Good Girls - General Discussion

[Ms Blue Jay]

Did we ever get a scene where Beth, Stan, etc. react to the FBI agents being murdered?  Because I don't remember one, and I don't remember any resolution on that?

3 hours ago, BusyOctober said:

I fell asleep for a scene or two.  I saw Beth go back to the spa store and start a conversation with Gayle.  Gayle said something about if Beth knew what really went on between Gayle and Dean, Beth wouldn’t be trying to help him.  So, I assume Gayle is saying she and Dean had sex, but what else happened?  I think I woke up when Beth and Rio were walking thru an empty building.  Did she get the spa store from Gayle?  Did she confront or ditch Dean?  When I woke up, the FBI stalker was in the park with the ladies.  I don’t bother to DVR this show anymore so if someone can fill in the blanks, I would appreciate it!

Gayle, we know as much as you do.  Beth tries to buy the hot tub store from Gayle.

Beth confronts Dean and asks if Dean would have slept with Gayle.  Dean goes on and on about how sexy Gayle is?  I guess apparently to punish Beth?  Weird scene.  Stupid.

As for the empty building:

Beth saw Rio's henchman alone and said she needed a favour.  She asked the henchman who he used to remove all of the stuff from Beth and Dean's house?

It is then assumed he told her (off screen).

Beth then uses the same company to remove all of the hot tubs from the hot tub store.

We're cut to a scene where Ione Skye is complaining to somebody (the CEO the police?), saying "I don't know who it was.  They came and they stole everything."

Beth arrives, acting all coy and faux innocent, saying "Wow, this warehouse is empty now, what happened?"  And offers Ione a new, lower price for the store.  Ione says "We already agreed to the other price" but Beth says "How would that be fair?  All you have now is an empty store" and drops off a cheque with unicorns or manatees or something else quirky on them and skips off out of the building.

Rio and Beth walk through empty hot tub store at night.  Rio says he loves the store. Beth says "When is what I do going to be mine?  I was the one who put this all together."  Rio smiles sexily (he doesn't know how to do it any other way) and says "Maybe next one yeah?" or whatever in his weird accent.

FBI stalker finds the ladies in the park drinking champagne over their hot tub store and asks what they're celebrating about.  The three women stare into the middle distance as if that's a hard question to answer.  FBI stalker lady just stands there being weird.

Edited May 4, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[dubbel zout]

18 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Did we ever get a scene where Beth, Stan, etc. react to the FBI agents being murdered?  Because I don't remember one, and I don't remember any resolution on that?

I don't know about Stan, but the women went to the spot where Turner was killed and added flowers. I forget what Annie contributed, but it was something typically stupid.

[chocolatine]

1 hour ago, Kel Varnsen said:

I meant function in sort of the bare minimum sense. She can wake up and dress herself, hold down a job, pay rent/bills/taxes and drive a car. Actually pretty good for a 6th grade education. Even Homer Simpson managed to finish high school as an adult.

A lot of people in past generations have had no or little education (due to poverty, war, etc) and managed just fine. Common sense is more useful to survival than education. Annie, however, lacks both. If she didn't have Beth and Ruby in her life, I'm sure she'd be even more of a mess than she already is.

[qtpye]

5 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

This is how I saw all of that: The agents had some ideas of what was going on, but nothing concrete beyond someone was making and washing counterfeit currency. Then there was the nail polish theft from that salon, and the agent put together that Ruby worked there. So she goes to the salon to get a mani and see Ruby in person and suss things out. She has the opportunity to steal Ruby's phone, and seeing all those pictures of the three women realizes they are probably in it together, so now there's a actual lead they can follow: the women.

This is a lot of work for the audience to have to put together, which speaks to the lack of plot we're getting. More of this and less of Beth and Dean's marriage problems, which aren't going anywhere or getting resolved.

They didn't rush anything. This wasn't supposed to be the season finale, but the Covid shutdowns halted filming a finale. I think they had one or two episodes after this one shot, but they couldn't be edited.

 

2 hours ago, chocolatine said:

Ben seems completely miserable in his scenes with Annie though. I know he's a teen and transitioning, which must be really hard on him, but I don't think he's happy with Annie's hand-off parenting. Children need structure and stability to feel safe; Annie doesn't provide that.

I wouldn't call what Annie does "functioning". 

As much as stealing all the inventory was a "boss bitch" move, Ione Skye (who I just realized is named after not one but two Scottish islands) was right that Beth should really be mad at Dean. If he were a good husband, it wouldn't matter if other women tried to seduce him.

