much.  

I suspect she always felt like she was an embarrassment to Rebecca for her weight.  Remember when Jack was okay wih Kate wearing a 2 piece at the pool and Rebecca was against it?  She played it off as though she knew the kids would make fun of her but she seemed to also have some embarrassment about her as well.  

And Kate made it sound like she resented how beauiful her mother was.  

[sasha206]

10 hours ago, izabella said:

I am not anti-Miguel, party of one!  We have not seen him do anything terrible, certainly not to this family.  And if he is terrible?  Rebecca married him, so what does that say about her?  That's what I don't get about the hostility we've seen from Kevin and a bit from Randall - they love Rebecca but are anti-Miguel, so either they have a double standard (we can hate horrible Miguel but aren't anti-mom even though she married horrible Miguel), or maybe Miguel is not really so bad.  Makes me think they just would be upset about anyone marrying their mom after Jack died.

 

My theory is as Jack becomes a big drinker, Rebecca strays from the marriage.  But she doesn't stray into the arms of Miguel, but with one of her bandmates.  i suspect the kids are aware that their mom is fooling around and think it must've been Miguel she cheated with because now she's married to him.  That's my far fetched guess.

I think they all have somewhat strained relationships with the mom because they think she's the cheater and the cause of Jack's demise.

Edited November 29, 2016 by sasha206

[Dreamboat Annie]

I truly hope Jack does not become a drinker.  Initially I watched for Milo, and now I watch for Jack, my favorite character.  He is the best character on there and, since there is no hope of Present Jack interacting with all Present Characters, I can't say if I can continue to care about any of these people.  I like Kevin though.  I'm on the fence about Randall.  He is a parent, and knows that the most difficult thing about parenting is making decisions for other people.  Since there are no perfect parents or perfect children and this is not a perfect world, people are going to make mistakes.  But most parents do the best they can.  Heck, for all Randall knows, it may have been William's own decision back then to not meet Randall, given his recovery was too rocky at the time to meet his young child.  Granted, Rebecca could have told him in his adulthood but for the time being, he has reason to trust her.  Throwing that ball of yarn was beyond childish (I thought he was kidding).  Rebecca did favor him and he's acting out not getting what he expected of her by throwing a ball of wool to the floor, in front of an entire table of Thanksgiving.  Not feeling Olivia at all (having trouble feeling all Present Characters knowing Present Jack will never happen, so why should we care about her?) and she needs to adios.  I have a big problem with Miguel's aging makeup too but my biggest problem with Miguel is that he's "Grandpa" and Jack isn't.  Yes, I know we will see lots of Past Jack but I don't think that's good enough for me. 

Edited November 29, 2016 by Dreamboat Annie

[SlackerInc]

3 hours ago, JudyObscure said:

Well this  conversation started based on Rebecca and Miguel popping in on Randall and, if they are in their sixties, then, yes,they grew up about 50 years ago, when according to your link violent crime was less than half what it is now.

Although the murder rate was higher than it is now, and by the time Rebecca was in her early twenties (I'm not sure we can really know what Miguel's age is), so was the overall violent crime rate.  I didn't think people developed "pop in" habits as young children but in adulthood.

2 hours ago, sasha206 said:

I thought the same thing -- that Rebecca is likely going to end up with dementia.  That just didn't feel like a throwaway line.

It wasn't a throwaway line, agreed; but IMO, you are overthinking it.  I think it's supposed to be illustrative of how Rebecca still favors Randall.  Remember, she was still sharp enough to know all these details about Randall's job (his new assistant, wasn't it?).  But I guess we'll see.

[wilnil]

On ‎11‎/‎27‎/‎2016 at 6:47 PM, Empress1 said:

This, too, is shitty. You don't inform your family that you'll be moving in with them. Kevin is grown and can afford to find his own lodging, and he should do just that.

I think SueB's point back here, about Kevin looking for a rapprochement with Randall after their "no you haven't (been a good brother), but you still have time" phone conversation, is the real reason behind him staying there. It's not an issue with finding lodging -- Kevin's kept his hotel suite at least through Episode 7, since after he finds out at their dinner that Randall's never seen his show and stalks off, he tells Randall something like "I'll just move back to my hotel" ... and Randall protests then.

[wilnil]

1 minute ago, SlackerInc said:

Although the murder rate was higher than it is now, and by the time Rebecca was in her early twenties (I'm not sure we can really know what Miguel's age is), so was the overall violent crime rate.  I didn't think people developed "pop in" habits as young children but in adulthood.

The comment earlier about hitchhiking being safer "back in those days" (1988) made me smile a bit. I grew up a decade earlier, and in high school health class, we had to watch a film illustrating the dangers of hitching. And my mother has said it was considered dangerous when she was growing up as well.

I think that, no matter what the actual crime rates are, we naturally think of it being lower in our younger days than later on (partly, I think, because it gets easier and easier to hear about and see terrible things happening in far-flung places -- that capability has been increasing steadily over the years, even if local crime rates haven't.)

[breezy424]

Oh, let's face it.  The whole driving down some back road and breaking down was a contrived story to initiate the Thanksgiving 'story' and tradition.  Where in CT do Rebecca's parents live that they went 'that' way?  I get the 'idea' of the whole thing and the traditions that follow but the set up made me roll my eyes a bit.

[bros402]

12 hours ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

I wondered if they'd done anything aging wise to Moore besides the wig so I looked more closely and she did seem to have some wrinkles drawn on and maybe her neck was made to look saggier?  She looks better than Miguel, though.  But she looks so much like Diane Keaton I feel like they could've just cast Keaton and spared the makeup.  

