S02.E12: Is Josh Free in Two Weeks?

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

Rebecca realizes she must rely on her friends, which includes her local delivery man Patrick, when she gets overwhelmed by a stressful situation. Rebecca also discovers she has a lot in common with Nathaniel when his father comes to town.

Promo:

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Scene:

[Primetimer]

If you thought Rebecca was nuts in her pursuit of Josh, wait until you see how she does a DIY wedding.

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[sportsgirl]

Seth Green was perfect as Patrick -- his incredulous nice guy bit worked really well to counter-balance Rebecca's freakouts. 

Valencia's gotta flip at some point, right? Her boyfriend of a decade can't commit, but proposes to his new girlfriend after five minutes? And she's OK with using their wedding plans, insert new bride? Even if she's over Josh -- which I believe she does realize that he's not what she wants -- I can't imagine Valencia being that chill entirely (especially since she's also given up yoga).

Dustin & Sasha's DIY wedding was hilariously accurate.

[kieyra]

Is Rachel Bloom really a size six? Isn't that what Paula said about the dress? They're not kidding about the camera distorting people's sizes. Well, and her boobs don't mess around, so I guess that's part of it.

(No shade. I love that we're finally seeing differently-shaped female leads. And I'm no size six. I just figured she might be closer to a "real life" 8 or 10.)

[srpturtle80]

So apparently I'm 5 years old... because i found the potty humor really funny. Mostly Paula's reactions, and especially the first scene in the conference room. 

[kitkat343]

Quote

Is Rachel Bloom really a size six?

This really pissed me off.  There is no way Rachel Bloom is a size 6, which I think is  a really good thing since I like seeing normal sized women on TV.    Years ago, designers realized if they took a size 10 pair of jeans and put a size 6 label in it, women were more likely to purchase it.  Wedding dresses never changed their sizing labels since at higher end salons they are tried on in standard sample sizes and no one discusses sizes until you select a gown and are measured for it.  Bridal gowns run much smaller than street sizes since the sizes weren't realigned like ready to wear clothing you purchase in stores.  A size 6 wedding dress would probably be a size 2 or 4 street size.

https://www.thebudgetfashionista.com/archive/why-wedding-dresses-are-small/

I do really love this show, and all of the interesting characters.

Edited January 28, 2017 by kitkat343

[SomeTameGazelle]

Loved Patrick. What was the song a knock-off of? The Last 5 Years maybe?

It seemed like there was something (Greg) missing at the start of the scene in the sports bar. I enjoyed the scene with Heather, but I realized I expected to see Greg in that setting.

What was Josh's "good-ass" hashtag? I rewound several times but couldn't make it out. 

I appreciated what Paula did for Rebecca but I felt It was just a touch too hard on Naomi. Especially since there was no parallel abuse of Rebecca's neglectful father to balance it out.

Valencia as wedding planner was a nice touch, although even before she couldn't relinquish her binder I thought it would be an even worse disaster for Rebecca to try to manage. A perfect plan and vendor contacts for a fancy wedding is useless with less than two weeks to work in. I liked Josh's jacket perfectly well and would not have prevented him from wearing it.

(edited to remove inappropriate accent aigu introduced by android)

Edited January 28, 2017 by SomeTameGazelle

[possibilities]

I wanted to see what Josh's ideas were that the woman in the gym thought was fantastic. At first, I thought he was indifferent to the wedding and had just checked out, but they seem to be implying that he actually did want to participate, just not in a manic way, and that Rebecca was too guilt-driven to even register that he might have a genuine interest.

I think Valencia is going to be a wedding planner for her post-yoga career.

I think it's extremely creepy that Rebecca and Josh are supposedly going to have the wedding Valencia wanted with Josh, though. I mean, it's bad enough that Rebecca is marrying Josh. Doing in in Valencia's dream format is so far past creepy that I really don't find it credible, even for this show with all its wackiness.

Didn't really enjoy Heather this week.

Thought the songs were fairly uninspired.

I'm worried about the show. This is the second episode in a row that I thought was written fairly thinly. It's just not working for me.

[niklj]

7 minutes ago, possibilities said:

I'm worried about the show. This is the second episode in a row that I thought was written fairly thinly. It's just not working for me.

I wonder if it's because they were written while this show was still on the bubble so they didn't know how much they should develop anything in case they got cancelled?

"Nap Like a Man" was enjoyable. Anything Darryl is enjoyable.

[Chicago Redshirt]

1 hour ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

What was Josh's "good-ass" hashtag? I rewound several times but couldn't make it out. 

#bunchofchans

Speaking of, I wonder if Rebecca is planning to take his name and become Rebecca Chan.

