Jump to content

Type keyword(s) to search

S08.E05: Graduation & A Surprise


Recommended Posts

This was one of the most boring episodes of the Duggars, ever.  I did hate the entitled Boob demanding that holiday dinner be served a day early. I swear that if I were Anna, holiday dinner would be when she expected to serve it and I would order pizza or Chinese for when they showed up early.

  • Love 3
Link to comment

I call total bs on the Duggars arriving early and poor Anna has to prepare the dinner by herself.  Did they not play this card before?  And JimBoob and Mullet need their romantic getaway while the kids sleep in the stinking bus.  Seriously.

I thought graduating from high school actually means going to a real high school  and not sitting at the dining room table or computer being taught by your famewhoring mother or one of your older sisters who have as much teaching experience as a dirty dish rag that has been sitting in nasty water for a few days. I guess having all those people show up means the Duggars have a lot of friends.  *rolling eyes*

Link to comment

Josiah's GED party was incredibly dull and boring. So he's going to go to Alert Camp and maybe take a few college courses to see what life has to offer?  mmmmkay

 

I agree, why was Anna so pressured to make sure the dinner was done and ready for when the circus arrived?  Why not order pizza and then prepare and serve the dinner on the day it was intended?  That way she would have had help.  TLC manufactured drama, gotta love it.

  • Love 2
Link to comment

Josiah's GED party was incredibly dull and boring. So he's going to go to Alert Camp and maybe take a few college courses to see what life has to offer?  mmmmkay

 

I agree, why was Anna so pressured to make sure the dinner was done and ready for when the circus arrived?  Why not order pizza and then prepare and serve the dinner on the day it was intended?  That way she would have had help.  TLC manufactured drama, gotta love it.

I'd like to think she wanted to serve the big "holiday" meal as soon as they got there so they would leave as soon as possible after it, hehe. That would be my strategy with that awful brood! Although, if anyone would overstay their welcome, it would be JimBoob and his clan. Worth a shot, though!

Link to comment

There's really not much to say about this episode...

 

Well, hello cutie from Erin Bates' wedding whose name I now know is Skylar. Where did he come from? I don't remember ever seeing him before recently. Is it too much to hope he is destined for Jana or Jinger so that I can see more of him? 

 

It's weird how little they showed of Josiah's party after all the build up in previews. It was hard to tell who was even there. 

 

Was the time line of this episode edited? I don't know why they would drive from TN back to AR back to DC in what appeared to be a short amount of time. Why not go from TN to DC, and then back to AR to have the party? 

I agree that the early arrival was staged and that Anna scrambling was for the sake of plot, but that doesn't make it less crappy. I did love both Josh and Anna's thinly veiled frustration with the nonsense of Jim Bob. 

  • Love 2
Link to comment

Josh confirmed it when he said that he had never known the Duggars to be early for anything. A snowstorm would not be a reason to make them early either, IMO.  People who are consistently late are selfish and rude.  I'm surprised that it's not against their beliefs to keep doing it. It doesn't seem Christian like to me. lol

Why did I expect that maybe Josiah could be considering college?  OH, but he's available for courting.  lol  

Link to comment

She was smiling but Anna's eyes read fury, to me. And Joshie looked peeved, too.

But when Anna said the room for Jimbob and Michelle needed to be romantic I almost puked. I TOTALLY get wanting a nice guest room for my in-laws/parents for visits but I would NEVER refer to said room as romantic. Gross gross gross. I was baffled and amused that the romance room was getting bunk beds, though.

I love how when Jim Bob was moving Josh and Anna's belongings in nice weather he had no hesitation in being over 24 hours late but when he has his son (with one income, 3 children, and the expense of living in the DC area) is cooking his 40 million kids free food, he is early. Such a prick. I wish Anna had said the food will be ready tomorrow, bust out your credit card and order pizza tonight, JB!

  • Love 3
Link to comment

This was one of the most boring episodes of the Duggars, ever.  I did hate the entitled Boob demanding that holiday dinner be served a day early. I swear that if I were Anna, holiday dinner would be when she expected to serve it and I would order pizza or Chinese for when they showed up early.