I was thinking the exact same thing - they made Mandy Moore look so much like Diane Keaton, it was freaky.

[SanDiegoInExile]

14 hours ago, luna1122 said:

I'm not anti-Miguel yet, tho he seemed a little skeevy about his secretary.

I don't think Miguel will be the one boinking the secretary.

[luna1122]

3 hours ago, SanDiegoInExile said:

I don't think Miguel will be the one boinking the secretary.

i really hate the speculation that Jack will cheat with the flirty assistant. I still have a hard time believing Rebecca would be wearing the necklace he gave her if he'd cheated on her. But, of course, some people are more forgiving than me. Also, I suppose she might not know, if it happened. Anyway, I hope not.

[NutMeg]

12 hours ago, ShadowFacts said:

Sad to say, I have actually been in motels like the Pinewood Lodge, and they smell really bad - some combination of wood and mildew and who knows what else. 

Oh, me too! I remember when I was on a road trip with a boyfriend and we were intrigued by the name Truth or Consequences on the map, so decided to stop there for the night. Huge mistake. Only one motel in town, scary receptionist, and in the room the air con was blowing sand - I kid you not. Getting a breakfast in town the next morning proved difficult too, only Mc Donald's was open and their breakfast was disgusting. I was starving but still left most of it untouched, it was shiny with oil :) That was a while back tough so hopefully since then this charmingly named town has become much more tourist friendly :)

My next horror hotel story was in Osaka, near the airport. My flight was very early in the morning so I booked a hotel near the airport. Again, huge mistake. Only place to have dinner (my inbound flight was late) was a horrible western diner type, first type I had really bad food in Japan. The hotel was in the middle of some weird parking/industrial area, with no reception in the building I stayed on and two doors anyone could get in. And there was a huge gap under the door. I didn't sleep at all, kept expecting a random psycho to burst in. And the room was so scarily bad, decrepit and clearly never touched for 20+ years that in retrospect it's become quite a fun memory. (The weirdest thing is that that hotel room was super expensive, more so than the huge room I had had in a very nice Kyoto hotel just the previous month).

[Sorry for this off topic post, we should have a thread to chat about random things loosely inspired by the show]

[Jax7917]

what i like about this show is the realism of it. It's not overly dramatic where something happens every 2 seconds in order to entertain us. It is just a story of a family doing real things and having real kinds of drama... however

Olivia's personality is not realistic. I find her veerrrrry annoying and have no idea what kevin likes about her. Even if she has a lot of family issues, who acts like that? No one.

and kate's storyline about being fat is overkill. I'm sorry. There has got to be something else going on in her life besides her weight. 

[sasha206]

11 hours ago, SlackerInc said:

 

It wasn't a throwaway line, agreed; but IMO, you are overthinking it.  I think it's supposed to be illustrative of how Rebecca still favors Randall.  Remember, she was still sharp enough to know all these details about Randall's job (his new assistant, wasn't it?).  But I guess we'll see.

This is a very good point and one I forgot about!  Maybe I'm in the early stages of dementia.  :)

[OtterMommy]

8 hours ago, bros402 said:

I was thinking the exact same thing - they made Mandy Moore look so much like Diane Keaton, it was freaky.

That might not have been intentional.  I knew someone who was a make up artist and had done some theatrical work and she said, when aging someone, who have to work with what is there.  The fact is that Diane Keaton and Mandy Moore do look somewhat (but not overly) similar.  Didn't Diane Keaton play Mandy Moore's mother in a movie a while ago?

Now, that being said, I would think that if someone had taken a look at an aged Mandy Moore and thought she looked like Diane Keaton, they would have done something like change her wig so it wasn't quite so obvious.

[Dowel Jones]

15 hours ago, sasha206 said:

Randall had a two hour drive home to think of some of these possibilities

I thought it was a 2 hour round trip, as he said he would be back by the end of the movie.

[Chaos Theory]

13 hours ago, breezy424 said:

Oh, let's face it.  The whole driving down some back road and breaking down was a contrived story to initiate the Thanksgiving 'story' and tradition.  Where in CT do Rebecca's parents live that they went 'that' way?  I get the 'idea' of the whole thing and the traditions that follow but the set up made me roll my eyes a bit.

You don't have someone in your family who is a "wheezler?"  My father takes back roads all the time.   Yes the breaking down was a bit contrived but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen.  Happened to my family once on a back road while my father was taking one of his short cuts and we were in a foreign country at the time.   These fun crazy family stories happen.  It's what makes fun family stories.

[SlackerInc]

Yes, it was.  And it makes sense that it would take significantly longer on the bus vs. Randall's fancy car he paid cash for.

it makes total sense to me to go get a dying father's tapes if you would just be spending that time watching a silly movie.

[OtterMommy]

36 minutes ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

Didn't William call it a 3 hour trip to feed the cat?  That would make sense, sort of, if they're going from northern NJ to Philly and back.  Not on a city bus, but shows often play fast and loose with geography.  (On Hannibal, the people teleported between states like it was across the street.)  Maybe William's was 3 hours each way.  

I did balk at Randall being able to do all that on Thanksgiving.  I certainly don't have a spare 3 hours before dinner when I host that day, and I'd never leave a houseful of guests, even family, for a long-ass errand, either.  Did they even say just why William needed his tapes that day as opposed to say the next?  Was it his T'giving tradition?  

Well, it is possible that it was 3 hours for William but significantly shorter for Randall.  William had to take the bus to and fro, which takes far more time than driving yourself (depending on traffic).

Yeah, I called foul on Randall's T-day productiveness...but I'll admit that may have been due to jealousy on my part after having recently spent 3 days cooking.