I can't buy that Rebecca had not obsessed over what her picture-perfect wedding in general would have been from when she was a kid, let alone when she and Josh became involved. There would have been no need for her to try to rip of Dustin and Sasha's wedding. 

I'm disappointed that Father Brah didn't urge more caution with the wedding. A scene with Father Brah and the Rabbi played by Patti Lupone would give me life.

I would have thought after falling in love with Josh as a potential son-in-law, Naomi would lay off her old ways. Not so much. 

Hopes for the future:

1. Greg needs to come back. I don't know if it's to try to talk some sense into Josh or Rebecca or give them the thumbs up or serve as another romantic rival or get in a relationship with Valencia or what. But his best friend is marrying the woman he's in love with. He should be back and he should sing a song.

2. I'm no fan of daddy issues plotting, so hopefully they keep it lowkey. I don't want Rebecca's heart to be broken if her dad turns out to be a bigger douche than we can imagine.

3. I was scared that Josh was going to have some level of hookup with Church Basketball Lady. ("Now it's time for my superior dunk.") Please do not let that happen, show.

[Snarklepuss]

I just couldn't shake the feeling that this wedding would never actually culminate in a marriage and had a feeling it would be derailed by something, even briefly thought of Trent, and there he was at the very end.  So I guess he'll sabotage it.  Or maybe we're destined for a season finale cliffhanger.

I have to admit I'm a little perplexed by the direction the show went with Nathaniel this week.  I guess it was an attempt to humanize him somewhat but it feels like a departure from the way they set him up to be in the beginning.  He seemed just as quirky and strange as the rest of the firm this week, but I suppose that was supposed to be a set up for his father to walk in and find him at his very worst.  The show still seems to be setting him up to be a rival for Rebecca's interest but letting her marry and be in that situation would not be cool, so I still don't think the marriage will actually happen.

This show has a way of feeling completely different from one week to the next.  Having forgotten Trent's name I went over to IMDB to look it up and noticed that there have been many different episode writers and directors which may account for that somewhat disjointed feeling from one week to the next.

[bleiby73]

So on the subject of sizegate, I just saw Rachel Bloom's comedy show two days ago in San Francisco.  She was amazing, incredibly funny, energetic, and talented.  I recommend seeing her in-person if you can. But one thing I noticed was that she definitely is real-sized. It made me happy because I thought that she was going to be tiny in real life. She's probably a large 8 maybe a small 10 in real life. My weight fluctuates a lot so I know the difference. The reason any of this matters is because the show is so body-positive. I don't understand why they would add a line of dialogue about a size 6. It would have been a great opportunity to actually tell the truth about womens' clothing sizes!

[Rinaldo]

7 hours ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

Loved Patrick. What was the song a knock-off of? The Last 5 Years maybe?

A movie or music-theater ballad, but TL5Y is too recent (and itself refers to earlier styles, so go to the source). I heard 1970s, give or take a few years, and with the constant addressing the man while questioning, I thought of both Burt Bacharach ("What's it all about, Alfie?") and Stephen Sondheim ("Charlie, why can't it be like it was?").

[kieyra]

6 hours ago, niklj said:

I wonder if it's because they were written while this show was still on the bubble so they didn't know how much they should develop anything in case they got cancelled?

"Nap Like a Man" was enjoyable. Anything Darryl is enjoyable.

I may be projecting here, but I noticed another pretty subpar episode of network television that came back from hiatus this week, on a show with typically consistent quality, and I wonder if we're starting to see the shows that were produced post-Nov 8. God knows my motivation went to crap for a while.

(Supporting my theory: a now slightly out-of-date Westworld reference.)

Edited January 28, 2017 by kieyra

[ElectricBoogaloo]

First of all, Seth Green was perfect as Patrick the poor delivery guy. I loved the deep breath he took before knocking on Rebecca's door at the beginning of the episode as he steeled himself for dealing with her. Love that he went to Paula (even though it's unlikely he would be the driver for both the firm and Rebecca's neighborhood). I hope we get to see him again. He seemed torn between wanting to help Rebecca and wanting to get the hell out of her house.

Another nitpick: even though West Covina is east of LA, it's not like they're in South Dakota in the 50s. They're still in California and not THAT far from LA so I'm pretty sure there are hippie smoothie places that could have made Nathaniel's smoothie. Heh, I bet if he had asked Valencia, she could have told him where to go! For the record, kale and spinach smoothies are totally common in California and have been for ages so Paula's reaction seemed a bit over the top. Usually mung beans are in Asian drinks. I've never had a smoothie with cauliflower though.