I thought that maybe seeing Beth in the picture is what gave the agent a clue. Turner had been investigating Beth last season for counterfeiting and money laundering and raided her husband's business. If the agent did her research she would have read Turner's file. Of course, this is assuming a level of professionalism that is beyond most characters on this show, so I'm probably wrong.

I know this wasn't a real finale and there are many loose threads, but I wouldn't be mad if the show ends here. 

Honestly, does anyone give an flying F about Dean and Beth’s relationship? I liked Mathew L when he was younger but he is pretty limited as an actor. 

 

[helenamonster]

"It's a whole marine life theme." Oh Beth. Never change.

Of course just when the show is forced to cut off through no fault of its own is when I finally start to get back into it. I liked this episode...it had a lot going on without feeling overstuffed or too dramatic. I could see where things were being set up to lead into whatever finale they had originally planned.

18 hours ago, Grumpymonkey said:

FBI agent is a little off to me. The way she was going through their pictures (there was some cute pics on there!) on the phone came off more creepy and less professional.  I could have been reading the scene wrong though.

Between her admission that she ate lunch alone in high school and wondering who hangs out with their friends that much, I felt like they were definitely setting her up as being motivated more by jealousy than any sense of justice. Obviously we can only speculate where the rest of the season would have gone, but I assume her envy would have ended up being her Achilles heel, allowing the girls to continue with their lucrative side hustle.

Until people brought it up here, I hadn't realized that these new agents don't seem to be working off any info collected by the old ones. It does seem horribly contrived, though I am reminded of the real life instance of the Tate and LaBianca murders being investigated separately in the same squad room for months before anybody thought to compare notes.

2 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

I don't know about Stan, but the women went to the spot where Turner was killed and added flowers. I forget what Annie contributed, but it was something typically stupid.

She "poured one out" for him, while Ruby reminded her that that wasn't how it worked.

[Kel Varnsen]

Can someone explain the strip club heist to me? So they trade their fake money for real money with the guard. And then the fake money in the truck burns up. But the deposit from the safe was never dropped off so are they just banking on the owner of the club being kind of crooked and not caring that they have more money than they should.

Also I thought that scene would have worked better if flipped. Make Annie the trashy young wife looking for her husband and make Beth a stripper coming out of the club with money. Most because I can't imagine Annie being corporate anything.

[Rahul]

16 hours ago, Trini said:

Showrunners interview: 'Good Girls EPs Detail Beth and Rio's Adversarial Bond, Tease Potential 'Complicated and Triangular' Season 4'

This interview convinced me the creator and executive producers are completely out of touch and tone deaf about the many flaws and missteps in their show. 

Quote

But they can’t get too comfortable with crime because that breaks the premise of the show. They’re mom’s first and we always have to remind ourselves of that. There have been darker moves that ended up on our boards that we were like, “Well, there’s no way to walk that back. It would change the course or tone of the show from that point forward.” We have those conversations probably each episode.

Are they kidding? This show crossed the line from dark comedy into unadulterated crime drama this season when Lucy was murdered in cold blood at Rio's behest. I haven't really enjoyed it much since--especially since much of the absurdist humor that was a hallmark of the show in season one is now gone.

[LaMatadita]

1 hour ago, Rahul said:

This interview convinced me the creator and executive producers are completely out of touch and tone deaf about the many flaws and missteps in their show. 

I think there is a contingent of fans so loud that they drown out any other complaints, so all that trickles in to Bans and Krebs is, "When are Beth and Rio gonna do it again?" I actually like their twisted back and forth, but there was a lot more wrong with this season than just that dynamic being a gloomy chore to slog through. A lot of those fans did the show a disservice by only complaining about that one thing over and over again and rarely pointing out any of the flaws with the pacing and repeated storylines, or the dour mood that was supposed serve as a thin veneer of realism, etc.

I have admitted before that Beth and Rio's psychological warfare keeps me watching, but I still would have welcomed them making me care about something else. Having Beth and Rio at odds should have been their chance to make other stories and characters shine, and they blew it. Now it sounds like they just plan to throw Beth and Rio back together like a band-aid on a sinking ship. I'm cool with them reuniting them, but make the rest of it interesting, too, FFS.

[Trini]

1 hour ago, LaMatadita said:

Now it sounds like they just plan to throw Beth and Rio back together like a band-aid on a sinking ship. I'm cool with them reuniting them, but make the rest of it interesting, too, FFS.

They seem to have an extremely shallow view of Rio. I've already stopped watching, but even putting Beth and Rio back together again wouldn't satisfy me since they don't want to bother fleshing him out. Beth/Rio wasn't the only interesting thing here, but why screw over one of the things that gets buzz?

