S01.E11: The Right Thing to Do

[smartymarty]

Quote

My first thought when Jack slipped his wedding ring back outside his dad's house was, does his dad even know he's married, or was he trying to imply that they were separated because of the the gambling habit?  It seemed like a strange thing to do.

Jack was playing his father. Pretended to be a single man without love and with a gambling problem that makes him have to crawl back to daddy for money. He doesn't actually have a gambling habit.

Those of us from the 1970s and 1980s asked for a "gallon of ice cream" as opposed to an ice cream cone or dish. It didn't really come in smaller sizes (Ben & Jerry's had just started, and Haagen Daz wasn't widely available). So it meant "go to the grocery store for a box of ice cream so that I can have some now and more later."

Also hating on all the men making big decisions on their own, and Toby's grand gestures.

Edited January 12, 2017 by smartymarty

[topanga]

17 minutes ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

I was scratching my head at "It's the right thing to do, sometimes you do that instead of what you want", but then figured it was Kevin's way of trying to teach Olivia a lesson about how you treat people, or else let her down easy?  As in, "you're clearly hotter (not that I agree) but I can't go back to you because you wronged us all, but I would've wanted to if you had behaved better." 

That was quite a douchy thing to say, but I wonder if that's what Kevin intended to say. Just a few minutes before that, he sounded sincere when he told Sloan that he liked her. 

I get the impression that Olivia intimidates Kevin, and maybe he felt pressure to make Olivia feel like she was his number one choice, even as he was telling her they couldn't be together. Or maybe it was just his passive-aggressive way of doing things. Instead of just telling Olivia to "Get to steppin!", he had to say, "Well, you know I like you best, but I have to stay with Sloan, even though I really don't really want to."

[ohjoy]

1 hour ago, Dowel Jones said:

 And you have only six months to finish the remodel, working on your own free time?

It occurs that that is very much how Beth described Randall to William when she was explaining that Randall's vice was his goodness. She got pregnant while he was trying to make partner at his firm, so they got a fixer-upper of a house, he did the work to make partner, and then all the work himself to fix the house up so it wouldn't cost extra money and she wouldn't have to lift a finger while she was pregnant. Seems like of the three of them, Randall took after Jack the most.

 

32 minutes ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

I was scratching my head at "It's the right thing to do, sometimes you do that instead of what you want", but then figured it was Kevin's way of trying to teach Olivia a lesson about how you treat people, or else let her down easy?  As in, "you're clearly hotter (not that I agree) but I can't go back to you because you wronged us all, but I would've wanted to if you had behaved better."

Yup --

12 minutes ago, topanga said:

That was quite a douchy thing to say, but I wonder if that's what Kevin intended to say. Just a few minutes before that, he sounded sincere when he told Sloan that he liked her. 

I get the impression that Olivia intimidates Kevin, and maybe he felt pressure to make Olivia feel like she was his number one choice, even as he was telling her they couldn't be together. Or maybe it was just his passive-aggressive way of doing things. Instead of just telling Olivia to "Get to steppin!", he had to say, "Well, you know I like you best, but I have to stay with Sloan, even though I really don't really want to."

-- and yup.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, smartymarty said:

Those of us from the 1970s and 1980s asked for a "gallon of ice cream" as opposed to an ice cream cone or dish. It didn't really come in smaller sizes (Ben & Jerry's had just started, and Haagen Daz wasn't widely available). So it meant "go to the grocery store for a box of ice cream so that I can have some now and more later."

Not those of us who understand that that box is a half gallon.  A gallon is 2x the normal 1980 package and nearly 3x times today's because ice cream is now typically sold in 1.5 quart packages.  

[Clanstarling]

7 hours ago, ClareWalks said:

Yeah, you must have just been in a super expensive area. You can get a one-bedroom in Milwaukee or Madison next to a college campus for less than that *today.* It is kind of amazing to me how much farther money can go in different parts of the country, or in different eras. $200 a month, I was like "daaaamn!"

Rents and salaries are one of those things that vary wildly depending on where you are. 10 years ago we moved from urban California, where we lived in a moderate to low end neighborhood, and my salary was just a little above barely making it, to another place where we could buy a house outright and my CA salary was equal to what doctors and the higher mucky-mucks in industry and government were making.