I can see both sides of the Josh/Rebecca wedding planning. On the one hand, of course both people should be making decisions about stuff. But with only two weeks, you just have to make decisions and get stuff done. If Josh showed no interest in making any suggestions until after Rebecca had already paid for certain things, I can see why she wanted to stick to her original plan (well, Dustin and Sasha's original plan of having the most pinterest-y wedding ever). To me, it's like one person saying, "I don't care what we have for dinner," so the other person goes to the store, buys groceries, and starts cooking a meal, and then after everything is in pots and pan bubbling on the stove, the first person wanders into the kitchen and says, "Hey, let's order a pizza for dinner tonight!" At this point, sure, you can turn everything off and go with plan b, or you can tell this person, "Sorry, I'm already cooking this stuff but you can decide what we have for dessert." And then the ONE thing that Josh picked out he ended up not doing because he fell asleep!

I knew that Valencia was going to end up being their wedding planner and finding herself a new career as soon as she told Heather that she didn't know if she wanted to be a yoga teacher anymore. That's fine, but I just wish she hadn't used all the stuff she had wanted for her own wedding. And as someone pointed out above, all the contact info for vendors doesn't matter if you're calling less than two weeks before the wedding because a lot of places just can't provide services on such short notice, usually because they're booked so far in advance and they need time to get everything lined up (order food, hire staff, etc).

Planning a wedding in two weeks IS doable, but probably not with the fancy wedding vendor that Valencia had intended to use for her wedding. You just have to think beyond wedding vendors (meaning vendors that specialize in weddings) and simplify. A lot of bakeries need at least two weeks' notice to do a tiered wedding cake, but you can definitely order three or four separate cakes without super fancy/time consuming decoration from anywhere with a week of notice. You could probably order a two or three tier cake two weeks in advance if it doesn't require a ton of decorating. Flowers you might have to source from a few different florists depending on how crazy you want to get with the arrangements, but that's doable too. You could probably get food if you can get your favorite restaurant to cater instead of an actual catering company. You can make a playlist instead of hiring a band. They already have Father Brah officiating and Rebecca has a dress, so I think all that leaves is finding a photographer. People who love you aren't going to care if you have branches shaped into hearts or succulents in jars.

I am all for planning ahead but I was like Rebecca, please do not make those cake pops two weeks before the wedding! What is she going to do with all of those wedding dresses that were at her house? Most places won't let you return them! I was shaking my head at Rebecca paying a homeless guy to let her have the one glass water bottle she found in the trash. Just go to Cost Co and buy a case of Pellegrino!

When Darryl and the guys told Nathaniel to take a nap in his office, I was like nooooo, send him home to nap because OF COURSE his dad is going to pop in unexpectedly. I was afraid that Nathaniel would be mad at Darryl et al for convincing him to take the nap that his father caught him taking and then he would punish the whole office, so I guess it's good that they went the opposite route.

6 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

I wonder if Rebecca is planning to take his name and become Rebecca Chan.

In my experience, women with professional degrees who get married after 30 tend to keep their maiden names. I'm not saying that's always the case, but most of the women I know who got married AFTER receiving an MD, PhD, or JD kept their maiden names. I know two women in that situation who never legally changed their last names by go by their husband's last name socially (and at their kids' schools). The few women I know with an MD/PhD/JD who changed their last names were in their 20s and got married very close to when they received their degrees (within a year). Again, that's just based on the people I know so obviously there are other people in Rebecca's situation who changed their last names.

Considering that Rebecca has probably been doodling "Rebecca Chan" on her notebook since the day she met Josh, I'd say there's a 50/50 chance she changes her name (the other 50% chance is that her feminist stance is women don't need to be marked as their husband's property by taking their last name). If she does change her last name, I bet she will have a Donna Chang situation at least once! Side anecdote: an Asian woman I know who took her non-Asian husband's last name (it's comparable to Smith or Jones) said that more than once she went to job interviews in the much less PC 80s and they were surprised that she was Asian.

Is it wrong that I'm kind of looking forward to Trent throwing a toolbox full of monkey wrenches into this wedding? If that isn't enough to stop the wedding, then maybe Rebecca will confess she kissed Nathaniel? I thought Josh was looking at Sara (the church basketball lady) as the next Rebecca. Remember when he felt frustrated with Valencia and he told Rebecca she was so chill? This week he was feeling frustrated with Rebecca and he told Sara that she was so chill.

[sockgirlie]

Rachel worked on Robot Chicken and has had Seth Green pop up in her YouTube videos, so I've been waiting for her real-life friend to make a trip to West Covina.  Loved it.