[LaMatadita]

2 hours ago, Trini said:

They seem to have an extremely shallow view of Rio. I've already stopped watching, but even putting Beth and Rio back together again wouldn't satisfy me since they don't want to bother fleshing him out. Beth/Rio wasn't the only interesting thing here, but why screw over one of the things that gets buzz?

I remember liking all of the main characters well enough last season (except Dean, or course), but this season, I just found every single storyline for every character, including even minor characters, to be either frustrating or boring.

As far as Rio, Bans's comments made it clear that we will only ever see Beth and Rio's relationship from Beth's point of view, but I think by saying that they will be spending more time together and "working in close proximity" next season, she is indicating that a) they would actually be working together day-to-day, not just him popping up and bossing her around and mysteriously disappearing again, and b) we would both see more of him and learn more about him as Beth resumes peeling back those layers (it's been about 15 episodes of nothing but antagonism, which has been very frustrating for curious fans!). Basically, he's known Beth pretty well for a long time, but now it's time for Beth to know him, which means viewers will get to know him, too. Who knows if they'll stick the landing on that if they get a S4, but I do think that's what Bans was getting at. It has seemed like they just let Manny Montana essentially write the character himself through his acting, so I'm curious whether the writers do have at least a loosely defined idea of who Rio is, or if they're just now starting to hammer that out.

[Trini]

1 hour ago, LaMatadita said:

b) we would both see more of him and learn more about him as Beth resumes peeling back those layers (it's been about 15 episodes of nothing but antagonism, which has been very frustrating for curious fans!). Basically, he's known Beth pretty well for a long time, but now it's time for Beth to know him, which means viewers will get to know him, too.

With the way they've haven't developed him in the past, I'm not so optimistic. We'll see... whenever this comes back.

[LaMatadita]

2 hours ago, Trini said:

With the way they've haven't developed him in the past, I'm not so optimistic. We'll see... whenever this comes back.

I think your skepticism is warranted. I have never liked that he doesn't have the same level of perspective as Dean or Stan even though the main plot revolves around Beth's relationship with him.

I understand that Bans wants that relationship to be seen only from Beth's PoV, so I can respect that in her mind, there's a reason why we haven't learned a lot about Rio yet, but I'm just not sure why she's so attached to the idea of trying to force viewers to see him from Beth's perspective, especially when her perspective is so unreliable. The woman lies to herself daily! Many viewers are also so focused on how they would feel in her shoes that they are not seeing her for who she actually is--what would frighten most of us often excites Beth, and that seems to fly over a lot of heads.

[Ms Blue Jay]

This was just a bad season, shortened or not.  Killing Lucy was a terrible idea.

[helenamonster]

The show had a post on their Instagram recently that was just screenshots from Twitter of people thirsting over Rio. I think Manny Montana is a great actor, and that the character of Rio has potential, but it's such a bizarre position for the show to tacitly endorse after he killed Lucy. Like, we've seen too much bad shit from him to just drool over him unquestionably.

(In general I find the show's socials super cringey so this is on brand for them in that regard.)

[Stats Queen]

On 5/4/2020 at 5:42 PM, chocolatine said:

A lot of people in past generations have had no or little education (due to poverty, war, etc) and managed just fine. Common sense is more useful to survival than education. Annie, however, lacks both. If she didn't have Beth and Ruby in her life, I'm sure she'd be even more of a mess than she already is.

You are quite right, in past generations that is very, very true. History is full of very successful people who had at most an 8th grade education (of today) who were incredibly successfully in life contributed to the world in their particular interest/career/talent/path. 

Annie, however, lives in today’s USA where every child has free access to K-12 education and also has opportunities to also learn and grow outside of the classroom. That’s where I just “can’t” with Annie, because she’s not stupid, but I Think she decided she was.....

 

On 5/4/2020 at 8:58 PM, Rahul said:

This interview convinced me the creator and executive producers are completely out of touch and tone deaf about the many flaws and missteps in their show. 

Are they kidding? This show crossed the line from dark comedy into unadulterated crime drama this season when Lucy was murdered in cold blood at Rio's behest. I haven't really enjoyed it much since--especially since much of the absurdist humor that was a hallmark of the show in season one is now gone.

Yes, that’s when hubby and I stopped watching because it totally changed the show. Last night I binged watched, and sort of paid attention to, the episodes since that awful episode- because I am high risk and home bound and had insomnia.

The last episode was much better and was more like the show we watched the first two seasons. But the writing and character development this season was awful. I feel like some characters actually devolved instead of evolved (e.g., Annie, Rio, Stan). To me, ironically, the only one who evolved into a better person was Dean (I am aware that that is a very low bar).

