S01.E03: Living The Dream

[aradia22]

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Keeping a gun under your pillow with a child in the house is a bad idea, Jane.

Agreed. I kept thinking it was going to go off accidentally with the way she kept putting it under her pillow. 

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His OMG-she-could-leave-me-because-every-man-ever-would-want-her felt strange coming from a wealthy, highly-successful, very attractive man.

I feel like there was a bit of truth in it but it was also so cliched that it felt manipulative. It felt like he was flattering her and giving a palatable, lazy response. It's like the long-stemmed red roses and the diamonds. No, I think there's more to it. He likes the abuse and violence. I think she was closer to the truth when she said he might be picking the fights for the crazy, angry sex. Though he might enjoy hitting her whether or not it ends in sex.

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He bought it up to shift the blame to Celeste ("I am afraid that she will leave me"), so now Celeste is consumed with proving to him that she won't leave him as opposed to examining why he is an abusive dick.   He is shifting the responsibility of fixing the relationship to Celeste.  After the session, the conversation was about Celeste leaving Perry, not the abuse.

Yes, absolutely this too. He manipulated the counselor and Celeste. He seemed to be opening up about the physical abuse but he also got to take control of the direction of the session. Now Celeste feels responsibility for making sure he's not insecure and also pretending to be happy. He didn't just say he was afraid she would leave because of the abuse and because she's beautiful. He said it was also because she seemed unhappy lately. So now she has to hide her feelings even more.

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Ed was looking at Abigail very inappropriately when she was outside.

I don't know if I would have noticed it if I hadn't been reading the episode threads but I definitely thought the show was trying to hint at something. If not, Adam Scott played it weirdly.

I guess I'm the only one who hates the music. 

I've watched enough of these kinds of shows/movies that I'm pretty sure the man Jane imagined breaking into her house was just a stuntman or extra. That is, he wasn't played by the same actor who plays her rapist. I've even seen shows that will cast an actor with a different body type even when it's supposed to be an actual flashback so I no longer believe anything in those sequences.

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I think we can safely assume that every emotion Renata subscribes to Amabelle, so sensitive, so smart, so crushed about her besties etc., are really how SHE feels and thinks.  Does she even see Amabelle as her own person?  I question that. 

Oh, I definitely think we're supposed to understand that Renata's own life experiences are coloring her responses to how Amabella is treated. They've been pretty obvious with that. But I do think she genuinely cares that Amabella is upset. I do think she's responsive to her. Madeline is the one who seems to have trouble seeing her children as individuals separate from her. She's controlling and does not listen to what they want. Renata heard her daughter was upset about her friends not coming to her party and tried to swallow her pride and make it up to Madeline. Madeline heard her daughter wanted to go to the party and immediately shut her up so she could continue her grudge. 

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Jane saw the bruises as Celeste furtively slid the sleeve down when at coffee.

Good catch! I completely missed that.

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It didn't look like any of the other fathers/husbands were going so Celeste probably didn't think Perry would want to be the only man there. It seemed like it was a mommy and me kind of outing, not a family outing so Perry wasn't really invited by the person hosting the event.

I didn't put that together after the later scene in the van. That makes sense. I wonder why Celeste didn't tell Perry that. Of course, with the way their fights escalate so quickly, it's not her fault she can't marshal the right arguments, even as a lawyer. When he's angry, he's determined to see her in the wrong.

If there was any complaint to be lodged about Avenue Q, I'd think it be the insensitive, edgy humor that hasn't aged super well. YMMV on whether you find it offensive but I have no issue believing people in 2017 signing a petition against it. I'm surprised no one has brought up the character of Christmas Eve. Like Book of Mormon, it's a show that challenges stereotypes but indulges in them as well. Like South Park, if those people never evolved, then today they would be punching down and railing at everyone for being too PC and woke. I mean, before quarantine they were finally going to edit Thoroughly Modern Millie to hopefully excise the nightmare subplot of that show. 

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I am actually hating the music!  I see that a lot of people are liking it, I am surprised.  I was watching with my husband last night and he was like, this music is terrible!  I had to agree.  Except for Fleetwood Mac of course!

Oh, thank God I'm not alone. Partially, it's not my style and partially it's so one note. I feel like someone plugged Ray LaMontagne, Neil Young, Fleetwood Mac, etc. into a Pandora station and this was the result. It's not the best music to fit the situation and when it's diegetic music, it's particularly weird that all these different characters seem to listen to a similar genre of music. 

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I feel like of the many issues and flaws Perry has, his desire to be more involved in his sons' lives isn't one of them. 

Yup. I hope they have some explanation for why Celeste does seem to be creating distance. Is she afraid he might become abusive with them too? Does she want to provoke him for some reason? Is she trying to prepare them for when she is ready to leave him? 

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But does anyone else have an issue that such a female centric show was written by a man and directed by a man?

Yes, 100%. I hate the direction and editing. I'll be interested if I like the direction in season 2 better though I assume to some degree it will follow the template set by season 1.