That being said, in 1980 in the Bay Area we were paying $215 a month for an apartment. So the equivalent in a big city in the east doesn't sound unreasonable to me. My salary at the time was 16,000 - doing white collar work with a master's degree.

Edited January 12, 2017 by Clanstarling

[ShadowFacts]

4 hours ago, topanga said:

You have a checkbook register from 1984? I'm impressed. Or should I be worried about you?  

Don't be impressed, but maybe don't worry . . . yet.  I'm cleaning out the "archives" so I don't end up on Hoarders.  But actually, it was a single register by itself, I don't have them all going that far back.  It was kind of fun to find because my memory is not great for details of 30 years ago and I could see how much I paid for rent, cable, car insurance, etc. 

[OtterMommy]

One more (for now) thought about this episode.

There has been something that has been worrying me about this show.  It seemed like every.single.episode. had some sort of twist or bombshell or whatnot.  While that's all entertaining and good, there is no way a show can sustain that over the long run.  So, either the show had to get more and more GROUNDBREAKING with their twists and bombshells, or they had to pull things back a bit.  This was the first episode without those and, while not perfect, it still worked.  I don't know if we are starting with the episodes that came after the initial order or not, but I hope that they twists/bombshells become the exception instead of the rule.

[biakbiak]

10 hours ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

Really, gallons?  I've never had a gallon of ice cream in the house, unless I was having say two dozen people for a birthday party.  

Yep, gallons and I most definitely know the difference between that and a half gallon.

[ClareWalks]

We used to buy a gallon of ice cream all the time, we had 5 people in the household and a gallon of generic vanilla was cheap. It typically lasted the week until Mom went back to the store. It was definitely not just for birthday parties in my house, but then we might have just been pigs for ice cream ;)

[Dowel Jones]

4 hours ago, smartymarty said:

He doesn't actually have a gambling habit.

I realized that, but I was taken aback by the fact that Jack had apparently never told his father he was getting married.  That's some serious familial separation there.

[Kira53]

22 hours ago, mansonlamps said:

I know.  While I don't find Kevin moronic, the fighting over him as the "prize" is insulting and, I assume, written by a male who assumes that women with careers and lives and great qualities of their own are mesmerized by Kevin who is clearly not invested in either one.

I don't find Kevin moronic either.  I find him really handsome, very buff, and at times sweet which is almost everyone "type".  And he was the "Manny".  I don't see a conflict in having a great career wanting to be with the Kevin.  People are attracted to great looking people.  That's how Olivia can be such a bitch and still get lots of guys.

[Randomosity]

On 1/10/2017 at 11:08 PM, againstthewind said:

I noticed how they didn't show the third baby when Rebecca was imagining the future. Nice touch.

 

On 1/10/2017 at 11:12 PM, Lady Calypso said:

I appreciate that they deliberately kept the third triplet out of the dream sequence with Rebecca, although it actually would have been more powerful to show him.

I really wish they had showed three. Why would she not be imagining three at that point?

 

On 1/11/2017 at 7:05 PM, Calamity Jane said:

The sad part was that I felt just as overweight at 125 as I did at 185. 

Glad I'm not the only one. I've felt massive since middle school, even though I was proportionately smaller then through high school than I am now. Even now, when my weight fluctuates, I don't feel, or even feel like I look, any different or thinner when actually thinner, even though rationally I know I do.

 

22 hours ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

My tiny nitpick- a gallon of ice cream?  Half gallons were much more common, and that ice cream shop probably would've sold quarts at the largest.  Even with today's portion inflation, a gallon is a shitload of ice cream.  It's that giant plastic bucket of cheap vanilla with a handle you see at Walmart.  (And honestly, pregnant women don't all crave ice cream and walk around rubbing their bellies even in the first trimester.)

 

10 hours ago, Mrs. DuRona said:

Regarding "a gallon of ice cream".  I say that all the time when I'm super stressed out.  She may not have meant it literally, but more of "I am super stressed and I need ice cream and space".  Also, I lived in Pittsburgh in the early 2000s, and there was not a Friendly's west of Danville, PA.  Were there Friendly's in Pgh in the 80s?  Growing up in New England, it was sad not having Friendly's.  Eat n Park was a nice substitute, though...

Nice to see Elizabeth Perkins!