 

[LaMatadita]

3 hours ago, helenamonster said:

The show had a post on their Instagram recently that was just screenshots from Twitter of people thirsting over Rio. I think Manny Montana is a great actor, and that the character of Rio has potential, but it's such a bizarre position for the show to tacitly endorse after he killed Lucy. Like, we've seen too much bad shit from him to just drool over him unquestionably.

I have mixed feelings about it. What he did was awful, but at the same time, he is still Beth's bad boy fantasy thirst object within the show, so it would be kind of condescending and disingenuous to refuse to acknowledge that he is still popular to fans.

[EtheltoTillie]

On 5/4/2020 at 1:20 PM, dubbel zout said:

This is how I saw all of that: The agents had some ideas of what was going on, but nothing concrete beyond someone was making and washing counterfeit currency. Then there was the nail polish theft from that salon, and the agent put together that Ruby worked there. So she goes to the salon to get a mani and see Ruby in person and suss things out. She has the opportunity to steal Ruby's phone, and seeing all those pictures of the three women realizes they are probably in it together, so now there's a actual lead they can follow: the women.

This is a lot of work for the audience to have to put together, which speaks to the lack of plot we're getting. More of this and less of Beth and Dean's marriage problems, which aren't going anywhere or getting resolved.

They didn't rush anything. This wasn't supposed to be the season finale, but the Covid shutdowns halted filming a finale. I think they had one or two episodes after this one shot, but they couldn't be edited.

I really wonder why they couldn't do editing remotely.  That's all done on computers. 

[JenLily]

I'm sorry if this has been addressed somewhere already but I'm having trouble remembering the details in this season. Did they ever resolve Beth's "pregnancy"? Is she still supposed to be pregnant? Did Rio figure out she isn't? How much time has actually supposed to have passed since the beginning of the season?

[LaMatadita]

On 5/7/2020 at 3:21 PM, GussieK said:

I really wonder why they couldn't do editing remotely.  That's all done on computers. 

I think they could have, but this was a transitional episode, so they thought it would make a better finale than the one that followed it.

2 hours ago, JenLily said:

I'm sorry if this has been addressed somewhere already but I'm having trouble remembering the details in this season. Did they ever resolve Beth's "pregnancy"? Is she still supposed to be pregnant? Did Rio figure out she isn't? How much time has actually supposed to have passed since the beginning of the season?

She told him that she miscarried.

[JenLily]

4 hours ago, LaMatadita said:

She told him that she miscarried.

Thank you! I totally missed that. 

[Grumpymonkey]

Got renewed for season 4.

https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/good-girls-renewed-season-4-nbc-1234608337/

 

[dubbel zout]

I hope this is the last season. There seems to be no idea of where things should go; maybe knowing there's an end will focus the writers to give the women something to do.

[Ms Lark]

On 5/15/2020 at 8:16 PM, Grumpymonkey said:

Got renewed for season 4.

https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/good-girls-renewed-season-4-nbc-1234608337/

I am truly surprised, but given the state of the world today, TPTB probably thought it would be easier. Who knows when they'll be able to film again and when (or if) it will be released.

They lost me with murdering Lucy. I was barely able to watch this season, not sure I'll be back for 4.

Edited May 17, 2020 by Ms Lark
Beth is very much still alive! Lucy is the dead girl. 😥

[Joimiaroxeu]

Quote

Got renewed for season 4.

https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/good-girls-renewed-season-4-nbc-1234608337/

This is my stunned face.

How is that possible? I bet it won't be a full season, just long enough to redeem the main characters and tie up loose ends.

Edited May 16, 2020 by Joimiaroxeu

[Stats Queen]

On 5/15/2020 at 8:16 PM, Grumpymonkey said:

Got renewed for season 4.

https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/good-girls-renewed-season-4-nbc-1234608337/

 

I am stunned, but I think artificial numbers on all kinds of shows may be influencing decision makers. In the last two month I have watch show I never thought I would. If I could leave the house live a life, I wouldn’t watch these shows.

Killing Lucy just totally changed the show - a huge 180 of what I thought I was watching.

[EtheltoTillie]

On 5/16/2020 at 10:18 AM, Joimiaroxeu said:

This is my stunned face.

How is that possible? I bet it won't be a full season, just long enough to redeem the main characters and tie up loose ends.

You mean we will find out Lucy didn’t really die?

[Marley]

I love this show and loved the season. I love the 3 of them together and they make me laugh and keep me entertained. The show has always been dark. Killing Lucy was not a problem for me because Rio is a leader of a gang lol not some loveable scamp. He obviously kills ppl.

Dean is a doofus tho but I didn’t hate him as much this season.

[Trini]

1 hour ago, Marley said:

The show has always been dark. Killing Lucy was not a problem for me because Rio is a leader of a gang lol not some loveable scamp. He obviously kills ppl.

