S01.E19: The Polo Match

[joanne3482]

When Doris insists that Katie attend the charity polo match she's organizing, Katie invites her crass best friend from college, Billy, to inject some life into the festivities, but Billy grates on the rest of the Ottos.

[MaryMitch]

I'm glad Katie drew back from her college friend; he was a jerk. 

Katy looked pretty - you could tell she was pregnant, though. I guess they're not going to extreme lengths to hide it.  I loved all the hats!

[Cowgirl]

Oh! I didn't know the actress was pregnant.  

I didn't care much for this epi.  It seemed a bit disjointed from the rest of the season. I can't put my finger on why, so I'll have to ponder it a bit. I do love Taylor's boyfriend though. What a nice kid!

[Texasmom1970]

Loved Taylor's boyfriends Mom running around after him screeching about not kissing her and stuff. Too funny!

[theatremouse]

It veered a little too far into "why is this suddenly the <guest star> show" territory for me. It's a bad writing crutch to introduce a character and then make it all about them, and yes, the point of his visiting was how he wreaked havoc on the main cast and Katie's relationship with him, and that's a valid plot. But I felt like there was not enough of the main characters, not that we even need equal amounts of all of them every episode, but it wasn't balanced.

[Kip Hackman]

Mehpisode for me. Not as good as the last few have been.

[Snarklepuss]

I actually liked this episode mostly because of Will Sasso, who I have always appreciated since his days on "Mad TV".  Not his best role, but it was nice to see him again as I haven't followed him recently.

Katy was very obviously pregnant especially in that floral dress!  I thought she looked good in it, though.  The frumpy hats and garden party atmosphere got me nostalgic for my days in Fairfield County, CT as things are not quite as "quaint" further North.

[ShellSeeker]

This was just an OK episode for me, but the toothpaste in the donut prank made me laugh, as well as Greg and Oliver giving each other the WTF look when Billy took a huge bite and had no reaction at all. And Billy fessing up at the end that it actually did make him throw up was funny too.

Billy was pretty obnoxious, but the storyline of Katie wondering how much she'd changed did strike a note with me. I get together with a bunch of high school friends about once a year, and we all spend the weekend drinking, partying, and in general acting like we're still teenagers, even though most of us are now fast approaching our 50's, if we're not there already. Then we spend the next week posting various incarnations of "I love you guys!!" all over Facebook. It's always really fun, and for me one of the reasons why is that it lets me stay in touch with the "me" that I was before the days of being a wife, mom, and IT nerd.

[Snarklepuss]

Actually, Katie's storyline resonated with me too as I am a transplant in CT from NYC for over 25 years now and whenever I go home I realize that I am this strange hybrid and never will feel like I'm either a New Yorker or a Connecticut person (Connecticutter?).  When I go home to NY things and people annoy me there now and when I'm up here it's the same.  I don't know who I am anymore or who "my people" really are.  So I really have no home now, LOL.

One error I saw in this episode is a real nitpick that only I would probably notice - There's one scene where they focus in on their kitchen countertop.  That type of ceramic tile countertop is not found here in the Northeast.  I've never seen it in either NY or CT, only on the West Coast.  I've spent many decades looking at houses and only see the usual formica, Corian, granite, marble, butcher block, stainless, etc.  Of course nobody but me probably notices or cares about that, LOL.

Edited April 13, 2017 by Snarklepuss

[Tiger]

On 4/12/2017 at 4:31 PM, Kip Hackman said:

Mehpisode for me. Not as good as the last few have been.

There were some really lines from and about Doris, particularly Katie she doesnt think Doris ene knows what charity is, but the episode overall fell flat for me.  

I do like that they're making zero attempt to hide Katy's pregnancy.  I hate when the producers engage in games to try to disquise a prengancy.  Its 2017, I think the audiance can handle the actress being visibly pregnant while their character is not.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

On 4/13/2017 at 5:21 AM, Snarklepuss said:

I actually liked this episode mostly because of Will Sasso, who I have always appreciated since his days on "Mad TV".  Not his best role, but it was nice to see him again as I haven't followed him recently.

He occasionally plays a Spanish teacher on Modern Family, who is Cam's nemesis.

On 4/13/2017 at 8:40 AM, ShellSeeker said:

This was just an OK episode for me, but the toothpaste in the donut prank made me laugh, as well as Greg and Oliver giving each other the WTF look when Billy took a huge bite and had no reaction at all. And Billy fessing up at the end that it actually did make him throw up was funny too.

If he didn't realize that he had been pranked until he got sick, how did he retroactively realize it was toothpaste in the doughnut?  Laxatives and/or an emetic would be the more likely culprits since he obviously didn't detect the toothpaste at the time.

[theatremouse]

I think they were implying he did know it was toothpaste in the moment, but was prepared enough for retaliation pranks that he managed not to visibly react, but (at the time of eating it) still didn't want them to have the satisfaction of knowing they'd gotten him. And he either didn't know it would make him sick until it did, or did know but ate it anyway just to deny them the satisfaction of seeing him react. His telling them at the end that he got sick did not read to me like that's what made him realize the minty donut was toothpaste, just that he was owning up to the whole thing, they did get him with it, and all the consequences.