Since everyone else has commented on the ice cream... My thought was that she was actually so specific about gallon because it implied to Jack that he had to go to a specific place to get a gallon rather than something smaller. A specific place that was farther away and would give her more time on her own to have a meltdown. Maybe the corner store 30 seconds away had quarts or half gallons of chocolate, but only the giant supermarket/Friendly's ten minutes across town would have a gallon of mint chocolate chip (a relatively new flavor at the time).

And Friendly's! I did love seeing that, especially given that many have closed in recent years, but I also wondered about how far west they had reached. However, I'm a dork and looked it up on the company's website. They built a manufacturing plant in Ohio in 1974, so it's entirely conceivable that they'd have had Pittsburgh-area locations, especially since the company was growing/flourishing at the time. So yeah, I'm not surprised there was not any there for you by the 2000s - they're sparse even in upstate NY and Massachusetts now, but I'm satisfied that it made sense for back then! :D

I was also glad to see Elizabeth Perkins. Always been a fan.

Edited January 13, 2017 by Randomosity

[OtterMommy]

9 minutes ago, Randomosity said:

 

I really wish they had showed three. Why would she not be imagining three at that point?

In one of her imaginings (the bathroom one), there was a reference to an off-screen third child--as in we saw 2 kids, but there was clearly a 3rd just inside the doorway where Rebecca couldn't see him.

[chocolatine]

3 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

That being said, in 1980 in the Bay Area we were paying $215 a month for an apartment. So the equivalent in a big city in the east doesn't sound unreasonable to me. My salary at the time was 16,000 - doing white collar work with a master's degree.

That's really interesting. If we take the numbers that have been mentioned on the show at face value - Jack's salary at $17,000 post-raise and the the 2-bedroom walkup at $200 a month - it sounds like in 1980 salaries were higher in Pittsburgh than in the SF Bay Area and real estate prices were similar? Because these days Bay Area real estate is 6-7x more expensive than Pittsburgh real estate.

Edited January 13, 2017 by chocolatine

[Lady Calypso]

2 hours ago, OtterMommy said:

One more (for now) thought about this episode.

There has been something that has been worrying me about this show.  It seemed like every.single.episode. had some sort of twist or bombshell or whatnot.  While that's all entertaining and good, there is no way a show can sustain that over the long run.  So, either the show had to get more and more GROUNDBREAKING with their twists and bombshells, or they had to pull things back a bit.  This was the first episode without those and, while not perfect, it still worked.  I don't know if we are starting with the episodes that came after the initial order or not, but I hope that they twists/bombshells become the exception instead of the rule.

Well, I don't know if I would say that this episode had no twist or bombshell. I think that we were supposed to be surprised that the house that Jack was working on would be the house that the family would end up living in. 

[Texasmom1970]

I have nothing to add that has not already been covered. Just came to say I love this show, so glad it's back.

[OtterMommy]

21 minutes ago, Lady Calypso said:

Well, I don't know if I would say that this episode had no twist or bombshell. I think that we were supposed to be surprised that the house that Jack was working on would be the house that the family would end up living in. 

Personally, I wouldn't call that a bombshell along the lines of what happened in the first episode, Toby collapsing, Beth finding out that Rebecca knew about William, Randall confronting Rebecca and then putting space between the two of them.  I also didn't really care about this week's Jack/Rebecca story line, so that may be part of it.

[Kira53]

26 minutes ago, Lady Calypso said:

Well, I don't know if I would say that this episode had no twist or bombshell. I think that we were supposed to be surprised that the house that Jack was working on would be the house that the family would end up living in. 

My "bombshell"/reveal was that Jack's father was alive and that his father had no idea that he had married 8 or so years.  Certainly I was surprised that he pretended to be a debt ridden gambler and his father had no idea that he was a successful chief foreman.  I was also surprised that he was at the house not Friendly's.  

How about surprise that Toby was alive and then that he need an operation?  That was unexpected, at least to me.  I was pretty sure he was dead and that Kate would start a new life in NY following Bariatric surgery.

Finally, SHOCKED at Olivia's crazy wig.  Not sure why they did that.  Anyone have any idea why they would choose that?  The uneven cut......?

[chocolatine]

3 minutes ago, Kira53 said:

Finally, SHOCKED at Olivia's crazy wig.  Not sure why they did that.  Anyone have any idea why they would choose that?  The uneven cut......?

She mentioned doing ayahuasca with a shaman in Utah salt flats; I figured she cut her own hair while she was still high.

