S03.E06: Some Like It Hot Mess

[kieyra]

36 minutes ago, Bruinsfan said:

Am I the only one not thrilled in general when a showrunner keeps bringing on people from his previous series? The influx of My Name Is Earl actors on Raising Hope was a detriment to the show IMHO, and Cougar Town was practically taken over by minor Scrubs characters and in-jokes a few seasons in.

I don't care for it unless the writing and performance are strong enough to make me forget the previous character. I guess a good example would be Amy Sherman-Palladino bringing Kelly Bishop over to Bunheads. Her character was different enough from Emily Gilmore to make it work. 

And trying to set aside my antipathy for JD, I suppose I can't begrudge showrunners for wanting to toss some work to their favorite performers.

With the ongoing Logan Echolls legacy, this may actually qualify as stunt casting. 

Edited May 11, 2017 by kieyra

[CoderLady]

1 hour ago, Bruinsfan said:

Am I the only one not thrilled in general when a showrunner keeps bringing on people from his previous series? The influx of My Name Is Earl actors on Raising Hope was a detriment to the show IMHO, and Cougar Town was practically taken over by minor Scrubs characters and in-jokes a few seasons in.

Nope. Not the only one. To me it signals that the showrunner has started struggling to keep the world of the show interesting and intact and is now resorting to patching it with leftovers from other shows. Or is succumbing to pressure from fans who want to see their favorites everywhere -- not a good move because being good at consuming a product (show) doesn't make a person any good at producing it.

Anyway, once the integrity of the show's world is broken I start losing interest in it. I start checking the show descriptions for upcoming episodes to try to avoid these insertions. If they happen too often I stop even checking and move on to better stuff. There's way too much TV to waste on shows that are (to me) clearly starting to break down.

[luna1122]

2 hours ago, Bruinsfan said:

Am I the only one not thrilled in general when a showrunner keeps bringing on people from his previous series? The influx of My Name Is Earl actors on Raising Hope was a detriment to the show IMHO, and Cougar Town was practically taken over by minor Scrubs characters and in-jokes a few seasons in.

I tend to be fond of showrunners being loyal/partial to certain performers, as long, I guess, as I am too. I watched all of the above shows and didn't find the crossover actors distracting or detrimental at all. I imagine if I didn't like the actors or didn't know the shows they'd come from or care, I could find it annoying, but generally, I am kind of happy when familiar actors show up.

[MisterGlass]

Random - I forgot to mention that I laughed at the grocery store being named "Entire Foods."

[Chyromaniac]

Wife: "Hey! It's that guy (Sage) from those Hallmark Channel movies!"

Me: "Hey! It's that bar where Oliver killed Dolph Lundgren!"

[Thriftykins]

21 hours ago, Bruinsfan said:

Am I the only one not thrilled in general when a showrunner keeps bringing on people from his previous series? The influx of My Name Is Earl actors on Raising Hope was a detriment to the show IMHO, and Cougar Town was practically taken over by minor Scrubs characters and in-jokes a few seasons in.

I don't usually mind, but since you mentioned Raising Hope....

 

It was an okay show, but Greg Garcia was SO heavy handed with his cameos from Earl.  Not even mildly subtle.  Especially that reunion episode where they were all on and they formed some sort of band.

[xqueenfrostine]

On 5/11/2017 at 1:19 PM, CoderLady said:

Nope. Not the only one. To me it signals that the showrunner has started struggling to keep the world of the show interesting and intact and is now resorting to patching it with leftovers from other shows. Or is succumbing to pressure from fans who want to see their favorites everywhere -- not a good move because being good at consuming a product (show) doesn't make a person any good at producing it.

2

I don't see it this way at all.  How is it any different from movie directors that frequently collaborate with the same actors?  It's not at all uncommon for directors, show runners and producers to find actors that they enjoy working with and keep employing them.  It doesn't work out great everytime as it can be repetitive (see: Tim Burton and Johnny Depp), but even when it doesn't I don't think it's stunt casting or a sign that a show is struggling.  It's just how business works.  It's normal for people to build a stable of people they collaborate with frequently.

[ruby24]

I'm glad we're done with the memory loss story and entertaining/evil Blaine is back now, but I continue to wish they hadn't written him SO evil from so early on in the show so that he could basically never be redeemed, even a little bit. Mostly because he has such great actor chemistry with everyone, that I wish he could be their sleazy pal link to the underworld or something, on a regular basis. Him being this level of evil always prevents that.

But his scenes with Ravi and Liv from various episodes last season were hilarious (I'll never forget that fight/chase with him and Ravi in the lab!). He could fit so easily into those group scenes regularly with his snarkiness, trading barbs, etc. I never cared about him and Peyton, but then I don't care about Peyton with anyone (I don't think she's needed as a regular, to be honest). 