[sadiegirl]

9 hours ago, srpturtle80 said:

So apparently I'm 5 years old... because i found the potty humor really funny. Mostly Paula's reactions, and especially the first scene in the conference room. 

I don't consider myself a potty humor fan but I actually laughed out loud at some of Nathaniel's 'adventures'. 

[kathe5133]

Size 6?  No, I think not.  8 or 10 most likely and she is a beautiful woman who doesn't need to lose a pound.  What's is it with woman and sizes?  Claiming to wear a smaller size doesn't make you smaller.  I guess they haven't figured that out yet.  The size that makes me laugh the hardest is zero.  What does zero mean?  Nothing.  Your size is nothing?  Ok........

[adam807]

IMPORTANT: "Period Sex" is bonus track on iTunes this week.https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/period-sex-feat.-rachel-bloom/id1200068280?i=1200068575

EDITED TO ADD: 

 

3 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Another nitpick: even though West Covina is east of LA, it's not like they're in South Dakota in the 50s. They're still in California and not THAT far from LA so I'm pretty sure there are hippie smoothie places that could have made Nathaniel's smoothie. Heh, I bet if he had asked Valencia, she could have told him where to go! For the record, kale and spinach smoothies are totally common in California and have been for ages so Paula's reaction seemed a bit over the top. Usually mung beans are in Asian drinks. I've never had a smoothie with cauliflower though.

They're pretty common in New York too and I made the same face because they're gross. :)

But re: West Covina, when Rebecca quit/got fired/changed her mind a few weeks ago I did type "attorney west covina, ca" into Google Maps just to see what would come up. Let's just say she could probably go work somewhere else without even changing her commute. But eh, it's a TV show.

Edited January 28, 2017 by adam807
actually listened to all of Period Sex and discovered there's a video!

[JoannKB]

Quote

Bridal gowns run much smaller than street sizes since the sizes weren't realigned like ready to wear clothing you purchase in stores.  A size 6 wedding dress would probably be a size 2 or 4 street size.

Exactly. I'm a size 8 in regular clothes and had to get a size 12 wedding dress. With Rebecca's beautiful "ample bosom" there is no way she is fitting into a size 6 wedding dress. They missed an opportunity to get a funnier joke about being horrified about what size dress she would have to get.

As far as the wedding planning, why did she have to do everything herself? Sure no wedding planners would do it on that timeline, but surely there are bakeries, florists, etc. that she could hire. I know it's funnier if she goes all out over the top, but the fact that they never even addressed her other options (buy some cake pops at the grocery store, for goodness sake) bugged.

[DearEvette]

9 hours ago, possibilities said:

I think it's extremely creepy that Rebecca and Josh are supposedly going to have the wedding Valencia wanted with Josh, though. I mean, it's bad enough that Rebecca is marrying Josh. Doing in in Valencia's dream format is so far past creepy that I really don't find it credible, even for this show with all its wackiness.

Honestly, I saw it as yet another sign that this wedding was doomed.  It doesn't help that Rebecca still has some UST with Nathaniel and Josh is now looking at the church basketball girl with a look that was a little too warm and approving.

I wasn't crazy about this episode.  There were some amusing moments... Sasha and Dustin's wedding is spot on!  I went to  just one this summer.  And I loved Seth green as Patrick the UPS guy in all his appearances.  I especially loved his lying on top of the piano, feet crossed at the ankles in the universal pose of teenage girls at a slumber party.  And I love the continued larger role the minor characters in the office are playing.  They are getting more fun each week.  But overall I didn't think this ep got any real energy until Valencia's wedding planning kicked into gear.  It felt like it got some momentum then.

[alrightokay]

14 minutes ago, DearEvette said:

Honestly, I saw it as yet another sign that this wedding was doomed.  It doesn't help that Rebecca still has some UST with Nathaniel and Josh is now looking at the church basketball girl with a look that was a little too warm and approving.

I wasn't crazy about this episode.  There were some amusing moments... Sasha and Dustin's wedding is spot on!  I went to  just one this summer.  And I loved Seth green as Patrick the UPS guy in all his appearances.  I especially loved his lying on top of the piano, feet crossed at the ankles in the universal pose of teenage girls at a slumber party.  And I love the continued larger role the minor characters in the office are playing.  They are getting more fun each week.  But overall I didn't think this ep got any real energy until Valencia's wedding planning kicked into gear.  It felt like it got some momentum then.

I agree that this episode meandered a bit until Valencia stepped up.  The Nathaniel poop-scenario went on a little too long for me, though it did do its intended job of making me feel sorry for him.  It just felt like they could have come up with a more clever way for him to be humanized (I guess there's nothing more basically human than having to poop!).  I did love how all of the coworkers, especially Maya, instinctively tried to help him, even though he's been a harsh boss.