For me, it's not even about Rio; the Girls' direct actions got an innocent person murdered. And then the coverup; and then the show not being committed to exploring the consequences of that.

[Christina]

I'm not sure where I bailed on this season, but I did. Recently, I finished the last several episodes, eight I think, and decided that I'm happy the showrunners decided to end this season where they did, instead of making another one or two out of the footage I read they had before quarantine was announced. 

I lost all interest in the characters and had trouble buying their actions. The last episode of this season is going to be a Series Finale for me. It was fun while it lasted, though.

[paulvdb]

Season 4 premieres Sunday, March 7 at 10 pm.

[Anela]

20 hours ago, paulvdb said:

Season 4 premieres Sunday, March 7 at 10 pm.

I don't have cable anymore. I'm going to have to look it up on NBC.

[PrincessPurrsALot]

S04.E01: One Night in Bangkok

Quote

The pressure is on after Lucy's body is discovered in a graveyard; Beth and Dean do everything they can to get Boland's Bubbles up and running but encounter red tape; Harry gets in trouble and his teacher encourages Ruby and Stan to get him tested.

Original air date 2021.03.07 

[Ms Blue Jay]

What a letdown.  Although why am I even let down?  It's not like I liked the show last season either.

[DiabLOL]

How are people watching this? It’s not on my NBC app.

[Ms Blue Jay]

It was on NBC here in Canada.  I don't know...   Started at 10 PM EST for me.

Edited March 8, 2021 by Ms Blue Jay

[chocolatine]

1 hour ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

What a letdown.

Yes, it was. The hitman storyline is terrible; where are they going with it? And the hot tub business, how is it different from the car dealership? And did they bribe the inspector with counterfeit cash? That's really sloppy.

Ruby and Annie seem to have been demoted to a Greek chorus for Beth; there is no common thread between their storylines anymore. And please, spare me the cliche of Ruby and Stan's son being a genius. If an obsession with farts and penises is a sign of superior intelligence, then 90% of pre-teen and adolescent boys are geniuses.

And finally, Sheremetyevo Airport is in Moscow, not St. Petersburg. Who is writing this crap?

ETA: I noticed that Christina Hendricks is an executive producer now. I hope it wasn't her choice to relegate Ruby and Annie to supporting characters. The strength of the show for me has always been the relationship between the three women.

Edited March 8, 2021 by chocolatine

[qtpye]

6 hours ago, chocolatine said:

Yes, it was. The hitman storyline is terrible; where are they going with it? And the hot tub business, how is it different from the car dealership? And did they bribe the inspector with counterfeit cash? That's really sloppy.

Ruby and Annie seem to have been demoted to a Greek chorus for Beth; there is no common thread between their storylines anymore. And please, spare me the cliche of Ruby and Stan's son being a genius. If an obsession with farts and penises is a sign of superior intelligence, then 90% of pre-teen and adolescent boys are geniuses.

And finally, Sheremetyevo Airport is in Moscow, not St. Petersburg. Who is writing this crap?

ETA: I noticed that Christina Hendricks is an executive producer now. I hope it wasn't her choice to relegate Ruby and Annie to supporting characters. The strength of the show for me has always been the relationship between the three women.

Also, do the writers think I am rooting for Beth? I love CH but I hope she goes down for what she did to that poor girl. 

Edited March 8, 2021 by qtpye

[LaMatadita]

I wasn't expecting much from this episode, but I liked it more than I thought I would. I felt like they were finally portraying Rio and Mick as actual people with inner lives and emotions who are juggling multiple identities and hats just like Beth and the girls. The conversation between Annie and Mick was downright humanizing, and the way Rio seemed distracted when he met with Beth in the bar and seemed genuinely worried when she showed him the fingerprint were also refreshing. I think Manny has been forced to add a lot of the more nuanced touches to his character himself in the past, but this stuff felt like it was actually in the scripts and will be relevant to the story. Like the writer was actually writing Rio in a way that took Manny's own view of the character into account, instead of Manny having to basically write the character himself (which has definitely been the case in the past if the script-to-screen videos are anything to go by). Of course, I also thought the previous season showed promise and adressed some viewer complaints in the first few episodes, and we all know how that ended up...

5 hours ago, chocolatine said:

And please, spare me the cliche of Ruby and Stan's son being a genius. If an obsession with farts and penises is a sign of superior intelligence, then 90% of pre-teen and adolescent boys are geniuses.