I actually think they probably continued with this whole memory loss plot for so long so that he could have more scenes with the gang. Whenever he gets back to his old self he kind of has to be isolated from them again as a character. But if he hadn't been a complete murderer (even if he'd just been a drug dealer or money launderer turned anti-hero or something), I could easily see him as a de facto part of the group.

I wonder if the writers kinda regret that too. I bet a bunch of them wish they could write him into more scenes with Ravi and Liv somehow, but it's hard to ever really justify it.

Edited May 14, 2017 by ruby24

[possibilities]

They've totally destroyed Peyton's character with all this nonsense. I don't think it was worth it to keep Blaine around just because they like the actor. If you want to keep a character, write him in a way that makes him worth keeping. If you can't do that, don't force him on us at the expense of making another character seem ridiculous.

[AudienceofOne]

On 10/05/2017 at 0:37 PM, swimmyfish said:

I don't know that I buy Blaine falling for Peyton's ploy so easily,

He didn't. Once he knew that Major took the cure he knew that Peyton would find out the memory loss was temporary. He was trying to 'get in front of it' as they say in the PR business. But I agree that he must have known that Major would take it eventually. M

[AudienceofOne]

On 10/05/2017 at 3:45 PM, GaT said:

The show has written itself into a corner IMO. What are they going to do now? The show is going to be about nothing but trying to get/make one more dose of the cure for Liv, it's going to get pretty boring.

Unfortunately, I agree. I've loved this season so far but I felt something was off in this episode and that's it. It's now Season 3 and "the cure" has become a liability to the show. Even great showrunners have trouble with longevity and I think we're starting to see the show's threads unravel.

[RobertDeSneero]

It's very possible that they didn't decide Blaine was faking until this season.  They probably saw it as an option, but didn't write last season under the certainty that he was.  Maybe they had one direction for the show and changed it when they decided to go with the Fillmore Graves storyline, which I think is too big for one season, so I expect us to end on a cliffhanger.

I think there is some chance that Peyton ends up back together with Blaine.

Maybe they will go with the swerve that Natalie took the cure, found out that it works without costing you your memory, and stole it for some reason or revealed its existence to the person who stole it.

If Major being a Fillmore Graves mercenary was the only job that he could get due to his notoriety from being linked to the Chaos Killer cases, what can he do now that he is human?

[AudienceofOne]

4 minutes ago, RobertDeSneero said:

It's very possible that they didn't decide Blaine was faking until this season.  They probably saw it as an option, but didn't write last season under the certainty that he was. 

I would not be surprised if this was the case. The actor has played Blaine consistently as though the memory loss was real.  I'm not sure why they didn't go with him lying about the memory serum, not the initial memory loss. It would be more consistent with what we've seen on screen and it wouldn't make Peyton look like even more of a dick than she is.

Quote

If Major being a Fillmore Graves mercenary was the only job that he could get due to his notoriety from being linked to the Chaos Killer cases, what can he do now that he is human?

I asked this question the minute he got the job. It made little sense for him to take a job as a mercenary when he is imminently going to die or become human again. Is three weeks of employment really worth it when it risks exposing his condition to Filmore Graves?

I'm willing to forgive this show a lot because mostly I think it's awesome but some of their dropped threads are showing.

[KaleyFirefly]

On 5/11/2017 at 9:34 AM, luna1122 said:

Wait, Jason Dohring is confirmed for the show, or just wishful thinking (except for Kieyra!)?  Scientologist or no (and they freak me out), I love him so hard.

Though disappointed to hear he is a Scientologist, I love me some Jason Dohring, I thought he was cute and entertaining on "Veronica Mars." 

Yay, Evil Blaine is back with his shady plots! And stupid Peyton got what was coming to her. Props to Ravi and Liv for restraining themselves from saying "I told you so."

I think Justin told FG about the cure and they stole it.

[Affogato]

On 5/15/2017 at 1:29 AM, RobertDeSneero said:

It's very possible that they didn't decide Blaine was faking until this season.  They probably saw it as an option, but didn't write last season under the certainty that he was.  Maybe they had one direction for the show and changed it when they decided to go with the Fillmore Graves storyline, which I think is too big for one season, so I expect us to end on a cliffhanger.

I think there is some chance that Peyton ends up back together with Blaine.

Maybe they will go with the swerve that Natalie took the cure, found out that it works without costing you your memory, and stole it for some reason or revealed its existence to the person who stole it.

If Major being a Fillmore Graves mercenary was the only job that he could get due to his notoriety from being linked to the Chaos Killer cases, what can he do now that he is human?

I think that Natalie is going to be the key in this and we may see her at FG at some point.