[izabella]

5 minutes ago, Kira53 said:

Finally, SHOCKED at Olivia's crazy wig.  Not sure why they did that.  Anyone have any idea why they would choose that?  The uneven cut......?

That wig was really bizarre.  I thought it must be her trying to sell the turning over a new leaf thing.  But it just reminded me of Julia Roberts' hooker wig in Pretty Woman, so whatever the wig was for, it was lost on me.

[SueB]

7 hours ago, Driad said:

If they lived in the sixth floor walkup, they wouldn't need to take the babies outside just for fresh air (if there was fresh air in Pittsburgh then).  Jack could build baby cages outside the windows.  Or maybe not.

 

Mind. Blown. 

[Big Mother]

Forgive me for not reading all six pages - I am up to page 3 and have a lot to do tonight so I just wanted to throw out this question. If it has been answered already, I apologize. Am I the only one who found it surprising that the nurse injected a big old dose of something-or-other without telling Toby what it was, and when he asked her what was in that, she said, "Just medicine, don't worry about it?" That is so not 2016 medical ethics. I was very confused about that.

5 minutes ago, SueB said:

Mind. Blown. 

Actually, most apartments need to have safety gates on the windows, and many of those gates are built a little widely so that children can sit on them - my own apartment has them too.

[memememe76]

Regarding the Jack buying the house discussion, it reminds me of the HGTV show, Property Virgins. After viewing a bunch of homes, the Virgin would select a house, make an offer, and wait to see if it was accepted. If accepted,  the Virgin and the Realtor Host would celebrate. The Virgin bought a house! But they hadn't yet become the registered owners. Things like the mortgage, etc need to be completed. 

As for the Caesar Salad discussion, count me as one who orders with dressing on the side and am not ashamed of it. I don't ever order salads as the main course,  but as a side dish. I have the dressing on the side. I actually hate Ceasars dressing, but I like lettuce, cheese, bacon and LOVE croutons. A house salad is different for every restaurant and it can have things I don't like, such as cranberries. UGH,  I hate cranberries. I would rather not have any dressing (except honey mustard) but I don't want the look from the waitstaff and the other patrons. I guess I was right.

[mansonlamps]

9 minutes ago, SueB said:

Mind. Blown. 

The link didn't work for me, but if it's what I'm thinking it's from more like 1920.

[SueB]

It's like actual CAGES.  I'm having Chitty Chitty Bang Bang trauma over here. 

[Emily Thrace]

On 2017-01-11 at 1:34 PM, deaja said:

I hate that William's boyfriend is named "Jesse" for the simple reason I keep reading it "Jess" and thinking people mean "Jack."  Too much time on the Gilmore Girls forum, I suppose. :)

Its also actually kind of wrong based on the actors age and accent. Jesse wasn't used as a boys name in the UK until very recently and even then it was primarily a southern English thing its really not likely to belong to someone with Jessie accent.

[Clanstarling]

1 hour ago, chocolatine said:

That's really interesting. If we take the numbers that have been mentioned on the show at face value - Jack's salary at $17,000 post-raise and the the 2-bedroom walkup at $200 a month - it sounds like in 1980 salaries were higher in Pittsburgh than in the SF Bay Area and real estate prices were similar? Because these days Bay Area real estate is 6-7x more expensive than Pittsburgh real estate.

Even in the Bay Area (then as now) the prices and salaries varied considerably. My ex got almost twice that a year later when he graduated (engineering degree).

[OtterMommy]

24 minutes ago, Big Mother said:

Forgive me for not reading all six pages - I am up to page 3 and have a lot to do tonight so I just wanted to throw out this question. If it has been answered already, I apologize. Am I the only one who found it surprising that the nurse injected a big old dose of something-or-other without telling Toby what it was, and when he asked her what was in that, she said, "Just medicine, don't worry about it?" That is so not 2016 medical ethics. I was very confused about that.

I was a little surprised that the nurse brushed Toby's question off.  When I had surgery a few years ago, I was told it was it was "calm down juice," which I'm pretty sure is not the real name of it.

But, maybe she had just *had it* with Toby.  I could see that, too.

19 minutes ago, memememe76 said:

As for the Caesar Salad discussion, count me as one who orders with dressing on the side and am not ashamed of it. I don't ever order salads as the main course,  but as a side dish. I have the dressing on the side. I actually hate Ceasars dressing, but I like lettuce, cheese, bacon and LOVE croutons. A house salad is different for every restaurant and it can have things I don't like, such as cranberries. UGH,  I hate cranberries. I would rather not have any dressing (except honey mustard) but I don't want the look from the waitstaff and the other patrons. I guess I was right.