[dubbel zout]

8 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

I'm disappointed that Father Brah didn't urge more caution with the wedding.

I'm surprised Father Brah (or anyone) didn't mention the fact that Josh is Catholic and Rebecca is Jewish. I don't think even the most liberal priest would officiate a mixed wedding like that without a discussion with the couple. I know the show can't cover everything, but this is a gigantic issue. 

31 minutes ago, DearEvette said:

I especially loved his lying on top of the piano, feet crossed at the ankles in the universal pose of teenage girls at a slumber party. 

Same here. I also loved his "Wait, what am I doing here?" faces when he realized he was playing the piano and then sitting on top being serenaded. Did anyone else notice the package was playing the piano when both Rebecca and Patrick were atop the piano? Hee. Such a great throwaway.

13 minutes ago, alrightokay said:

The Nathaniel poop-scenario went on a little too long for me

Same here, and it's not because I'm squeamish or a prude. It was belaboring the joke, IMO.

I'm sorry Trent is going to be involved next week, because there are a million reasons for the wedding not to happen before he even makes the list.

[SomeTameGazelle]

13 minutes ago, alrightokay said:

 I did love how all of the coworkers, especially Maya, instinctively tried to help him, even though he's been a harsh boss.

Huh. I had interpreted Maya as taking the bullet because she knew that Nathaniel would punish everyone harshly if he had to be humiliated himself.

[dubbel zout]

I interpreted it as Maya being something of a toady.

[Snarklepuss]

Regarding Rachel's clothing size, she's on the shorter side at 5'3" tall, so even if she were a size 6 she'd probably look more like a size 8 just because of her proportions.  Plus the camera adds at least 10 lbs.  When I appeared on TV once I thought it added more like 15!

Even so, for sure she is no wedding gown size 6 as explained above.

Edited January 28, 2017 by Snarklepuss

[alrightokay]

1 hour ago, SomeTameGazelle said:

Huh. I had interpreted Maya as taking the bullet because she knew that Nathaniel would punish everyone harshly if he had to be humiliated himself.

That makes sense; I guess I was thinking about how, as the episode went on, it was clear that the office mates understood Nathaniel's insecurities with his dad (they all reacted to his comment about his dad putting them on his knee and then doing nothing, just to scare them).  So when it was just Maya, Paula, and Nathaniel in his office, Maya offers to take the blame again, when she really didn't have to.  But right, in that first scene in the conference room, she might have been acting out of fear/concern for her friends.

[Rinaldo]

1 hour ago, dubbel zout said:

Did anyone else notice the package was playing the piano when both Rebecca and Patrick were atop the piano? Hee. Such a great throwaway.

In this attentive group, I'm sure lots of us did, but I have to say: that is the moment that made me laugh the hardest, of anything I've seen on TV in the last year or two. I mean I literally had to pause, wait for the helpless gasps of laughter to subside so I could hear again, and then rewind so I could hear the part I'd missed.

[possibilities]

I just want to say that lions do take naps.

[tennisgurl]

Yeah, green smoothies with Kale are pretty common, especially in a place like California. West Covina cant be that small and backwards! I lived in Indiana for years, and they had plenty of places all over the state to get Kale smoothies, and no one thought that was weird. And that was in the Hollywood no mans land that is the Midwest!

The songs were a bit uninspired this week, although I did enjoy the office guys n their 80s rocker gear. This must be such a fun show to work on, you get to wear so many cool costumes and sing so many cool songs!

I think this season has been pretty solid, even if its been spinning its wheels a bit. I was glad to see the reappearance of the Girl Group, even though I find Valencia planning out her dream wedding to Josh and Rebecca to be really sad. At least she will hopefully be inspired to become a wedding planner now.

Josh and Rebecca are just such a hot mess. It seemed like Josh did want to be involved with wedding planning, but Rebecca is so obsessive that she just steamrolled him. This wedding does not need Trent to screw it up!

Loved the DIY wedding! Way to go Nova Scotia!

I wish that Greg would show up to object to the wedding (through song!) and explain why Rebecca and Josh getting married is a terrible idea for everyone involved, in delightful Greg fashion.

This season has gotten a lot...grosser than last.

[Irlandesa]

6 minutes ago, tennisgurl said:

I wish that Greg would show up to object to the wedding (through song!) and explain why Rebecca and Josh getting married is a terrible idea for everyone involved, in delightful Greg fashion.

It seems like the perfect time for a reprise of "Shit Show" tailored to this wedding.