That passed me off, for Anna.  I don't care who you are; you don't show up a day early and expect the elaborate dinner scheduled for the next day.  If you have to arrive a day early, you show up with (for Duggar size guests) 4 buckets of friend chicken, a few pizzas, and drinks.  What ma and pa did to Josh and Anna was classless.

Josiah's GED party was incredibly dull and boring. So he's going to go to Alert Camp and maybe take a few college courses to see what life has to offer?  mmmmkay

 

I agree, why was Anna so pressured to make sure the dinner was done and ready for when the circus arrived?  Why not order pizza and then prepare and serve the dinner on the day it was intended?  That way she would have had help.  TLC manufactured drama, gotta love it.

I thought the same.  For the build-up, there was actually very little time spent on the graduation party.  Did anyone else catch the comment about going to Alert BEFORE "maybe some college".  Nice priorities!

Link to comment

She was smiling but Anna's eyes read fury, to me. And Joshie looked peeved, too.

But when Anna said the room for Jimbob and Michelle needed to be romantic I almost puked. I TOTALLY get wanting a nice guest room for my in-laws/parents for visits but I would NEVER refer to said room as romantic. Gross gross gross. I was baffled and amused that the romance room was getting bunk beds, though.

I love how when Jim Bob was moving Josh and Anna's belongings in nice weather he had no hesitation in being over 24 hours late but when he has his son (with one income, 3 children, and the expense of living in the DC area) is cooking his 40 million kids free food, he is early. Such a prick. I wish Anna had said the food will be ready tomorrow, bust out your credit card and order pizza tonight, JB!

Smuggar and Anna would not be in Washington D.C., and Smuggar would not have his all important job without his famewhoring parents and having eighteen younger siblings.  Plus the fact, he can be an ass when he wants to be.

 

In my opinion, this is nothing but a bad story line that has been repeated more than once. 

Edited by bigskygirl
Link to comment

I think I posted this elsewhere today, but I felt that this was one of the most staged episodes yet of the Duggars.  The "holiday meal" wasn't really a holiday meal.  Josh and Anna were at her parents' house at Thanksgiving and the Duggars were in Tontitown at Christmas.  I doubt the meal was even a real meal so of course one regular sized turkey was sufficient just to get an episode.  She wasn't really trying to serve a meal, but just enough for filming.

 

I thought the same thing about Josiah's graduation party that his parents, control freaks that they are, would have known exactly who was invited before the invitations went out.  I also doubt the timeline they tried to make the episode fit. 

 

 

  • Love 1
Link to comment

I thought graduating from high school actually means going to a real high school  and not sitting at the dining room table or computer being taught by your famewhoring mother or one of your older sisters who have as much teaching experience as a dirty dish rag that has been sitting in nasty water for a few days. I guess having all those people show up means the Duggars have a lot of friends.  *rolling eyes*

Homeschoolers usually graduate from high school and most choose to mark it with some sort of ceremony or party. Some have a private ceremony or a private ceremony with friends invited (like what was shown in this episode), and sometimes homeschool groups of families band together to have a larger ceremony. Not everyone who homeschools does it the way the Duggars do it, but the graduation was pretty close to what I have seen other families do. I have wondered if they did the same thing for their other kids who have graduated, though.

Like many others, I was also horrified that they would arrive early and expect Anna to cook the big holiday meal a day early. If that was just a story for the show, then fine, but if that were real, that would be horribly inconsiderate. I could buy that they were having a holiday not on the holiday, though, if that's the case. Many years ago, I used to celebrate what we called "pretend Christmas" with my parents, because we couldn't usually get together on the actual holiday. We'd do it either early in December or sometime in January. We had "pretend Easter" a couple of weeks ago, because my son was visiting. We're not very religious, though. (Well, by not very religious, I mean I am atheist, but I still like candy.) So it didn't bother me if they were having a holiday dinner when it wasn't actually the holiday, even if they didn't say that.