I don't think there is anything wrong with Caesar Salad with the dressing on the side, but without the dressing at all is, well, lettuce and croutons (not that there is anything wrong with that--but I'm guessing ordering a plate of lettuce is a hell of a lot cheaper than a caesar salad).

Edited January 13, 2017 by OtterMommy

[kat165]

"So, Kevin and Randall can be there for Kate at the hospital but not Rebecca??"
Arcadiasw, maybe Kate didn't want her there/didn't ask her to come. If their relationship
is strained, which it seems to be, maybe they ask each other before doing something.
When Kate went to the stomach stapler consult she might have asked Rebecca to go
with her rather than Rebecca assuming she should go with her.

So often it seems as if this show is written by unmarried men.

If I was CocaCola I wouldn't pay for that kind of advertising. "Assholes like Rebecca's
mom drink our cola."

Maybe Kevin has a difficult time of communicating and says the wrong things and is taken
the wrong way. I don't think he said what he said intentionally. Even if he thought about
it before saying maybe he didn't see the flaw. He seems to do this a lot and only seems
to catch on when he gets a poor reaction from others.

Kira, I think they chose that wig for Olivia to show that she is bonkers.

[chocolatine]

7 minutes ago, kat165 said:

If I was CocaCola I wouldn't pay for that kind of advertising. "Assholes like Rebecca's
mom drink our cola."

Rebecca's mom wasn't drinking Coke. She ordered her dressing- and anchovy-free caesar salad and a glass of wine, and said Rebecca would be having the same. Rebecca said she'd have Coke instead of wine since she's pregnant, and her mom asked the server to make it diet.

[kili]

Quote

"So, Kevin and Randall can be there for Kate at the hospital but not Rebecca??"

Maybe Miguel had gout again. 

[DebbieM4]

10 hours ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

Not those of us who understand that that box is a half gallon.  A gallon is 2x the normal 1980 package and nearly 3x times today's because ice cream is now typically sold in 1.5 quart packages.  

I don't remember ever even specifying how large of a container of ice cream I was talking about.  I know that I would say something like, "While you're out, could you please get ice cream?"  The only variable that I can recall was flavor.   Ice cream came in that 1/2 gallon box, as you said, and I think it was unusual for people to buy other sizes.  Maybe a couple of gallons in two different flavors for a birthday party or something.  But ice cream in my freezer was almost always that box, which seemed to be pretty much standard size.

(I kind of hate this is such a big topic here.  Not blaming anyone because I'm contributing too.  But it would have been nice if the latest episode had given us more to talk about.  It was a letdown after the super-climactic cliffhanger.)

[SlackerInc]

50-60 percent of the way through this episode, I was ready to bail on this show.  Here's what I wrote down during a commercial break around that point:

The return of Olivia was handled so clumsily. I previously had gone against the general grain here in enjoying the chemistry between her and Kevin. But that scene was so OTT. What happened to subtlety? Didn't there use to be some of that on this show? Or did my standards get recalibrated over the Christmas break due to watching several episodes of great cable shows (Rectify, Better Call Saul, and Atlanta)?

But then I was really moved by the scene with Randall and his dad.  And Jack going to his dad for money, pretending to be a ne'erdowell with a gambling debt...that was some clever writing, something we haven't really seen before, and well acted.  And the closing scene, as is so often true with this show, got me all swept up again.  FIIIINE, This is Us: you've still got me for at least one more week!

On 1/10/2017 at 10:04 PM, Scarlett45 said:

The flashback scenes were far stronger than the current day scenes.

This is kind of halfway congruent with my take: I hated the return of Olivia (present day) and loved the final scene (flashback).  But I also really liked Randall and his dad, and Jack and his dad; and some of the flashbacks earlier in the episode were meh.

On 1/11/2017 at 2:00 AM, DebbieM4 said:

It seemed to me that he thought it was his only option.  A last resort he would rather have not resorted to, but the only solution that he had.  I got the impression that he would have been very happy to never see his father again, but he did what he felt he had to do.   I'm sure he would far prefer to not have done that.