I might be one of the few but I was happy to see Trent.  Does the wedding need him to screw it up?  No but I don't care, he cracks me up.  I was glad to see he made the "Period Sex" montage.

8 minutes ago, tennisgurl said:

Josh and Rebecca are just such a hot mess. It seemed like Josh did want to be involved with wedding planning, but Rebecca is so obsessive that she just steamrolled him.

None of this is Josh's idea, really.  He proposed because that's what Rebecca's mother told him to do. The wedding is happening because Rebecca kissed Nathaniel and is having doubts so she moved up the timeline without his input.  But even she's screwing up the doubts.  She's making it about Nathaniel, which I believe is overblowing her connection to him, rather than focusing on her general unhappiness and somewhat incompatability with Josh.

11 hours ago, Snarklepuss said:

He seemed just as quirky and strange as the rest of the firm this week, but I suppose that was supposed to be a set up for his father to walk in and find him at his very worst.

They've been hinting that Nathaniel has daddy issues from his first episode.  Or maybe second.  Make him sick and he loses some of his control. So I don't think it was that out of character. 

Thanks to those pointing out that the package was playing the piano.  I hadn't noticed that but I found a gif. 

[Eeksquire]

This episode was kind of dragging for me UNTIL the package was playing the piano and from that moment on, I was all in.  I teared up at Paula's machinations with the delivery guy AND THEN to have gotten Naomi to get her act together... which was followed by Nathaniel and Darryl teaming up to solve Rebecca's daddy issues.  (Momentarily.)

Also loved Paula's very sincere offer to help Nathaniel - to me, it was a nice callback to last season when Rebecca had the UTI and peed herself while she and Paul were robbing the bakery.  ("I have two kids, I know that look!")

[Bruinsfan]

4 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

I'm surprised Father Brah (or anyone) didn't mention the fact that Josh is Catholic and Rebecca is Jewish. I don't think even the most liberal priest would officiate a mixed wedding like that without a discussion with the couple. I know the show can't cover everything, but this is a gigantic issue.

Has Father Brah met Rebecca before? If so, I can definitely see him taking a pass on that counseling session...

1 hour ago, possibilities said:

I just want to say that lions do take naps.

They're cats that live in sun-drenched savannas, they sleep all the damn time with occasional breaks to kill and eat something!

[Empress1]

8 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Considering that Rebecca has probably been doodling "Rebecca Chan" on her notebook since the day she met Josh, I'd say there's a 50/50 chance she changes her name (the other 50% chance is that her feminist stance is women don't need to be marked as their husband's property by taking their last name). If she does change her last name, I bet she will have a Donna Chang situation at least once! Side anecdote: an Asian woman I know who took her non-Asian husband's last name (it's comparable to Smith or Jones) said that more than once she went to job interviews in the much less PC 80s and they were surprised that she was Asian.

I'm Black with an ethnic last name that is not associated with Blackness, and this happens to me all the time and I came of age in the 90s. It happened to me a few weeks ago when I met a new colleague, who is also Black. She was like "I wasn't expecting ..." and stroked her face. Very often when I introduce myself, people will look at my left hand to see if I'm married, assuming my last name is my married name, and then look back at me puzzled when they see that finger bare.

No way is Rebecca a size six in bridal gowns - you always, always have to size up with bridal gowns. And Rebecca is at least a D cup and from my own experience (with the caveat that Rebecca and I have completely different body types and she looks like she's about six inches shorter than I am), D cups are very hard to fit into even a street size six (although I'd buy that her bottom half is a six; she seems to be more of an apple shape). 

I laughed about man naps. My pretend niece (best friend's daughter) went through a phase when she was 2-3 where she hated naps, like many kids do. And one of her arguments was that grownups don't take naps, and her parents and I were like, "girl, what? We LOVE naps! "

I love me a green smoothie but Nathaniel's sounded gross AF. I was not impressed with the potty humor; I WAS impressed with the makeup job that turned his pallor green.

I'm not sure what to think about Valencia. I absolutely think she's over Josh - she seems to have a really good grip on the situation. But there's being over someone, and there's planning their wedding to one of your friends.

Edited January 28, 2017 by Empress1

[dubbel zout]

4 minutes ago, Empress1 said:

Rebecca is at least a D cup

Double Ds, according to the song!