I had the same problem when it came to spelling and reading at almost exactly the same age, but I didn't draw dicks on everything because I was bored, just refused to do the work and almost failed the subjects I was actually best at! Not trying to be an asshole and toot my own horn, but kids being bored because something is too easy is definitely a real thing. ADHD is also a real thing, and I'm not sure how often misdiagnosing genius as ADHD occurs, but as someone who has worked in education for 15+ years, I'm sure it happens. I also knew a 6th grade student who had been considered a problem student with anger issues and a nebulous learning disability his entire life, and he came to our school and his new teacher noticed very quickly that he seemed to have hearing difficulty. She and the guidance counselor got together and got him tested, and it turned out that he had severe hearing loss, and he'd never even been diagnosed. It took until 6th grade for someone to figure it out and get him the proper support. (For the most part, I don't really blame the teachers who miss these things because they're overworked and are dealing with 20+ other students.)

Edited March 8, 2021 by LaMatadita

[dubbel zout]

9 hours ago, chocolatine said:

ETA: I noticed that Christina Hendricks is an executive producer now.

Not an executive producer, just a producer. It might be a contractual thing—it's a way to give her more money—or she might actually give input into how the show is written.

Add me to those who were underwhelmed. I think the premise has run its course. Either the women work with Rio or they don't. Stop with the "we want out" stuff and not going anywhere with it. I feel like you could have skipped the second and third seasons and still know exactly what's going on. Things have not progressed much.

I groaned when the hit man professed his attraction to Beth. Yes, Christina Hendricks is a stunning woman, but does every man in her path have to fall for her? It's such a cliché. And it's boring how this plot is being dragged out. 

Annie and her kid. Sigh. Maybe stop being so completely self-absorbed and you'll discover he's playing lacrosse, huh? I just can't with her.

I don't mind Ruby and Stan having a genius kid. Drawing penises everywhere because you're bored seems like a very age-appropriate response to me. I'm mildly surprised the teacher didn't recognize the kid might be gifted, but maybe she sees him only one period a day. At any rate, the more I see Retta, the better, regardless of what she's stuck doing.

[tennisgurl]

I continue to really enjoy all of the actors on this show and some of the individual stories, but it seems clear that its running on fumes, stretching its plots out for way longer than they should have. Especially everything between Beth and Rio, which is just the same story beats over and over again, with some slight variations based on extra nuances the actors give. I want them to just commit one way or the other about whether the ladies want to be criminals or not, and I assume they would commit to crime or else the show would be pretty much over. The contrast between their normal suburban lives and the gritty world of crime has always been this shows best asset, I wish they would lean into it more, especially as Annie and Ruby's plots being set up here have basically nothing to do with crime at all. 

I thought that Ruby's son was acting out and trying to get attention after so much of his parents attention went to his sick sister, but I guess he's a genius now. Sure, whatever. I was annoyed that they seemed to be saying that Ben had no friends, as I remembered Annie wanting to pull him out of his private Catholic school was a pretty big plot point and she only changed her mind when she realized that Ben had friends, so I am glad at least that they went a different way with it? So is Ben embarrassed by Annie and doesn't want her around his new friends? Cant really say I blame him. 

This hitman story is just embarrassing, and another obvious way the show is going in circles trying to keep the status quo even when the story should have clearly moved past this plot point. Christina Hendricks is a beautiful women but I just cant buy that this seasoned murderer is so enthralled by this random women who hired him that he would act so unprofessionally, and its just getting ridiculous that every man she meets falls for her instantly. 

Edited March 8, 2021 by tennisgurl

[BusyOctober]

So much of this show makes me want to scream.  I guess I am as stupid as the writers, because I keep watching.  

I hate the gang leader guy...I have since the first season.  I don’t think he’s sexy or has any redeeming qualities.  He’s a thug and a gangster and a murderer.  

Beth makes every man in her orbit fall instantly in lust with her, mmmkay.  Must run in the family because Angie seems to have some allure I don’t understand either. 

I also do not understand why Beth has the PTA a ladies over to her house with no furniture and volunteers to do all these elaborate baking events.  She has time and money to buy authentic ingredients to make a Thai banquet, but no time to get a kitchen table?? 

WHY is the CHILD therapist still seeing Annie???  She sure needs therapy, but this guy is not qualified.  He has exceedingly poor professional integrity and zippo morals.

Ruby and Stan’s son is acting out in class.  Because school is boring for him.  So he draws lots of penises.  Ergo, he MUST be a genius! Makes sense, right? I think there’s a section on the Mensa application specific to one’s ability to draw male genitalia.  Einstein did poorly in school, so I guess he based his theory of relativity on his penis doodles from 3rd grade.

Would a legitimate spa/hot tub store have that many different hot tubs on full display?  Seems like that showroom is huge, and every  square foot is occupied with a spa?  I am not a hot tub person, so maybe they are more popular than I can imagine.  I really want the store to have a fire due to Dean’s slap-dash DIY Handy Manny electrical work.  Then the insurance won’t pay out because the inspectors will find his shitty shoddy work.  