And I can't fault him for "failing to prepare financially for starting a family".  He & Rebecca certainly are not the first couple to have been blindsided by triplets.  One baby is expensive, but often manageable for young couples.  Three babies is an entirely different story.

Agree with you on both points.  And particularly on the latter: as people have probably divined from my rantings on the social issues thread, I really hate this idea that people should only have kids if they have "prepared financially" to the satisfaction of whoever's doing the judging.  Reproduction is right there with eating, sleeping, and shelter: a human right.  Poor people have that right just as much as anyone else.  (Not to mention that, as some other people have pointed out, Jack's salary of $17K in 1979 (which is $57K in today's dollars, more than my family's income--and I have four kids) really wasn't bad: at that time, according to the Census Bureau, 72 percent of households (not individuals) had incomes below $25K.

On 1/11/2017 at 9:09 AM, JudyObscure said:

I thought that was it, exactly.  Jack knew his father was a hateful, bitter old man who would be jealous of his own son if he knew he had a happy marriage and triplets on the way.  He would have sneered and said, "You think you're so much, you think you're better than your old man?  Get lost.."  Instead Jack gave the old man an opportunity to feel superior and be able to say, basically, "I always knew you were as worthless as your mother."  I thought it was good subtle, surprising writing.

Yes, spot on--very well said.  A very good tonic after the writing of the Olivia return was just the opposite.

And I don't see any problem with him scamming the money out of his dad and never paying it back.  Think of it as getting (through sneaky means) reparations for the hell he put Jack and his mom through.

On 1/11/2017 at 9:59 AM, maraleia said:

When Beth said sexual preference during that bathroom scene instead of the correct term sexual orientation it made me want to scream because there's no excuse for this kind of sloppiness when there are online resources out there to get it right. This tells me they have no queer people on their writing staff and that's a problem.

Why would you expect Beth to use "online resources" to "get it right" in a private conversation with her husband in the bathroom?  There were no queer people in that room.

On 1/11/2017 at 3:19 PM, maraleia said:

Thanks for noticing the preference terminology and wondering about it. The thing is there is a way to express what Beth was trying to say to Randall without using terminology that harms the LGB community. Bisexual people fall for the person not the gender which means it's not a preference either. It's how their orientation is wired. That's the problem I have with the way it was presented on the show and how I know they don't have any queer writers on staff.

My problem is that you seem to want Beth (and, presumably all characters on any show unless they are very clearly labelled as villainous) to talk as though the words they say are developed by a committee of politically correct staffers that includes queer writers.  I would prefer that characters on TV dramas sound like real people you might encounter in real life, as imperfect as real people often are even if their hearts are in the right place.

Edited January 13, 2017 by SlackerInc
Added a link

[Crs97]

"Sexual preference" didn't stick out to me, probably because we already had the "Randall's dad turned gay" "no one can turn gay" exchange downstairs.  Kevin always makes me chuckle.  I wondered if he made his "right choice" comment as a way to let Olivia down gently.  Her spiritual awakening sure ended quickly when she didn't get her way.

[Mrs. DuRona]

10 hours ago, Kira53 said:

My "bombshell"/reveal was that Jack's father was alive and that his father had no idea that he had married 8 or so years.

I may have missed this, but where was it stated that they had been married that long?  I always felt like they had only been married about a year or 2 before getting pregnant, hence Rebecca's reluctance to have children at that point in their lives.

[Guest]

51 minutes ago, Crs97 said:

"Sexual preference" didn't stick out to me, probably because we already had the "Randall's dad turned gay" "no one can turn gay" exchange downstairs.  

Not to mention, Kevin's "your dad is half gay" comment.  

4 hours ago, DebbieM4 said:

(I kind of hate this is such a big topic here.  Not blaming anyone because I'm contributing too.  But it would have been nice if the latest episode had given us more to talk about.  It was a letdown after the super-climactic cliffhanger.)

Well, I apologize.  I think half the ice cream posts are mine.  In my defense, I weighed in not at all on last ep's 'Hannukah dinner' prolonged discussion.  Ha.  