[kieyra]

What's weird about the dress size thing is that they textually acknowledged that Rebecca wasn't thin (or wasn't thin to the eyes of a guy like Nathaniel) just last week in "Let's Have Intercourse". The show has always embraced her body shape, even when it's poking fun at the way other people may view her. I think it usually balances the whole thing very well; she's obviously pretty comfortable and confident with herself, no self-loathing, just the occasional nagging doubts that I think are meant to reflect the female experience as a whole (someone like Valencia or Nathaniel calling her fat, at least in fantasy-song-world), while inhabiting a pretty typical (if ample-bosomed) body. The dress size thing seems like a misstep in that context. On the whole I just think the "size six!!" line should have been cut.

And now I'm officially that person who overthinks a tiny detail. Sorry, show. I love you!

Edited January 29, 2017 by kieyra

[SomeTameGazelle]

6 hours ago, alrightokay said:

So when it was just Maya, Paula, and Nathaniel in his office, Maya offers to take the blame again, when she really didn't have to.  But right, in that first scene in the conference room, she might have been acting out of fear/concern for her friends.

Good point about the difference between the two scenes -- I was thinking primarily of the one in the conference room and if I thought about the second one at all I assumed that Maya was just reacting in the same way as her fear had trained her to do. 

[SomeTameGazelle]

15 hours ago, Snarklepuss said:

 

I just couldn't shake the feeling that this wedding would never actually culminate in a marriage and had a feeling it would be derailed by something, even briefly thought of Trent, and there he was at the very end.  So I guess he'll sabotage it.  Or maybe we're destined for a season finale cliffhanger.

 

I meant to comment on the episode title -- Is Josh Free in Two Weeks? When I first saw it a week ago I interpreted it as a double-entendre reminding us that the wedding will likely utterly fall apart and split Josh and Rebecca up, but also implying that the episode might have involved Josh having issues with the wedding date (more than the details). 

[waving feather]

Nothing much happened in this episode, but I did like "Tell Me I'm OK" because Rachel Bloom sang the heck out of it. It's a lovely tune.

Not gonna lie, sometimes I just fast-forward to the musical numbers on this show.

Edited January 29, 2017 by waving feather

[Lebanna]

Woohoo, psoriasis shout out! Autoimmune diseases for the win!

I just don't get wedding stress. Like, borrow a tent and cook some chicken. As long as the dress is nice, the photographer is good, the people are happy and there is dancing, who cares? But it's funny watching other people have it.

I also hated the size six thing. It really jumped out. I've see a few other shows recently where they have a woman mention their tiny size or correct someone else for thinking some other woman was bigger than they supposedly are. And it's guaranteed to seem weird and unnecessary but it's clearly just there to shout 'look how skinny and hot our actress is!' for the guys watching. Just like how most characters are at least three years younger than their actors. And it means that all those women viewing the show will take a moment to feel insecure and wonder why they can't be six foot two tall and muscular with enormous pneumatic boobs and still only (supposedly) weigh 108 pounds. #impossible.

I don't think it matters what size Rachel is in real life. Here, I think the kind of mother Naomi is would know what size Rebecca is, even if just so she could disapprove of it at her daughter. I think leaving that line out would have been better, because the point of this show is not that Rebecca is skinny and hot. It's that Rachel Bloom is hilarious.

And having said that, the poop jokes this week were way better than most poop jokes.

Edited January 29, 2017 by Lebanna

[SmithW6079]

I found the whole "Nathaniel shits his pants" thing disgusting. Unless it came spontaneously squirting out his rectum, he had time to make it to the bathroom. The fact that his insides were gurgling up a storm was a warning sign. In the time it took for him to tell Paula and Maya -- repeatedly -- to leave, he could have excused himself and made it to the bathroom. 

With Greg gone, White Josh has kind of taken over as the group's conscience; where was he to put his stamp of disapproval on the rushed wedding?

[Snarklepuss]

10 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

They've been hinting that Nathaniel has daddy issues from his first episode.  Or maybe second.  Make him sick and he loses some of his control. So I don't think it was that out of character.

Daddy issues equaling a c**** in his armor is one thing, but the show turning him into a complete buffoon was a little OTT for me. 

[Hera]

On 28/01/2017 at 7:33 AM, Chicago Redshirt said:

3. I was scared that Josh was going to have some level of hookup with Church Basketball Lady. ("Now it's time for my superior dunk.") Please do not let that happen, show.

I don't know if they're going to hook-up before he and Rebecca break up, but I think she's definitely in line to be Josh's next love interest. This is totally in character—Josh doesn't like to be single and his good looks and outgoing personality mean that he'll never be lacking women who are interested in him. His attitude towards his romantic relationships is a lot like that of Rob from High Fidelity: once he's settled in a relationship, he gets restless because being in a relationship means having to navigate someone else's quirks and flaws, as well as coming to terms with your own. Why do all that hard, scary work, when you can jump to someone else—someone who doesn't have any flaws and quirks (because you don't know them very well yet)? I know several guys like this—hell, I even dated one for a little while.