I am so rooting for the cops this season.  I really want Beth and Rico to go to jail at the end of this series for what they did to the poor girl from the stationary store (and all the other criminal activities).  Ruby and Annie and Stan should do time as well because they are all horrible people.  Maybe all the children can go live with better people.

 

[qtpye]

5 minutes ago, BusyOctober said:

So much of this show makes me want to scream.  I guess I am as stupid as the writers, because I keep watching.  

I hate the gang leader guy...I have since the first season.  I don’t think he’s sexy or has any redeeming qualities.  He’s a thug and a gangster and a murderer.  

Beth makes every man in her orbit fall instantly in lust with her, mmmkay.  Must run in the family because Angie seems to have some allure I don’t understand either. 

I also do not understand why Beth has the PTA a ladies over to her house with no furniture and volunteers to do all these elaborate baking events.  She has time and money to buy authentic ingredients to make a Thai banquet, but no time to get a kitchen table?? 

WHY is the CHILD therapist still seeing Annie???  She sure needs therapy, but this guy is not qualified.  He has exceedingly poor professional integrity and zippo morals.

Ruby and Stan’s son is acting out in class.  Because school is boring for him.  So he draws lots of penises.  Ergo, he MUST be a genius! Makes sense, right? I think there’s a section on the Mensa application specific to one’s ability to draw male genitalia.  Einstein did poorly in school, so I guess he based his theory of relativity on his penis doodles from 3rd grade.

Would a legitimate spa/hot tub store have that many different hot tubs on full display?  Seems like that showroom is huge, and every  square foot is occupied with a spa?  I am not a hot tub person, so maybe they are more popular than I can imagine.  I really want the store to have a fire due to Dean’s slap-dash DIY Handy Manny electrical work.  Then the insurance won’t pay out because the inspectors will find his shitty shoddy work.  

I am so rooting for the cops this season.  I really want Beth and Rico to go to jail at the end of this series for what they did to the poor girl from the stationary store (and all the other criminal activities).  Ruby and Annie and Stan should do time as well because they are all horrible people.  Maybe all the children can go live with better people.

 

Yes, why the Hell is Beth even part of the PTA and why is she the one who always volunteers for these elaborate baking duties? Just the fact that she is starting a new business and has 4 kids should allow her to politely bow out.

I think there is an insidious thing that they want to show that Beth is too smart to be a housewife (which is so insulting to housewives), so of course she need the criminality in her life to feel fulfilled.

Beth has many options these day for her talents that are not criminal. She could open up an Etsy store, take more classes and start a part time baking company, or take classes on an interesting subject.

Also, I saw in the preview someone asking why the Hell she got involved in such a dangerous life and she said because she is bored. What the...didn't the ladies rob the grocery store in the first season because they were all in dire financial straits? Beth was about to lose her house, Annie needed a lawyer to keep custody of her son, and Ruby's daughter needed life saving medical care.

I CAN believe that Beth "stayed" in the game because she was bored but the writers have not done a good job with that (as with many things).

[Ms Blue Jay]

11 hours ago, LaMatadita said:

 I think Manny has been forced to add a lot of the more nuanced touches to his character himself in the past, but this stuff felt like it was actually in the scripts and will be relevant to the story. Like the writer was actually writing Rio in a way that took Manny's own view of the character into account, instead of Manny having to basically write the character himself (which has definitely been the case in the past if the script-to-screen videos are anything to go by). 

This is fascinating.  Can you link me to some resources about this?  I adore Manny.

7 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

I groaned when the hit man professed his attraction to Beth. Yes, Christina Hendricks is a stunning woman, but does every man in her path have to fall for her?

Who has fallen for her besides the hitman?  Rio certainly has not fallen for her in my opinion.  They were both just using each other and having fun.  

[Ms Blue Jay]

1 hour ago, BusyOctober said:

WHY is the CHILD therapist still seeing Annie???  She sure needs therapy, but this guy is not qualified.  He has exceedingly poor professional integrity and zippo morals.

Yeah, therapists are flawed, and human, I get that.  "Frasier" was a show that did well in showing that.  But this is getting to be way too much.  I don't see how anyone could enjoy this storyline.  

53 minutes ago, qtpye said:

Yes, why the Hell is Beth even part of the PTA and why is she the one who always volunteers for these elaborate baking duties? Just the fact that she is starting a new business and has 4 kids should allow her to politely bow out.

Yes.  This is another silly contrived part of the show.  Give me a break that she can't say no to these women.  