I think it's just normal for those of us who come here (to avoid working) to go down weird rabbit holes of discussion in the days between eps.  The ice cream thing is totally NBD.   I for sure would rather hear the characters speak like real people, and it sounds like plenty of people here use the phrase "gallon of ice cream" whether in error, as hyperbole or because they literally buy gallons.  I learned something!  (But I'm pretty sure a Friendly's ice cream shop like Jack drove by didn't sell gallons then or now.  He'd have to pick up 8 pints, I think.  LOL)

Edited January 13, 2017 by Guest

[Eeksquire]

Quote

That's really interesting. If we take the numbers that have been mentioned on the show at face value - Jack's salary at $17,000 post-raise and the the 2-bedroom walkup at $200 a month - it sounds like in 1980 salaries were higher in Pittsburgh than in the SF Bay Area and real estate prices were similar? Because these days Bay Area real estate is 6-7x more expensive than Pittsburgh real estate.

I think that makes sense - the steel industry was still going strong at that point and the tech industry was still in its infancy.  The "Rust Belt" wasn't quite the Rust Belt yet in the late 70's/early 80's.

[Clanstarling]

13 minutes ago, Eeksquire said:

I think that makes sense - the steel industry was still going strong at that point and the tech industry was still in its infancy.  The "Rust Belt" wasn't quite the Rust Belt yet in the late 70's/early 80's.

I agree with the point, though SV was more in its adolescence than infancy.  HP, IBM, Intel, AMD, and Fairchild were heavy hitters in Silicon Valley in the early 60's.

Edited January 13, 2017 by Clanstarling

[Baby Pickles]

Oh Elizabeth Perkins, what have you done to your face? I saw her in person about five years ago and she looked great. Her face really looked janky here.

Do we know anything about Rebecca's dad?

Also, was Jack drunk in the scene when Rebecca asked him to get ice cream? He seemed off to me.

[Guest]

22 minutes ago, Baby Pickles said:

Oh Elizabeth Perkins, what have you done to your face?

When I saw her name in the opening credits, I thought, "Is that the Elizabeth in Big, Showgirls or The Hunger Games?"  I always confuse the names of those three.  Then I thought, "I think Big but we'll see in the show."  Then when it ended I thought, "I never did see her.  I guess it was Rebecca's mom but she didn't look familiar."  Of course, Big was 30 years ago.  I guess I saw her in Weeds more recently but even that was 9 years ago.  

[luna1122]

29 minutes ago, Baby Pickles said:

Oh Elizabeth Perkins, what have you done to your face? I saw her in person about five years ago and she looked great. Her face really looked janky here.

 

I am an Elizabeth Perkins fan, and I've seen her as recently as a couple, three years ago in the short lived (but missed, by me, anyway) sitcom 'how to live with your parents for the rest of your life', where I thought she looked great. But I didn't even realize Rebecca's mom was her. That's just weird.  

[love2lovebadtv]

On 1/11/2017 at 0:48 PM, izabella said:

But what was there in Olivia that would be hard to give up?  She's an asshole. 

I think Kevin thinks Olivia is sexy. He likes Sloane, but she's not sexy to him. It's a bummer because Sloane great and they're great together. And Sloane can't unhear what Kevin said. 

I do get annoyed when shows cast a pretty/attractive woman (like Sloane) and make it seem like she's frumpy and no one has ever found her attractive before. And then tell us that another woman (in this case, Olivia) is the hot/popular one. 

[luna1122]

7 minutes ago, love2lovebadtv said:

I think Kevin thinks Olivia is sexy. He likes Sloane, but she's not sexy to him. It's a bummer because Sloane great and they're great together. And Sloane can't unhear what Kevin said. 

I do get annoyed when shows cast a pretty/attractive woman (like Sloane) and make it seem like she's frumpy and no one has ever found her attractive before. And then tell us that another woman (in this case, Olivia) is the hot/popular one. 

Kevin did say she was sexy tho, in the hot 'librarian' kind of way, and Randall also called her beautiful. Sloane herself did seem shocked that a hot actor guy like Kevin would find her attractive tho, so, yeah, point taken.

[OtterMommy]

43 minutes ago, love2lovebadtv said:

I think Kevin thinks Olivia is sexy. He likes Sloane, but she's not sexy to him. It's a bummer because Sloane great and they're great together. And Sloane can't unhear what Kevin said. 

 

I think it is more that Kevin thinks about each woman with a different part of his anatomy.  Kevin recognizes that Sloane is smart, funny, into him, not BSC, and probably a healthier choice for a relationship.  Olivia, well, you know...  And, sadly, I think Kev is a guy who has a problem distinguishing which organ he should be using for decision making.