The show focuses on Rebecca and her many underlying issues, but Josh isn't without a few of his own. No one on this show is, except maybe White Josh.

I agree that the show is sorely missing Greg. Come to think of it, it's surprising that there hasn't been any mention of him—he's Josh's best friend and they've known each other since they were kids. I know the wedding is being held at short notice, but even if he couldn't make it in time to be the best man (or a groomsman), you'd think there'd be at least a throwaway line about it.

[dubbel zout]

1 hour ago, nosleepforme said:

I don't think Naomi is such a weak character that she would be bullied into buying a wedding dress by Paula. 

Yeah, I call shenanigans on this as well. It was a great moment for Paula, but it was OOC for Naomi. And there's no way she'd buy Rebecca a size 6 dress. Naomi would definitely rub it in that Rebecca isn't a size 6 and would buy something gigantic just to stick it to her.

[Rinaldo]

1 hour ago, nosleepforme said:

"Tell Me I'm Okay" was funny, felt almost like a call-back to "You Stupid Bitch", but it was still one of the weaker songs the show has done.

It's so interesting to see how differently we all react. "Tell Me I'm Okay, Patrick" was for me one of their all-time song highlights. I can see it being picked up for cabaret acts right away. I do agree with the general kinship to "You Stupid Bitch," not least in both songs showcasing Rachel Bloom's sterling vocal performance.

[kitkat343]

Quote

just don't get wedding stress. Like, borrow a tent and cook some chicken. As long as the dress is nice, the photographer is good, the people are happy and there is dancing, who cares? But it's funny watching other people have it.

Is the wedding in Hawaii?  If so, that is totally a destination wedding location.  They would do a hundred weddings a year, and most people plan them from a distance.  So they'll show you pictures of 5 cakes from the recommended vendor and you pick one. It's probably one of the few weddings you can plan easily at the last minute. You don't need to go this crazy - you just ask the venue to recommend vendors and they will.  Same thing like getting married in Vegas (not a wedding chapel, but at a nice hotel.  You can pick stuff on the computer and they can make it work because they do this all the time.)

Edited January 29, 2017 by kitkat343

[HunterHunted]

49 minutes ago, kitkat343 said:

Is the wedding in Hawaii?  If so, that is totally a destination wedding location.  They would do a hundred weddings a year, and most people plan them from a distance.  So they'll show you pictures of 5 cakes from the recommended vendor and you pick one. It's probably one of the few weddings you can plan easily at the last minute. You don't need to go this crazy - you just ask the venue to recommend vendors and they will.  Same thing like getting married in Vegas (not a wedding chapel, but at a nice hotel.  You can pick stuff on the computer and they can make it work because they do this all the time.)

It's so funny that they have Rebecca going on a Pinterest bender when in actuality she would have bought the entire wedding of the woman whose wedding date she took. It is highly unlikely that the other woman would have found a replacement venue in two weeks, especially not one that could accommodate her venue specific decisions. She's probably paid the bulk of the vendors for her wedding so Rebecca could have just reimbursed her and used the other woman's florist, caterers, dj or band, and bakery. As crazy as it is to have a wedding in two weeks. It's crazy to basically cancel your wedding two weeks before and possibly wait for who knows how long to get another venue.

I'm hoping that Rebecca delusionally invited Dr. Akopian to the wedding. If we can't get Greg, I want Trenton and Dr. Akopian there.

[theatremouse]

6 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

Yeah, I call shenanigans on this as well. It was a great moment for Paula, but it was OOC for Naomi. And there's no way she'd buy Rebecca a size 6 dress. Naomi would definitely rub it in that Rebecca isn't a size 6 and would buy something gigantic just to stick it to her.

I think since we didn't see Naomi's reaction, just Paula's end, it's possible the outcome was something more in character. For example, in my head, I pictured Naomi pulling something more of a "Ugh, fine, I'm going to do what this ranty woman is suggesting so she'll shut up and I don't really care" more so than being especially either moved/sufficiently bullied into it. I want to say on the size thing that Noami just plain knows by sight what Rebecca's size would be, especially since she just saw her, so frankly given the number in Paula's speech didn't make sense for the way wedding downs are sized, they could've just left the number out entirely and left it that Naomi knew what size because she's good at gauging that sort of thing and was recently with Rebecca so it's not like it likely changed much.

[Bruinsfan]

I could see Naomi buying the dress in the size she thinks Rebecca should be for the wedding and telling her to stop eating NOW.