  • Love 2
Link to comment

Repeated storyline with a different location.  Last season, the Duggars showed up early when Anna was preparing a meal when she was pregnant with Marcus.  She was not ready with the food and was struggling with the preparation. 

 

I would rather watch Jessa give JB the evil eye when he drills her and Ben about their courtship.

Link to comment

Plotline, plotline; all is plotline!  That JimBoob is such the practical joker, isn't he?  I just can't believe they're still trying to procreate...  My eyes...  I WILL say that Ayyyyyyd-a has some awfully cute kids, though (at least the first two; kind'a hard to tell about Mark Anthony yet)...

Edited by all4mom
Link to comment

I hope that the presence of Teri Maxwell at this graduation party doesn't mean anything about a possible Maxwell/Duggar courtship unless it was one of the Duggar boys courting a Maxwell girl. Please Boob, do not sell Jana to Joseph Maxwell even though he bought his house in cash.

  • Love 1
Link to comment

I do not want to see Jana in Maxhell either. I hope she's doing something like Michaela Bates where she's waiting on a young man to finish a program that he's in and they will announce an engagement after knowing each other a couple of years.

Link to comment

I wouldn't mind John David courting Anna. Life in Duggar land would be a breeze compared to living in Maxhell. Even if JD is a bit of a redneck, he should be so much easier than living with Stevus.

  • Love 1
Link to comment

That didn't seem like enough turkey for 25 people.

 

That is an understatement!!!!  That turkey looked like it was about 12-15lbs and they needed twice that to feed that brood...oh a pun not intended!  When she picked it up in the store I thought oh she is cooking 2 or 3 that size and that was it???  I guess there were no leftovers for turkey sandwiches....and even the sides she made to serve with it were puny...one tablespoon per person?   

Link to comment

Yeah no way did that one turkey feed the clan .  Maybe they gave the lost girls the skin and Josie the bones to suck on.   I've made Green Bean Casserole, but what Anna was making looked like a tub of barf.

Link to comment

I've said it before, but the whole "holiday dinner" thing was a staged fake. It wasn't held on a holiday. It was made for TV moments. So the dinner wasn't intended to be a full dinner. It was staged Anna and kids go shopping, Anna bakes a turkey as if she never has before, Anna is rushed because Jim Bob wants dinner in four hours, Anna sets oven on fire, etc. That was never going to be a full dinner for 25 people. It was set dressing.

  • Love 1
Link to comment

Was that what she was pouring yes pouring into that aluminum pan, green bean casserole??  Looked really runny!  And Jim Bob and Josh were on diets, couldn't have been eating at Anna's too much!

 

Loved the beginning intro by Anna telling us about "the family" coming and I think she said it was time to pull out all the stops and I am thinking wow go Anna and then she tells us she needs to buy ready made things or something.....I don't pvr this show so that is all I recall if I got that wrong!

Link to comment

Hell, if I had to cook for 25 people, I might buy as much premade stuff as possible, at least potatoes. I can't imagine having to peel 15 pounds of potatoes at one time and for sure she isn't going to have enough turkey drippings for make enough gravy for that crowd.

Oven space would also be a problem. Unlike the rents, she doesn't have an industrial size kitchen or enough huge pots and pans to feed everyone.

Link to comment

Did she make potatoes from scratch? I thought she bought a box of potato flakes. I loved her trying to buy a precooked smoked turkey. I would have bought everything pre made, except the turkey. That's the easy part. Stick it in the oven, baste, that's about it. Even I can manage that, and have, and I hate to cook. Granted I've never seen pre made green bean slop, but I wouldn't have ever looked since it always looks gross to me. 

Link to comment

I've seen frozen broccoli and cheese casserole and once maybe frozen green bean casserole. Anna did go for the boxed potatoes. They had to have some drama introduced or so the production team thought so it wasn't a real holiday meal just an exercise for the cameras. It's dreary to me when it's so obvious that it's all done for the sake of an episode. At least when Anna was building the playhouse, the children were natural.