Edited March 8, 2021 by Ms Blue Jay

[dubbel zout]

1 hour ago, BusyOctober said:

Ruby and Stan’s son is acting out in class.  Because school is boring for him.  So he draws lots of penises.  Ergo, he MUST be a genius! Makes sense, right?

There was a formal evaluation (for ADHD, I think); Ruby and Stan didn't just make it up.

55 minutes ago, qtpye said:

Yes, why the Hell is Beth even part of the PTA and why is she the one who always volunteers for these elaborate baking duties? Just the fact that she is starting a new business and has 4 kids should allow her to politely bow out.

Pre-crime, I think the PTA was an outlet for her ambitions, and now she's firmly ensconced. I think she's still doing it now to maintain a veneer of normalcy to the outside. But why she hasn't dialed back on her contributions is just a plot point.

[DanaMB]

I’m watching now and I’m bored. 

[helenamonster]

This show has some weird spell over me--it really isn't getting any better, but I can't stop watching. I've said before that the chemistry between the three leads is worth the price of admission, and that's still true, but my mind starts to wander when they're not in scenes together.

Not interested in this hitman story. What is this bizarre spell that the Marks sisters have over every straight man they meet? Christina did have some funny facial expressions when he was fessing up though. Sometimes it's the little things.

I think what Ben is going through is normal teenager stuff--I definitely preferred one parent over the other when I was his age, and would share way more about my life with that one than the other. And yeah, I think he's embarrassed of Annie. I get the impressions that the private school he's at is very hoity toity, and he might not want his friends meeting his schlubby slang-talking mom who doesn't have her high school diploma or GED.

I'm pretty sure this is the first show I watch regularly that is airing new episodes that were taped during covid (except SNL, which doesn't really count). I didn't notice any major differences in how things played out--there were plenty of people in the boot camp and hot tub store scenes, and the PTA moms sat pretty close together. The only thing I clocked was that it felt like nobody was ever talking face to face with each other. They were either side by side, at an angle, or across the room (Ruby and Stan meeting with the teacher was an exception, but those reverse shots were clearly filmed separately). Not sure if that's always been the case on this show, but if it is a new precaution they're taking, they know that the particles that fly out of our mouths when we talk and breathe travel in many directions, right, not just straight ahead?

They seem to be taking a ton of precautions anyway (the actors on Insta are always talking about being tested), but blocking scenes like that doesn't increase the safety of the set in any meaningful way.

[LaMatadita]

39 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

This is fascinating.  Can you link me to some resources about this?  I adore Manny.

On the official YouTube channel, there are videos that show the script pages over a lot of Beth and Rio's scenes, and you can see that while Beth is given tons of direction in the script as to her actions and emotional state, Rio is given next to nothing. They didn't write much for him other than dialogue and he had to just make it up, so Rio is more his creation than the writers.'

[BoogieBurns]

On 3/8/2021 at 5:37 AM, LaMatadita said:

Not trying to be an asshole and toot my own horn, but kids being bored because something is too easy is definitely a real thing.

Yes, this is actually the first thing they tested for when I was a kid in the 90s. Not adhd, not dyslexia, they gave me a test for the gifted program. I was able to skip two grades (but refused). I  annoyed my teachers and classmates because it was too easy to sit and learn stuff for 7 hours that I could master in 5 minutes. Also, I'm a girl, so fart-putty wasn't my style, but singing randomly mid-class was my weapon of choice. Every parent teacher conference from 3rd grade to 8th grade was about just how bored/disruptive I was in class. Got better in high school because you can take advanced classes without having to skip grades.

On a lighter note, why is that kid actor SOOOO CUTE? He hasn't aged in 4 seasons!

I didn't fully understand the thing with Rio's fingerprint. Can someone explain? I know she wants his fingerprints on the gun, but how did them being on paper help accomplish that?

Edited March 9, 2021 by BoogieBurns
forgot my original question

[BusyOctober]

1 hour ago, dubbel zout said:

  2 hours ago, BusyOctober said:

Ruby and Stan’s son is acting out in class.  Because school is boring for him.  So he draws lots of penises.  Ergo, he MUST be a genius! Makes sense, right?

There was a formal evaluation (for ADHD, I think); Ruby and Stan didn't just make it up.

 

Right, he was tested and results came back “genius”.  I was snarking more on the writers of this show vs. the parents.  I know some kids IRL who were bored at school and acted out in different ways until some tuned in teachers/counselors suggested the students weren’t being challenged enough.  It does happen, but in TV Land it’s more common IMO.  The writers of “Parenthood” used a lot of the same tropes....genius child discovered after parents feared a learning difference, female lead no man could resist....lazy and repetitive IMO.