[Biggie B]

      On ‎1‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 10:59 AM, maraleia said:

Quote

When Beth said sexual preference during that bathroom scene instead of the correct term sexual orientation it made me want to scream because there's no excuse for this kind of sloppiness when there are online resources out there to get it right. This tells me they have no queer people on their writing staff and that's a problem.

Quote

Why would you expect Beth to use "online resources" to "get it right" in a private conversation with her husband in the bathroom?  There were no queer people in that room.

OP was talking about the script writers using online resources to accurately create Beth's dialogue.

[DearEvette]

19 minutes ago, Biggie B said:

OP was talking about the script writers using online resources to accurately create Beth's dialogue.

That brings up an good point and interesting distinction though.  As liberal and with it as Beth seemingly is, would the character -- or should a character -- always knows the exactly right terminology for whatever it is they are talking about.  I'm not talking about something blatantly bigoted, but just the smaller incremental changes in terminology that take awhile to root in language.  And most especially if those terms aren't part of your normal conversational vocabulary.

Sure, on the one hand the writers could have easily used 'orientation' or another more appropriate word, but in casual conversation 'preference' probably still feels familiar since I think it is what people have been used to using until very recently.   Which is probably why I can give Beth-the-character a pass on that even if it wasn't the writer's intention.

[maraleia]

9 hours ago, SlackerInc said:

Why would you expect Beth to use "online resources" to "get it right" in a private conversation with her husband in the bathroom?  There were no queer people in that room.

My problem is that you seem to want Beth (and, presumably all characters on any show unless they are very clearly labelled as villainous) to talk as though the words they say are developed by a committee of politically correct staffers that includes queer writers.  I would prefer that characters on TV dramas sound like real people you might encounter in real life, as imperfect as real people often are even if their hearts are in the right place.

 

My issue is Beth is written as an educated person who should know better and the writers fell down on their jobs when they wrote that scene. This happens on other shows and makes me stabby.

[DebbieM4]

6 hours ago, Winston9-DT3 said:

Not to mention, Kevin's "your dad is half gay" comment.  

Well, I apologize.  I think half the ice cream posts are mine.  In my defense, I weighed in not at all on last ep's 'Hannukah dinner' prolonged discussion.  Ha.  

I think it's just normal for those of us who come here (to avoid working) to go down weird rabbit holes of discussion in the days between eps.  The ice cream thing is totally NBD.   I for sure would rather hear the characters speak like real people, and it sounds like plenty of people here use the phrase "gallon of ice cream" whether in error, as hyperbole or because they literally buy gallons.  I learned something!  (But I'm pretty sure a Friendly's ice cream shop like Jack drove by didn't sell gallons then or now.  He'd have to pick up 8 pints, I think.  LOL)

 Please don't misunderstand.   My observation was that this episode didn't provide a lot to discuss. I find no fault with posters here, and -  as I said -  I contributed also. Very often  veering off course on forums such as these can provide some interesting and/or humorous discussions.     I found it disappointing that this episode was a letdown after the high drama cliffhanger we had been left with prior.   That was really my point, and I'm sorry if that wasn't clear. 

[Empress1]

On 1/11/2017 at 0:44 PM, Court said:

In the South, they are! Coke is a general term here, interchangeable with the word soda.

Like this:

Me: Do you want a Coke?

Shadow: Yes

Me: What kind?

Shadow: Dr. Pepper

My best friend is from the Atlanta area and this is 100% true. She asks if you want a Coke, you say yes, she asks what kind. She hasn't lived there for quite some time now and her accent has faded, but that stuck.

I HATE the "husband buys house for wife without telling her, isn't that romantic?" thing that shows and movies sometimes do. They did it on The Office too. I would be livid if my hypothetical husband made such a big decision without consulting me; it would likely end the relationship.

Petty moment: Olivia's hair looks like shit. Kevin was a dolt for flat-out saying that Sloane is a consolation prize. (Her name being Sloane is interesting to me because I have a friend with a daughter named Sloane, but her daughter is under five. I associate the name with very young children.)

[chocolatine]

4 minutes ago, Empress1 said:

(Her name being Sloane is interesting to me because I have a friend with a daughter named Sloane, but her daughter is under five. I associate the name with very young children.)

I think this show's Sloane was named after the protagonist's girlfriend in the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The movie came out in 1986 and was hugely popular.