Link to comment

Just gonna put it out there: when my sibs and I all got married and had to have special holiday time for both ours and our spouses' families, the get-together that didn't happen on the day was set for another day. If the Smuggars were with Anna's family at thanksgiving it doesn't seem weird to me that they made up the Duggar celebration on a different day. That said, the amount of food does prove it was faked. And that green bean thingy proved it was gross.

Link to comment

well they "carved" or rather hacked that puny turkey to death aaaaaannnnnnnddddddd all acted like they had TONS of food to eat aaaaaaannnnnnnnddddd had a real feast....aaaaaaaannnnnnndddddd maybe did they use small paper plates to make it look like more food? aaaaaaaannnnnnddddd there were lots of instant potatoes......but seriously the portions were toddler size!  

 

I notice Michelle has a new hairdo in the intro.  Her hair is straighter and not so mullety, looks better, getting there...not quite but getting better...she is going TLC Hollywood!  

Link to comment

The most interesting part of this episode was the talking head with Jana and Jill about courtship. I'm pretty sure Jill was referring to her own courtship, but the glance she gave Jana at the end leaves it open. My guess is there will be another announcement or two after Jill's wedding (unless it's leaked earlier).

 

How did no one in editing catch that Michelle said "today is Jordyn's birthday"? Ok, Michelle, if it's Jordyn's FIFTH birthday, explain to me again with the fancy timeline graphic how all the girl's are FOUR years old. 

Josie acts like she's 2, but since Jackson acts like he's 5, I'm not sure that it has anything to do with her being a preemie. 

 

Next week should be interesting! I'm looking forward to seeing Jill and Derrick together. Too bad Michelle didn't go instead of Jim Bob- I think she would have been less of an ass about chaperoning. It's not even so much that Jim Bob removed Derrick's hand (whatever, they make a big deal about limited touching), but he MANHANDLED her away from him! 

  • Love 1
Link to comment

I noticed that, too.  "Happy 5th, Jordyn.....but for the purposes of the episode, we're going to give you a shared cake with four candles!"   Seems legit.

I think it has something to do with the fact that, in reality, Jordyn's first two years of life were overshadowed by J'chelles gallbladder, JL's death, McKenzie, Josie, Michelle's dad's death, 6 months of Arkansas Childrens Hospital and unnecessary world travel.  I'm actually surprised she got named and fed.  It's going to be really sad when her real mom gets married in June.

Link to comment

I believe that the original recipe called for canned green beans, I think that back then fresh was out of the question, canned mushroom soup, milk and canned fried onions. It is an old recipe and probably dates back to the days when canned foods were the new sliced bread. I make my version with fresh green beans, caramelized onions and home made country gravy. It is so good.

  • Love 1
Link to comment
I believe that the original recipe called for canned green beans, I think that back then fresh was out of the question, canned mushroom soup, milk and canned fried onions. It is an old recipe and probably dates back to the days when canned foods were the new sliced bread.

 

Ah yes.  I can tell you having grown upp in the 60's when the produce department of the grocery store was strickly seasonal, this is exactly the recipe my mother made for Thanksgiving.  And we liked it!  Amazing how tastes have changed.  Now my turkey is much more flavorful then that old sawdust my mother served and my green beans are freshly steamed with butter and almond slivers.  I haven't eaten  canned Cream of Mushroom soup in probably 20 years.

  • Love 1
Link to comment

I've managed to live in the south for nearly 50 years now without ever tasting Green Bean Casserole.  After watching Anna make it, I don't ever want to taste Green Bean Casserole.

Link to comment
(edited)

I still make green bean casserole everything Thanksgiving using canned green beans and the recipe on the can of French fried onions. It's comfort food, not nutritious food, which is why I only serve it on Thanksgiving!

 

I've often wondered how the Duggars stay thin eating all those starchy, goopy casseroles. They must be masters of portion control.

Edited by Portia
Link to comment
×
×
  • Create New...